Worship Defined

Most of you know that I have a day job. And at that day job I interact with a lot of different people. Most of them know I am also a pastor. This means that I can find myself involved in a lot of different kinds of conversations at work that normal folks just don’t get to have. People come to me for counseling, prayer, advice, and some even come to complain. The complaining is usually done in such a way that they think I’m going to be able to give them an answer. Like somehow I represent all of Christianity and can speak for all of us.

A great example of me answering for all of Christianity is that I have a coworker who continues to get visited by someone who is trying to evangelize the coworker and their spouse. The couple are not originally from America, and this kind of thing just didn’t happen where they were from because it was illegal. At first it seemed as if my coworker was just complaining about the fact that he doesn’t go door to door encouraging atheism and people should be more respectful. In their culture you don’t offer a religious opinion unless you are asked for it. But as it kept happening I began to suspect that he was being visited by Jehovah’s Witnesses. They always came in twos and usually only one did the talking. This gave me the opportunity to explain that JWs aren’t really a part of the church because they don’t believe in the deity of Jesus Christ and that they made changes to their Bible in order to support that idea. I encouraged him to just tell the people that he wasn’t interested and he would appreciate it if they wouldn’t come back. He was afraid of being rude and I told him not to worry about that.

My family probably wishes I took my advice. Because every time a JW comes to my house we end up having a conversation on the front porch for an hour. In fact, I just received a letter this week from a recent JW visitor.

Several years ago I had a friend who had befriended a man that was fairly high up in the Jehovah’s Witness organization and he was asking me for some help in trying to convince this guy that he was wrong. So, I do what I love to do and I began to study about JWs.

In the midst of doing that I stumbled upon one particular change in the JW New Testament that struck me as the most significant. And I felt like if you could just get a JW to see the lack of consistency in biblical interpretation then I could plant a seed of doubt. That inconsistency was around the interpretation of the Greek word interpreted worship, proskuneo.

In every case that proskuneo is used in reference to Jesus the JW’s change the word from worship to obeisance. Obeisance just means pay respect to an authority. Now here is the rub. In every case when that word is used in reference to God they translate it as worship. JW’s changed the interpretation to fit their explanation. Jesus isn’t deity and therefore he couldn’t be this awesome human being if he accepted people’s worship because one of the Ten Commandments is to Worship God Alone.

You know how many people I have helped get out of the JW by pointing this out? None. I know you were hoping to hear that the number was bigger than that, but it takes more than facts for someone to leave one way of life and give everything to Jesus. It takes faith. And you can’t worship Jesus if you don’t have faith in Jesus.

All is not lost because out of that experience I am now prepared to answer many questions about worship. For instance, “Why worship?”

Before I attempt to answer that question I think we need to have a better understanding of what worship is according to Scripture. We’ve done something like this before, but it never hurts to do it again from a different perspective. 

Worship Clip Here

We worship when something or someone has captured our mind’s attention, our heart’s affection and our soul’s ambition.

Many theologians would argue that most of our sin is a product of our worship. Adam’s attention and affection and ambition was focused on his wife and this led to the Fall. I love how the NET version puts it…

3:17 But to Adam he said,

“Because you obeyed your wife

and ate from the tree about which I commanded you,

‘You must not eat from it,’

cursed is the ground thanks to you;

Before all of you husbands start bowing up obeying the wife wasn’t the problem. It was that Adam’s obedience to Eve was disobedience to God.

Adam had a problem and eventually an entire nation would have a problem. Israel had a worship problem. God proclaims through the prophet Micah (6:6-8)

6 “With what shall I come before the LORD,

      and bow myself before God on high?

      Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,

      with calves a year old?

      7 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams,

      with ten thousands of rivers of oil?

      Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,

      the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”

      8 He has told you, O man, what is good;

      and what does the LORD require of you

      but to do justice, and to love kindness,

      and to walk humbly with your God?

And again through Isaiah (29:13)

   13 And the Lord said:

      “Because this people draw near with their mouth

      and honor me with their lips,

      while their hearts are far from me,

      and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men,

Jesus also addressed the worship problem ()

25 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” 27 And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” 28 And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”

We worship when something or someone has captured our mind’s attention, our heart’s affection and our soul’s ambition.

Why is it important that we know the definition of worship?

Very simply because it is tied directly to eternal life.

JW’s will not inherit eternal life because they refuse to worship Jesus.

Your coworker may not inherit eternal life because they worship sex.

Your children may not inherit eternal life because they worship the latest and greatest phone. It’s kind of funny, but it’s kind of not.

You may not inherit eternal life because you worship at the church of Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and Lickety Split. You haven’t heard of Lickety Split? Me neither, I just wanted to make sure you were paying attention.

Some of you are losing it over the performance of a team.

Some of you are losing it over the performance of your child.

Some of you are losing it over the person you see in the mirror every morning.

Whenever we spent time, effort, energy on anything we must be careful to make sure that whatever it is isn’t distracting us from God. We need to ask ourselves the question, “Is this eternally significant?” If it isn’t then we need to place it in proper perspective.

What about your worship? Does God have your attention, affection and ambition?

PRAY

Benediction

The next two weeks we are going to try to help you refocus your attention, affection, and ambition. Your job today is just to confess and seek to repent of giving whatever it is that has your attention, affection, and ambition.