WHAT IS TRUE WORSHIP?

We hear a lot in Christian circles today about worship. But what exactly is worship? What does it mean to worship God? Technically the word worship comes from an older word meaning "worthship" and means to ascribe worth to God, to consider Him as worthy of value, and in some way to express to him our sense of His worth and value to us. In Revelation 5:12 the angels say, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing." While John gives us a glimpse of worship in heaven, we still ask, "How should we worship God today, here on earth?" The Bible is clear that, if we want our worship to be acceptable to God, we need to find out from Him how He wants us to worship Him. Cain found out early on that there is a difference between "acceptable" and "unacceptable" worship. Abel worshipped in accordance with what God said was acceptable. Cain worshipped God in his own way and though he may have been sincere, his offering was not acceptable to God. Throughout the Old Testament we find the principle that for worship to be acceptable to God it must be in the right way with the right heart attitude. The right attitude with the wrong method is not acceptable. Nor is the right method with the wrong attitude is acceptable. We must worship God with both a right attitude and with the right method.

When we think of worshiping God, our minds usually go back to the time of the Israelites and the Mosaic Law. We are enchanted by the colorful and exacting ways in which they worshipped and served God. We know that they went into the temple and offered their sacrifices to God through the priest. And we know that only the high priest was allowed to enter the Holy of Holies once a year to make atonement for the people. If a person in Israel wanted to worship the Lord, he couldn't do it just any way or in any place he pleased. He had to worship God in the prescribed manner and in the prescribed place if it was to be acceptable to God. This was the "divine service" or the worship of Israel. The writer of Hebrews spoke of this worship in Hebrews 9:1 which reads, "Even the first covenant had ordinances of divine service and the earthly sanctuary." They way they performed "divine service" to God or the way they worshipped God was through these external, earthly ordinances. Is that the way for us to worship God today? If you have your Bible handy, turn to Romans 12:1 which reads, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service." This "reasonable service" in Romans 12:1 is the same "divine service" mentioned in Hebrews 9:1. Our divine service, our way of worshiping God is by presenting our bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. Holy means set apart. Unless we are set apart, sanctified if you will, we cannot be acceptable to God.

Where did Israel worship God? First in the tabernacle and then in the temple. How do WE worship God? In the temple of course. But you see a big difference! The writer of Hebrews goes on to say that all of the earthly ordinances and regulations, the temple, the sacrifices, the offerings, the feast days, and all that was just a shadow of the real thing to follow, which was Christ. The Israelites worshipped God in the temple, so do we. But our temple is not a building where we come for an hour a week and "worship" God. Our temple is our body.

First Corinthians 6:19 reads, "What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price; therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God's." Our body is the temple of God. Our body is the dwelling place of God. It is the temple of the Holy Spirit. In the Old Testament, it was the temple from which the glory of God was made visible. His Shekinah glory filled the temple. Everyone knew that if you wanted to see the God of the Hebrews, you needed to go to the temple. They served God in the temple. They praised God in the temple. So should we. But our serving and our praising is not, or should not, be limited to when we go into a building. God doesn't dwell in a building anymore. God now dwells within each and every Christian. At the moment of putting our faith and trust in Jesus Christ for salvation, we are sealed with the Holy Spirit of God who instantly takes up his home within us.

Ephesians 1:13-14 reads, "In whom ye also trusted, after ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also after ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, who is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of his glory." We are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. That is God's seal and no man can break it. And verse 14 says that the Holy Spirit is the earnest or the down payment of our inheritance. The Holy Spirit is just the down payment of more spiritual blessings to follow and his indwelling provides us with the assurance of our salvation. So we have the Holy Spirit of God, God Himself dwelling within us. We are to worship God in the temple--in the temple of our body. We are to allow His glory to show through us. If people want to see our God, they should be able to look at our temple and see him. They should see something different. They should see something real. But so many Christians still think that worshiping God consists of coming to church for an hour a week, singing a few hymns, giving a couple dollars to keep God off their back, and then going back home and living like everyone else.

But that's not the way it is supposed to be! Paul says to present our bodies a LIVING sacrifice. Holy. Acceptable unto God. Which is our divine service. This is our divine worship, to live our lives for God. Not one hour a week, but twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. If we are Christians, every minute of our life should be lived in the knowledge that He is within us. If only we could grasp this fact. Many of us at least say the words that the church is not the building, that the church is the people. But do we really understand the significance of that? I'm convinced that if the reality of this truth could be made real to us it would change the way we live. If we could understand that God himself lives within us we would act differently.

You know Christians always seem to want to know what they can and what they cannot do. They always seem to want to stretch the limits of God's grace and our liberty in Christ. The answer is simple. Can you glorify God in what you do? Will what you do bring praise and honor to Him? Colossians three seventeen says "And whatever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God and the Father by him." We don't need a list of do's and don'ts. We just need to put God first. Often young people will ask me if it's okay to dance. Rather than give them a list of guidelines to evaluate what is acceptable and what is not, just have them ask themselves, "Can I do this in the name of the Lord Jesus?" "Can I give thanks to God for this?" "Can I do this to the glory of God?" We worship God, we serve God through the temple of our body.

All that we give our body to do should be to the praise, honor, and glory of God. Perhaps that's the reason that the world is so turned off to Christianity. We are worshiping God in the wrong way. How can we honestly expect to attract others to Jesus Christ when we live just like they do except for the fact that we happen to sit in a church for an hour on Sunday morning? No wonder they are not interested! What do they see different in your life? What do they see different in my life? Chances are, not much. And God is grieved because we do not live what we say we believe. No one likes a phony. If we really believe something we will do it. The solution? Romans twelve one again. "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service." But that's hard isn't it. It's hard to really live for the Lord in these times. It's much easier to go with the flow and limit our Christianity to our church attendance. But the question we must answer though, is whether or not what we are calling worshiping God is acceptable to Him.

Israel's acceptable worship was there at the temple, doing the prescribed ritual, but during that time we were cut off from God. In Ephesians chapter two verses eleven and twelve Paul writes, "Wherefore, remember that ye, being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands--that at that time ye were WITHOUT CHRIST, being ALIENS from the commonwealth of Israel, and STRANGERS from the covenants of promise, HAVING NO HOPE, and WITHOUT GOD IN THE WORLD."

What a sad condition. When God was worshipped in the temple we had no part in it. We were without Christ, aliens, strangers, HAVING NO HOPE, WITHOUT GOD IN THE WORLD. What a bleak condition. But I love what he goes on to say in verse 13 "BUT NOW, in Christ Jesus ye who once were far off are made near by the blood of Christ." Before the age of grace we as Gentiles were in a hopeless, lost condition. But now, through the blood of Christ we are made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Now there is no longer Jew or Gentile. In Christ we are all ONE. In light of this Paul says that OUR worship, the worship God has commanded for us Gentiles, the members of the body of Christ, OUR worship is to present our bodies a living sacrifice.

Now you may be thinking, "That's nice" but how do I do that. How do I live for life for God? Paul goes on to tell us how in verse two of Romans chapter twelve. He continues by saying "And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." The secret to living for God is in the renewing of our mind. "Be not conformed" speaks of being squeezed into a mold. The world is constantly trying to squeeze us into its mold and unfortunately many Christians are so molded to the world's standards that you can't tell them apart from the world. We are constantly bombarded with the wrong messages, with the wrong morals, with the wrong values. But we must be changed, not from external regulations, but by the renewing of our mind. Our minds have to be renewed. They have to be purged of the garbage that the world put in them and replaced with the truth of God's word. We have wrong thoughts, wrong reactions, wrong motives, wrong values and we must wash them out with the pure water of God's word. You see, the key to the body is the mind. If Satan can control the mind, what we think about, he has the body. Our body only does what our mind tells us. The battle for our mind.

Perhaps you're thinking, well if we don't come to church to worship God, then why should we go to church? We come to church to edify and to encourage each other in the faith. Ephesians four, twelve through sixteen talks about the purpose of the church being for the edifying of the body of Christ. You look it up sometime. Evangelism is our job as individual Christians. Look up second Corinthians five twenty sometime. True a person should be able to hear about the wonderful plan of God's salvation at church, but that is not the primary purpose. The primary purpose is to build each other up as Christians so that we can go out and worship God. And by worshiping God in our lives we will then have the power and conviction in our life to back up our message. By God's grace may we learn what true worship is. May we worship in a way that is acceptable to God. How sad it will be in that day to have been sincerely wrong. To please God is to obey him. In first Samuel fifteen twenty-two he says that "To obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry." Saul chose to worship God his own way and the kingdom was taken from him.

Let us worship God His way and be assured that it is acceptable. Our body is His temple. Let us be worshiping Him in it by having a renewed mind and by not being conformed to the world. It will not be easy, but it is our "reasonable service."

Last Updated: 12/20/1999