Being the Church:Called to Worship
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Being the Church:Called to Worship
“I am of the opinion that we should not be concerned about working for God until we have learned the meaning and the delight of worshiping Him.” (A. W Tozer. Whatever happended to Worship? A Call to True Worship).
Linking the Learning
This is the fifth in our series of studies Being the Church:
Called to be Together
Called to be Witnesses
Called to be in the Spirit
Called to be Disciples
Now we are focusing on our Call to be Worshippers!
1. We were CREATED to Worship!
We are called to worship God. Indeed, we were created for that purpose. It is the most important thing that we can do.
“What is the chief end of man?” asks the Westminster Shorter Catechism. The answer: “Man’s chief end, is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.” (Q&A 1).
We were created by God and for God and as Augustine says: “Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.”― Augustine of Hippo, Confessions
It is our chief purpose on earth and will be our chief purpose in Heaven! As Tozer says: “Every glimpse that is given us of heaven and of God’s created beings is always a glimpse of worship and rejoicing and praise because God is who He is.” - Revelation 4:10–11 : “The twenty four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne, and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say, “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power: for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.”
Tozer continues: “I can safely say, on the authority of all that is revealed in the Word of God, that any man or woman on this earth who is bored and turned off by worship is not ready for heaven...God has provided His salvation that we might be, individually and personally, vibrant children of God, loving God with all our hearts and worshiping Him in the beauty of holiness...What are we going to do about this awesome, beautiful worship that God calls for? I would rather worship God than do any other thing I know of in all this wide world.”
C.S. Lewis memorably said: “If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.”― Mere Christianity.
Question 1 - If worship is the occupation of Heaven what can we do now to ensure we get into good training for it?
2. Worship is to be in the SPIRIT:
Paul said to the Philippians, “We … worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh” (Phil. 3:3).
Jesus teaches us in John 4:23 that those who “worship the Father” do so “in spirit and in truth”. These are are “true worshipers.” and it is not dependent on geographical location; sacred buildings; phycial exertions or particular rituals!
Paul urges us to “offer” our “bodies as living sacrifices” to God in a “spiritual act of worship” (Rom. 12:1) which is “pleasing to God.”
Peter said that we are “a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 2:5).
Linking to our previous point that we were CREATED to worship, humans are constitutionally religious.
We all worship something, and if it is not God, it is anything else!
G.K. Chesterton has often had this quote attributed to him, though it is not directly referenced anywhere in his writings: “When Man ceases to worship God he does not worship nothing but worships everything.”
As Jesus put it to the Samaritan woman in Joh 4:20-24 - “you Samaritans worship what you do not know!”
Many people, the vast majority of people in the world worship. They have systems of worship and rituals that go back millenia in some cases but Jesus makes it clear that “It is entirely possible for humans to have recognized forms of worship apart from Christ and apart from the salvation.”(Tozer). see 1 Cor 10:20
However the Bible is clear that true worship arises from a changed heart! It requires the “new birth” in which God puts His Spirt into our hearts, removes our hearts of stone, unresponsive toward Him, and we are made “alive with Christ.” - see Ezek 11:19; Ezek 36:26; Joh 3:1-11;Eph 2:1-10.
The opposite to Spirit-filled; Spirit-led worship is “will worship.” It’s the old heresy of the Samaritans - “The Old Testament history reveals that Jeroboam, the first king of Israel after it became the Northern Kingdom, set up two places of worship. He wanted to be sure his people were weaned from their habit of worshiping at Jerusalem. He installed golden calves to be worshiped in convenient places, Bethel and Dan. The heresy of Samaritanism—the practice of picking out what we like to worship and rejecting what we do not like—is widespread.” (Tozer)
Notice also we must “worship God in Spirit and in truth.” - “It must be by the Holy Spirit and truth. We cannot worship in the spirit alone, for the spirit without truth is helpless. We cannot worship in truth alone, for that would be theology without fire.” (Tozer).
Question 2 - How do we respond to Tozer’s claim that “the heresy of Samaritanism—the practice of picking out what we like to worship and rejecting what we do not like—is widespread.” ? How do we avoid doing this?
3. We need to BECOME worshippers!
Jesus tells the woman of Samaria that God is seeking worshippers - Joh 4:20-24 and encourages this woman to become such a worshipper!
Worship, is human response to a gracious God but it needs to be cultivated in the human heart.
It involves the whole person, heart, soul, mind, and strength - Lk 10:27 - “Worship must always come from an inward attitude. It embodies a number of factors, including the mental, spiritual and emotional.” (Tozer).
We can’t simply go through the ritualistic motions of worship. Such an attitude was was frequently criticized in the OT (Ps. 40:6–8; Am. 5:21–24).
So connecting this to our previous point that worship is to be in the SPIRIT! - “As soon as God sends the Spirit of His Son into our hearts we say “Abba”—and we are worshiping, but probably not in the full New Testament sense of the word. God desires to take us deeper into Himself. We will have much to learn in the school of the Spirit. He wants to lead us on in our love for Him who first loved us. He wants to cultivate within us the adoration and admiration of which He is worthy. He wants to reveal to each of us the blessed element of spiritual fascination in true worship. He wants to teach us the wonder of being filled with moral excitement in our worship, entranced with the knowledge of who God is. He wants us to be astonished at the inconceivable elevation and magnitude and splendor of Almighty God!” (Tozer)
This is a challenge to us and we need to enroll in this school of worship and the Spirit and learn to know God more fully in worship - “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” (Jas 4:8) - “When you go to church, do you really think about the songs you are singing or meditate on the things of God that you hear taught and preached?... Do you ever draw near to God in an unhurried way? Do you let your heart and mind ascend when you hear the hymns, Scripture readings, or prayer? Do you meditate in deep devotion? Remember, we are to be worshipful people.”(MacArthur).
And we musn’t think that we are unworthy to draw near, which in and off ourselves of course is true. We must ever remember the teaching of Hebrews 10:22 and again remember that Jesus is our Great High Priest who provides a “throne of grace” (Heb 4:12-15) to enable is to stand by faith in the presence of Almight and Holy God.
“We please Him most, not by frantically trying to make ourselves good, but by throwing ourselves into His arms with all our imperfections and believing that He understands everything—and loves us still.” (Tozer).
Question 3 - How do we cultivate the spirit of worship in our hearts and lives?
4. We need to be CONTINUALLY in Worship!
Tozer says: “We come to the Lord’s house, made out of brick and wood and lined with carpeting. We are used to hearing a call to worship: “The Lord is in His holy temple—let us all kneel before Him.” That is on Sunday and that is in church. Very nice! But Monday morning comes soon. The Christian layman goes to his office. The Christian school teacher goes to the classroom. The Christian mother is busy with duties in the home. On Monday, as we go about our different duties and tasks, are we aware of the Presence of God? The Lord desires still to be in His holy temple, wherever we are. He wants the continuing love and delight and worship of His children, wherever we work. Is it not a beautiful thing for a businessman to enter his office on Monday morning with an inner call to worship: “The Lord is in my office—let all the world be silent before Him.” If you cannot worship the Lord in the midst of your responsibilities on Monday, it is not very likely that you were worshiping on Sunday!”
Worship is not a one-off event it is a a lifestyle. It is not confined to our gatherings together, it is exhibited in our daily walk of obedience!
Linking to our last point that we must BECOME worshipper, worship is cultivated in the heart but it is also the formal expression of spiritual attitudes which should characterize God’s people at all times (Rom. 12:1).
Romans 12 tells us that we need a new mindset when it comes to worship. We offer ourselves as “living sacrifices, pleasing to God” and then we work it out in the way Romans 12:2-21 describes, humbly serving in the body of Christ (Rm 12:3-8) and demonstrating love in action out in the world, even when persecuted and hated for our faith (Rom 3:9-21) Insofar as serving other people is a divine command, the fulfilment of it is a part of worship.
In 2 Corinthians 3:16-17 Paul reminds us that we are a temple of the Holy Spirit. Our lives and whole being are engaged in the worship of God.
No day is secular for the Christian, no activity godless - 1 Cor 10:31
Our total lives, our entire attitude as persons, must be dedicated to the worship of God. Our faith, love, obedience, loyalty, conduct of life, all dedicated to the worship God.
“If there is anything within you that refuses to worship, there is nothing within you, then, that worships God very well. You are not worshiping God as you should if you have departmentalized your life so that some areas worship and other parts do not worship.” (Tozer)
And so as we grow in Christian maturity and strive for holiness of life, to offer oursleves as living sacrifices holy and pelasing to God, we do so as Tozer says because:
“No worship is wholly pleasing to God until there is nothing in me displeasing to God.’ (Tozer).
We have still got a lot to learn in the school of worship, this school of the Holy Spirit!
Question 4 - If our lives are temples of the Holy Spirit what difference should that make to our everyday choices?
Question 5 - What ‘GOLDEN NUGGETT’ from tonight’s study will you take on board and reflect on over the next few days?