Am I Here To Worship?

PREFACE:

It’s been a while since my last blog. Praying God allows me the time to use this again. While I try to keep this from becoming a diary (and at times have not succeeded), this blog is incredibly helpful to me to be able to jot things down I may have difficulty saying or lack the opportunity to say it, but have found it useful to others in someway. So to those who continue to read my random thoughts, thank you. Your support is in part what gave me assurance to know God isnt through with me. The calling is still there, we’re just waiting on Him. For now, my wife and I wait the exciting arrival of our first child, our daughter, Ms Aurora Joy. Joy comes from not only a state of being that I pray this child embraces, but comes from her beautiful Grammy, without whom I wouldn’t be here today, my mother, Joyce. God is working patiently with us even though I impatiently wait on Him at times. Pray for us, and again, thanks for reading.

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I’m a worship leader at my church. No, I don’t have a 8-piece Roland or a couple Fenders behind me. I have an organ and piano. We sing 95% of our music from a hymn book. Is it worship? Absolutely. After all, it’s not choice of songs, but the choice of heart that makes or breaks a worship service. Today’s blog isn’t about the music. (I have another blog about “church music” here) I asked myself this question because as a leader, if I’m not there to worship, how can I possibly lead a group of people to show reverence and submission to an all mighty God? If I’m so obsessed with which songs to sing and which way, then the church can justifiably judge the service based on the song selection. If I’m going through the motions, it’s fair for the congregation to meet me with total apathy.

Songs that talk about me and what I’m doing for God are difficult. We can debate if it’s even considered worship because the focus seems off in another blog, but another issue is my insecurity to even live up to the lyric. I Surrender All was one of the first I read and thought, do I really surrender all? (I wrote about that lyric once here) I’m coming back to the heart of worship. Am I? Or is this somehow about me? Am I singing this lyric because it sounds heroic of me to believe in a hill called Mount Calvary, whatever the cost?

Am I here to worship?

When we see a blog or know we’re about to hear a sermon about, “worship,” we immediately think it must be about the songs we sing. This is a fair assumption as many churches have a “worship service” and in that service there is music. The next obvious statement I’m going to make is that worship is something more than music. That may follow with eye rolls, but personally, I’m tired of worship being belittled to a four minute performance or if it’s a song by Hillsong, nine minutes (kidding).

When I say there’s more to it, I don’t just mean more to the event. Because like the word, “church,” worship isn’t an event. Church is a people and worship is what they do. There is more to worship than your music preference or how you think someone should express their reverence and adoration.

Let’s look no further than what Jesus has to say about worship. I can’t seem to get out of John 4 the last couple of months. I’ve studied it, preached from it, talked and witnessed from it, now this blog. Thank God His Word is so rich in wisdom.

Anyway, one scripture that immediately comes to mind when the subject of worship is being examined is Jesus’ own words in John 4:24: “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” If we don’t grasp the context and definition of the words Jesus is using here, we miss the point entirely. Jesus uses the Greek word, proskuneo which shows reverence to someone by bowing to the ground and kissing His feet, the hem of His clothing, or simply the ground. It encompasses not only a posture, but perhaps more importantly, an attitude of the heart.

The usage of proskuneo in the Old and New Testament shows us that worship actually involves a response of reverence, shown through a physical act, simultaneously with a submissive heart to the Lord. Jesus is clear about who we are to worship in John 4:24: God. To get a better understanding of the what, where, when, why and how of worship, back up to verse 21.

After Jesus establishes the who of worship in John 4:13, in verse 21, He gives us the where of worship. “Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.” (John 4:21) Go back to the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. Back then, the Samaritans were prohibited from helping with the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem, so they built a temple on Mt. Gerizim. While the Samaritan’s were on Mt. Gerizim, the Jews worshiped in Jerusalem. Both groups believed that their temple was the only official site of true worship (not a lot has changed). Jesus completely changes the where of worship as it wouldn’t be set in a single location. The Lord’s Church in her early days in Acts told the people over and over that God is not a prisoner in a physical building, but He dwells in the hearts of people who are saved.

“You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.” (John 4:22) Here Jesus makes the what clear in worship. The Samaritan’s were worshipping, but they didn’t know what they were worshipping. The Jews only did because salvation came from the Jews. The Jews had a better understanding of the Messiah thanks to the writings of the psalms and prophets, both things the Samaritan’s rejected as canon.

The bottom line from this text though is that you can “worship” God in the physical form without any serious devotion from the heart, but He expects and deserves worship in spirit and in truth. This one is for my charasmatic friends that enjoy making a big theatrical performance out of their worship. This one is also for my friends who sit on their hands and worry too much about how others are worshipping around them.

“But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.” (John‬ ‭4:23‬) Here, Jesus gives us the when of worship. Repeatedly, He says the hour is coming, and then in this particular text he adds, “and is now here.” So when are we to worship as He is instructing here? Um… now.

To discover the most talked about part of worship, the how, we first look at the phrase “true worshiper” that we see there in verse 23. True is the Greek word, alēthinos, which means genuine. John likes this word. He uses it 7 times throughout the New Testament. Strong’s interprets it as “true to the fact.” Worshiper is the verb of our other Greek word from earlier, proskuneo. In this text, it is implied that if there is true worship, then there is well, fake worship. You want to be a true worshiper? Worship Him in spirit and in truth. This isn’t an option, but Jesus commands it.

Beginning in the Old Testament and continuing on into the New, we read about worshipers bowing, at times prostrate in a show of complete honor and reverence. Is this necessary? Am I saying to worship God, all of us need to lie flat out the ground? No, but I mean, would it hurt you to show such surrender to a God who gave His Son so you could have everlasting life? What do you think you’re going to do in Heaven? How about raise our hands? Wait for it… clap? (Gasp) These can all be beautiful pictures of worship.

Hands are such a dominate part of the human body, aren’t they? We grab with them. We clinch them like a fist when we’re upset. We hide them as children when we’re ashamed. So throwing our hands up, in a picture of complete surrender, isn’t a bad thing – it’s a biblical thing, but you better mean it. Don’t sing, “I Surrender All,” when all you’ve give up is three hours on Sunday. Don’t raise your hands like a child would to their father, if you aren’t ready and willing to let God have control. And worst of all, we cannot judge others for expressive worship simply because we’re afraid or because we aren’t willing to express our devotion.

I asked a question in my previous blog about what you would do if Jesus walked into the room right now. (Read that here) Spoiler alert: He’s here right now. How often do we forget? Maybe this makes the greatest challenge in worship. Satan convinces us Jesus is far away. But He’s here right now. He is worthy of our praise, our adoration and deserves our devotion to Him.

Genuine worship is of reverence and honesty, shown through a physical act, simultaneously with a submissive heart to the Lord. This coming Sunday, remember to ask yourself in the appointed time, “Am I here to worship?” The physical act is so much easier than the submissive heart. Start with Sunday. Let that submission bleed over into Monday, Tuesday and so on. Discover you can worship Him on Thursday before you get out of bed. Find out you can worship Him with your spouse, with your kids. Submit and this Sunday at your church’s worship service, you just might experience Him and for some of you, the very first time. Signing out for now. Talk to you again soon. Thanks for reading.