Do Church – Committed to Worship God

1. As a Church GCC is committed to Worship. Worship is a big word. It begins on the inside, that becomes expressions in acts of service and love. This is what Paul in Romans 12: 1,2 calls “true and proper worship”. I make a distinction between the inner and outer expressions of worship, since Jesus did that in Matthew 15: 8-9. There is an action that we sometimes can call worship, but Jesus says that it is in vain, it’s not actually worship, there’s no heart dimension to it. You can attend as many church services as you want, but you may not have worshipped at all, if it’s all just external, not from the inside out. If it’s singing or acts of service to other people, if it isn’t attached to a heart dimension – it’s not worship.
2. Jesus performed the act of ultimate service. He showed us the pattern, by washing dirty feet. Peter of course objected, but Jesus said “I have to, or you have no part of Me”. Peter wasn’t letting Jesus attach what He had for Peter in His heart, to the feet washing action. Worship is a matter of the heart. Someone used to say that it is more than just a heart action, it’s also acts of goodness and service to others.
3. We now take part in the Lord’s supper, the bread and the cup. I will worship You with all of my heart, I will give You all of my praise, I will worship You alone – nothing else. You are seating on the throne in heaven and on the throne of my heart. You have captured me and I remember You through this cup representing Your blood. Now we take up the offering, which is a spiritual act of worship.
4. Spiritual worship, this inner Godward experience, it begins with right thinking. As Paul said “… be transformed by the renewing of your mind…”. Jesus referred to this in John 4: 23-24 where He says that the Father seeks those who worship in “Spirit and in Truth”. This is why we are so committed to worship as a church. Often when the Bible speaks about Spirit it’s talking in antithesis of flesh. Paul doesn’t talk here about the body, but Spirit and Truth. We need to be spirit worshippers driven by truth, which is in the mind, which affects the essence of the spirit.
5. Right worship, pleasing worship (orthodoxy – nothing to do with the Orthodox Church, it’s the theological term for right worship) is connected to us having a correct knowledge of who God is. When we sing psalms, pray prayers, anoint one another with oil, it’s of little value if we don’t know who it is that we’re doing this for, in other words for the Supreme (God). With this understanding we can only offer our best. It’s impossible to resist Him if we worship Him from the heart and really know who He is. We always want to get rid of useless thoughts and put all our focus on Him and realize that He is above and beyond all. We fix it in our minds that we worship the real, living God. If this is not the case then we’re worship other things of our own creation.
6. We say “We worship and bow down”. So, it’s first right thinking and then right positioning. Like when we come into the presence of royalty we bow, thus recognizing that we are not in their place, their authority is above ours, everything about them is above anything about us. So, we position ourselves in the right place. Someone put it like this: “The essence of worship is the response of the heart to the knowledge of the mind, when the mind rightly understands God and the heart rightly values God”. So, our response is that we sing His songs, we praise Him, but it also comes out in the body. We are the hands and the feet of Jesus, so, acts of love, do good to all, as Paul says and let your good deeds be seen by men, so that our Father in heaven is glorified. But we must first have told them about our Father, so that they may know the reason for our actions. Hebrews 13: 15-16 “… the fruit of lips that openly profess His Name, then do good…”.
7. Sacrifices is the giving of something valuable. We come back to Romans 12. So, the inner essence of worship is to know God truly, respond from the heart by valuing God, prizing God, Loving Him, enjoying Him, being satisfied with God above everything else, we then find rest in God. The fruit of our lips, the actions of our hands, serving Him and serving others for Him – that’s worship. GCC is committed to worship, in the sanctuary, in our homes, in our small groups, in the community – because we know God and value Him the right way and this comes out.