Saturday Morning Post #11: A WORSHIPING LIFE

WORSHIP SHOULD BE the hallmark of every redeemed life. Romans 12:1 reads, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship.” The same passage in the King James translation calls for our sacrifices to be “holy and acceptable unto God.”

THROUGHOUT HISTORY God has delivered explicit instructions to his people concerning the offering of sacrifices which constitute acceptable worship. We need go no further than the fourth chapter of Genesis to see that not just any sacrifice will do. The sons of Adam and Eve both offered sacrifices to God, but we are told that, “The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor.”* The nation of Israel worshiped God by offering animal sacrifices as prescribed by the Law of Moses, but through the prophet, Jeremiah, God expresses his displeasure with some saying, “Your burnt offerings are not acceptable; your sacrifices do not please me.”**

UNACCEPTABLE: WHY? The attitude of one’s heart and the manner of one’s life are far more important than the ritual of sacrifice. Today worshipers are called upon to offer themselves as living sacrifices to God. Typically we think of worship as offering thanks to God for what he’s done for us. But that is just one aspect of worship. We must remember that God is worthy of all our praise and adoration simply for who he is, even if we could not call to mind a single benefit for which to thank him. Thanksgiving and praise are vital components in the worshiping life, but to offer our bodies as living sacrifices is to worship with every part of our being.

CHILDREN OF LIGHT are whole-life worshiping people. By that I mean, they recognize God’s worth – his supreme value – and they respond by honoring and adoring him with their whole life. They have an overwhelming longing to give themselves to God. They yearn to honor him and express their love for him with their attitudes, in their relationships and by the sharing of their possessions, until worship touches and colors every aspect of their way of life!

INWARDLY, they seek to please God by hiding his Word in their hearts. They allow his Spirit to apply the Word to their lives as needed to produce spiritual fruit consistent with “goodness, righteousness and truth.” Outwardly, their worship of God shows in the way they treat others. Expressing the love of God for others in tangible ways they demonstrate his compassion and honor him. Finally, their offering of thanksgiving and praise to God for who he is and what he has done is their upward dimension of worship.

“THROUGH JESUS, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise – the fruit of lips that confess his name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.”***

*Genesis 4:4-5

**Jeremiah 6:20

*** Hebrews 13:15

Saturday Morning Post #10: BRINGING WORSHIPERS TO GOD

KNOWING ALL THINGS beforehand, Jesus, light of the world, began to prepare his disciples for his impending departure. He told them, “You are going to have the light just a little while longer… Put your trust in the light while you have it, so that you may become children of light.”* Our Posts have been examining the children of light, asking the question, “What do they look like?” Thus far we’ve seen that their lives bear the fruit of goodness, righteousness and truth; they live in love, expressing their love for one another in tangible ways; and today we find at the core of such a life is a worshiping heart.

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“I DIDN’T GET a thing out of that service.” Ever heard that being whispered as you exit the church on Sunday morning? Ever whispered it yourself? I’m sure in over forty years of attending church services I must have muttered those words more than once! What we are really saying is that we don’t have a clue what worship is about or the concept of entitlement wouldn’t have entered our mind. Genuine Christian worship does not concern getting, it concerns giving!

AT THE RISK of sounding like a modern day heretic, I would suggest that God has not redeemed us primarily so that we might escape the torments of hell in exchange for the glories of heaven. Salvation was not so much for our benefit as it was a demonstration of God’s own glorious grace. From cover to cover the Bible makes clear the object of our redemption was not that we should get anything, but that we should give glory to God.

SOME SAY we’ve been “saved to serve”, implying that because Christ has provided for our salvation, we should offer our time, talent and resources in service to others. While it is true that one aspect of Christ’s death on the cross was to purify for himself a people zealous for good works, it was not the central theme and should not be presented as the ultimate purpose. Christ’s mission was predominantly to bring worshipers to God! Simply stated, “Christ suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God.”**

FOR WHAT PURPOSE did he bring us to God? The Westminster Shorter Catechism asks the question, “What is the chief end of man?” The Catechism’s response is, “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.” They didn’t just pull that answer out of the air. The crafters of the Catechism were theologians and as such meticulously searched the Scriptures to formulate their response.

WORSHIP IS ascribing glory to God. For the children of light, every aspect of life provides an opportunity to showcase the glory of God! Next we shall consider the concept of “whole-life worship.”

*John 12:35-36

**1 Peter 3:18