C.S. Lewis once wrote that, "It is in the process of being worshiped that God communicates His presence to men."
A.W. Tozer called worship the "missing jewel" of the modern church.
Theologian Ronald L. Jones once said, "When we truly worship the Lord, we absorb His person. We drink in His attributes. When we do, He realigns our reality. He rearranges our perspective."
Most of us don't spend a lot of time thinking about God. We go to church on Sunday and we sing the songs and we talk the way Christians talk, but we don't give God the attention He deserves. We don't give Him the concentrated attention of someone who is trying to get to know and get close to another person.
A relationship with God is similar to a relationship with a human person. If we want to have a meaningful relationship, we must spend time getting to know that person. We must spend time talking with and listening to that person. We can't be close to someone if we don't know who they really are. If we are to know God, we have to invest the time to get to know Him.
There are too many churches, too many Christians that do not know how to worship God, or even why worship is our primary responsibility before Him. We have churches that emphasize preaching, churches that stress evangelism, and churches that highlight body fellowship, but worship is the priority commandment from God. We are called to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and we develop our love for Him in worship.
Worship is the pattern of the Old Testament: everywhere you look people are worshiping. They sing His praises, tell one another of His goodness, and recount the stories of how God has worked in their past. They bow down before Him in humility and obedience, reverent before a God they know and trust.
Unfortunately, many Christians never experience the joy of worshiping God in spirit and truth. Churches are filled with spectator Christians who attend a service for the teaching, or who sit and enjoy the "performances" up front. Consequently, those Christians are missing out on what God intended for them. We will never truly know God until we worship Him. He is sitting on the throne in Heaven, worthy of honor and glory and praise, awaiting our worship. He inhabits the praises of His people, and can be found there with them as they worship Him. He is a great God, a King above all gods who will be gloriously worshiped throughout all eternity. He wants you to know Him.
Mary and Martha: Luke 10:38-42
Mary and Martha both loved Jesus. On this occasion they were both serving Him. Martha implied that Mary's style of serving was inferior to hers. She didn't realize that in her desire to serve, she was actually neglecting Him. Are you so busy doing things for Jesus that you're not spending any time with him? Don't let your service become self-serving. It is important to know whom you are serving.
Jesus says, in effect, that Martha was running around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to do things, as though the busy person is the one serving God most effectively. But Mary is just sitting there at His feet, worshiping and adoring God; doing the only thing really necessary.
Worship is the Prerequisite to Effective Service
What is more important, to worship God or to serve Him? By virtue of what we do in our churches, you would think that the really important thing was to serve God. The modern church seems preoccupied with service, using it as a sort of barometer of spirituality. But Satan tempted Jesus by asking for His worship, not His service: In Matthew 4:9 it reads, "All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me." Satan understands the correct order--the one you worship is the one you will serve. Keep in mind Christ's response in verse 10: "You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve." Worship is the prerequisite to effective service. Oswald Chambers once wrote, "If you have not been worshiping, when you get into work you will not only be useless, but a tremendous hindrance."
Worship needs to be in the center of all that we do. It cannot be peripheral. It cannot be an addendum. It has to be the center of all that we do. Yes, we need to witness and we need to work, but until worship is central, all those other things will be a struggle and will not flow as they ought from our worship of the Lord.
Psalm 22:3 tells us that God inhabits the praises of His people. He lives in the midst of our praise. When the Lord is worshiped, then we see Him in His natural environment; He is at home. Of course, God exists everywhere, but He is not always manifest everywhere. His manifest presence comes to us when He is praised. Perhaps you have experienced the wonderful presence of God during a special time of worship. As you were singing, praying, praising, and worshiping the Lord, you felt His presence closer to you than ever before--that is what the psalmist is describing! Worship causes the presence of God to be felt and experienced by His people. If you really want God to be in your church meetings, praise Him as best you can.
Worship is something God does in the lives of His people to help them in their own discouragement. You cannot be occupied with both despair and the worthiness of God. When your heart is caught up in the worship of God, it does something to you inwardly, dispelling the spirit of heaviness.
Discouragement is one of Satan's greatest weapons today. The Scriptures warn us to not grow faint or lose heart, but to worship God. Paul and Silas were once arrested, flogged, thrown into prison and locked in stocks. It must have been a discouraging, defeated time. How did they respond? They started to pray and sing hymns to God! As the result of their worship, the earthquake came and the doors of the prison were blown open.
When Lawrence of Arabia was in Paris with some of his Arab friends after World War I, he took them to see the sights of the city. His friends showed little interest in the Arch of Triumph or Napoleon's tomb. The thing that really interested them was the faucet in their bathtub. They spent much time turning it on and off; they thought it was wonderful. All they had to do was turn the handle and they could get all the water they wanted. When they were leaving Paris, Lawrence found them in the bathroom with wrenches, trying to get the faucet off so they could take it with them. "You see," they said, "it is very dry in Arabia. What we need are faucets. If we have them, we will have all the water we want." Lawrence had to explain to them that the effectiveness of the faucet depended on the water system to which it was attached.
Our study of worship reminds us that the effectiveness of all that we do is not to be found in outward activity or service, but in the One who stands behind it. The One whom we serve. The One deserving our worship.
Have you ever noticed how anytime your friends find something they admire, it spontaneously flows into praise? Have you heard anyone talking about the 1998 San Diego Padres? I'm a Padres fan and I know that we praised Ken Caminiti and how he may have become the National League's MVP. We spend enough time praising our favorite sports stars and movie stars, don't forget to spend enough time praising and worshiping the God who made them all. We should worship the Creator and not the creation.
There are times in life when you don't know for sure what God wants you to do . . . but you can always be certain that when you worship God you are in His will.
