Worship is my voluntary conscience response to God in which I show my concept of His Deity, worth, greatness and goodness to me.

  We hear a lot about the term “Worship” in the church today. We have worship seminars, worship specialists, and more. I am sure if you were to ask 100 people what worship was you would get 100 different answers. What I find is so many times when we talk about true worship, we are really talking about methodology and form. Traditional worship, Contemporary worship, Biblical worship, Youth worship services, Children’s worship services and the list goes on. When Jesus talked about true worship, He had an understanding of worship that was fundamentally different from every religious group that came before. Jesus said worship wasn't primarily what happened in a temple, church or a religious meeting. True worship is what goes on outside of the walls of a church building and a church service. Am I saying that worship does not go on in a church and that what goes on in a church service is not important? Absolutely not!!!  Keep on reading!  

  Let’s take a quick look at the words that are translated as worship in the Bible. The Hebrew word for worship is Sahah meaning to bow down to or to prostate ones self before a superior. The Greek words used for worship are: Proskuneo – to make obeisance or do reverence to. Sebomai – to revere, to hold in high devotion. Sebazomai – to honor religiously. Latreuo – to serve, to render a religious service, duty or homage. Eusebeo – to act piously toward someone or something. Our English word “worship”  started out in our language as the word “worthship”. It literally means showing what someone or something is worth to you. Showing God what He is worth to you.

  If you do a study of worship in the Bible you will find that there is no list of instructions on how to worship God. From the meaning of words above we can safely say that worship extends beyond the boundary of praise. Look at Romans 12:1-2:  1. And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will accept. When you think of what he has done for you, is this too much to ask?  2. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is.

  Think of worship as this: “Worship is my voluntary conscious response to God in which I show my concept of His Deity, worth, greatness and goodness to me.”  What about the music, the singing, the liturgies, the choirs, the sermons, and all of this? All of this can be a means to worship God that is truly pleasing to Him. It can also be a stench in the nostrils of God. Read 1 Samuel chapter 15. They key verse is verse 22 And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. 

  Here is the main point of the entire matter of worship. We talk about: “a personal relationship with Jesus Christ”, “God is a personal God”, “Jesus loves you”. As a Christian there should be none of these statements that you should object to because they are all true. This points to a key concept in Christianity and that is God is a personal God that loves and cares about everyone. God was interested enough in us to send His Son to live among us and die for our sins that we may have fellowship with him and live with him forever.  At this point I am going to posit some questions that may seem a bit odd and even disrespectful but please read on.

  Why such a strange list of questions? Let’s go back to the definition of worship: “Worship is my voluntary conscious response to God in which I show my concept of His Deity, worth, greatness and goodness to me.”  Worship is a time of you expressing your relationship to God, It can be Thanksgiving, Praise, or Adoration. It can take the form of a song, an instrumental, a poem, a scripture reading. It can be quiet, loud or anywhere in between. It can be in a 17^th Century Hymn or a new worship Chorus. Method for the most part is irrelevant. Style of music is irrelevant. What is relevant is the heart and life of the worshipper.

  I would like to use the following to illustrate my point. The church is referred to as the “Bride of Christ”. This metaphor is used to help us understand the love that Jesus has for us. Taking a small bit of literary license with this concept, please read the following illustration.  

A Sad Story

Once upon a time there was a man named John. John met a girl named Gwen who he fell in love with and asked Gwen to marry him. Gwen loved John and agreed. John would come to Gwen’s house every Saturday night and tell her how much he loved her and would play music and sing to her. John told Gwen of his undying love for her and for God. He told Gwen that she was the only woman for him. Gwen thought she was the luckiest Girl alive she felt very loved and that she was really worth something because of the way John treated her.

One day Gwen decided that she would visit John at work and surprise him by taking him out to lunch. Gwen went to the office where John worked. Upon enquiring about John, Gwen was told that he had gone to the restaurant across the street with one of the girls he has been dating. Gwen could not believe what she heard. Gwen went across the street and saw John on a booth with a girl and he was sitting close to her and he had his arm around her. Gwen left without John seeing her. The next day Gwen came back and asked for John again, John it seems had gone to lunch with the boys to a local strip club. Gwen was furious. She went home.

When Saturday night came around, John showed up at Gwen’s house. Gwen’s mother let him and he sat down at the piano and began playing and singing. Gwen came into the room and asked John how he really felt about her. John broke into his well rehearsed chorus of how Gwen was the only woman for him and how he couldn’t even look at another woman because he loved her so much. These same words that warmed her heart last week were giving her feelings of nausea and a migraine. He sat down and began playing the piano for her, what sounded like a symphony last week sounded like a child banging wildly on an out of tune piano. Gwen sickened and sad walked to her room, slammed the door and locked it. John, not happy with this response started to complain but was removed form the premises by Gwen’s older brother by shall we say less that gentle means. The End.

Think about Sunday morning and worship. The Choir and Singers rehearsed and ready….. The teachers are in their classes….  The sermon is prepared…. Everyone is in their finest clothes and everyone is in place. Stop right here! Freeze this point in time. What about the previous 6 days? Did they pray? Did they read their Bible? Have they let God’s word rule their actions and their words? For the one whose answer is yes, they are on the brink of a true worship experience. For the one whose answer is no, then whatever you want to call what is about to happen is up to you, but one thing is for sure you can’t call it worship.