These days we are investing a lot into worship. And literally so when you consider the cost of sound, lighting, special effects and everything else that seems to be necessary to pull off a worship time that will keep the crowds coming. Chances are we’re putting as much or more, proportionately speaking, as in past times churches use to spend on things like pipe organs, sheet music and choir gowns.
My issue isn’t necessarily with the sound and lights any more than it would have been with pipe organs, which one summer in my youth I learned to play.
The issue is deeper. It’s about what worship really is.
Fortunately the New Testament has something helpful to say about this. Paul writes these words to the Romans: “Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” There are several things we need to understand about this statement. First, in his terminology, “bodies” has more than a physical meaning. It stands for our whole lives. Second, the word he chooses for “worship” is the word specifically linked to the sacrificial system of the temple. Third, the word “spiritual” is a mistranslation. It represents the Greek word logikos, from which we get our word “logical.” It means “something properly understood.”
If we put all these things together, we get the following. To lay our whole life down on a daily basis is the true, properly understood fulfilment of what happened in the Old Testament temple.
The common theme, of course, is the idea of sacrifice. It’s exactly the same as Hebrews teaches when it says the old temple sacrifices are replaced by the “sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.” Just to make sure we get the idea he’s not talking just about singing songs on Sunday, the author adds: “Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.”
Does this mean our corporate gatherings are irrelevant? Not at all, for both Hebrews and the rest of the New Testament speak elsewhere of how important they are.
What it does mean is that if we don’t come into those gatherings with a life that has been laid down in sacrifice to God the previous week, our worship hasn’t reached the mark. It doesn’t matter if we are singing old hymns out of a songbook accompanied by an organist, or the latest chorus complete with full band, flashing lights and smoke machine. In either case, we’ve missed it.
If we want to reach the next generation, our worship will have to look more and more like the latter, but let me give you a warning. If that’s all we’ve got to offer, we’re neither teaching nor modelling what true worship is. And where there is not true worship, God’s Spirit will be grieved and eventually depart.
There are a worryingly large number of churches giving in to pressure to compromise fundamental truths. Genuine worship as I’ve described it is the best bulwark against such falling away.
If we truly are offering our lives daily to God, and then coming together to offer him the praise he alone is due, and if he then positions himself in our midst in response, his Spirit will without doubt lead us more deeply into the truth of his Word which now more than ever we so desperately need.
Invest yourself into worship. It will pay you more dividends than you can possibly imagine.
CONSIDER PARTNERING WITH DAVID & ELAINE CAMPBELL IN HELPING TO SUSTAIN THEIR ACTIVE MINISTRY.
AWAKENING MINISTRIES // FOUNDATION of FAITH Project
Foundation of Faith Project is strengthening generations in faith and bringing beautiful changes to the communities around them. Through teaching, mentoring and coaching, many are finding out who they are and who they are destined to be. They are bringing more to their world. David Campbell is the key leader in this initiative and you can support him financially directly through Awakening Ministries.
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