THE ESSENCE OF WORSHIP

1 Chronicles 28:1-29:30; Romans 5:6-21; Psalm 15:1-5; Proverbs 19:18-19

“And Solomon, my son, learn to know the God of your ancestors intimately. Worship and serve him with your whole heart and a willing mind. For the Lord sees every heart and knows every plan and thought. If you seek him, you will find him.”

“But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son.”

“Who may worship in your sanctuary, Lord? Who may enter your presence on your holy hill? Those who lead blameless lives and do what is right, speaking the truth from sincere hearts. Those who refuse to gossip or harm their neighbors or speak evil of their friends.”

“Discipline your children while there is hope. Otherwise you will ruin their lives.”

Worship is a process, not an event. It is a lifestyle, not an experience. It is about God, not us or our needs. And because many Christians either do not understand this or won’t accept it, much of worship has been corrupted and watered down to a once a week passion that is more about show than substance. For many, worship – especially so-called “contemporary” worship – is more about good theater than doctrinal theology. How else could congregants rationalize their decision not to attend because they don’t like the preacher or “just don’t get anything” out of church? As hard a word as this may be, when people put their own agendas ahead of God’s when preparing for and participating in worship, they lose the very heart of the process. Inadvertent or not, putting our own interests first is an inherently selfish act fatal to all true worship. Focusing on our needs and desires places our personal emptiness front and center and actually displaces the bounty and grace of God as the object of our worship. We can discipline ourselves and our children easily enough to know when we go wrong in this regard. We can tell we’re off the track when, if Christ fails to tell us what we want to hear the way we want to hear it, we stop listening. Under those conditions, unsurprisingly, we usually miss the inspiration and power He would share with us through worship. We fall into a vicious cycle of need and frustration the Spirit will not forestall until we change priorities.

There’s a very old joke that pretty much sums up the problem with the way most of us worship. From a church somewhere in America’s heartland, Janice MacGruder’s reputation spread into something of a regional legend. A fervent and passionate soul, Janet loved her church. Every week, she could be counted on to sit smack dab in the center of the congregation and act as the preacher’s self-appointed cheerleader. Suffice it to say she vocalized freely, enthusiastically condemning sinner and praising saint as the sermon dictated. She made a great show of her offering, too, noisily digging through her purse and loudly praising God whenever she found the smallest contribution to “give back to God His bounty to me!” By the time the pastor was winding things up, there was not a soul who didn’t know Janice by voice, if not by name. But it was in her finale where Janice’s enthusiasm really set tongues wagging. Every Sunday at 12:00 sharp, whether the sermon was quite finished or not, Janice would stand and race down the center aisle shouting, “Fill me, Lord! Give me your Spirit!! FILL ME up to the brim!!!” Her goal was always the same and just a touch too predictably theatrical, as she fell to her knees before the altar and would not move until the minister provided her a special blessing. One old codger who had seen this for years finally had enough. As Janice sped down to the front shouting her usual “Fill me!” to beat the band, he, too, stood up to shout a counterpoint: “DON’T DO IT, LORD – SHE LEAKS!!!”

It is beyond ironic how often we attend worship in order to be filled when what we need to be doing is emptying ourselves of ourselves and allowing Christ to simply do as He would with our lives. The spiritual truth is this: when we accept Jesus as Lord, we give Him complete license to do with us as He – not we – pleases. He can quite literally buy us, sell us, sacrifice us or otherwise use us as He sees fit, and our role is just to willingly submit, not demand. What else could being a slave of Christ mean? Oh, yes, He may also choose to fill us in the process, but we must never forget it is a process over which He – not we – has complete autonomy. He does not answer to our expectations, and He does not owe us any explanation for leaving us spiritually bereft any more than He has an obligation to justify it when He does choose to dramatically inspire us. The bottom line is that we are not in control, and this is never more true than in real worship. We come to give ourselves to Him, period. What He chooses to do or not do with our gift is up to Him. We do well to leave the decision in His hands. Otherwise, we risk substituting cosmetic signs of worship – raised hands, tears, Amens and other oral ejaculations which do more to distract others than bring anyone closer to the Throne – for the real thing.

The Spirit actually wants to give us a living and helpful day-to-day relationship. In other words, if the only place we find or feel Christ is in a church building, we need to start doing a better job of seeking Him out every day of the week. The essence of worship does not occur on Sunday mornings or on Wednesday or Saturday evenings, for that matter. The essence of worship is presenting ourselves to God as a holy and living sacrifice at His disposal every second of every day.