Verses of the Day
Romans 12:1 – “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.”
Philippians 3:3 – “For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh,”
John 4:24 – “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
Devotional Thoughts
The First Mark of a Sound Church: God is Worshiped in Spirit and Truth
The first mark of a sound church that we will consider is the character of that church’s worship. After all, the church’s first love is to be its God! He is our God and we are His people. If we really believe everything we preach and teach about salvation and grace and forgiveness, how can we not worship God continually?
Worship, or the telling forth of God’s worthiness, has to have a priority in our church services. We are not to meet together for what we can get out of the praise or the preaching – we are to meet together so that we might worship God through the praise and preaching. We are to focus on HIM.
The qualifications given by Jesus Himself in the New Testament for worship are that our worship is to be offered in “spirit and truth.” To understand this we need to first look at how worship is often the opposite of these requirements.
Worship that Displeases God
In Amos 5:21ff, the prophet proclaims a word from God regarding the acceptability of worship. Have you ever stopped to ask if the worship you offer is acceptable to God? He does not want us to simply go through the motions. That, in fact, is not worship.
In Amos 5 God says that He wants justice and righteousness. He desires worship given in spirit and truth. Instead the Children of Israel were mixing the worship of God with other pagan festivals and religions. They were polluting the worship of the Most High God. They defiled worship by offering God what they wanted, or what they thought He wanted instead of what He demanded! They did things their way instead of His.
In the text, Amos writes as God speaks,
I hate, I despise your feast days, and I do not savor your sacred assemblies. Though you offer Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them, nor will I regard your fattened peace offerings. Take away from Me the noise of your songs, for I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments. But let justice run down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream.
Can you imagine? God hated their worship. It was self-centered and self-serving. They tried to keep proper form (feast days, singing, sacred assemblies) but had an improper motive. They approached God with unclean hands and an impure heart and as a result He rejected their worship. We must come before God on His terms, prepared to worship acceptably – and if we come any other way (rushed, with little thought or preparation) then He will likewise reject what we have to offer.
So in order to understand our duty in worship, in order to truly know what God expects and commands of us as His worshippers, we must first grasp the characteristics of worship that displeases Him. Take the time to meditate on these verses and examine these topics as we search the Scriptures for a brief outline of worship that God hates.
Charactersistics of Worship that Displeases God – Ex 20:1-11
A. Worship of Anyone or Anything Other Than or Together with God
Ex. 20:3; Ps 86:10; Rom 1:18-25
B. Worship that involves Disobedience
Ex 20:4-6; Ex 32
C. Worship that Takes God’s Name in Vain
Ex 20:7; Malachi 1:6-14; Matt 15:9
D. Worship that is not Holy
Ex 20:8-11
Worship that is not holy can be further noted to be:
1. Void of Faith
Heb 11:6; Rom 14:23
2. Full of Hypocrisy (Lips vs. Heart)
Isaiah 29:13; Jeremiah 12:2; Matt 15:8
3. Based on Lies (False Doctrine)
John 4:24; Psalm 17:1
4. Worship that is not Separated from the World
Rom 12:1-2; 1 John 2:15-17
5. Worship that Profanes
Ezekiel 22:23-31
Worship that Pleases God
The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will tell us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”
True and acceptable worship is to render to God respectful spiritual service. This is the definition of “reverence.” Reverence is to be the main characteristic of our worship. Reverence finds us focusing on God instead of self. We do not just do whatever we feel. We do what honors God.
The two characteristics given here by Christ let us know that worship is not about when or where, but it is all about how. It is not a building, location, event, or time of the day or week that qualifies our worship as acceptable to God. It is how we worship. We must worship God in spirit and truth.
To worship God in spirit is to worship from the heart, not simply with outward form. It originates internally, not externally. If the inside (the heart) is not prepared for worship, then no matter what we say or do to worship, God will reject what we offer. He even tells us in the Word that if we come to offer God a gift (worship) and there remember that we have something against our brother or sister in Christ, we are to leave and make things right with others before we come near to God. Our heart has to be ready to worship – we have to be prepared. We have to have our relationships in order and come with a clear conscience or our worship is not acceptable.
To say it is from the heart means that it does not matter what we know or what we claim to believe that qualifies our worship. It is how we express our hearts in love and obedience to Christ. What is in the heart, after all, will come out the mouth. And if our heart is not clean and right and we attempt to worship God, we are lying. That’s right. If what is coming out of our mouths does not match the thoughts of our heart, we are hypocrites of the worst sort, and just pretending to worship.
Worship in Spirit
How do we worship in spirit with a right heart condition and attitude? Let’s expand our study of the Scriptures on this point. Open your Bibles and read these verses and then read how I have summarized worshipping God in spirit into the following seven points:
1. Philippians 3:3, 7-11
Worship in spirit is offered with no confidence in the flesh. The true believer views his flesh as sinful without any merit or capacity to please God without the intervention of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
2. Revelation 4:10-11
Worship in spirit is focused wholly upon God with no thought of self.
3. Psalm 95:6-7
Worship in spirit must be reverent, not loud and obnoxious, with disharmony or showmanship!
4. Psalm 96:9; 5:7
Worship in spirit must be characterized by fear and trembling! We are worshipping a thrice holy God and cannot ever enter His presence with little thought or frivolity.
5. Psalm 29:1-2; Psalm 99
Worship in spirit must be holy. To be holy is to be set aside or separated from the world. We should not worship God like the world worships its false gods. Worship should be distinct from the world and not mixed with worldly values and practices.
6. 2 Chronicles 20:18-20
Worship in spirit must overflow with humility. Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it is thinking of yourself less! Again – the focus is GOD.
7. Psalm 51:15-17
Worship in spirit is worship with brokenness. We must come expressing a total dependence upon God for everything we need.
Worship in Truth
1. Revelation 14:7
Worship in truth gives God honor, reverence, glory, and expresses His worthiness.
2. Psalm 45:11
Worship in truth is based in the truth that we worship Him because He is our Lord. We don’t make Him Lord. He is Lord. Forever. The question here is whether or not we obey Him as Lord since He is Lord?
3. Psalm 66:4
Worship in truth offers praise to His name. We worship Him, not His provision or creation, not His works or ways. We worship HIM, as He is characterized by His many names revealed in Scripture.
4. Psalm 138
Worship in truth is worship in lowliness. We must have a proper opinion of ourselves, a low opinion of self. We are sinners and but for His grace we would not be able to approach Him at all. Our worship of Him is all based on His doings – His salvation, forgiveness, and grace.
5. Psalm 148, 149, 150
Worship in truth is worship in ways of which God approves!
Bible Reading For Further Study
Psalm 29:2; 96:9
Psalm 66:4
Psalm 95:6
Psalm 99:5, 9
Psalm 138:2
Recommended Songs for Worship
Praise to the Lord, The Almighty
Immortal, Invisible
TIME in the Word Ministries 
4 comments
Comments feed for this article
August 13, 2010 at 12:28 pm
Esther
You know I can’t leave this alone…too yummy.
RE: Psalm 95:6-7–This scripture, unfortunately, fails to prove your point. It describes one way in which we can worship God; the physical and spiritual posture of humility by kneeling and acknowledging our helplessness. But it does not forbid loudness nor dissonance (the early Roman Catholic church ruled out certain musical intervals because they were considered dissonant and therefore unworthy for worship), in fact it actually forbids no type of worship at all…only enjoins one type. Many other scriptures could be quoted that speak of other types of worship which are enjoined.
Question: by “showmanship”, what do you mean? If you mean pageantry and excellence of performance, then scripture does not forbid either of these, and in fact often condones and enjoins them. If you mean “that which brings more attention to man than to God”, a case could certainly be made, but it would be difficult to judge the actions of a performance as “showmanship” without knowing the hearts, which we cannot do.
This is an area in which I have suffered much judgment, being accused of “showmanship” simply because I worship God with the gifts He has given me and refuse to do less excellently than He has given me the ability to do. How do we reconcile this?
For #5, if you make this stipulation (and you must to hold to scripture), then you must also define the worldly values and practices. Here is a sticky bit! For OT worship of God had some elements of pagan worship as well…of course, that was because the pagans mimicked true worship of God, and not because Israel mimicked the pagan worship. But nevertheless, what “looks” worldly may not BE worldly. In fact, NT worship while the apostles lived also sometimes contained elements familiar to pagan worship which was not practiced in Jewish synagogues or the Temple. I’m thinking specifically of glossolalia.
#7 is true, yet can be easily taken to include (or rather exlude) something it really does not. Brokenness is often considered as a mournful, sad attitude–which is true but not all of the truth. Brokenness can also be expressed in joy and even exultation and triumphalism. See Moses’ song and many, many other expressions of victory through brokenness.
I find it a tad ironic that you used the Bunyan poem at the end of this, when your article stated in #2 above that worship should be focused on God alone. Therefore a paean to The Church, even the True Church and Bride of Christ, seems somewhat out of place???
Looking forward, as always, to your response.
August 13, 2010 at 3:18 pm
phillipmway
God is holy and therefore we should be holy as well. Reverence is a proper attitude of the heart demonstrated by many things including physical posture. This does not mean worship cannot be loud, for we are told to “Shout to the Lord”, but it does mean that worship cannot be disorderly, chaotic, frantic, or obnoxious. All things are to be done decently and in order, we are told, and that “order” is rightly understood to be more than an organized form, but also involves a reverent heart attitude. For worship to be worship in spirit and truth, the heart and lips must match.
Psalm 95:6-7 is not just one way in which we worship God, it is a plea to come and worship and to do so with an understanding of Who He is and who we are. This leads to reverence and humility.
Within the context of the study “Recovering a Right Perspective”, we started with a recovering a right view of God and showed how that helps us have a right view of worship, self, sin, and others. The focus here in that we come to worship God with a right perspective. So it is not only about being humble and reverent, it is about seeing how God’s character and attributes move us to worship Him and exalt Him while humbling ourselves.
Showmanship then is coming to God to show off. It is saying to God or to those watching and worshipping with us that we have something to do to impress Him and them. The spotlight then is firmly fixed on self. Worship that is not full of showmanship will direct people toward God. It will not seem to be a performance trotted out to demonstrate the skill of the worshipper. In fact, sometimes the best we can do is make noise, but to be right, it must at least be a joyful noise.
Yes, we are to offer our best, but it is not so that others are awed by our ability. They should be awed by our God as we magnify and exalt Him.
As for worldliness, we must make sure that our worship conforms to the Word of God. If the world does something that does not make it automatically worldly. That is, just because the world sings does not mean that singing is worldly. We must look at attitudes, associations, and actions. Can we show that what we do in worship is commanded in Scripture? Does it convey a right attitude toward God? Does it cause us to be associated with something scandalous or something that we understand is not holy? Do our actions look like something pagans would do in the worship of their false gods?
In the example of glossolalia (tongues), the abuse happening at Corinth was so far from the true spiritual gift that Paul devoted most of 1 Corinthians 14 to setting the record straight and giving guidelines for using that specific gift. He was writing to correct abuses that had been brought into the churches by pagans who had drug induced trance state experiences in their false worship and thought that was what the gift was in the church – they mimicked their old forms of false worship and Paul gave them a list of at least a dozen guidelines that had to be present for the use of the gift to be legitimate.
As for #7, throughout my time preaching and teaching the Word I have always stressed two things about brokenness. It involves repentance and joy! It is a humble turning from sin and a joyous embrace of Christ. True brokenness always results in joy (Ps 30:5), otherwise it is not brokenness, but only self pity.
As for the poem by Bunyan, a close look at what the church should be and is ultimately gives us a glimpse of the Head of the Church and moves us to worship Him. He has redeemed us to glorify Himself. Looking what the church ought to be should help us regain a right perspective (again the theme of these devotions) so that we see His purpose in salvation. We do not praise the church for being sound. We praise the One who has redeemed her and is making her into His image. Without a right view of Him we will not have a right view of His bride, and too many today would rather love God and hate His bride, when in truth we are His body and if we hate our brother the love of God is not in us (1 John 4:20).
~pastorway
August 14, 2010 at 12:32 pm
Esther
Thanks for the answers, and for reminding what the theme of the series is.
>>Showmanship then is coming to God to show off. It is saying to God or to those watching and worshipping with us that we have something to do to impress Him and them. The spotlight then is firmly fixed on self. Worship that is not full of showmanship will direct people toward God. It will not seem to be a performance trotted out to demonstrate the skill of the worshipper. In fact, sometimes the best we can do is make noise, but to be right, it must at least be a joyful noise.
Yes, we are to offer our best, but it is not so that others are awed by our ability. They should be awed by our God as we magnify and exalt Him.<<
Agreed. So are you saying that if we do our worship correctly, no one will accuse us of showmanship because they were pointed to God enough?
Because that isn't what I've experienced. Seems to me that some people are watching the PEOPLE, the PERFORMERS no matter what the performers are attempting as far as pointing people to God. And they WILL complain that it's "showmanship"…especially if they, themselves are incapable of performing in the same way, or if they are culturally conditioned that some forms of worship are not acceptable, regardless how easy it is to show that scripture condones it.
I have come to wonder if there should never be any kind of solo performance during worship (with the exception, of course, of preaching) because of this issue.
Which would mean that God does not condone the use of the very Art that He created and gifted His children with in corporate worship of Him…
Color me confused. Also frustrated.
Help?
August 14, 2010 at 10:44 pm
phillipmway
It is corporate worship! That is the key. Congregations today are conditioned to come, sit, stand, sing, give, listen, and leave. Worship too often is a spectator sport – and we go to the church that puts on the best show.
Every aspect of worship should serve to exalt God and also to teach His people. We praise, and the very songs we sing are to be used to teach (Eph 5:18-21; Col 3:16-17), the Scripture reading, preaching, ordinances, even fellowship – all of it points to Christ and also teaches His people.
Therefore, we do what we do because the Bible tells us to, to express God’s greatness and worthiness, and to teach each other how to love and obey Him and love and serve each other.
Even a solo performance by the preacher is a corporate activity because we are all to be hearers of the Word, but not hearers only. The preacher preaches and we hear, and do. Beside that, the preacher preaching is clearly given in Scripture as the means that the church is edified and should not be judged as a performance.
As for other “performances”, because worship is corporate most of what we do should be done as a body, as a whole congregation. Solo performances, or even group performances that are not the whole congregation, may not be labelled as inappropriate for worship, but it may be better to be more cautious and avoid those things that weak or immature or ignorant believers may not be able to use for God’s glory. Especially if it divides the congregation, causes envy, strife, or contentions, then clearly we need to be discerning! The weak brother does not dictate how we worship for then we would have no meat and only milk. But if something is questionable, if there is evidence that it will detract from exalting Christ, then we need to ask if it is truly necessary in the corporate meeting of the church.
The bottom line for me in “officiating” worship is to see what we are told to do in the Scriptures and doing it. Hence our liturgy:
http://providencerbc.wordpress.com/2009/01/27/order-of-worship/