Don’t Waste Your Worship
ajcarter | October 21, 2009In 1Samuel 4 we are told that the Ark of Covenant was lost from Israel. The Ark represented the presence and the power of God in the midst of the Nation. The Ark centered the worship of God. When the Ark was lost, the Bible says, “The glory has departed from Israel” (1Sam. 4:22). The Bible also reveals that the Ark was lost from the center of Israel’s worship for twenty years (1Sam. 7:2). For twenty years Israel worshiped without the glory of God. For twenty years, it could be argued, they wasted their worship until David’s desire for proper worship moved him to restore the Ark to it’s rightful place (Psalm 132:5-8).
Don’t Waste Your Worship is a serious and sobering call I experienced as we concluded our sermon series on The Songs of Ascent. This is not a call to a certain liturgical tradition or a particular genre of music. However, it is a call to contemplate what the Bible says about the worship of God by his people, and how our worship may be in vain if we are not practicing God’s presence in heart and mind. Let us remember Israel and not waste our worship:
- By having lips and hearts divided. And the Lord said: “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men” (Isa. 29:13). Jesus quoted this verse in Matt. 15:8-9. We must remember that while we look at each others outward appearances, God sees the heart. While we see people raise their hands and lift their voices, God knows the motivation for raised hands and lifted voices.
- By not acknowledging your need for repentance. “Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven – for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little loves little”(Luke 7:47). Jesus reminds us that those who have been forgiven much worship best. In worship we don’t just talk about sin. In worship we don’t just talk about forgiveness. Worship is wonderful and God glorifying when we acknowledge both the depth of our sin and magnitude of God grace in forgiveness. Or as Jesus says, “…to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.”
- By not worshiping with mind, body, and emotions. And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself ” (Luke 10:27). To worship God is to acknowledge his greatness with everything he has given to us. Has he given you a mind? You should love him and worship Him with it. Has he given you hands, then you should raise them and use them to serve others (Ps. 134:2). Has he given you emotions? You should rejoice with and an inexpressible joy! (1Pet. 1:8).
- By not worshiping in Spirit and truth. “God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and truth” (John 4:24). True worship is spiritual worship. It is spiritual sacrifice. When David sinned he declared the true sacrifices in which God delights is not bulls or goats, or even your money or your time. Rather, “the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit and a contrite heart.” Spiritual worship is true worship because at the center is the God who is Spirit and Truth.
- By not singing with understanding. “What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also; I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also” (1Cor. 14:15). Paul, told the Corinthians that ecstatic and out-of-control emotionalism in worship is useless. In 1Cor. 14 the point is clear, praying, singing, and preaching with clarity and understanding is to be preferred to all others.
- By not anticipating God’s presence. Yet you are holy, enthroned (dwell in) on the praises of Israel (Psalm 22:3). The old KJV say, “thou inhabiteth the praises of Israel.” When we worship God, God promises to be present. The Bible says that when we draw near to Him, God delights to draw near to us (James 4:8). Hebrews 2:11-12 tells us that Christ is not ashamed to call us brothers and sisters; in fact he delights to share our hymnbook and even sing the praises of His own name. Do you look forward to meeting with God every week? Do you anticipate His welcoming presence?
- By not considering the holiness of God. Among those who draw near to me I will be sanctified, and before all the people I will be glorified (Lev. 10:3). When we come to God we come to He who is holy. Our God is a consuming fire. In worship He is not to be toyed with, nor is His holiness to be dismissed.
- By boasting in anything other than the cross. “Far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Gal. 6:10). We must be willing to do as the puritan, Thomas Watson has said, and allow our names and gifts to be eclipsed so that God’s glory can increase. We must be willing to allow others to see Christ, and ourselves to at times go unnoticed. True worship makes much of cross, by which our redemption is accomplished.
- By not relishing the communion of the saints. Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together! (Psalm 34:3) Worship is not just an individual endeavor. You are not to come to worship, to sit in the corner and commune with God on your own. No! Now is the time for the encouragement of the saints. Now is the time for the body of Christ to come together and with one voice, like the saints in heaven, make a joyful noise, as the sound of mighty rushing waters. Heaven is not a lonely place, and neither should be church. I come looking for you and you should come looking for me!
- By not longing for heaven. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality (1Cor. 15:53). With the called assembly in mind, let us be reminded that true worship is a foretaste of heaven. Corporate worship should make us long for heaven. There is a rapture in the Spirit and a Communion with Christ that though experienced, the fullness of which is hindered because of these earthly tabernacles. We long for the day when we shall see Him and know Him face to face.
- By not knowing Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come unto the Father except through me” (John 14:6). Here is the crux the matter. All worship apart from Jesus is wasted. All worship apart from the crucified, risen, and exalted Lord Jesus Christ is empty, useless, vanity of vanities. To worship God properly is to worship Him in and through Jesus Christ. The first act of worship today is to acknowledge that Jesus is Lord. It is to acknowledge that Jesus is the glory of God unto the salvation of the world. In other words, without the gospel there is no worship!
