As a child growing up in America and attending a Christian church we were taught you worship God by going to church on Sunday morning. That meant going early to attend Sunday school class with your particular age group followed by the regular church service where a few hymns were sung, the Pastor gave his sermon, and then we closed out the Sunday service with a prayer. Three hours each Sunday morning we worshipped God and we were done by noon. God was taken care of so we were good for the week. That was our idea of worshipping God, which was reinforced by the words and actions of our Pastor and deacons in the church. We thought at the time we were doing good by God. We thought God would be proud of us for spending three hours a week worshipping him.
Psalm 29:2 – Give unto the Lord the glory due to His name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.
John 4:23-24 – (Jesus speaking) – But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers 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.
Christians have been indoctrinated into accepting the traditional “church model” of worship. Christians have been conditioned to worship God in a particular way that is beneficial to the church. We are led to believe we must go to a building in a physical location owned by the church on a particular day and time in order to properly worship God. Christians are made to feel guilty if they miss church as if somehow they have disappointed God in some way. Church leaders, of course, do nothing to lessen this perception because it’s critical for them to keep the members coming to the church and giving their tithes so that the interest can be paid the loans the church didn’t need in the first place. Churches have to go in debt so they can build bigger buildings and more buildings because Pastors were taught that bigger is always better. Instead of out tithes directly funding good works that actually help people most of our donations wind us as interest income for local banks. As it turns out, churches don’t manage their finances any better than we do and most of us are heavily in debt.
Revelation 4:11 – You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created.
Psalm 95:6 – Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our maker.
Revelation 1:6 – And He has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Let me remind you the “church” is the body of believers and not a building or a particular denomination. Each individual believer is the church and your body is the temple of God. Jesus Christ is the author and finisher of our faith and as our high priest he sits at the right hand of God making intercession for the saints. At the moment of salvation the Holy Spirit of God indwells us forever. At that point we can worship God anywhere we are and any time we want. We are the temple, God is inside us, and we can worship God spirit to Spirit as God intended. In the first century church believers met in small groups in each other’s homes to have fellowship and share the teachings of Jesus. That was worshipping God just as much as attending a service at a 15,000 member megachurch. There is nothing wrong with the “church model” of Christian worship but it’s not the only way to worship God and it’s not the best way.
1 Timothy 4:13 – Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.
1 Timothy 4:6 – If you instruct the brethren in these things (the word of God), you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished in the words of faith and of the good doctrine which you have carefully followed.
2 Peter 2:9 – But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
We need to define what it means to worship God so we’re all on the same page. The dictionary definition of worship is to show great admiration and respect for someone and when used in a religious context this is expressed through praise and prayer to God. The New Testament was originally written in Greek where the translated English word “worship” had three different meanings that were similar depending on how the verb was used. In the Greek, worship could mean, “to look upon with awe,” or, “to bow down to in deep reverence,” or, “to render service for.” We should note here that the Bible constantly tells us to “fear” the Lord which in the biblical context means we are to look upon God with, “respect, awe and deep reverence.” We’re to maintain our “fear” of the Lord through daily Bible reading and prayer. The definition of fear and worship are almost identical. When we “fear” the Lord it’s the same as worshipping God. It’s also clear to me worship is not something we do three hours a week. Worship is an attitude, a state of mind where we’re in tune with God, where we’re in proper fellowship with God and God is pleased with us. There is nothing more important on this earth than pleasing God. When we abide in Christ we are “worship”. Worship is something we “become”, something we “are” all the time.
Ephesians 5:19 – Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.
Colossians 3:16 – Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
2 Timothy 3:15 – And that from childhood you (Timothy) have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
God never does anything without a reason. God made the angels in heaven to worship him. God made man to worship him, first on earth, and then later on in heaven once we’ve accepted God’s grace unto salvation. God gave us a physical body as the vessel through which we are to worship God. Scripture says we were fearfully and wonderfully made. Why does God say this? God never wastes words and every word in Scripture conveys information for the spiritually perceptive. Physically we’re “wonderfully” made because the human body is a marvel that only God could make. No other adjective is needed.
Psalm 139:14 – I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well.
If God were only talking about our physical bodies he would have stopped with the adjective “wonderfully” because that says it all. When God continued on in the Scripture to also describe us as “fearfully” made he has gone beyond the physical man to describe the spiritual man. Spiritually we’re “fearfully” made because our bodies are the instrument through which we worship God by showing the awe, deep respect and reverence God deserves. To “fear” the Lord is to worship God. Most people don’t catch the double meaning intended by this scripture. Putting “fearfully” ahead of “wonderfully” in this Scripture tells you God’s priority. God gives us our bodies primarily for the purpose of worshipping him. Man is worship the same way God is love.
Matthew 22:37 – You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.
Hebrews 1:6 – Let all the angels of God worship Him.
As I mentioned in a previous blog, our incredible mind is our “worship organ” through which we worship our Creator. Look at what “is” and work backward to determine the cause or the reason. Scientists know that human beings have a bigger brain than we need as a species to survive and flourish. Why is that? We also know that humans are only using 10% of their brain capacity. How is that possible? Nonbelievers will never figure this out. It’s like giving a monkey a football and telling him to go play the game. God’s Word says the Holy Scriptures are foolishness to the nonbeliever because Satan is the god of this world and he has blinded the nonbeliever so that they cannot see the truth of God without help from a believer or God himself.
John 9:31 – Now we know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is a worshipper of God and does His will, He hears him.
God gave us a bigger brain than we needed for survival because that’s where our eternal spirit is located. The Brain is also where the Holy Spirit resides. The brain is the link between the physical world and the spiritual world. The brain is the conduit through which we talk to God and God talks to us. The brain is what we use to worship God. We don’t need a bigger brain physically but we do spiritually. When we get to heaven our puny 10% capacity brain will not be up to the task of worshipping God properly when standing alongside the angels of heaven. God has thought of everything. God will give us back the 90% of our brain capacity we currently aren’t using because of Adam’s fall from grace in the Garden of Eden. With 100% of our brain capacity restored we will then be able to worship God properly. The theory of evolution is linear and it’s impossible to over build or have excess capacity. The only possible explanation for us having a bigger brain than we need and having 90% of our brain capacity currently not being used is that we were made that way by God.
1 Chronicles 16:29 – Give to the Lord the glory due His name; bring an offering and come before Him. Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.
If we abide in Christ and also in God’s Word our minds are in a constant state of worship. A Christian who obeys God and offers up prayers to God and the praise of our lips worships God for his honor and glory. A Christian who is living the life God intended is a walking, talking, worship machine 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The effective Christian does not need to go to church to worship God because we are the church and we carry our worship of God with us wherever we go, to the glory of God.
Ephesians 6:18 – Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.
Philippians 4:6 – Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.
The Bible tells us we are to worship God for his work in creation and for his redemptive work in saving our souls. We are to worship God through obedience to his commands, through prayer and through song. We worship God every time we give a sacrifice to the Lord in the form of our money, our good works and our time. One of the definitions of worship in the original Greek was, “to render service to,” Every time we serve the Lord in any capacity it is worshipping God.
2 Timothy 2:15 – Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
Every time we read the Bible, study the Bible or share the Bible with others we are worshipping God. You worship God simply by living a faithful Christian life to the best of your ability. If you’re a Christian don’t ever let anyone tell you you’re not worshipping God. If you’re a believer then you’re saved unto eternal life. If you have eternal life then you’re a child of God. If you’re a child of God your life is an instrument of worship to God the Father. Everything we have belongs to God and everything we do for the Lord is our reasonable service because God has given us life.
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.
Hebrews 13:15-16 – Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.