PP  Importance of worship to the life of the Christian

Question: Is worship important to the life of the Christian? The answer to this question is not one of method or ritual. I am not asking ‘Is it important how we worship?’ I am asking. ‘Is it important to the life of the Christian to worship God, in whatever form that may take?’

    Even a cursory search of Scripture reveals the great importance of worship in the life of God’s people.

PP  1. We were created to worship God (Gen. 3:8-9; Rom. 1:25; Eph. 1:12)
PP  Read: Gen. 3:8-9; Rom. 1:25; Eph. 1:12

Question: What does it mean that we were created to worship God?
    In Genesis 1 to 3, we are told that God created Adam and Eve and placed them into the garden. After they had sinned, God, walking in the garden, called out to them, ‘Where are you?’ God sought a meeting with Adam and Eve, his people. Commentators seem to agree that it was God’s habit to walk in the garden to meet with Adam and Eve.

    Maybe a daily chat between the Almighty and his creatures was customary. The term walking is subsequently used of God’s presence in the Israelite tabernacle.  Such, we are led to understand, was Yahwe’s (God’s) daily practice

    This habit of talking with God in the garden intimates that Adam and Eve were created to spend time worshipping God their creator.

    There is a general idea is that there are two kinds of people: those who worship and those who don’t.

Question: What do you think? Is this true?

    While this seems obvious, it is not true. The assumption is that people can do without  God or that God doesn’t exist. However, Paul, in Romans 1:25 points out that while some people may not worship God, they still worship…something or someone else.

PP Read. Romans 1:25

    Joseph Fitzmyer commenting on this text wrote
        Thus idolatry, the consequence of the failure to honor God duly, becomes the source of immorality. It is the denial of the truth that should have been obvious to          them.

    ‘Should have been obvious to them.’ 

Question: What does this mean? What is it suggesting?

    Indicates that there is something innate in humanity that tells us to worship God. But, we  suppress it or worship something else, and that is idolatry. George Whitefield taught that worship is a natural expression of being a created being.  

    In the heart of every true Believer there is a heavenly tendency, a divine  attraction, which as sensibly draws him to converse with God.
 

What Whitefield meant by  ‘converse’ is worship: to meet with God and respond to His self-revelation.
   
The Shorter Catechism of the Westminster Confession of Faith affirms the reason for our creation when it asks the question, “What is the chief end of man?’ Man’s chief end is to  glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever.  

PP  2. We were chosen to worship God (1 Peter 2:9)
PP Read: 1 Peter 2:9

    Not only were we created to worship, we were chosen to be priests, whose principal  purpose in life is to worship God. In the Old Testament priesthood was the right of a chosen few in Israel of the tribe of Levi. However, in the New Testament, though Jesus Christ, we have all become priests of God, created and called to worship Him.

PP  3. We are called to worship God (Ps. 95:6; Ex. 3:12)
PP Read: Ps. 95:6; Ex. 3:12

Question: Have you ever sensed the call of God to worship Him?

    The Psalmist, speaking for God, calls the people of God to come and worship Him. This certainly is not the only time in Israel’s history that God called his people to worship Him. In Exodus 3:12, God tells Moses that He will deliver God’s people from slavery in Egypt. When He has done this Moses is to lead the people to worship God at a specific mountain.
   
PP  4. We are commanded to worship God (Rev. 14:6-7; Ex. 20:1-11)
PP Read: Rev. 14:6-7

Question: Is there a time when we should worship God if only because he commands us to?

    Because God has created humanity to worship Him, one day, God will command all his creation to bow before Him in worship. What God, in Rom. 1, allowed as false worship, he will no longer tolerate. All will do as they were created to do when God commands worship from all humanity.

    In the Book of Exodus, God gives the Law to Israel. The first four laws are  commands concerning the people’s relationship to their God; this relationship was the basis for their worship.

PP  5. Worship is revelation of God (Isa. 6:1-4)
PP Read: Isa. 6:1-4

Question: How does God reveal himself to us in Worship?

    Worship is important because through it, God reveals Himself to His people. Through worship, the Christian gets to know their Creator. Isaiah’s experience is not intended to be a norm for our experience of God in worship today. However, I believe we can expect  similar experiences of knowing God through His self-revelation as we come before Him in worship.
 
PP  6. Worship is our response to God (Isa. 6:5-8)
PP Read: Isa. 6:5-8

    When God reveals something of Himself to us, He expects a response.

Question: What do you think about this? Have you found it to be true?
                  What are the implications?

    Throughout Scripture we see example after example of God revealing Himself to  individuals for the purpose of eliciting a specific response from them. Worship is     important because it gives God’s people an opportunity to interact with and serve their God who has revealed a bit of who He is to them. Commenting on
     Isaiah 6:5-8, Calvin said:
        And it is necessary that the godly should be affected in this manner, when the Lord gives them tokens of his presence, that they may be brought low and utterly         confounded. 

    Calvin states that when God manifests his presence to us, we will respond. This was true for Isaiah and for the modern Christian as well.

PP  7. God seeks true worshippers (Jn. 4:23)
PP Read: Jn. 4:23

    Worship is important because God is looking for people to truly worship Him. God, the creator and sustainer of the universe, seeks worship from His people.
    Is this a norm for all Christians for all times, yes!
   
Ultimately though, worship is important because God is worthy our worship. There is no higher reason. (Rev. 4:11; 5:12; Ps. 18:3) But Scripture gives us additional reasons or purposes for worship which gives weight to its importance in the life of the believer.

PP  Worship is important  because:

PP    8. It brings glory to the name of God (Isa. 42:8; Ps. 29:1-2, Ps. 105:1-5; Ps. 108:1-5)

PP    9. It edifies the body (1 Cor. 14 )

PP    10. It builds fellowship and communion among the body
        (Ps. 95:6f; Heb. 10:22-25; Acts 2:42-47; Eph.. 4:2-6)

PP    11. It is a way to serve God (Rom. 12:1; James 1:27)

When you take into consideration all of the above, it is not difficult to draw the conclusion that worship is, as Karl Barth put it, “The church’s worship is the Opus Dei, the work of God, which is carried out for its own sake 

The first four of the Ten Commandments, the Great Commandment to love the Lord your God, God seeking worshippers and God calling us to be priests who worship Him all stress the great importance of worship in the life of the Christian and in God’s Church.

If worship is a meeting between God and His people where God reveals something of Himself and His people respond, than all of Christian ministry is a response to God’s self revelation as we meet with Him in worship.

Isaiah, responded to God’s self-revelation by saying ‘Here am I, send me.’ And we respond with acts of service and mission because God first met us and revealed His desire for our service.

PP Quote: W.T. Conner put it this way: The business then, of the church is not evangelism, not missions, nor benevolence; it is worship. The worship of God in Christ should be at the center of all else that the church does. It is the mainspring of all the activity of the  church.

Question: Do you agree?
            Is the principal function and duty of the Christian and church to worship God?

What Conner seems to be saying is that while some may insist that evangelism, world missions,  or social justice issues, are the reason the church exists, the idea or passion for these important ministries in and through the church comes when people meet with God in worship. In their meeting, God revealed His heart to them, their action is the response to God’s self-revelation.  In other words,

PP  What we do in service for God is always a result of our worship of God.