I’ve seen a quote circling around my social media lately about a person who didn’t think that the worship service was any good and told that to Francis Chan. He responded, that’s okay because “we weren’t worshiping you.” I always chuckle when I read this for two reasons: first, it hits close to home and secondly, he is absolutely right.
The mission statement for the worship ministry at CBC is To authentically worship God in Spirit and in Truth. We do this by focusing solely on God and eliminating distractions. Our worship is for God and God alone. It is not based on what we can get out of it, but on who God is—past, present, and future. However, we can still find ourselves wondering, “what do we get out of worship?” Scripture demonstrates that when we worship God and focus on Him alone, He blesses us with satisfying joy.
The first step of worship is to obey God’s commands (Deut. 11:13 – 14). We tend to battle this simple directive but obeying His commands reveals the importance we place on His Word (Psalm 119). To worship is to obey. When we do, we find that God blesses us with satisfying joy (Psalm 103:17-22).
The second step of worship is to love the Lord (Deut. 11:13 – 14). Jesus command us to love God with everything we are and our neighbor as ourselves (Matt. 22:34 – 40). Love is more than a feeling, it is a choice we make to ascribe worth to another person. This inward reality must be shown outwardly. Tied to the first step, we show love by obeying God’s commandments (1 John 5:2). To worship is to love. When we do blesses us with satisfying joy (1 John 3:1).
The third and final step of worship is to serve God with all our heart and soul (Deut. 11:13 – 14). Serving God is shown through evangelism (Matt. 28:19 – 20) and building up the body (Eph. 4:11 – 16). Paul connects worship with service so intimately that, in Romans 12:1, the word used for worship also means “service” in Greek. When we understand worship in this way, we see that it goes beyond the 30 minutes of singing on Sunday morning and encompasses everything we do. To worship is to serve.
When we do, God blesses us with satisfying joy (Luke 1:74). When we focus on ourselves in worship, our joy will be shallow and subject to the whims of our human nature. Instead, we must focus solely on glorifying God alone in worship by obeying, loving, and serving. In turn, God blesses us with satisfying joy.
Pastor Jesse