What Is Worship?

00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)

00:00:02.580 | - Welcome back to the Ask Pastor John podcast.

00:00:06.440 | We're gonna end the week with a simple question

00:00:08.100 | and often the best ones are.

00:00:10.120 | Pamela Kahn, a listener to the podcast,

00:00:12.280 | simply asks this, "Pastor John, what is worship?"

00:00:16.980 | - Let's start with the inner essence of worship

00:00:20.760 | and then work out to the more public expressions

00:00:25.060 | of worship services or daily acts of love,

00:00:29.800 | which Paul calls our spiritual worship.

00:00:33.360 | The reason I make the distinction

00:00:35.720 | between the inner essence of worship

00:00:38.060 | and the external expression of it

00:00:40.580 | is because I think Jesus did in Matthew 15, eight.

00:00:44.120 | "This people honors me with their lips,

00:00:48.120 | but their heart is far from me.

00:00:51.180 | In vain do they worship me."

00:00:54.140 | So for Jesus, worship amounts to zero.

00:00:59.080 | That's what vain means.

00:01:00.480 | In vain they worship me.

00:01:01.680 | Zero, it's not worship.

00:01:03.080 | It's a zero worship.

00:01:05.240 | It's zero if there's no heart dimension to it.

00:01:10.240 | So you can do as many deeds as you want

00:01:15.320 | and go to as many church services as you want

00:01:18.720 | and never be worshiping if it's all external

00:01:23.360 | and nothing is happening in your heart toward God.

00:01:26.920 | So all true worship is in essence a matter of the heart.

00:01:31.920 | It's more, more, but it's not less.

00:01:36.380 | So then the question becomes,

00:01:38.440 | what is this inner authentic Godward experience

00:01:42.800 | of the heart that we call the essence of worship?

00:01:47.420 | And Jesus pointed us toward an answer in John 4, 23 and 24

00:01:52.160 | when he said, "The hour is coming and is now here."

00:01:55.240 | He's here.

00:01:56.280 | "When the true worshipers will worship the Father

00:01:59.720 | in spirit and truth,

00:02:03.740 | for the Father is seeking such people to worship him."

00:02:06.600 | God is spirit.

00:02:08.760 | "And those who worship him must worship in spirit

00:02:12.960 | and in truth."

00:02:13.780 | Now notice that worshiping in spirit

00:02:18.780 | is not contrasted with worshiping in the body

00:02:22.360 | or with the body.

00:02:23.880 | Instead, it's put alongside worshiping in truth.

00:02:28.880 | So what would that mean?

00:02:30.520 | That we are to be spirit worshipers,

00:02:33.760 | worshiping from the spirit and truth, driven by truth.

00:02:38.760 | Well, I think the point is that when we worship,

00:02:43.600 | right worship, good worship, pleasing worship

00:02:46.600 | depends on a right mental grasp

00:02:49.840 | of the way God really is, truth.

00:02:53.100 | If we worship an idol of our own creation,

00:02:56.600 | we're not really worshiping God.

00:02:59.220 | And secondly, worship depends on a right spiritual

00:03:03.080 | or emotional or affectional heart grasp

00:03:08.080 | of God's supreme value.

00:03:11.520 | So true worship is based on a right understanding

00:03:15.160 | of God's nature and it is a right valuing of God's worth.

00:03:20.940 | And of course, his worth is infinite.

00:03:25.340 | And thus true worship is a valuing

00:03:28.740 | or a treasuring of God above all things.

00:03:30.820 | That'd be the closest I'm gonna give to a definition,

00:03:32.820 | I suppose.

00:03:33.660 | True worship is a valuing or a treasuring of God

00:03:37.660 | above all things.

00:03:39.060 | So the inner essence of worship is the response

00:03:42.380 | of the heart to the knowledge of the mind

00:03:45.620 | when the mind is rightly understanding God

00:03:49.060 | and the heart is rightly valuing God.

00:03:53.440 | Or you could use words like treasuring or prizing God

00:03:58.440 | or delighting in God or reverencing God

00:04:01.440 | or being satisfied with God.

00:04:03.860 | All of these inner responses to God

00:04:07.640 | reflect his infinite worth and beauty.

00:04:10.200 | And that's what worship was designed to do,

00:04:12.560 | put the supreme worth of God on display.

00:04:15.720 | In fact, the English word worship comes from worth-ship.

00:04:20.720 | That is, worship is showing, displaying the worth of God.

00:04:26.600 | So we worship God authentically when we know him truly

00:04:32.760 | and treasure him duly.

00:04:36.800 | Then the word worship refers to that valuing,

00:04:42.240 | that inner valuing becoming visible in the world

00:04:47.140 | in two basic ways in the New Testament.

00:04:50.480 | One is acts of the mouth, acts of praise and repentance

00:04:55.480 | in worship services or small group gatherings.

00:04:59.280 | And the other is acts of love with the body

00:05:02.300 | and the hands and the feet,

00:05:03.880 | acts of love that show the supreme value of God

00:05:06.480 | by what we're willing to sacrifice for the good of others.

00:05:09.400 | And I get those two things from Hebrews 13:15-16.

00:05:14.400 | Listen to this amazing summary.

00:05:18.600 | It says, "Through him then," through Christ,

00:05:22.240 | "let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God,

00:05:28.120 | that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.

00:05:36.240 | Do not neglect to do good, to share what you have,

00:05:40.960 | for such sacrifices are pleasing to God."

00:05:45.960 | So those two verses begin and end with the term sacrifice.

00:05:49.440 | And of course, the sacrifice is a echo

00:05:52.280 | from the Old Testament sacrifices,

00:05:54.600 | which was the center of the worship

00:05:56.720 | and was to display the value of God

00:05:59.160 | as we gave up a bull or a goat

00:06:02.020 | and showed that God is precious to us

00:06:03.980 | and we value his redemption

00:06:06.480 | that comes to us through the sacrifice

00:06:08.480 | and now through the sacrifice of Christ.

00:06:10.560 | So through Christ,

00:06:12.120 | two things become worshipful sacrifices in our life.

00:06:16.600 | The fruit of lips that acknowledge his name,

00:06:19.220 | that's worship services and singing and praying

00:06:21.920 | and repenting and confessing.

00:06:25.060 | And secondly, the fruit of deeds.

00:06:28.520 | Don't neglect to do good, share what you have,

00:06:31.240 | such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

00:06:34.560 | So both of those are acts of worship.

00:06:38.860 | You see it again in Romans 12, one.

00:06:41.520 | "I appeal to you therefore, brothers,

00:06:43.060 | by the mercies of God,

00:06:44.100 | present your bodies as a living sacrifice,

00:06:47.240 | holy and acceptable,

00:06:48.680 | which is your spiritual service of worship."

00:06:50.520 | So all of our bodily life done in love for others

00:06:55.480 | and in reliance upon God,

00:06:57.260 | display the worth of God above all things

00:07:00.600 | and make us worshipers in our daily life.

00:07:03.580 | So here's my summary.

00:07:04.640 | The inner essence of worship is to know God truly

00:07:09.880 | and then respond from the heart to that knowledge

00:07:12.760 | by valuing God, treasuring God,

00:07:15.500 | prizing God, enjoying God,

00:07:17.480 | being satisfied with God above all earthly things.

00:07:21.720 | And then that deep, restful, joyful satisfaction in God

00:07:26.860 | overflows in demonstrable acts of praise from the lips

00:07:31.860 | and demonstrable acts of love

00:07:35.280 | in serving others for the sake of Christ.

00:07:39.040 | - Beautiful.

00:07:40.200 | That's a robust survey of a theme at the very core

00:07:42.280 | of why God made us and what desiring God is all about.

00:07:45.060 | Thank you, Pastor John.

00:07:46.420 | We are gonna break for the weekend now.

00:07:48.380 | You can look back on the episodes from the week,

00:07:50.200 | search our archive of hundreds of episodes

00:07:52.100 | that we have released in this podcast to date,

00:07:54.620 | and you can download our podcast app,

00:07:56.500 | subscribe to it,

00:07:57.340 | or even send us a precise question of your own.

00:07:59.540 | Go to desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.

00:08:04.180 | Well, Pastor John has a new book that launches next week.

00:08:06.860 | It's titled "Living in the Light, Money, Sex, and Power."

00:08:10.660 | It's a noteworthy book

00:08:11.780 | and it will be our theme all next week.

00:08:14.220 | And on Monday, I'll ask him about money, sex, and power

00:08:16.500 | and what makes him think of these things

00:08:17.980 | in a completely new light.

00:08:19.860 | We'll talk about that.

00:08:20.700 | Don't miss it.

00:08:21.660 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.

00:08:23.120 | I'll see you on Monday.

00:08:24.260 | (mouse clicking)

00:08:27.020 | (upbeat music)

00:08:29.600 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

What Is Worship?

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