Worship has to have the right motivation and response to make it spiritual worship. This devotional reading looks at that from which our worship grows and how it affects our reactions.
Nuggets
- We must have faith to engage in spiritual worship for spiritual ends.
- Our worship needs to affect us so much that we have a physical reaction.
- When our motivations are wrong, we need to correct them to focus on God.
Spiritual worship must be conducted with the right motivation and posture. We’ve talked about having the right motivation already in this study.
Let’s see what else Charnock has to say.
Let's Put It into Context
To read devotions in the Habitual Holiness of Heart and Life theme, click the button below.
Here is a running list of nuggets for the theme.
Devotions in the Finding Jesus through Spiritual Worship study
Here is a running list of nuggets for the study.
The foundation of this series is Menander and Charnock’s Spiritual Worship.
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Performed with Spiritual Ends
“And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him” (Heb. 11: 6 NLT)
We must have faith to engage in spiritual worship for spiritual ends.
Spiritual worship is nothing without faith. Faith is a gift from God and a work of the Spirit that enhances the conviction that the doctrines revealed in God’s Word are true, even if we do not understand all aspects of them, a belief which impacts our lives and distinguishes us from others.
Glossary
Our worship has to have an object on which to focus that worship. That focus has to be God to make it spiritual worship. That means God is our motivation.
Our faith is only as strong as our understanding of the object in which we are putting our faith. In this case, our faith is hindered by our lack of understanding of Who God is.
Noel said that this way. He wrote, “Our comprehension of the object will always be the limit of our faith; and this faith will diminish or augment in the very degree in which our perception is clear or confused.”
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I know. I keep saying that we are never completely going to understand God.
But we do have to understand what is revealed to us. Things are revealed to us by revelation of the Holy Spirit, God’s Word, and others.
Why can’t we understand God? That is easy – sin. Sin is not believing that Jesus is our Savior to save us from our actions that disobey God and break one of His reasonable, holy, and righteous laws and commandments, goes against a purpose He has for us, or follows Satan’s promptings.
- Holy means to be set apart — because of our devotion to God — to become perfect, and morally pure while possessing all virtues and to serve and worship God.
- Perfection means we reach a state of maturity because the combination of the spiritual graces form, when all are present, spiritual wholeness or completeness — holy, sanctified, and righteous.
- Spiritual graces are worldly morals that have been submitted to God to further His kingdom instead of enhancing this world.
- Sanctified means to be set free from sin.
- Pure means not being sinful or having the stain of sin.
- Virtues are standards of moral excellence.
- Perfection means we reach a state of maturity because the combination of the spiritual graces form, when all are present, spiritual wholeness or completeness — holy, sanctified, and righteous.
- Righteous means we are free from sin because we are following God’s moral laws.
Glossary
Sin has skewed our judgment. It has taken our motivation off God and put it on the world.
That negatively affects our worship.
Instead, we want to have confidence in God. We should want to habitually please Him and show our faith by worshiping Him.
Think about it this way. Worship has to come out of our faith. Faith has to be about God, or it isn’t faith.
If God isn’t the center of our faith, God isn’t the center of our worship.
Our faith will start out the size of a mustard seed, but God doesn’t want it to camp out there. He wants it to grow.
That is the whole point of sanctification.
God takes us from where to are to where He wants us to be – like Him.
Raised Arms at God’s Glory
“You are worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power. For you created all things, and they exist because you created what you pleased” (Rev. 4: 11 NLT)
Our worship needs to affect us so much that we have a physical reaction.
I get it. Not all of us are raise-our-arms-clap-or-even-shout-Amen people.
I was at Praise Team practice one night and was told we were going to practice our clapping. I had a problem with that. I don’t like to sing and clap when I am up front.
The microphone and/or stand get in my way. When the mic is in my hand, it is hard to clap. I almost knocked over the stand once trying to clap around it.
It doesn’t work for me.
The biggest problem I had was my reaction to the music was being forced on me. I was told that this one way was the only acceptable reaction I could have.
That really didn’t work for me because that isn’t God’s way. He let us choose our response to His Word. We can accept it or reject it.
True, there are consequences for rejecting God. The point is that we have to respond somehow.
What was my response to the worship leader when he said, “Elaine, clap.” I said, “No.”
We immediately went to the next song.
God doesn’t force us to accept Him any more than He forces us to clap when we sing.
Our motivations and posture, though, have to be focused on God. We have to be all in when we worship Him.
It is a little more than that. We have to have some reaction.
Let’s hook this to the last section. Tillotson said that faith comes out of our apprehensions of God.
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We would term apprehensions as fear of the Lord. We just talked a devotion or two ago that that means we hold God in awe.
God is expecting that we get something out of our worship. This something has to draw us closer to Him.
Worship to Gain, not Honor
“You have said, ‘What’s the use of serving God? What have we gained by obeying his commands or by trying to show the LORD of Heaven’s Armies that we are sorry for our sins?” (Mal. 3: 14 NLT)
When our motivations are wrong, we need to correct them to focus on God.
Too many times, the motivation of our worship is to receive what we think we should gain.
This isn’t a prosperity gospel where disciples all become rich and have happy, peaceful lives. It isn’t a humanitarian gospel where we are correcting all the social ills of the world.
It is a gospel where we accept Jesus as our Savior and Redeemer. We worship God because He is Sovereign God, Creator and Sustainer of this universe.
By doing that, we gain eternal life.
Croxton had some pretty strong words to those who look to gain something other than a relationship with God. He said that those who had something other than God as their motivation “… had departed from the service of God.”
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To me, departed means they made the initial confession of faith, but something went wrong. They turned away from God.
No, I don’t know how all this fits in with once-saved-always-saved. Figuring that out is above my pay grade.
It does fit in, I think, with the Parable of the Sower. “Other seed fell among rocks. It began to grow, but the plant soon wilted and died for lack of moisture. Other seed fell among thorns that grew up with it and choked out the tender plants” (Lk. 8: 6-7 NLT).
Jesus said that there can be an initial acceptance – both seeds grew – but an eventual turning away – both seeds died.
What I can figure out in all of that is our worship has to be sincere because our faith is sincere. We have to diligently seek God and worship Him and only Him.
Making the Connections
When we worship God as a response to our faith in Him we do gain. Croxton gave us a good list, all of which we have talked about over the last four years.
We gain honor when we give God honor. We are elevated to be like Him, not to be like the world.
Worshiping God brings us contentment and joy. It takes away our fears, especially those of death.
That is because we gain eternal life with God.
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The end goal of worship is to walk with God. Walking with God means we are humble, reverent, teachable servants of God.
How Do We Apply This?
- Seek God.
- Worship only Sovereign God.
- Don’t retire from faith.
- Don’t return to our sinful ways.
Searching for and Seeking God
Hearing His Word (Rom. 10: 17)
Reading His Word (Rev. 1: 3)
Praying to Him (Heb. 4: 16)
Studying His Word (Ac. 17: 11)
Meditating on His Word (Ps. 1: 1-2)
Memorizing His Word (Ps. 119: 11)
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Father God. We worship You because You are worthy, and we are not. We come to You in gratitude and praise. We humbly come with hands raised high.
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
What do you think?
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