How can worship be a life and death matter? This devotion looks at how and why we worship.
Nuggets
- Disciples have to choose to worship God and live accordingly.
- It is all about our frame of mind when we think about death.
- Jesus came to earth to live and die for us, making Him the master of the living and dead.
- Jesus came to be a servant – to pay the penalty for our sins.
Sometimes, we can convince ourselves that worship isn’t important. Or we try to justify our absence in corporate worship by detailing all of the ways we feel it does not fit what God had in mind.
Worship is really important to God. In fact, it is a life and death matter.
Let's Put It into Context
Worship, according to the Holman Bible Dictionary, is “Human response to the perceived presence of the divine, a presence which transcends normal human activity and is holy.”
Resource
According to the Holman Bible Dictionary, the Sabbath is “the day of rest, considered holy to God by His rest on the seventh day after creation and viewed as a sign of the covenant relation between God and His people and of the eternal rest He has promised them.”
Resource
A Consecrated Life
“If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord” (Rom. 14: 8 CSB)
Consecration, according to the Holman Bible Dictionary, “refers to persons or things being separated to or belonging to God.” The Merriam-Webster Dictionary agreed with the being part but focused more on the “made or declared sacred” aspect. It was more of a ceremony.
I can see the why it talks about the process rather than just being a segregated group. We are made separate because we make a conscious decision.
Don’t get me wrong. We make a lot of involuntary decisions.
However, disciples have to choose to worship God and live accordingly. Hull wrote that, “In the Christian idea the whole of those marvellous activities that rise from our will are to be one scene of dedication to God.” When temptation comes, we have to choose to follow God’s laws and commandments.
Those choices show our submission to God no matter what life throws at us. We choose to worship and praise Him.
Burn told us four area that we have to dedicate to God in order to live a consecrated for the Lord.
- Intellectual
- Emotional
- Practical
- Spiritual
Our conscious decisions have to be made after we have looked at what God has done for us and what He will do for us in the future. We have to do that through hearing His Word, reading it, studying it, meditating on it, and memorizing it. All through that, we need to be in prayer, asking God to provide the meaning.
When we make the decision to worship God, we give Him our love make him and receive love, joy, and hope. We live for Him to make the decision to love, to be joyful, and to have hope.
Then we have to tell others. We worship God and live for Him by wanting to sharing that love, joy, and hope.
Bottom line, though, is it is all about the spiritual. Salvation is the deliverance from the consequences of sin. This brings regeneration.
Regeneration is the change in us that God brings about when we go from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive. That regeneration makes us saints.
Saint means holy ones. Holy means to be set apart, perfect, and pure. We are consecrated to be holy.
But what about the dying part? Smith wrote that dying to God means “to have a view to the glory of God in all that pertains to our death.”
It is all about our frame of mind when we think about death. Are we terrified by it? Do we love this life so much that we aren’t looking forward to it?
Or do we trust God that, even in our illness and death, He will be praised? Are we looking forward to spending eternity with Him?
It is all about denying ourselves. “Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me’” (Mt. 16: 24 ESV).
To read devotions in the What Does It Mean series, click the appropriate button below.
Jesus the Conqueror
“Christ died and returned to life for this: that he might be Lord over both the dead and the living” (Rom. 14: 9 CSB)
Jesus came to earth to live and die for us. He did this to save us from our sins.
This makes Jesus the master of the living and dead. Isn’t it comforting that we not only will live with Him forever but also will be reunited with our loved ones?
Huntington explained it this way. He wrote, “He who rose is the Lord of the living and the dead. They are not two families, but one, because they are all in Him, in spite of the transient curtain that hangs between the departed and ourselves — a curtain that probably has its only substance in the eyes of our flesh.”
The living and the dead who believe in Jesus are His church. “The church is Christ’s body, the completion of him who himself completes all things everywhere” (Eph. 1: 23 GNT).
Sibbes explained how Jesus is our Lord. He wrote, Jesus “… is a Lord of the whole man, body and soul. He sits in the throne of conscience. There He prescribes laws to it, pacifies, stablishes, and settles it against all fears. He bows the neck of the inward man, and brings it wholly to be subject to Him.”
But aren’t we normally just concerned about the living? The dead are that — dead and gone.
We think the living are the only ones with a future. Oh, yes. We know the whole heaven thing. But don’t we get narrowly focused on this life and forget there is more?
Nope. Jesus is Lord of the living and the dead. But remember all the different names He had. Mediator, advocate, intercessor, physician, elder brother, forerunner, king, master, head, high priest, captain, and bridegroom.
Yes, there are some royal aspects in there. But Candlish reminded us that Jesus did not live and die to become Lord. “But He died and rose not that He might be different as Lord from what He was as dying and rising. He is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.”
Jesus came to be a servant. He came to pay the penalty for our sins.
Making the Connections
Isn’t God so good at doing that? We think things are going to happen one way.
But no. God takes it and flips it on its ear.
And you know what? It is so much better His way.
It is really comforting that Jesus is Lord of the living and the dead. That really validates our work for Him in this life. It has real meaning.
Making the Connections to Self-Discipline
Non-believers may have difficulty believing the whole resurrection/Lord of the living and dead aspect. Part of the reason is because it is beyond our building blocks of knowledge. Another reason is the focus non-believers have on this world.
We’ve been asking these questions all along so we can prepare for when we are asked. Here is the worksheet again. What would you say about our interactions with others, especially those believe freedom means they do not have to follow God’ laws and commandments?
- What does the Scriptures say?
- What do I believe?
- Why do I believe the same/differently than the Scriptures?
- What are the talking points when witnessing to a non-believer?
Related Links
I have created a worksheet of the questions above. Click on the button below to access it.
How Do We Apply This?
We need to
- Follow God’s laws and commandments.
- Seek Him.
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).
- Learn all that we can about God’s character and how He wants us to live.
- Commit to following His plans for our lives.
- Submit totally to Him.
- Honor God in all we do.
- Live a consecrated life for Him.
- Take our focus off this world and focus on our eternal life.
- Mortify our sins.
- Put an appropriate emphasis on death — not too much, not too little.
- Foster a child-like faith in God.
Mortify means to place a death penalty on our sins.
Walker asked four questions that I thought, though dated and maybe a little off topic, were excellent questions. So, I updated them, and added some to them, and made a worksheet.
- How much authority do we give God in our hearts and lives?
- Other than God’s, whose approval do we seek and why?
- How do we honor God?
- What do we value most?
- What is the quality of our worship to God?
- How consistent are we in our worship?
- What is missing in our worship?
- What will we do to improve our worship?
Resource
Related Links
I have created a worksheet of the questions above. Click on the button below to access it.
How — and how often — we worship God is a good indication of our spiritual condition. What condition we are in is important.
Worship is a life and death matter. When Jesus comes to take us home, we want Him to find us worshiping while we are waiting.
Gracious Heavenly Father. We lift our praises to You. You deserve our praise because You are Sovereign God. Jesus deserves our praises because He willingly became the sacrifice to pay the penalty for our sins. Help us to not only worship You more, but also to worship You more sincerely and correctly. May Jesus find us worshiping You when He comes. Amen.
What do you think?
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