Focus: True Worship

Text: Jh.4:24

"God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth."

True worship is by nature carried out in the spirit, not in the flesh, and truth sets the standard for it. That is to say that we cannot worship God in our own terms or as we want. God says to Moses, "Take off your shoes." If in that moment Moses decides to still wear them, he has gone against the standard of true worship. So, obedience is fundamental to the truly worship of God. Let me give us three ways that we are required to truly worship God. They are:

1. By way of our lips

God desires that we honor Him with our lips. Salvation affects every facet of our lives - body, soul and spirit. The writer of Hebrews says, "By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our LIPS giving thanks to his name" (Heb.13:15). Isaiah declares, "And in that day thou shalt SAY, O LORD, I will praise thee… And in that day shall ye SAY, Praise the LORD, call upon his name, declare his doings among the people, make mention that his name is exalted" (Isa.12:1,4). The psalmist says, "Let the redeemed of the LORD SAY so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy" (Ps.107:2). With our lips we tell of God's goodness and testify of the saving grace of Christ.

2. By way of our life

God desires that we lead a life that is pleasing to Him in all things, and it is a life in which we do not keep or tolerate idols. John writes, "Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen" (1Jh.5:21). Idols are things that take our attention away from God, things that usurp God's place or position in our lives, and loyalties that are in conflict with our cardinal or fundamental loyalty to God. A life of faith devotes and reserves the primary and ultimate place to God alone. It is a life that puts God first and gives Him the first place in all things and at all times, and it is really the way of wisdom to put first things first.

Paul tells us something very crucial about himself, "I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need" (Phil.4:12). Paul is saying in essence, 'I am where I can live with, or live without plenty. I am not a slave to anything. I have no place for idols. I am a free man in Christ.'

3. By way of our love-offering

God desires and requires that we worship Him with our lips, our lives, and also, with our love-offerings. Worship to God is incomplete without our willingness to freely release our resources to Him, and to do exactly, we must first and foremost yield ourselves unreservedly to God. Writing about the Macedonian church, Paul says, "And this they did, not as we hoped, but FIRST gave their own selves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God" (2Cor.8:5). True giving begins first with the giving of ourselves to the Lord. Our hearts and treasures belong only to God.

God gave Himself to us by giving His only Son, for God was in Christ, reconciling us to Himself. Christ gave Himself for us by dying on the cross. The Holy Spirit in us is God's gift to us. The Spirit in turn pours into our hearts the love of God, and makes available to us His own gifts. God has nothing else to withhold from us, having given His only Son for us. It is written that God will not withhold any good thing from those who love Him. God and gold do not engage in a battle for supremacy in a heart that is already captivated by God's glory and captured by His love. Our pocket and cheque book will gladly do the bidding of a heart that is unreservedly consecrated to the Lord.

Our hearts are connected to our treasures. Christ says that our hearts are where our treasures are. Commit and invest your treasure in God's business, and I know for sure that you will never regret it, not in this life, nor in the life to come. Our Lord has already instructed us to heap up treasures for ourselves in heaven, and I am absolutely convinced that whatever is kept in God's hands is safe forever.

I therefore passionately appeal to us: let us worship God truly with our lips, our life, and our love-offering. It is the right thing to do, for God is deserving of true worship.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter