‘As Jesus Is, So Are We’ / Grace Leadership Institute (GLI) February session
Facilitated by Pastor Joedy
The 3 Important Pillars of a Disciple: Prayer, The Word, and Worship
3rd Pillar: Worship
The Battle Is The Lord’s!
We’re brought to the story of King Jehoshaphat – the same story, the same scripture shared in one of the very first sermons I ever heard on TV. Charles Stanley was talking about how the said king was under threat of attack by 3 nations, and how he was directed to face the vast, united army head on, with the musicians and worshippers at the front line. They sang, and they sang ‘The Lord is good, and His love and mercy endures forever.’ There’s a link between God’s love and worship. When we sing, we would automatically be revelling in God’s love.
/*Update 022023: I preached on Jehoshaphat in yesterday’s message, entitled: Moving Forward, Without Hindrance; I shared that if there are times that we are forced to move, we would probably do well to follow as the Holy Spirit guided the king – to face the overwhelming army head-on, and to worship as they went. We worship as we move. */
“I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.“
John 17:4
In Christ’s finished work, God is glorified. The works borne from Christ’s finished work also have their hand in glorifying God.
“But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”John 4:23-24
Around this time Pastor Joedy shares: We were made to worship – it’s in our nature to adore and to be in awe of something. It’s in worship that we find satisfaction in life… And if we aren’t worshipping God, we’re certainly worshipping something else, automatically. And take note, when we worship God, Christ points out so subtly that we automatically acknowledge Him as our Father – And He is beyond mere body and soul, but Spirit as well; therefore, our worship is not something that is on and off, but one that is constant and consistent – rather, in spirit and in truth.
“Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”Revelation 4:11
And in worship our entire being (body, soul, and spirit) ascribed not just glory, but also honor and power to God our Father. In our worship we acknowledge that He is our Creator, and the Creator of all things seen and unseen. He made us, and I’d like to add that through our recognizing and celebrating of Christ and His finished work, He is glorified all the more, because we acknowledge that He re-made us.
Worship is a Response
Worship is giving honor and glory to God, in response to who He is and what He has done. The Greek word for worship is Proskuneo, which means to kiss towards. A kiss is an expression of honor, respect, or a show of affection. Sure, a majority of us are made aware of the intimacy implied in a kiss, but we shouldn’t be so weirded out by other cultures where kisses are more frequent – for beyond mere intimacy, people kiss each other in a manner that expresses how they honor each other and how they respect each other.
So again, worship is far more than getting feelings of intimacy and affection – when we worship, especially when we take time and energy to intentionally worship God our Father, we are ascribing honor as earlier mentioned, and we are also expressing our respect to Him. And right now, just something on respect – it’s not necessarily limited to mere servitude and acceptance of God’s great power versus our own (if we even HAVE any power on our own to begin with); but I believe respect has its links with awe in that we aren’t just brought to accept the everlasting capabilities of our Creator, but we appreciate the infinite nature of our Father. There’s much appreciation that goes on in respect.
Therefore let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found; surely in the rush of great waters, they shall not reach him. You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with shouts of deliverance. Selah Psalms 32:6-7
In our worship, let’s not be surprised if God sings along with us. I mean, we’ve already established that our God is a God of communication, which means that He doesn’t just hear us, but He responds to us as well! After all we’ve talked about how He listens to us when we pray, and He speaks to us through His Word; But apparently, not only does He speak, but He also sings! And He DOES sing, surrounding us – the translation above is from the ESV and I’m aware that it says that He ‘shouts’, but it also says in other translations, the King James Version to be exact, that we are surrounded with songs of deliverance. What sort of songs does God sing to you, personally?
In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. We love because he first loved us.1 John 4:9-10, 19
Christ’s accomplished work has glorified God. However, the work that was accomplished was birthed out of God’s love. Therefore, we could say that Christ’s finished work has glorified God, by way of proclaiming that He really does love us. His resurrection is the receipt of His everlasting love for us. And from our realization of all that was accomplished by Christ’s birth, death, resurrection and ascension, we can say with boldness that our love – or, rather, any true love that has been borne in us – is actually birthed from God’s love from us. And we move in love, so our movements are laced in worship, in awe of God’s love for us.
Now, who do we love that shows that we love or worship God?
Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.1 John 4:11-12
I mean, don’t get me wrong. We would already be loving ourselves by way of coming to believing Christ, and His finished work. But I’m trying to say that it’s natural for us to overflow and direct Christ’s uncontainable, everlasting love to others, the more that we come to knowing and appreciating it. And here’s the thing – We love each other, and God is worshipped; but more to the point, we love each other, and the world will know that we are Christ’s.
Jesus’ Passion In Life; The Cross, The Power Of Worship
Christ mentioned that when He would be lifted up, all men would be drawn to Him. What is Jesus’ passion in life? It’s to love us, and because of His love for us, His GREAT love for us, He died on the cross… and this was also done, that His Father would be glorified.
- Recognizing the finished work of Jesus on the cross.
- I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.John 17:4-5
- All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nation shall worship before you. For kingship belongs to the LORD, and he rules over the nations.Psalms 22:27-28 Christ then fulfilled this, but not before He Himself talked about it in His time with us: “This voice has come for your sake, not mine. Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”John 12:30-32
- At this point Pastor Joedy testified that it was a televangelist’s message that lead him to accept Christ when he was much younger – and what was the televangelist talking about? Christ, and His finished work on the cross. God’s glory and goodness is proclaimed on the cross and people are consequently brought to repentance.
- Some religions and movements go against talking about the crucifixion of Christ solely for the reason of keeping people from getting drawn to Him. At the mention of the cross, people are drawn to Him.
- His indwelling in our hearts by the Holy Spirit – The Holy Spirit’s role in worship is seen in Philippians 3:3: For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh. It’s the Holy Spirit who is the first and foremost Worship Leader. And every man and woman who recognizes Christ for who He is, as He is lifted up… they are led to worship.
Worship As A LIfestyle
We offer ourselves as living sacrifices.
One doesn’t have to live long enough to learn that the world is where ‘performance based acceptance’ is glorified. We hear words, such as ‘God gave His best, so you gotta do your best.’; ‘Why can’t you be like your more zealous brother, or your more pious sister?’; ‘Do this, and you get this; Don’t do this, so you would avoid this.’
The Scripture taken out of context can be dangerous to us, and preached it can be so dangerous for others. This sort of performance based acceptance philosophy, so rife in the world – it has a tendency to creep into the church (and it has). And if it isn’t about our performance, we go ‘deeper’ by questioning a person’s heart – We take verses that say that our hearts are evil out of context, and we would beat each other up so our hearts, as well as our bodies, are ‘pure’.
Some say God sees your heart and He knows when you’re doing your best; But yet the same people believe that they have a wicked heart (you can tell from how they pray); Beloved, HOW can a wicked heart do its best? We know that a tree ALWAYS produces its corresponding fruit: Good trees make good fruit, and bad trees produce bad fruit.
We have to know that we have a changed heart, a NEW heart by His grace! It is not OUR best, but resting in HIS best, yielding to the love of God working in us from the inside out – “for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”Philippians 2:13
Unfortunately our good Pastor breezed through that last topic and also held back on discussing everything else that was on the notes. For the moment, I believe we’ve been brought to some very vital and beneficial truths, and these verses that have been discussed and shared would start us off on our own walks to discover the value of worship for all of us in the body of Christ, personally.
I’d like to end this by simply saying what Pastor Andrew Farley keeps on saying on the matter: Worship is only 0.01% singing hymns and praise songs, but it’s certainly 100% living our lives in dependence to Christ.
Every beat of our hearts, every breath we take, every second of our existence here in this reality is spent with the Shepherd of our Souls so close to us – and as such, every second of our existence here in this reality is worship.
Until the next post, God bless you.
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