We missed it… we totally missed the point. We thought… well, mostly we didn’t think. But if required to give a reason for our creation, we might say, “To worship God.” We might even quote Solomon, from Ecclesiastes 12:13, “…Fear God and keep His commandments, For this is man’s all.” But we have totally mischaracterized God. Is God so desperate for worship that He needed to create a universe with a planet inhabited by worshippers?
And our idea of worship comes up so far short of what true worship is. We think it’s what we do on Sunday mornings for thirty minutes, you know, sing some worship songs; maybe lift our hands, kneel, or if we’re exuberant worshippers, we shout and dance. We sometimes think eternity is going to be an endless Sunday praise and worship service.
Or maybe, when we’re going through battles in our lives we reference 2 Chronicles chapter 20, and say; “You know, in the Old Testament, when armies went into battle, they always sent the worshippers out first.” Which is really not even true. That was one battle plan for one battle. But often we put on our praise and worship music… and think it will persuade God to do something in our situation. Is God so starved for worship that He can be manipulated by it to do our bidding? Revelation chapter 4 reveals to us the worship that is continuous before His throne.
Look at what Paul preached to the Athenians in Acts 17:23-29 “‘for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you: 24 ‘God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. 25 ‘Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. 26 ‘And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, 27 ‘so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; 28 ‘for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’ 29 ‘Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising.’”
In verse 25, Paul tells us, it’s not like God needs anything. I have witnessed young girls who were so starved for love and affection that they are looking for any guy that will give them a baby, thinking that a baby will give them unconditional love. God is not like that. He created you to love you, not to be loved by you. Your love and your worship are responsive to His magnificence. Notice what Jesus told us what gives our Father pleasure. Luke 12:32, “Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” In man’s fallen state, our whole mentality is needy. We can’t comprehend that He is always the supply and we are always the demand, therefore our mind tries to make Him to be demanding. We cannot wrap our mind around the idea that a being exists that literally needs nothing. If you have food on your table, the food needs nothing. But in order to satisfy your need for food, you respond by eating it. God needs nothing, but you need to respond to Him by worshipping Him.
Get this. God said, in Psalms 50:9-12, “I will not take a bull from your house, [Nor] goats out of your folds. 10 For every beast of the forest [is] Mine, [And] the cattle on a thousand hills. 11 I know all the birds of the mountains, And the wild beasts of the field [are] Mine. 12 “If I were hungry, I would not tell you; For the world [is] Mine, and all its fullness.” Israel, it seems, thought God needed the sacrifices and burnt offerings the brought. Maybe He was hungry and needed some meat. God tells them, “If I were hungry, I would not tell you…” if He needs some food, He won’t take it from your house. He already has food. They needed to respond to Him by recognizing Him as their supply. He created their food and gave it to them. If He needed worship, He created worshippers that are before His throne worshipping, so He wouldn’t tell you. But you need to respond to Him in worship. Psalms 22:3 says, “But You [are] holy, Enthroned in the praises of Israel.” When we prepare a throne for Him, it’s not that He needs a place to sit. It’s that we need Him to sit with us.
So should we worship when our lives are crumbling?
Don’t misunderstand me, I’m not saying you shouldn’t listen to worship music when facing challenges. I would actually say you should, but for an entirely different reason. I am not being critical of anyone’s worship, when or how you worship. Return to Psalm 50 and back up to verse 8. God says, “I will not rebuke you for your sacrifices Or your burnt offerings, [Which are] continually before Me.” He is saying, “ look, I’m not scolding you for your sacrifices, but I want you to think differently about them. I want you to know that I’m not asking you to bring your sacrifices and offerings because I’m hungry and need something to eat. If I were, I wouldn’t ask you to buy Me lunch. I am totally self sufficient. I have lunch if I want it.” If you worship, then worship, no rebuke, but not because you think He needs it.
Jesus has already fought your battle and won, so you don’t need to fight it with your worship. Playing worship music does not persuade God. Why would we need to persuade Him to do what He has already done. True worship songs, songs that are based on the word of God, rehearse what He HAS done, and cause faith to rise in your heart… faith in what He HAS done, not faith that He will do something.
Some say, “God can’t do anything until we worship.” That idea reduces God to dependence on something you must give Him… almost as if He is Popeye and worship is His spinach. Still others think He won’t do anything until they worship. That makes Him childish and petty. The truth of the matter is, He already acted. The worship is for you, to bring your thinking into alignment with what He has done, to see the invisible.
Man people struggle with this idea that God has already done something, but they can’t see it. But that is by definition, what faith is. Hebrews 11:1 AMPC says, “NOW FAITH is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses].” And this is what worship does for you. It causes faith to rise in your heart, to “perceive as real fact what you cannot contact with your five physical senses.”
Jesus said to Thomas, in John 20:29, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed [are] those who have not seen and [yet] have believed.” Worship causes faith to come, or to rise. Someone will hopefully quote in their mind here, Romans 10:17, “So then faith [comes] by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” I’m so glad you did. In John 4:23-24 Jesus said to the woman at the well, “But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. 24 “God [is] Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” Notice, not just in spirit, but “in truth.” John 17:17 says “… Your word is truth.” True worship is in truth, and the Word is truth. So we could say, faith comes through TRUE worship.
It is not “TRUE” worship the Word. I don’t mean scripture songs. I mean worship that true worship elevates, scripturaly, accurately, what God has done in Christ. So when you enter in to true worship, you are in fact hearing the Word of God. Music becomes the mechanism to focus your attention
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