To be respected and reverenced, according to his nature, honoring who he is and recognizing who we are.
Last week, we began a new series: What does God want from us? This is a series for churches and church leaders. This is also a series for Christians who want to share the gospel. This is a series for people who are seeking God, desiring to understand his will and his way.
As Christians attempt to make people aware of God and his plan for their life, what are the foundations? What are the most important details? What must we share? What must we say? Is what we are doing working? Are we evangelizing effectively? Is the church growing? Is mission work bringing souls to Christ and planting more and more churches? Is there a better way?
A quick review. In the first study, we learned that the first desire of God for his human creation is that we recognize him for who he is, according to his nature. Understanding God’s desire and purpose begins with accurately understanding God. Companion pieces include understanding reality–the nature of our world, and also who we are as human beings, God’s creation. Of great concern are questions such as, how we communicate the reality of God’s presence and involvement in our world, how we communicate his nature, and how we communicate his purposes for his creation.
This second study deals with another essential question: worshiping God. What does God want from his creation? God desires to be respected, to be reverenced. For human beings with freedom of choice, God wants us to choose to worship God.
Respect and reverence God; worship God. God desires worship—as he is, that is, according to his nature. I am affirming that God created a world that continually calls attention to his majesty, splendor, and grandeur. Inanimate creation declares the glory of God unceasingly. God created a world that he declared good, a world that evidenced his honor. All creation worships God automatically–except for human creation. Human beings, made in God’s image, have a choice — to honor and worship God, or to reject God.
God’s desire is that his creation honor him and worship him. Further, the worship God desires will be based on and consistent with his nature, who he is. God does not want us to honor false gods or to cling to false ideas about him. God wants us to worship him for who he is. Thus, a correct understanding of worship begins with God, who God is. Worship is given by the creation to the Creator. The worshipful heart recognizes God and recognizes the nature of reality (all that is not God) and of humanity created in the image of God. Think with me. If we are correctly reading Scripture, beginning with Old Testament examples of worship, we quickly see that acceptable worship is defined by God and his nature and not by human beings and our preferences.
At some level, worship and respect are possible even before a committed response to God (Romans 2; Acts 10). Worship is God-defined, not human-defined. Look at the religious landscape today. Many churches have distinguished themselves by emphasizing various aspects of worship. We worship in this way, and not in that way. We are for this and against that, or against this and for that. How many of our ideas about worship are based in human desires and preferences? How many are based in an understanding of God and a careful reading of and obedience to God will as revealed in God’s Word? The kind of worship that is acceptable to God is based on who he is, what he is like.
Worship reflects the human desire to find, have, and declare glory. All of life is a search for glory. Where can we see, experience, find glory? What / whose glory are we seeking? What causes others to glorify us? An interesting word group in the original New Testament language suggests that glory, boasting, rejoicing, and pride are closely connected. The translation chosen depends on the context. In the context of glory-seeking, I am asking about those things that cause us boasting, pride, or rejoicing.
The glory-search reveals more than we have realized—our values, the meaning of life, our goals, our pleasures. Ultimately, glory is yet to be revealed in us. Worship declares our values, our hopes, the center of our lives. Worship declares our understandings of glory. Many think, “If I can only have, experience, do certain things, then life will be fulfilling and glorious.” This search for glory leads us to bigger barns, more expensive luxuries, bigger houses, more experiences, new places, longer vacations, different foods… The list is endless.
God is not seeking ritual nor liturgy. Worship that little considers God will never suffice. He will not be pleased with heartless, thoughtless worship. Nor is he pleased with worship that does not reflect and result in a total sacrificial commitment to him as God, Lord, and King. Respect demands worship to God consistent with his nature. If we do not accurately understand and proclaim the nature of God so that people recognize and understand him as he is, we will have an empty message when it comes to respecting and worshiping God.