The Value You Place on Worship

So the original header, which didn’t fit, was going to be:

The Value You Place on Worship is Reflected in Your Attitude When You’re Prevented From Doing So

Long enough title?

I originally wrote some of what follows in 2017. I gave three examples of things I thought might prevent people from participating fully in corporate worship, never dreaming that a few years later, a global pandemic would cause churches to lock their doors.

There were, I believe, people who truly mourned the loss of gathering with God’s family, coming together under the teaching of God’s word, engaging in sung worship with everything from just-voices to bands and choirs, joining others in giving to support God’s work locally and around the world, sharing needs and prayer requests, and certainly not least, partaking of the bread and wine around the Lord’s table.

But there were others who might have viewed this as a minor inconvenience. Or worse, a few weeks off.

I have a number of pastor friends. I know that for some of them, a week off means, “I don’t have to preach this weekend.” But I’ve also heard the sentiment, “I don’t get to preach this weekend.” While I recognize that sermon preparation is arduous task, and also realize that we all have tough weeks, nonetheless the difference in attitudes is worth noting. Have you or people who know ever experienced

• missing being able to give as you’d like because money is tight?
• missing being able to serve as you’d like because the family is on vacation?
• missing being able to preach, or sing, or teach because of illness?

The Psalmist wrote,

I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the LORD.”    Psalm 122:1 NLT

For the Psalmist, being able to spend time in God’s house, was the high point of the week. Sadly, for many, the trip to God’s house is done out of a sense of obligation, not joy. This should not be the case.

In a verse many of you have sung, a reminder:

Serve the LORD with gladness; Come before Him with joyful singing. – Psalm 100:2 NASB

If you see giving as an act of worship, you’ll immediately think of this verse:

Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.  – 2 Corinthians 9:7 NIV

Under the new covenant that we might refer to as The New Testament, nobody is being compelled to give except out of a desire to offer back to God a portion of the blessings we have received.

But in Deuteronomy 28, we see the opposite situation where a number of curses are promised in the event of disobedience, and one of these is:

Because you didn’t serve the LORD your God with joy and a cheerful heart, even though you had an abundance of everything, you will serve your enemies the LORD will send against you, in famine, thirst, nakedness, and a lack of everything.   – Deuteronomy 28:47-48a HCSB

Notice that it isn’t about not singing (or not doing so energetically.) It isn’t about not giving, (or not giving enough.) It’s about underlying attitudes.

Do we worship God out of a sense that we have to, or are we thrilled that we get to?

Worship should be wholehearted. Notice the multiple iterations of the following verse:

“You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” –  Deuteronomy 6:5, Matthew 22:37, Mark 12:30, Luke 10:27; see also Deuteronomy 30:6, 13:3, 10:12.

The Westminster Shorter Catechism reminds us of our chief goal. I’ve added emphasis:

Q. What is the chief end of man?
A. Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.

It is certainly our duty to do so, but this should be done with delight, with joy, with pleasure. It should flow out of us organically; not as something which seems forced.

Recently, someone expressed to me their concern (a healthy concern, I might add) that their spiritual life doesn’t have the vitality as it did at the start. Today, I found this quotation from mainstream author Carols Fuentes in his book This I Believe:

The most ardent romantic passion can languish and fall into habit or irritation with the passage of time. A couple begin to know each other because, first and foremost, they know so little of each other. Everything is surprise. When there are no surprises left, love can die.

Our worship of God should be formed in community, described in terms of relationship, and defined in terms of our love for God.

Worship never takes a week off, or even a day; nor wishes to.