Obedience is Worship

Over the last few weeks I have been troubled.  Troubled by the ideas that some have presented me about the importance of worship.  I find myself quick to agree with them because the most important thing in our life should be to honor and glorify God.  Yet still I am troubled.  But I am troubled because of the way worship is defined.  Often people mean singing, music, prayer and some might include testimonies, scripture reading and preaching.  And I agree that all of this should be done in and as a part of our worship, yet I find it still lacking.

So here is where I have been brought to, here is where I find myself standing.  Obedience must be the deepest definition of what we are to do to worship, honor, glorify God.  Obedience would have us sing, play instruments, read the Bible, pray, testify, preach, etc...  but also should include everything Jesus directed us to do.  So if I set my focus on creating a "worship experience" I believe that I am missing the most important things.  In a worship through obedience we find ourselves worshiping when we are the husbands and fathers we are instructed to be in the Bible.  We find ourselves worshiping when we go and make disciples, baptizing them and teaching them all that Jesus commanded.  We find ourselves worshiping when we help people in need.  We find ourselves worshiping when we walk through life seeking to live with humility as we reflect the love and care of Jesus to this lost and dying world.  When we embrace a belief that for true worship our obedience is required, then our outlook about what is important for worship changes.

I can worship God where ever, whenever, with or with out, because worship begins with how I respond to God with an attitude of thanksgiving.

So I will remind myself to put my feelings aside, realizing that the emotions will come and go, but my obedience is not negotiable and is to be worship.

As for you, study, ponder and pray and ask yourself this question "What is it that I need in order to worship God properly?"  ...  My answer was Obedience

Pastor Bruce

Do we fear God?

The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate. (Proverbs 8:13 ESV)

According to this passage wisdom should bring us to this place where we fear God properly.  The description here is that the fear of God is the hatred of evil.  Ponder that for a moment.  

When you look at your life and the world around you, do you hate evil? Or do we just try to not do evil? Or do we try and stay away or abstain from evil? What does it mean to hate evil anway? 

To hate evil should mean that evil causes us to be enraged.  Evil should cause us to be upset and even angry, not in a way that dishonours God, but in a way that burns with the righteousness that we find in Jesus.  Our hate of evil is not to be a negative anger that identifies us and makes us look like the very thing we detest.  Rather this hate is to be an intense passion for righteousness and the Glory of God.  

We hate evil because as a Christian Jesus, God the Son Himself, by the power of the Holy Spirit has taken up residence in us.  So the very things that God hates, we should hate.  This indwelling of us is how we are to be continually challenged to grow, to cast off things that draw us away from God, to repent of our sin, to seek righteousness in life, to hate sin, etc...  

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 5:1 ESV)

Christians are no longer enemies of God, rather through the person and work of Jesus we are at peace with God.  The reality is that there is no neutral zone with God, we are either at peace with Him or at war with Him.  So if we are at peace with God then we are to begin to think and see things His way.  So we should not tolerate evil, certainly it should not be tolerated within those who claim to be followers of God.  So what is God's response to sin?  

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23 ESV)

Sin, evil in the sight of God, earns a penalty of eternal death.  But God is full of love, grace, mercy and so much more and so we have been given an answer for sin, to stop evil.  Only God can put an end to evil.

For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:7, 8 ESV)

The sinfulness of humanity is evil and people who love sin instead of God exist as evil people.  As those in Christ Jesus, we are to love God, fear God, hate sin, despise evil, and in the instruction we have received we are to show the love God has shown to us to those who are known as His enemies. This is why a proper fear of God should bring about the message of the Gospel. 

So if you fear God, hate evil, share the solution in the Gospel and live the example showing that you are at peace with God and as such pursue righteousness and detest evil.  Our hate of evil is to be shown most in our desire to see people rescued from the evil we see.

Pastor Bruce