Part 4: His Holiness

“His holiness is the crown of all that He is.”

“Holiness is so much the essence of God’s character

that Holy is one of the names God goes by.”

“God doesn’t conform to a holy standard; He IS the standard.”

I think a worshiping life must confirm the holiness of God; I might even go so far as to say that an acknowledgement and understanding of God’s holiness is essential to true worship. As we see God as holy, our instant reaction must be to see ourselves as unholy. How can we truly know the depth of our own sinfulness until we understand God’s holiness> and until we truly understand the depth of our own sin and seek forgiveness, how can we truly worship> If we are not truly pained by our sin, maybe we truly don’t understand God’s holiness at all…

            What do I mean by all of this… Well, as we delve into the word and learn wondrous things about God, we begin to see just how Holy He is, but we also realize that we will never FULLY grasp His Holiness because there is just so much to it. Once we are in that place of seeing God’s holiness, we begin to realize how unworthy we are, how fallen we are… but it doesn’t stop there! When we feel our shame and guiltiness, we are reminded of Gods amazing grace and mercies – which are new every morning. Grace isn’t just something to be taken advantage of, because we are in a place of understanding God’s great sovereignty – it’s not just about the opportunity to have a clean slate – but rather, its about the opportunity to strive to serve God as he deserves, the opportunity to walk as Jesus did. Our focus on God allows us to realize our sin, confess it and be forgiven through the blood of Jesus Christ. Behind the ‘oops, I messed up’, is a heart that is desperately seeking God’s hand of refinement – and God can see that. He can see that despite our failures, we WANT to be more like his Son, he knows we want more of him and less of ourselves despite our imperfection. When the Bible gives us a taste through every page of who God is, we should DESIRE truly to fall down in worship to our God – because we are overwhelmed by his goodness, his majesty, his love, his power, his might etc… In order to do that though – in order to fall on our faces in worship – we must seek to have a clean heart! Not a perfect heart – for this is impossible, but a heart that is awaiting the day where we will be made perfect and be able to worship God in fullness.

            Real worship is not just giddy; it should not rush into God’s presence unprepared and insensitive to His majesty. In fact, did you know that the temple in Jerusalem (where Jesus was taken as baby to be offered\dedicated to the Lord) has uneven stairs leading up to the entrances? The stairs are not evenly made, they are all different in size – some are wide, some are thin – why did they create it this way> maybe because of poor architectural design… no! It was made this way for a reason – to SLOW people down as they approached this place of worship, to give them time to prepare their hearts and be sensitive to God’s holiness (look up David Nasser, from the study ‘Why Jesus’ for more…) Before we rush into our worship services, church or personal devotions or maybe a small group, we need to prepare our hearts; every time! We need to confess our sins, and trust in God’s forgiveness, we need to strive to be holy, as Jesus was holy – especially in our worship services – but of course, all the time. There is no room in God’s presence for those who are consumed with things that do not confirm His holiness (I’m not saying you must be perfect – as I said earlier, I know this is not possible, but we must have a desire – and as I mentioned – God can see the desires of our hearts and whether or not they are genuine), an example of this is how God cast out not only satan for his fall, but also the angels who were confirming satan. They did not point to God’s holiness, rather they were consumed by other evil and sinful things, and God cast them away – that is how serious it is when we as humans choose to confirm something else’s or someone else’s importance in our lives over God’s holiness.

“My heartfelt concern is that there is too much shallowness today with regard to God’s holiness. Our relationship to God has become too casual… Much that is done in the name of worship today clearly does not genuinely regard God as holy, and thus it falls woefully short. A lot of catchy songs are being sung, poignant feelings are being felt, congenial thoughts are being thought, and pleasurable emotions are being cultivated. But too often these things are merely self-indulgent exercises masquerading as worship without any serious acknowledgement of the holiness of God. That kind of worship bears not relationship to the worship we see in the Bible. It may be more psychological than theological, more fleshly than spiritual.”

Amen! We MUST acknowledge God’s holiness and confirm it through our worship, or else our worship WILL fall short. This goes for our day-to-day life worship, our church service worship, our devotional worship, small group worship, our conversational worship etc. In EVERY way, we must acknowledge and believe in God’s amazing holiness. Turn it ALL back to HIM, to glorify HIM! When we begin to see God’s holiness revealed to us bit by bit through the word and through our walks of faith, we are able to understand the importance of coming to God with a pure heart – a confessing heart – acknowledging that we are sinful beings and without the grace of God there would be no room for us in God’s Holy presence. But our God is SO amazing that he already thought ahead of our mistakes – he prepared the way for us  - so that we can come to him and worship HIM for who HE is and what HE has done and what HE will continue to do! It’s all about You, God!

“We are to live lives of confession, repentance, and turning from our sin so that our worship is that which fully pleases God. We dare not go rushing into His presence in unholiness. We cannot worship God acceptably without sincere reverence and godly fear, and our worship must be arrayed in the beauty of holiness. We must return to the biblical teaching of God’s utter and awesome holiness in order to be filled with the gratitude and humility that characterizes true worship.”

*everything in blue is a quote from John MacArthur: Worship, the ultimate priority*

Part 3: Worship. Get to know God.

Maybe sometimes the reason we struggle to worship is because we lose sight of the one we are worshiping. We forget – not on a basic level of ‘we worship God’ – but on a deeper level of ‘who is God’. The object of our worship must be right if our worship is to be acceptable.

“An intimate knowledge of the person of God is perhaps the greatest motivation to true, overflowing, whole-life worship. When we begin to know God as He is, our response has to be that of magnifying Him, giving Him glory for who He is and what He does for us.”

I think that’s why it gets frustrating when we are spending little time in the word, maybe not attending church regularly. We start to lose sight of Gods attributes, we aren’t delving into his truths, and we aren’t learning about who He is or what He has done! Let’s start by reading Hosea 6:6, “I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, and in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” That statement elevates the knowledge of God to a position of supreme importance. It means that true worship consists not of rituals and other externals (like sacrifices, burnt offerings and formal liturgy) but rather is grounded in the crucial matter of knowing and loving the true God. It looks beyond externals and goes straight to the heart. How cool is that> that’s another reason why sometimes when we sin, God is so gracious and merciful to forgive his true children because he see’s their heart. He see’s true repentance and he is understanding towards the trials of temptations and our moments of weakness… but now back to the point. Psalm 51 says, “O Lord, open my lips, that my mouth may declare Your praise. For you do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; you are not pleased with burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” Be real. Don’t and try and put on a smile and pretend to have it all together, God see’s right through that anyways. God desires our hearts to pour out before Him, truly vulnerable and honest. It’s not always about externals. These are just a few of many verses that go to show how unique our God is; but of course He is unique, He is the only true God. Many other religions (even some confused Christians) involve much of trying to earn god’s favor. They focus on externals, and for the wrong reasons. They believe that if they work hard, give more, act better, sin less – then their god will show them greater favor. They try to earn their way to heaven through externals – there is NO heart in that. Our God, however, is so much more amazing then just externals, he see’s the heart – and he knows that a true heart that beats for Him will reflect itself through actions (through externals). We don’t have to EARN Gods favor, his love for us is greater then that, and in fact; we don’t have to work our way to heaven because he paid the price for that. This is just another incredible thing about our God that should cause us to fall before him in true genuine worship. As we reflect on the truths of God – how could we only worship out of routine, or how could we not desire to worship at all…

“If you are consumed with looking for money, if you are devoted to the pursuit of success, if you are seeking anything else more than you desire a true and accurate knowledge of God, you will never deeply understand Him or see His glory.”

Maybe the struggle to worship God as he deserves is not only because we may not know enough about Him, or desire to know more, but maybe because our focus is on something else altogether! Some people seek education, success, money, wealth, materials, beauty, popularity etc. I think we’ve all heard this before… no matter what you are seeking, if you are seeking it MORE then you desire a true knowledge of God – you will be in deep waters. You may not ever get what you seek, maybe you won’t ever get rich, popular, perfect or whatever else, but you certainly WILL get pulled away from God in the process, whether you achieve your goals or not. Ultimately, what do you want more; to know more of God in his holiness and glory, or to achieve some earthly badges of success… the things of the world will pass away, what will you be left with> Don’t let your identity be found in something you can lose, your faith in God and your relationship with Him with last forever. What do you put before God> I think we all struggle time and again with something, maybe its one of those things previously stated, maybe its your family, your fun, your friends or something else. The bible says clearly, you cannot love both God and money; you must only serve one master (Matthew 6:24). Our hearts were created to be devoted to only one, if we put anything above our devotion to God, eventually our hearts will be fully devoted to the other. It’s a process, a downhill spiral; put your focus on something else and desire it more then you desire God and eventually you will no longer hunger for God at all. In the end, if you are focused on anything above God, you will be given over to your cravings. Your worship to God will struggle because your focus isn’t on Him. Your life’s focus is on something shallow and meaningless and God WILL NOT share your hearts attention.

There is one other reason I want to touch on (although of course there are many more) as to why we may struggle to worship God. I think in our churches, in our walks of Faith, when we lose sight of the Bibles importance in our day to day lives, we start to lose sight of who God is, as already mentioned. But by doing this, we also might start to bring God down to our level; we start to make him into something lesser than what He truly is. We get into trouble when we try to make God too much like what we know. No one perfectly understands God. When we aren’t studying the word, or attending a solid biblically sound church, we start to get the wrong idea about whom God is. Maybe we think we start to ‘get’ Him. Maybe we start to view him as the little angel on our shoulder, our ‘buddy’, our ‘daddy’ etc. Maybe some of you reading this think I’m off for saying it’s irreverent to give GOD such titles as daddy, poppa or so on… but it is and that’s the blatant truth. God is WAY bigger then you, or me or anything our minds can imagine. You cannot bring Him down to our level; you cannot form him to fit into your hands, or into your style of beliefs. So maybe this is a cause of a struggle to worship God, or maybe this is the cause of false-worship, either way – it brings me back to the point of: we must get to know GOD as HE reveals Himself in His WORD! There is no excuse… get over your lazy and distracted self – if you want more of God, if you want a true and genuine and passionate faith – where your worship is thriving and it’s sincere – you need to TRY.

1Chronicles 28:9 David tells his son,

“As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father,

and serve Him with a whole heart and a willing mind.”

(Know God, and when you know Him, serve Him willingly and eagerly…

David continues…)

“For the Lord searches all hearts, and understands

every intent of the thoughts. If you seek him,

He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him.

He will reject you forever”.

David doesn’t just say, “Serve God whole-heartedly and willingly”, no, he starts with the more important part, “Know the God of your father”. If you don’t truly KNOW God, why would you have any drive to serve him> If you don’t truly have a passion to have a relationship with God, why would you revolve your life around him>

            To end off this part, I want to reiterate the extreme importance of getting to KNOW God. Although we will never know Him fully, we can learn SO much about Him through the Word. He purposely allows us to see his attributes and a little peek of who He is through the word so that our worship may thrive. Through a knowledge and understanding of the word, we will be rooted in a solid foundation and our worship will not be meaningless, empty, boring, false or misguided. 

*anything in blue is a quote from John MacArthur: Worship,

the ultimate priority*

Part 2: Worship. what are your motives> where is your heart>

“By all means worship should be passionate, heartfelt and moving. But the point is not to stir the emotions while turning off the mind. True worship merges the heart and mind in a response or pure adoration, based on the truth revealed in the word.”

From my personal experience, I’ve been in churches where they are SO solid when it comes to the preaching. They KNOW their stuff – they teach it well! But the worship seemed to be so dry, like after all they learned they weren’t excited or joyful or even convicted in their worshipful response (through musical response or through their fruits in their walk). On the other extreme, I’ve also had a good taste of people whose focus was ONLY on musical worship without any solid teaching or learning-taking place; I want to talk about these experiences first. I’ve seen people seem so energetic, so alive and so joyful in their musical worship – but when it came to their day-to-day walk with the Lord, I didn’t see any fruits. It was as if when they left their place of worship the flame was extinguished – but as soon as they entered the following week it was re-lit! I never really understood what was going on here… but now I’ve grown to see that aroused passions are not necessarily evidence that true worship is taking place. Genuine worship is a response to divine TRUTH. It is passionate because it arises out of our love for God. But to be true worship it must also arise out of a correct understanding of His law, His righteousness, His mercy and His being. Real worship acknowledges God as He has revealed Himself in His Word. We know from scripture, for example, that He is the only perfectly holy, all-powerful, all-knowing, omnipresent source from which flows all goodness, mercy, truth, wisdom, power, and salvation. Worship means ascribing glory to Him because of those truths. It means adoring Him for who He is, for what He has done, and for what He has promised. It MUST therefore be a response to the truth that He has revealed about Himself. Such worship cannot rise out of a vacuum. It is prompted and vitalized by the objective truth of the Word.

            In the experiences I had, I can’t judge and say these individuals didn’t have a solid or correct understand of who God is as he revealed himself to us in his word, but I can say there was no passion to get to know Him personally or deeply. There was no drive from these people to be in the word – and when you try to push them – they find a way to say that they’re doing okay without it. Or in more unfortunate situations – some of them had a horribly INCORRECT idea of what the bible teaches on God and His Holy Spirit. They were worshiping in response to false teachings, and their ‘worship’ was so vibrant and beautiful looking (or sometimes it was quite scary and frightening) – but something was off – their foundation was off, so how sincere could it really be. It’s quite to sad to think that they truly believe they are sincere – but because their worshiping in response to something that is so not biblically true – I’m not sure they grasp how far off they really are.

“There is certainly no place in the corporate worship of the church for the kind of frivolous, shallow, giddy atmosphere that often prevails in the sort of church that is desperately seeking to be ‘relevant’ for a postmodern comedy-club culture. To exchange the worship service for a circus is about as far from the spirit of biblical worship ‘in reverence and awe’ as it is possible to get. “Reverence and awe” refers to a solemn sense of honor as we perceive the majesty of God. It demands both a sense of God’s holiness and a sense of our own sinfulness.”

The message cannot always be “God is Love”. YES! GOD IS LOVE! But that is not all that He is! We are so blessed that our God and Creator, even though he is just and mighty, has a heart of love for us. That heart of love however, does not take away from our NEED to be convicted and repent of our sinfulness. Gods mercy and his grace are amazing and they are the greatest gift, but we cannot seriously think that we can ignore everything else that God is. God demands our praise, he doesn’t NEED it, but he made us for it – and if we choose to worship in a way that is not pleasing to Him – by all means, he has the right to say to US in the end, “I never knew you!”

“The world is filled with false and superficial religion. We who love Christ and believe His Word is true dare not accommodate our worship to the styles and preferences of an unbelieving world. Instead, we must make it our business to be worshipers in Spirit and in Truth. We must be people who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ and put no confidence in the flesh. And to do that, we must allow scripture alone – sola scriptura – to regulate our worship.”

Real acts of worship must be the overflow of a perpetually worshiping life and real worship is honor and adoration directed to God. To stand on a stage and desire attention, while using the worship of God to get it, is such a sad and frustrating thing to me. If you’ve ever been on a worship team – I’m sure you understand how hard this can be – and it’s something to be learned for everyone. To be on stage in front of hundreds of eyes can plant a seed of pride in you. To learn to take all the attention off of you and direct it upward to God is something to be learned, and I believe that anyone who walks up on stage as a worship leader or member of a team should be learning or already have learned this. I think being able to discern when someone is worshiping with wrong motives is very important as well. I know none of us are perfect, and so to say that you have to have it all together to be on a worship team or to be on stage is kind of silly – but in order to correct someone in their understanding, you need to be able to discern who those individuals are. I have felt at times that some people get up there and put on a show. They think they know what it looks like to be a true worshiper from seeing bands like ‘hillsong’ or ‘jesus culture’ or ‘Kim Walker’ etc., so they imitate that ‘passion’ and they think they’ve got it right – but could they be more wrong!!!! Genuine worship overflows from a perpetually worshiping life! You cannot just act a certain way and think that’s okay. Or even worse – I hope you haven’t been convinced that certain actions truly portray genuine worship. Now I know many people who are so real and so genuine in their worship – on or off stage – and you can see it through the way they express themselves. It is not the action of raising your hands, or dancing, or smiling etc. that makes you true worshiper – NO, it is the HEART BEHIND IT. These people will strive to worship genuinely all the time, it’s not just about a show on stage and it certainly is not about YOU at all! Genuine worship is from the heart and it is directed ONLY to God! Being able to discern when someone is not worshiping with the right intentions or motives, or maybe they are not worshiping with the right focus (that focus being God), it incredibly important.

“Worship as the word of God presents it is internal, sacrificial, active and productive. That is not at all like the worlds concept of worship, yet it is the only kind of worship God recognizes. It is the purest kind of worship – the kind that ascends to God as sweet incense, the kind that is expressed continuously in every aspect of our lives by sharing with others, doing good works, and offering praise to God. That is the kind of worship God desires. It is worship in its deepest, most spiritual sense.”

*all blue quotes are from John MacArthur: Worship, the ultimate Priority.*

Part 1: Worship

*Anything in blue is a quote taken from: 

Worship, the ultimate priority by John MacArthur*

Worship has become something that has taken on SO many different meanings and definitions – I know so many people who have opposite ideas of what worship looks like and what it is. I feel that a true grasp of what worship was MEANT to be, when God explained it to us through His Word, is desperately needed in our churches today.

I’ve just finished reading ‘Worship – the ultimate priority’ by John MacArthur, and it gave me a huge wake up call – not only for my own life, but also for my Christian brothers and sisters. I would highly recommend reading this book as it has had a HUGE impact on my life and my faith. It really drove me to have a better understanding of Scripture passages on the topic of worship and to understand them in the correct context. It’s actually really sad how many people have taken these KEY passages out of context and made them to be only what THEY desire– what makes THEM feel good. When it comes to the topic of Worship – there is SO much to cover. Worship is not just about our Sunday services, as most of us know, worship is a life-style. Worship is such a BIG thing, its something we will never accomplish perfectly – but ultimately worship IS our priority while we are here on this earth. We are to strive for perfection – knowing that one day we will be able to stand before God and worship Him perfectly through glorification. I think we need a wake up call on where our worship is so flawed and confused and misdirected. That’s what I want to write about…

“God will not accept deviant worship. Some would insist that any kind of sincere worship is acceptable to God, but that is simply not true. The bible clearly teaches that those who offer self-styled worship are unacceptable to God, regardless of their good intentions. No matter how pure our motivation may seem or how sincere we are in our attempt, if we fail to worship God as He has commanded, He cannot bless us.” (Page 20, Worship, John MacArthur).

“The prophecies of Israel’s and Judah’s destruction are related to the fact that they did not worship God with the proper attitude.” (Page 26, Worship, John MacArthur)

We were never meant to choose our own way of worship. Of course we all have ways of ‘expressing’ our worship (and even those can be done very wrong and be not pleasing to God) – but I’m not talking about shallow things here – I think its going down to the root that worship is not about US at all. We can have great intentions, but as it is pointed out: we are created to worship GOD as HE intended, as HE deserves.

            I feel that in our culture\society today, there are many churches that offer a kind of self-styled worship that is designed to please the worshipers. But even in churches that don’t necessarily do this sort of thing, there are many worshipers who offer their worship with a wrong or half-hearted attitude. Such a Holy God cannot accept either of these kinds of worship. We must strive for a fresh and biblically sound understanding of Worship. God has commanded it. Our ministry depends on it. It is crucial to our relationship to Him and our testimony in this world.

            “I feel that in our culture\society today, there are many churches that offer a kind of self-styled worship that is designed to please the worshipers.” I want to first explain what I meant when I stated that based on what I’ve learned from my study of this book: Worship, the ultimate priority, by John MacArthur.

            What is the churches ultimate priority: Worship! Unfortunately, today many churches and believers have put other church related things before this priority. Things such as: public relations, recreation, social activities, boosting attending, outreach, appeal etc. Without putting TRUE worship first, how can we expect to do anything else successfully> Not only that, but there are even churches out there who strive to be so relevant and contemporary in their worship services in order to be more appealing to the secular world. “Nothing it seems is too profane or too outrageous to be fused with Christian lingo and labeled ‘worship’.” When we go to worship God within our church as a body of believers, our goal is NOT to make it easy and attractive for the new person or for the unbeliever. Our goal is to be an EXAMPLE: to be a light in the darkness. The more we try to be appealing in the world’s eyes, the darker our church worship becomes and the duller our light will shine. We should have a strong desire to stand apart, to be different and to encourage change. When an unbeliever walks into your church, do you really want them to leave saying, “Man, that was pretty cool and fun! The band was entertaining, and the speaker too! I felt so comfortable!” or do you want them to come and encounter God, confess their sin and desire to change! Of course we want to be friendly and kind, encourage people to come back again, make them feel at ease and make them feel loved – that’s an act of worship in itself: to love our neighbors. But it is so important that our churches be a place where GOD is the focus, and through our worshiping HIM as HE intended, people will come to see HIM! If you desire for unbelievers to come into faith, don’t put their focus on a worship team or on a coffee or on a comedic speaker, put their worship on Christ ALONE!

“If God desires worship in spirit and in truth, and if worship is something offered to God – and not just a show put on for the benefit of the congregation – then every aspect of our worship must be pleasing to God and in harmony with His Word.”

Everything we do in our private and corporate worship must be held accountable by the truths of the scripture. There are MANY things done in churches today and in our lives in regards to worship that are not biblically correct. Whether it is putting the focus on something other then worshiping God (as previously mentioned) or maybe taking out of context what it means to worship in Spirit. Whether it is a big extreme and obvious thing, or maybe something very subtle and unknown to many – everything we do must be weighted by the word of God.

“Nothing should be used in the Church which has not either the express Word of God to support it, or otherwise is a thing indifferent in itself, which brings no profit when done or used, but no harm when not done or omitted” –John Hooper

The Scripture is very clear on how important the word of God is when it comes to our worship. We should not be doing anything apart from Gods word.

Psalm 19: 7-10

“The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul;

The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.

The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart;

The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.

The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever;

The judgments of the Lord are true; they are righteous altogether.

They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold;

Sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb.”

(The point of that passage, quite simply, is that Scripture is wholly sufficient to meet every need of the human soul. It suggests that all essential spiritual truth is contained in the Word of God.)

Now all of this being said, we always come across individuals who seem to take every little point to an extreme. The Bible is very clear, but again, I don’t think God intended for Christians to be in constant debates over small topics such as: church attire, music volumes, music style, instrument choices, appropriate ages for Sunday School… and the list goes on… forever… ;) I’m not sure God ever intended through the written Word to spark debates over musical instruments vs. acappella singing, hymns vs. exclusive psalmody, choirs and soloists vs. congregational singing, or other questions regarding music style. I don’t think He even intended to cause drama over jeans vs. dress pants, suit jackets vs. dress shirt, dress shoes vs. running shoes. There are SO many Christians who get caught up in opinions and ideas, and yes, the bible does touch on subjects such as these I’m sure – but at some point – in my personal opinion (forgive me if I’m way off) there is a time when you need to keep something between yourself and God: Your own personal convictions. If you feel the need to attend a church that only uses hymns and piano, and if you feel the call to dress formerly every Sunday – please do so! There is NOTHING wrong with that – but I think there is something wrong when people who have these personal convictions try to push them on everyone else. I don’t agree with people who say their church worship is more biblical because they don’t use a worship band, and I also don’t agree with people who think their worship is more biblical because they DO use a worship band. It comes down to the heart doesn’t it> Find a church where you are fed spiritually, stand firm to your own personal convictions, don’t cause those around you to stumble, don’t always feel the need to voice your opinions about every little detail and every little thing. Sometimes I wonder if certain individuals spend more time on a Sunday morning critiquing the clothes of those around them, the lights, the sounds, and the volumes and so on then they do worshiping God! In the end – I truly hope YOU attend a church where you are being fed spiritually. I find it to be very frustrating when people only attend church out of routine or because they are comfortable, but deep down they aren’t really growing and learning and being convicted week by week. I pray that your hunger to know more about God and his Word grows each week, the more you’re given, the more you hunger for it – that it pushes you in your week to study on your own and strive in your own personal day to day walk to get close to God. How do I know that I’m being fed in my church: because every week the preaching allows me to learn and grow and to be encouraged. The musical worship before or after this allows for me to prepare and then to respond to all that is in God’s word and to all that the Pastor preaches from God.