Let Us Worship

ESSAYS ON HONORING GOD IN WORSHIP

Let Us Worship

Essays on Honoring God in WorshipCompiled and Edited by Allen Reynolds

UMI (Urban Ministries, Inc.)

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Everyone worships someone or something. The essential question in life is not whether I will worship something, but who or what do I worship? Many would like to believe that they do not wor-ship anything. They would rather exist in a secular universe devoid of God

and talk of worship. The fact is even those who would like to dismiss worship as something primitive often worship themselves or their ideas.

There is an innate desire in us as hu-man beings for someone or something to be our ultimate allegiance and the pri-mary motivating factor of our lives. When you look around at the daily lives of those around you, we can easily ob-serve what holds their ultimate alle-giance. You can tell by the way they treat their possessions or relationships. You can tell by the way they relate to their

The Rightful Object Of Our Worship

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by Ramon Mayo, M.A.

jobs and their recreational activities. We are all worshiping something.

These objects of worship are never worth our time and attention. We worship them and receive nothing in return. We experience their fragility and futility. There is an emptiness that comes with worshiping things that are not worthy of our worship. It is the inevitable result of idolatry.

Idolatry is worshiping anything that is not God Himself. It is placing our proper desire for worship onto an object that is not worthy of worship. As Christ-followers, we have the Son of God Him-self as an object of worship.

He is the rightful object of worship be-cause of His person, purpose, and posi-tion.

His Person

Jesus is the sinless Son of God. He is the second Person of the Trinity. All of the attributes of God the Father can be attrib-uted to Jesus. He is faithful. He is loving. He is holy. He is sovereign. In fact Jesus said Himself that if you have seen Him, you have seen the Father. He is the im-age of the invisible God.

Many people want to see God. They de-sire to know exactly what God is like.

What pleases Him and what displeases Him? In Jesus we get our answer to that question. Jesus is also a man. He is the Word made flesh that came down to dwell among us. In Jesus we see the per-fect man. The life of Jesus shows us the life that we were created for. When we ex-amine the Gospels, we are struck by the way Jesus handled different situations. Through it all, His humanity and His di-vinity shine through. One of the reasons Jesus is our rightful object of worship is who He is.

His Purpose

The Apostle John stated that “the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8, NLT). Jesus came to earth with a grand purpose. It was planned before the foundation of the world that Jesus would atone for the sins of humanity. Jesus came to model the life we are to live as humans, but that wasn’t all. He also came to remove the barrier to living that life: sin. As the sin-less Son of God, Jesus came to be a sacri-fice for the world. Instead of coming to rule as a king, He died as a criminal for a greater purpose.

This purpose and plan was to give His blood for the forgiveness of our sins so that nothing could stand in the way of

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our having a relationship with God the Father. Sin made us distant enemies, but Jesus’ work on the Cross made us sons and daughters. He is the rightful object of worship because He gave us a right re-lationship with the Father.

His Position

Jesus died, but that was not the end of the story. Three days later, He rose again. With a new resurrected body, Je-sus had conquered death and was given all authority in heaven and in earth. For forty days He stayed with the disciples, teaching them about the kingdom of God, and then He ascended into heaven to be with His Father. Now He sits at the right hand of God as our advocate.

Paul says that “he is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or any-thing else— not only in this world but also in the world to come. God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made Him head over all things for the benefit of the church” (Ephesians 1:21–22, NLT). Christ is the ruler of the universe. There is nothing that exists that is not under His authority. He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. He has no rivals or competitions. There is no one that He can be compared to. This

is why He is the rightful object of wor-ship.

As we look at our lives, let us examine whether we are worshiping the idols of this world or the rightful object of wor-ship: Jesus Christ. Let’s take a close look at our financial budgets and the way we spend our time. Let’s reflect on what makes us angry, happy, or sad. Some-times there is a clue hidden in our emo-tions on what truly holds our allegiance.

The Westminster Confession states that “the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.” Is this your main goal in life? We were created to worship, and it is not a matter of whether we wor-ship or not, but who will be our object of worship. This world gives worship to things that are not worthy of worship.

The followers of Christ have Jesus Christ as our object of worship. Because of His person, purpose, and position, we can give Him all of our money, time, and ef-fort.

It is through Him that we can fulfill the first and greatest commandment to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind. This is the rightful response toward the rightful object of our worship.

Ramon Mayo, M.A. is an editor, church planter, and pastor

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But the root of the righteous shall not be moved” (from Proverbs 12:3).

This past summer while finishing up my Master of Arts in Biblical Studies, I was blessed to take a course in Psalms. I learned so much about the Psalms and how most of them are paying homage to Almighty God or as one professor deemed it, “Kissing the King.”

One aspect of “Kissing the King” is recog-nizing and obeying God’s voice. It is about following His commands; praising a compassionate, merciful God with our lives; and letting our roots go down deep in Him because His reputation is at stake in us. Therefore, we must walk the walk of a believer as well as talk the talk. (Be a doer of His Word [James 1:23].)

“Kissing the King” is letting God use us to rescue the perishing, to engage in

Come Let Us “Kiss The King” (Putting Down Deep Roots In The Inescapable)

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CHAPTER 2

by Evangeline Carey, M.A.

brokenness, and to enter the broken places in our world and bring the light of Jesus Christ, in order to engage in our culture, to engage in our community, and to engage in our world.

Finally, “Kissing the King” is being de-voted and loyal to One who loved us so much that He sent His one and only Son to die a horrendous death on the Cross so that we might have eternal life (see John 3:16).

Consider your own relationship with Al-mighty God (how far your spiritual roots go down into the good soil of God’s Word…[Matthew 13:23]). We want you to consider how you have responded to the Good News of salvation…how you have put down roots in our Lord and Sav-ior, Jesus Christ, and worshipped Him with your all.

Our cover, therefore, should remind you that we worship a Holy (set apart from sin) God who tells us in His inerrant Word, “Ye shall be holy: for I the LORD your God am holy” (from Leviticus 19:2) and “God is a Spirit: and they that wor-ship him must worship him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). Therefore, our roots must go down deep in God’s right-eousness—in God’s holiness. We must connect with the Master.

In essence, God is calling for us, who are “believers,” to not only feel humbled and thankful that He speaks to and calls us, but to also worship Him because He is worthy to be praised.

In the Hebrew, the word “praise” is HA-LAL and means “boast, glory, to flash forth light.”

Therefore, we as believers (whose roots go down deep in the Lord) should go and flash forth the light of God in the dark places of our world!

The word “worship” in Hebrew is pro-skuneo (pro-skoo-NAY-o), and it means kneeling or prostration to give homage (to a superior) or make obeisance, whether in order to express respect or to make supplication.

We worship when we reflect on God’s for-giveness, love, mercy, and faithfulness to us. We worship when we reflect on God’s majesty and the human dignity He has bestowed on us. We worship when we watch God’s sustaining roles in the uni-verse and appreciate how He gave us stewardship over the work of His hand. We worship when we reflect on the fact that God gave us His Laws to support His creation so that there would be order in our lives and when we think of how

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God has provided us refuge in trying times.

When we think of Sovereign God’s rule over all the earth…We should praise and worship Him for His awesome leader-ship. We should be inspired to let our roots go down deep in Him—dig deep into His Word and lift up holy hands to Him and say, “Thank You!” God is in-deed the “Inescapable God,” and He is worthy of our praise and worship at all times.

We should:Praise and worship HimFor sharing our pain,For listening to usAgain and again!We should:Praise and worship HimFor loving us still,Even when we failTo do His will!

We should appreciate our cover, let our roots go down deep in Him, lift up holy hands, and “Kiss our King”—give praises to our Lord and Savior! Praise and wor-ship God because He is our Sustainer, Refuge, Hope, Solid Rock, and Savior. Praise Him because He is God. “Let eve-rything that hath breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD” (Psalm 150:6).

Evangeline Carey was the Developmental Editor of Precepts for Living Commentary for many years.

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It is an early Sunday morning in a small village. The livestock are released. One can hear the noise of metal. Some farm-ers are getting ready to go to the fields, but those who are Christians are prepar-ing themselves for church. Though a poor community in a rural area, they have been touched by the love of Jesus Christ. To refuse to farm on Sunday seemed foolishness to other villagers. For these Christians, it is not only an act of obedience to their Lord, but also an act of sacrifice and thanksgiving for all that He has done.

At about 9:00 a.m., the service starts. Af-ter the whole church prays together, the songs begin. Loud voices are heard from afar as these melodious songs in the ver-nacular language praise the Lord for His power, love, and grace. Everyone is sing-ing, and no one is a spectator. The drum-mers expertly lead the congregational singing with a rhythmic beat that in-duces the desire to dance.

Some cannot hold in their feelings or stand in one place. Their desire is to move up and down or go up front to

Worship From An AfricanPerspective

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CHAPTER 3

by Moussa Coulibaly Ph.D.

make a circle and dance. Young and old, women and men, all are involved in this joyful celebration of the Lord. The mood felt in the awesome presence of God dis-misses fears and anxieties. This is a typi-cal way of worship that can be witnessed all over churches in the sub-Saharan Af-rica.

Worship is the rendering of the Greek word proskunein (pros–KOO-nayn), which means to fall prostrate. Bromiley states that the usage of the word demon-strates that those who fall voluntarily or consciously declare by their attitude the subject of their worship. Worship indi-cates the insufficiency of the worshiper before the subject of his worship.

Worship therefore includes a deep knowl-edge of the Lord and a precise self-knowledge of the worshiper in his rela-tion to whom he worships. As African Christians, many of us have been alien-ated previously from our culture and we had to struggle to capture the real figure of Christ that was presented to us clothed in white.

We cherish dearly whatever object we value. Most often, some of our attitude toward things or people we value or put in high esteem stems from the perceived worth of the subject in relation to our own. Peter, for instance, during the mi-raculous catch of fish in Luke 5:8, said to Jesus: “Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord” (KJV).

Isaiah also expresses awe and reverence for God when he saw His majesty and his own sinfulness; he therefore cried out: “It’s all over! I am doomed, for I am a sin-ful man. I have filthy lips, and I live

among a people with filthy lips. Yet I have seen the King, the LORD of Heaven’s Armies.” (Isaiah 6:5, NLT). It means that genuine worship comes from the recognition of our true selves and the revelation of God to us.

African worship is imbedded in culture. However, many Africans have struggled since the introduction of Christianity by missionaries to capture a real sense of our own modes of worship. Alienation from African culture and the wrong per-ception of Christ as displayed by early missionaries led many Africans to lose their real sense of worship. It was forbid-den at a certain period to use African mu-sical instruments for worship. Instru-ments such as djembe (drum), balafon (xylophone), and the like could stir emo-tions in Africans to express their deepest feeling of appreciation of the majesty, ho-liness, and love of God more than the or-gan or guitar. African worship is full of exuberance with shout of praises, clamor, clappings, and dance.

Spontaneous inspired songs with a repeti-tive chorus for the church to sing in uni-son usually generate a feeling of partici-pation by all the members of the congre-gation. Not every congregation does as stated above. Urban churches conduct worship in a variety of ways, many of which are modern and foreign to tradi-tional African cultures.

Expressions of emotions are part and par-cel of African styles of worship. Jesus told the Samaritan woman that the true worshiper will worship in spirit and truth (John 4:23–24). While the objec-tive aspect of worship is concerned with reasoning, the subjective calls upon the

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feelings and emotions. Objectivity alone in worship can bring dryness in a serv-ice, while subjectivity alone would also lead to mere emotionalism without a real grasp on reality.

Whatever joy or delight we can find in that type of worship, it cannot benefit us unless we discover who Jesus really is. “Who do people say I am?” This was Je-sus’ question to the disciples in Luke 9:18. It is in an encounter with Jesus that His real identity is discovered.

It could be a challenging or crisis situa-tion like in Matthew 14:33. When the dis-ciples saw Jesus walking on water and calming the wind when He entered the boat, they could not do anything but ex-claim, “You are really the Son of God!” (NLT). In the case of the Roman centu-rion in Matthew 27:54, a miraculous event was witnessed. The centurion expe-rienced the earthquake and exclaimed, “This man truly was the Son of God!” (NLT). This discovery of Jesus’ identity triggered a sense of awe to all those who witnessed it.

In Africa today, there is an ongoing search in many Christians’ minds for who Jesus really is. Their struggle to ap-preciate the Christ in a relevant African context is due to the alienation of Afri-cans from themselves in the early part of European evangelism in Africa. This leads us to forcefully reiterate the equally important objective aspect of worship.

As Africans, we also need a major under-standing of God’s self-revelation to the world through the life and ministry of Je-sus Christ. Philip rightly asked Jesus to

show the Father and that will be enough (John 14:8).

Worship also involves attitude and ac-tion. We should exhibit reverence when we approach the Lord of Hosts. It re-minds me of a scene I witnessed in a church, where a ministry leader fell flat on the floor with her face on the ground during church service to express humil-ity for playing the role of God in a drama that just ended. Indeed, some may think she was too spiritual or she exaggerated, but it should be reiterated that our God deserves an attitude of total fear, surren-der, submission, and humility from us.

The frenzied excitement of worship is im-portant, but the reverence should not be out of place. Is He not the “fearsome God” (Genesis 31:53) of Jacob’s father Isaac? People in rural churches in Africa will openly testify to God’s kindness in their lives or answered prayer, and then will celebrate it with spontaneous rhyth-mic songs to the glory of our Lord and Savior. These answered prayers could range from healing, to protection from a fatal accident, to success in an exam, business, or harvest.

Worship has a cultural function in that the one who worships should know his or her own identity. In the past, African culture has been ignored in the worship service with undeniable consequences in the appraisal of true worship by Afri-cans. There is, however, today a danger of attempting to lead African Christians to adopt one type of worship that may ap-pear to best suit a changing society made up of major diversities. Instead musi-cians would do well to adjust their musi-cal choice according to the cultural sensi-

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bilities of the congregation. This will en-sure that the congregation will connect with the worship by being their true selves and at the same time connect with the objective reality of God. In this way, congregations can worship Him in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeks such to worship Him (John 4:23).Moussa Coulibaly holds a Ph.D. from Trinity Evangelical Di-vinity School. He currently serves in his home country of Burkina Faso, planting churches and schools and founding Elim Bible Institute which teaches in two different languages.

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