Is it multifaceted? Do they interlink somehow.. the vertical singing, the character, the integrity, the Message, the positive horizontal impact?
We stay connected to Jesus. The branch abides in the Vine and then the fruit easily arrives without any striving.
I challenge you to ask “why”.. more often? What’s the motive? Find out okay. Are you doing it (whatever you’re doing) as pure worship unto the Lord?
Why not? Believer, is the rejoicing with real JOY in Jesus happening? Is your daily decision-making that is adding to your character development done as unto the Lord in worship ..for His glory? Why not? It can!
Ask “why”.. more.. pray about it. And remember to say thank you to the Lord. Yes, thanks for the blessings too. Remember to sing in your heart His praises and out loud in worship to God as well. He’ll change your character by the Living Word!
"Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.." Ephesians 5:19-20
What does it mean that God is a holy God? What is the holiness of God?
What are some Bible verses about joy?
What does the Bible say about music?
What does it mean to “sing to the Lord a new song” (Psalm 96:1)?
What does it mean to make a joyful noise unto the Lord?
Are the Psalms for personal worship? What is a psalm?
God some spiritual convictions, believer? Working, witnessing, serving, waiting can be as unto the Lord in worship. Decision-making which can lead to a believer's personal Christ-like character coupled with godly integrity (keeping that good code)
The Ammonites and Moabites came from the incestuous relationship that Lot had with his two daughters after fleeing their town that was under God’s judgment for wickedness. One of his daughter’s kids (from this strange incest) was named Ammon and the other Moab.
What is the significance of the land of Ammon in the Bible?
What is the significance of Zoar in the Bible?
It was about a faulty decision that Sarah and Abraham made. Remember when they went down to Egypt? Well, that's where they obviously found and came back with Sarah's servant who later became a concubine when there was no offspring. Sarah told her husband Abraham to go into her to produce a child for them. Parents would do that and then call their child their own as a couple. This was Sarah and Abraham's attempt to help out God to fulfill His promise.
Abe and Hagar produced a son named Ishmael and now from him we have the Arab nations that want to destroy the Jews and throw them off into the sea until they are no more a people or nation.
You remember the Edomites came from Rebecca together and Isaac when they had the twins Jacob. And Esau. Christ like character and godly integrity being faithful to.
That code is all about decisions And decision making can be a form of worship. Witnessing and preaching and serving can all be as unto the Lord in worship. Though those activities never replace the need for a quiet time. Or your worship at church, they can nonetheless be worship as unto the Lord.
The goal of redemption.. the goal of evangelism Is acceptable worship unto God?
What are the psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs mentioned in Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16?
What does it mean that “the Lord is my strength and my song” (Exodus 15:2)?
Should an unbeliever be allowed to participate in a church worship team?
What are some Bible verses about music?
What does the New Testament say about music?
What does it mean to praise the Lord?
What does it mean to make a joyful noise unto the Lord?
What does it mean to “bless the Lord, O my soul” in Psalm 103:1?
"But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him." John 4:23 nkjv
True worshipers will worship the Father with truth, not a mixture of truth and error. Father is seeking for such to worship him and what a blessing that is for us, what a privilege too. And His seeking is efficacious, like Christ’s seeking is. It's been that way.
“..for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Luke 19:10 nkjv
The Son of Man came for that purpose, to seek and to save those who are lost in their sin.
So, the Father is seeking, the Son is seeking? They're seeking and are successful, yes their seeking is very efficacious. The Trinity (one God, three distinct Persons in the godhead) really cares about you, so listen to the Spirit and come to the Father through Jesus the son. Right here and now.
They have a people now worshiping them. They have a people evangelizing in the Spirit for their glory. Jesus is forgiving and saving people through his witnessing people that worship.. as He guides them in the witnessing. And the goal of redemption and the goal of evangelism is pure acceptable worship of God.
The the goal of Christ-like character coupled with godly integrity is shining your light (reflecting His light out) in this dark world. God, let the people see the character of Jesus in us. Let them hear His words from us.
It's about being a sound (empowered by the Spirit kind of) witness which can be done as worship unto the Lord. Yes, we live as witnesses daily and verbally give witness.. as unto the Lord in pure worship! Sure, even though the activities can never replace your church worship, or your private quiet time devotional worship. We want to worship all the time!
For many years from age 18, my top priority ministry was involved with being a good witness for Jesus, and I was trusting him to empower me in that way. But those were That was a focus was being and giving verbal witness to wings of a bi-play which ones more important both.
It can't fly. Without The plane can't fly without being a good witness with your character and godly integrity. And it can't be, you can't be a good witness without your verbal. You got to give verbal witness and share the gospel but evangelism church planting missions. So in seeds, watering seeds, tending them, reaping the harvest.
That was what I thought needed to be on top the number one priority ministry. When actually the Bible clearly bears out that worship of God is priority one ministry for you and me. Yes, acceptable worship of God, not of false gods cuz that wouldn’t be acceptable. Not with a bad attitude, cuz that wouldn’t either be.
Biblical worship is the top priority ministry of every Christian for you were made and the praise of his glory And other places you see it, too. We can worship 24/7/365.. every day, not just on Sundays in a church house, that that is important too.
What is a biblical theology of worship?
Are any of the various worship styles unbiblical?
What does it mean to praise God?
What is the difference between praise and worship?
What does the Bible say about worship?
What is adoration in the Bible?
Worship is so important -- it affects your life, your character, your choices, your witness. It's imperative for four reasons to believers.
Reason number one: Scripture demands it, Scripture calls for it by the very volume of Scripture. You might even use the phrase Scripture is filled with it. Worship is important because Scripture is filled with it. Secondly, all of life is affected by it. All of life is affected by it. Thirdly, it is the major theme of redemptive history. It is the major theme of redemptive history. And fourthly, it is commanded. Yep, it is commanded. And that’s a more explicit way of saying number one.
The first reason that we say that worship is important is because Scripture speaks so frequently of it. The Word of God literally repeats, hundreds and hundreds of times, the emphasis on worship. And we can pick out a few select portions, and these are simply selections out of a mass of biblical material. Now, the entire book of the Psalms would be a good starting place.
The second reason that it’s important to worship is because all of life both now and forever depends on it. Worship is not an addendum to life; worship is at the core of life. You see, the people who worship God acceptably enter into eternal life. The people who do not worship God acceptably enter into eternal death. So, worship then becomes the crux. Worship then becomes the core. Time and eternity are determined by the nature of a person’s worship. How you worship is reflective and determinative in your destiny. Now, there are only two kinds of worship you can offer, really. You can either offer acceptable worship or what? Unacceptable worship. And the mass of the world offers unacceptable worship. God will not accept it. The Bible is explicit on this. And there are people today who want to tell us that ultimately everybody is going to get saved. Ultimately everybody is going to be acceptable to God. That is not true. That is not true. The Bible does not say that. The Bible says there is acceptable worship and there is unacceptable worship.
Sup with unacceptable worship? There are four kinds of that. One, the unacceptable worship is the worship of false gods. The second kind of unacceptable worship is the worship of the true God in a wrong way. The third kind of unacceptable worship. The first one is worshipping a false god, the second one is worshipping the true God in an unacceptable manner, and the third one is worship of the true God in a self-styled manner. Not just reducing Him to an idol, not just reducing Him to an image, but reducing His worship or the activity of His worship to some personal definition.
Now, what do I mean by that? Check out in your Bible Leviticus chapter 10. Aaron was the high priest and Aaron had two sons. And they, of course, would be entering into the priesthood. It was a great and wonderful day because this was their ordination day. They had been allowed to accompany Moses to the holy mountain. They had been prepared to be ordained, to function as those who represented God. They had been part of that ordination of the priesthood. This was their first day, really, to be considered as those who would lead in the worship of God. And it says in verse 1: “Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer.” And the censer was that which was filled with incense which was emblematic and symbolic of worship as it rose in its fragrance, as it were, to the nostrils of God it was like their worship pleasing to Him. “They took their censers and put fire therein and put incense thereon and offered strange fire before the Lord which He commanded them not.” Strange fire. Believe it or not, it may well be true that they were drunk.
The fourth and last element of unacceptable worship: do you have the right attitude in this? Because if you don’t, God will find that as unacceptable worship as well.
Listen, turn in your Bible to the book of Malachi, the last book in the Old Testament, and we’ll work our way from there back deeper into the Old Testament to see this truth. And I really believe this provides a death blow to all legalism and all ritualism, all formalism. Malachi the prophet indicting the people of God, indicting them because of their sin, and he does so in many ways in this marvelous prophecy, he points up at least seven sins which are monumental sins of which they’re guilty. But one that stands out and dominates all is that they were involved in worshipping God with the wrong attitude. They were going through it as a functionary, they were just going through the motions and their hearts weren’t in it. They were just like the Pharisees, really, whose heart was far from God.
But just watch. Begin in verse 6 of chapter 1 and Malachi speaks to Israel. “A son honors his father, and a servant his master.” Now, that’s a truism, isn’t it? That’s an established fact. Nobody is going to argue with that. A son normally honors his father, a servant honors his master. That’s the basic principle. “If then I be a father,” and they couldn’t argue with that either, he was their father. “Where is my honor? And if I be a master, where is my reverence? Saith the Lord of hosts unto you, O priests that despise my name.” Now, wait a minute. The priests despised His name? Where is My honor? Where is My worship? And what do the priest’s say? “In what way have we despised Thy name?” What are you saying? How did we do that? We’ve been carrying out our function. We’ve been doing it all just the way the prescription says.
The prophet takes it a step further in verse 7. “Ye offer polluted flesh upon Mine altar, and ye say, ‘In what way have we polluted Thee?’” You know how? Listen to this, “In that ye say, ‘The altar of the Lord,’” that’s what it means. The table of the Lord refers to that altar. “The altar of the Lord is contemptible.” What in the world were they doing? They were treating their worship with contempt. It was strictly a function. It was strictly a routine. It was strictly a ritual. There was no heart. And they were actually bringing to God that which was the least rather than that which was the best. They had contempt for worship.
basically there are four reasons why worship is important. First of all, because Scripture is literally filled with the truth about worship. Secondly, because destiny is marked by worship. Thirdly, because the major theme of eternity and redemptive history included is worship. And fourthly, because Christ commanded us to worship. Scripture, destiny, eternity, and the very command of Christ tell us the importance of worship.
And in order to try to sum up our thinking and draw what we have said together before we go on to the next major point in the text, I would again have you note verse 23. That God seeks true worshippers. That’s the thrust of that most important verse. And what it tells us is the very important truth that the goal of salvation is worship. You need to write that down somewhere. The goal of salvation is worship. The reason God redeems people is so that they may be worshippers. In 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 15 Paul says: “All things are for your sakes,” that is all the things that he goes through to get the gospel out. “That through the abundant grace might, through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.” In other words, everything we do we do that you might receive the grace of God so that in response you might give thanks and glory to God. Everything ultimately is geared to produce worship. Such does the Father seek, according to verse 23. And just as a note for you theologians, I believe that the Father’s seeking is efficacious and indicates His sovereign eternal purpose to save people.
Now, acceptable worship is a VERY important theme for us. It is the essential and direct result of Christ’s saving work. And if you remember that the Lord said He had come into the world to seek and to save that which was lost, and you tie it in with verse 23, you get the whole picture of Christ’s coming. The Father seeks true worshippers; the Son comes to seek and to salve. The seeking of the Father for true worshippers, and the seeking of the Son to save brings the two together. God seeks true worshippers and the only way they can become that is through salvation. Failure to worship God is the violation of Romans 1 that designates the whole world of Christ rejecters. See Psalm 22.
They would stop, and ask, and be lookin in or upon it happening. Christians going vertical in love cuz Jesus is our first-love.
They were curious and kind of spied it all out... like in Germany downtown in a square on the cobblestones. And then we turn towards them too, and would just give simple testimonies, personal stories how how we came to faith in Jesus. We’d share some Scriptures with the gathering crowd, and many people came to Christ, then joined out church. God had used the vertical worship for Him to put out a horizontal witness to others who were lost. He prepared their hearts individually and the people wanted what we had in relationship with God. They’d been yearning for this beautiful relationship we each had with the Lord (many explained this later on with us).
Evangelism is still really important to me on the horizontal. Yes, but my most important ministry of all is upward to God Himself. The vertical worship that is acceptable ..in spirit and in truth.. comes before all horizontal ministry that is also acceptable.. in spirit and in truth. How we live and speak and sing can be as worship unto the Lord today!
You and I don't need a locale, a verbiage, or certain place or position, or posture. Worship can be from anywhere or any position or place when my heart is turned towards God in pure adoration.
For several years, my California. Pastor Chuck really wanted to be like Billy Graham and see similar evangelistic results. And he really concentrated on the altar calls and the winning people to Christ and he even by his own admission put a lot of pressure on the believers in that church for years, but saw few people come to Jesus.
He said he had laid the lash (verbally) across the back of the sheep to get them to fill up the church, to go out and bring the sinners in, to rescue the perishing. But then he realized that it was the well-fed sheep (from the Word of God), that naturally reproduce. They are healthy, they're happy, they're joyous, they’re building relationships, they're blessed and they are the ones that naturally reproduce. Not those who are mistreated, malnourished, underfed, not-yet-healthy-spiritually, and under-cared-for who do the reproducing. They don’t.. don’t even feel like it.
So, Chuck started to teach the whole Bible, to sing, to preach and evangelize.. things changed for him and many people repented and believed until that church in Costa Mesa So Cal had 30,000 people regularly coming to be fed. How Chuck lived, cared for the people, and taught changed and it was all as unto the Lord in worship. God changed his Character and decisions -- it was acceptable worship now. And he didn’t become too busy for time with Jesus alone. He didn’t scrap his quiet time of devotional worship either. Worship comes before the work. Remember Mary and her sister Martha.
Chuck desired to give out all the counsels of God and did at least eight times teaching through the whole Bible for decisions.
Is the lawn greening evenly, or are there burn marks in the grass, are there pattern stripes or neglected areas in the lawn? No, for Chuck Smith Sr. it was even because he prayerfullly taught the next chapter and verse all the way through for God’s glory! Pastor, as you worship, as you lovingly, passionately zealously preach and wisely teach through all the councils of God for decisions, the people will see Christ in you and they will come to Christ. The singing, the witnessing, the preaching, the serving can become acceptable worship--it’ll change your character so it’s godly. The teaching of the Word is directed towards saints, and the preaching of the Word (the Gospel message) is directed towards lost sinners for a decision by each of them. It all can be worship with godly integrity.
What does the Bible say about Christian character?
Need some Bible verses about character?
How does bad company corrupt good character (1 Corinthians 15:33)?
Is God perfect? He is flawless. God the living Son probably still has some scars from your sins and mine -- yes, from the Cross where He died for us.
"He who walks with integrity walks securely, but he who perverts his ways will become known." Proverbs 10:9 (all vss nkjv)
"The integrity of the upright will guide them, But the perversity of the unfaithful will destroy them." Proverbs 11:3
"He who walks in his uprightness fears the Lord, but he who is perverse in his ways despises Him. In the mouth of a fool is a rod of pride, but the lips of the wise will preserve them." Proverbs 14:2-3
"The righteous man walks in his integrity; His children are blessed after him." Proverbs 20:7
"Whoever walks blamelessly will be [a]saved, but he who is perverse in his ways will suddenly fall." Proverbs 28:18
6 For the Lord gives wisdom;
From His mouth come knowledge and understanding;
7 He stores up sound wisdom for the upright;
He is a shield to those who walk uprightly;
8 He guards the paths of justice,
And preserves the way of His saints.
9 Then you will understand righteousness and justice,
Equity and every good path.10 When wisdom enters your heart,
And knowledge is pleasant to your soul,
11 Discretion will preserve you;
Understanding will keep you,
12 To deliver you from the way of evil,
From the man who speaks perverse things,
13 From those who leave the paths of uprightness
To walk in the ways of darkness;
14 Who rejoice in doing evil,
And delight in the perversity of the wicked;
15 Whose ways are crooked,
And who are devious in their paths..” Proverbs 2:6-15 nkjv
"For the upright will dwell in the land, and the blameless will remain in it; but the wicked will be cut off from the [b]earth, and the unfaithful will be uprooted from it." Proverbs 2:21-22
"When I was my father’s son, tender and the only one in the sight of my mother, He also taught me, and said to me: “Let your heart retain my words; Keep my commands, and live. Get wisdom! Get understanding! Do not forget, nor turn away from the words of my mouth. Do not forsake her, and she will preserve you; Love her, and she will keep you." Proverbs 3:4-6
“Exalt her, and she will promote you; She will bring you honor, when you embrace her. She will place on your head an ornament of grace; A crown of glory she will deliver to you.” Hear, my son, and receive my sayings, And the years of your life will be many. I have taught you in the way of wisdom; I have led you in right paths. When you walk, your steps will not be hindered, And when you run, you will not stumble. Take firm hold of instruction, do not let go; Keep her, for she is your life. Do not enter the path of the wicked, And do not walk in the way of evil.” Proverbs 4:8-14
"Righteousness guards him whose way is blameless, but wickedness overthrows the sinner." Proverbs 13:6
"Better is a little with righteousness, than vast revenues without justice." Proverbs 16:8
“Better is the poor who walks in his integrity than one who is perverse in his lips, and is a fool.” Proverbs 19:1
"A wicked man hardens his face, but as for the upright, he establishes his way." Proverbs 21:29
"A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, Loving favor rather than silver and gold." Proverbs 22:1
Photos by James Barr, and Edward Cisneros
