Why Do We Worship?

Jeff Peper
Written By Jeff Rybacki
 

“And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, ‘Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!’ And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, ‘Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.’”

Revelation 4:8-11

Do you ever wonder why we worship? It’s a traditional portion of our Sunday Morning gathering that we probably don’t give much consideration. Is it our subtle reminder to finish up our conversation and find our seat? Is it meant to be a buffer for those who may have overslept or those that might need a quick refill on coffee? If you’re like my family maybe it’s the last chance for your kids to take much needed bathroom break so they don’t have to stand up during the sermon later, even though they can manage to watch YouTube for an entire Saturday without going to the bathroom. Is worship primarily aimed at those folks that are musically inclined or those who enjoy a live version of the latest Chris Tomlin song?

You probably know the answer is none of those things, although they are many of the nuances that worship has seemed to take on. So why do we worship? Why do we take 15-20 minutes at the beginning of the service and another five at the end to sing songs?

Our goal for worship to prepare our hearts for the message AND remind us of what is to come.

Now I’m not a worship director, so there’s probably a myriad of reasons to worship but I would focus today’s devotion on the preparing our hearts for the message and to remind us of what is to come.

I’ve rarely found that I did not enjoy a message when my heart was prepared to receive it; in other words when I’ve used our time of worship to focus on our Savior and what he has done for me. Conversely, sermons that seem to go on forever are usually the ones where I’ve allowed all the other things going on in my life to distract me from worship. This preparing of our hearts during worship opens us up to what God’s word has to say, so even when the preaching is given awkwardly—as you have been subjected to in the last four weeks by the Elders—there is still spiritual growth because you are hearing God’s word. You remove the need for witty remarks, awe-inspiring parallels which can ultimately distract from the Gospel. God’s word is capable of standing on its own, when we struggle to connect with a message it usually has much more to do with our heart than with the person preaching.

Some of you may not care much about singing and actually find it a little awkward. I began to worship as we do on Sunday morning when I was still in high school so admittedly, I don’t struggle much with singing. However, there are other things that my pride gets in the way of so I can understand. However, we see much evidence of singing songs/hymns in the new testament, Matthew 26:30, Acts 16:25, Ephesians 5:19-20 has a word on the matter:

“addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ”

I would encourage you to allow yourself to worship, allow yourself to not worry about what those around you might think but to really use the time to imagine your future time with Christ. Because, worship is also a picture of what is to come.

We will spend all of eternity worshipping God, there will be no more need to preach ourselves the Gospel. Worship does not need to be elegant or sophisticated. The four living creatures say “‘Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” While I may enjoy the richness of hymns sprinkled into my Sunday morning worship, there is a wonderful simplicity to the worship we see here. Not only is the subject simple, so it can be understood by all, it is also repeated indefinitely. Think of how many songs we sing that repeat the word “Holy”, or “Hallelujah”? As much as we might like to point to the rich theology of a great hymn like the Old Rugged Cross or Amazing Grace, we will have no words to describe being with God other than the simple words Holy and Hallelujah. Take a moment today and imagine that. Imagine yourself in the throne room as John found himself when he was given his revelation and imagine what you might say? You would likely say little, you would be too filled with awe. You would say “Holy”—because God is and you would say “Hallelujah”—because you’re there.

When we come on Sunday morning find your seat early and when worship begins set that time aside to worship our King and prepare your heart for the message that is about to come.

 
Jeff Rybacki
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