INTRODUCING WORSHIP By Jim Cornwall

INTRODUCING WORSHIP
By Jim Cornwall

Scottsdale Worship Center
6508 E Cactus Rd
Scottsdale, AZ 85254
(602) 483-2401

Several years ago when I founded Scottsdale Worship Center, one of my first considerations was a proper name for the church. I had determined that this church would be a worshiping church, and since it was located in Scottsdale, Scottsdale Worship Center seemed to be a logical choice.

One of the distinctives of our church is our emphasis on public worship. Every service includes a time not only of singing, but of praising vocally and physically. We recognize that the Bible declares: "'Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless the LORD" (Psalm 1334:2); "O clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph" (Psalm 47:1), and "Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs" (Palm 150:4).

Every Sunday, as part of my call to worship, I tell the visitors that we may worship God differently from the way they worship. I ask them to be tolerant with us and tell them that we, in turn, will not insist that they join us in our method of worship. I only ask that in whatever way they are comfortable, they praise the Lord with us.

I have found that many persons enjoy the liberty of our worship, but they do not understand why we worship God with such enthusiasm. My simple answer is, "God has commanded it." It is my goal, in writing this booklet, to give the reader a broader understanding of why we worship as we do.

It may be comforting to you to know that my first reaction to a praise based worship service was one of distress. I had many mixed feelings because the style of worship was so different from mine. As I watched, however, I soon realized that I was among people who truly knew how to worship God. I sensed they had moved to a level far beyond my own experience. In all honesty, I finally cried out to the Lord, "I don't know how to worship!"

"But I do," the Holy Spirit seemed to say to me, "and I will teach you if you will let Me."

I must confess I didn't learn how to worship in just one service. But the Holy Spirit was very patient with me, and I was willing to learn. I found my level of worship rising as the months went by. The more I saw of God's loving and holy character, the more I wanted to worship Him with greater freedom.

Sometimes we are unaware of the effect that our nature, culture, and training can have on our spiritual lives. The essence of this world, and our old sin nature, strongly resist -and resent- real freedom in worship. We feel strange and uneasy about any outward display of devotion to God.

True, we may be comfortable with certain forms of worship if we are familiar with them. We hold back, however, when faced with a freedom in worship that goes beyond our past religious training or experience.

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of worship. As our teacher and motivator, He deeply wants to move us on to higher levels of worship. It is God's Spirit that enables us to cry, "Abba Father" - the happy cry of a little child to his father. It is hard, however, for the proud minds of men and women to take on the humble, obedient attitude of a little child. Let me discuss with you the who, when, and why of worship and four basic factors of worship.

THE WHO OF WORSHIP

Through the prophet, God declared: "All flesh shall come to worship before Me, saith the Lord" (Isaiah 66:23). This is not merely a declaration of universal worship; it affirms that God will be the sole object of that worship.

"To worship or not to worship" has never been the question, for all God's created beings are inherently worshippers. Heaven is full of worship. It is the stuff of which heaven is made. The book of Revelation progressively shows worship being performed by every inhabitant of heaven, including mankind.

No matter how vehemently he or she may deny it, each person on earth is instinctively a worshipper. It is in his genetic strain! No, the issue has never been shall we worship or not? It is more consistently a question of who, when, and why shall we worship?

The object of our worship is the greatest point of controversy in worship. According to Isaiah 14, Lucifer's fall was perpetrated because of high-level pride that caused him to desire to become the object of heaven's worship. He has never lost this aspiration. From his temptation of Eve in Eden to the temptation of Christ in the wilderness, Satan consistently recruited worshippers from among earth's inhabitants, and he still does.

Satan so greatly desired the worship of Christ that he offered Him full control of this earth and all of its inhabitants in exchange for it. Some have seen an opportunity for Christ to have bypassed the cross through this act; restoring man to God's dominion without the ignominy of becoming sin and suffering Calvary. This proposed "shortcut" was probably the root of that temptation.

Jesus beautifully withstood the temptation by paraphrasing Deuteronomy 6:13: "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve" (Matthew 4:10). These few words of Jesus cut right to the core of our main problem with worship -- the person to be worshipped and the priority of worship.

As to the person of worship, all fundamental Bible-believing Christians agree with Jesus that God the Father is the only acceptable object of worship. They know about God's expressed hatred of idol worship and have read in the Old Testament of God's repeated punishment of those who worshipped anything besides the true and living God. They accept, intellectually at least, God's demand for a monopoly upon their worship.

Most of these have also memorized Christ's pointed statement on worship from John 4:23: "The hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth." And yet for all of their mental acquiescence to God's exclusive rights to their worship, even a casual observer will discover fundamental Christians offering worship to lesser gods in their lives.

If we will accept the dictionary's definition of worship as: "to adore, to revere, to exalt, to magnify, to dote, to admire, or to esteem," then it becomes quite obvious that many Christians worship, to a lesser extent perhaps, many things that are beneath the image of God.

Some exalt their denomination in a manner that at least borders on worship. Others dote dangerously on their pastor, while still others magnify a doctrinal truth almost to the place of God himself.

We've all seen people, even God-fearing saints, who so loved their possessions as to become worshippers of them, and others have disgusted us as they became worshippers of themselves.

Not that anyone intends for his affections to get out of control and direct his or her worship to something less than God, but still it happens all too frequently. For what we love will soon become what we worship, since worship is merely an expression of love in its highest form. Perhaps this is why the Bible so clearly commands us: "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him" (I John 2:15).

So the key to maintaining the Divine monopoly in worship is to: "Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength…" (Mark 12:30). When everything within us loves God fully, He alone will be the object of our worship. Otherwise, we will be as vacillating in our worship as we are in our loving. To worship the Lord exclusively leaves no room for other objects of homage. He will be Lord of all or not Lord at all.

When the Anglican marriage ceremony asks the man to vow to his bride: "and with my body I worship thee…" it exemplifies how easily we can move from love and adoration to reverence and veneration - worship! It seems that idolatry is inherent in each of us, for worshipping something short of God is always easier than worshipping God Himself. We find it easier to relate and respond to the intangible; to the seen than to the unseen. Yet God is the only truly acceptable object of our worship - "Him only."

THE WHEN OF WORSHIP

Still, in reminding Satan that God the Father was the exclusive object of worship, Christ also established the divine priority of worship over service in saying: "Thou shalt worship... and thou shalt serve." Worship first; service second. Until we have fulfilled the worship requirement, we cannot serve properly. All service must flow out of worship lest it become a substitute for worship. We learned long ago that God will curse a substitute, but may well bless a supplement.

Nothing can acceptably substitute worship. Consider the plight of the widower who hires a housekeeper, a cook, and a nurse for his children. He is being served very acceptably, but does this substitute for the love of his deceased wife? Of course not! Neither does our service substitute for loving God in worship.

Still, service is part of our Christian walk. It is not an either/or situation; it is both/and. We will worship and serve the Lord God--in that order!

Christians need to be careful lest they get so busy working for God that they have no time for God. Activity can become the enemy of adoration, as surely as service can become a substitute for submission and supplication.

How many marriage partners become so engrossed in doing for his or her mate that he or she no longer takes the time to love and adore her husband or his wife? The wife is so busy with the house and the children while husband is so taken up with his business and activities outside the home that they become strangers to each other. The love that drew them to one another is consistently neglected and has been replaced with service to each other. But no amount of service, however devoted it may be, can replace the interpersonal relationship so needed to maintain a viable marriage. The home needs the constant undergirding of expressed love, and out of this love-flow will proceed all needed service.

The same principle is true regarding our relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is repeatedly called "our husband," and we are called "His wife." We were drawn to Him by His love, and He responded to us because of our love for Him. If we let this love relationship diminish because we are so busy serving Him, we will jeopardize everything that this relationship has produced. Jesus told His disciples: "Henceforth I call you not servants... but I have called you friends" (John 15:15). We have not been chosen merely to serve, but He has ordained us to be with Him (see Mark 3:14). He enjoys our service unto Him and invites us to serve with Him, but He cannot accept service that is offered as a substitute for worship. He did not die to present to Himself a fully trained servant, but a spotless bride. Out of that marriage will come beautiful service!

THE WHY OF WORSHIP

By observing Christ's statement to Satan, we automatically settle the who and the when of worship, which leaves only the all important why of worship. Just why do we worship? Is it to fulfill a command of God's Word? Is it done to meet needs in our spiritual nature? Or do we do it because it gives such pleasure to God? Hopefully, we worship for all of these reasons and many more. But perhaps the two major reasons for worship are:

1. Worship brings us into a right relationship with God and with ourselves.
2. Worship brings us into a right expression of ourselves to God.

Worship teaches us much about ourselves, about our God, and about' our responses.

Matthew tells about a Syrophenician resident of Canaan who seems to have heard that Jesus was preparing to visit her area of Tyre and Sidon. She practically met the boat at the shore, and the moment she saw Jesus she cried: "Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil" (Matthew 15:22). She may have heard that blind Bartimeus was healed by yelling a similar cry (see Mark 10:47) or that two pairs of blind men, on widely separate occasions, had been restored to sight by crying this plea (Matthew 10:27 and 20:30). Somehow this formula seemed to crop up repeatedly in the stories that had come out of Jerusalem. It had always seemed to work. Until now, that is. For no matter how earnestly, loudly, or passionately she cried this formula, Jesus "answered her not a word" (Matthew 15:23).

The actions of the disciples proved that she had been heard, for they pled with Jesus to send her away to get rid of the disturbances. But instead of complying with their request, Jesus replied: "I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Matthew 15:24).

In this one stage whisper, spoken loudly enough for the woman to hear, Jesus unmasked the deceit and hypocrisy of her petitioning. She had been claiming a non-existent relationship with Christ. In imploring Him as the "Son of David" she was apparently claiming to be an Israelite. This was untrue, for the gospel writers clearly identify her as a Gentile. But because she did not feel that Gentiles had any claim upon Christ, she masqueraded as a daughter of Israel who had covenant claims on the "Son of David." All this pretense got for her was total silence.

When God gives us the silent treatment, it is usually because we, too, are claiming a non-existent relationship. We, like her, pick up formulas that have worked beautifully for others and cry them religiously, whether they work or not.

How many who have never been born again pray, "Our Father which art in Heaven?" Carnal Christians use the prayer language of the true bride, while the rebellious plead with God in their hour of trouble with the same expressions as the submitted saints. This will always be met by divine silence. God does not respond to hypocrisy, since He is truth by nature. We have been instructed to "draw near with a true heart" (Hebrews 10:22). Any form of deceit will deny us an audience with God. Someone has been quoted to say: "Either live it or don't lip it."

Nevertheless, we go on giving lip service to the words that meant life to our fathers and to the founders of our denominations, often unaware that we have only the liturgy, not the life, of these men. We have expressed the words as fact for so long that we are unaware that they have become a fable. We have extendedly claimed a non-existent faith until we cannot recognize our fraud. What can bring us out of our guile back into His grace? Worship!

Immediately after Jesus unmasked this imposter, "Then came she and worshipped Him, saying, Lord, help me" (Matthew 15:25). Likely, she prostrated herself before Him, perhaps even grabbing Him by the ankles and kissing His feet. She completely submitted herself to Him and poured out both her worship and her plea for help. And it worked. It always works! Worship is a dooropener that gives the supplicant ingress to God. All men have been invited to worship God, converted and unconverted alike.

The psalmist sang: "My mouth shall speak the praise of the LORD: and let all flesh bless his holy name for ever and ever" (Psalm 145:21), and John saw a great company in Heaven singing the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb ending it with these words: "For all nations shall come and worship before Thee" (Revelation 15:4). Even if we can claim no covenant that will afford us entrance to Christ, we can open the door to His presence with worship. When our faith has failed and we falter in our approach to Him, we can always fall back on worship, for worship is a consistent door-opener.

It is only fair to point out, however, that this door-opener to Christ automatically becomes an open door that allows Him to get to us. Immediately after she began to worship Jesus, Jesus began to probe into the depths of her heart. "It is not meet to take the children's bread," He said, "and cast it to the dogs" (Matthew 15:26). In other words, He said: "You've claimed to be a daughter of Abraham, but in their eyes you're nothing but a dog."

These have always seemed like harsh words, but they were spoken by the world's greatest example of a perfect gentleman. Christ was not condemning her, He was merely unveiling her to herself. He was bringing her, "not to think more highly of herself than she ought to think" (Romans 12:3). J.B. Phillips translates this verse: "Don't cherish exaggerated ideas of yourself or your importance, but try to have a sane estimate of your capabilities by the light of the faith that God has given to you all" (The New Testament In Modern English, J.B. Phillips).

Our Lord was merely helping to adjust this woman's self-concept, and He did it while she was worshipping. As she exalted Him in worship, He exposed her worthlessness. While she spoke of His Majesty ("Lord"), He spoke of her hypocrisy. His goal was not to depreciate her, but to help her appreciate her true relationship to Himself, for until she did, He could not respond to her without condoning her falsehood. But if she would accept His appraisal and respond accordingly, He could and would minister to her need. Truth can relate to truth.

Isn't it when we are worshipping that God reveals us to ourselves? It was so with Isaiah. He, who was likely the most godly man of his generation, when caught up into God's presence cried out: "Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of Hosts" (Isaiah 6:5).

At this season of his life, Isaiah was a counselor and tutor in the courts of earthly kings, but when worship brought him into the presence of the Heavenly King, he not only "saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up" (Isaiah 6:1), but he saw himself defiled and dirty. It is only when we are in the presence of Heaven's majestic King that we gain a true picture of ourselves. Compared with another, we may look great, but contrasted to Him, we lose all artificial glory.

So the Lord's response to the woman's worship was to call her a dog. How did she handle that? The only sensible way we can ever handle His evaluation of us - she said: “Truth, Lord" (Matthew 15:27). For until we acquiesce to His appraisal, communication with Him is ended. He has revealed our position and our condition; the next move is ours.

But admitting the truth that she was as separated from a covenant relationship with Christ as a dog is beneath his owner did not devastate this woman. She wisely changed her style of approach to match His estimate of her and gained everything she desired. She merely told Jesus, "Yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table" (Matthew 15:27). She simply said: "If I am a dog, don't deny me a dog's privileges!" We can learn no greater principle than to approach Christ consistent to our true nature. If we are "a dog," our nature has not yet been changed by a Divine transformation, we can sit up, wag our tail, and lick the hand of the Master.

If we're an infant in Christ, we can make pleasant "gooing" sounds and smile a lot. If we're a toddler, we can crawl to Him, pat Him, and say "da-da."
But for a mature saint to do this would be ridiculous. He should approach Christ as a Christian adult. In worship we must approach Christ consistent with our current relationship with Him.

We need not await a voice from Heaven saying, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased" (Matthew 17:5), before praising and worshipping God. We can come just as we are. He can cleanse us as surely as He cleaned Isaiah, and change us as completely as He changed Nebuchadnezzar or Saul of Tarsus. We merely need to respond to Him as we are and from where we are, and it is worship that opens the door for this revelation to come.

It is, indeed, worship that brings us into a right relationship with God and with ourselves. But it also brings us into a right expression of ourselves to God.
Perhaps as dramatic an example of worship to be found in the Bible is the story of Mary washing the feet of Jesus. All four Gospels record the event, and Jesus said that wherever the gospel would be preached, her deed would be spoken of as a memorial to her (Mark 14:9).

Remember that Mary still overflowed with gratitude to Jesus for raising her brother, Lazarus, from the dead. Her whole way of life was rescued in that resurrection, for the lot of the widows and the unmarried woman was tenuous. Too frequently, they were exploited and stripped of all possessions.

When she looked into the home of Simon, the Leper, and saw that Lazarus was being highly honored at the banquet, but that Jesus was being treated like any other guest, it broke her heart. He was not being properly appreciated. Simon's expression of thanks to Jesus was grossly insufficient.

Slipping quickly to her home nearby, she sought out an alabaster box full of liquid nard and returned to Simon's house where she broke it, allowing the spikenard to flow over Jesus' head, down His beard, and onto His garments. Then she bathed His feet with her tears, and wiped them dry with her hair.

In contrast to the others who had merely taken Christ's presence for granted, she made a right expression of herself to her Lord. She worshipped. She loved, not from a distance, but in intimate fellowship. She was not content to say thanks with a dinner; she had to worship with a deed that pleased her emotions of love, adoration, thanksgiving, and reverence. She had to touch, to kiss, to weep, and to bow in order to thoroughly pour out herself on Jesus. The spikenard was merely a symbol of what was really being poured out on Jesus -- Mary herself! This is the heart and core of true worship -- the unashamed pouring out of our inner self upon the Lord Jesus Christ in affectionate devotion.

FACTORS IN WORSHIP

Mark's account of Mary's selfless act of worship (Chapter 14) demonstrates four distinct factors in worship. The first of these is that worship is costly. The disciples quickly calculated that this liquid nard could have been sold for at least three hundred pence, which equaled a full year's salary for a working man. Translated into today's earning power, it would be closer to twenty thousand dollars. That's quite a price to pay just to worship Jesus acceptably.

But the monetary value was probably the smallest part of the price. This costly oil had been saved for one of two reasons: either as a dowry for marriage or to assure a proper burial. Both were vitally important to this Jewish maiden. When Mary poured out the ointment, she was surrendering all her plans, ambitions, and aspirations for the future. Worshipping in the present was far more important than longing for the future. In Verse 8, Jesus said of her act, "She is come aforehand (Greek ' now') to anoint my body to the burying." True worship often costs us some of our self-centered plans and ambitions. It requires us to put God's glory above our goals.

A second factor of worship that is illustrated here is that worship invokes criticism. The fragrance of this perfume had scarcely reached the nostrils of the disciples until they were vocally critical that the ointment had not been sold and the money given to the poor. While social service is laudable, and Jesus even required it, there is also a time and place to minister unto the Lord.

I've received more criticism because of worshipping than any other activity into which I've ever led a congregation. Somehow people still seem to feel that it is a waste to pour out anything directly upon the Lord. I've seen husbands, who had never complained because their wives worked at the church supper or served as volunteer secretary to the staff, become incensed and prohibit their wives from attending worship sessions. We should be prepared for and expect criticism if we become worshippers.

The third factor of worship that Mary illustrates is the need for brokenness. The liquid nard was permanently sealed in a stone container. To release it required breaking the bottle. Similarly, worship, which is resident in the spirit of every saint, is sealed in by the outer container of the soul and body. Worship can never be released until something happens to rupture this stony container. Presenting the bottle would not have been worship; it would have been an offering. Fracturing the alabaster box allowed the oil to flow as an anointing to the body of the Lord.

David, who knew much about being broken before the Lord, wrote: "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou will not despise" (Psalm 51:17). The Hebrew words he used are extremely strong. For the "broken spirit" he used the word shabor which means to shiver, to break to pieces, or to reduce to splinters. For "the broken heart," he used the Hebrew word dakah which means to crumble, to beat to pieces, to bruise, to crush, or to humble.

Spiritual worship requires a splintering of our prides, a crumbling of our natural reserves, a bruising of our self-sufficiencies, as well as a crushing of our self-will. The beating to pieces of our carnal nature will release our emotions to flow out in tears of repentance, submission, and love. I am not calling for us to become sadistic or cruelly introspective, but we need to break and crush everything we have developed in our lives that prevents true humility and love from flowing out. Very often hardness of heart is a defense built up against being wounded by others. We need no such defenses when with Jesus. He will never wound--He is the healer of wounds!

The hard-hearted person cannot worship; he or she must be content with mere rituals of worship. It is the tender-hearted, the gentle-spirited people who can pour out their inner spirit upon God. One must be able to respond positively to projected love, for the true essence of worship is love responding to love. In praise we may express our love to God, but in worship we respond to His expressed love for us.

When David was hiding in the cave of Adullam, fully reduced to splinters by Saul's murderous pursuit, he wrote: "The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart…" (Psalm 34:18). Brokenness, which is necessary to worship in order to release our inner man, also assures us the nearness of the Lord, without which worship is impossible, for worship can only be performed when we are in His presence--when we are conscious of His love flowing out to us. Worship, you see, is a response.

A fourth factor in worship that is alluded to in this story is that worship is reciprocal; we get something in return. When Mary held the alabaster box over the head of Jesus and broke it with a hammer or a stone, the oil gushed out over His head. She quickly rubbed it into the hair and beard, and transferred the drippings to His feet. Then she let her long tresses fall and used her hair to wipe up the residue. When she left the banquet room, people could sniff and say, "She's the one; I can tell, for she smells exactly like Jesus does."

When we pour worship out on the Lord Jesus Christ, we also get it all over ourselves. As we go out from His presence, we carry the fragrance of Christ everywhere we go. Paul recognized this when he wrote: "God ...maketh manifest the savour of His knowledge by us in every place" (2 Corinthians 2:14). Worshippers tend to smell like the love of God.

Just as the Old Testament priest carried the fragrance of God's incense in his hair and clothes after he had tended the golden altar, so we give the world a demonstration of the sweetness of our Lord after we have worshipped. The worship permeates our very nature and is as pleasant as a rare perfume. Worship is very reciprocal, for we benefit as much from it as He does.

THE HOLY SPIRIT SETS THE MOOD FOR WORSHIP

It is the Holy Spirit who sets the tone or mood of worship. By "mood" we mean a state of mind or feeling. God is a Person. He always has a purpose which is upon His heart and mind for His people whenever they come together. The Holy Spirit always knows the will and mind of God. Therefore, He will seek to set the tone and theme of a service in line with God's purpose.

Sometimes the tone or mood of a meeting may change. There may be a heavy spirit of grief for those who are away from God. After repentance, the mood of the meeting might change to one of great joy. It is important, therefore, for us to be sensitive to the leading of God's Spirit.

The Spirit of God will always bring a sense of expectation to our services of worship. He is always ready to move in the fresh, new ways of ministry. Even familiar forms of worship, therefore, should never become old or boring.

We cannot successfully copy Mary's act of worship. Expressions of worship are unique and varied. We may look on the blessings of last week and say: "This is how it worked then; so let's try it again today." However, in trying to make it "work again," we lose the freshness and life of God's Spirit.

For this reason, we must be careful to follow after the new ways of the Spirit--even if He wishes to lead us beyond the set form of our liturgy. Rather than conform to the pattern of another or to repeat what has been done before, we need to be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit. He understands worship far better than we do. The Spirit of God is a person, and has many different moods. We need to be sensitive to the mood He brings to a meeting, and move in that direction. If He is in a mood of rejoicing, we also should rejoice. If He is in a giving mood, we should respond wisely by giving to God. Whatever He is doing, we should do it with Him. This is the only way we can really worship the Father as we have been created and called to do!

The Holy Spirit keeps our worship from becoming dull and routine. The Spirit of God always blows where He wills -- in fresh, new ways. It is a glorious thing!

In a way, we have to "open the windows" at the beginning of a service, and ask the Holy Spirit to "blow upon us." In our hearts, we want to be led by God. Sometimes, however, we may be afraid of anything new and different. In that case, sadly, we may try to keep the windows tightly closed.

We are responsible to be open to the Spirit and be aware of where He is taking us. The Holy Spirit wants to glorify Jesus; and we do too. That means He will faithfully lead us into worship -- worship which will be new and different every time!

Since it is inherent in our natures to be worshippers, may God clearly lead us to know the true "who," the correct "when," and the manifold "why" of worship as we embrace the factions of worship and the mood of the Holy Spirit for the service. Both God and we will greatly benefit from this!