Those who lead congregations
while claiming
Gods Name and Authority
need to take
accountability forWrong Doing
God responds
to
Repentance, not half truths or
Coverups
Apologize to people when you have done wrong,
You can not preach right behavior, and claim
Right behavior over other people, at the expense of other people,
and expect forgiveness
without acknowledging and correcting
your sinful actions with true repentance
Because of your disobedience, sin,
and
Failure to Gods Word,
You Have Wronged
We have Not wronged you,
you have wronged us.
Worship
is an outward expression
of an inward Truth
If an outward expression isn’t
representing an inward Truth,
It is False
true worship
The apostle Paul described true worship perfectly in Romans 12:1-2: “I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable, or well pleasing and perfect.”
This passage contains all the elements of
true worship
First, there is the motivation to worship: “the mercies of God.” God’s mercies are everything He has given us that we don’t deserve: eternal love, eternal grace, the Holy Spirit, everlasting peace, eternal joy, saving faith, comfort, strength, wisdom, hope, patience, kindness, honor, glory, righteousness, security, eternal life, forgiveness, reconciliation, justification, sanctification, freedom, intercession and much more. The knowledge and understanding of these incredible gifts motivate us to pour forth praise and thanksgiving—in other words, worship!
Also in the passage is a description of the manner of our worship: “present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice.” Presenting our bodies means giving to God all of ourselves. The reference to our bodies here means all our human faculties, all of our humanness—our hearts, minds, hands, thoughts, attitudes—are to be presented to God. In other words, we are to give up control of these things and turn them over to Him, just as a literal sacrifice was given totally to God on the altar. But how? Again, the passage is clear: “by the renewing of your mind.” We renew our minds daily by cleansing them of the world’s “wisdom” and replacing it with true wisdom that comes from God. We worship Him with our renewed and cleansed minds, not with our emotions. Emotions are wonderful things, but unless they are shaped by a mind saturated in Truth, they can be destructive, out-of-control forces. Where the mind goes, the will follows, and so do the emotions. First Corinthians 2:16 tells us we have “the mind of Christ,” not the emotions of Christ.
There is only one way to renew our minds, and that is by the Word of God. It is the truth, the knowledge of the Word of God, which is to say the knowledge of the mercies of God, and we’re back where we began. To know the truth, to believe the truth, to hold convictions about the truth, and to love the truth will naturally result in true spiritual worship. It is conviction followed by affection, affection that is a response to truth, not to any external stimuli, including music. Music as such has nothing to do with worship. Music can’t produce worship, although it certainly can produce emotion. Music is not the origin of worship, but it can be the expression of it. Do not look to music to induce your worship; look to music as simply an expression of that which is induced
by a heart that is rapt by the mercies of God,
obedient to His commands.
True worship is God-centered worship.
People tend to get caught up in where they should worship, what music they should sing in worship, and how their worship looks to other people. Focusing on these things misses the point.
Jesus tells us that
true worshipers will
worship God
in
spirit and in truth
(John 4:24).
This means we worship from the heart and the way God has designed. Worship can include praying, reading God’s Word with an open heart, singing, participating in communion, and serving others. It is not limited to one act, but is done properly when the heart and attitude of the person are in the right place.
It’s also important to know that
worship is reserved only for God.
Only He is worthy and not any of His servants
(Revelation 19:10).
We also should not be worshiping for the expectation of something in return, such as a miraculous healing. Worship is done for God—because He deserves it—and for His pleasure alone. Worship can be public praise to God (Psalm 22:22; 35:18) in a congregational setting, where we can proclaim through prayer and praise our adoration and thankfulness to Him and what He has done for us. True worship is felt inwardly and then is expressed through our actions. "Worshiping" out of obligation is displeasing to God and is completely in vain. He can see through all the hypocrisy, and He hates it. He demonstrates this in Amos 5:21-24 as He talks about coming judgment. Another example is the story of Cain and Abel, the first sons of Adam and Eve. They both brought gift offerings to the Lord, but God was only pleased with Abel’s. Cain brought the gift out of obligation; Abel brought his finest lambs from his flock. He brought out of faith and admiration for God.
True worship is not confined to what we do in church or open praise (although these things are both good, and we are told in the Bible to do them).
True worship is the acknowledgment of God
and all His power and glory in everything we do.
The highest form
of praise and worship is
obedience to
Him and His Word.
To do this, we
must know God;
we cannot
be ignorant of Him
(Acts 17:23).
Worship is to glorify and exalt God—to show our
loyalty and admiration to our Father.
The idea of worshiping the Lord “in spirit and truth” comes from Jesus’ conversation with the woman at the well in John 4:6-30. In the conversation, the woman was discussing places of worship with Jesus, saying that the Jews worshiped at Jerusalem, while the Samaritans worshiped at Mount Gerizim. Jesus had just revealed that He knew about her many husbands, as well as the fact that the current man she lived with was not her husband. This made her uncomfortable, so she attempted to divert His attention from her personal life to matters of religion. Jesus refused to be distracted from His lesson on true worship and got to the heart of the matter: “But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such to worship Him” (John 4:23).
The overall lesson about worshiping the Lord in spirit and truth is that worship of God is not to be confined to a single geographical location or necessarily regulated by the temporary provisions of Old Testament law. With the coming of Christ, the separation between Jew and Gentile was no longer relevant, nor was the centrality of the temple in worship. With the coming of Christ, all of God’s children gained equal access to God through Him.
Worship became a matter
of the heart, not external actions,
and directed
by
truth rather than ceremony.
In Deuteronomy 6:4, Moses sets down for the Israelites how they are to love their God: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” Our worship of God is directed by our love for Him; as we love, so we worship. Because the idea of “might” in Hebrew indicates totality, Jesus expanded this expression to “mind” and “strength” (Mark 12:30; Luke 10:27). To worship God in spirit and truth necessarily involves loving Him with heart, soul, mind and strength.
True worship must be “in spirit,” that is, engaging the whole heart. Unless there’s a real passion for God, there is no worship in spirit. At the same time, worship must be “in truth,” that is, properly informed. Unless we have knowledge of the God we worship, there is no worship in truth. Both are necessary for God-honoring worship. Spirit without truth leads to a shallow, overly emotional experience that could be compared to a high. As soon as the emotion is over, when the fervor cools, the worship ends. Truth without spirit can result in a dry, passionless encounter that can easily lead to a form of joyless legalism. The best combination of both aspects of worship results in a joyous appreciation of God informed by Scripture. The more we know about God, the more we appreciate Him. The more we appreciate, the deeper our worship. The deeper our worship, the more God is glorified.
This melding of spirit and truth in worship is summed up well by Jonathan Edwards, the 18th-century American pastor and theologian. He said, “I should think myself in the way of my duty to raise the affections [emotions] of my hearers as high as possibly I can, provided that they are affected with nothing but truth.” Edwards recognized that truth and only truth can properly influence the emotions in a way that brings honor to God. The truth of God, being of infinite value, is worthy of infinite passion.
In Psalm 61:2, the psalmist David pleads with God, “Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.” At several times throughout the psalm, the author cries out to God and seeks His help. He asks God to “hear” his cry and “listen” to his prayer (Psalm 62:1). Through these exclamations, the psalmist recognizes that he cannot trust in his own strength and pleads with God to be his “rock.”
The psalmist calls out to God from a place of dire need: “From the ends of the earth I call to you, I call as my heart grows faint” (Psalm 61:2). The writer feels isolated and weary; he is fast losing hope. Then comes the petition: “Lead me to the rock that is higher than I” (Psalm 61:2). As he makes the request, David remembers the past help he has received from the Lord: “For you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the foe” (Psalm 61:3). God’s goodness in the past gives David faith to pray in the present difficulty.
When David asks God to “lead me to the rock that is higher than I,” he’s asking God to be his place of refuge. The Bible frequently refers to rocky formations as places of safety and security where one could hide from an enemy. In 1 Samuel 13:6, some Israelite men hid in rocky caves to flee from the pursuing Philistines. In Psalm 18:2, David refers to God as “my rock, in whom I take refuge.” When God is referred to as a “rock,” the picture is not of a small rock that someone could hold in his hand. Rather, God is like a large boulder or even a rocky mountain that serves as a foundation and place of refuge.
When the psalmist asks God to “lead me to the rock that is higher than I,” he’s also asking God to lift him up to a place of shelter and protection. Some understand the phrase “the rock that is higher than I” as a reference to the city of Jerusalem, which sits atop a mountain ridge (see Jeremiah 21:13). However, David could simply be asking God to lead him to God Himself, who is the “highest ground” one could seek. Both in biblical times and today, higher ground is considered safe and secure because it provides a strategic vantage point and is easily defended. Think of how people seek out higher ground when flood waters begin to rise or how combatants in warfare seek to take the higher ground from their enemy.
When we ask God to “lead me to the rock that is higher than I,” we’re acknowledging that He is our refuge and security and that He will provide us protection and shelter in times of trouble.
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