"Worship" (Column published in January 2021)

[Pastor Stephen Yang’s ‘Christian Faith Column’]

"Worship"

(Column published in January 2021)

Written by/Pastor Stephen Yang

Senior Pastor, Goback Church

http://gobackchurch.org

We are publishing this column to help Christians live their lives of faith in this era of Corvid19 outbreak.

It has become difficult to gather at church and engage in religious activities such as worship or prayer meetings.

I believe that believers who have weaker faith and less biblical knowledge are in a difficult situation than anyone else in an unfamiliar situation that has never existed in the past.

At a time when there are few churches or pastors offering alternatives, I would like to do my best to provide even a small amount of help to the best of my knowledge.

Today, we will learn about ‘worship’ as the first topic.

Ladies and gentlemen, what is worship?

This question and its answer will be the key to how we should live our worship life in the COVID-19 era and how we can maintain our faith.

Worship is for God. Christian worship is a ceremony that humans perform entirely for God.

Worshiping God, who created the universe, is a natural duty and a very normal response to God, the Creator of human beings.

The purpose of God, the Creator, in creating humans is to receive praise and worship through humans, to listen to the prayers of his creatures, to respond to their petitions, and to receive glory through their praise, joy, and gratitude. 

Therefore, we can say that the definition of worship is a comprehensive ceremony that achieves God's purpose of creating humans. 

In Genesis 8:20 of the Bible, we can see Noah's life of worship.

It is written, “Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it."

Also, Genesis 13:18

  “So Abram went to live near the great trees of Mamre at Hebron, where he pitched his tents. There he built an altar to the LORD."

2 Samuel 24:25

  “David built an altar to the LORD there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. Then the LORD answered his prayer in behalf of the land, and the plague on Israel was stopped."

1 Chronicles 21:26

  “David built an altar to the LORD there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. He called on the LORD, and the LORD answered him with fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offering."

In addition, the worship of many of our ancestors of faith is clearly shown in the Bible.

It can be seen that all of them consistently risked their lives to worship God. Therefore, naturally, their worship was overflowing with God's response.

True worship, that is, worship accepted by God, is always followed by God's response.

So how should such an important worship service be held?

Let's find out how to worship so that God will be pleased.

In the Old Testament era, God was kind enough to send down fire from heaven on the altar and let the flame pass between the ribs of the animals that had been cut apart into pieces, allowing the worshipers to witness with their own eyes whether or not they had received their worship.

However, as Christians now worship God through church services rather than ancestral rites, I know that many church members feel frustrated because they cannot tell whether the Lord truly accepts their worship or does not accept it at all.

So how should we, who live a life of faith within the structure of the 21st-century modern church, worship God?

This is the ultimate question for today.

We have no choice but to find the answer through the Bible.

I would also like to tell you that since there is no answer to this in any academic field in the world, we must rely only on the Bible.

John 4:23

"Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks."

Romans 12:1

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship."

Through these two Bible verses, we can find the worship method that believers who worship God in modern churches should adopt.

First of all, when you worship God, you must worship with truth and spirit. What this means is that you must worship with a sincere heart, with love and reverence for God, in a communication relationship with God the Holy Spirit.

In other words, this means that it should not be done as if it were a formal ceremony, and since God is spirit, worship should be held amid spiritual communication between God the Holy Spirit and oneself.

This means that physical worship and ceremonial acts that only have an external appearance should not be done. We must always strive to worship in a way that allows our soul to communicate and commune with the Holy Spirit of God. 

Then the following question arises. 

So how can we offer such worship? 

The answer to that lies in Romans 12:1, which we have already read. 

“… .. to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship."

It means offering our bodies, our lives, and our very lives as living sacrifices in worship.

This means that we should use all of our lives as a sacrifice for worship.

It is a life of obedience to the word of the Lord, a life of true love for God, a life of loving one's neighbors as oneself and giving one's own for those in need, a life of being able to shed tears and be sad together with those in need, and a life of strength if possible. It means that you must live a life with a heart that can give at least something.

This means that while living such a life, we must attend Sunday worship or other worship services.

This means that if you live a life that does not match the worship you give in the church chapel, regardless of whether you are a pastor, missionary, or elder, your worship will not be pleasing to God at all.

Therefore, I believe that we should be fearful of the fact that even if we offer such worship for ten or a hundred years, it will never reach the Lord even once.

Therefore, those who truly worship God must, without a doubt, do their best to make their lives holy and set apart.

We must live a life of agony and prayer to live according to the Word. He will have to struggle to live a life that walks with God. Only then can we worship with sincerity and spirit.

To summarize in one sentence,

“Worship must show some external aspect of life that corresponds to the internal reality.”

In 2021, the Corvid-19 is still rampant.

Situations where we cannot gather together at church to worship are becoming more frequent.

Through the Internet, we started worshiping through broadcasts such as YouTube.

Many different methods are being explored and tried.

However, my heart is heavy because it seems difficult to find churches or pastors who truly focus on the essential aspects of what God wants.

No matter what form it takes or what method it uses, we must not forget that what is important is the heart of the worshiper and the shape of his life.

It doesn't matter whether you worship in the middle of the desert, in the middle of the sea, in the middle of a jungle, in the middle of a dark, night, in the middle of the wilderness. Because they are all incidental.

What is important is whether we worship God with sincere love and reverence.

Like David, the boy who worshiped God by singing in the fields, even though there were only sheep, no music, no friends to worship with, and no famous or great preachers, he sang songs on his own, praised and worshiped God.

Through the Psalms, don't we still recite and recite David's gem-like Psalms thousands of years later? Why did this happen?

David's life itself was a service to God, so wherever he was and whatever he did, everything became a tool, form, and order of worship, becoming a beautiful worship acceptable to God.

Even if you are poor and have no money to donate, cannot wear nice clothes, are too busy making a living to serve at church, participate in fellowship, or can't respond to the demands of the church pastor, you can live as God's people in the world for a week. 

Only Worship that is offered while living a distinguished life is sufficient.

I hope you will realize that none of the worship you provide while living like a real Christian will be thrown away, but will be carried forward and recorded forever.

The COVID-19 era will be a great opportunity to offer worship like this. This can be a training period where you can offer real worship to God.

When you worship God, whether you worship with just your family, as a couple, or alone in front of the TV, in front of a computer monitor, through a cell phone, or the radio. , all those methodological things are by no means important compared to the substantive problem.

As I said, the important thing is to remember deeply that it is in our hearts and the way we live our lives, and by doing these things, I hope that our lives will change and develop greatly and that we will all become true Christians who become an example and light for many people. 

I would be happy if today's column was of even a small help in your worship life. Hallelujah!