Last time I mentioned that there is a difference between praise and worship. Praise is giving someone their due admiration. It’s speaking highly of someone, or even congratulating or celebrating someone. Like I said last week, we can praise the dogs for their obedience.
So obviously, if we can praise our dog or our child when they behave, God is certainly worthy of our praise. But, he is also worthy of our worship. We use the word, worship all the time, but what is the true definition of worship?
Like praise, worship is a lifestyle. Praise is something we should do every day, all day long. But in many cases, praise is something we have to be aware of. Sometimes, we can get into such a habit of praising, that we catch ourselves doing it automatically. Worship should be the same way. But what’s the difference? Worship is how we act as Christians. Worship is 24/7. Worship, like praise, should be something so automatic that sometimes, we actually catch ourselves doing it.
Singing Praises vs. Worship.
Before I get into worship, I’m going to go back to our sermon last week, just to refresh us on praise.
Throughout the Bible, we see many commands to praise the Lord. In Psalms 89, Psalms 103, and Psalms 148 we read that Angels praise the Lord. Last week, we looked at Psalm 100, which calls all inhabitants of the earth to praise the Lord. The Bible says we can praise Him with singing (Isaiah 12:5; Psalm 9:11), with shouting (Psalm 33:1; 98:4), with the dance––though you’re not going to see very many Baptists doing that (Psalm 150:4), and with musical instruments (1 Chronicles 13:8; Psalm 108:2; 150:3-5).
Gotquestions.org says “God invites praise of all kinds from His creation. Jesus said that if people don’t praise God, even the “stones will cry out” (Luke 19:40) (Gotquestions.org).”
Now, I’ve never heard stones crying out in praise of God, I believe it is meant as a figure of speech. But do animals praise God? I don’t know. Maybe. I have no Biblical basis for that, but personally, I often wonder if birds or crickets chirping might be their way of praising God.
I don’t know, just a thought.
In scripture, praise is often associated with joy.
Our scripture verse last week was all about that. It was so short, I thought I’d read it to you again today:
Psalm 100: 1 Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. 2 Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. 3 Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. 4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. 5 For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.
Psalm 150: 1 Praise the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens. 2 Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness. 3 Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre, 4 praise him with timbrel and dancing, praise him with the strings and pipe, 5 praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals. 6 Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
So praise is often joyful and from a happy and grateful heart.
Worship also comes from a grateful heart, but its meaning is a little bit different.
In Psalms we read verses like, “Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness” (Psalm 96:9). And, “Come let us worship and bow down” (Psalm 95:6).
Often, worship is coupled with the idea of humility and contrition. 2 Chronicles 29:27-30 makes this distinction.
It says: “27 Hezekiah gave the order to sacrifice the burnt offering on the altar. As the offering began, singing to the Lord began also, accompanied by trumpets and the instruments of David king of Israel. 28 The whole assembly bowed in worship, while the musicians played and the trumpets sounded. All this continued until the sacrifice of the burnt offering was completed.
29 When the offerings were finished, the king and everyone present with him knelt down and worshiped. 30 King Hezekiah and his officials ordered the Levites to praise the Lord with the words of David and of Asaph the seer. So they sang praises with gladness and bowed down and worshiped.”
Going back to gotquestions.org again “It is through true worship that we invite the Holy Spirit to speak to us, convict us, and comfort us. Through worship, we realign our priorities with God’s and acknowledge Him once more as the rightful Lord of our lives.”
So worship is more of a quiet and humble heart attitude. It is a moment of surrender. It is placing God first in our lives. It is making sure we don’t have any idols in our lives that are taking the place of God on the throne of our hearts. Remember last week I used the phrase “idle idol.” As Jesus said, “It is impossible to worship God and anything else at the same time (Luke 4:8).”
BTW, I found out “idle idol” is called a homophone, for all you English freaks out there. Yes, homo-p-h-o-n-e–not the word we often mistakenly get called…
I suppose, though, we could segue that name-calling into “worship” because the world has its own god of culture that it worships. But we are to worship God no matter what nasty and ignorant names we’re called. In fact, it is our daily worship that provides us with the strength to get called those names.
Worshiping God, placing Him first, is the first of the 10 commandments.
2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 3 “You shall have no other gods before me.
Then he immediately talks about those idle idols:
4 “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
I know I’ve pointed this out before, but what does it mean for God to be a jealous God? Paul tells us that we shouldn’t be jealous. So how can God be jealous and not sin? Well, because jealousy isn’t a sin. It’s like anger. Anger is not a sin, but how anger gets a hold of us can be a sin. Paul said to the Ephesians, “In your anger, do not sin.” Anger isn’t a sin, but we can sin through anger.
In the same way, we can sin in our jealousy. But God, being perfect, does not sin when He gets angry and does not sin when he gets jealous. So how is God jealous for us? He doesn’t want us “having an affair with the World.” He loves us so much that he wants us for his own and is grieved by our love for the world and our love for sin.
Whatever we love more than God is an idol. A physical idol is just the representation of a god. The true idol, or false god, is what we worship in our hearts. It’s what we place first in our hearts. It’s the god on the throne of our hearts.
There’s a documentary called The American Gospel: Christ Alone. If you haven’t seen it, you need to. It was on Netflix, I’m not sure if it’s still on there or where you can find it now, but you need to see it. It gives you a lot of examples of false prophets and false teachings. One, in particular, I’ve seen in person before I knew he was a false teacher. No wonder I didn’t get anything out of his so-called sermon. But he has since repented, and hopefully, he takes that repentance to heart.
There are so many of these prosperity preachers who teach health and wealth that they either live in an ivory tower or they’re charlatans. One of them said, “I refuse to create a theology that allows for sickness.” First of all, you’re not supposed to create a theology, you’re supposed to learn theology, and second…seriously?
Another one said, “I am young, I am beautiful, I am attractive. Remember, what follows the ‘I Am’ is going to come looking for you.”
One person in this documentary called out his own uncle for having a fraudulent healing ministry all for the sake of fame and fortune. That’s pretty bold. I wonder what their Thanksgiving was like? I wonder if he was even invited to Thanksgiving. I mean, not only did he call out his uncle but his own parents too.
Why did he do this? Why did he call out his own family? In the documentary, he said, “I love my family, but I love God more.”
He’s got it right. In Matthew, Jesus said:
32 “Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. 33 But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.
34 “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to turn “‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—36 a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’[c]
37 “Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.”
What does that mean? The IVP New Testament Commentary said it means that “The demands of the kingdom are so offensive to a world already convinced of its rightness that they provoke that world’s hostility.” To the point that families will be divided. Families like the one I just mentioned in the documentary. Families of Muslims or Jews or atheists will be divided because one may turn to Christ. I’ve seen it even when one family member went from Catholic to Protestant.
To put Christ first even in these circumstances––even when it divides the family––is true worship. Do you see the difference between praise and worship now? To put Christ above everything in your heart is true worship. To sacrifice your place in your family, to be ostracized and even disowned is to truly worship God.
I’m glad I’ve never had to be put in that position. But I have had to be put in a position where I’ve had to set things aside. I’ve had to set myself aside, I’ve had to set being liked by people aside in order to follow Christ. Do I follow the World or Christ? Do I stand up for what I believe in and be a sheep of Christ or a sheep of the World? Do I fear God or do I fear man? Do I want to be rewarded by God or rewarded by man?
But in order to do that, we have to do as Jesus said and take up our cross daily and follow him. That’s because we’re inclined to follow ourselves daily, even if we’ve been his for decades. We still bend toward ourselves naturally and have to make a concentrated effort to die to ourselves daily. Sometimes multiple times a day. That’s true worship. And worship comes from our hearts. It’s a daily decision we make. It’s not just singing praises. It’s how we live.
When we watched The Chosen in Sunday School, you might remember the scene where Jesus was going through Samaria, and he encountered a Samaritan woman at a well. This was a bit uncouth for a Rabbi. Rabbis didn’t talk to women––especially Samaritan women who were not fully Jewish, and even more so, ones that had been married and divorced five times and were unwed to the man she was living with currently. And furthermore, being a Samaritan, she was unclean. Not based on God’s Law, but according to the Jewish Law she was. But Jesus showed his love and compassion toward this woman and showed her that she had dignity.
Of course, this story is a sermon unto its own, but regarding the topic of worship, I want to point out something specific that Jesus said to her.
19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 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. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
What does that mean? In Spirit and in Truth? It sounds nice, but what does it mean? It means that it is more than a ceremony. The Jews and even the Samaritans worshiped through ceremony. Their worship was ritual. And when their ritual was over, their worship was over. That’s not what God wants. He wants true and sincere worship.
The Pharisees were sort of the religious media of their day because they knew how to ask questions a certain way in order to try to trap Jesus. And one day, one of the Pharisees asked Jesus, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
Jesus replied from Deuteronomy: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second, which came from Leviticus is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Jesus demonstrated loving his neighbor by talking to this Samaritan woman. But what he taught her by telling her about worshiping in Spirit and in Truth was the first commandment. To love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and mind. That is what it means to worship in Spirit and in Truth.
Our heart and soul are Spirit, and our mind is where we should store up and––as Paul said––be renewed with God’s truth.
Do you see how this is a lifestyle, not just Sunday mornings? Yes, we praise God and worship him on Sunday mornings with our hearts, soul,s and minds. We posture our hearts and minds in humility and adoration on Sunday mornings. But it’s not just for an hour on Sundays, it’s every day. We take up our cross every day in humility, adoration, and decisiveness. Worship is intentionally placing God first in our lives, dying to ourselves, and living holy lives.
Worship is an act of the heart and soul when we disperse from this church on Sundays and live out day-to-day. How we love one another as Jesus did to the unclean and sinful Samaritan woman; deciding to take the risk of our family disowning us for following Christ or making some kind of ‘line in the sand’ decision at our work or school because it may compromise our Godly beliefs. Like I said, it’s being called that word–homophobic. Even though we are not afraid of anyone homosexual, we still have to bear the brunt of ignorant name-calling. Worship is obeying God even when it hurts.
Are we ready to worship? I say ‘we’––myself included. Are we ready to risk our comfort for God’s call to obedience?
Paul suffered a tremendous amount of persecution. How and why did he go from being a violent man, severely persecuting Christians to becoming one of the most persecuted? I mean, it wasn’t like he didn’t know what was coming to him. What made him make that ‘line in the sand’ decision to follow the one he was persecuting?
Because he knew the way, the truth, and the life. Jesus came to him. Jesus changed him. And Paul threw away the comforts of being a Pharisee to become nothing for Christ. Why? Because being Pharisee was truly nothing.
This is what he said to the Philippian church: 7 But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in[a] Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. 10 I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.
12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Obedience to Christ, putting Him first in our lives, and setting ourselves aside is rewarded by God with a true, real, right relationship with Him, peace that passes understanding, and joy unspeakable. We have a cleansed heart and innocence restored. And we will have the one, true God dwelling within our hearts and a place in Heaven reserved for us for all eternity as His children. It’s worth it.
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on First Baptist Church of Watkins Glen
Featured Image by Fa Barboza on Unsplash
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