{"id":90643,"date":"2021-03-10T12:21:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-10T17:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/keriritenour.com\/grace\/true-worship\/"},"modified":"2023-10-06T22:18:48","modified_gmt":"2023-10-07T02:18:48","slug":"true-worship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/keriritenour.com\/grace\/true-worship\/","title":{"rendered":"True Worship"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The apostle\nPaul described true worship perfectly in <strong>Romans 12:1-2: \u201cI urge you therefore, brethren, by the\nmercies of God to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable\nto God which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to\nthis world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove\nwhat the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable, or well pleasing\nand perfect.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">This passage\ncontains all the elements of true worship:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><li>First, there is the <strong>motivation<\/strong> to worship: <strong>\u201cthe mercies of\nGod.\u201d<\/strong> God\u2019s mercies are everything He has given us that we don\u2019t\ndeserve: eternal love, eternal grace, the Holy Spirit, everlasting peace,\neternal joy, saving faith, comfort, strength, wisdom, hope, patience, kindness,\nhonor, glory, righteousness, security, eternal life, forgiveness,\nreconciliation, justification, sanctification, freedom, intercession and much\nmore. The knowledge and understanding of these incredible gifts motivate us to\npour forth praise and thanksgiving\u2014in other words, worship!<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><li>Also in the passage is a <strong>description<\/strong> of the manner of our worship<strong>: \u201cpresent your\nbodies a living and holy sacrifice.\u201d<\/strong> Presenting our bodies means\ngiving to God all of ourselves. The reference to our bodies here means all our\nhuman faculties, all of our humanness\u2014our hearts, minds, hands, thoughts,\nattitudes\u2014are to be presented to God. In other words, we are to give up control\nof these things and turn them over to Him, just as a literal sacrifice was\ngiven totally to God on the altar. But how? <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><li>Again, the passage is clear: <strong>\u201cby the renewing of\nyour mind.\u201d<\/strong> We renew our minds daily\nby cleansing them of the world\u2019s \u201cwisdom\u201d and replacing it with true wisdom\nthat comes from God. We worship Him with our renewed and cleansed minds, not\nwith our emotions. Emotions are wonderful things, but unless they are shaped by\na mind saturated in Truth, they can be destructive, out-of-control forces.\nWhere the mind goes, the will follows, and so do the emotions<strong>. First Corinthians\n2:16<\/strong> tells us we have <strong>\u201cthe mind of Christ,<\/strong>\u201d not the emotions of Christ. <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><li>There is only one way to renew our minds,\nand that is by the <strong>Word of God<\/strong>. It\nis the truth, the knowledge of the Word of God, which is to say the knowledge\nof the mercies of God, and we\u2019re back where we began. To know the truth, to\nbelieve the truth, to hold convictions about the truth, and to love the truth\nwill naturally result in true spiritual worship. It is conviction followed by\naffection, affection that is a response to truth, not to any external stimuli,\nincluding music. Music as such has nothing to do with worship. Music can\u2019t\nproduce worship, although it certainly can produce emotion. Music is not the\norigin of worship, but it can be the expression of it. Do not look to music to\ninduce your worship; look to music as simply an expression of that which is\ninduced by a heart that is rapt by the mercies of God, obedient to His\ncommands.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><li>True worship is <strong>God-centered<\/strong> worship. People tend to get caught up in where they\nshould worship, what music they should sing in worship, and how their worship\nlooks to other people. Focusing on these things misses the point. Jesus tells\nus that true worshipers will worship God in spirit and in truth (<strong>John 4:24<\/strong>).\nThis means we worship from the heart and the way God has designed. Worship can\ninclude praying, reading God&#8217;s Word with an open heart, singing, participating\nin communion, and serving others. It is not limited to one act, but is done\nproperly when the heart and attitude of the person are in the right place.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><li>It\u2019s also important to know that\nworship is <strong>reserved only for God<\/strong>.\nOnly He is worthy and not any of His servants (<strong>Revelation 19:10<\/strong>). We are not to\nworship saints, prophets, statues, angels, any false gods, or Mary, the mother\nof Jesus. We also should not be worshiping for the expectation of something in\nreturn, such as a miraculous healing. Worship is done for God\u2014because He\ndeserves it\u2014and for His pleasure alone. Worship can be public praise to God (<strong>Psalm 22:22; 35:18<\/strong>)\nin a congregational setting, where we can proclaim through prayer and praise\nour adoration and thankfulness to Him and what He has done for us. True worship\nis felt inwardly and then is expressed through our actions.\n&#8220;Worshiping&#8221; out of obligation is displeasing to God and is\ncompletely in vain. He can see through all the hypocrisy, and He hates it. He\ndemonstrates this in <strong>Amos 5:21-24<\/strong> as He talks about coming judgment.\nAnother example is the story of Cain and Abel, the first sons of Adam and Eve.\nThey both brought gift offerings to the Lord, but God was only pleased with\nAbel&#8217;s. Cain brought the gift out of obligation; Abel brought his finest lambs\nfrom his flock. He brought out of faith and admiration for God.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">True worship\nis not confined to what we do in church or open praise (although these things\nare both good, and we are told in the Bible to do them). True worship is the\nacknowledgment of God and all His power and glory in everything we do. The\nhighest form of praise and worship is obedience to Him and His Word. To do\nthis, we must know God; we cannot be ignorant of Him (<strong>Acts 17:23<\/strong>). Worship is to glorify\nand exalt God\u2014to show our loyalty and admiration to our Father.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The apostle Paul described true worship perfectly in Romans 12:1-2: \u201cI 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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[524],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>True Worship - Grace Evangelical Free Church<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"True Worship - Grace Evangelical Free Church\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The apostle Paul described true worship perfectly in Romans 12:1-2: \u201cI 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. 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