Why Should We Worship?
What’s The Main Reason?
To further our study on doxology this week, we are going to be asking more important and relevant questions this month that often go unanswered or overlooked. These basic questions are not only vital to answer, but they are crucial to our overall worship experience. How well can we really worship if we don’t know what worship is, why we should do it, and how we should conduct ourselves while participating in it? That is why we are kicking off this week by answering one of those questions by addressing the reason we should all worship in the first place. Is worship just something we do to say ‘thanks God’, and then go on with the rest of our lives? Not quite. As Dr. Richard Mayhue puts it, “For believers, the supreme act of worship is to offer all of themselves as a living sacrifice to the Lord.” As much as I will sound like an annoying health coach, the fact of the matter is that worship is not just a song we sing, it is a lifestyle. This is seen nowhere better than in Romans 12:1 “1 Therefore I urge you, 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.” As demanding as this sounds, the first and foremost reason we should worship God is simply because the Bible says so. If we truly believe that the Bible is the Word of God and that this God of ours is the sole creator of the universe, then why wouldn’t we listen to His Word when it tells us to worship Him with our lives? Yes, we can worship Him in song on a Sunday morning with our brothers and sisters in Christ, but this is not what worship is limited to. We can see that just as Dr. Mayhue mentioned, being a living sacrifice for our God daily is what the ultimate act of worship looks like. We shouldn’t worship simply because our parents dragged us to church once and that’s just how it’s been ever since. As followers of Christ who have His Holy Spirit inside of us, we should long for and desire to sacrifice all that we are for the glory of His name.
We Should Already Want To
When we take a step back and look at all that Christ has accomplished for us on the cross, it is difficult to not be brought to a place of worship for our Lord who has made a way for us to inherit salvation. I may be spending a lot of time on this passage and quote, but it is absolutely critical to understand if we are to worship properly with our whole lives. The ‘why’ behind our worship has nothing to do with you! And praise God for that! How many times would our worship of the Lord be pushed to the back burner if everything in our lives had to be going well before we participated in it? We would hardly worship at all! Some of us (and I would argue all of us) have done this before. It is much easier to worship God in my life when everything is going well and I have a lot to thank Him for, but what about when it’s not? Am I still worshiping Him as a living sacrifice according to Romans 12? When everything in life is going wrong and it seems as if there is nothing to be thankful for or praise God for, is the sacrifice of Christ enough? Is the payment of eternal separation from God worthy of worship even if your car broke down today? I know you may be thinking ‘Well I never really thought about it like that…’, but we need to start thinking about it like this. There is nothing in this life that could ever take away from the fact that the gospel of Jesus Christ has saved your soul for eternity. That deserves ultimate praise, all of the time, no matter what we are going through. As I have told many of my students and church family when I was a pastor, even if God does nothing else for you for the rest of your life, He’s already done enough to deserve every bit of who you are for your entire life. This is why we worship.
The Best Way To Live
Furthermore, this is seen in Jesus’ perfect response to the Pharisees on the subject of worship as well. In Matthew 22, the Pharisees ask Jesus what the most important commandment of the entire Bible is, and look at His response. Matthew 22:37-38 says, “37 And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the great and foremost commandment.” This commandment and act of love to the Lord is not just done through song, once a week at a church event. This passage doesn’t just say to love the Lord with all of our vocal cords. It says to love Him with all of our heart, soul, and mind. This is everything that we are and it is the most important commandment in all of God’s Word. The most vital rule that Jesus says we should follow is to worship the Lord with all of our lives. As Dr. John MacArthur says, “Worship, then, encompasses much more than the singing portion of a church service; it is a way of thinking and living for God’s honor and glory.”
Not only is this act of worship the most important commandment that Jesus Himself tells us of, but look at what He mentions right after saying this. Matthew 22:39-40 states, “39 The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”
Worshiping the creator of the universe by loving Him and His people is not just the most important commandment, but it is the fulfillment of every other law under the new covenant. This is why worship is so important as a lifestyle. Not only is it the most important law, but it is quite literally impossible not to fulfill who God has called us to be as Christ followers if we are always supremely worshiping Him with our lives. I know we fall away, sin, and let our emotions get the best of us, but at the end of the day, living lives that worship, honor, and glorify our Lord is what shows that we are born-again Christians in the first place. This is why we worship. We worship not just because it’s what we’ve always done growing up in church, but becasue God’s Word commands it. We worship not just by singing a few songs, but by offering our entire lives as a sacrifice to Him. We worship not just because it is something that God wants His followers to do, but because Jesus Himself has said that it is the most vital commandment that we have to follow while on this earth. I hope and pray that as you go through this week, you won’t just think about how you worship at church, but you think about how you worship with your life. May God be honored and glorified through our lives this week as we present ourselves as a living sacrifice to Him, and thereby fulfill His word and His greatest command.
Sources
[1] “Access Your Bible from Anywhere.” BibleGateway.Com: A Searchable Online Bible in over 150 Versions and 50 Languages., www.biblegateway.com/. Accessed 2023.
[2] MacArthur, John & Mayhue, Richard. A Systemic Summary of Bible Truth: Biblical Doctrine. Wheaton, Crossway, 2017
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