Salvation is Worship

by Matt Chandler

(This may be somewhat lengthy, but I found it very challenging and relevant to our church. You thoughts and comments are appreciated, mine will be added soon) -W.

Salvation is worship. When I say worship I am not talking about ascribing value to a band or a person, but rather God-Centered, God-saturated worship. The type of love for God that begins and ends with Him and is not dependent on our circumstances or on how we feel we are being treated by God. It is here that our salvation becomes so rich and weighty. It is here that we begin to feel free. Jonathan Edwards in his writings on the religious affections states that a certain sign of conversion in the human soul is a “genuine delight in divine things not for self-interest but for their inherent beauty and excellency.” This means we love Him for Him - not for what He gives or does not give. This type of worship is witnessed throughout scripture. Take Job for instance. In Job 1:20, after Job experiences the loss of material, wealth and family (all except his nagging wife) he falls to the ground and cries out in worship! His worship was not based upon God's favor through wealth and health but rather on God's Godness. Another example is the apostle Paul's exaltation of the sufficiency of God in 1 Corinthians 4:9-14. Paul testifies that he is “hungry and thirsty, poorly clothed, roughly treated and homeless.” This is the man who knew wealth and fame, but their disappearance did not hinder his satisfaction in God. His worship was not tied to earth but rather to heaven where the sovereign of all things existed in perfect knowledge and love.

I often wonder what the foundation is for a lot of what we see in American Evangelicalism. Have we seen Him? Have we as 2 Corinthians 3:18 states been changed into His likeness because we beheld His glory? Or do we worship for other reasons? Reasons that will eventually expose where are hearts really are. When our worship is based on how we feel we are being treated by God, then our love for creation over the creator (Romans 1:22-24) becomes exposed. The pain of life skips over no human being. It will find us all. It is impossible to hide from it. It is a result of a fallen world that groans to be redeemed (Romans 8). When God is loved for who He is, His love creates worship even in our pain because we know that we are not under wrath, but under mercy. What difficulties befall us, God uses for our progressive sanctification.

It is in these thoughts that I begin to understand Moses cry to see the Glory of God. (Exodus 33:18) How helpless we are to love God for God. It cannot be willed or determined into being (Romans 9:16) We need Him to move in us, speak to us, show us, break us, heal us, stir us, woo us, humble us, give us eyes to see and ears to hear. If He does not, then our worship grows stale. It becomes about styles of music and whether or not we are “happy” or “healthy.” It is a worship that is fleeting at best and not true worship at worst. The type of worship that brings joy and freedom, hope and satisfaction, is the praise that flows from our hearts to God, for God, about God and because of God. I pray more than you know that He let us as a generation love Him so. May He make much of Him with so little of us!

Matt is the Pastor of The Village in Dallas, TX. His passion is for church reform and the Glory of God to be seen and worshipped. He conveys this passion not only at his home church but at many conferences and events across the country.

Response: Known Within or Learned?

If handing offering our bodies is our spiritual act of worship, how do we do this in an authentic way as lead-worshipers at Genesis? Let me take liberty in offering that there is much more. But for today let's take a look at one small side of this idea.

How do we respond to God's love in worship, giving our bodies and our lives? For me this was a learned, experiential journey. When I first heard worship music and would go to church I would hear the songs being sung and would feel much more than when I listened on the radio. However, it wasn't clear what I was experiencing. I was a skeptic to say the least, I didn't think God would allow me to experience Him in such a real and powerful way. My eyes would be drawn to the raised arms in the air in front of me, and I would think is that real? Is that a way to get attention or... (jealously, enviously) do they have something... are they experiencing something I'm missing out on?

The first time I raised my hands, because I wanted to, during a song was in a single moment the most frightening and freeing experience in worship I have ever had. But had I never seen that very outpouring of demonstrative response, I may have never tried it, at least not while anyone else was around. And even today, I feel a bit of apprehension when I lift my hands and I know others can see me where I am at. (Just to be clear, I'm not saying our church needs to become more demonstrative or anything we are not authentically, but I think there are areas of worship that you have to slowly wade into as a person who is disconnected with God - as we all are on some level).

My questions go deeper, but let's start there. Is a response to God during times of worship as natural as we sometimes say it is or should be, or is it possibly something that is learned through the very journey and experience of it all? Furthermore, should we (and how do we) encourage people to take those next steps in responding to God?