Worship 2 Getting Personal With God

[HKHaugan]

What is the form of worship, the blueprint that gives us a handle on how we can be like Jesus in worship? Obviously the Lord Jesus is the educator. His lifetime actions show that everything He did was worship, that is, everything He did from teaching to His miracles He did was because He loved His Father. His Father was worth it, worthy of it, worth laying down His life for. He was practicing worth-ship, worship.

There are three forms of worship, personal, small group and congregational. We'll look at these in turn. First, we take the personal and see it as how Jesus approached His Father, prepared Himself for mission to people and viewed Temple worship.

Worship is first and foremost an attitude, a personal movement of the heart. It is a heart thrust, a thrust of the heart toward God before we thrust ourselves into everything else. For Jesus it was all-consuming. How personal was worship to Jesus? As we have already said the Cross of Jesus was the summation of His every moment on this earth. For Jesus, if He was to be the picture of complete worship, giving total worth to His Father, and it meant the Cross, then the Cross would be necessary. Death would make it clear His Father was worth dying for and His Resurrection would prove it.

So when Jesus said if we are to be His disciples we must take up our cross, the cross of faith in His presence in every next moment (Mt.16:24). To worship God is to carry our cross into every next moment. This means placing every choice at the foot of His Cross. That's really it isn't it? That's exactly what Jesus did, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work (Jn.4:34).” He said, “My Father is always at His work to this very day, and I, too, am working.(Jn.5:17).” So the pattern is set for us and Jesus makes it very clear, to worship is to do the work of God which is a moment by moment yielding to the Lord in the Spirit. This is how Jesus worshiped.

For Jesus worship began when He met with the elders in the Temple when He was a boy discussing ideas of faith, then gladly submitting Himself to grow up in a family and preparing Himself for doing His Father's will in mission. The first thing He does after the temptations in the wilderness is to call for repentance because the Kingdom of Heaven is near (Mt.4:17). So to get into the worship of God we need first to repent.

Of what does repentance consist? We take our cue from Jesus Himself. In Matthew's Gospel we see His first direct encounter with the devil in the wilderness who presumptuously thought he could tempt Jesus to take personal control apart from His Father. That's exactly what the devil did with Adam and Eve. Jesus was tempted first to be in control of His hunger, second in control of physical danger and third in total control of the world, if, and this is a big 'if,' if He would bow down and worship Satan. To each He responds in mind, heart and Spirit with the Scripture (Mt.4:1-11).

For the mind it's about belief. He embraces every word of God as His food.

For the heart it's about trust. You don't test, make deals or challenge God to see if He is for real.

For the spirit it's about faith. Worshiping and serving the Lord God is our spiritually inspired action.

The three temptations present a pattern for repentance which is the first step in worship. The fact that Jesus centers His reply to the devil with the words of Scripture means Jesus and His Word measure our relationship with God. So we question ourselves in the three areas the temptations deal with. Where is my mind, where is my heart and where is my spirit?

First, where are we in our quest for material satisfaction? That includes everything from food, clothing and shelter and the absorption in having things that expand their presence and make us look good. Things like diet, outward appearance, having things that make an acceptable impression, giving us a feeling of personal status and prestige. What really drives our need for things and the rest of our inner hungers? We admit to sin and justifying our sins.

Second, we look into where we are when it comes to ministry in the Body and our witness outside. Where are we in our relationships in and outside the Body of Christ?

Third, where are we when it comes to being in control as opposed to letting the Holy Spirit direct our responses in every next moment?

In all three temptations it is the Word of God that centers us in God which is how we begin to worship Him. Wherever temptation raises its staff the Word brings a word, a phrase, a principle, a concept to fend off its blow.

Repentance puts our sinful nature with its pride and fear at the foot of the Cross, at His feet, asking His forgiveness and telling Him He is in control of every next moment. Repentance is a gift and if we can receive it as such we go a long way in derailing the devil's work to separate us from God.

So we see repentance as the beginning of worship. Remembering that He relies on the Scripture for His responses we turn to it because repentance will get us to “hunger and thirst for righteousness (Mt.5:6).” I find that a daily amount of time in the early morning reading and writing about what the Scripture says invigorates me for the day ahead. The Holy Spirit uses its words to convict me, to adjust my attitude, to inspire me, to motivate me, to elevate my mind, to discern the reality of who I am in the presence of the Lord Jesus, to compare myself to Him and see how fully dependent on Him I am. I find that He is absolutely right all the time but not in a condemning way. He is the loving Lord of second chances called forgiveness. It's really that personal. Here I find it to be the truth as He prayed for me and all of us in Gethsemane to be sanctified by His Word because it is truth (Jn.17:17).

So in this first part, personal worship, the deep abiding reality of Jesus begins in the mind where belief, like seed, is sown, watered and matured until He, in me, becomes the every-next-moment Lord, the only One whom I can trust to be like, to conform to and to follow. From here the knowledge, adoration and praise of who He is challenges this fallen and sinful heart of mine to be open to the insights He blesses me with. Worship begins within as I give Him the helm and He allows me the privilege of sharing Him wherever I am with whoever I can in whatever way He directs in those 'every-next-moments.'