Worship Lifestyle January 20th, 2010

  • “Worship isn’t singing – it’s the whole of your life”
  • Well done. Good point. Have a biscuit.
  • We have reaffirmed this truth so many times in regards to worship that has become a cliché. Almost anytime you refer to ‘sung worship’ as simply ‘worship’ some smug person will pipe up at spout out the ‘worship is a lifestyle’ quote. It pertains to be a kind of ‘myth busting’ type statement – that we don’t have ‘times’ of worship and our worship is more than the singing of songs. Yet we must remember this:

    • 1. Worship can be the whole of your life but we still need ‘times’ of worship. Time set aside to have no other agenda but worship. For example when I am doing the washing up I can do it with an attitude of worship and service to God and my family. But I don’t do it as worship. I do it because the plates are dirty. Equally as I am picking my toe nails it does not have to ‘all be for His glory’. I can pick my toe nails because I’ve got dirt in them. When we sing our songs of worship together it is specifically for Him with no other agenda than to please Him and honour Him. That is important and should not be diluted by claims of a superior ‘life of worship’ – which leads us to…..

    2. Worshipping with your ‘whole life’ doesn’t mean you get out of singing in church. Get over it and sing up. – I love some of John Wesley’s instructions for singing in church – “Sing all. See that you join with the congregation as frequently as you can. Let not a single degree of weakness or weariness hinder you. If it is a cross to you, take it up, and you will find it a blessing. Sing lustily and with good courage. Beware of singing as if you were half dead, or half asleep; but lift up your voice with strength…… Above all sing spiritually. Have an eye to God in every word you sing. Aim at pleasing him more than yourself, or any other creature. In order to do this attend strictly to the sense of what you sing, and see that your heart is not carried away with the sound, but offered to God continually”

    3. ‘Worship is a lifestyle’ is an inadequate statement. It is just not extreme enough. ‘Lifestyle’ implies something you read about in a magazine or is just a bunch of consumer choices. The language of obedience and worship in the New Testament is a lot more graphic.

    “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.” Romans 12:1

    “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.” Matthew 16: 24, 25

    “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.” Philippians 3:10

    Here it is: Sacrifice; Self Denial; Loss; Suffering; Death – can those things be adequately described as a ‘lifestyle’?

    Worship is done in singing. Worship is done in living. Worship is done in dying.

    As Wesley said: “See that your heart is…. offered to God continually”

    David Gate