Worship: For Him or For Us?
When Worship Becomes About Us
Listen to the way we talk about worship now. "I didn't get anything out of that worship." "That sermon didn't speak to me." "I need a church that meets my needs." Nobody says those things meaning harm by them. But hear what has happened in them. Worship means ascribing worth to God, and we have quietly turned it into extracting feelings for ourselves. We rate the music, we critique the preaching, we weigh up whether our spiritual needs were met — and we call that church. What should be a gathering before a holy God has become something closer to a service we review.
So the question is not "what did I get out of that?" The question is "did I honour God in that?" Paul settles it plainly: Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God [1 Corinthians 10:31 KJV]. Look how wide that is — whatsoever ye do. Not Sunday morning only. The whole of it, every hour of the week, lived for His glory and not for our emotional satisfaction. If we walk out of a gathering asking what we got from it, we have already missed what we came for.
What Scripture Shows Us About Worship
Scripture keeps turning our eyes off ourselves and onto the worthiness of God. The psalmist writes, O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker [Psalm 95:6 KJV]. Bowing. Kneeling. Not one word about what we receive. The whole weight falls on who He is — the LORD our maker — and on the posture that fits a creature standing before his Creator.
Isaiah saw the same thing and it marked him for life. In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory [Isaiah 6:1-3 KJV]. The seraphim were not thinking about their experience. They were not weighing up the atmosphere. They were consumed with declaring what God is.
And Jesus Christ made the terms clear to the woman at the well: But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth [John 4:23-24 KJV]. Not our preferences. Not our comfort. Not whatever we found moving last week. We come to the Father according to His nature, on His terms, and that is what He is seeking.
A Worship Built in Our Own Image
When worship becomes about us, we have made an idol. Not a golden calf on a stand — something far more respectable, and far harder to spot. A worship experience shaped in our own image, built to serve our desires, dressed up in religious clothes and carried on as normal.
Israel did exactly this. While Moses was up the mount receiving the law, they made themselves something they could manage and announced, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt [Exodus 32:4 KJV]. They wanted a god they could control and worship they could predict. It cost them dearly. And Paul warned the Philippians about those whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things [Philippians 3:19 KJV]. Make your appetite your god — for entertainment, for atmosphere, for a particular feeling on a Sunday — and you have reduced the holy God of heaven to a vending machine that dispenses blessings on demand.
Worship That Costs Something
So how do we come back? We change the question. Not "what can I get from this?" but "what can I give to God in this?" David would not worship cheaply. When Araunah offered him the threshing floor and the oxen for nothing, he refused: Nay; but I will surely buy it of thee at a price: neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the LORD my God of that which doth cost me nothing [2 Samuel 24:24 KJV]. True worship costs something. It is a sacrifice, not a consumption. That is why Paul pleads, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service [Romans 12:1 KJV]. Not our singing offered and our Monday kept back — ourselves, whole, laid down. He calls that reasonable. Given what God has done for us, it is.
And it does not stop when the music stops. By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name [Hebrews 13:15 KJV]. Continually. Worship is a way of living, not an event in a diary — the daily surrender of our will, the ordinary choice to honour God in what nobody else sees. Once you grasp who He is, the question of what we get out of worship falls apart in your hands. We get to worship the One who made us. We get to come before the throne of grace. John heard the new song of heaven, sung to the Lamb — Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was slain for us — and it was not about the worshippers at all: Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation [Revelation 5:9 KJV].
So examine your heart. When you gather, whose glory are you seeking? When you sing, whose satisfaction are you after? When you bow your head, whose honour is on your mind? Let it be worship that gives unto the LORD the glory due unto his name [Psalm 96:8 KJV] — worship that costs you something, worship that is not about you at all. In the end it is never about what we receive. It is about what we render to the One who is worthy of it all…
Key Takeaways:
- Worship means ascribing worth to God, not extracting feelings for ourselves.
- Change the question — not what did I get out of that, but did I honour God in that — [1 Corinthians 10:31 KJV]
- Scripture's posture is bowing and kneeling before our Maker, not browsing — [Psalm 95:6 KJV]
- The seraphim were not thinking about their experience; they were declaring His holiness — [Isaiah 6:1-3 KJV]
- Worship is on His terms, in spirit and in truth, and the Father is seeking such — [John 4:23-24 KJV]
- Self-centred worship is idolatry in religious clothing; Israel wanted a god they could control — [Exodus 32:4 KJV]
- An appetite can become a god, and it reduces the holy God to a vending machine — [Philippians 3:19 KJV]
- True worship costs something — sacrifice, not consumption — [2 Samuel 24:24 KJV]
- It is about giving, not receiving: ourselves presented whole — [Romans 12:1 KJV]
- Worship is a way of living, offered continually — [Hebrews 13:15 KJV]
- Heaven's song is about the worthiness of the Lamb, not the worshippers' experience — [Revelation 5:9 KJV]
Where to go from here:
Read [Psalm 95 KJV] and [Romans 12:1 KJV] slowly, and let them set the question for your week. Then take the step above into the next gathering you walk into — one honest answer to what am I bringing to God today?
📽️ Watch this teaching 👉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mg6Y9dJ7SYI&list=PLhtPbQ4aPQH5L9BycdIkD1Cmh288M1oaK&index=1
🧭 Start Here — Who We Are in Christ: the seven teachings to begin with 👉 📖 https://back-to-basics-christian-living.ghost.io/start-here/ · 🎥 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEPKdqB9RuLI
➡️ Next in this week's theme — Wednesday: Quiet Before the Lord: When Worship Turns into Performance
That is where we begin: who we are in Christ, taken in order. Then, Monday to Thursday, we take one truth and look at it from four sides — this week, worship: what it is, and who it is for. Fridays, we work through a series. One email on Sunday closes the week and opens the next.
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