Therefore, inner essence of worship is cherishing Christ as gain, indeed as more gain than all that life can offer—family, career, retirement, fame, food, and friends. The essence of worship is experiencing Christ as gain. It is savoring Him. It is naming Him as end of your search. Jesus is object of your faith. John Piper, whom I quote often, brings this topic together in one sentence. He says, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.” Christ is magnified in my death, when in my death I am satisfied with Him, when I experience death as gain because I gain Him. Or another way to say it is that essence of praising Christ is prizing Christ. Christ will be praised in my death, if in my death He is prized above life. The inner essence of worship is prizing Christ. Are you satisfied in Jesus Christ? You can by receiving Him as Savior and Lord and walking with Him daily through prayer and praise. Tell Him often that you are thankful for Him. Tell Him often that you are glad in Him. He’s waiting to hear from you. Start talking to Him and enjoy fellowship of worship.

Keep faith. Stay course. Jesus is coming again. I believe it’s time to WORSHIP!

The Old Testament idea, captured in Greek word proskuneo, implied a physical falling down in reverence before a visible majesty. This happened as people came to visible, incarnate Christ in Gospels. And it happened in Revelation as saints and angels and elders were actually in presence of visible, risen Christ. But in age between ascension and second coming Christ is not visibly here to worship. Therefore, worship is radically internalized and delocalized. In Matthew 15:8-9 Jesus says, “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me.” Worship that does not come from heart is vain, empty. It is not authentic worship.

Consider what Paul does to some of other words related to Old Testament worship. For example, next most frequent word for worship in Old Testament (after proskuneo) is word latreup which is usually translated “serve” as in Exodus 23:24, “You shall not worship their gods, nor serve them” (NASB). When Paul uses this word for Christian worship, he goes out of his way to make sure that we know he means not a localized or outward form for worship practice but a nonlocallized, spiritual experience. In fact, he takes it so far as to treat virtually all of life as worship when lived in right spirit. Here’s another example, in Romans 1:9 he says, “I serve [or worship] [God] with my spirit in gospel of his Son.” And in Philippians 3:3, Paul says that true Christians “worship” [God] in Spirit of God…and put no confidence in flesh” (NASB). Then again he says in Romans 12:1, for Christians to “present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” Paul sees all of life and ministry as an expression of that inner experience of worship.

To be continued...keep faith. Worship Lord with everything in you, any time, any place. Pastor t.