Paul Name
Notes and reflections from Spring Harvest 2021 : UNRIVALLED
The book of Hebrews gives us insights into how we should worship …and none of them are about styles of songs, liturgy, or the times of services! It unshackles worship from buildings and focuses on the worshippers – our attitudes and actions.
These are the character traits and attitudes that God desires and which we need to adopt in order to be the kind of worshippers that He desires:
Draw near. We have been granted access to the throne room of God, but we still have to choose to draw near, pressing in to God’s presence. “God doesn’t want superficial saints.”
Relentless hope. Our willingness to worship is not based on, and does not arise from, our comfortableness in the moment. Rather, it is based on the future that He has promised to us. “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.” (Heb 10:23)
Reject impurity. Our access to God’s throne has been made possible by the sacrifice of Jesus which deals with our sins. How can we continue to expect that access if we reject the significance of the sacrifice that made it possible? “If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left.” (Heb 10:26)
Endurance through suffering. This is an outworking of our salvation, an expression of our confidence that the Lord is ‘worth it’. God does not allow us to be tempted beyond what we can bear (1 Cor 10:13), so when we do face them they are a declaration that the Lord knows we are are able to bear this. He knows us better than we know ourselves.
Submission to God’s discipline. We too readily hear ‘discipline’ as ‘punishment’, but in reality it is the training and formation which shapes us as disciples. “Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. If you are not disciplined – and everyone undergoes discipline – then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all.” (Heb 12:7f). He does not want us to be ‘fathered’ by someone else, ie: by the ‘father of lies’ who would shape us in his own ugly image (John 8:44).
God has already made the first move in enabling worship. Now we have our part to play in response – it involves submission and also sacrificial gestures.
Verbal praise. “Let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise – the fruit of lips that openly profess his name” (Heb 13:15). Jesus said that what comes out of our mouths is an overflow of what is in our hearts, revealing what is truly in there. Worshippers will express God’s praise through our spoken and sung words. Sometimes football fans appear to be more enthusiastic in their worship than people in the church!
Benevolence to the poor. “Do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased” (Heb 13:16). The sacrifices of worship include an expression of compassionate open-handedness towards those who are in need. Paul described the Philippians’ financial aid towards mission as “a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God” (Php 4:18) and if we are eager to claim the promise of God’s provision in Philippians 4:19 then we should remember that it is promised to those sacrificial donors of verse 18!
Excellence in ministerial obligations. The writer refers to “leaders …[who] keep watch over you as those who must give an account” (Heb 13:17). Those whom we lead and minister to are the fruit of our ministry, part of our offering of worship, and the Lord does not desire a blemished sacrifice.
Generosity – a willingness to give. Zacchaeus’s response to Jesus was a fourfold compensation to those he had defrauded, and so salvation was seen in the life of someone who was despised as unclean. The youthful lunch-donor gave in order to solve a catering problem. And a widow gave all that she had despite the financial abuse she had experienced at the hands of religious leaders, showing generosity towards the Lord out of a place of pain.
Why can’t this be us?
