Worshipping the God Who Saves

Robert Coleman writes, “Worship is the adorning response of the creature to the infinite majesty of God. While it presupposes submission to Him, to worship, in the highest sense, is not supplication for needs, or even thanksgiving for blessings, but the occupation of the soul with God Himself… The end of it all is the pure joy of magnifying the One who alone is worthy.”

 Do you get this? When we approach the throne of God, we are not there to feel better about our Christian lives; we are not there for some sort of believers pep rally. We are not there to petition God for anything; we are there as the faithful subjects of our Creator, to pay tribute before His throne, to bring honor and glory to Him!

“I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called out to another and said, Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory. And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke.”                                                                Isaiah 6:1-4

 While I don’t want to stereotype all worship, one of the fundamental problems with worship today is

Christians often times are not worshipping the God who saves but rather we worship the worship.

Our focus is not on the God who redeems, God who rescues us from our human plight; often times we are striving to achieve some utopia of worship through the modem of worship. When in truth, if we would see God on His throne high and lifted up, the modem wouldn’t matter, no longer would music, giving, preaching, prayer be tools to bring us into the presence of God but they would be a response to having been in the presence of God!

 Worship today tends to measure itself according to the following terms:

·         The quality of the preaching

·         The music we sing

·         The length of the service

·         The comfort / knowledge / encouragement it brings the participants

·         The feeling of fellowship / friendship

 All of these are very key elements of worship! However, God-honoring worship begins when it focuses on the God who saves rather than the vehicle of worship. It’s so easy when all the elements of modern worship come together to find yourself looking to the elements for pleasure, encouragement, for emotional stimulation. Listen, these characteristics of worship in and of themselves are not bad! However, when they pull our eyes off God—when worship becomes about me— worship has just become defiled and worthless before the throne of God! Remember, it’s all about the one who saves!