What is “Worship” at Eternal?
“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
Colossians 3:16-17
“Worship” is a tough concept to define. Obviously our worship consists of a whole lot more than simply singing songs on Sunday morning. As the verse above alludes to, our worship extends into everything we do by ascribing to our Lord Jesus the glory due His name. I want to specifically talk about our corporate worship on Sunday mornings at Eternal.
Our central aim in our worship has to first be to glorify God and make much of Him. Everything in heaven and earth revolves around Him, so to make our corporate worship anything less would be to try to rob God of the glory that He deserves.
“For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.”
Romans 11:36
There are many reasons that we give glory and praise to our God. He alone is worthy of our praise. He is completely holy and set apart. There is no other god like Him. He never changes. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is completely sovereign, and we can put our trust in Him because He is all-wise.
“Who is like you, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?”
Exodus 15:11
We praise the Lord for He is good and His love endures forever. Mighty and amazing are the works of His hands. He gave up His one and only Son and glorified Himself in the death of His perfect Son, Jesus Christ. In this, He provided a way for sinners to come to Him, to be cleansed of all their stains, and to now live in freedom by His Holy Spirit.
“For you, O LORD, have made me glad by your work; at the works of your hands I sing for joy.”
Psalm 92:4
John Piper says, “The great hindrance to worship is not that we are pleasure-seeking people, but that we are willing to settle for such pitiful pleasures.” In view of the sinful hedonistic, pleasure-seeking world that we live in, I think the most important view we can have of worship is this: We come before our Lord and Savior, God Almighty, because in Him and only in Him is fullness of joy. We ought to thirst for God and seek Him for our joy and our pleasure. If we as a body of Christ would come to our worship gatherings seeking to find our joy in Him, think of the outcome. How much would it exalt God for us to say that we are worshipping Him and coming to Him because nothing else and no one else in this world can satisfy us? Think of what it would do to us in our personal lives if we sought after God as if He was “more precious than silver and more lofty than gold.” He alone can satisfy. Once we can understand this simple truth, it will create an incredible freedom in our worship and in our lives.
“You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
Psalm 16:11
Jesse Schlicher
Worship Leader
Eternal Church
Click the links to the left, under the Worship heading, to hear messages and find out more about our worship music program.