Last week we took a look at what worship should look like by getting back to the original purpose behind the creation of man. We'll continue looking this week at what the purpose of worship is.
Questions to Ponder from last week:
1. How can I do more to know God and enjoy Him forever?
2. What can I do to get back to the original purpose God intended for humankind in my own life?
Let's take a look again at a summary of what the original created order was to look like:
1. Humankind has a relationship with God.
This relationship carried with it a duty, and had a destiny. there was an assignment of responsibility to be fulfilled, and fruitfulness was the destiny that was given to us. We should come together each week in worship with a sense of the continued restoration of the original purpose behind our creation, and with a desire to continually bring ourselves back to that point.
2. Humankind also has a rulership under God.
This reminds us that there is a responsibility to have dominion over what God has entrusted to us, but also that this can only be exercised by a remembrance of and submission to dependency on God.
This moves us to the place of worship.
We worship god because of His goodness, and in recognition of the destiny He has for us. This not only encompasses a destiny of eternal life with Him someday, but also the destiny He has for us here on earth at this present time.
Lamentations 3:22-24 [NIV] - Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself "the LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait on him."
There is a destiny for today, and so we praise Him for His mercies that are made fresh each day and given to us to make it through each day.
We worship God because there is a dependency upon Him for us to make it through each day as well. We desire for God to have His way in us; for Him to come and fill us up every morning so that we can make it through the day. This is no accident, but rather, an intelligent design built into us so that we remember who created us, and on whom we depend.
When we look at mankind in the Garden before sin entered the world, we see that man knew God in several intimate ways.
1. Man knew God's presence. The Bible says that God came to speak with Adam regularly in the cool of the day.
2. Man knew God's voice. Adam says in Genesis that he heard God's voice.
3. Man knew God's power. He realized that it sustained his capacities to function in the role God had given him.
4. Man knew his own place. A place of dependency, responsibility to excercise rule, a place with purpose, and of duty in faithfulness, worship, and a walk with God.
All of this was badly damaged after the entrance of sin in the world due to the fall of Adam and Eve. As we discuss worship, it is that place where, having been forgiven of sin, we come into what amounts to an ongoing recovery program.
It is the work of the Holy Spirit increasingly manifesting itself in our lives, changing us and shaping us from day to day through the spirit and through the word that we make step-by-step, incremental movements back towards God's original purpose for us.
Worship of God is central in the process of that purpose being realized. Therefore, it follows that a purpose of Worship is the recovery of the purpose of God in humankind.
This moves us beyond the very restrictive thought that is pervasive throughout all of the Bible believing world today, that worship is simply a lauding or appreciation of the splendors of heaven and of even God Himself in all His mightiness and glory. However wonderful and appropriate that may be, that is not all that God has in mind for worship.
MAKE NO MISTAKE: It is NOT being said that worship should not be used for that purpose! It is certainly a very effective and enjoyable way to give God glory for who He is and what He has done in our lives. We SHOULD exalt Him at all times, for He deserves that! However, we must realize that God's purpose for worship is more than that, and we must remember this each time we come into His presence.
There is always MORE!!
This is why Scripture is just as relevant to today's world as it was when it was written so long ago. Within every command, every covenant, and every purpose God set forth for us, there is always more than just what you see or experience the first time you read or hear it. This is a good rule of thumb to remember, so that we don't try to put God in a box and expect that His ways will always be the same.
Worship is not just a jubilation, but it is cause for a transformation in us, and an advancement in what God desires to do through us.
II Corinthians 3:18 [NLT] - So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord - who is the Spirit - makes us more and more lik ehim as we are changed into his glorious image.
Some have likened the reflection to the Word of God. The book of James speaks to this thought. As we open and look at the Word, we see the reflection of what God desires for us and aw are changed by that reflection into something that more closely mirrors the life God intends for us. The teaching, training, and instruction that the Bible provides allows us to catch a glimpse of our Savior, and in that glimpse, we are changed. That change has a purpose, and it's purpose is to return us to the original purpose of man's creation.
This change brings us back to the altar; to a place of sacrifice. We've talked about that before, but that's where it starts. God meets man in his brokenness and starts a progression to bring him back to his original purpose.
We can study in the Scriptures that progression, leading to the possibilities of what a life of true living worship in the life of the Spirit can be. In other words, it shows what worship can be like in today's times; the time of the church, where the Spirit is here to minister in and to and through the body of Christ.
Colossians 1:24-27 [NIV] - Now i rejoice in what was suffered for you, and i fill up in my flesh wat is still lacking in regard to Christ's affliction, for the sake of his body, which is the church. I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness - the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
We live in a time where God's highest purposes for man are reachable, but we had to go through a process of recovery and discovery to get there.
We see the process develop through individuals in the Scriptures.
1. The first instance of sacrificial worship is where God teaches man in the first pathway of recovery, as He Himself sacrifices animals to cover Adam and Eve's newly discovered nakedness and shame. (Genesis 3)
2. One generation teaches another about worship as we see that Abel learned the proper pathway for sacrifice and exercises it. (Genesis 4)
3. Altars become a regular part of worship, and Abraham learns from god the principle of tithing as a worshipful act. This act of worship even preceded the Law! (Genesis 14)
4. Abraham also broke bread and shared wine in worship with Melchizedek, king of Salem, who's name means "King of Peace". Abraham could not have known how far that act of worship would reach, but we see Jesus referring back to it in the New Testament.
John 8:36 [NIV] - Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.
5. In Abraham's son Isaac, there was the building of an altar for sacrifice that tested Abraham's willingness to follow God's commands. (Genesis 26)
6. Jacob also builds an altar, and captures the manifestation of the glory of God in his vision of angels ascending and descending from the heavens that touches his heart so greatly that he can't help but worship God. (Genesis 33)
7. When bringing about the Exodus, God tells Moses that he would use him to bring the Israelites out of bondage and back to Himself. In order to complete that journey, Moses was to bring them to the mountain to serve and to worship (Exodus 3)
In all of these moments, we see that worship is not only to praise God for His attributes, but to follow the higher purpose of complete fellowship with God by submitting to His ways and living in His truths. These were examples, not just of the manner in which the sacrificial order called the Jews to worship, but examples of the principles by which we come to worship in Spirit and in Truth today.
Worship is the key to the pathway of recovery of all God has for us; to the realization of the fullness of His purpose for us, in us, and through us.
Questions to Ponder:
1. What steps can I take to remember the two parts of Worship we've learned so far?
a. Worship is for exalting God and giving Him glory.
b. Worship is a recovery a discovery of the original fellowship man had with God.
2. How can I use this knowledge to regain dominion over my life, and continue my progression of recovering the original purposes God has for me?
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