CCSG Worship

When many people in the church today hear the word “worship” their minds automatically focus on what they do for a half hour prior to the sermon each Sunday or midweek service. Worship tends to be related to our singing to God, and rarely connected to our living to God. Of course singing plays a vital role in worshiping Christ, especially in the congregation setting, but is only a portion of true worship. A.W. Tozer, in his book The Purpose of Man, articulates worship in this way, “Worship is to feel in your heart and express in some appropriate manner a humbling but delightful sense of admiring awe and astonished wonder and overpowering love in the presence of that most Ancient Mystery, that Majesty which philosophers call the first cause, but which we call our Father which art in heaven.” Worship is simply a life’s response originated from the magnificence of the great and beautiful Savior King for the purpose of exalting, magnifying and glorifying His mighty name on the earth, throughout the universe, and on into eternity.

Our heart for the local church body here at Calvary Chapel Saving Grace is to see Christ worshiped in all aspects of our lives including our homes, schools, work places and relationships. Louie Giglio in his book The Air I Breathe simply puts it, “Everything on earth (except sin) can be done as an act of worship to God. Everything we do is worship when we do it for Him, displaying His face as we go.” Truly God has created us to glorify and worship Him. Isaiah 43:7 says, “everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for My glory, whom I formed and made”. If God declared that we were made to glorify (or worship) Him, then our only reasonable response would be to echo with our lives Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 10:31, “…..in whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”

As God’s word is exalted in our lives, and as we grow in the knowledge of God through His word, may He direct and establish our hearts in worshiping Him in spirit and truth. For Christ Himself said “You (speaking of the Samaritan woman at the well) worship what you do not know, we worship what we do know, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” John 4:22-24. May we be found to be those who truly worship God in spirit and truth, as we continue to know Him through His word and making Him known by His word throughout all the earth.