Worship in truth

 We are saved to worship God, to love Him in relationship. All that Christ has done for us in the past and all that He is doing now leads us to this. What, then, is true worship? Jesus told the Samaritan at the well in John 4 that a day is coming and has already come that God's people would worship Him in Spirit and in truth. In truth. Truth...the absence of all things false, fake, perverse. What does worship in truth look like? 

I'm a worship leader, a worship song leader, so I say this next thing with a bit of irony, maybe. Our corporate worship is the smallest act of worship we bring. The American church, or maybe the Western church in general has exalted this Sunday moment as the most important act of worship. I know this because worship has become an industry filled with lights, auditoriums, a high focus on emotions and how worship makes us feel. The church spends its money on stage equipment, promotion, cameras, buildings...all for the 1 day a week culmination of 25 minutes of song. People aspire to be worship leaders in the church, to record CD's, to have the next breakthrough worship song. All this time, effort, and resources spent to build our individual kingdoms of what AW Tozer calls, "the worship show." 

Are these things bad? Maybe not. Probably not. Does God meet with His people in corporate worship? OF COURSE. But maybe these things can be bad. Maybe they are when they become the definition of worship in a higher way than what God's word tells us about worship.  If these things aren't the epitome of what worship is, then what does worship in truth look like? Where should our time, effort and resources be spent in worship? What did Jesus mean really when He spoke with the forbidden, sinful, marginalized Samaritan woman in the heat of the afternoon? 

Truth...the absence of all things false, fake, perverse. Worship in truth...the absence of all worship that is false, fake, perverse. The absence of the show, the mask, the good foot forward. Outward appearance means nothing. Inward heart means everything. This can't be contained in 25 minutes on a Sunday with a few songs and a lightshow. God isn't fooled. He who formed my inmost being in my mother's womb knows every thought, every emotion within me. He knows, also, the value of my offering, my obedience. He knows my motives. He knows whether my lips & actions honor Him out of love or out of appearance.  He knows what is attractive to Him. There is worship He loves, that moves His heart. There is worship that doesn't. Amos 5:21-24 says:

"I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.

Even though you offer Me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offering of your fattened animals. I will not look upon them. 

Take away from Me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen.

But let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream."

Justice. Righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. Never ending. A daily lifestyle of justice and righteousness. All that Christ has done for us in the past and all that He is doing now brings us to this. Our songs sung together in community mean nothing, in fact God despises those songs unless they are sung from a heart free from all things false, fake, perverse. A heart filled with righteousness, broken in love before God, in obedience to His Word. God sees through the show. God is drawn, attracted to justice and righteousness. This is true worship. Bring this to Him daily. Bring this to our Sunday morning corporate worship gatherings. Leave all things false, fake, perverse out. It has no place in the hearts of God's people, at the altar, in the church. 

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