Worship Begins in the Heart

I’ve been tasked to write about “Worship”, to briefly inquire about the extent of this word in hopes of encouraging the people of HBC. I pray that this hits the mark, and encourages you, the reader.

I suppose it should be stated firstly that worship is more than, but certainly not less than, the songs we sing congregationally on Sunday mornings. Let’s make no mistake: our songs matter, and singing as a group certainly can and ought to be worship. Yet worship is to be so much more…worship is meant to be the expression of all I do for the God who is worthy of all the best I can bring. As my Youth Pastor years ago once said (I praise God for this sticking with me): “Worship of God is ‘worth’ship.” I’ve never forgotten that little phrase of my teen mentor, recognizing then that true worship of God can be in my singing…but it can also now be in my parenting, my marriage, my writing, or anything I can do with my hands. For that let me draw your attention to 1 Kings 8.

For context, the temple of God has just been built, and has now been occupied by the Ark. God’s presence now dwells among His people in an established residence…oh the thought of the sight as God’s weighty glory now abides so closely in proximity to His own! In this time of dedication, this time of celebration, the King of Israel speaks. We would be wise to consider what this wisest man Solomon says in these moments, for it can educate us on worship…so let’s peer in at his words and take some brief notes.

In verse 17 Solomon educates on where true worship begins. It doesn’t begin from the “outside in”, from the external to the internal. Actually the opposite…the idea of building this glorious house for God began in the HEART of David the King. With the teens I call this “root to fruit” living, the idea that your body follows where your heart leads. Jesus hits at this truth several times in the NT (Luke 6:45, Matthew 15:19-20). True worship of God happens first at the heart level. This is why even as a dad I parent with hopes not to primarily modify my children’s external behavior, but prayerfully lifting their hearts up to the very One who can transform them. For once the heart is stirred in affection for God then flows external goodness.

We also see in verses 18-19 another necessary note on worship. Though David had good intent, his worship was guided by God’s Word. God gave the building of His temple not to David, but to Solomon. And David, in hearing God’s Word…obeyed. This reminds us that true worship of God is governed by God’s Word. To ignore His Word, to bypass His statutes, cannot be worship of Him (it’s really just worship of self in those moments). So when God says something to me in His Word on marriage, parenting, pastoring…I love Him by going as far as His Word allows me and no further.

Lastly, we see in verse 22 that though my worship begins in the heart, it does not stay inside. It explodes out of me, seen in bodily expression. I’ve told teens this…my worship is TO Him, but is FOR them as well. So when I preach or teach, it is my expression of worship to my God, my heart stirred to proclaim His Word. But though this is my individual worship to my God, my teens I pray are beneficiaries of my worship, their hearts and minds being stirred by the very God I’m proclaiming. And thus the cycle continues – as God stirs my heart in worship I pray He’ll use my worship of Him in the lives of others, stirring IN them the same affections that will be SEEN by onlookers. May our worship of God be “white-hot”, that the nations may know the God in whom we delight.