One Sunday morning, the preacher noticed little Alex standing in the foyer of the church staring up at a large plaque. It was covered with names with small American flags mounted on either side of it. The preacher walked up, and said, "Good morning, Alex." "Good morning, Pastor," he replied, still focused on the plaque. “What is this?" he asked the preacher. The pastor said, "Well, son, it's a memorial to all the young men and women who died in the service. Alex’s voice, barely audible, asked in fear, "Which service, the 9:45 or the 11:15?"
Far too often, and much too much, God’s people are like Alex. They have a misconception of worship—the regular, public, communal celebration of God. Some people see worship as an obligation of attendance, a painful fate worse than death—something to get checked off God’s list. Others see worship as an obligation of inconvenience. The easier and quicker the better so you can get on with your Sunday. God begs to differ. True worship is a call and a cost as seen through His Anointed King David in Psalm 100 and 1 Chronicles 21. Call and cost--to miss the significance of both is to miss your blessings. You might as well just stay at home. The 9:45 am or 11: 15 am service times doesn’t matter to God who is interested in being more than your attendance taker.
True worship as seen in Psalm 100 is a call to worship, an imperative, a command of God to all his people to come together for joyous praise and thanksgiving. Believers are called to worship God because of His covenant relationship with us.
1 Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands. 2 Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing. 3 Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Psalm 100:1-3
God’s people are called to arrive to worship already in a spirit of gladness because their covenant relationship with God that did not start with entry into the assembly. It began with His agreement with Abraham to be your God, to care for you as a shepherd who cares for his sheep—protecting, providing, possessing. So, worship actually begins before you hit the church doors. But what is the typical contemporary approach to worship: “service or serve us”? How do you come to worship--to be served or to serve us?
True worship as seen in Psalm 100 is also a “call” to believers to worship God because of the character of God. God is benevolent—a giver—thus, we are called to be thankful.
4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. 5 For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endures to all generations. Psalm 100:4,5
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When you hit the church door, you should have already meditated on all that God has given you. Your bed was not a bomb shelter this week as is the case for some. Your bed was not a cooling board. Your bed was not a bread line. So, put on your God shoes. How would you feel if you had given someone a blessing and they did not say thank you?
Eternity is also a characteristic of God that deserves our sincere worship. His benevolence affects not only you but your next generation. When you worship, you are showing your children and grandchildren where their blessings come from. So, answer the call and “make a joyful and genuine noise…all ye lands.”
True worship is also a cost. You must be inconvenienced for worship to be real. David was as seen in 1 Chronicles 21:24.
24But King David said to Ornan, "No, but I will surely buy [it] for the full price; for I will not take what is yours for the LORD, or offer a burnt offering which costs me nothing." 1Chronicles 21:24
When it was time to worship, King David refused to take Ornan’s gift of his threshing floor’s lumber, grain, and oxen to use for worship. Here is the back story: David had sinned against God by taking a census of his men. The temptation could arise that he could trust those numbers rather than the singular God as the reason for their victories. God gave David three choices of judgment for his sin: three years of famine, three months of defeat at the hands of his enemies, or three days of plague at the hand of God’s angels. David chose to put his hands in God’s hands who showed mercy on him and his people.
So great was God’s mercy and forgiveness of David that he was commanded by an angel to worship God at Ornan’s barn. David would not worship God without it costing him. What has God forgiven you this week, this year, this portion of your life that justifies you holding back on your worship because of a little inconvenience—an infringement on your snooze time; an extra withdrawal from your limited patience, or a difficult bestowal of grace where forgiveness is required? If worship didn’t cost you, you didn’t worship.
The time of service doesn’t matter—be it 8 a.m. or 11 a.m.—when it comes to worship. Answering the call of thankfulness, and the sacrifice of service is “having church.”
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