First, allow me to share the link to last Sunday’s message, because the theme was worship: https://chbchurch.org/sermon/sunday-morning-worship-service-for-july-27-2025/. If you did not get to hear the message, that is a wonderful place to begin to help you think about a life devoted to worship. If you did get to hear the message, let me remind you of a few key points.
We are made for worship. All of God’s creation is made to bring Him glory. Isaiah 43:6-7 says,
“I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’
And to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’
Bring My sons from afar
And My daughters from the ends of the earth,
7 Everyone who is called by My name,
And whom I have created for My glory,
Whom I have formed, even whom I have made.”
We naturally assign value to people, places, and things in our life. We rightly value our family, our church family, our friends, our jobs, our neighbors. But as fallen human beings we tend to put too much value on these things, and others, drawing our significance, our happiness, and our purpose from them, rather than from God. We are in effect making these things our savior.
Where there is true worship, our sinful nature, the world system, and the demonic powers produce an alternative of false worship. These good things become primary things, and we find ourselves worshipping idols, rather than fulfilling our God-created and God-redeemed purpose of glorifying God. What does it meant to glorify God, or be devoted to worship? J. I. Packer wrote,
“To worship God is to recognize his worth or worthiness; to look God-ward, and to acknowledge in all appropriate ways the value of what we see. The Bible calls this activity "glorifying God" or "giving glory to God," and views it as the ultimate end, and from one point of view, the whole duty of man. Scripture views the glorifying of God as a sixfold activity: praising God for all that he is and all his achievements; thanking him for his gifts and his goodness to us; asking him to meet our own and others' needs; offering him our gifts, our service, and ourselves; learning of him from his word, read and preached, and obeying his voice; telling others of his worth, both by public confession and testimony to what he has done for us.”
Did you see the six-fold activity of glorifying God?
- Praising God or all that He is and all His achievements
- Thanking God for His gifts and His goodness to us
- Asking God to meet our needs and the needs of others
- Offering God our gifts, our service, and ourselves
- Learning of God from the read and preached Word, and obeying His voice
- Telling others of His worth by public confession and testimony of what He has done for us
Using this list would you consider yourself as living a life that is devoted to worship? That may make you think of Romans 12:1-2.
Romans 12:1-2 says, “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”
This verse describes the life a believer desires to live. To exist in such a way that we are fully given over to God, and that our life has been so transformed that when people see us they see what God’s will is for all of humanity. Of course, we know our lives do not look like that at any given moment. This is the beauty of the gospel. Jesus Christ did live that way, and when we repent of our sins and trust in Him, we become recipients of the good pleasure God finds in His Son. And we are given the power to conquer sin and pursue living a life that is holy, acceptable, and perfect. And we can know that one day our pursuit will result in perfection.
Christians will spend eternity living in such a way that God is glorified and we have perfect joy by fulfilling our ultimate purpose. This is only possible in Jesus alone. His life, His death, His resurrection is the only source for which the worship of God will occur in its fullest glory. So, we give ourselves to Him now. Trusting in Jesus and learning to be more like Him every day. This is why we say, “CHBC exists to proclaim the glory of God to all generations (Ps. 145:4), to equip believers of all ages, to extend the gospel to all people, and to exalt Christ in all of life.
By His Grace and For His Glory,
Pastor Mark
