Read 1 Chronicles 16:23-32
What is “worship”? How would you define “worship”? Before you read any further, take time to verbally define “worship”. If you are in a group, work out a definition of worship as a group.
Worship is not singing. Worship is not praising God. Worship is not a church service, though it can include all of these. Worship is focusing every aspect of our being on God and being lost in Him.
When we worship God we come to realize that He is a holy God. When we talk about the holiness of God we mean that God is separate from all creation and he alone is God. It is parallel to His glory in this sense.
Added to this, the holiness of God means that God is separate from all that resists or opposes Him. God is His own ultimate standard. Good and evil, right and wrong are defined and determined by God. There is no greater level of appeal than the holiness of God. No wonder He is called the Holy One of God so many times in Isaiah (1:4, 5:19,24, 10:20, 12:6, 17:7, 29:19, 30:11, 12, 30:15, 31:1,37:23, 41:14, 16, 20, 43:3, 14, 45:11, 47:4, 48:17, 49:7 twice, 54:5, 55:5, 60:9, 14).
The holiness of God has ethical and practical implications for His people. They are called to be holy because He is holy (Lev 20:26). God’s people are called to live, to act and to worship in ways that correlate to and confirm God’s own holiness.
God’s righteousness is His conformity to His own standard. No one in our world has conformed perfectly to that standard. As Romans 3:23 makes clear, we have all fallen short of God’s standard. But through
God’s justice is His holy will in operation. God’s wrath arises because mankind has failed to reach the standard of holiness set by God. Those who persist in rejecting God and His solution to the lack required righteousness (ie Christ’s death and resurrection) will have God’s justice metered out to them. They will be called to account! God will judge everything and everyone that contradicts His holiness.
Tomorrow at church will you worship the Lord in the splendor of His holiness (1 Chron 16:29)? Will you come before Him focusing totally upon Him? Will you forget yourself and turn wholeheartedly to God? Will you bring a sacrifice acceptable to God? If we worship God while looking at ourselves and our needs and our likes/dislikes our worship becomes unacceptable consumerism.
Tomorrow is an opportunity for you to genuinely worship God with your heart, soul, mind and strength. Make the most of that opportunity!
Prayer: Write down your prayer points in the space provided. Use today’s reading to help you get ideas.
Adoration:
Confession:
Thanks:
Supplication:
ª Ask the Lord to prepare your heart for tomorrow’s church service. Pray this too for every person in your congregation. Pray that each person would come ready to meet with God and that non-believers would be confronted and brought to repentance and faith in Jesus.
ª Pray that God would bless and reward each of the people who are regularly involved in the church services. Pray that they would be blessed by seeing the fruit of their labours and that that would be drawn closer to the Lord through their service.
Witness Moment – Do you live for the glory of God? The answer is ‘Yes’ if we seek to conform every area of our lives to His standard and His desires. Sin detracts from the glory of God and the Christian man/woman wanting to bring glory to God will thus seek to remove all sin from his/her life.
Sin, in taking glory from God, will also negate our witness to God’s goodness and love.
Discussion Questions For Families and Groups
1. What does the ‘glory of God’ mean to you?
2. What does it mean to live for the glory of God?
3. If a believer doesn’t care about the glory of God, what can you conclude about that person? What can you do to help him or her?
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