Why Worship Matters

Written by Hernando Munoz, Spanish Campus Pastor 

Do you have a song that helps bring you back to God? I noticed new people in our Spanish Campus trying to learn to connect with God more deeply, so I recently shared a song with FAC en Español that expresses how, at times, we can lose that connection. The question I was left with was: how are we connecting with Jesus? The song caught my attention because I was realizing for myself just how hard it can be sometimes to stay close to Him.  

This is one of the verses of the song, translated: 

My soul was offline 

My heart was on airplane mode 

And I rejected your calls 

I had lost connection 

But you never stop 

I can no longer hide from you 

It's your love that has completely saved me 

Your forgiveness that has healed me inside 

The passion with which you love me, I don't understand 

If I deserved to die, but you arrived just in time 

Do we sometimes feel like we are on “airplane mode” in our relationship with Jesus? Are we missing the calls? This thinking led me to reflect on the theme of worship. 

Worship is something special that God has given us to connect with him. Worship is praising him, dedicating our devotion to him. But more than music, worship is the very thing for which we’ve been created. We’ve been created for God, for the enjoyment of His goodness and to live a life devoted to Him. Our relationship with God is sustained through devotion and a continual connection with Him made possible by His grace. 

This is my definition of worship: Worship is when my heart’s content is to live for God’s content. Worship is something that fills both earth and heaven. Both God’s angelic creatures and ordinary people, God’s people, participate in the worship of His name. It is also a theme that runs throughout the Bible from beginning to end. It appears in different scenarios where we see God at work in people’s lives. 

Worship in the Bible

There are a few passages of Scripture where we see the many purposes of worship. Worship is not simply music, but is often expressed through song, as we observe in the Bible. More than that, it’s the offering of one’s life to God in all that we are and all that we do. Worship is the place where our lives are transformed and renewed. As we draw closer to God, our lives are transformed. The transformation of our lives is an ongoing, continuous, persistent process that never stops. We’re not in our final shape and will never be here on earth.  

In the story of Moses, God freed the Israelites from slavery in Egypt and from Pharaoh’s dominion. God’s intention for Israel’s release was so they could go out into the desert to serve, worship, and celebrate Him. God wanted his people to worship him, but not in a place of slavery or under the bondage of the oppressor. He wanted them to go out into a place of freedom to truly worship God, because worship is about freedom in God.  

After Israel leaves Egypt, Moses and the people sing a song of freedom to God. Miriam and the women play instruments, sing, and dance. When we worship God, it brings us into greater freedom, something many of us may have experienced. A profound moment of worship can bring profound freedom, and it can happen at any time. Sometimes we cry out to God under oppression, sometimes we face a wall in front of us and worship while trusting God. Sometimes we sing in freedom when we are on the other side, after we have been delivered from the hands of our enemies. 

In another passage, David teaches that our worship to God should not be effortless, but rather something that costs us. If God is at the centre of our affections, we should seek to give God nothing less than our best. David ordered a census of the people of Israel, trusting in his own strength and instead of God’s. A prophet came to David what would happen because of his sin. A plague came over Israel and killed a lot of people. David repented, and God eased his anger.  

The prophet then told David to build an altar and offer a sacrifice on a particular man’s land. When David went to the landowner, he did not want to charge David for the land, even offering the animals for sacrifice and whatever else was needed for free. But David refused, saying he would not sacrifice to God something that cost him nothing. Offering our lives to God in worship calls us to give our best. Sometimes our best can simply be to admit that we are helpless, but that we will continue to be faithful. Worship should be costly.  

In another passage, Isaiah had a vision of heaven’s throne where God was seated, and God’s angels surrounded him with wings that covered their faces and feet and allowed them to fly around the throne. Their specific task was to continuously praise God and declare his glory. In this vision, Isaiah became afraid because of what he saw and where he found himself. He became deeply aware of his sin and of being part of a sinful nation. Then one of the seraphim flew to him with hot coal from the altar and touched Isaiah’s mouth, purifying him from his sins.  

When we praise God, it allows us to recognize our condition. In His presence, we can purified, our sins can be forgiven, and we can be given a new purpose. Isaiah responded to God’s calling, “Whom shall I send?” by saying, “Here I am! Send me!” 

In the Gospels, we find the story of the woman who washed Jesus’ feet with a very special perfume contained in an alabaster jar, made from a fine mineral used for valuable decorative objects. It says that the woman broke the jar to pour the perfume on Jesus’s head. However, it can be interpreted that the breaking was more of her soul than of the jar. She wept at Jesus’ feet and washed them with her tears, which was more precious to Jesus than the perfume.  

The praise and worship of Jesus takes us to a place of brokenness, where our  walls are broken down; often during seasons where God is calling us to a deeper intimacy and trust in Him. In worship, we break, and a fragrant offering rises to God. We break from our past, our fears, our doubts, our insecurities, and false identities that differ from how God sees us, and we become a fragrant offering to him. 

In Revelation, we come to a climactic picture of worship:  

“After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.  And they cried out in a loud voice: ‘Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.’   All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God,  saying:  ‘Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!’”  Revelation 7: 9-12 (NIV)  

In the book of Revelation, worship is the song of the redeemed. It’s an extravagant display of the victory of the Lamb and of the wisdom, power, and strength of God, who has saved people from all nations. Worship is the continued outburst of life in our hearts because of the great gift we have received in Jesus. We have all been saved for a life that does not end. 

We are already seeing glimpses of what worship will be like in heaven here on earth. For instance, here at FAC, people from many nations worship together. Around the throne of God, people from all nations will worship together! All will be joined in one heart, one accord, and one purpose. We will still be there with our ethnicities and distinctiveness, but all redeemed by the Lamb. We will see one another, and our differences will not separate us but instead become part of the display of God’s greatness, beauty, and power. 

So then, how are you connecting with Jesus? Are you excited about entering into a life of worship, giving yourself to him, with all that you are and all that you have? This is the very purpose we were created. We invite the work of God into our lives in many ways when we continually center ourselves on who he is. Worship becomes a natural rhythm because of God and because of who he is. He awakens worship in the hearts of those he touches. He revives us, makes us new, and brings us into a life of freedom and purpose.  

May our lives be a sweet perfume to God, and may we continue to experience his presence and goodness as we continually live to worship him! 

How are you connecting with Jesus? At FAC, we’re creating space to slow down and worship Him together. Join us for Fill the Room, a Night of Worship on Saturday, June 20, 8:00 pm in the Harvest Rooms at FAC Deerfoot, led by worship leaders from across all campuses.