Creflo Dollar - What Is True Worship? - Part 1
Let's begin here, let's start off this morning just simply by, I want to talk about five little points and see if we can just focus on defining worship. You know, what is it? Because I'm defining, because I hear a lot of stuff, and I'm thinking where did you get that from? That's not in the Bible, where did that come from? "Well, the Lord told me". That wasn't God you were talking to. Revelations chapter 5, Revelations chapter 5, verse 11 and through 14. Now, if there's any place that would hold significance of worship, it would be in heaven, amen?
Look at this, 11 through 14. "And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beast and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands," and this is what they were saying. "Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth," wow, "and such as are in the seas, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever". And I want you to see this, how they responded. "And the four beasts said, Amen". We heard everything you said, amen. "And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshiped him that liveth forever and ever".
Now, the word worship, it comes from an older word, worth-ship. You see proclaimed in Revelation that he is worthy, and this word worship comes from this word worth-ship, worth-ship. So, worship is something we do that demonstrates how valuable we think God is. It's something that we do that demonstrates how valuable God is. It means to highly value, to highly adore, to highly reverence. There's a value on Jesus. Worth-ship, it means to ascribe worth to God, to consider him as worthy of value, or maybe the ultimate value of our lives. And in some ways it means to express to him our sense of worth and value that we have of him. Worship.
Now, that does not come from something that somebody just made up. It's, what is this worth? You go into a place in your house, and you have certain things appraised to see how much it's worth. How much is God worth to you? What's the value you assign to him? Worship that does not come from the heart is vain. Worship that does not come from your heart is empty. It's not authentic worship. In fact, if it doesn't come from your heart, it's no worship. Let's look at Matthew 15:8 through 9 in the NLT again. Worship has to come from your heart, or it's not worship. Wow, that's heavy. He said, "These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship is a farce".
Now, you have to pause when you see something like this. Their worship is something considered a waste of time. Whose worship? People who move their lips, but it's not coming out of their heart. He says their worship is a waste of time. He says their worship is no worship at all. He said it's a farce. When something's a farce, it's an empty, it's empty or patently ridiculous act, an empty, patently ridiculous act. It's considered a waste of time. It's considered a joke. He's saying a person that moves their lips but it didn't come out of their heart, their worship is a joke. It's considered a waste of time. I do not want to go to heaven, see God, and know I did all of this stuff in church, and he said it wasn't even worship. He said, "We were sitting there the whole time, wondering, what are they doing"? It's not even worship.
One thing about worship is you have to worship him the way he says to worship him. That's what it means when he says it's a farce. Even in the Old Testament he had something to say about people trying to worship him, but they were not doing it from their heart. Look at Isaiah chapter 29, verse 13 in the NLT. Isaiah 29, verse 13 in the NLT. I wanna make sure, am I going slow enough? You with me so far? Because this is gonna, woo. He said, "And so the Lord says, 'These people say they are mine. They honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. And their worship of me is nothing but man-made rules learned by rote.'"
Now, what is rote? it means all of the things that they're doing was manmade, and they're doing it mechanically. They're doing it because they have done it in such repetition, they're just doing it because you've always done it. The word rote literally means learned by routine or repetition. It's mechanical. So, he says these people are worshiping me, and it's mechanical. They're worshiping me because they've just gotten used, it's just been repetition, it's just been repetition, it's just been repetition, and the repetition has gotten them to think that this manmade rule, this manmade rule, he said it's nothing but a manmade rule. You would be shocked of the manmade rules that we even do in our church service, and we don't know where it came from. It's manmade church, manmade worship, and we think, boy, we're really worshiping God. And God's like, "You're really wasting your time".
None of this is coming out of your heart. It just looks like it because of your repetition in doing it, it's mechanical. There's no way I want to do anything, and it's mechanical. I don't want to do anything and it looks like it comes out of my heart. You know, if I got on my face right now and just lay stretched out, it looked like it came out of my heart. And still the question remains, did that come out of your heart? How many times did you do that at home? How many times do you fall on your face and stretch out like that at home? It could be, but this is something for you to judge yourself with. I can't judge you on that, because I can't see your heart. But God weighs the heart, and I'll never be able to say whether or not you were worshiping God out of your heart.
I can't, I can't say that, and nobody else can. But you know if you were or not. And if you do things, is it out of repetition that you're doing it? So much stuff going on in church, all my life I believed to the point where I'm looking at everything I've ever learned and going to see if I can find it in the Bible, and I'm shocked, 'cause what I'm teaching you, I'm having to renew my mind out of it the same way I'm telling you to renew your mind out of it. We're all together on this. Amen.
Let's look at another perspective of worship. The essence of worship is our daily expression of allegiance, loyalty, commitment to God in our everyday lives. Worship is not what takes place at 10 o'clock here at the Dome. We even refer to it as a worship service. No, no, no, no, no. What we're really supposed to be doing here is building you up and edifying you. If you think that worship only takes place here or if worship only took place when they sung that song, you are so missing worship. That ain't worship. It's a part of it, but worship is something that you express every single day. The essence of worship is a daily expression of your allegiance, of your loyalty, and of your commitment to God in your everyday life.
How are you expressing your allegiance to God in your everyday life? You're gonna find out the first time the word worship was used, Abram was getting ready to take his son on the altar and to sacrifice him. And what he said when they asked where you're going, he said, the lad and I are going up to this mountain to worship God, and then we'll return. There were no songs being sung. Nobody had no tambourine or nothing like that. He went up to sacrifice what was given to him and called it worship. What are the things you sacrifice every day of your life? We'll get there, I'm ahead of myself. What are the things you have to put on the altar every day of your life? Your temper, your selfishness, your everyday worship.
We are so convinced that worship is defined as a sum total of a song. That is not worship by itself. That's a part of it, but it's not the essence of worship. The essence of worship is our daily expressions of loyalty and commitment to God in our everyday life, in your sex life, your sex life. You worship God by saying I am not gonna sleep around. That's worshiping God right there. In the way you handle your money, that's worshiping God. Loving and forgiving as Jesus would, that's worshiping God. Loving what's hard to love because Jesus did it, that's worshiping God. That's worshiping God. Forgiving, that's worshiping God.
See, I've discovered again that the church took another cheaper instead of the deeper. It's me walking around living a life by the example of Jesus Christ, that's worshiping. Look at Ephesians 5:1 and 2 in the NLT. When I imitate him, that's my worship, but it can't be mechanical. Watch this, "Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children". Verse two, "Live a life filled with love, follow the example of Christ". That's worship, that's an expression of your worship. "Live a life filled with love," excuse me, "follow the example of Christ. He loved us, he offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God".
That's worship. That's the expression, the essence of worship is a daily expression, so a true worshiper is one who lives to please God. A true worshiper is one who lives to please God, whose lifestyle reflects that two-way relationship with him. In other words, we know you know God for real though, because we see that you're living a life to please God. And I'm talking about every day. The sum total of your Christian life should not be when you come here. When you come here is a building up time, what are your expressions like? Are you living life to please God? A true worshiper is one who lives to please God.
Do you want to please God? Watch this, or do you want to please self? Because that's gonna be your battle. Is it about pleasing God, or is it about pleasing self? True worshipers go after pleasing God. Their lifestyle reflects that two-way relationship with him. You can tell, you know, you have to have a two-way relationship with him. You gotta minister to him, and he ministers to you. You know him, y'all walk together, y'all got fellowship together, then this is not gonna be a problem. This is only gonna be a problem when it's mechanical. Now you got play church. Now you gotta act like you know him. It shouldn't be an act, it should just you be, because you have a relationship with him for real.
Look at Hebrews 13:15 and 16 in the NLT. Hebrews 13:15 and 16. And this is my foundation for the next couple of weeks here, giving you enough for you to go back and look at this and say, let me see if I can really put a hold on what worship is. He says, "Therefore, let us offer through Jesus a continual sacrifice of praise to God". All right, what is that continual sacrifice of praise to God? "Proclaiming our allegiance," our loyalty, and our commitment, "to his name". "Proclaiming, proclaiming our allegiance to his name". You pledge allegiance to the flag, but you won't pledge allegiance to Jesus. Are you listening to me?
I remember every morning as a little boy we would pledge, now, back in those days we would have a little short prayer and pledge allegiance to the flag. But now now we're not pledging allegiance to your God. He's yours too, you just don't know it. He says, "And don't forget to do good and to share with those in need". Oh, that's allegiance to him, doing good and to share with those in need. "These are the sacrifices that please God," and true worshipers please God.
And you see all this coming together? These are the sacrifices that please God. Worship is also a magnifying of God in our lives. It's an act that shows how magnificent God is. It's an act that reveals or expresses how great and glorious God is. Worship is all about reflecting the worth or the value of God, making it magnificent. I mean, when something is valuable, you want somebody to see it, don't you? Is God valuable? Who's seen that lately? Man, when you got on a nice watch and its magnificence, you wanna magnify that. You know, your sleeve is not, it ain't short, but you, it's short this morning. It's short today. It's short now. But are you that way with God?
I want to talk about how magnificent he is. I want you, when you come around me, that I always got something to talk to you about. Look at here, look at what God did here. Won't he do it? Won't he make a way? Look, we're showing everything else out, but we won't show him out. Is he valuable to you? Or you just accepted him to stay out of hell? It's got to go beyond this building, ladies and gentlemen. It's got to go beyond this building. If it doesn't go beyond this building, I don't know if you know what worship is. And I don't know if you'll ever know what worship is. It's got to go beyond this building. Even your singing, when you sing here, it's gotta go beyond this building.
Somebody said, "I can't sing". Make a joyful noise unto the Lord. True worship, true worship, let's go to this angle, and then I'll get started. True worship is our response to grace. Worship is the response of a man to the initiatives of God in grace. Look at Genesis 12:7. It's a response, it's a response to what God has already done. It's a response to his finished works. You got plenty of things to worship God over. A response to what he's already done. A response to his finished works. I thought this was so interesting.
Here is Abram in grace. "Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said," watch this, he's doing this, and he didn't, and Abram didn't even deserve it. He says, "'I will give this land to your descendants,'" out of grace. And the Bible says that "Abram built an altar there and dedicated it to the LORD, who had appeared to him". Wow. He says, "You give me land, I'm gonna worship you". That alter is a symbol of that place of worship. When there's an altar built, it's supposed to be some worship that's taking place there, all right?
Now, let's go to Genesis 22 look at this, Genesis 22, verse 5 and 14, 5 through 14. This is the first place you see the word worship appear, the first place you see the word worship appear. All right, so here's Abram and his son Isaac, and he says, "'Stay here with the donkey,' Abraham told the servants. 'The boy and I will travel a little farther. We will worship there,'" so in those days, in the Old Testament, you had to go to a certain place to worship him. Okay, "'We'll worship there, and then we will come right back.' So Abraham placed the wood for the burnt offering on", now, go back. Did you see, did you see verse 5? He says, "'The boy and I are gonna go. And we will worship there, and then we'll come right back.'"
Now we're getting ready to see exactly what they were gonna be doing there, because whatever they're doing there is called, what? Worship. All right, verse 6, "So Abraham placed the wood for the burnt offering on Isaac's shoulder, while he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them walked on together, Isaac turned to the father and said, 'Father?' 'Yes, my son?' Abraham replied. He said, the son said, 'We have the fire, we have the wood.'" You're talking about Abraham's faith, that boy had to have some faith too, didn't he? "'But where is the sheep for the burnt offering?'"
Look at Abraham, look at him. He knows God, the same God that said, "You'll have the seed that'll outnumber the stars". I know my God, because he's been spending time with him, the same God that says, "You're gonna be father. And look at the number of sand on the seashore". He said, "'God will provide a sheep for the burnt offering,' Abraham answered. And they both walked together". Verse 9, "When they arrived at the place where God had told him to go, Abraham built an altar". Uh-oh, we're getting ready to worship. "And he arranged the wood on it". Glory. That's why it's gotta come out of your heart. That's your altar, that's your altar. It's gotta come out of here.