Worship is About Jesus. Period. -- Rev. Clint Davis
I want to begin this post with a confession: I struggle with self-centeredness occasionally. Ok, you got me, I struggle with it a lot. That should come as no surprise to you or anyone else reading this post. You know that I am no different than you. You are also well aware that we both struggle with self-centeredness. Like the Apostle Paul, we fight the fleshly temptation to honor ourselves rather than God (Rom. 7:15-19). This is true for us even after our hearts have been transformed by the gospel of grace in Christ.
I don’t know about you, but my self-centeredness is periodically seen in my attitude before, during and after corporate worship. This was true before I became a pastor, and sadly it’s still true. (Shh, don’t tell anybody. Pastors are supposed to be super-spiritual.) There are times when I don’t want to get out of bed, don’t want to get dressed, don’t want be around people, don’t want to sing the selected songs, don’t want to lead the prayers, and certainly don’t want to preach the passage before me or hear it preached. Simply, on those days, I don’t want it to be about God; I want it to be about ME!
When I feel this way, I find myself drawing strength from the Spirit of God as he enables me to obey the command of God to remember the Sabbath day and to keep it holy. He provides me with the strength necessary to obey the will of God, not just the inspiration to be obedient. I believe that on those days this same Spirit also brings to my mind a biblical lesson about worship, which I learned as a young man by watching and listening to my dad (Big Rick) on Sundays.
Worship is about Jesus, not you.
Big Rick taught me that when we gather on Sunday with the congregation, we are worshipping Jesus, and Jesus alone. He is the one who was, the one who is and the one who is to come (Rev. 4:8). He is our Creator, our Savior, our Head, our Peace, our Hope, our King and our Glory. He is the “image of the invisible God,” and the one in whom “all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell” (Col. 1:15-20). Without him, we are nothing but hopeless sinners without the hope of everlasting life. But, with him, we are children of the living God (John 1:1-13; 1 John 3:1-3). Without him, we do not know God. But, with him, we see God because he, “the only God, who is at the Father’s side,” has made him known to us (John 1:18).
This understanding of Jesus puts our self-centeredness into its proper perspective. It makes it seem pretty pathetic, doesn’t it? It’s insane (quite literally) to think that we can compete with the marvelous brilliance of the glory of Christ, the Creator of the world and the King of Glory. He commands the angels. His birth was announced by the angelic host. Not mine. Not yours. Not anybody else’s. He has given you and me the privilege to enter into his courts of praise and to stand in his presence in his grace (Ps. 100).
Doesn’t he get to demand, then, what we do in worship and when we do it, regardless of whether or not you and I always like it? Yes, he does. So, ultimately, it’s really of question of who we worship, isn’t it? Are we going to worship Jesus or ourselves? Self-centeredness is nothing less than self-worship. Are we really going to say that we are more important than Jesus?
Through the years, I have learned that Christ-honoring Christians get out of bed, dress, go to church, sing the songs, pray the prayers and expectantly listen to the sermon each week solely because Jesus is worthy, not necessarily because they always want to do it. To them, it is Jesus who matters most. He is the one who deserves their praise. The same should be true for all of us who profess faith in Christ. He is the one who sits enthroned in the heavens. He is the one who gave himself for us. He is the one who will return to judge the living and the dead. He is the one who promised and secured our eternal destiny by his precious blood.
If that doesn’t make you want to get up to worship him, then nothing will — no friends, no music, no preacher, no enticing atmosphere, no nothing. While friends and entertainments may draw us to worship for a while, they will not last. The only thing that will cause us to worship regularly is a heart devoted to the Lamb who is worthy to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing because he was slain for the sins of the world (Rev. 5:12).