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That is a good day. It is, even, a faithful, God honoring day. Multiply that day by 30,000 and you’ll have lived a life worth living.
But here’s a question: is that a day of worship?
Sometime last year, after a home group meeting, Cort Tangeman and I got into a conversation about that very question. What constitutes worship in everyday life? Is our work a kind of worship? Is normal, everyday, Christian obedience worship? Should all of life, can all of life, be a sort of song of praise to God, even if in any given moment we aren’t really consciously thinking about God?
Well, my opinion was basically, no. Worship is a conscious act, I argued. True worship is the Christian’s conscious exaltation of God. But, I said, just because something isn’t worship doesn’t make it bad or not worth doing. There are a thousand lovely things, a thousand necessary things, a thousand commanded things, even a thousand things that bring glory to God that are not worship. Worship may be the proper inspiration of those things and worship may be the ultimate end point of these things, but in the undistracted heat of the moment, in the flow state of your deepest work, in the delight and in the ecstasy you experience when receiving and stewarding God’s creational gifts, you are, I would say, faithful but not worshiping.
That, at least, was my basic argument.
To which Cort basically said, “nah, I think that other stuff’s worship, too”.
So that was the issue. And we discussed it for a while and we talked some more about it when we saw each other the next Sunday. Then we sort of agreed to disagree and moved on.
This talk was originally called “Worship on Sundays and Everyday” and so all those discussions with Cort naturally came back to me. And I thought, oh this will be a good opportunity to settle the question, once and for all. Naturally, I assumed I would discover myself vindicated and that Cort would henceforth think twice about disagreeing with me in the future.
But in my preparation for tonight I kept bumping into Romans 12:1.
Romans 12:1 (ESV) — I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
And when I read that, I became downcast and the sun appeared dark in my eyes because then I began to suspect that Cort was, maybe, just a little bit right.
Remember that in the Old Testament we have, on one hand, the priest consciously presenting the sacrifice to God in worship and, on the other hand, the very much unconscious lamb being laid on the altar. But what Paul suggests in Romans 12:1 is that the New Testament Christian is both the presenter and the present. The conscious act of giving remains (“present your bodies”) but there is now this all-of-life, waking and sleeping, working and playing, yes, even conscious and unconscious, sense in which the body of the believer, sanctified and filled with the Holy Spirit, is a 24/7 locus of worship.
Which is sort of what Cort was saying.
But I do admit, hand over my heart, in the presence of these witnesses, that to the extent that the average day of the faithful Christian can be considered a “presentation to God of your body” then yes, it is a kind of worship.
But here’s the thing, that’s not the only kind of worship we are called to in our everyday lives. There’s more.
To understand what that other kind of everyday worship is, let’s look at Hebrews 13:15. If there is a lynchpin text for my talk tonight, it is this verse.
Hebrews 13:15 (ESV) — Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.
Together, Hebrews 13 and Romans 12 capture both the worship performed by the priest - the active, conscious, exaltation of God—and the “worship” (if we can call it that) performed by the lamb—the passive, unconscious, sacrifice of the self.
The one we can call the sacrifice of praise.
The other we can call the sacrifice of self.
We are called to both daily, in tandem and in proper proportion.
Indeed, the very next verse in Hebrews 13 goes on to describe the same sacrifice of self that Romans 12:1 does.
Hebrews 13:16 (ESV) — Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.
And the very verses that precede Romans 12:1, describe the same sacrifice of praise that we are called to in Hebrews 13:15.
Romans 11:33–36 (ESV) — Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
The entirety of New Testament worship can be summed up in these two kinds of sacrifices: the sacrifice of praise—which is the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name—and the sacrifice of self, which is the presentation of your body as a living sacrifice for good works. Both are commanded. Both are necessary.
We can see what happens when those two forms of worship-sacrifice become skewed or off-balance by looking at a familiar passage from Luke.
Luke 10:38–42 (ESV) — Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”
Mary offered a balanced sacrifice of praise.
Martha offered an unbalanced sacrifice of self.
Martha’s problem was not that she offered the sacrifice of self, but that she offered it to the exclusion of the sacrifice of praise. It was the proportions that were off. It was the dosage that made an otherwise good thing such poison to her soul.
The kind of worship I am interested in tonight is not the “sacrifice of self” that the lamb models when it is laid on the altar, but the priestly “sacrifice of praise” that the apostle Paul models at the end of Romans 11. Not the sacrifice of self that Martha distorted, but the unspoken sacrifice of praise pictured in Mary’s posture at Jesus’ feet.
The reason for that is that I do not think self-sacrifice is the kind of worship that you and I most struggle with. I have a hunch what your family calendar looks like. I have a hunch what your bookshelves and bank statements look like. Your simply being here on a Wednesday night is proof that you probably have the “lamb” part of the equation down pat.
No, the struggle for a lot of us, I think, is the priestly part. Not the part of the equation that asks you to lay down on the altar and endure another day of sacrifice—that’s easy, that’s called a Tuesday—but the part of the worship equation that asks you to stand up on it and lift your hands and eyes upward and say “to him be glory forever.”
You can read your Bible every day of your life, but if you aren’t using that scripture as a springboard to freshly exalt God in your own heart, then you may have read, but you haven’t worshiped.
And you can cry out to God for help, but if God is never glorified, if you never speak his character back to him, never plead his promises back to him, you may have prayed, but you have not worshiped.
Without that conscious exaltation of God, sermons become mere lectures and our Christian living books, little more than self-help manuals.
The words which the ascended Lord spoke to the church at Ephesus are words that could have been spoken to Martha and which, I believe, could be spoken to some of us.
Revelation 2:2–5 (ESV) — “ ‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.
The problem is not our work, the problem is our praise; the problem is not our toil, but our love.
The Christian is called to daily offer the sacrifice of praise, not just the sacrifice of self.
Let’s dive into some of the specifics of this “sacrifice of praise” by looking again at our primary text in Hebrews 13.
Hebrews 13:15 (ESV) — Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.
Here we observe several crucial elements: (1) the sacrifice of praise is made “through him”, that is, through Jesus Christ. Just as our best works are filthy rags that are acceptable to God only through Jesus Christ, so too is our best worship. Our worship, no less than our works, must be purified before it can be received. (2) The sacrifice of praise is offered continually. This kind of worship is not limited to Sunday mornings. It travels light. It’s an anytime, anywhere, kind of worship. (3) The sacrifice of praise is the fruit of our lips. It is spoken. It is intelligible. It is laden with truth. With sincerity. And (4) the sacrifice of praise acknowledges his name. The end goal is the exaltation of God. The increase of his fame. The stirring up of reverence and awe among all who hear it.
Like the salt that flavors, like the yeast that raises, the sacrifice of praise should be present within and among all our other Christian acts and duties - in the reading, in the praying, in the counsel and encouragement we offer one another; in the meetings we attend and the ministry we labor at; in the meals we cook for the new mother; in the cards we write to the grieving widow; in the stories we tell our children during the day and the hymns we sing over them at night.
Psalm 105:4 (ESV) — Seek the LORD and his strength; seek his presence continually!
Psalm 40:16 (ESV) — But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who love your salvation say continually, “Great is the LORD!”
Psalm 71:8 (ESV) — My mouth is filled with your praise, and with your glory all the day.
Psalm 71:14–15 (ESV) — But I will hope continually and will praise you yet more and more. My mouth will tell of your righteous acts, of your deeds of salvation all the day, for their number is past my knowledge.
Psalm 89:15–16 (ESV) — Blessed are the people who know the festal shout, who walk, O LORD, in the light of your face, who exult in your name all the day and in your righteousness are exalted.
The sacrifice of praise does not require you to set your alarm clock any earlier, it requires you to set your eyes upward. Lift your eyes, remember his great salvation, and speak of it—to yourself, to God, and to others; lift your eyes, recall his gracious acts toward you in Christ Jesus, and speak of it—to yourself, to God, and to others; recount his mighty acts, his wisdom, his holiness, his mercy, and the beauty of his majesty - to yourself, to God, and to others; in all your ways acknowledge him. Speak of his goodness sitting in your house and walking by the way and when lying down and when rising up.
A Christian who spends her week only reading about how to be a better person, even a better Christian, but who never actually closes the book and falls on her knees in worship remains an immature Christian, despite her other efforts.
A Christian who spends his week dutifully attending church meetings but who forgets to raise his eyes to heaven and say in the solitude of his truck cab at the traffic light “be exalted, O God, above the heavens! Let your glory be over all the earth”, remains, despite all his other efforts, a lopsided Christian.
Our experience as Christians can sometimes feel like a long walk across a frozen lake where the deep things of God—the greatness of his presence, the reality of his voice, the power and comfort of his Holy Spirit—all lie just beneath the surface of the ice sheet. All so near, yet somehow inaccessible.
We so often simply glide like skaters across the frozen surface of God’s immensity, across the vast profundity of what is contained in and held out for us in the Christian life; we are so often content to only vaguely comprehend with our rational mind the vast icy depths beneath us and so rarely willing to strike at the ice with our cry of praise, the festal shout and cri du coeur both, and apprehend by the deeper senses of the heart the ice cold water of life itself.
May we be those of whom Christ spoke in Matthew 11, who take the kingdom of God by force.
May our sacrifice of praise be a kind of holy violence that strikes through the ice.
May our songs to the Lord plunge our faces into the water beneath.
May it take our very breath away.
And may we come to church on Sunday still drenched in the ice water of eternity; our hair still crusted with frost; our beards still hung with icicles.
Let’s now consider four specific worship contexts outside of Sunday morning: (1) private worship, (2) family worship, (3) small group worship, and (4) worship in the world. What does scripture have to teach us? What does our own experience suggest about how the sacrifice of praise might look and what the primary posture of our hearts might be in these particular places.
The audience of our private worship is (1) our own soul and (2) God
The primary posture of our heart in private worship is one of kneeling. In private worship we are never more abased, never more honest, never weaker. It is the place where we feel most acutely the solemnity and gravity of those words of Hebrews 4:13, that “no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” The words of the old hymn never feel more true in those early hours before the rest of the house is awake.
Nothing in my hand I bring
Simply to the cross I cling
Naked come to thee for dress
Helpless look to thee for graceFoul I to the fountain fly
Wash me savior or I die.
Our morning devotions should be a time of worship, not box-checking. The Biblical authors do not merely plead for forgiveness or plead for protection. They base their plea on some attribute of God that magnifies his name. To pray “Father, forgive me” is a valid confession. But to pray, “Father, on account of your great mercy and the blood of your Son Jesus, forgive me” is both confession and worship. That is the Biblical model we see over and over again.
Augustine’s Confessions is a great model of how to weave worship in with self-reflection.
Psalm 63:5–7 (ESV) — My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips, when I remember you upon my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night; for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.
The audience of our family worship is (1) ourselves, (2) those in our household, and (3) God
The primary posture of the heart in family worship is one of example. And not just parents setting an example for their children, but older siblings setting an example for younger siblings. Being a glad participant in your family’s sacrifice of praise is one of the greatest acts of kindness you can ever show to your siblings. It is a frightening thing to consider that children are often more influenced by their older siblings than by their parents. As the representative and delegate of all the younger siblings in church, I am here to ask that you not to be prim or a goody-two-shoes or to lord your superiority over us, but simply to model a cheerful and open hearted engagement with the things of God.
The Gibson compendium Be Thou My Vision is very useful. Joel Beeke has good material, too.
Deuteronomy 6:6–9 (ESV) — And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
The audience of our small group worship is (1) ourselves, (2) our brothers and sisters in Christ, and (3) God.
The primary posture of the heart in small group worship is one of pointing. Do you see him?! Do you see him?! He’s right there! The shining one! The ground is firm! His winged ones await! (Pilgrim’s Progress, pp. 198-199)
Psalm 22:22–24 (ESV) — I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you: You who fear the LORD, praise him! All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him, and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel! For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him.
The audience of our worship in the world is (1) ourselves, (2) non-Christians, and (3) God
The primary posture of the heart in worship in the world is one of militancy with love. We’re learning, we’re taking dominion, we’re plundering, we’re evangelizing. We’re “redeeming the gray”. In all these things, in all our cultural engagements and conversations with the world, worship happens when we exalt the name of God on foreign soil and plant his flag of lordship on it. Ours is a revanchist campaign, taking for Christ what is rightfully his. Remember, in 2 Chronicles 20, when Jehoshaphat went out to battle the Moabites, Ammonites, and Edomites at Mount Seir, he organized the choir at the front of the battle lines. They went into battle singing. Capturing a similar image, Tolkien writes this in The Two Towers:
And then all the host of Rohan burst into song, and they sang as they slew, for the joy of battle was on them, and the sound of their singing that was fair and terrible came even to the city.
— J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers
Study
Romans 11:33–36 (ESV) — Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
I love to lose myself in a mystery, to pursue my reason to an O altitudo!
— Sir Thomas Brown, (Religio Medici)
Cultural Engagement
1 Timothy 4:4 (ESV) — For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving,
Share Your Testimony
Psalm 71:24 (ESV) — And my tongue will talk of your righteous help all the day long, for they have been put to shame and disappointed who sought to do me hurt.
Evangelize and Debate
2 Corinthians 10:5 (ESV) — We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,
The gathering of the church on the Lord’s Day is the summit of the Christian life. Each week culminates in our gathering together to worship in spirit and in truth under the instruction and discipline of the Word. All the other worship we engage in during the week is, in part, preparatory of this worship.
Psalm 95:1–3 (ESV) — Oh come, let us sing to the LORD; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
A few minutes ago I described our engagement with the deep things of God being like breaking ice that covers a lake and plunging ourselves into it.
Now, let's talk about fire!
I’m sure you’ve been around people or churches that have described a particularly dynamic worship service as a fire. As far as analogies go, I think it’s a fine one. What gets talked about less frequently is how that fire of Godly worship is created. Where does it come from? Who experiences it?
I think there’s a few different ways that can look.
One way, the worst way, is for a congregation to think of the fire of worship as being something that only happens at the front of the church, and we, the congregation, just sit back and watch the fire. This could happen in a big megachurch where the worship is just a big show and it can happen in a high liturgical church where, again, the worship is just a big show. To attend such a service, the congregation is expected to bring nothing to add to the fire and receives nothing from it except some goosebumps.
A slightly better church might think of its members as “catching the fire”. The congregation is ready to worship. It has brought its unlit kindling, but it depends on a little flame from the stage. It is a derivative flame.
The best churches are those where the members don’t just watch the fire, and they don’t just catch the fire, but where they bring the fire. When they come to church their torch is already lit. This only happens when everyone has been worshipping all week. You don’t come to worship, you come to join your already existing worship to that of everyone else’s. That’s when the bonfire starts.
And what are those torches?
And that kind of worship is infectious. That kind of worship will change your life. That kind of worship is pleasing unto the Lord.
But all of that starts with taking seriously the call to offer the sacrifice of praise in our daily life.
Psalm 40:16 (ESV) — But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who love your salvation say continually, “Great is the LORD!”
Do you love the salvation that is yours in Christ Jesus? Do you love the salvation that was purchased by his precious blood? Then say with me: Great is the Lord. In these songs we sing, say: Great is the Lord. When you wake tomorrow say: Great is the Lord.
Here are some other recent messages.
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