13. Appreciate the Value of the Treasured, Timeless Truths of God's Word

     I just watched one of my favorite movies from 1990s, called Blast from the Past. It is a story about a guy who was raised in isolation in a fallout shelter, only to come out 35 years later to a very different world. He has with him baseball cards and stocks from companies that he has no idea how valuable they are. I guess the reason I like it is also because the values like honesty, trusting and innocence, which the main character clings to, are no longer valued in the society into which he emerges.

     Bible Study is a value that is often unappreciated by the world and unfortunately many Christians. Adrian Rogers in a sermon about Psalm 119, the longest psalm and longest chapter in the Bible, quoted a wise old saying, “These hath God married and no man shall part: dust on the Bible and drought in the heart.”

     We must appreciate the value of the Word of God. One of the first long sections of the Bible I memorized while in college was the first 16 verses of Psalm 119 (see BELIEVE pg. 216). We have a treasured Word of God in the Bible and we need to study it to appreciate its value.

     We can appreciate the value of the word of God by first seeing that the teachings are to be treasured, as seen in verse 11. “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against You.” That doesn’t mean we should be ashamed of the word and hide it, but rather like a treasure or a prized possession, we need to take care that we appreciate its value. The HCSB and NASB versions of the Bible actually translate “hidden” as “treasured” and later on in verse 14, the psalmist says he rejoices in God’s testimonies, “as much as in great riches”. If you and I treasure the Word of God, then we will keep it safe in our hearts.

     Secondly, we need to appreciate the value of the Word of God because its truths are timeless. “Your statutes are my heritage forever…my heart is set on keeping your decrees to the very end” (Ps. 119: 111-112, BELIEVE, pg. 218). Like the movie Blast from the Past, in a single lifetime, we have seen the morals and standards of our world deteriorate to the state where they are now. In fact, in a single presidential term, we saw the Biblical value of marriage as being only between a man and a woman go from unacceptance, acceptance, then mandated to be legal in all 50 states. God’s word will forever be the same: “Forever, O Lord, Your word is settled in heaven” (Psalm 119:89, KJV).

     Thirdly and most importantly, the ultimate value of the Word of God is that it is truthful (see Ps. 119:30, 43, 142, 151, 160). Values can be old but not true. As we are seeing today, some values can be treasured and not true. But God’s Word is right, good, and true. We should study the Bible and apply its valuable, eternal truths to our lives.

     It's more valuable than even Mickey Mantle's rookie baseball card.

13. Bible Study and Daily Direction

The passage in Nehemiah 8-9 is probably the closest we see in Scripture to our modern-day worship services on Sunday morning. It starts early in the morning and goes to about mid-day. The leaders read and explained the Scriptures. The people listened, understood and responded. If they didn’t understand, someone else was there who explained it to them. 

Neh. 8:6 even says that the people responded with saying “amen,” raising their hands and bowing their heads. Some wept; others rejoiced. They confessed their sins; they prayed. They brought casseroles.

Okay, maybe not casseroles, but they did eat and drink and shared their meals which is pretty close to a pot-luck meal (Neh. 8:12). Most of all, they studied the word of God and responded accordingly. 

Like the society was in Nehemiah’s day, our society has drifted far from God’s word and obeying the lessons clearly proclaimed in the Bible. If there is anything that is shown from the Bible and in our personal lives, it is that we do not grow in a straight upward line, but rather like waves of the sea or as a pendulum which swings back and forth. One of the best ways we can keep from swinging back and forth or from being as unstable as the shifting waves of the sea is by studying the Bible daily.

In Nehemiah’s day and even until relatively recently, people did not have the Bible to study in their own homes. Think about how many ways we can read, hear, study, memorize and meditate on God’s Word. Even within our own generation our options have grown: we can now have the Bible on our phones, listen to it over the internet, buy copies or even portions of it, with commentaries and devotionals (like this one). But there is only one thing that no app, no commentary, no amount of studying or reading can make us do: apply and obey what God’s Word says. 

Do something today. Find something in the Bible and purpose in your heart to do it.

13. Bible Study Begins At Home

     Attention parents: Bible Study does not begin at church. It begins in the home.

     As we study about "Bible Study" this week, the BELIEVE passage begins in Deuteronomy 6:13-25, but it would be good to get out your “real” Bible and begin in Deut. 6:1.

     Of all the weeks that we have studied BELIEVE, I hope this week that families will get together and study the Bible at home. Read the following excerpts from Deuteronomy 6

“Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” Deut. 6:7

“In the future, when your son asks you (the parents), ‘What is the meaning of (the Bible)?’” Deut. 6:21

The answer is that the PARENTS should teach their children not only what the Bible says, but also how God has delivered us personally in our own lives (See Deut. 6:22-25).

     Ephesians 6:4 instructs that parents should bring their children up “in the training and instruction of the Lord.” One of the most compelling reasons that FBC Killeen is doing BELIEVE is to get the families to come together and study the Bible together. On page 211, Deut. 31:13 says clearly:

“Their children, who do not know this law, must hear it and learn to fear the Lord  Your God…”

     As it says in BELIEVE, page 210, “Parents were charged with the responsibility to share with their children God’s principles and commandments.” Not only is our memory verse, Heb. 4:12, a good passage to teach our families, Joshua 1 explains that meditating on and obeying the Bible (book of the law) will lead our families to have courage, success and godly prosperity and keep us from fear and discouragement.

     I love how the Bible says the worship service (see BELIEVE, PAGE 213-214) in Nehemiah ends. It says “And on that day they offered great sacrifices, rejoicing because God had given them great joy. The women and children also rejoiced.”

     It wasn’t the women leading and the men being passive or not even coming. The passage doesn't say that Sunday School or church was just for children. No, corporate worship at the community level is led by the fathers, with women and children “also” rejoicing.

     Psalm 119 talks about young people keeping their way pure by studying the Bible (Psalm 119:9, page 216 in BELIEVE). The VBS pledge of making the Word of God a lamp for the feet and a light to the path is found in this week’s reading.

     If you want a successful, prosperous, fearless, courageous, encouraged family, choose what Joshua chose:

“But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD” (Josh 24:15)

Chapter 13, Bible Study: Is God's Word alive and active in you?

The following was originally published on Aug. 25 in preparation for BELIEVE

      I keep thinking about Randy's illustration of the 12th man in our congregation and making our church relevant. I love studying the Bible but as the following devotional asks, does our Bible studying make a difference in our lives? If it does, our behavior and our being should be becoming more and more like Christ.

     And if we are becoming more like Christ, we will not be merely cheering in the stands, waiting for the coach to put us on the field.

     I told our LifeGroup teachers in preparing for Believe that the goal of a good teacher is not to merely teach information, but to teach to transform individuals. Read today’s devotional and ask yourself “Am I studying the Bible for information or transformation?”

     When Jesus finished His Teaching on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), He concluded with two foundations: a foolish man built his house upon the sand and a wise man built his house upon the rock.” The same winds, rain and floods came upon both, but one fell while the other stood firm.

     Jesus said that the difference between the two foundations was the same as a person, a fool, who hears His words and does not do them and another person, a wise man, who hears the words of Christ and actually puts those teachings into practice.

    This week, ask yourself if you are building on sand, or on rock.

The following devotional is from Zondervan to help us prepare for Chapter 13, Bible Study, which will be taught and preached at FBC Killeen on December 11, 2016.

KEY QUESTION:

How do I study God’s Word?

     The Bible is unlike any other narrative. It is God’s story chock-full of amazing depth and application for our lives. Jesus reminds us that the condition of our heart is important when we hear or read God’s Word. If we are open and receptive to God’s words, they will take root in our lives and transform us.

     But how does our heart open up to God in order to be receptive to his words? Jesus told his disciples that after he returned to heaven, the Holy Spirit would come to reside in them and to remind them of everything he had said. This same Spirit lives in all believers today.

     The desired outcome of studying God’s truth is transformation. It guides us along a path of maturity in Christ. We get into the Bible and the Bible turns around and gets into us and changes us for the good. (See Hebrews 5:11-6:3).

KEY VERSE

 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12)

KEY IDEA

 I study the Bible to know God and his truth and to find direction for my daily life.

KEY APPLICATION:

What difference does this make in the way I live?

We regularly read and study God’s Word. We come to see that studying God’s Word in community with other believers is of great value. We align our lives to the Bible because we believe it is from God.

Consider this: What if for one week you exchanged your mobile phone for your Bible? Anywhere you normally take your phone, you take your Bible instead. Anytime you normally look at your phone, you look at God’s Word instead. The time you spend calling, texting, and browsing online with your phone is traded for time reading Scripture. If you normally place your phone next to you at a business meeting or by your plate at dinnertime, you now put your Bible there. What difference would this exchange make in your life in just one week? Whose life would be impacted? This line of questions is not intended to trigger guilt, but rather to inspire us to increase our engagement with the one instrument that can truly change not only our lives but the lives of those around us.

YOUR TURN

The psalmist expresses a profound love for the Scriptures. (See Psalm 19:7-11.) What emotions does the Word of God evoke in you? 

12. Praying beyond merely "Our Father..."

We should observe how Jesus prayed.

1) Privately (Luke 11:1; Matthew 6:5–8; 14:23; Mark 1:35; Luke 9:18)

Jesus prayed “like no one was watching”. He slipped away from crowds, noise, and demands to meet with His Father in secret. What earlier generations called “secret devotions,” we now call “quiet time,” but the principle is unchanged: the most powerful public ministry flows from the most private moments with God. Jesus rose early, withdrew often, and prayed continually; not to escape responsibility, but to embrace intimacy.

    Reflect on this:
If the Son of God needed solitude with the Father, how much more do we? Private prayer is where our souls are recalibrated, our motives purified, and our strength renewed.

2) Personally (Luke 11:2–4; Mark 14:36)
Jesus prayed with deep intimacy; “Our Father… Abba, Father.” The Lord’s Prayer is only 59 words, yet every word is relational. Jesus approached God not as a distant deity but as a loving Father, and He invites us into the same closeness. Prayer is not a performance; it is a child speaking to a Father who delights to listen.

    Reflect on this:
The more personally we know God, the more naturally we pray. Jesus shows us that prayer is not stiff, formal, or mechanical; it is warm, honest, and deeply relational.

3) Persistently (Luke 11:5–8; 18:1–8; Matthew 7:7–11; 15:21–28; 26:41–44)
Jesus taught us to pray with holy stubbornness; to keep knocking, keep asking, keep seeking. Persistence is not about overcoming God’s reluctance but laying hold of His willingness. Jesus Himself prayed repeatedly in Gethsemane, showing that earnest, ongoing prayer is both biblical and necessary.

    Reflect on this:
Persistent prayer shapes us. It stretches our faith, deepens our dependence, and aligns our desires with God’s heart.

4) Purposefully (Matthew 6:7–8; Mark 11:24)
Jesus warned against “vain repetitions”; not repetition itself, but empty, mindless, mechanical praying. He calls us to pray with purpose, clarity, and intention. Every request should be thoughtful, sincere, and rooted in trust.

    Reflect on this:
Purposeful prayer is focused prayer. It is prayer that knows what it is asking and why. Jesus prayed with direction, not drift.

5) Powerfully (Luke 11:9–10; Matthew 21:21–22; John 5:4–7; 14:13–14; 16:23)
Jesus prayed expecting God‑sized answers. “Ask, and it shall be given.” He never treated prayer as a small thing because He never treated God as a small God. His prayers moved mountains, opened blind eyes, raised the dead, and glorified the Father.

    Reflect on this:
We dishonor God when we only pray for what we can accomplish ourselves. Jesus invites us to pray boldly, believing that nothing is impossible with God.

6) Positively (Luke 11:11–13; 7:1; 8:48; Matthew 8:5–13; Mark 11:24)
Jesus prayed with confident expectation. He taught that the Father gives good gifts, not stones or serpents. Faith is not wishful thinking; it is trusting the character of God. Jesus affirmed people who prayed believing, and He calls us to the same posture.

    Reflect on this:

Positive prayer is not naïve optimism; it is confidence rooted in God’s goodness. We pray believing because we know the One we are praying to.

7) Penitently (Matthew 6:17–18; 17:21)
Jesus assumed His followers would fast; “When you fast…” Fasting is the language of humility, repentance, and dependence. It is prayer intensified. Jesus prayed with a heart fully surrendered, modeling the contrition God honors.

    Reflect on this:
Penitent prayer clears the channels of fellowship. It is the posture that says, “Lord, I need You more than anything else.”

8) Purely (Matthew 6:5; 21:13; 23:14; Luke 6:28)
Jesus condemned hypocritical prayer; prayer performed for applause, attention, or spiritual image‑building. God desires sincerity, not showmanship. Jesus prayed with a pure heart, free from pretense, and He calls us to do the same.

    Reflect on this:
Pure prayer is honest prayer. It is prayer without masks, without manipulation, without mixed motives.

9) Publicly (John 11:41–42; 6:11)
Though Jesus prioritized private prayer, He also prayed publicly when it served a purpose; to strengthen faith, to teach truth, to glorify the Father. Public prayer is biblical, powerful, and often encouraging to those who hear it.

    Reflect on this:
Public prayer is not about performance but testimony. It points people to the God who hears and answers.

10) Passionately (Luke 10:21; Hebrews 5:7)
Jesus prayed with emotion; rejoicing in the Spirit, weeping over Jerusalem, crying out in Gethsemane. His prayers were never cold or mechanical. They were alive, heartfelt, and deeply expressive.

    Reflect on this:
Passionate prayer is not about volume but sincerity. It is prayer that engages the whole heart; joy, sorrow, longing, gratitude, and love.

11) Periodically (Mark 1:32–35; 6:46; Luke 6:12–16; Matthew 26:36–46)
Jesus prayed at key moments; before choosing the Twelve, after exhausting ministry days, in grief over John the Baptist, and in agony before the cross. He prayed before, during, and after major seasons of life.

    Reflect on this:
Prayer is not only daily; it is seasonal. Jesus teaches us to pray through transitions, trials, decisions, and defining moments.

12) As a Pattern for Us to Follow (Luke 11:1–2; Matthew 6:9–13)
The disciples saw something so compelling in Jesus’ prayer life that they asked, “Lord, teach us to pray.” His pattern; reverence, surrender, dependence, confession, protection, and praise; remains the model for every believer.

    Reflect on this:
Jesus didn’t just teach prayer; He embodied it. His life is the template, His words the guide, His example the standard. We learn to pray by watching Him.

12. Prayer: Do this before you pray

      So much has been written on about prayer that it is almost pointless for me to write (or you to read) another 500 words today about prayer. Would it not be far better for you to simply stop reading and me to stop writing and for us to go and pray?

      If so, then why are you reading this and why am I writing?

      Namely this: I hope that at the end of the week you will have been inspired to talk and listen to the God of the universe more than you did last week.

      And I believe there is something we should all do before we pray.

      Our memory verse for this week says that if you are not morally pure, then don’t expect God to answer your prayers. It is a waste of time. Commit yourself this week to keep yourself clean and pure. And if you are not, then pray, but do not pray for anything else except your moral and spiritual purity before God.

      Read and memorize Psalm 66:18.

¹⁸ If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened; ¹⁹ but God has surely listened and has heard my prayer. ²⁰ Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld his love from me!

      The word “cherished” is translated “regard” or “harbored” or “been aware” or “seen”. Can you “see” your sin? Are you “cherishing” it or holding it closely? And the verse says not only in your actions but in your heart.

      I have been a Christian since before astronauts walked on the moon! I am married to a strong believer and I work in a Christian environment. I pray daily and read the Bible daily. And yet, I struggle daily with sin and I confess there are times in my life that I have held it closely.

      My sin is different than your sin but it is no bigger nor smaller than yours. We as Christians need to be ashamed of our sin regardless of whether it is “socially acceptable.” If you cherish sin and are not giving your regards to God, there is a scandal in your life. If not in public, certainly there is a scandal in your personal devotion before God. Confess and forsake whatever God convicts you of. Then claim 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

      One more verse before we pray. Prov. 28:13 says this, “He who covers his sins will not prosper, But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.” We must stop concealing and confess our sins. We also must go from forgiveness to the forsaking of our sins.

      Are you finished with “cherishing” your sin in your heart and actions? I am! Have you confessed and forsaken it before God in prayer? I have! Then now, we are ready for prayer. 

Chapter 12, Prayer: Making Prayer Personal

     It’s hard to believe it’s only been a little over a year since War Room came out (the picture above is when we rented out a movie theater on Aug. 30, 2015) and then the DVD was released on Dec. 22, 2015. So much has happened in the past year. Since then, we’ve taught “The Battle Plan of Prayer Bible Study” several times with nearly one hundred who have gone through the course. I have sensed a growth in our church in regards to prayer: our Wednesday night prayer attendance is up, as is our men’s prayer time on Thursday. There is a sense of spiritual strength in our church and I believe it is because of prayer.

     But we can always grow in our prayers, not as a duty, not to get what we want, not to even seek God’s blessings...We need to pray because prayer is a personal communication with our God who loves us. This Sunday we will study Prayer and in the Spring, I plan to have five different Discipleship  tracks for us to study what I believe are the five essentials to Christian ministry. Those five areas are:

Prayer & Worship

OutReach & Evangelism

InReach  & Fellowship

Need-meeting & Missions

Teaching & Discipleship

     Please pray for these five key essentials in our church. This is week 12 in our BELIEVE series. Prayer is a vital action in our foundation of beliefs. If you wrote down your prayer requests when this blog was first published on Aug. 25, 2016, review your prayer list and see how God has answered your prayers.

The following devotional is from Zondervan.

KEY QUESTION: How do I grow by communicating with God?

 Our God is a personal God who desires a real relationship with us. He is not a distant, cosmic being, but a good father who longs to interact with his children. Prayer is a conversation between God and his people. We serve a God who is not threatened by our questions and doubts. We don’t have to put on a false persona to please him. He permits us to be honest about our fears, our feelings of isolation and our disappointments. When we rehearse our story before him, we see his good involvement in our lives.

Because we are God’s most prized creation, he wants to know the desires of our hearts. Scripture encourages us to, without hesitation, lay our requests before him. For example, see Gen. 18:20-31 for a conversation between Abraham and God that displays the freedom we have to talk honestly with him.

KEY VERSE

 If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened; but God has surely listened and has heard my prayer. Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld his love from me! (Psalm 66:18–20)

KEY IDEA

 I pray to God to know him, to find direction for my life and to lay my requests before him.

KEY APPLICATION: What difference does this make in the way I live?

We pray to align our lives with God’s will and story. We pray to lay our burdens before God to find peace. We pray to avoid making any major decision without seeking God. We pray for others.

Let me share a story with you. Our son David was born without a left hand. Prayer was a key spiritual practice to not only help me process this difficult event in our lives but also to move the reality of my identity, and my son’s identity, in Christ from my head to my heart.

During this time, I began by praying psalms of lament to the Lord: Why, Lord, did you let this happen to me? I serve you as a pastor of a church — not perfectly, but wholeheartedly. Why could you not pass this burden on to someone who doesn’t even believe in you? Have I done something wrong to deserve this?

I never sensed God was angry with me for speaking to him with such honesty. Actually, I felt as though he were whispering to me, Go ahead, I can handle this. I love you. Keep talking honestly to me, and we will get to the bottom of this. I will show you something I have wanted you to see for a long time.

In many extended moments of silence, when I didn’t know what else to say or how to pray, God began speaking back to me — not in an audible voice, but directly to my spirit. “Randy, my son, I have nothing in my being that seeks to harm you. The darkness and pain of the world are caused by sin, not by me. I have come to redeem the pain caused by sin. Randy, my son, I will use this situation to show you — and your son — who I really am. If you capture this, it will be more valuable than having three hands. Randy, my son, I have given your son everything he needs to be and do everything I am calling him to be and do. Randy, my son, it is time to shift your sense of worth from your performance to your position. You are my son. You do not have to perform to be a somebody; you already are a somebody in my eyes.

“Randy, my son, you need to teach this to your son. He will learn this from how you live, not by your words alone. You have four years before he realizes he is missing a hand. This gives you four years to learn to place your identity in your position as my son. Randy, my son, if you get this truth embedded into your heart, you will be free — free from the exhausting life of trying to gain and sustain status in the world. This is a great gift to give to all your children.”

Prayer is a conversation with God. We lay our honest requests before God, our need for daily bread. Yet, we clarify, as Jesus did, that we want God’s will to be done over our will, trusting his way to be good and right. As we rest in the presence of God, he will speak and show us his will in his perfect timing.

YOUR TURN

What do you learn about prayer from David’s psalms? (You’ll find some ideas in Psalm 77:1-20.) 

11. Worshiping God includes many ways to praise

     Transitioning between worship (this week in BELIEVE) to prayer (next week) leads us to the final study this week on worship. When we study praise and thanksgiving, which are both a part of worship and a part of prayer, we should recall what we have studied this week about worship:

Worthy of our worship

Obeisance to God

Reason and rationale of worship

Sincerity of my spirit worship

Honesty and truth in worship

Intimacy in our worship

Praise and Thanksgiving

    When I was first in ministry our senior pastor would lead our prayer time by asking, “Does anyone have any praise or thanksgiving tonight?” and made very little distinction between the two. Later on, when I took the youth to a conference, the speaker made a huge distinction between praise and thanksgiving. “Praise is for who God is. Thanksgiving is for what He has done.”

    One of our youth’s parents became very upset about the conference leader’s teacher. “That’s not the way our pastor teaches,” she later complained to me. I thought at the time that she was needlessly upset, but in reality, praise and thanksgiving are very significant in worship.

     Timothy Keller in his book Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God explained that the two are very related and in some cases hard to separate, referring to Psalm 135 which related to praising the Lord and Psalm 136 which related to thanking the Lord, but both for interchangeable reasons. “Ultimately, however, thanksgiving is a subcategory of praise…Thanksgiving for a blessing automatically draws our mind toward the attributes and loving purposes of the God who has done the blessing. Praise for God’s love and goodness transforms effortlessly into thanksgiving…”

     Praising God for who He is and thanking God for what He has done is an essential part of worship, for all of the reasons we have stated this week: He is worthy, we must bow before Him, it is reasonable, we must be sincere and honest and we must open our hearts intimately to Him. As we said worship and praise is not for God’s benefit, it is for our own. It displays our gratitude, our great need and His greatness.

     If you do not want to praise and glorify God, it doesn’t hurt God, nor does it diminish His greatness. But it does speak volumes about you. Look at the ways the psalmist in Psalm 150 sought to praise God. The Christian singer Carman had a wonderful song about seven ways to praise, explaining seven different words used in Hebrew to praise God in different ways.

Twice in our reading from Exodus 15 the word praise is used, yet both being from a different words and different from Psalm 150. Psalm 100:4 uses thanks and praise four times in one single verse, again using totally different words each time from any of the other verses mentioned!

     How about you. Can you praise and thank God in worship? In your everyday life? In everything you do?

        

11. Worship touches the inner part of who you are

Intimate.

When you say the word intimacy, what comes to mind? Are you intimate with God in your worship?

Yesterday we saw that worship by Jesus’ own description, requires the spirit, which is not necessarily intellectual, and truth, which is at its core cerebral. I summarized such worship as being of a sincere heart. You must worship God honestly.

We must declare His worthiness and physically and spiritually bow in submission to Him out of trust. It is reasonable, logical but also heart felt with our mind and spirit.

But worship must get to the inner you, deep down in your soul as well as your spirit and mind. That is why so many people feel so protective of their style of worship and not just musical style, but the worship that speaks to the deepest part of you.

Worship is to be vulnerable, emotional, personal, practical. Intimacy is what God calls us to when we are to love God with our heart, soul, mind and strength.

True worship is intimacy reaching the inner you and you reaching the inner part of God. It is what led David to dance and Isaiah to proclaim he was undone and ruined. It caused Adam to seek God unaware of his nakedness before the fall and to shrink away in fear after the fall, knowing that with intimacy with God would not only cause him to be exposed physically but in shame for his sinful acts. Worship awakened Christ early in the morning to meet His Father in personal prayer.

Worship leads God to be called Jealous but in a holy sense of not wanting us to seek any other idols or gods or objects of worship.

It is on those inward parts that God wants to write His laws and words upon us (Jer. 31:33). It is the hidden person of the heart that God values (1 Peter 3:4). Intimate worship of God renews us day by day (2 Cor.4:16). That inner intimacy is what God seeks and what He praises (Rom. 2:29). He will strengthen our inner person when we come to Him to worship Him (Eph.3:16).

Intimacy is explicitly shown by Jesus when He called on God as Abba Father (Mark 14:36), and the Bible commands us to do likewise (Rom.8:15-16, Gal. 4:6). We are called to be the bride of Christ, recalling the purest of first love, when intimacy was fresh and new.

Intimate worship does not have to be emotional every time but it should contain some emotion, not only tears but joy, satisfaction, song, in purity, in solemnity, in generosity, in giving, in prayer, eyes closed or eyes lifted. When our hearts are exposed to God, true worship begins (1 Cor.14:25).

When we come to the Lord’s Table for Holy Communion, we truly worship intimately before God, examining our hearts for purity and impurities, to test whether we can partake worthily (1 Cor. 11:28-29).

"Search me, God, and know my heart, test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me." Psalm 139:23-24a

11. Blessings or Woes. The answer is seen in how we worship

What did it mean when Jesus told the woman at the well that those who worship God must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth?

Quite simply and quite complexly, it means that we must worship God with sincere hearts, with spirit-filled sincerity and with honesty. I didn’t quite get the connection of why BELIEVE gives the passage of the woes in this chapter at first but the more I read this week about worship, it makes perfect sense. 

Years ago I did a comparison of the Beatitudes of Matthew 5 and the Woes of Matthew 23. The contrasting thoughts are striking, even down to the different translations of the word “Blessed” which is sometimes translated as “Happy are those…” and the word “Woe” which is sometimes translated as “What sorrow awaits…”

(By the way, some translations actually omit one of the woes, even though it contained in the majority of transcripts, just not two of the oldest ones, and despite the fact that the woe is not contained exactly anywhere else in Scriptures. One of the irritating aspects of liberal textual criticisms and the inconsistent various renditions of the 27 versions of Westcott-Hort translations. Ugh).

For a more in depth look at the comparison, you can click here, which originally came to me when we were going through THE STORY, the predecessor to BELIEVE. 

The one sin that Jesus seemed to be the hardest on was not any sexual sin, or the sin of greed, or even unbelief. In fact, the so-called “seven deadly sins” are all forgiven by Christ, but He is the hardest and most condemning against the sin of spiritual hypocrisy committed by religious frauds. And nowhere is it more evident than in Matthew 23. God wants us to worship in spirit and truth, with sincere hearts, not out of obligation or guilt, not to do penance towards a hostile unmerciful deity but to truly express our love and devotion. 

It doesn’t matter whether we are in an ornate chapel or dark dungeon, we can worship God with sincerity of hearts. Observe the contrasts of a Blessed Relationship and Blasphemous Religion.

1. Matthew 5:3 to Matthew 23:13--The blessed admit their shortcomings and are admitted into heaven, But woe to those who aren’t going to heaven and keep others out.

2. Matthew 5:4 to Matthew 23:14--The blessed and happy receive comfort when they mourn, But what sorrow awaits (New Living Translation) to those who actually cause others to mourn. (Look it up, some translations actually delete this verse.)

3. Matthew 5:5 to Matthew 23:15--The blessed and happy are humble and inherit the earth, But woe to those who travel the earth to convert others to hell.

4. Matthew 5:6 to Matthew 23:16-22--The blessed desire righteousness and are satisfied, But woe to those who are never filled by the world’s goods, nor regard a righteous God and his sanctified representations.

5. Matthew 5:7 to Matthew 23:23-24--The blessed give and receive mercy, But what sorrow awaits those who neglect mercy, justice and faith, and are merciless on lesser matters.

6. Matthew 5:8 to Matthew 23:25-26--The blessed are those who are inwardly pure and shall see God, But woe to those who are inwardly wicked, for they are blind and can't see anything.

7. Matthew 5:9 to Matthew 23:27-28--The blessed are those who help others make peace with God, others call you God’s children, But what sorrow awaits those who appear to be like God's children; but are inwardly dead and unclean, filled with hypocrisy and not at peace.

8. Matthew 5:10-12 to Matthew 23:29-36--An extended list of blessedness for those who are persecuted for God, resulting in entering the kingdom of heaven, But an extended listing of woes to those who persecute others who stand for God, resulting in the condemnation of hell.  

11. Worship. It is a rational, reasonable response

     Why Worship God?

     Is it to offer an indulgence for God, buying some sort of favor to Him? Does our God have an insatiable desire for self-aggrandizement? Does He seek forced adulation?

     None of that.

    Actually, worship is necessary for us and it makes sense. One of the translations of Romans 12:1 says that the very act of presenting our bodies to Him as living sacrifices is our reasonable service of worship.

     So is it reasonable to worship God? The actual word used in Romans 12 is logikos. I have been fond of that word since my days of appreciating Mr. Spock of Star Trek fame. To give honor to one who is so much above who we are is indeed logical and rational. 

     Isaiah says it makes perfect logical sense to rationally and reasonable agree with God that He is worthy of all of our worship. “Come now, and let us reason together,” says the Lord in Isaiah 1:18, “though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow, though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”

     Yes God is worth and worthy of our worship, both physical (obeisance) and spiritual. But worship must be also intellectual and of our own free will, with no hidden motives or secret objectives. Worship comes from the heart and from the head. He doesn't want mindless worship.

     God gave us a brain and He expects us to use it. To acknowledge Him as supreme is to God's glory and to our benefit. Otherwise we would be self-sufficient and ungrateful.

     What does not make sense is to worship anything that is not eternal and not immortal. If it is perishable, all our adulation ends ultimately at the grave. Do you worship something that is temporal? That, my fictional friend Mr. Spock, would say is highly illogical.

11. Worship-- "Whatever their bodies do affects their souls"

Obeisance

    “Obeisance” is not a word that comes flowing off the lips, but neither is the act of obeisance a natural act of our bodies. The word means a physical demonstration of honor, deference or homage.

    Clear now?

    Maybe not. In the New Testament, sometimes the same word “worship” is also translated as “bowed down before”. To proskeneo means to prostrate oneself before another. It was used like the kissing of a ring before a king and comes literally from a dog licking the hands of its owner.

    Satan himself used this word in demanding Jesus to fall down and proskeneo, worship him (Matthew 4:9). Of course Jesus refused, but the very thought of Satan wanting this means that a physical demonstration of our obeisance before God is not only desired by God, it is a natural outflow of our innate desire to worship Him.

    C.S. Lewis, using the persona of a demon who is writing to fellow and less knowledgeable demon, derides the human desire to not pay physical obeisance to God in our worship. Bear in mind that Lewis is, in the following quotation, saying the opposite of what is true, since the author is using the voice of one demon to instruct another:

“The best thing, where it is possible, is to keep the patient” (that is, the Christian) “from the serious intention of praying altogether.  When the patient is an adult recently reconverted to the Enemy’s party, like your man, this is best done by encouraging him to remember, or to think he remembers, the parrot like nature of his prayers in childhood ... at the very least, they can be persuaded that the bodily position makes no difference to their prayers; for they constantly forget what you must always remember: that they are animals and that whatever their bodies do affects their souls.  It is funny how mortals always picture us as putting things into their minds; in reality, our best work is done by keening things out.”

    So the next time you seek to worship God, consider doing more than merely folding your hands. Practice not only bowing your head but bend your entire body before God whom you worship. Demonstrate to Him (and any demons who may be observing your secret prayer life) that you will pay him spiritual and physical obeisance in your worship.

11. The Worth of Worship

     “How much is it worth to you?”

     As a kid, I remember hearing and using that phrase, meaning “Sure, I’ll do something for you, but it is going to cost you.”

     I’ve been in my current house nearly seven years and it needs updating. But for the past forever it seems like it has also been in need of major repairs (roof, air conditioning, pool, garage door, carpet). I’ve not been able to update the house because of the cost of the upkeep.

     How much is God worth to you?

     Sometimes my relationship with God is not what it should be for the same reason my house is not where it should be. I have so many “needs” that when I come to God to worship Him, my needs seem to overwhelm my knees bowing to declare how much He is worth to me.
     Unlike a house, God doesn’t need updating. I do. He doesn’t need me to worship Him. I do.  He’s not demanding I declare His worth to Him. I need to express His worth and worthiness of my worship. My needs, no matter how much they seem to me, are not more demanding for my time in prayer than His sufficiency. As a result, I should always exult in praise and thanksgiving for His ample supply.     
     My prayer request list is great, not only for me personally but for my wife and four children and grandson. I have other family members and several persons for whom I pray daily. I read through the lists of needs in our church and then turn my prayerful eyes towards the needs of my state, nation and world. 

     Despite all of that, there is implicit in my prayers a truth that I often overlook: implied in my prayers is my hope and trust that God somehow is greater than all my needs. If I didn’t think that He could answer my prayers, then I wouldn’t…

What?

I wouldn’t…

What??

I wouldn’t … pray.

Ah. That’s it! Maybe that’s why I (and maybe you too) often run around trying to do so much without praying because we don’t really believe what we say we believe: that God is able to deliver us.

What’s more, maybe that’s why we don’t have the jubilant heart of praise and thanksgiving because even if we are praying like we believe it, we are not believing like we pray it! We are not joyful in our prayers because we don’t think he is going to provide that job or pay that bill or restore that relationship. We are not trusting Him.

The writer of Psalm 95 understood this. He calls for singing, shouting, thanksgiving and music and song. From highest of heights to the depths of the earth, there is a resounding call for worship from the psalmist.