To prison, To isolation, To the death I will

follow you. Should my family reject me, should

my friends reject me should all the earth reject
me I shall follow you and you only will I serve,
You only I will worship.

"Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy
sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship (Romans 12:1)."
Worship; the word conjures images of bands, instruments, and people clapping or raising their
hands in the air to a catchy and loud tunes on a Sunday morning. When people hear worship they
think of music, choir, and singing. If you look up worship on the internet you'll find YouTube
videos of music, church bulletins with worship (singing and band) times and church service
times and for many people the music has taken the front and foremost reason for church as the
two, music and worship have become synonymous according to years of tradition, but the
question believers must ask themselves is what is the biblical term worship? How does God
define worship?

To understand what worship means we must

strip what we think we know and go to the
scriptures and be open to what scripture says
and allow scripture to interpret scripture rather
than interpreting scripture through church
doctrine or preconceived beliefs and notions.
We must separate ourselves from the emotional
connection we have with doctrines we have
been taught or that of our church or chosen
denomination teaches and we must put away all
fears of the changes truth and God may require
of us.
"It is certain, every promise has a condition; yet
that does not make the promise of no effect: but
by the promise you are encouraged and enabled to fulfill the condition." - John Wesley
"But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in
spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who
worship Him must worship in spirit and truth (John 4:23-24).
The word Worship in the Greek in this verse is Proskeyneo and it means to fall, kiss, prostrate
with homage which means ready to fall down/prostrate oneself to adore on one's knees. On our
knees, is this the image of worship being seen in the Western Christian church today? Are we
adoring God or ourselves through man's tradition of worship service?
In the movie, "Joyful Noise," a church choir is trying to win a Church choir competition. The
movie stars, two women, one who is conservative, modest, wants God to be heard through the
music, and is strict. The other woman is more passive, liberal, and wants the choir to have
modern music, choreography, and eye catching outfits. Throughout the movie there is pre marital
intercourse, in which the pastor says nothing and another choir member tells the woman that God
is okay with it. By the end of the show the main character desperate to win, sees the faces of the
audiences and they are not excited about the church hymn, the choir outfits or anything else
about the church choirs performance. So she rips off her choir gown as does everyone else after
her; the women are wearing clothes from skin tight form fitting, short, and/or cleavage showing
dresses, the dance and music has very little to do with God as they danced, jived, and the
romance couple sang to each other rather than about God. The Choir won, the town was uplifted
and everyone was happy.
What happened in this show? What was the message? Godly music was traded for eye popping,
worldly music and it was OK, the woman who originally wanted God to be heard through the
choir is the one who changed her mind, she traded her principals for a worldly trophy and it was

good, Christians are being told to relax, loosen up, step into the world. And in many ways this is
exactly what the churches are doing. Many churches see the music synonymously called worship
as their means to attract the younger generations. Rock n Roll, Rap, Heavy metal and other types
of music has been incorporated into the church. The Movie Joyful Noise depicted what the choir
did at the end as "Higher Worship," as that is what the leader of the choir said before she ripped
off her choir gown and was followed by the rest. While a fictional show it displays very well
what is happening in many Christian churches, what we must wonder is what spirit is this? And
we must acknowledge what is and is not True Worship according to scripture. What did Jesus
mean by true worshipers worshipping in truth?

"But this I confess to you, that according to the Way which they call a sect, so I worship the

God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the Law and in the Prophets
(Acts 24:14)."
In this verse the Greek word used for worship is latreuo and it means to render service, to serve,
it means "to do". Paul defined his worship (service) to God by the "Way," and by the things
written in the Law and by the prophets. In this sense to Worship is to live, obey, and do which
Paul emphasis when he says " present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God,
which is your spiritual service of worship," Roman 12:1.
Even more important is what Jesus said, "True worshippers, worshipping in TRUTH." What did
He mean? By contrast there must be false worshippers worshipping in lies and deceptions; it is
pretty easy for us to see many examples of this; Christianity in many ways has been turned into
nothing more than platitudes, philosophy, and an exchange of ideas but there are still many that
view Christianity as a way of life, so much so that they are devoted to their church and their
church's doctrine as the answer to all things. Church membership has become the leading proof
as to how Godly or RIGHT a church is, the goal is to get as many people baptized as possible. In
some superstitious way we as Christians have a tendency to want to "get" people to the altar and
then we breathe a sigh of relief and think, "Okay they are baptized they are saved." After that it is
church attendance; how often do people attend church services? Are they paying their tithe?
These are the issues that have taken front and center in Western Christianity.
Why is this?
These are sincere Christians who love their church and are living what they think is truth, the
problem is a corrupt system. Money keeps churches in business; it keeps the doors open, the
lights on, and the pastors paid. Yes, there are the Mega Churches where the pastors and church
leadership is indeed rich and money isn't an issue, there are also the pastors that have secured
wealth by writing books and evangelizing however according to the Pew Research Center the
average church in America is made up of about 70 to 80 constant members year round. These are
the people that pay the bills. This is why out of all the old Testament commandments the only

law the modern church still teaches obedience too is tithing. It comes out of the system that has
been taken over by money; they need tithes to keep the church going and most church goers want
a church to go too which is why you will not hear contributing church members saying, "The law
has been nailed to the cross," when the pastor speaks about tithing. The other reason for this odd
assortment of front and center issues today in modern Christianity is due to hundreds of years of
false teaching and man-made doctrines that Christians have fully adopted.
The first appearance of the "once saved always saved" doctrine came from a Calvinist man by
the name of John Calvin, before John Calvin nobody taught predestination or "once saved always
saved," no one taught absolute assurance to heaven before him and certainly the first century
church did not teach it and neither does scripture. On the contrary there are multiple warnings
addressed to believers about "protecting and guarding their salvation;" "Pay close attention to
yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things, for as you do this you will ensure
salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you (1 Timothy 4:16)."
The once saved always saved doctrine has caused a superstitious rush of sincere pastors doing
whatever they can to get people to says the "sinner's prayer," and get them baptized, because
according to this theory that has been adopted by many modern protestant churches if a person
does this they are guaranteed entrance to heaven. Unfortunately this theory is not applicable to
true Christianity and is not taught in scriptures or by any of the disciples.
It is this combination of needing money to stay open and this idea that once someone says magic
words and is baptized they are forever saved that has turned the church on its head from what the
True Church looked like in the first and second centuries and has contributed to the loss of the
true meaning of worship; if people are saved no matter what after they are baptized then what
keeps them contributing members in a church? Their attendance and tithes which means that
church service must now be entertaining, appealing, and emotional, thus worldly music and
competition reigns in church.
There are different definitions in the Bible for the word salvation, such as being physically
saved, spiritually redeemed, and being kept safe much like how we use the word today based on
the context, however the word salvation in 1 Timothy 4:16 has a unique meaning: it means
"wholeness," "to be whole." Isn't that interesting, in his letter to Timothy Paul says, pay close
attention to your teaching and persevere in these things, by doing this you will ensure your
wholeness for both yourself and for those who hear you.
This is a consistent theme with Paul, pay close attention to what he says in Romans 11:25,
"For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mysteryso that you
will not be wise in your own estimationthat a partial hardening has happened to
Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in..."

In the literal translation of the Greek this verse says that Israel's callousness is until the filling of
the nations come. The theme here is that the Gentiles must come into full maturity in the True
faith and Paul speaks of it as future tense in both his letter to the Romans and to his letter to
Timothy and both come with a warning to believers; to Timothy he says to pay attention to his
teachings and the things of the teaching and in Romans Paul warns, if God cut off the natural
branches will He not cut off the unnatural as well? Jesus also, talked about this in John 15 when
He said the branches that abide in me will bear fruit and the father will prune them, but the
branches that do not bear fruit the father will cut off.
This is not so mysterious, but rather easy to understand if we can only put aside church doctrine
and look at the text.
Torah is a set of instructions, Torah is a doctrine, it is religion. Torah is God's religion and every
person is free to choose their religion, God compels no one by force, but, to dwell with God one
must share His religion, His doctrine, His WAY. God's word is truth, God's word is perfect,
God's word is able to save. God never changes, God demands holiness, and His word is holy.
Being redeemed, being saved is a physical act of God saving us from the clutches of death, He
did this freely by dying on the cross, but He will compel no one to stay in the hedge of His
covering (His laws, ways, instruction, Torah, Scripture) therefore we have the ability to reject
God's laws, thus Him, even years after being redeemed by Him.
Let us take a look at the scriptures above, Jesus already confirmed in John chapter six that His
words are spiritual food and that it takes the eating of that food to live, is He saying that as long
as we read the Scriptures we will live? No, we must live the scriptures and there are an
abundance of scriptures throughout the whole of the Bible that tell us that we must live according
to God's Torah, His instructions.
"How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word (Psalm 119:9)."
"I run in the path of your commands, For you have set my heart free (Psalm 119:32)."
"Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his
commandments, for this is the whole duty of man (Ecclesiastes 12:13)."
"Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same
will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these
commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:19)."
"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise
man who built his house on the rock (Matthew 7:24)."
"Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it (Luke 11:28)."

"For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God's sight, but it is those who obey
the law who will be declared righteous (Romans 2:13)."
"Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves (James 1:22)."
"And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the
beginning, his command is that you walk in love (2 John 1:6)."
The above list is NOT an exhaustive list of verses that tell us to obey the laws/instructions of
God.
If we are to put scripture with scripture, take what the prophets said on authority of God, then
what Jesus said with the limitless authority of God, and then what Paul, John, and James
teaching the scriptures is that the words are scripture and scripture is what is known to us as the
Old testament, remember in Jesus' day the Gospels were not written, in Paul's and the other
disciples day the scriptures were the Old testament, the New was being written by these men in
absolute congruency with the Old. Jesus' words are life, Jesus taught the scriptures, He taught the
Will of the Father, The Father wrote His will into the Torah known as the scriptures and we are
to walk in them, we are to guard these teachings and to walk in them, in James' words we are to
"do" them. According to 2 John these laws have been in place since the beginning and we have
always been expected to walk in them, to walk in what? The Commands of God.
Now we are coming to the main points of this study, what is True Worship? True worship is an
action, it is in the daily living of each believer, worship is latreuo "to do," which is exactly what
Paul and James tell us consistently, "be doers of the word," and Paul said his worship is in the
way of the law of the Prophets and where did the law of the prophets come from? According to
Stephen in Acts 7:53 the laws were brought by Angels from heaven!
The other form of Worship has to do with Prayer, Proskeyneo, to fall down, to prostrate, to kiss.
There are examples of this in the Bible as well; we read of the patriarchs prostrating themselves
before God, just a few examples are Joshua, David, and one of the most profound John; when he
fell down to worship (prostrate) to an angel not once but twice and both angels became very
upset and said, "see that you do not do that, worship God alone!"
Worshipping God has two major elements to it, prostration in prayer and living service in
obedience to the Torah/Instruction/law of God and loving God is clearly defined by Jesus and
John as obedience: "If you love Me keep My Commandments (John 14:15)."
"This is love for God: to obey his commands (1 John 5:3a)." The scriptures tell us that to
know God we must obey His commandments, "We know that we have come to know him if
we obey his commands (1 John 2:3)," therefore we see that we must obey God to know Him
and we must obey God to love Him, this is true worship. Therefore when Jesus said, "You shall
love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind." He was

not saying that the commands of God had been done away with, because He said that the
definition of LOVE is to follow the commands of God, and we must notice that Jesus finishes
this statement by saying "on these two commandments hang ALL the laws of the prophets," that
hardly sounds like dismissal of God's Laws spoken through the prophets. Now we must not
bypass the importance of Paul's and Jesus' prophetic talk about the filling, completion, fullness,
wholeness of the Gentiles.
When Jesus ascended to Heaven He gave another instruction to His disciples: "Therefore go and
make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with
you always, to the very end of the age." ~ Matthew 28:19-20
That is what they did, these men, and later Paul went out and taught the scriptures; the religion
that was of the Jews began to be taught to the Gentiles. These people had to come out of years of
paganism, out of worship of many other gods and thought. The letters of the disciples and of
Paul give us a glimpse into what that was like and history along with many writings from the
time reveals what the disciples were combating as far as theological thought. The Gentiles
needed time to learn everything about this faith, this True God and His doctrine. They had to
contend with false religions, prophets, and anti-Christ's. This is why the disciples wrote the
epistles; they were to teach the Gentiles the scriptures. The Gentiles had to come into full
maturity in the WAY of the True God. It may be hard to believe, but much of Christianity is still
steeped in Greek pagan thought and many of the false teachings that are contrary (anti-Christ
teachings) have sprang from such ideas.
So, is the music we see and hear in church wrong? Not necessarily, music and singing to the
Lord is better defined as Praise, "Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will
praise you. So I will bless you as long as I live; I will lift up my hands and call on your name"
(Psalms 63.3-4)." "Sing praise to the LORD, you His godly ones, And give thanks to His holy
name (Psalm 30:4)."
The word Praise in Hebrew is yadah and it has many definitions, that are of a different nature
then worship: confess , give thanks, glorify, hymns of thanksgiving , thanksgiving, throw down.
That is why psalms and singing is so strongly associated with praise, however, in modern
Christianity praise and the definitions of became synonymous with worship and that is a problem
because then we lost the meaning of what worship really is and worship is service and
prostration something compelled by love which equals obedience.
This message is not about being against music or having music in a church service because
singing and playing music to God is Biblical and appears in many places in the Bible. What it is
about is restoring the true definition of worship because worship is a person's most intimate
relationship with God, it is what only He can know, how much you love Him, how much you
desire to serve Him.

Do you desire to serve God so much that you are willing to question what you have been taught
to believe by man and man's doctrines? To see if what your church believes IS truth? We ask you
to prayerfully consider these things, consider that God's laws, obedience, True Worship have
been distorted, lost, and even lied about?
We have one request, that you put these things to the test to scripture, we ask that you do not
check your church doctrine or your church's explanation of these things, but that you use
scripture as your guide.
"All the knowledge you want is comprised in one book - the Bible. When you understand this,
you will know enough." - John Wesley