The Kind of Worship God Desires, Pt. 3 (John MacArthur)

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Lets go back to a basic definition just so we dont assume anything. When you say you worship, you simply are saying you give honor to God. It comes from an old English word worthship and it was to ascribe to someone value, to ascribe to someone worship. And so when you say you worship God, you are simply saying God is worthy of honor...God is worthy of praise...God is worthy of glory. Worship is giving honor to God. And it is a life-dominating attitude. It is based on truth because how can you give honor to God unless you know God? And the more you know about God, the more you are able to honor Him for who He is. Because God is infinite perfection, you can continue to be exposed to the increasing understanding of His infinite perfection and thus your ability to give Him honor for who He is increases as well.

And it is not simply a matter of song. It is not simply a matter of corporate praise. Giving honor to God is not just saying that He is worthy of honor, but it is living a life that in itself demonstrates that you respect Him. To say, for example, that you worship God and you honor God, and you glorify God and then you disobey Him and you bring reproach on His name and you follow patterns of sin is to make yourself simply a hypocrite. If you believe that God is worthy of supreme honor and He is, if you believe that God is the one to be honored above all, then that will of necessity demand that you live a life that brings honor to God.