Worth + ship = worship

Worship.

It's one of those church words we religious types like to throw around. We use it to describe our music. We use it to describe how the music effects us. We use it to describe the programming at our churches. In fact, we evangelicals use it so widely and so liberally that I fear the meaning is going to be lost to the church. If it is not already.

Our English word worship actually is a combination of two other words: worth, meaning the value of something and the suffix -ship, meaning to show or possess a quality, state, or condition. In other words, to declare or reveal the value of something. In essence, the word worship asks a question: What is God worth to me? And we answer that question, whether we mean to or not, by the way we live -- all day, every day, in everything we do or say or think.

Worship is not merely what we do in church, though that can be a part of it. Or not. We come in and sing love songs to Jesus, we lift our hands or close our eyes or sway, and those can be good things when we are loving Jesus from our hearts. But that's not necessarily worship. It's PRAISE, but that's not the same thing. Many of us praise without worshipping. In fact, we are not worshipping if our worship is lacking one thing: sacrifice.

Worship and sacrifice are inextricably linked in scripture. Because only by sacrificing something that costs you dearly can you ever answer the question, "What is God worth to me?" The greater the sacrifice, the deeper and more authentic the worship.

Genesis 22 tells the story of Abraham and Isaac. God promises Abraham a son in his old age and tells him that through this particular son He will make Abraham the father of a great nation, and that from this particular son all the nations of the earth will be blessed. Abraham waits for a long time for this promise to come true. And when it does, it means everything to him. And then God says the last thing any of us would expect Him to say, "“Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you." (Gen. 22:2) And according to scripture, Abraham didn't argue, didn't object, didn't complain or get angry or demand an explanation. The Bible says he obeyed.

He packed up Isaac, loaded the donkeys with fire wood, gathered a handful of servants, and took off for Mt. Moriah. Now when he gets there listen carefully to what he tells his servants:

“Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you.” (emphasis mine, Gen. 22:5)

Abraham was declaring what God was worth to him:

Everything.

Because he believed God's heart was good and He was faithful, and no matter what it looked like on the surface to him or anyone else, God would keep His promise even if it meant bringing his son back from the dead. (See Heb. 12:2)

It was worth it.

And look at what God says in response:

"Now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” (Gen. 22:12)

In other words, "You are telling me how much I am worth to you, since you held back nothing from Me."

Thousands of years later, Paul would write to the church in Rome, "Present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. Paul was saying, "Answer the question: 'What is God worth to you?' by offering your whole self to Him, freely, holding nothing back."

Worth-ship. What God is worth to me.

And then...

When we've answered that questions with our lives all week...

How we treat people He loves.
How we spend the resources He so generously gives us.
How we regard His precious word.
How we approach Him. Or not.
How we respond when others treat us unfairly.

Then, we can come into church,
and lift our hands,
and close our eyes,
and sing our love songs to Jesus
and really, truly, authentically PRAISE Him,
from the overflow of our worth-ship.

Special thanks to Jeff Riley who taught me this principle while serving alongside him at Hope Baptist Church in Las Vegas, NV.