A miner mines.
A painter paints.A salesman sells.
A worshipper worships.
Most of the above are jobs or roles in organizations but only one of them is the essence of the man even when there is no job left or no organization to be a part of. Romans 12:1 reminds us that because of the mercies we have from God, willingly present your bodies as living sacrifices unto God, holy and acceptable, which is your reasonable act of worship. Maintain these vessels, not simply physically, but also spiritually with moral cleanliness, and fill them with praise, keep them with honor, and offer them back to their true owner daily who bought them at a very high price. Commit yourself regularly to saying "I will because YOU can." That's a worshipper in a nutshell.
But why do they do what they do? Why does a worshipper worship? Where does this responsibility come from?
When does a job become more than that and morphs into duty?
What exactly is "duty" anyway? We certainly hear all kinds of variations of it in our world. It's certainly bounced around in enough places that we think we got a handle on what it is.
Duty is defined by Merriam Webster as the following: a) something that is done as part of a job, b) something that you must do because it is morally right or because the law requires it, c) assigned service or business, active military service, d) obligatory tasks, conduct, service, or functions that arise from one's position in life or in a group, and e) a moral or legal obligation.
Now there are a lot of applications as you can see. It sounds like a job. It sounds like a service. It sounds like a moral responsibility. Is it one? Is it some? Is it a combination of all three?
Duty is important to the point I want to make about worship simply because worship in its current incarnation in America appears (maybe not at your local ministry) to resemble some optional approach to God that is dependent on how you feel emotionally or what issues you are challenged with naturally. It may be as interchangeable as the uniform you can put on when you begin serving and take off when you have completed your assigned tasks. I have literally heard people when challenged with their commitment to local ministry (Yes, I was the one who challenged their thinking at the time) say this out of their mouths:
"No thank you. I have done my duty for today."
Now I'm not totally sure what I was feeling that rose up inside me like a steaming pot of molten lava but I know that I was greatly bothered and somewhat incensed by this comment and a sentiment I have seen and still do see often.
Are you really trying to get me to believe that you truly feel that any service you render on a Sunday morning in a church service or an annual "gift" you give to the homeless people of your city by volunteering at a soup kitchen so you can feel good is the end of your duty? If you think that, I believe that you are a fool and you are VERY deceived.
I think the gift that God gave through His son, Jesus Christ, which was marked with blood and grace cannot be repaid by us by a sacrifice or nice gesture. Grace is what allows us to continue to take in air when technically we don't deserve the privilege. That debt is too great and too vast for us to repay. If we ever had the means to repay such a massive quantity, then why would we need this grace in the first place? You know why credit card companies have grace periods for repayment? Because there has been evidence that people often overextend themselves and cannot pay them back. Honestly, the system these companies work under make it so that paying this debt back is difficult and more advantageous for the company and less advantageous for you. There is not a thing you can do to repay the debt. Know that you have that grace available because your good intentions, good looks, and "good heart" (That's a laugh. Read Jeremiah 17:9 to see why) alone can never be substantial enough to equal the life of God's only and the only emblem of perfection we have seen as an example. Literally a life saving, life changing gift for a people who do not deserve it at all.
Check out what the Father says about duty in Ecclesiastes 12:13-14. It reads "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether is be good, or whether it be evil."
It sounds like Solomon was having a dissertation with himself about what the value of this duty is. Hopefully he wasn't arguing with himself but he came to the conclusion and reasons that above all, and every thing else that we thought mattered or was valuable and lofty in our own eyes, we must fear God and keep His Word. A time will come when that will be cast under the light of judgment. I believe I hear brother Solomon saying that nothing else truly matters but this. It is, in his view, the very bottom line.
Now look at your life, brother, sister, friend. It shouldn't be hard to understand and determine that worship is sacrificial. It is the only thing that God truly cares about that we can give. Psalms 51:17-19 sums up a time in history where God's people had rebelled and one of the greatest Kings in Biblical history would cry out to God for mercy after falling into grievous sin. King David, even at the height of the mistake he made and following a strong rebuke from the prophet Nathan, he was able to see something incredible that he articulated in this passage. It was tradition to offer sacrifices and that was to gain favor with God or to please Him in some way. It was done for hundreds upon hundreds of years. David recognized something that only a deep relationship with God could reveal. He revealed to us the kind of sacrifice that God truly favors. This was the same David was a recipient of this same kind of thinking when the Prophet Samuel was sent to the house of Jesse to anoint the new King of Israel in I Samuel 16:7.
"But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart." (KJV)
Did you catch that word from the Lord? The Lord doesn't see things the way man sees them. We think we have done enough to satisfy Him and it is not even enough to start the conversation. We use old methods of sacrifice and the Lord wants your heart instead of the ram or bullock. He won't turn away a humble spirit and a broken heart. You can have the nicest, softest church clothes. You can have the most educated speech. You can have a car that rivals all other vehicles. And you can have a strong knowledge of His Word and the ability to preach it eloquently. If you don't have His heart and His Spirit, you have nothing of consequence.
So the next time you stand up in a worship service with your hands down and your face scrolling through your Facebook profile, try to remember your duty. When your local pastor asks you to clean the toilets and your first thought is that you don't want to mess up your new suit, try to remember your duty. When you sit home and use past hurts as the excuse for declining all the invitations to visit a friend's ministry or talk yourself out of serving your community with the gift God has already blessed you with, or you just can't commit more than five minutes a day in prayer for someone else, try to remember your duty. At the end of the day, when it's all said and done, and night has come, and the account of life is closed, all we have is what we've done and how we have spent the currency God has blessed us with. Try to remember your duty.
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