15-5

Vertical and Horizontal

When we come together and worship God, we need to engage in two different types of worship: Vertical and Horizontal. Vertical worship is direct praise of God. After all, He is worthy of all praise. He created us so that we might know Him and love Him and give Him praise. When we give God glory, we are joining an activity that has been happening and will continue to happen for all eternity! You would think that we wouldn't need to be reminded that worship begins and ends with God, but sometimes we do. Sometimes we get so caught up in what we are doing or in what we like or don't like that we forget the entire reason we are doing what we are doing is to bring glory to God!

God's value doesn't increase or decrease because of anything that anyone does or says about Him. It's not like a public opinion poll of a politician. God is as glorious today as He has ever been and that will never diminish or fade. He doesn't command us to worship Him so that He can gain more status. He commands us to worship Him because we need to worship Him. As we've said before we are always worshiping something in our lives, and to worship something other than God is idolatrous, so we need to worship Him!

Worship is also not a 'means to an end.' Worship isn't something we do to help church growth, evangelism, or some other ministry. Worship, as many have said, is 'heaven practice,' we are getting ready to do what we will do forever in heaven! God's glory is the end of our worship, not the means to some other end.

But there is also a horizontal element to worship. Our worship builds our brothers and sisters up. Ephesians 5:19 says that we are to "admonish one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs," while at the same time "singing and making melody to the Lord." Yes the entire point is to bring God glory, but we also reap the benefits of worshiping with a group of people! "We aren't having our own little worship experiences independent of each other."

"David Peterson (who wrote 'The Message') has helpfully pointed out that 'edification and worship are different sides of the same coin.' Then he adds, 'This does not mean that prayer or praise is a means to an end, namely edification. We worship God because of who He is and because of His grace towards us.'" The great thing is that when we worship God together, we are built up. He gets the glory, and we also get benefit out of it. There is a healthy tension that needs to be maintained: let us build each other up for the glory of God.

Enjoy the Journey