Pure worship is declaring with our words and lives that God is more important to us than anything else – that he is our deepest desire and that he is worth more than anything else we hold dear. God alone is worthy of worship because he alone is righteous.

Louie Giglio points out that worship is simply about value. Our worship is a response to what we value most. It is easy to identify what we value most by the things we do. If we consider that a person, a thing, or an experience is what matters most then we are willing to sacrifice in order to get it. Worship is coming before the “throne” of what is of ultimate value to us.

In the Old Testament the priests would build an altar on which to offer the sacrifices to the One whom they worshipped. Everyone who is willing to sacrifice has first to build an altar. In order to find your altar of worship just follow the trail of how you use your time, energy, money and affections. The more time you spend before that throne, the more your life will reflect what or whom you worship. Our actions speak louder than our words.

In the New Testament the priestly sacrifice is described as “Through him [Jesus]..” (Heb 13:15) - and it is Jesus himself who warns us by saying, “Not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 7:21).

Dr. Oliver Classen is the Senior pastor of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Cape Coral, Florida