John 4:23-24 — But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

Pastor Hayes preached a great message around Psalm 134, worship, and service this morning. One of the many things that struck home was when he said that “we are self-centered not God-focused”. Ouch! 
I have to admit that when it comes to worship I sometimes find myself saying “I like this” or “I don’t like that”. Well what’s it got to do with me? 
There is a flow of worship (the kind of worship that happens in church). There’s an assembled congregation seeking the presence of the Lord and expressing love and desire for the Lord through worship. There’s a response from God, that may flow through worship leaders, or flow directly to the congregation. The responsive process has to center on God or there can be no power in it. 
There’s more too it than that, though. Worship can’t be turned on and off at will. Paul brings that idea to the fore in his letter to the Romans:

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. (Romans 12:1)

“Brothers” he says, appealing to the collective nature of our relationship with each other and with God. Then he goes on to place worship right at the center of our daily lives. William Barclay expresses it with his usual wonderful clarity:

‘So,’ Paul says, ‘take your body; take all the tasks that you have to do every day; take the ordinary work of the shop, the of?ce, the factory, the shipyard, the mine; and offer all that as an act of worship to God.

Hmmm … I don’t always hit that mark either. Sometimes the daily round, the common task, takes me out of the worship space and into the whining space! But if we put the ideas together — worship as a collaboration between ourselves, those around us and God, and worship as a seven day a week part of life, then how wonderfully worship expands to include everyone we ever touch!
The one last thing that came to mind as I thought about worship, and Pastor’s message today, is the risk of pushing God out of the center and putting something else — person possession or practice — in His place. Jesus Himself said it:

And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. (Luke 4:8)

The thing is, every time we think we have put anything other than God at the center of worship, we fool ourselves. We’ve taken the focus off God and become self-centered — and that way lies destruction. I’ve made that mistake from time to time. But not any more.