“See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil… therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.” – Deuteronomy 30:15, 19
Picture a parent teaching their child to ride a bike. The parent runs alongside, hand on the seat, providing balance and direction. But there comes a moment when the child must pedal, steer, and choose to keep going. The parents’ strength makes the ride possible, but the child’s choice to pedal makes the ride happen. Remove either element and the bike stops moving.
This image captures something essential about how worship works.
Worship requires both a worthy object and a willing subject. God’s sovereignty establishes His worthiness to be worshipped—His authority, His character, and His saving work. But human choice provides the willing response that completes worship. Remove God’s sovereignty, and you have nothing worth worshipping. Remove human choice, and you have programming. True worship emerges when God’s sovereign worthiness meets our genuine opportunity to respond—and, like Paul, God chooses to appeal rather than compel, because love makes that choice meaningful.
The Foundation: Choice Within Covenant (Deuteronomy 30:15-20)
Moses stands before Israel at a crossroads. God has established the covenant, provided the law, and demonstrated His faithfulness. Now comes the choice: life or death, blessing or curse. Here we see why both elements are essential for worship. God’s sovereignty establishes Him as the one worthy of Israel’s allegiance – He has acted in history, revealed His character, and proven His faithfulness. But the choice itself makes worship possible. If Israel had no real option, their obedience would be mechanical compliance. If God had not sovereignly acted to reveal Himself and establish the covenant, their choice would be meaningless – selecting between equals rather than recognizing the One who deserves their devotion. The choice matters precisely because God has sovereignly created the conditions where meaningful worship can occur.
But this raises an immediate question: what does it actually look like to choose worship? What’s the pattern of a life that chooses to respond to God’s revealed worthiness?
The Pattern: Two Ways, Two Destinies (Psalm 1)
The psalmist answers our question by showing us exactly what choosing worship looks like in daily life. The righteous person delights in God’s law and meditates on it continually. This delight and meditation is worship in its most basic form – the human heart and mind turning toward God with genuine pleasure and sustained attention. But notice what makes this worship possible: God has sovereignly provided His law – His revealed character and will. Without this divine revelation, there would be nothing worthy of meditation. Yet the delight itself is a choice. God doesn’t force the righteous person to find joy in His law; the person chooses to turn their thoughts toward God’s instruction day and night. The result flows naturally from worship: flourishing like a tree by streams of water. Here, we see worship as the ongoing decision to find joy in who God has revealed Himself to be.
This picture is beautiful, but it prompts a deeper question: how is such a choice even possible? Where does our capacity to delight in God come from in the first place?
The Foundation Revealed: Known and Formed (Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18)
David provides the answer to our question. His response here is pure worship – wonder, awe, and praise flowing from his recognition of who God is and what God has done. But look at what enables this worship: God’s sovereignty reaches to the very essence of David’s existence. God knows every thought before it’s formed. He created David in the womb, and He sees all of David’s days before they come to pass. This divine knowledge and creative power establish God as infinitely worthy of worship. Yet David’s response is genuine amazement and chosen praise. God didn’t program David to feel wonder; David chooses to marvel at God’s incomprehensible knowledge and creative work.
Here’s the key: the sovereignty that formed David’s capacity for thought and choice is the same sovereignty that makes itself known to David’s mind and heart. David worships because he recognizes both God’s absolute authority over his life and his own freedom to respond with awe and praise. Our capacity to choose worship comes from the One who is worthy of worship.
What happens when we make the wrong choice? What if we choose poorly, or our worship becomes halfhearted, or we turn away entirely? Does God’s sovereignty mean we’re simply stuck with the consequences?
The Tension Explored: Potter and Clay (Jeremiah 18:1-11)
Jeremiah watches the potter work, and God uses this moment to reveal something crucial about worship. The potter metaphor establishes God’s absolute sovereignty – He has the right and power to shape nations according to His will. This authority makes Him worthy of worship and submission. But then God adds the surprising conditional statements: nations that repent will find Him relenting from judgment; those that do evil after promised blessing will face consequences. Here’s the worship connection: God could simply force compliance, but instead He reveals His character and calls for genuine response. True worship of the sovereign God occurs when people choose to turn away from evil and align themselves with His revealed will. The clay doesn’t worship the potter through passive acceptance but through responsive submission – allowing itself to be shaped according to the potter’s good design rather than resisting that shaping.
The Cost Counted: Discipleship as Worship (Luke 14:25-33)
Jesus answers our question about cost with startling directness. He speaks to crowds following Him, but He doesn’t make following easy. He presents the cost upfront: loving Him more than family, carrying a cross, giving up everything. This is worship that receives Jesus as Lord—the complete reordering of life’s priorities around Christ.
But notice how our two essential elements still hold: Jesus’s sovereignty establishes His right to make such radical demands. He is worthy of being loved more than family, worthy of complete allegiance, worthy of everything we own. His authority and identity make such total devotion reasonable rather than fanatical. Yet the choice to follow must be genuine and informed. Jesus urges people to carefully consider the cost before making a decision, much like a builder calculates expenses or a king assesses military strength.
Jesus could compel followers through overwhelming displays of power, but instead, He wants worship that flows from understanding and deliberate commitment. Discipleship becomes worship when people choose to follow after Jesus, honestly assessing both who He is and what following Him will cost.
But here’s what we might still be wondering: how does this costly, personal worship work out in our relationships with other people? Does it transform how we treat others, or is it primarily about our individual relationship with God?
The Grace Extended: Transformation Through Relationship (Philemon 1:1-21)
Paul’s letter to Philemon provides the personal application to the big story being revealed throughout our Scripture readings, revealing the very heart of God through Paul’s own words: “Yet for love’s sake I rather appeal to thee.” Here we see why both sovereignty and choice are necessary for true worship to exist.
Paul could command Philemon to receive Onesimus (the slave who had run away) – he has apostolic authority established by Christ’s sovereign call. This authority makes Paul’s request worthy of obedience. But Paul chooses to appeal instead: “for love’s sake I rather beseech thee.” Why? Because he wants Philemon’s response to be worship rather than mere compliance. He wants Philemon’s “benefit should not be as it were of necessity, but willingly.”
Here’s how the pattern we’ve been tracing reaches its climax: Onesimus has been transformed through his encounter with Christ – God’s saving grace has made him a new creation. This transformation demonstrates God’s worthiness and power. But now Philemon must choose how to respond. His political right is to punish the runaway slave. Will he worship God by reflecting God’s character in his own relationships? Paul’s approach mirrors exactly how God relates to us in worship: establishing His authority and demonstrating His grace, then appealing for a willing response that reflects His character.
This brings our journey full circle. We started with Moses calling Israel to choose life, and we end with Paul appealing to Philemon to choose how he’ll treat a transformed brother. Philemon’s willing reception of Onesimus as a beloved brother would be an act of worship, showing that God’s sovereign transformation of Onesimus has led to Philemon’s chosen transformation in how he relates to others.
Paul’s appeal reveals God’s heart: sovereignty that could compel but chooses to appeal, because love makes a willing response precious. This is why true worship requires both sovereignty and choice.
Living the Pattern
Paul’s words to Philemon reveal the heart of how God participates in worship with us: “Yet for love’s sake I rather appeal to thee.” Paul could have commanded, but chose to appeal – for love’s sake. This is precisely how the sovereign Lord of all chooses to relate to us.
The progression through these passages shows us that true worship requires both God’s sovereign worthiness and our genuine response. We cannot worship what is not worthy of worship – God’s sovereignty, authority, creative power, and saving work establish Him as deserving of our complete devotion. However, we cannot truly worship without choosing to worship; forced praise is not genuine praise, but rather a programmed performance.
Here’s what makes this so remarkable: God chooses to appeal to us rather than override us, not because He lacks the power to compel, but because love makes our willing response precious to Him. Like Paul with Philemon, God demonstrates His worthiness, reveals His character, and appeals for our response—trusting that true worship will flow from hearts that choose to respond to His revealed love.
This means that in our daily lives, worship becomes both recognition and response. We recognize God’s sovereign work in our circumstances, His authority over our decisions, His knowledge of our thoughts, and His shaping of our character. But worship happens when we respond to this recognition with chosen delight, deliberate praise, willing submission, and costly obedience. When we encourage others toward faith, we follow God’s own pattern – pointing them to the God who is worthy of worship while trusting the Holy Spirit to enable their willing response. For love’s sake, we appeal rather than manipulate.
True worship transforms our relationships with others because it flows from recognizing both God’s gracious sovereignty over us and our responsibility to reflect His appealing character in our choices.
Points to Ponder
- How does recognizing God’s sovereignty increase your capacity for genuine worship rather than diminish it?
- Where in your life do you see the interplay between God’s worthiness and your chosen response to Him?
- In what relationships might you need to follow Paul’s example of appealing rather than demanding?
- What “cost” of discipleship might you need to count more carefully as an act of worship?
Prayer
Father, You are worthy of worship because of who You are and what You have done. Your sovereignty, Your creative power, Your saving work, and Your perfect knowledge establish You as deserving of our complete devotion.
Help us to understand that true worship requires both Your sovereign worthiness and our genuine choice. When we’re tempted to think worship is just emotion, remind us it requires the engagement of our will. When we’re tempted to think we can earn Your favor through our choices, remind us that You alone are worthy of worship. Shape us into people whose lives reflect Your character because we have chosen to find our joy in who You are. Teach us to appeal to others as You appeal to us, demonstrating Your worthiness while trusting in a willing response rather than forced compliance.
Through Christ, who perfectly worshipped the Father with both divine nature and human choice, and who now appeals to our hearts with the love that chose the cross. Amen.
“How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee.” – Psalm 139:17-18
Josh Cehulik 