Bodily Worship

Discussion Questions

1. What most shapes your current posture in corporate worship—concern about emotionalism, fear of hypocrisy, personality/comfort, or something else? Why?

2. The sermon argued that the question is not primarily “Am I feeling it?” but “Is Jesus worthy of it?” How do you respond to that distinction? When does that feel clarifying, and when does it feel difficult?

3. Which biblical argument for bodily worship was most compelling to you: explicit commands (clapping, lifting hands, kneeling), the reality that we are embodied people, or the idea that visible worship ministers to other believers? Why?

4. How have you experienced the connection between body and soul in your own life—for better or worse? (e.g., anxiety affecting your body, confession bringing relief, posture shaping focus, etc.)

5. The sermon suggested that our visible engagement in worship can encourage the faith of others. How have other believers’ visible joy, attentiveness, or expressiveness strengthened your worship? Conversely, how might your own engagement serve others?

6. What is one concrete “next step” you could take toward more intentional embodied worship—either in private devotion or corporate gathering—and what makes that step feel either exciting or uncomfortable?

Sermon Manuscript

This morning I want to talk about an area of the Christian life that holds a lot of significance for me personally, but probably not for the reason you think. Normally at Quinault, we preach expositional, verse-by-verse sermons through books of the Bible, but this morning I am going to preach a topical sermon on the joys and benefits of bodily worship—responding to the Lord in Sunday gatherings not only with assenting minds, but with physical expressions of praise. It might seem very self-serving for the Worship/Associate Pastor to preach a sermon on physical expressiveness in worship, but the real reason I want to preach on this topic is because I believe this is an area where many Christians, perhaps even some of you here today, are missing out on a greater experience of joy in your salvation, unity with God’s people, and a greater delight in Christ himself.

Let me start by sharing a bit of my personal experience with Sunday worship. I grew up in a very conservative Baptist church. We sang out of hymnals accompanied by a single piano player. Our worship pastor would stand behind the pulpit, singing into a microphone with one hand while conducting our singing with the other. This was a good church. Our pastor was a faithful expositor of God’s Word, and there was a lot of love that our members had for one another. But our worship services often felt like very somber affairs. The congregation would sing loudly, and even sing in parts, which was really cool, but there was little visible expression of joy or exuberance in our worship. We would sing incredible hymns with beautiful, timeless truth:

• And when I think that God his Son not sparing, sent him to die, I scarce can take it in, that on the cross, my burden gladly bearing, he bled and died, to take away my sin, then sings my soul my Savior God to Thee, how great Thou art! How great Thou art!
• [Or even from a song we just sang this morning…] My sin O the bliss of this glorious thought My sin not in part but the whole Is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord O my soul!

We would be singing these words—”I scarce can take it in…” and “O the bliss of this glorious thought” with the same posture and demeanor as if we were reading off our grocery lists. Now, I’m confident that the large majority of these members genuinely believed the gospel, loved the Lord, and wanted to make much of Jesus in their lives. But for various reasons, this intellectually-grounded and heartfelt faith had trouble working its way outward to physical expressions of praise and worship for who God is, and what he had done for them through His Son.

The question I want us to answer this morning from God’s Word is whether physical expressions of worship—this bodily praise—is a matter of choice or command. If right now I were to pose that question to you, what would say? You might be smart enough to know which direction this sermon is going to go, but if you were to take an honest assessment not just of your belief, but your practice, what would that communicate?

This morning I am going to attempt to prove to you from the Bible that the kind of worship that most glorifies God is worship that engages all of who we are—our minds, our hearts, and our bodies. And, because you and I were made to worship God, this fully-embodied worship is also the pathway to a higher joy, delight, and confidence in the God that made us and saved us.

We’ll have three parts:

1. Why We Don’t (Worship with more physical expressiveness)
2. Why We Should
3. How We Can Grow

1) Why We Don’t

Let’s start by considering reasons why we don’t move toward physical expressiveness in our worship. Primarily we will focus on physical expressiveness in our corporate worship.

1. We don’t want to led by “emotionalism”

Emotionalism meaning the tendency to display excessive or exaggerative emotion, or to be led by emotions over truth. This is a legitimate concern, and perhaps the most common reason why many Christians who genuinely love the Lord hesitate to express their love for him in physical and visible ways. We are a people who love good preaching and right doctrine. We want to be governed by the solid rock of truth, not the winds and waves of emotions. This is a good impulse. And many of us have seen the excesses of emotionalism in churches, where pastors and worship leaders work to artificially drum up emotional, euphoric responses from their congregation. In some of these churches, as soon as any music starts, even before any lyrics are on the screen, hands go up and bodies start to sway. Or you notice that as the pastor gets louder and more energetic, regardless of what he’s actually saying, the congregation gets louder and more energetic along with him.

And so what do we often do instead, as logical, truth-driven Christians? We overcorrect. We swing the pendulum to the other side and become suspicious of any visible expressions of emotional exuberance that we see rise up in ourselves or in the Christians around us. And perhaps we begin to view visible emotional displays in worship as a “slippery slope” to that kind of misguided, dangerous Christianity that prizes the “experiential” over sound doctrine.

But I wonder if you see how this actually creates a false dichotomy that the Bible actually rejects? It is true that emotional exuberance not grounded in sound doctrine is dangerous and misguided. But it is equally true that if sound doctrine does not lead to a **right and **fitting display of emotional exuberance, something is wrong inside of us!

We should take heed of the warning Jesus gives to the church in Ephesus in Revelation 2:

“I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first.”

Why did the Christians in Ephesus need to repent? Not because they lacked truth and conviction, but because their love for sound doctrine did not lead them to a steadily increasing love for Jesus. They had abandoned their first love.

2. We don’t want to be hypocritical or inauthentic

A second reason we may avoid physical expressiveness in our corporate worship is an internal fear of being hypocritical or “inauthentic.” The logic goes, “If I’m not feeling a strong love for the Lord right now, if my heart feels cold while I am singing these words, it would be wrong of me to lift my hands and present myself to the Lord as if I’m feeling something towards him that is not actually reflected in my heart. And it would be wrong to give those around me the impression that I’m feeling a certain way towards the Lord when I actually feel far from him.

Again, like our first reason before, this is a legitimate and understandable concern! You don’t have to search very far in the Bible to know that God hates hypocrisy:

Proverbs 15:8 “The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD, but the prayer of the upright is acceptable to him.”

Isaiah 29:13 “This people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me…”

But I want to appeal to your common sense. If you’re married here in this room, and you have a fight with your spouse the night before, and you have to leave the next morning before getting a chance to hash things out, would it be wrong to give them a parting hug or kiss? Or to say, “I love you?” You’re probably not feeling very warm and fuzzy towards them at that moment, so wouldn’t it be “inauthentic” to use your body and your words to express love for them at a time when you’re not really “feeling it?” I would hope that your answer would be no—it’s not inauthentic! It’s not hypocritical. Why? Because hopefully, if your marriage is healthy and centered on the Lord, your operating belief at the core of your being is this—you still love your spouse. You know you won’t always feel this way. You know you’ll eventually work through the conflict and relational warmth will be restored. And you also know that if you are always waiting for your feelings to catch up with what you know to be true, you will remain stuck far longer than you need to.

And so, in this totally imaginary, purely hypothetical scenario where you have to leave for the morning before reconciling with your spouse, you command your body and your words to express what you know to be true deep down in your bones, even if you aren’t “feeling it” in the moment—”I love you.” And if you have ever actually been in this purely hypothetical situation you also know that this is often the act of obedience that opens the door to healing and restoration.

So then think with me again about how this logic should play out in our private and public worship. You show up to church on a Sunday morning—maybe even this Sunday morning. Your heart feels cold towards the Lord. You have not loved him rightly this week. You have not served him wholeheartedly. You have offered a higher allegiance to your sin and your own comfort than to Him. How might you be feeling right now? You might wonder if it was even hypocritical to show up to church in the first place, let alone raising your hands in worship and praising him with your mouth! If this is you, what should you do?

First, you should come to church. And look—you’re here! Congratulations. If we only came to church when we were feeling close to the Lord, we would almost never come. And friends, this is why a right understanding of the gospel message is so essential. God is not waiting for you to clean yourself up and sift your heart before you can come to him. He came to you in the person of his Son to seek and save those who know they are lost, who know that they are hypocrites. So come to him! Gather together with God’s people every week and confess your sins to him. Confess your hypocrisy. Confess that you are totally unworthy of even an ounce of his favor, his mercy, and his love.

And second, offer to God the praise and the worship that is commensurate—not with how you’re feeling in the given moment, but commensurate with who He is and what he has done for you through the life, death, and resurrection of his Son. The question is not “Am I feeling it?” But, “Is Jesus worthy of it?”Align the posture of your body and the tenor of your words with the truth that you believe deep down in the core of your being—”Lord, I love you. Lord, I need you.”

3. We don’t want to go against our personality

This is similar to our previous point. Maybe you don’t incorporate much physical expressiveness in public worship because of your personality. You’re a pretty shy or reserved person by nature, and so lifting your hands or expressing more emotional exuberance would feel inauthentic to who you are as a person. And besides, didn’t God make you this way? Isn’t every church filled with all kinds of people with different gifts and temperaments? Isn’t this part of the beauty of the body of Christ?

This feels like a really compelling argument, doesn’t it? Why? Because it’s true that every Christian is unique.

Psalm 139:13-14 “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”

God’s plan for your growth as a believer is not to flatten you into a “one-size-fits-all” Christian mold. No, growth in the Christian life is the lifelong process of becoming the most Christ-like version of you that you can be.

And yet, I think that if we’re being honest, this reasoning (ie. “I don’t physically express myself in worship because that’s just not in my personality”) is often a cover for our comfort. We fear the attention and scrutiny of others, so we avoid doing anything that would potentially place a spotlight on us. But friend, I wonder if you have considered just how frequently the Scripture calls you to obedience that is uncomfortable?

Matthew 5:38-42 “Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.”

Matthew 28:19–20 Evangelize. Make disciples.

James 5:16 “Confess your sins to one another…”

Colossians 3:13 Forgiving one another as the Lord has forgiven you.

What if someone were to say,

“It’s not in my personality to be a doormat. If you come at me, I’ll come at you.”

Or, “I’m too shy to be an effective evangelist. I’ll leave that for the extraverts.”

Or, “I’m a very private person, so I just confess my sins to God, not other people.”

Or, “I’m a very loyal person by nature, so if you cross me, don’t expect me to forgive you.”

We would say, “Sorry, but obedience to Christ doesn’t bend or shift according to your personality! This is the path of obedience that the Lord calls every Christian to walk.”

And so, a question that we need to answer that we have not sufficiently answered yet is this: Does God actually command us to visible and physical displays of our love for him in public worship?

Let’s attempt to answer that question in our second point—why we should.

2) Why We Should

1. The Bible commands and commends bodily worship

Psalm 47:1-2 Clap your hands, all peoples! Shout to God with loud songs of joy! For the LORD, the Most High, is to be feared, a great king over all the earth.

Psalm 95:6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!

Nehemiah 8:6 And Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God, and all the people answered, “Amen, Amen,” lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground.

1 Timothy 2:8 I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling.

The Biblical authors assume that when God’s people are gathered together for worship, the kind of worship that will be offered to the Lord will be lively and jubilant, both visible and visceral. And notice too how these Biblical exhortations are NOT written as if they are “exclusive” to a unique people in a unique time or place. No, the call for this kind of expressive worship is grounded in the eternal, unchanging character of God.

2. We are embodied people

God did not make our bodies as a shell for our souls. He did not make us as brains on a stick. We are a pyscho-somatic union—both body and soul.

So practically, what does this mean?

First, our bodies are part of God’s good design.

Genesis 2:7 “Then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.”

Second, what we do with our soul affects our body.

Psalm 32:2-4 “For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.”

Have you had an experience like this before? You try and clear your internet search history, you come up with justifications for why you lied to that person or cheated on that exam, and yet if you are a Christian who is filled with the Holy Spirit, how do you feel when you try and conceal your sin? You feel awful, right? And not awful “spiritually.” You often feel awful physically, too. You can’t sleep. You lose your appetite. Your stomach churns inside of you. Your heart might begin to race and you begin to sweat. You feel tired, distracted, and sluggish. You, like David, begin to feel like “your bones are wasting away” while you keep your sin silent.

But conversely, what happens to you physically when you confess your sin? Let’s look at the second half of Psalm 32. He says,

Psalm 32:5, 10-11 “I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin…

Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the LORD. Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!”

Third, what we do with our bodies affects our souls.

One of the great heresies in early church history had to deal with was the false teaching on gnosticism. This term, “gnosticism” comes from the Greek word gnosis which refers to personal, spiritual knowledge. The gnostics taught that the world was divided into two realms: the spiritual realm, which is pure and good, and the material realm which is corrupt and evil. The goal of human existence, they believed, was to “transcend” the material realm and live purely in the realm of the spiritual.

Even though “gnosticism proper” did not become a widespread phenomenon until the second century, we see in Paul’s first-century letter to Corinth that the early seedlings of this heresy had already begun to spring up in the church. There were Corinthians in the church who were convinced that what they did with their bodies had no actual bearing on the state of their souls. And so they used this “liberty” to indulge in gluttony, drunkenness, and even, shockingly, sexual sin. Listen to how the apostle addresses this soul-destroying deception in 1 Corinthians 6:

1 Corinthians 6:18-20 “Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”

What is Paul’s answer? He says, “You belong to God, both body and soul. In fact, your body is a temple for the Holy Spirit! Not some throwaway, corrupted shell. So, what you do with your body, whether good or evil, can either bring honor to the name of Jesus, or shame. The goal of the Christian life is not to transcend the body, but to glorify God in your body.”

Fourth, the physical posture of our bodies can lead us into a higher experience of joy, delight, and dependence on the Lord.

I remember watching a Ted Talk a several years ago about how to have more confidence in job interviews. A lot of the advice was pretty standard-fare, but one of the speaker’s suggestions struck me initially as totally absurd. She said, “before your interview, or before an important meeting, go into a bathroom by yourself, lock eyes with yourself in the mirror, and strike a superman pose—hands on your hips, chest puffed out. And then hold that position and maintain that eye contact for 15 seconds.” I actually remember doing this right before a job interview at the seminary I attended in Kentucky. I found a quiet bathroom, locked eyes with myself in the mirror, struck the pose, and held it for 15 seconds. At first I felt absolutely ridiculous and I kept praying that no one would come into the bathroom while I performed my strange ritual. But do you want to know something amazing? It actually worked. I nailed the interview and got the job.

What we do with our bodies has incredible power to shape how we think and how we feel. Before I entered that bathroom, I was not feeling confident. My stomach was in knots, my mouth was dry, and my heart was beating out of it’s chest. But as I left, I felt a level of confidence and peace that I did not have before.

Think with me now about how this can help us as we prepare to come together for corporate worship. What if you are coming into Sunday morning feeling like your spiritual gas tank is on empty? Your heart feels cold toward the Lord, and the thought of singing to Him and worshiping Him feels so far out of reach. What can you do? You can use the posture of your body to lead your heart and your mind into alignment with what you know to be true deep down in your bones, even if it doesn’t feel true right now.

“Lord, I know deep down that you are righteous and holy and worthy of my praise even though I’m struggling to feel the awe and reverence that you deserve, and so I’m going to place my body in a posture of humility and submission to lead my heart into right feeling.”

“Lord, I know deep down that I am a weak and needy sinner who is wholly dependent on your mercy, even though I’m not feeling that right now, so I’m going to open my palms to physically express my dependence on you until my hearts is led to believe the same.”

“Lord, I know deep down that you are faithful, and good, and kind, and that you are worthy of my trust, and so I am going to lift my hands up to you to remind my heart that you alone are my hope, my confidence, and my rock.”

Oh friends, do not believe the lie that this is “inauthentic” or hypocritical. It is God’s kindness to us that physical expressions of praise and dependence, when offered in faith, can actually lead our hearts to right believing and right feeling.

3. It’s a ministry to other Christians

One of the greatest blessings of leading our church in musical worship each Sunday is getting to watch you while you worship. I realize that might sound kind of weird, but it’s true. Your enjoyment, delight in, and dependence on the Lord serves to increase my enjoyment, delight in, and dependence on the Lord. This again is part of God’s good design with the body of Christ. Our corporate worship is vertical; it’s a sacrifice of thanks and praise that we offer to God for who he is and what he’s done. But it’s also horizontal. Your worship is a ministry to the other believers in our church. We need other brothers and sisters to remind us and show us that the gospel we are clinging to is true! That our sins really have been covered by the blood of Christ—I scarce can take it in! That Jesus is right now ruling and reigning over all things! That the gates of hell will not prevail against the bride of Christ. That Jesus is coming again soon to judge the wicked, to vindicate the righteous, and to make all things new—oh the bliss of this glorious thought!

But here’s the key—the other believers in this church need to be able to see that you believe this! We can’t read minds. Your heart might be burning with love for Christ and you might have unshakeable confidence in his faithfulness, but if you’re standing during worship with your hands in your pockets, a blank look on your face, and you’re either singing quietly or not singing at all, what does that communicate to the other Christians in this room? I guess all of this doesn’t really matter that much to him.

Is that always fair? No. Do we need to give each other the benefit of the doubt and be slow to jump to assumptions? Yes. But, brothers and sisters, I want to exhort you right now to make it your aim every Sunday to express your love for the Lord and your dependence on Him in visible, tangible ways, not just for the sake of your own worship and enjoyment of the Lord, but for the building up of other saints of Quinault.

And do you want to know something amazing? If we are all seeking to do this—to visibly express our love for the Lord for the sake of his glory and for the building up of the body—this will create a virtuous cycle! Your visible joy in the Lord increases my joy in the Lord, which will then feed back into your joy in the Lord!

3) How We Can Grow

Our aim in all of this—with growing in our physical expressiveness in corporate worship—is for these physical actions to be brought about naturally from our hearts. Of course we know, as we’ve already seen, that this is not always the case. Our affections for the Lord can grow cold and sometimes need that jolt from our bodily posture to “jumpstart” us back into right feeling and believing towards the Lord. But how much sweeter is it when our physical expressiveness springs forth organically from a heart that has already been warmed by the love of Christ?

I want to share with you three practical steps you can take to grow in physical expressiveness in corporate worship.

1. Begin with your private devotions

One easy way to grow into a greater physical expressiveness in your corporate worship is by starting with your private worship. If you don’t currently have a regular practice of private devotions where you are spending time each day reading God’s Word and in prayer, let this be another pastoral nudge to encourage you. Here are a few ways you can incorporate physical expressiveness in your private devotions:

1. When you are reading the Bible and you come across something that encourages you or convicts, verbalize it to the Lord.
   1. Maybe you’re reading Romans 6:1-2 which says, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” And you stop, assess your heart, and say to the Lord out loud, “God, forgive me for how often I take your grace for granted. I know that by the power of Jesus, I am no longer alive to sin. It has no more dominion over me. Please help me to live in light of the new life I have in Christ!
   2. Or maybe you’re reading a few chapters later in Romans and come across Romans 8:1-2 which reads, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.” And you say out loud, “Lord, I praise you that in Christ, there is no more condemnation for me! I know how deep my sin runs in my heart, and I know what I deserve, and yet you, Father, through the Holy Spirit of Life, have set me free in Christ Jesus the Son from the law of sin and death! God, I praise you for your mercy toward me!”
2. Or when you are praying, align the posture of your body with the words that you are praying.
   1. If you are confessing sin to the Lord, you might bow your head or kneel if you are able.
   2. If you are asking the Lord for help and provision, you might turn your hands so your palms are facing up, expressing your need and your dependence on him.
   3. If you are praising God for something he has done for you, you might lift your head and raise your hands, expressing your gratitude and praise.

2. Commit to moving one step further in corporate worship

No matter how convinced you may be by all the teaching we’ve seen this morning from the Bible, and no matter how prepared you might feel by your private devotions, if you have never really practiced physical expressiveness in worship, it’s going to feel difficult and unnatural at first, and the only way it will start to feel more natural is if you actually try it.

So practically, if you are starting here—you don’t even really sing out loud during worship, you could start by singing out loud and letting the truth presented in the lyrics guide the volume and the dynamics of your voice.

Or, if you do sing, but your M.O. is usually to look straight ahead, straight-faced, with your hands in your pockets, you could consider lifting your eyes up or bowing your head down, and placing your palms at your sides, facing up as a physical expression of your love for the Lord and your dependence on Him.

And friends, we should also consider our physical engagement during the preaching of God’s Word.

If your starting point is this—during the sermon you have your phone pulled out and you are half-listening to the preaching of God’s Word, put your phone away. Look up. Take notes. Keep your mind and your body engaged. Don’t be like the hard soil that no place for the seeds of God’s Word to take root.

Or, if you’re not on your phone and you are engaged during the sermon, consider how you can use your words and the posture of your body to facilitate a greater responsiveness in your heart. If you hear something in the sermon that encourages you, consider a verbal response of “Yes!” or “Amen.” Or if that feels too scary at first, you can nod your head. Again, the purpose of all of this is not performative. If you are just saying “Amen” and nodding your head because you want others to see you as a “spiritual” and deep person, don’t do it. But if you are hearing truth in a sermon that encourages you or convicts you, it is right, fitting to express it with your words and your body.

And there is again another horizontal benefit to our vertical worship. As other believers in this room hear you and see you engaging with the preaching of God’s Word, they will be encouraged to do the same.

3. Commit to disciplines and habits that will stoke a deepening affection for Christ.

Matthew 12:34 “For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.”

We were made for worship. What excites and delights us reveals what we truly love. And what we truly love will be manifested through our words and our actions. We can’t help but think about and speak about what we love.

So our question becomes, what power do we have to shape what it is that excites and delights? The answer is quite simple: our time and attention. What you spend your time thinking about and practicing shapes what excites and delights you. So we shouldn’t be surprised if when we finally get around to reading our Bibles, we find it extraordinarily difficult to concentrate and care about what we’re reading because we have spent the previous week gorging ourselves on hours of social media, internet news, and entertainment. Our affections are not a light switch that we can just flip on and off at will—they are shaped slowly over time by the things we give ourselves to.

So what can we do? We can commit to godly disciplines and habits that will free up time in our weeks to give our attention and affections to Who it is that truly matters most. And as you do this, you’ll find that just like an empty hot water tank, as you fill your mind and your time with the things of the Lord, it will slowly displace and push out the shallow, trivial things that keep your heart feeling empty. Your affections and desires will begin to change.

Brothers and sisters, let the words of Psalm 90:14 be our prayer together.

Psalm 90:14 “Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.”

You were made, body and soul, to be satisfied in the love of God. You were made to rejoice in him and be glad in him. Commit yourself to offering to him the worship that is due to him, because in him is satisfaction, steadfast love, joy, and gladness.