Love Expressedنموونە

Show Me the Ring!

By Zach Neese

If worship is “ascribing worth to God,” then the price of our worship shows God and the world how much we value Him.

Women typically understand this better than men. Take an engagement ring for example. How does a woman announce to her friends that she’s engaged? Does she write them a letter, email them or call them? Not usually. In fact, does she say anything at all? No. She walks into the room with a sideways smile, her hand preceding her, and her ring preceding her hand by a good inch and a half. Her friends, instinctively recognizing her posture, respond to this universal cue by gasping, ooing and aahing with hand-covered mouths. They gather about with outstretched hands, to touch and admire the ring. The ring!

Do any of them ask about the man? What’s he like? Does he have a job? Does he live with his mother? Does he have a hunchback and a third eye? No! None of that matters. He could be Quasimodo for all they care! It matters not. The world has come down to this—the ring!

Why? Because the ring tells them all they need to know. They don’t care about the groom until they see how much he values their friend—the newly engaged woman. They come to that newly engaged woman with one question in all of their hearts, “How much is she worth to him? How much does he value her?”

So she shows them the ring. In their economy, the price of the ring shows the world how much he values her.

Now, switch gears. Here we are, the bride of Christ—unlovable, unfaithful, adulterous and fickle. How could anyone love such a woman? Heaven and hell stand stupefied, and the lost are incredulous! How could the perfect Prince of Peace—glorious, holy, faithful, powerful, righteous, full of beauty and light—choose such an unlovely, wayward woman? The angels are mystified. Hell cannot comprehend it. The lost cannot believe it. Who could love a people like the Church? Only one thing will silence their doubt.

Show them the ring.

The only way for God to silence the skeptics was to demonstrate His love. To prove how much we are worth to Him. Romans 5:8 (NIV) says that “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” What is the cross? It’s the engagement ring of Christ. It is a bloodstone, bought with the price of God’s own Son, to woo the heart of the Bride away from her other suitors and prove once and for all that He loves her more than life.

The gospel and the message of the cross is our engagement ring, and it tells the world everything they need to know about the Groom who is pursuing us.

If the cross proves how much we’re worth to God, our worship proves how much God is worth to us. The lost are watching. They’re wondering: “Do they really believe what they say they believe? Does their God really exist? Is He really lovable? Does He have the power to save and transform? Is He worth following? Is He worth living for?”

What are they really asking? Show me the ring! Worshippers, listen to me—our worship communicates more to the world than you know! Our worship shows the world how valuable our God is. Worship demonstrates that we have a Savior worth loving, worth living for and, if need be, worth dying for.

When you worship, it’s like turning up the volume on your testimony so that it’s broadcast to the world. Remember today that your worship—the daily expression of how much you value God—may be the loudest, most visible and clearest testimony of God’s lovability that the world ever sees.

Someone has noted that when we pray, we are preoccupied with our needs. When we praise and give thanks, we are preoccupied with our blessings. But when we worship, we are preoccupied only with Him.
~ Eddie Hyatt

Prayer

God, thank You for the “engagement ring” of the gospel. You demonstrated Your love for me by sending Jesus to die for my sins. I want to give my love back to You and worship in a way that communicates to the world that You are worth loving, believing in, following, serving, living and dying for. I choose today to turn up the volume on my worship! In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Activation

• You are the bride of Christ! Receive the engagement ring of the gospel and remember how much He loves you!
• Make a decision to broadcast a clear, passionate testimony through your worship. Worship as if you’re giving God an engagement ring.

Memory Verse

Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits; Psalm 103:1–2