Avoiding Evil

One of the biggest responsibilities we have as Christians is to worship God. Unfortunately the true meaning of worship is ambiguous to many congregations because their focus is on methods and techniques of worship rather than their focal point being who they worship. In this book I have been reading, Return to Worship, Ron Owens discusses who we should be worshiping and why we do such a poor job of it. He deals with the issue of understanding what worship is and why we sometimes abandon the glory of God for the comfort of fulfilling our own selfish desires. Owens takes his readers to an obvious location, the bible, in order for them to fully understand what worship really is.

Like so many other church leaders in America I can relate well to the first chapter of Owens book. Having gone through several heated discussions about worship in my own church I began to realize where our focus really is. We waste so much energy and enthusiasm on bickering about how worship should be done in the church that we miss the whole point of worship to begin with. Suddenly worship is no longer about the adoration of the Most High God, but it has become about the right songs, done the right way, with the right instruments. Owens says, “The real issue in worship is not if we will worship or how we will worship, but whom we will worship.” I began to realize that we let worship slip through our hands in order to be convenient to everyone. Humans are designed to worship which means we will all worship something, but if our focus in a church service is so captivated by the aspects and technicalities of how we worship rather than being in awe of who we should adore then is it really God we are worshiping? Could it be that Christians throughout American go to church every Sunday morning and commit idolatry? If the Bible makes true worship known then it should terrify us when our worship looks nothing like that which the scriptures reveal. I think we should be shaping our worship to be what God wants and not what we want.

Worship, as described in scripture, is to prostrate oneself in homage to someone or to experience reverence and adoration for someone. A good example is people living in a monarchy where they are required to bow in homage to a king. The people recognize who the king is and in honor of him they bow before him. However, maybe the reason Christians do not bow before the king of the world in worship is because we have lost sight of who God really is. Owens says, “If our view of God is anything other than His self-revelation through His word, then the god we worship is one of our own making, one fashioned to suite what we want God to be.” I have to admit that I have had times in my life where I thought better music, more enthusiasm, and heavier preaching would create a greater worship. However, now I see that “to the extent that we know God is the extent that we are able to worship God.” It is in His revelation of Himself that we are stimulated to worship the God who is mighty, magnificent, just, merciful, and holy. The worship in our Churches should explode out of our knowledge of who God is and out of our love for what He has done for us. If our ability to worship God is based on our knowledge of Him, an inaccurate knowledge of God leads to the worship of a false god or false worship. If we are worshiping a false perception of God then is it really the God of the bible we are worshiping? At any time we make God out to be something that he is not we are committing idolatry and breaking the first commandment. How many people in our churches are worshiping God for who they think He is even if it is contrary to scripture? In the same way, how many Christians unconsciously take the Lord’s name in vain day after day even in a worship service? Even though we don’t recognize it, our congregation is filled with people who dishonor the name of God in worship. If we take God’s name lightly by not practicing what we preach or pray what is contrary to scripture we take His name in vain. When we pray or sing without heart and simply utter the words in habit we are taking God’s name in vain. When we just pray for a meal out of legality with no devotion or thought of God we take his name in vain. I am one of many who are guilty of singing out of routine rather than out of devotion and honor to God. So often I sing just to be singing with no thought of the words or the one I am singing to. A congregation that worships out of habit, has a mind on things other than God, and speaks of God lightly without adoration is disgracing the name of the Almighty God.

The church does not have to yield to the culture of the world, but instead we should be set apart. However as church members embrace the world it harmfully affects how and what they worship. If Christians choose to live a lifestyle sold out to the one true God and set apart from the present culture of the world their devotion and love for God will be far greater. Christians who begin to embrace the world forsake their first love for other things and begin to worship what will profit them. The lifestyle people choose to live reveals where their hearts are, and so many of them are far from the Lord. It is no wonder a congregation filled with people who live contrary to scripture experiences dead worship and zero devotion to God. It is no wonder our own personal biases and opinions get in the way of true worship because we are focused more on ourselves than who we should be worshiping in the first place. When we allow our culture to shape not only our lifestyles but the way we “do church” then we can rest assured that we are not experiencing true worship. When we commit to the one who has redeemed us He will change everything in our life including our “actions, work, recreation, social activities, church, and even family.” A congregation filled with Christians who are devoted to serving God and living Godly lifestyles will change the face of worship in that church forever.

Could it be that people are not experiencing true, meaningful worship because they live in a way that is contrary to a lifestyle of worship? Think about David, Joshua, and Job as examples of men whose primary concern was what God thought and desired from them. No matter what happen to these men, they were devoted to and worshiped God anywhere, anyplace and anytime. It makes perfect sense! Worship is not just something that happens in a Sunday morning or Wednesday evening service, but in fact it is something that should be happening in our lives all of the time. When is there ever a time that we do not need to praise God and worship Him? Is there ever a time that God does not deserve our devotion? If in fact we were created to worship God then worship should be at the center of our lives.

Another part of worship is the issue of the will. Christians have to be willing to surrender themselves to God, “bowing to the will, confessing the pride, and surrendering the life.” We have to be willing to focus our attention and time on God. I am often amazed at the large number of people who come to church, claim Christianity and yet refuse to surrender their lives to Christ. In order to fully worship the savior we have to know Him, which means we must surrender our lives to Him. For those who refuse to surrender their lives to God they “have no capacity to worship God.” It is impossible to worship one of whom you have not surrendered to. Simply claiming to be a believer in the Lord is not enough. If we claim to be followers of Jesus and never experience worship nor surrender in worship to Him then there is a good chance we have never actually experienced true grace. When the saving power of Jesus cleanses us and we become a new creation there is a joy kindled within us that creates a response that cannot be denied. Unfortunately I believe that the church has accepted and baptized a large number of people who are not actually saved. This creates a problem for worship, especially with a congregation filled with a large number of lost people who think they are saved, because they cannot experience true worship. For Christians, they can respond in worship for what Christ has done in their lives and for non-believers in the church maybe God would change their hearts through the hearing of the word. Either way the Christian should not only be willing to worship, but should want to with all of their heart because of God’s magnificent attributes.

Sin is also a deterrent to worship. Christians who come to God with grudges, sinful lifestyles and an unwillingness to repent from those things is going to be unable to worship God. Even in the Old Testament God requested that the people repent and believe. When the people would return to God with repentant hearts He would return to them and accept them. However, when they turned from God he disciplined them. There is no authentic worship from someone who refuses to repent of their sins. However, an experience with God should inspire a response of repentance and worship from all of us. How is it that Christians can come into the presence of God week after week with no response at all? I am convinced that it is impossible to see and experience God without having a response of either worship or utter despair. One way we can see if our church is experiencing authentic worship is to look at the response of the believers. Are they prostrating themselves and bowing before the Lord? Are they experiencing conviction and repentance or weeping, broken for Christ? Is there a response at all? A church where there is no response to God is a church that is not experiencing worship. As Owens says, maybe God is standing at the door and knocking while the Christians are busy worshiping, unable to tell that the real savior is outside and we are not letting Him in.

The Church has “departed from God” in several ways. Church members go through the motions, worship half-heartedly, inadequately commit themselves to God, live a lifestyle contrary to Christianity, and honestly believe they are doing the right thing. Some have fallen away from God and true worship in order to follow self-satisfaction. Instead of placing our trust and focus on God we place a lot of focus on ourselves and therefore we shape worship to please us and not God. “Real worship begins with God, and our view of him determines the kind of worship we offer.” In order to return to worship our churches must remove all obstacles that are not of God, come to repentance of sins, and work on the hearts of and minds of believers. As people develop a greater relationship with the savior and begin to understand more about Him as is revealed in the scripture and when they surrender themselves, focusing only on Him, they will be flooded with such a response of worship for God that no one can deny the fact that God was present and active in their worship. As we worship we approach the throne of the Most High God and we offer him praise and thanksgiving. Humbly we come before the God of the universe to worship and adore Him and focus our attention on Him. If Christians would come face to face with the one we are to worship and experiences an authentic response of worship it would change the way a church experiences worship forever.

Pressed