"God is a Spirit: and
they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." John 4:24
The
scriptures tell us that we must worship God, and this is normally done at
church, but is your church service a worship service to God? I ask this
question, because most church services do not worship God. After speaking on
this subject last Wednesday night I have made some brief and small changes to
our services to more meet the definition of this word. The word worship here means
- an act of homage or reverence to God – To God and nothing else. I
believe three things are required to have a proper church service. (1.) There
must be a worship, now this worship is to God and nothing else. Prayer, song,
and the sermon. I do not believe anything else is proper in a worship service.
Pastors will spend half the worship time talking about stories, bragging on people,
or etc. God does not share time, honor or praise with anyone else. We do not
praise man, we do not tell jokes, we do not talk about the weather, or etc.
etc. etc. From the first act of the start of the service nothing else should
interfere with our worship of God. (2.) God is a Spirit and we must
worship Him spiritually, not physically. This is why lost people cannot truly
worship God because their spirit is dead. They can attend services, hear the sermon,
but spiritually they will receive nothing and their worship of God is
pointless. People who have no living spirit worship outwardly, because they
have nothing inside to worship with. (3.) There must be truth, not Baptist
truth, Catholic truth, Pentecostal truth, or etc. but biblical truth.
Nothing else will work. Biblical Truth is truth that only praises God, declares
that God is Sovereign, and Gracious. However, I believe real Baptist Truth is
biblical truth, if not I would change it. Now one might ask “where is the fun”,
when did God ever say church was supposed to be fun? If you go to church for fun, then you are not
going to church. Once the door shuts, the prayers start, and the music is sung,
nothing but the praise and worship of God. Anything more or less subtracts from
the worship of God. Give it some thought and prayer.
Matthew
15:8 - 9 "This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth
me with their lips; but their heart is far from me...But in vain they do
worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men."
Romans
1:25 “Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the
creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.”
How
would you describe you worship service? Does it only praise God or not.
