Do You Worship God?

by Stephen Bastin

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Millions of people gather together every week to worship God.  Some meet on Friday, some on Saturday and some on Sunday.  Some use Jewish time and consider Friday evening as Saturday and others consider Saturday evening as counting for Sunday regardless of whether the sun has gone down on Saturday or not (the criteria for the end of a Jewish day).

All sorts of activities are included in these assemblies.  Some gather and wait for the “Spirit” to move someone to speak.  If no one is so moved, they will eventually go home.  Others have a single individual who conducts the service.  Honor and respect are given to him as the “representative” of God.

Some meet for a short service, less than an hour.  Following the service the worshippers rush to leave the parking lot lest they have to wait in line for a few seconds.  Others meet in services that last for hours and the worshippers linger long after the service has ended, visiting and talking together, sometimes about spiritual matters, sometimes about personal matters.

For some, the sermon is always too long.  For others, it is never long enough.  Some like the music and others feel that it is a trial to be endured.  Some chaff at the prayers.  Others repeat phrases memorized long ago while their thoughts wander to “more important” matters.

In some assemblies for worship, one might think that they are in the midst of a fashion show.  Fine clothes and fancy hats make for a fashionable crowd.  In other assemblies, one might think that they were in the midst of a homeless person’s convention or in a crowd headed to a ball game or picnic.

There is certainly a wide variety when one considers these folks who weekly trek off to “worship” God.  About the only thing common to all these experiences is that a claim is made that some higher being is worshipped.  They even differ on what to call this supreme being.

Is all of this variety good or bad?  Some would argue that a lack of variety would be bad.  People would have no choice.  How in the world would an American function without a choice of fast food, cars, houses, etc?  Our society is built on choices.  How could choice be bad when it comes to worship?

Well, to begin with there is only one God.  Not much choice there.  I know that people claim that there are other gods.  Claims do not make facts.  For those who accept the Bible (and I assume that those are the ones still reading), the matter is quite clear.  There is only one God who had one Son and sent forth one Spirit.

It has been a long time since I was in the dating business.  My wife and I have been married 24 years.  Success in dating requires that one please the other person.  In fact, it is still a good practice in marriage when buying gifts and in other matters, to consider the likes and dislikes of your spouse.  A gift that is especially appealing to me, may not please my wife at all.  That is not the gift to buy her!

In the same way, worship that may please the worshipper is not guaranteed to be pleasing to God.  God also has likes and dislikes.  He has written the Bible to inform us about those likes and dislikes.

Just as in morals there are those behaviors that God likes and those that He dislikes, so also in the matter of worship.  There are things that God likes in worship and there are things that He does not like.

There are several examples in the Bible of worship that was rejected by God.  There is Cain in Genesis 3.  There are Nadab and Abihu in Leviticus 10.  There is Saul in 1 Samuel 13.  There is Uzzah in 2 Samuel 6.  There is Israel in Isaiah 1.  There are the Samaritans in John 4.

What is the point?  God decides whose worship He will accept and whose worship He will reject.  It is not the person worshipping who decides what is proper or not.  It is God!

Neither is the Bible a smorgasbord of ideas on worship from which we may choose what we want and reject what we do not want.  God operates on the basis of covenant agreements.  The covenant you are under determines what God expects from you.  Worship under the Law of Moses was different from worship before the meeting at Mt. Sinai.  Worship under the new covenant of Jesus is different from worship under the Law of Moses.

If you want to be Jewish in your worship you can have a priest in robes burning incense.  The problem is that you are rejecting Jesus when you do that.  New Testament worship has no priests in robes nor incense.  You can play instruments and listen to choirs as they did at the temple, but that is following Moses instead of Jesus.

You can take Saturday as your day of worship and that is fine as long as you do not neglect the worship after the manner of the Christians on Sunday.  (See Acts 20:7 and 1 Cor 16:1-2.)

You can memorize prayers and repeat them without considering their words as long as you want to ignore what Jesus said in Matthew 6.  You can worship without considering the spiritual well-being of those with whom you worship as long as you want to ignore the apostles of Jesus and the practices they instituted in Acts 2:42.

We sit down in front of our TV and say, “Entertain me.”  We go to a movie, sit down in front of the screen and say, “Entertain me.”  We go to a ball game, sit in a comfortable seat (sometimes uncomfortable) and say, “Entertain me.”  Should we then go to church and say, “Entertain me?”  Wrong.  God has not come down from heaven to entertain us in worship.  We are present in worship to offer up a “sacrifice” to Him.

You can say, “Well, I don’t think that God is so picky as to reject all these things that aren’t in the New Testament.”  Tell that to Cain, Nadab, Abihu, Saul, Uzzah and the Israelites that were sent off to Babylon as slaves the next time you see them!

“God is a Spirit and they who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”  These are the words of Jesus in John 4:24.  Be careful how you worship.  God is watching and listening to you!