WHAT IS WORSHIP?

Just what is worship? If we are to believe what we are told, worship is singing lots of songs one after the other. We usually start with up tempo ‘praise’ and then that is followed by slower ‘worship’ songs.

When that is all over, we usually get through the extras and then the sermon.

I have got news for you. That is not worship that is entertainment, primarily due to the fact that what happens does so because it is intended to entertain the audience and make them feel good about themselves and to convince them they should come back next week for more.

So what is worship? In biblical terms, and that is what matters, worship is to bow down and or prostrate yourself before the person who is your conqueror.

And who is that? Of course, none other than Jesus himself. He has conquered us through his love and sacrifice. He has laid claim to our lives to love and serve him. It is to him that we bow down, not the altar of convenience. That is what we should do in our meeting together if he is to be the centre of attraction which is what he should be.

Jesus said that if he was lifted up he would draw all men to him. What do we lift up in our meetings?

Maybe we worship worship as someone rightly pointed out. Maybe we worship the preacher as he gives an inspiring talk about nothing. Maybe we worship the lovely building that we meet in. Maybe we worship the fact that we are not like other people. Maybe we worship the fact that we do everything decently and in order. May be we worship the fact that we are the biggest church in town.

Unless we understand that we come together to worship our conqueror we will never understand that our coming together is all about him, not us.

We come together to ask him to invade our space and to speak to us directly through his word and through prayer. This cannot happen if we are committed to a programme that will enable us to start at 11am and finish at 12noon.

We have no right to hurry God because we have other things to do or we will offend people if we don’t finish on time. We have no right to make God fit in with a set programme if we want him to be the centre of everything.

No, we have no choice if we are going to worship. We have to come together with empty minds, hands and hearts to allow them to be filled with his love, his truth and his instructions.

We have to allow him to control what we do or don’t do and allow him to speak to us through anyone he chooses in the manner that he chooses. That way the meeting together becomes all about him. It becomes a lifting up of Christ in our midst.

Without this is becomes just a set time for a few people to entertain the masses. In most cases it is just a TV programme that is here today and gone tomorrow.

It is amazing to think that 50% of Christians who regularly attend Sunday meetings said that they have never felt the presence of God anytime in the last 12 months. 30% said that they have never experienced God’s presence at all.

This would suggest that in most meetings we have missed the purpose of our gathering. Instead of inviting the Holy Spirit to bring the manifest presence of God amongst us, we prefer to invite the performers to entertain us.