WORSHIP 5

Are we really worshiping God? Worship comes in all sorts of forms, depending on your theological bent. For the Pentecostal, worship is singing lots of songs loudly and vigorously with hands clapping, arms waving and jumping up and down.

For a Presbyterian it might be singing a few songs in a specific order interspersed with other activities. In most cases, the songs are sung with dignity and orderliness.

For an Anglican, it could be a combination of both, depending which service you attend, the traditional or the contemporary.

Whatever form of so called worship we indulge in are we really worshiping God or ourselves? Let me explain. Most people who attend a loud, brash Pentecostal service do so because they like loud brash music and lots of movement. They feel good about themselves when they do this and in most cases, it is considered synonymous with the term “worship”.

In other words, no noise, no clapping, no waving no jumping up and down, no worship.

Likewise the Presbyterian feels that their orderly, reverent singing of the old hymns is a true expression of worship and to do what Pentecostals do is…well, not worship, it is entertainment.

Whatever forms of worship of God that we indulge in we don’t actually worship God. We either worship worship or we worship our own selves as in most cases, if the church does not worship in a specific way we leave or don’t go to the meeting.

That means that the worship is self centred, not God centred. What happens happens to satisfy me and what I consider worship. In too many cases, it is a case of it makes me happy because it makes me feel good or proud of my devotion.

Apart from the fact that singing is not worship and the New Testament Church did not do it. See Acts 2 where it says they met together daily for teaching, fellowship, prayer and meals. No mention of singing, although I have read many times that before they left for the evening they sang a psalm.

Worship ceases to be worship when the centre of attraction is me and what it does for me. The true meaning of worship as I have said before is to kneel or prostrate oneself before my captor to acknowledge his lordship over me.

Jesus conquered me when he died on the cross and I allowed him to enter my life. To worship worship and make it a self satisfying experience is to say that I don’t accept the lordship of Jesus over my life. All I want is a good time that provides what I want to experience.

Whether you are a Pente or a Presbyterian or any flavour of Christian, unless you are worshiping the king of kings when you worship and that means surrendering to him and allowing him to control your life, you are not worshiping. Being rebellious during the week and singing songs on Sunday is not worship.

The failure of this self gratification, for that is what it is, it only lasts as long as you are…self gratified. It breeds no commitment other than to what makes you happy. This is evident by the fact that one of the largest Pentecostal churches in Australia loses 50% of its membership every five years.

You can only amuse yourself for so long and then you have to go somewhere else to reload. Despite it’s “vibrant’ meetings that draw large crowds, the bottom line is that they do the same thing every week, so the novelty wears off after a while.

There is only so much candy floss that you can eat.