{"id":3183,"date":"2018-05-13T16:08:08","date_gmt":"2018-05-13T16:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/?p=3183"},"modified":"2020-08-13T21:03:38","modified_gmt":"2020-08-13T21:03:38","slug":"worship-a-serious-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/?p=3183","title":{"rendered":"Worship\u2014A Serious Matter"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Views: 6<\/p><p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;\">[<strong>Note: <\/strong>This MS is available in larger font on our <strong>New Uploads<\/strong> page.]<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;\">The worship of Almighty God is both an exalted privilege and an awesome duty. Failing this realization has cost many much (e.g., Cain, Nadab, Abihu, King Saul, et al.). Jesus rejected the worship of the religious leaders of His day: \u201cBut in vain do they worship me, Teaching as their doctrines the precepts of men\u201d (Mat. 15:9). He also stated the two great cornerstones of God-pleasing worship: \u201cGod is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship in spirit and truth\u201d\u00a0(John 4:24). Acceptable worship requires an understanding of its purposes.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;\"><strong>To please God, not ourselves:<\/strong> To worship \u201cin truth\u201d (as noted above) means to worship according to the Truth of God\u2019s Word (John 17:17) or as God directs. Cain and all of the others named earlier, including the first-century Jewish leaders, did what pleased them rather than God. Men continue to be remarkable innovators in religion (e.g., prayer beads, instrumental music, choirs, corruption of the Lord\u2019s supper, etc.). The excuse for all of them is, \u201cWe like it,\u201d failing to consider whether or not God \u201clikes it\u201d\u2014is pleased.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;\"><strong>To express, not arouse spirituality: <\/strong><em>Worship <\/em>connotes bowing down, doing obeisance, venerating, paying homage. These all indicate an outward expression of an attitude of reverence and love for and submission to God and His Son by submission to their revealed will in the New Testament. Confused men demand that worship excite or entertain. If it doesn\u2019t leave them on an emotional \u201chigh\u201d each week, they are disappointed. Such a view is carnally motivated. Earnest Scriptural worship will stimulate one spiritually, but this is a wonderful by-product, rather than the purpose of worship.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;\"><strong>God is the \u201caudience\u201d: <\/strong>Only in a limited sense are those in the pews the \u201caudience.\u201d God is the only \u201caudience\u201d that matters when we gather for worship. Failing to perceive this fact leads to the spectator\/performer concept. The preacher, prayer leader, and others become \u201cperformers,\u201d and those in the pews, \u201cspectators\u201d (with all of the \u201crights\u201d to criticize belonging thereto). <strong>All<\/strong> who are gathered for worship are the \u201cperformers\u201d; <strong>God<\/strong> is the audience.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;\"><strong>We are primarily to give, rather than to receive.<\/strong> In worship we are to \u201coffer a sacrifice of praise\u201d (Heb. 13:15; cf. 1 Pet. 2:5). When one complains, \u201cI don\u2019t get anything out of worship,\u201d he misses the point. He has not learned that true worship is God-centered, not man-centered, in which we seek to give rather than get. However, all who sincerely worship as God has decreed are blessed greatly thereby.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;\">[<strong>Note:<\/strong> I wrote this article for and it appeared in the <em>Denton Record-Chronicle, <\/em>Denton, TX, August 15, 2014.]<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;\"><strong>Attribution: <\/strong>From <em>TheScripturecache.com<\/em>, owned and administered by Dub McClish.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Views: 6[Note: This MS is available in larger font on our New Uploads page.] The worship of Almighty God is both an exalted privilege and an awesome duty. Failing this realization has cost many much (e.g., Cain, Nadab, Abihu, King Saul, et al.). Jesus rejected&#8230;<\/p>\n<div class=\"easywp-readmore\"><a class=\"read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/?p=3183\">Continue Reading&#8230;<span class=\"easywp-sr-only\">  Worship\u2014A Serious Matter<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,34,92,75,170,149,169,144,112],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-worship","category-emotions","category-humanism","category-instrumental-music-in-worship","category-irreverence","category-lords-supper","category-reverence","category-selfishness","category-truth","wpcat-43-id","wpcat-34-id","wpcat-92-id","wpcat-75-id","wpcat-170-id","wpcat-149-id","wpcat-169-id","wpcat-144-id","wpcat-112-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3183"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8438,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3183\/revisions\/8438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}