Why Is Wrong Worship Growing?
Pride Before The Fall
Worshiping God incorrectly is something that can indeed take place and how we do it is what we addressed earlier this week. These ways are contrary to what we discovered about what true and proper worship of the Lord looks like. As seen from the beginning of this study, the proper way to worship the Lord is by showing honor, glory, and reverence to His name in a manner of spirit and truth. Therefore, we have seen that the wrong way to worship God is by not showing Him honor or glory, and not doing it in spirit and truth. We know that worshiping any other being than God Himself is something the Bible rejects entirely and is much easier to spot when it happens. The concern, however, is worshiping God in spirit and truth. Not only is this method one that is not giving honor and glory to our Lord, but it is a method that is continuing to grow. Relevant Magazine wrote an article on this topic and mentioned, “In addition to taking on the musical aesthetic of big-time rock bands, some worship music is also copying their themes, replacing real worship with a lightly spiritual spin on self-help mumbo jumbo and me-centric navel-gazing.” Not only is me-centric worship, not true worship, but it’s certainly not the worship of God. So why in the world is this taking place? 1 John 2:16 tells us why. “16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.” The reason for all of this wrongful growth is simply because we like it. We are a prideful people. Who wouldn’t want to sing songs that are centered around themselves and focus on their wants? This sounds great! Of course a fallen race that is boastful and full of pride would want worship to center around them, it’s in their nature. We can’t be surprised when selfishness is growing in the church when pride is at the very center of our worship. This is why we mentioned last week that part of worshiping the Lord involves the teaching and preaching we put ourselves under.
Worship Is A Privilege
It doesn’t matter how good the music is at your church. If you attend a service where the preaching of the Word of God isn’t a top priority or only specific parts of the Bible are taught and not all, then we cannot claim that we worship the Lord in truth. It’s bad enough that we already feel like we need to incorporate our own desires in worship, but when we sing false words to our Lord and call it worship, it is an absolute disgrace to His name. Pride is a sin that most churches are willing to call out and acknowledge as a huge downfall of the human race. The sad part is that those same churches are most likely the ones that have pride wrapped all around their worship and they don’t even know it. It’s time we bring worship back to a place of honoring and glorifying God and God alone. Desiring God has an article on this exact topic and hits the nail right on the head when discussing this ‘me-centered’ worship phase. This article states, “I tended to measure worship by crowd size, volume, or how many hands were raised. What escaped me is that our desires, planning, and actions aren’t the essence of worship. The essence has been taking place from time eternal, as the triune God has gloried and delighted in himself. In worship, God invites us to join him in what he is already doing.” This is such a powerful realization, the essence of worship is not what I have to offer God, it’s partaking in what God already gives Himself.
To better understand this, look at what John 17:5 says, “5 Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.” Jesus Himself tells us that the Trinity glorifies itself, even before the beginning of the world ever took place. It’s not as if when we worship, we give God glory that He can’t get anywhere else, it’s that we get to partake in what God is already doing and show that we agree that only He deserves all praise. This is what it truly looks like to give God all glory, honor, and reverence. This is also why it’s important to realize why wrong worship is so outrageous. Not only are we not giving honor to His name, but we fail to partake in what He is already doing in the heavens. To come before the Lord and partake in worship requires the utmost humility, not a false sense of pride. Possibly the best example of this comes right from our Lord to the prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah 9:23-24 says, “23 Thus says the Lord, “Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; 24 but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,” declares the Lord.” If we are prideful or boastful about anything, may it be about the Lord. If we are brought up in worship at all, may it be about how lost we were until our God saved us. Our pride and boasting should never be in ourselves, we have a whole book written by God Himself to show us why it shouldn’t be. Our sole joy and reason for hope is only because of the blessings we receive from God.
How Do We Stop This?
When we worship, I pray that we will do so with hearts of humility. Hearts that see how fallen and helpless we were until Christ made a way for us. This humble heart not only focuses on God but leaves no room for prideful worship. When all is said and done, God not only deserves all worship, but He delights in Himself even when we are too prideful to do so. We must humble ourselves enough to realize that even on our best day, God is the only one worthy of our worship. Unfortunately, as sad as it is, our fallen race and prideful nature lead us to naturally want to worship ourselves. And until this gets addressed by the church, it will always continue to be a problem. If this describes your church and you believe that this problem is growing in your congregation, I would encourage you to humble yourself and speak to your head pastor and elders about this situation. When we meet as a body, I pray that you don’t have to wonder whether or not God is pleased with your worship, but may you be fully confident that He is receiving all glory, honor, and reverence.
Sources
[1] “Access Your Bible from Anywhere.” BibleGateway.Com: A Searchable Online Bible in over 150 Versions and 50 Languages., www.biblegateway.com/. Accessed 2023.
[2] Staff, R. (2023, June 13). Enough with Me-Centered Worship Music - RELEVANT. RELEVANT. https://relevantmagazine.com/culture/music/enough-with-me-centered-worship-music/
[3]Kauflin, B. (2023b, October 6). Worship isn’t about you: What I learned after years of leading. Desiring God. https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/worship-isnt-about-you
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