Not everybody at worship engages in worship

       A Whip At Worship?                    

A little boy was taken to church for the first time in his young life. After a few half-hearted songs and a ho-hum prayer he looked up at his mom and asked, “What time does Jesus get here?” The Bible teaches Jesus is in the midst of His congregations (see Revelation 1:13-20; chapters 2 and 3). But simple observation makes clear a lot of different things go on at “worship” services that seem to have little to do with worshiping God at all.

From those who roam the halls to those who talk & text and whisper and snooze in the pews (no reference here to aged people or those on fatigue- inducing med’s or those who  may have worked a third shift job on Saturday night! etc.) – it is clear not everybody in the worship service came to engage in worship! Jesus teaches in Matthew 5:4, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled” – but some folks who show up at Bible study and worship services don't seem very hungry for God or His word. They look for ways and excuses to NOT be in a Bible class. Several years ago, Jay Lockhart described in a church bulletin article the shallow way some people treat the worship assemblies. He wrote, “There is a lot of lightness about worship which is seen in absenteeism, ‘hall-monitoring’ (and we might add ‘foyer-guarding’), lateness, talking, leaving early, catching a few winks, getting it over with, etc. – no sense of reverence and awe.” Meanwhile, Scripture describes God as “the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy” (Isaiah 57:15a). In God’s own words, He says, “I dwell in the high and holy place, With him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, And to revive the heart of the contrite one” (Isaiah 57:15b).

We must come before God with reverence and awe if we want worship to lift us up. Worship is not the same as “hanging out” with our girl-friends or a gang of good-ole-boys. Our attitude and demeanor in worship ought to be different than when we are at a ball game or a mere social gig.

An incident in Matthew 21:12-13 warns Jesus doesn’t like it when we come to a place of worship without a due sense of reverence and respect for God. Matthew writes, “Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. And He said to them, "It is written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer,' but you have made it a 'den of thieves.' " One thing this incident teaches is that just being in a place of worship is no guarantee genuine worship is taking place. Cecil May wrote, “No one worships by accident or by being in a particular place with particular things being done” (Gospel Advocate magazine article, “Worship”, 6/06, p 19).   

Ralph Gilmore once told students at a Freed-Hardeman University chapel service (related to me by my son who was there): “At Freed-Hardeman we can make you attend chapel services, but we cannot make you worship.” The apostle John tells that in a similar incident at the temple Jesus “made a whip of cords . . .  drove them all out of the temple” (John 2:13).  I wonder – is there anything at our place of worship and in our hearts Christ would want to overturn and take a whip to and drive out? I’m just asking. “Have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?”  - Galatians 4:16

-- by Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN