Posts Tagged ‘what is worship’
Sermon on Worship
Posted in Worship in Cirisis, Worship, Praise and Music, tagged true worship, what is worship, worshiptainment on September 17, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Worship Replacement Theology
Posted in Church in Crisis, Worship in Cirisis, Worship, Praise and Music, tagged is music worship, what is true worship, what is worship on January 9, 2024| 2 Comments »
When someone says the word worship or you read the word, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? This has been my concern for many years, that true Biblical worship has been replaced by music and songs. There are very few teachers pointing it out! It is not that leaders are intentionally teaching this false doctrine. Rather it is an unintended consequence of having so much focus on what we now call “worship”, i.e. the music, the song service, and the “worship” team.
I call it worship replacement. To our own hurt, we are not being taught what real Biblical worship is. The Word of God is being diminished. There are about 100 places in the New Testament where the word worship appears. And none of those places have any mention of songs or music. They have deeper and more serious meanings for us to comprehend. There are only 4 or 5 times in the New Testament where songs or singing are mentioned, and worship is not really associated with those times. Those times were related to praising God. There really is no mention in the NT about having such a huge focus on the way we worship today. Historically, it is really a modern concept.
In the Old Testament, the first place worship is mentioned is when Abraham was going to offer up Isaac. Think about the seriousness of that! How serious the obedience, how serious the commitment, how serious the humility! We can not replace this knowledge of worship with the song service!
There is a distinction between praise and worship that has been lost in many circles. Many will not go to a church unless they have a good “worship team”. The modern music scene has created new celebrities pumping out new “worship” songs. It is now its own genre. Many of the record companies putting out this new music are secular. Think of it, “worship” music has been monetized.
We should still have a “praise team” and sing songs to praise God and to encourage one another. Eph 5:19 “Speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your hearts to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ”.
We are to give praise, and we should make that distinction. Let us not lose the true meaning of worship. It is easy to sing a song, too easy. It is much harder to be a person who worships God, and understands the difference.
The Great God Entertainment
Posted in Church in Crisis, Worship in Cirisis, Worship, Praise and Music, tagged entertainment in the church, what is worship, worshiptainment on September 16, 2023| Leave a Comment »
by A W Tozer
A German philosopher many years ago said something to the effect that the more a man has in his own heart the less he will require from the outside; excessive need for support from without is proof of the bankruptcy of the inner man.
If this is true (and I believe it is), then the present inordinate attachment to every form of entertainment is evidence that the inner life of modern man is in serious decline. The average man has no central core of moral assurance, no spring within his own breast, no inner strength to place him above the need for repeated psychological shots to give him the courage to go on living. He has become a parasite on the world, drawing his life from his environment, unable to live a day apart from the stimulation which society affords him.
Schleiermacher held that the feeling of dependence lies at the root of all religious worship, and that however high the spiritual life might rise, it must always begin with a deep sense of a great need which only God could satisfy. If this sense of need and a feeling of dependence are at the root of natural religion it is not hard to see why the great god Entertainment is so ardently worshiped by so many. For there are millions who cannot live without amusement; life without some form of entertainment for them is simply intolerable; they look forward to the blessed relief afforded by professional entertainers and other forms of psychological narcotics as a dope addict looks to his daily shot of heroin. Without them they could not summon the courage to face existence.
No one with common human feeling will object to the simple pleasures of life, nor to such harmless forms of entertainment as may help to relax the nerves and refresh the mind exhausted by toil. Such things, if used with discretion, may be a blessing along the way. That is one thing. The all-out devotion to entertainment as a major activity for which and by which men live is definitely something else again.
The abuse of a harmless thing is the essence of sin. The growth of the amusement phase of human life to such fantastic proportions is a portent, a threat to the souls of modern man. It has been built into a multimillion-dollar racket with greater power over human minds and human character than any other educational influence on earth. And the ominous thing is that its power is almost exclusively evil, rotting the inner life, crowding out the long eternal thoughts which would fill the souls of men if they were but worthy to entertain them. And the whole thing has grown into a veritable religion which holds its devotees with a strange fascination, and a religion, incidentally, against which it is now dangerous to speak.
For centuries the Church stood solidly against every form of worldly entertainment, recognizing it for what it was—a device for wasting time, a refuge from the disturbing voice of conscience, a scheme to divert attention from moral accountability. For this she got herself abused roundly by the sons of this world. But of late she has become tired of the abuse and has gotten over the struggle. She appears to have decided that if she cannot conquer the great god Entertainment she may as well join forces with him and make what use she can of his powers. So today we have the astonishing spectacle of millions of dollars being poured into the unholy job of providing earthly entertainment for the so-called sons of heaven. Religious entertainment is in many places rapidly crowding out the serious things of God. Many churches these days have become little more than poor theaters where fifth-rate “producers” peddle their shoddy wares with the full approval of evangelical leaders who can even quote a holy text in defense of their delinquency. And hardly a man dares raise his voice against it.
The great god Entertainment amuses his devotees mainly by telling them stories. The love of stories, which is a characteristic of childhood, has taken fast hold of the minds of the retarded saints of our day, so much so that not a few persons manage to make a comfortable living by spinning yarns and serving them up in various disguises to church people. What is natural and beautiful in a child may be shocking when it persists into adulthood, and more so when it appears in the sanctuary and seeks to pass for true religion.
Is it not a strange thing and a wonder that, with the shadow of atomic destruction hanging over the world and with the coming of Christ drawing near, the professed followers of the Lord should be giving themselves up to religious amusements? That in an hour when mature saints are so desperately needed vast numbers of believers should revert to spiritual childhood and clamor for religious toys?
“Remember, O LORD, what is come upon us: consider, and behold our reproach…. The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned! For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes are dim” (Lamentations 5:1, 16-17). Amen. Amen.—
A W Tozer, excerpt from The Root of the Righteous
What Is Worship?
Posted in Church in Crisis, Worship in Cirisis, Worship, Praise and Music, tagged praise, what is worship, Worship, Worship or Entertainment on October 4, 2021| 2 Comments »
Today, when people say worship, they usually mean music and songs. But if you read the first Biblical account of the worship, it is in Genesis 22:5, “Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey, and I and the boy will go over there; and we will worship and return to you.” The story is quite frightening, and there was no music or songs associated with the event. There is a thing called the Law of First Mention. The “law of first-mention” is the principle in the interpretation of Scripture which states that the first mention or occurrence of a subject in Scripture establishes an unchangeable pattern, with that subject remaining unchanged in the mind of God throughout Scripture.
In Abraham’s case, obedience and sacrifice, and love of God were the main elements of his worship. May we never lose that true meaning. I have friends who are missionaries in China, in the underground church where they can’t worship the way we worship, with loud music and singing. Because if they were heard, they would be exposed and possibly go to jail. Their worship is true worship, in spirit and in truth, not dependent on music. We are blessed in America because we don’t have those limitations. We can use music as a form of praise and worship, but it must never replace true worship, worship that is in spirit and in truth.
Hebrews 12:28 -29-“Therefore, since we are receiving an unshakable kingdom, let us be filled with gratitude, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe. For our God is a consuming fire.”
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