Last week in this space we discussed the fact that our worship needs to be done well. We are in the presence of the Almighty God of the universe—the one who holds our very breath in his hands (Daniel 5:23). He deserves the very best we have to offer. He deserves our honor, our submission and our prostration before His throne because we are sinners begging for His mercy. He is the God who has provided a way of salvation to us and deserves our unending gratefulness.

As we worship, our minds and hearts need to be on God, not on the time, the baby in front of us or what is taking place outside.

For example, as we sing we should all sing with our hearts in tune to God’s grace and with our voices in adoration to Him. We should not be concerned about how many songs are being led, or how many verses of the songs are being led. The song writer has written the verses to teach a lesson and, according to Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16, we are teaching and admonishing one another as we sing these songs. There are songs which, if we only sang one or two verses, would lose their meaning. One example is “None of Self and All of Thee” (pg. 359). If you skip one or two verses of this song, you will miss the meaning that it is intended to teach. “Camp songs” are songs which are sometimes the most Scriptural, as many of them are songs that are quoting directly from Scripture without any added interpretation or embellishment. One of the best ways in the world to learn Scripture is by singing the verse. Yet, we sometimes allow our worship to GOD to be sidetracked or come to an end because we don’t like to sing certain songs, or we sing too many, or we sing too many verses. Stop and think—are we trying to please God or man?

Look at our prayers. Can we pray too much? The early church prayed publicly and privately, and everything they did was bathed in prayer. Before the church was established on Pentecost, the disciples prayed for the ten days waiting for the coming of the Spirit. They prayed when they were told not to preach anymore (Acts 4) and when Peter was thrown in prison and about to be killed (Acts 12). Paul encouraged the Thessalonians to “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thes. 5:17). When in the presence of the Almighty God, can we pray too much? Perhaps some well meaning complaints about our prayers being “long and boring” once again reflects more on OUR heart, rather than what GOD thinks about the matter! Are we trying to please God, or man?

Consider our preaching. Some subjects cannot be covered in a twenty minute sermonette. There are subjects that need to be examined honestly by everyone, and all Scripture on these subjects need to be examined. Instrumental music in worship is again becoming a very important issue in the religious world. In The Christian Chronicle of August 2006, the headlines denote the “unity between some members of the church of Christ and the Christian church.” The issue that divided the church in 1906 is not even discussed—instrumental music (and the bigger, more important issue of Bible authority).

In another article in the same paper, Alan Highers pointed out that many of our young people have not heard one sermon on instrumental music and why the use of such is wrong. Can we really discuss this issue well in a twenty or twenty-five minute sermonette? Are we wrong to say that sermonettes create Christianettes?

Time constraints that we arbitrarily place on worship services make it impossible to do a good job in this and other areas. Again, we ask—who is worship for? For us or for God? Is God watching as we look at our watches, ready to make a bolt for the door when the last Amen is said? Does HE approve?
Let’s stop for a moment and be honest about our relationship to God in our worship!