Do you really worship when you go to church? Is entering the sanctuary talking with your friends and greeting one another worship? Is making sure your coffee is warm and you are in the right seat Worship? Is the first thing you think of when you enter church – that God is here then to pray to Him? Do your kids see us entering to prepare to Worship God? Does it look any different than when we enter some social event where we might also have a prayer for the meal and even sing a song or two and someone share from the Bible some truth?
Do we really worship? Do we even know how to? Does our physical space for worship help us want to come into God’s presence in a special way?
Now I know that there are those who will quote to me Jesus’s words to the woman at the well: “worship in spirit and truth” and we relate that to some mindset or spiritual state we need to enter in our minds. But I think the Psalmists were talking about more than some mindset – for them I believe it was a physical place also they longed for – to be in the Temple of God in Jerusalem – it was a Holy, sanctified place set aside to represent God’s presence with man – sure if we follow Him and know Him, He is now in us – we are “the temple of God” – the Spirit of God dwells in us!
How are we worshipping – yes let us enjoy one another – but let us not forget the MAIN PURPOSE FOR US GATHERING, isn’t it to meet GOD – to WORSHIP HIM? – and we must do all we can to help others do that and “pass on the knowledge of the Holy to the next generation” by being an example in all this to our children and those who are “weaker” as Paul would say.
Is one of the problems of the “church” today that – especially the evangelical church – that the church is plain – the Psalmist longed to be in the Temple of God – not just in a Spiritual sense but also in a physical sense – they loved the Temple of God and wanted to be there. Today where is our focus – God put us in this world with real flesh, real feelings, real desires, eyes that can see God everywhere in nature – but do we see God in the physical church – the place we call our place of worship – our place where we come together to worship – is there anything physical that aids us – to bring us into the presence of God? Or are there distractions that draw our focus away. Growing up in a liturgical orthodox church – when we went to church we gathered and spoke with our friends in the “narthex” the lobby – visited and laughed – had our coffee – but on entering the sanctuary – the auditorium – it was a holy place – it felt like it – it was quiet, all but the organ playing – the stained glass windows depicting Biblical history – there was an altar – and a cross – a place for us to focus. You felt you need to sit or kneel and pray – to at least be silent and focus on God. What does the typical church have today to help us focus on God – we need that for in the world we have so many distractions – we need to learn to focus – we need to seek a place where we can focus on God with the rest of the body of Christ.
Understand that I am not saying that we need to add statues, stained glass and more – but we need to look around our “sanctuary” and first remove the distractions – then think and pray about what can we do to make this place as God focused as possible. Then think about how we do church – most of the time it is no different that some conference.
One side note and question is – maybe we don’t come to really worship – maybe we come to teach the Word of God and Worship is secondary (of course we would never say that)? Is this something that the New Testament brought forth – we no longer need to really Worship because that is a private spiritual act and not corporate – we need to be teaching the Word that is the most important now? If this is the way your church is, then maybe we just need to add a time on a regular interval where the church comes together to Worship – where the focus is not on prayer (prayer is good and important) – the focus is not on preaching – but the focus is on GOD – Christ Alone! We read Scripture, sing hymns, and spiritual songs, pray to honor and glorify God – but the total focus on God – who He is – “high and lifted up” see Him as Isaiah did.
We enter talking and laughing – our coffee in hand – then all of a sudden someone stands and greets us gives some announcements and a short prayer and we sing a few hymns (some great, pointing to God, some pointing to our “feelings” about God and each other) – then someone reads scripture – and for the next 30 to 40 minutes the preacher preaches about the Word of God. Good words that we need to hear and learn from – it calls some to Christ – which is good – but the first commandment is not even about evangelism but of our loving “God with all our mind, soul, and strength…” the real focus is on knowing Him – the sermon helps but we need to be taught to practice being in God’s presence in our so-called times of Worship – when we gather to Worship.