WORSHIP CHANGES US
Our world is in trouble. Are we surprised? This is the sad part; we are not surprised. We do not blush at the atrocities happening before our eyes. We sound shocked, but we are not. The peril has woven itself into every fiber of society: educational, social, spiritual, technological, and even medical.
Our young people are lost, and the old people don’t seem to care. There is a new breed of orphans today. Children are not growing up without a parent; they are growing up with parents with no heart for their children. Of course, these parents would say they love their kids; they would even be able to point to examples of love and sacrifice; however, there is no heart to bring their children up in the fear of the Lord, no courage to discipline their children to be emotionally strong, and no endurance to be consistent in their walk with the Lord.
It is difficult today to find evidence of faith in many Christian homes. Well did Proverbs say that the foolish woman tears down her house. This neglect is well mentioned in the scriptures as a great offense to God. It is a great responsibility to have children and bring them up in such a way that they contribute to God’s Kingdom. Children are being taught and influenced by social media, not god-fearing parents who are protecting them from the wrath of God. The common plague of “lostness” is of global proportions.
Is there any solution, any hope? Will help come to us? If so, how? From where? To recover this imploding culture, we must understand how we got here. To change the problem, we must realize the cause. Was it hard to end up here? Will it be hard to reverse the corruption? I do not claim to be a social reconstructionist. I am not clever. I am a believer. History has observed the miraculous intervention of God in societies gone dark. In a moment, God’s Spirit broke upon cultures, institutions, and nations, bringing a remarkable transformation that history called “Awakening.”
WHAT ARE WE WORSHIPPING
I am fully convinced that “Christians” have lost their worship. The average believer would not be able to define true worship. Rarely will you observe Christian gatherings resembling the worship in heaven. Israel was more moved and passionate in her worship of God than most churches are today. Christians are unaware of God. They find it impossible to spend quality time with God, much less being quiet and hearing Him speak.
Believers need to be taught of the Spirit again. We have spent too much time listening to YouTube preachers rather than our shepherds. We have spent too much time listening to worship music rather than worshipping. We read too many books and need to return to the Book. We love to talk to people about God, but where are the men talking to God? Our altars are barren because most people are completely unaware of God and His Magnificence! The reason churches don’t have altar services is because no one is aware of God. Let true worship occur, let God’s glory manifest in the meeting, and you will see grown men falling before the glory of God.
It is not a lack of worship today. Worship is more popular than ever. The problem is the inappropriate worship of God. When man refuses to worship the God Who Is, the only result is for man to create a god in his own image and likeness. From here, the disastrous plague of destruction is underway. Exalting God to His lofty place in our hearts is the means of recovering the culture.
I’ll say it again and again until someone hears me: sadly, multitudes of Christians will live their whole life on earth without once having had a life-changing moment of worship in the presence of God. Few have sat beneath His creation to consider the power of the Godhead or contemplated the significance of man that would bring God from His holy celestial throne to redeem and rescue such ungrateful creatures. Our lack of regard for the God who made us has come at a steep price, and today, we are witnessing it in real-time – the absolute collapse of our society. If a man does not worship God, he is broken; his world is broken!
HUMANS ARE BEING DECEIVED
Bear with me for a moment while I develop a thought. The tragedy of humans is the sport of devils. Jesus came to put an end to their abuse. Jesus’ battle is not with humans but with devils, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers. Jesus is determined to destroy the abuse and lies the devils have inflicted upon those He loves.
Look at this KINGDOM OF DARKNESS – this world of chaos and tragedy, this howling wilderness of demons and devils, of sin and rebellion, bondage, addictions, and cruel masters. However, many willingly subject themselves to this system of destruction; they live as slaves to pain and slaves to abuse. They throw themselves back into the arena for more abuse from the darkness of demons. For a small moment of pleasure, they gladly worship the devil’s lies and spend their lives in more devastation, more horror.
Therefore, I must make a correction: man does know how to worship. He devotes his life to these dark vanities to pursue a moment of gratifying pleasure. He subjects himself to the same insane behavior, hoping something will change, rather than subjecting himself to God. Yes, man is a worshipper; he knows how to worship, which comes naturally to him. He simply does not want to worship God.
All men worship what they put their faith in. You can observe a man’s faith. Men can claim to believe anything; however, faith is so much more than a claim; it is a demonstration. Recently, I asked our students after Thanksgiving, “How many of you intentionally took your mother in your arms, hugged her, and told her, ‘Thank you for preparing such a delicious meal for our family. Thank you for making everything so beautiful.’” Not one student admitted to doing that. However, when I asked them, “How many of you believe you should have done that?” Everyone responded that they believed it should have been done.
You see, there is a difference between belief and faith. Both are important. Many confess to believing in Jesus, but the evidence of their faith in Jesus is miniscule at best. If someone was observing your life, would there be enough evidence to convince them that you love Jesus? The evidence of your faith is not that you go to church; many unbelievers go to church. The evidence of your faith is not that you are a Christian; many religious people are Christians. The evidence of your faith is not that you live a moral life; many people in other religions live moral lives. What is the evidence of your faith in Jesus?
If a man saw a trace of gold in the mountain stream, he would believe there was gold in the mountain. Now, his faith would go to work. Having evidence of the gold, he would then begin to make sacrifices to claim the riches that are in the mountain. He has not seen these riches, but faith tells him the gold is there. He sells all he has. He purchases equipment, deeds, and permits to mine the mountain for the gold he believes is there.
Look what faith did to Noah; by faith, Noah, being warned by God of things not seen yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to save his house, by which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness by faith. Do you think there was evidence of faith in his belief in God? Absolutely, it was a boat big enough to carry the world’s animals.
If you have faith in God, there will be evidence of that faith in your worship. You will make sacrifices, selling all you have to possess the treasure you believe is in Jesus. This is worship. This will turn absentee fathers back to their children and recover a generation spoiled by demons. These worshippers will not let the church become a museum; they will keep it a place of fire and miracles, demonstrating passion and pursuit for the God they believe is there.
I believe it was A.W. Tozer who said that in the olden days, men of faith were said to “walk in the fear of God” and to “serve the Lord with fear.” However intimate their communion with God, however bold their prayers, at the base of their religious life was the conception of God as excellent and dreadful. This idea of God’s transcendence runs through the whole Bible and gives color and tone to the character of the saints. This fear of God was more than a natural apprehension of danger; it was a nonrational dread, an acute feeling of personal insufficiency in the presence of God the Almighty.
Wherever God appeared to men in Bible times, the results were the same – an overwhelming sense of terror and dismay, a wrenching sensation of sinfulness and guilt. When God spoke, Abram stretched himself upon the ground to listen. When Moses saw the Lord in the burning bush, he hid his face in fear to look upon God. Isaiah’s vision of God wrung from him the cry, “Woe is me!” and the confession, “I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips.”
When we come into this sweet relationship, we are beginning to learn astonished reverence, breathless adoration, awesome fascination, lofty admiration of the attributes of God, and something of the breathless silence that we know when God is near.
WORSHIP CHANGES US
You cannot worship God and then go back to life as usual. It is a mystery to me how anyone can claim to be a Christian, indwelt by the Spirit of God, and yet be satisfied with a low-level existence.
Christian people like the idea of God. They like the idea of heaven. But the moment this God begins to make demands or threatens to turn their world upside-down, they become highly unnerved by the audacity of God to be so demanding.
The attitude that is attributed to our society’s social rot comes from the home of parents who are not protecting their children from the wrath of God. They are offended by a God who requires something of them. They were sold a bill of goods from modern evangelism that all you must do is repeat a prayer, and your life will be grand. So, these Christian parents today don’t understand God or His worship. Instead, they would suggest to God, “Just let me say a sinner’s prayer and then take me to heaven when I die; is that not enough for you, Jesus?” They are not about to take their cues from an ancient book; instead, they suggest that social engineers will tell us how to raise our children; we don’t need some archaic advice from the Bible! And so, the
social construct decays into the darkness of Satan’s plan. And the people cry from the darkness, “God, if you are love, how can you be so cruel and unloving? Don’t you see us suffering over here?” When will it change? When we begin to see God by the Spirit, believe God by the Word, and follow God by His grace! If we do not worship God as He prescribes, we will worship something so sinister and dark that we will be afraid to go out in the daylight. If we worship God in His Spirit and by our spirit, worship Him in Truth, we will no longer be afraid of the dark, for we shall be awake, and God will give us light. According to Paul, in Ephesians 5, this light will reprove the unfruitful works of darkness. How long will it take before “Christians” wake up and rescue a society suffering in the dark?