Identifying ungodly worship
Godly vs. ungodly worship
[I’m still trying to get caught up. Expect two devotionals per week until I get caught up]
When Christians address ungodly (or false) worship, they usually focus on the superficial aspects of worship and ignore the issues presented in the Bible. The music is too loud, too fast, too slow or too repetitive. I can play those games, too, but I’d rather think about what God finds offensive rather than worry about myself. Because the Bible doesn’t talk about music styles, instrumentation, volume, arrangement, etc. The Bible exposes the intentions of the heart as it reveals God’s desires for worship.
Despite the hidden motivations of many so-called worshipers, I believe that ungodly worship is fairly easy to spot. Like any other type of deception, we should look for the result rather than the appearance (Matthew 7:15-20). Jesus warns that false prophets will wear sheep’s clothing (appearing innocent) but produce bad fruit. It’s the fruit that reveals their motivations, not their works or words.
Christians should be able to avoid ungodly worship if we look for the right things which I describe throughout this unit. It’s not my intention to build a dummies guide for detecting ungodly worship. I simply hope to outline the main points.
Opposes God
It should be no surprise that God opposes ungodly worship because it opposes Him. It seeks its own goals and denies His desires. Not that God has a worship favorite style or technique. False worship opposes His plan(s), His kingdom and His ways. It promotes God’s enemies who combat the cross of Jesus. It exults the worshiper over God.
One would assume that a non-Christian gathering could never qualify as godly worship. One expects it.
Let’s focus closer to home. Christians become paranoid wondering whether their church (or the one down the street) fails to measure up. Let’s avoid shooting our own people hoping to hit an enemy. I think that this entire line of thinking takes the wrong approach to the problem.
Why? Because God never appears to evaluate or grade worship. He focuses on attitudes, motivations and goals rather than on aesthetics which can be altered with a few tweaks of style or implementation technique. The writer of Hebrews doesn’t include the seven best ways to improve your church’s worship in his epistle. Don’t fall for the self-help worship gurus.
Many of the problems with worship come from the unseen intentions of the heart. Even wicked people will use worship of God to fulfill their desires. They specialize in self-made religion that emphasizes demeaning people instead of elevating God.
They always find ways to lead such gatherings so that the rules don’t apply to them – just to the masses who blindly believe that God enjoys seeing His people, His bride, who are saved by the blood of Jesus groveling at sins already paid by His sacrifice.
Make one foolish
Most of the problems we have with ungodly worship in Christian churches comes from the foolishness that it fosters. As we saw in a previous devotional, idolatry makes a person foolish. So, all ungodly worship makes one foolish. And never forget that God takes no pleasure in fools. They are evil, lazy and self-centered. They aren’t funny.
Ungodly worship changes us in other ways. We become as dull and lifeless as the idols we worship. We become hypocritical and duplicitous. One can even despise the wisdom others gain from godly worship.
When one fails to worship God (or worships something in conjunction with Him), one takes on another kind of foolishness. God deserves worship because of His power, but not just because of His power. Christians have no business worshiping powerful beings, successful celebrities or famous churches. God alone is worthy of our praise. We look like fools when we add anything else to worshiping the sovereign king of His creation.
Misses God’s pleasure
Ungodly worship displeases God as much as any sin we do in our body, mind or speech. Don’t expect to experience God’s blessings when practicing ungodly worship. Those who serve ungodly worship as their religion can expect God’s wrath – suffering, death and eternal punishment.
He takes worship seriously so let’s learn what He considers false worship in these devotionals about ungodly worship:
Ignores exclusivity
Worships greatness
Invites evaluation
Withholds God’s glory
Invents self-made religion
Suppresses wisdom
Makes one duplicitous
Misplaced worship
Opposes the cross
Intends evil
Occurs among God’s people
Occurs among unbelievers
Incurs God’s wrath
I don’t think that there is any mystery about godly worship. It all boils down to pride – either that of the worshiper or the one leading worship. Remain humble when one walks with our God (Micah 6:8) in worship.