Avoiding Meaningless Worship!

As we continue moving through the book of Ecclesiastes on Wednesday evenings, I am constantly amazed at the wisdom contained on the pages of that book. Not just wisdom but relevant wisdom. For example, this past Wednesday night we engaged the subject of worship. Worship is hard for us to define because it means different things to different people. To some it’s the singing that makes it worship and to others it is the emotional outbursts that make it worship. But if worship happens, and it rarely does, it must be on God’s terms and not ours. And the writer of Ecclesiastes deals with the idea of avoiding worthless worship in chapter five.

He begins by teaching that worship begins long before the worship service starts. He says we need to guard our steps on the way to the house of the Lord. Before we arrive at the house of the Lord we need to have prepared our hearts to worship. Most of us show up at church and we have not spent one minute of preparatory time to see that worship happens. We must begin worship before we get the event itself. Also, worship needs to a priority in our lives. Solomon, who I think wrote Ecclesiastes, said WHEN we go to the house of the Lord. So, all of life should be moving toward these opportunities of corporate worship. Nothing else gains the priority in my life over me worshipping the Lord. Nothing!

He continues his thoughts on worship by reminding us that worship behaves in a certain way. He says be more ready to listen than to offer. Worship is primarily an act of receiving or hearing. Most times we are attentive without attention. Sometimes that is the service’s fault. We sing about ourselves and then the preacher preaches on “Six Ways to Deal with Stress.” When everything focuses on us, worship is not going to happen. There must be talk about Christ. There must be songs that tell of his work, his attributes, his grace, his mercy, his compassion, his blood, his sacrifice, his glory, and so on. We must hear of Him if we are going to be able to worship. Plus, worship needs a response. We must do something with what we hear about him instead of ignoring it and just going on. There must be some commitment on our part toward what we hear about him. The Word requires a response on the part of the hearer.

Finally, he deals with the burden of worship. In other words, if worship has taken place then there is something for us to carry outside of the worship experience itself. Firstly, I must be faithful to the commitment I make to God in worship. Whatever response I make to God’s Word must be carried out in the world in which we live. We must be doers of the word and not hearers only. Secondly, now having worshiped God I must live in the fear of God. I must live in the sphere of being in awe of this magnificent God in which I have just worshipped. It is impossible not to be changed by a real and genuine worship experience. May we desire to experience real worship and not meaningless worship.