Christ Leads The Way

“God is a Spirit and those that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”

Hey my friends who are left out there! Thank you for your kindnesses. I appreciate them, and I appreciate you!

Have you ever had someone spit in your face? I hope that you haven’t, it’s not a good feeling. But if not, imagine that you had. Can you feel the indignation begin to rise? The anger? Probably so. It doesn’t make you evil. It makes you human. Most of us let those angry feelings subside. It’s a very disrespectful thing for someone to do. And no one likes to be disrespected – especially someone who people think that they can walk all over and treat like less than human. That’s what the Jews did to Jesus; they spit in His face. And that’s what we do to God when we don’t do what He says. We are essentially spitting in the face of God, telling Him that we’re going to do things the way that we want instead if His way.

We know that when we do what God says in His Word, the Bible, we are respecting Him. We must also respect God’s silence. While He speaks to us today, we must know the means by which He speaks so that we can listen and do what He says. God speaks to us today through His Son, and we must respect what He says about how to worship Him.

If we make adjustments to or change God’s Word and worship Him how we choose to worship – according to man’s teachings, then we are not showing Him respect. In fact, the Lord says that makes our worship vain (Matt. 15:9).

“And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.” – Matthew 15:9

Remember Cain and Abel? Abel offered a more acceptable sacrifice to God than Cain did (Ge. 4:4-5). Cain became angry that God did not accept his sacrifice and he killed his brother. And we recall Nadab and Abihu. Neither of them respected what God said about worship, and they died because of it (Lev. 10:1-2). God is not playing around when it comes to how he wants to be worshiped.

God’s requirements of acceptable worship are that we must have the proper object of our worship as God; we must have the proper attitude and worship Him in spirit, and; we must have the proper standard or guide of our worship – meaning, it must be in truth.

The Bible says, “God is a Spirit and those that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). Where we find truth is God’s Word. Recall John 17:17. Jesus prayed to the Father: “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.”

So we follow His Word as our guide for how we are to worship. His Word says our worship must include Bible study. We have an example of what the early church did from the book of Acts. “And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers” (Acts 2:42). They kept in the teachings of the apostles. Remember that we have the teachings of the apostles in the New Testament.

God’s Word also says that our worship must include prayer. we are to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17). And we know the early Christians continued steadfastly in prayer (Acts 2:42).

The Word of God tells us that our worship must also include giving. In 2 Corinthians 9:6, the apostle Paul admonishes the church to give liberally, not grudgingly or out of necessity, because God loves a cheerful giver. If we want to respect what God says, we must give of our resources in order to worship Him.

Our worship to God must also include breaking of bread (Acts 20:7; 2:42) and singing (Eph. 5:19). Every instance of making music in the New Testament consists only of singing (no mechanical instruments involved). See Matt. 26:30, Mark 14:26, Acts 16:25, Romans 15:9, 1 Cor. 14:15, Eph. 5:19, Col. 3:16, Heb. 2:12, and James 5:13.

If our worship is to be proper when we offer it before the Lord, it must include Bible study, prayer, breaking of bread (the Lord’s Supper), giving, and singing. If it includes more than that, God will not respect it, because adding to what He says is a show of disrespect toward Him and His Word. Anything less than what is proper in worship is also a show of disrespect of God and His Word. We must not add, take away, or substitute anything that the Lord has said we must do.

Let’s not spit in the face of God.

He is speaking today, telling us how He wants to be worshiped. Will you listen?

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