in the coming week or two, i hope to address a hot topic among churches today…worship. many have said that this is the most misused term there is in the church today, maybe so. in the past couple years, i have recorded a few definitions of worship that i have heard from pastors, speakers, or authors. my goal is to take a look at some of them, as well as what scripture has to say.
but the first thing i would present to you is that worship has to be “authentic”… this week while we were sitting in the hospital i was watching some news program. they were covering a story on the company Zippo. evidently there is another company in china which was producing and selling lighters under the same name, but they weren’t “authentic”.
this was causing a huge uproar because people from the Zippo company were being laid off, due to lack of production. the company was being ripped off of all that they were due. not only that, consumers were purchasing lighters of a lesser quality than what they were wanting. on the outside this product looked authentic, but is wasn’t.
how many times through history have we seen this when it comes to religion. time after time it is found that people may have had some form of religion, but it wasn’t an authentic relationship with Jesus Christ. we see this in Matt. 15:1-20. the pharisees were worried about a tradition of washing their hands before they ate…not exactly a bad thing! but they were more worried about that, than carrying out what God had commanded…that’s a bad thing. their religion looked authentic on the outside but Jesus said, “You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote, ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship is a farce, for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.’” (vs. 7-9, NLT) Jesus goes on to deal with inner purity and what the real problem was.
my focus in this passage is on how the pharisees appeared authentic on the outside, but weren’t. they were very religious people and followed a lot of rules to the “t”. but they weren’t authentic and this meant “their worship is a farce,” OUCH!! our worship is directly related here to our life. if we aren’t authentic our worship can’t be authentic. so just like Zippo, God is getting ripped off on what He is due. not only that, we are settling for some form of religion instead of an authentic relationship with Jesus our Savior. and all the while those looking on the outside, may never even know.
my challenge, are we authentic? is our worship authentic???
