10250 North Freeway @ West Road
Houston, Texas 77037
Tel: (281) 447-8484

What We Believe and Why
Written by Dr. Lester Hutson

Copyright - Lester Hutson - 1986
This material is copyrighted and may not be copied or reproduced without the express written permission of Dr. Lester Hutson.

CHAPTER THIRTY NINE

WORSHIPPING IN THE CHURCH
MATTHEW 18:15-20

We believe that saved men should worship God. It is primarily to be done weekly when the church comes together. We believe God has a prescribed way to worship Him and that other activities are not true worship.

I. God has prescribed that his people regularly worship Him:

A. Listen to God's word which exhorts us to worship God:

1. II Kings 17:36 says, "The Lord . . . shall ye fear, and him shall ye worship. . . "

2. Moses is commanded in Ex. 24:1, "worship ye."

3. Ps. 29:1-2 says "Give unto the Lord, O ye mighty, give unto the Lord glory and strength. Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness."

4. David said in Ps. 95:6, "O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker". Vs. 7. "For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. "

5. You find Paul worshipping in Acts 24:11, and John in Rev. 19:10.

6. The importance of worshipping God is stressed over and over in the scriptures.

B. It is possible for a man to offer up praise and worship to God even when not assembled with a church:

1. Mt. 2:11 The wise men did it in a house.

2. Mk. 5:6 This man worshipped at a graveyard.

3. Before there ever was a church, many men already worshipped God. Gen. 24:26, Ex. 4:31, Judges 7:15, Job 1:20.

4. Zeph. 2:11 speaks of a day when men shall "worship Him, every one from his own place. "

5. Prayer is worship and the primary place of prayer is in "thy closet," Mt. 6:5-6.

C. But, let us hasten to strongly emphasize that God's number one place of formal worship is in His church:

1. That's where God has promised to meet with His people, (Mt. 18:15-20).

2. The church is plainly the place where God said he desired the glory, Eph. 3:21.

3. God has long had an appointed place for men to worship, (I Sam. 1:3, 11 Kings 18:22, Acts 8:27, Acts 24:11) and such scriptures as Eph. 3:21 and Mt. 18:15-20 clearly show it is the church today.

4. A person may worship Him with a family prayer, on the lakeside, at a singing convention; and that's fine; but it should never be at the same time as formal worship in God's house and should never be considered a substitute for it: these are not the church.

D. Men are to worship God upon the first day of each week:

1. In Acts 20:7 the church was meeting each Sunday.

2. It was worshipping weekly with its money in I Cor. 16:2.

3. Heb. 10:25 says the members should be present when the church is to meet.

E. Thus, through scriptural consideration it becomes clear that the saved are to regularly worship God in His church.

II. Five formal acts of worship are prescribed for believers in the church:

A. We are to worship Him through PRAYER:

1. The believers in the early Jerusalem church practiced this, Acts 2:42, Eph. 6:18 Paul exhorted the Ephesian believers to pray.

2. James speaks of the church coming together and praying while together, James 5:13-16.

3. Jesus plainly said, "My house shall be called the house of prayer. Mt. 21:13.

B. We are to worship Him through SONGS:

1. Paul wrote to the Colossians to sing praises to God, in Col. 3:16.

2. He did the same to the Ephesians, in Eph. 5:19.

3. In Mt. 26:30, when Christ met with his disciples and instituted the Lord's supper, they sang together.

C. God ordained that we worship Him by PREACHING:

1. I Cor. 1:21 God ordained that as His chief means of reaching the lost.

2. Acts. 20:7 Paul preached to the assembled church at Troas.

3. Peter stood up and preached to the assembly at Jerusalem, Acts 2:1-36.

D. We are to worship God with our GIVING:

1. I Cor. 16:2 God commands us to give regularly as we come together.

2. That's God's method of financing His work, (I Cor. 9:14 and Neh. 13:10-12).

3. And, as do other forms of worship, giving also honors God, Prov. 3:9.

E. We are to worship God with The Lord's Supper:

1. The Lord assembled the early church and instituted the supper, Mt. 26:26-29.

2. I Cor. 11:23-32 The supper points attention to Jesus.

3. The early churches at Jerusalem (Acts 2:42) and Troas (Acts 20:7) were assembling and observing the supper.

4. I Cor. 10:16-17 show that it would be impossible to worship God as a body except as the members be come together.

F. People might elsewhere and in the church do many things, but these are the ones that honor God.

III. Worship must be conducted in spirit and in truth for God to be honored thereby:

A. Jesus makes this unquestionably clear in Jn. 4:23-24.

B. A right spirit means a right motive and attitude:

1. If a man's attitude is selfish, cocky, proud, and in any way fleshly, he can not offer up acceptable worship to God, Rom. 8:8.

2. All his worship-must be done out of a free heart of love for God in order to be acceptable, I Cor. 13:1-3; I Cor. 10:31.

C. A man must also worship God according to His prescribed plans in order for his worship to be acceptable to God:

1. Prov. 14:12 Just what seems right to man is not necessarily what pleases God at all.

2. Men have just about always worshipped God in one way or another; but some He accepted and some He didn't:

a. Gen. 4:1-5 Consider Cain and Able.

b. Look at those in II Kings 17:29-33 who sacrificed thier children.

3. God's object has not been just to get men to worship Him; but to get them to worship Him in a right way, I Sam. 15:22.

Therefore we believe men ought to worship God in His church according to the truths He has set forth in His word.

"It Does Make a Difference What You Believe"