After attending church with his father one Sunday morning, before getting into bed that evening a little boy kneeled at his bedside and prayed, “Dear God, we had a good time at church today, but I wish you had been there. ¹ Wow, the wonderful wisdom of a child or as Jesus said, ‘Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings you have perfected praise (Matthew 21:16). In today’s post, we are going to continue talking about some common worship mistakes we all have made. Here’s one of the biggest ones, that is, ‘Substituting work for worship.’

What’s So Important about the Days of Noah?

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One of the Biggest Worship Mistakes: Substituting Work for Worship

• Working for God is foundationally important, make no mistake about it.
• Let’s look at the ‘work ethic’ scripturally before we examine the mistake.

Our Foundation of Work: Work Ethic What It Is

• Paul motivates Timothy, his young son in the gospel, using three ‘occupational’ pictures.

Picture No. 1: A soldier

2 Timothy 2:3-4 (ESV) 3 Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. 4 No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.

• There are certain characteristics of a soldier that should be true of us as believers.
• Paul refers to endurance and lack of entanglement. Soldiers are soldiers and they are nothing else.
• Ask yourself, ‘Do soldiers work hard?’

Picture No. 2: An Athlete

2 Timothy 2:5 (ESV) 5 An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.

• There are certain characteristics of an athlete that should be true of us as believers.
• Ask yourself, ‘Do athletes work hard?’

Picture No. 3: A Hard Working Farmer

2 Timothy 2:6 (ESV) 6 It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. 7 Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.

• The Greek word hard-working means to exert oneself physically, mentally, or spiritually, work hard, toil, strive, struggle. It means to become weary or tired. ²
• A farmer is a laborer, a hard-worker.
• At the end of the day, he is tired and whipped.
• He is weary from the toils of the day.
• There is no laziness in farming.
• It is hard and tedious work.
• Paul tells Timothy, his son in the gospel, to model himself after this image.
• Work for Jesus.
• Work hard for Jesus.
• Spend yourself. Give everything you have, until you are whipped at the end of the day.
• If Jesus walked into your room if you had a spiritual vision of Him and in this vision, He said to you, “Go work for me today.” What would you do?
• What would your work day be like?
• How would you fill your day?
• Jesus said, “The harvest is ripe”, listen to the word now, “But the LABORERS are few.
• Laborers are not loungers.
• Laborers are not pleasure seekers.
• Laborers are not lazy uncommitted, ‘got to beg them to get anything done’ kind of people.
• A farmer has to stay with his field and stay with his seed.
• He cannot plant the seed and run off and leave it.
• He has to stay in place and water the seed and cultivate the seed.
• It does not matter what the weather is like.
• It does not matter what the economy is like.
• It does not matter what his personal life is like.
• He has to stay committed to the seed.
• I am talking about work ethic here.
• A farmer must stay put and see the seed to the end!
• He must see it all the way to harvest.
• If he lets up at all, he risks getting no fruit.
• No fruit, no harvest is a very bad thing for a farmer.
• Are you working for God like this?
• What is your work ethic for Him?
• Do you work as hard for Him as you do your personal endeavors?
• How hard are you tending to the seed of the Word of God in your heart?
• How hard are you working at the Word?
• How hard are you working at ministering to others?
• Here is a couple of quotes from Rick Renner along this line.

If you keep operating at your current level of production, will you reach the goals God has given for your life? – Rick Renner

• It is amazing that some of us understand this physically but spiritually we think it is something different.
• You have to be led by the Spirit of God as to what you are to do but when you finally find it out, you are going to have to add the ‘work hard’ component to get where you are going.
• Or as Rick says it in another quote…

If you want to achieve something great and significant, you will have to put a lot of hard work and effort into making it happen. – Rick Renner

• Or saying it another way…

To achieve the true greatness God desires for you, you must be committed to do anything necessary to accomplish what He has for you. – Rick Renner

• The following letter, which speaks for itself, was circulated in a large congregation trying to find people to get some work done in the church:
  • Dear Friend:
    • Our church membership … 1400
    • Nonresident members … 75
    • Balance left to do the work … 1325
    • Elderly who have done their share … 25
    • Balance left to do the work … 1300
    • Sick and shut-ins … 25
    • Balance left to do the work … 1275
    • Members who do not give … 350
    • Balance left to do the work … 925
    • Christmas and Easter members … 300
    • Balance left to do the work … 625
    • Members who are overworked … 300
    • Balance left to do the work … 325
    • Members with excuses … 200
    • Balance left to do the work … 125
    • Members too busy with other things … 123
    • Balance left to do the work … 2
    • Just you and me, friend, and you had better get busy, because it’s too much for me! [2]
• Okay, so now we understand that there is a ‘hard work’ component to life.
• But this can be problematic when we substitute work for worship.

What Worship Is?

• Worship is the highest and noblest act that any person can do.
• When men worship, God is satisfied.
• When you worship, you are fulfilled.

Why Did Jesus Christ Come?

• He came to make worshipers out of rebels.
• Think about the change that must take place in an unregenerate human being in order to get a person to the point of becoming a worshiper.
• People, in general, are self-centered.
• We who were once self-centered have to be completely changed so that we can shift our attention outside of ourselves and become able to worship Him.
• Jesus came to make you who were self-centered, God centered.
• If we haven’t learned to be worshipers, does it really matter how well we do anything else?
• Does it matter how much we work, if we lose sight of who we are working for?
• The word worship is a shortened form of the old word worth-ship, which means showing God the worth he holds in your life.
• When you worship God, you show Him what He is worth in your life.
• Worship is a valuable thing for a believer – it’s foundational – it is a costly stone.
• The Roman general Pompey noticed how the Jews fought to defend their temple. He was anxious to see what was in their most sacred room, the Holy of Holies. He was surprised to see that it was empty. He wondered why they fought so hard to defend an empty room! He didn’t understand their concept of a God “eternal, immortal, invisible.” He didn’t understand that worship is costly and of great value.
• Jesus must be properly worshiped.
• You cannot expect the superior results that come from the Holy Spirit manifesting Himself if you come into His presence without worship.
• Much in the New Testament is connected to and centered around worship.
• Worship is tied to the healing anointing.
• Many people who were healed came and worshiped Jesus.

Matthew 8:2 (KJV) 2 And, behold, there came a leper and worshiped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.

Matthew 9:18 (KJV) 18 While he spake these things unto them, behold, there came a certain ruler, and worshiped him, saying, My daughter is even now dead: but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live.

Matthew 15:22,25 (KJV) 22 And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. 25 Then came she and worshiped him, saying, Lord, help me.

Mark 5:2, 6 (KJV) 2 And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, 6 But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshiped him,

• Load this thought into your mind.
• If a man with 6000 demons as constant companions can fall down at Jesus feet and worship, we should have no trouble worshiping because of the person standing next to us.

Call to Action:

Avoiding this worship mistake comes via priority. Worship God and then work for Him. Praise Him and then engage in Kingdom affairs. Connect with Him first and then go out and change the world.

Question: When you realized that  Christian life, in general, is a constant worship and a coming to Jesus what were some things you did to adjust? Please share your comments in the comments section below?

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