Much of modern worship is sitting and watching the minister “doing His thing,” while he exhorts us “to do our thing,” after which we go home thinking we have “done our duty” for God, in what is referred to as “the worship service!” This kind of “do-it-yourself” worship is clearly focused on the “form, practices and procedures” of worship. This religiously flawed concept of worship is devoted to “how” one should worship, rather than the Person to be worshipped.

In its most general sense – worship is regarding an object with honor, respect, devotion, reverence, or admiration. An object regarded as having value, worth, honor or esteem is given worship. Human beings have a fundamental need and desire to worship, since we were created with spiritual life-function. Unlike the animal kingdom, which does not have spiritual function, all men have this basic need and human desire to worship. Therefore, all men are worshipping creatures. This clearly separates man from the animal kingdom. Ever since “The Fall of Man,” where Adam and Eve ate of the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil,” man has struggled to know how to worship as God intended.

Man has often fallen into Idolatrous worship. Idolatrous worship may be expressed in two ways:

(1) In respect of the object: as stated by the first Commandment, “You shall have no other gods before Me.”

(2) In respect of the manner: when one worships in a way and manner not derived from God but is developed and devised by “us.” This is condemned as idolatry in the Second Commandment: “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.”

Throughout history mankind has found tangible objects to worship such as: the sun, moon, stars, mountains, waters, storms, to name a few. Mankind has also worshiped himself and his own abilities. Humanism centers on man’s worth and his abilities to accomplish anything he sets his mind to. Paul described those who “worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator” in his letter to the Romans, as examples of this humanistic idolatry.

Through self-centered worship of oneself man becomes a slave to his own fleshly passions. Anything that man becomes mentally and emotionally preoccupied with can become an object of worship.

Obsession with material things, known as materialism, is the object of our modern societies worship. Real estate, automobiles, stocks, rare collectibles, and countless other objects are often held in high regard and worshipped.

Preoccupation with sports and associated gambling on games is another clear example of what people worship today.

Obsession with athletes, Hollywood stars and celebrities even spiritual leaders, such as famous pastors, are often idolized in hero worship. Any object or person that captivates man’s attention, and in which he gives himself, are expressions of Idolatrous-religious worship. I refer to it as religious worship because, “religion” binds or ties a person in devotion to an object or person.

Christianity is not religion. Therefore, religious worship, is NOT Christian worship. In its most general sense, worship is object centered. Religious forms of worship are man-centered as opposed to being God-centered. Religious worship focuses on man’s activities, his actions, experiences, and the resulting benefits from practicing such worship. Religious worship is also event-centered, focusing on the time, the place and the rituals involved in such worship. Religious worship runs on the flawed premise of human activity. It fails to recognize that man is always spiritually derivative. Deriving activity either from God or Satan.

Religious attempts at worship inevitably involve human performance. Religious worship is defined as “what we do.” As a result for many, in order to worship we gather together and we sing, we pray, we listen, we give, and we serve God with our talents and skills. We “do what is expected of us,” in the prescribed boundaries of accepted religious programs and productions. It is “do-it-yourself” worship derived from Mr. Selfishness himself, Satan! He gives the allusion of independence, in fact, we are but puppets of his control. Satan’s strategy is to lure us into a false impression of worship, that we can be “like God.” The temptation of the serpent in the garden of Eden was just that, “wouldn’t you like to be like God?”

Many Christian today continue to be enticed into this false religious worship, believing that if “we do it –because of Christ,” it must be what He would have us “to do,” even though “we are the one’s doing it.” Having believed the lie that “real worship is something you do.” The truth is worship is not “what we do” any more than anything else in the Christian life is “what we do!”

True worship is always derived by God’s grace and is not something “we can do.” As scripture declares in Acts 17:25, “God is not served with human hands, as though He needed anything.” In the King James Bible this verse is interestingly translated, “Neither is (God) worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed anything.”

Religious worship also focuses on man’s emotions and experiences. Religious worshippers are frequently asked, “How did the worship experience make you feel? “Do you feel better having attended the worship service?” When worship is defined by “how we feel,” it’s focus is on us and our psychological experience. Religious worship activities tend to be preoccupied with how we think and feel, and the success of the worship experience, is measured by how a person is impacted.

True worship cannot be an idol made by human hands. God is Spirit. Jesus taught: “But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:23-24)

Spirit and truth are a Person, the Person of Jesus Christ. Our only ability to worship is to participate with Christ, as He worships the Father in and though us!