God is so holy that "No man can see Him and live", (Exodus 33:20). God is so Holy that to see His full glory and light, would burn up sinful man. When we speak of going to worship God, we should remember that "God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, And to be held in reverence by all those around Him".

(See Psalms 89:7).Those who are born again and indwelled by the Holy Spirit are holy because God has sanctified them (set them apart for God’s use); and only they can worship God in Spirit and Truth. Listen to what Isaiah the Prophet saw in the year that King Uzziah died, (Isaiah 6:1-4), "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings; with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!" and the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke."

The Bible assures us that when even two or three of His children are gathered together, that God will be in the midst of them; and with that in mind, why do we suppose that we never have the feeling of God’s great holiness and even wait with expectation for the doors to shake. God has not changed, but we have! The change in worship came so subtly that no one noticed, and we have been so derelict in our worship for so long that when you read this you may want to argue with it. Be that as it may, but I challenge you to think about your normal worship service. When you arrive at your church on Sunday or Saturday or whenever you meet, is there an expectation of anything supernatural?

Do you really expect to be confronted by the Holy Spirit, or do you receive the church bulletin and read and know exactly what will happen while you are there and at what time it will happen. If you will notice your bulletin, you will probably not find anytime that the Holy Spirit is given to work in most churches. That is not to say that we can schedule the Holy Spirit, but we can certainly hope that He would be welcome, if He chose to come among us. Now, for you who choose to get mad about what I am saying, let me remind you that most real preachers and observers of lifestyles, say that from 60 to 95 percent of all church members today are lost folks.

Maybe I’m kicking a dead horse here, but I think it is important that all of us should make sure that what we do when we go to church comes up to the standard that the Bible speaks of as true worship. So many in our day, love to hear the preachers who assure them that it is only natural that they would sin; because they all sin all the time; but that is not what the half brother of Jesus wrote, under the inspiration of God, there in James chapter one and verses 23-27, where it says that there are those who go and hear but never do any work, and that they are deceiving themselves. That means that we get no "smiley faces" for attending church unless we do as verse 27 of James chapter one says; and that verse tells us, "Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world".

All true Christians should remember that there is only one way to be saved; and that is by the shed and applied blood of Christ and a faith that really works in Him. Then we need to remind ourselves continually that we must worship God in Spirit and Truth. Then we need to be aware that there are many places of worship where there is not any real worship of God. Worship is specific and the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ felt no qualms about telling the woman at the well there in John 4:22, that she was worshiping but that she didn’t know the one that she was worshiping. Make sure today that you know who it is that you worship and make sure that you do not dash into some drive-thru, quick service, down and dirty place that makes you feel good about yourself in your sin.

That is not Worship. If we would just read the Bible enough to gain an elementary knowledge about what Christ came to do in the first place; and that was to die the most cruel death known to man, the death on the cross, we would understand how reverent and in awe we should always go before God. Christ did that because it was required by the Father before any person on the earth could have right standing before God ; in other words, to be saved from eternal condemnation. God would not look at lost people because of their sin, and so the Son had to die in our place on the cross, to redeem us out of sin so that the Father could then adopt us into His family and give us right standing before Him. That’s how Holy God is. He will not look on sin, that’s why the Father turned His face away from the Son, Jesus Christ, as He became sin for us. That’s how Holy our Creator God is; and that’s what we need to consider when we go to worship Him. We tend to sleep late and jump out of bed and make a few efforts to make ourselves presentable to God; but all too often we really do not know how to approach our thrice holy God.

When we really are ready to worship God, we become so taken up with God, so focused on Him as the "I Am", so desperate to connect with His Glory and Grace that we completely forget about ourselves, others around us and the choirs, and the extraneous noise that churches normally make. It turns out to be just You and God. That should sound exciting and people should desire and seek that kind of worship as they move their minds and hearts away from the earthly toward the heavenly. You can never know how to worship God unless you know the God that you want to worship. They are many gods, but only one God, and that God is only found in the Bible, the Word of God. There are many gods that people worship that they don’t call gods; however anything that we allow to get between us and Jehovah becomes our god. Forget this heresy that as long as we worship some god and we refer to him as God that we are alright. They are many groups about that worship other gods, Allah, Buddha, or whatever ; however they are not the God of the Bible and to worship them we have to be willing to worship a dead god. Our God is alive and in and of Himself He is life, and be very careful that you never want to become so liberal that you would allow anyone or anything to cause you to agree with that kind of religion. As Christians we will tolerate other religions but we never will acquiesce to their claim of their God being God.

We as people who go to church and identify with Christ have long ago, become like the Jewish Pharisees, who were great at playing church; but who failed God in how they worship Him. If you have read the New Testament, you know that the Pharisees were quick to pray on the street corners, and give or at least appear to be giving alms to those who sat and begged; and they talked about how they fasted; but in reality they were charlatans who brought disfavor on their God and their groups. They had become expert at using God for their own status and egos; but they did not even know God, and certainly were not interested in learning anymore about the Word of God than they were then using. One of the puritans said this about worship, "without the heart it is no worship, it is a stage-play, it is acting a part, playing an individual that is not who that person really is. That’s the reason Christ called them hypocrites! This had to be a real problem at the time of Christ’s first coming to the earth; because if you read the scriptures, God in the flesh was continually speaking against what the Scribes and the Pharisees were doing and calling it worship. I have to wonder, as I write this lesson, What would Jesus say to us who have become role players in our day?

Do many of us believe that the only day we are to worship Jehovah is on Sunday? Well, what do we do the other days of the week? Do we think God will be satisfied with what we do up at the church building on Sunday? I don’t know about you, but as for me, I feel robbed of the opportunity to meet with God when I go into most churches today. To be honest, so many begin at 11 o’clock sharp and break up at 12 dull. Worship does not have to be dull to be deep, in fact, if we were smart enough to open our meetings and allow participation by those in attendance, we would all leave feeling better about this hour or so that we gave up to come here. Don’t tell me that allowing, while leading to a purposeful worship service, those who have questions and/or comments, to express themselves, will end up as a donnybrook. I have tried it and it sounds more like real worship to me than all of the spiritless comments by some preacher who would not like to hear any questions or comments.

I think the purpose of the way we do church is so that the Pastor will never be caught shy on an answer and the fact that if people get to comment, the pastor may find an area where he needs to work. In closing today, let me remind you that it is possible for us to arrive every time the church doors open and march to the church and sit in the pews and disconnect for the reality of worship. That is what too many do when they come to church. You know that some come to church and close the eyes, while others come to eye the clothes. All kinds of reasons for all kinds of people; but did you not know that Jesus Christ on Judgment day may tell us what He told the woman at the well, in John 4:22, and that was that they were worshiping but they did not know what they were worshiping?

Let’s make sure that when we go to worship, when we worship every day of every week, that we make sure that our worship will reach the ears of God. Some suggestions would be to begin to prepare ourselves to worship, examine your lives, your motives, your relationships, both with God and man, practice thinking the high and holy thoughts about God. Do not rush into prayer unless it is a prayer for illumination by the spirit. This next one is hard but it is doable, so try it, learn to put everything and everyone except God out of your mind and then and only then open your Bible and reread some favorite scriptures. All of this preparation will help you to forget the idea of church attendance, and begin to really worship God in Spirit and Truth.