Do you know how you’re going to recognize the spiritual deceivers from the true ministers of God? Anything that appeals to you, your ego, your flesh, your desires, and then feeds that in you is taking you down the wrong path. Because it’s saying: “It is about you. Come join our worship it’s all about you. Come be part of us and we’ll make you feel good about you.”

It’s about God. It’s about God singularly. It’s about God only.

In the church far too often these days the congregation is viewed as an audience. And so they’re putting on a show at the front for the audience, because the congregants are viewed as the ticket buyer. And when the plate comes around they’re gonna put in the money for the ticket to come see the show.

In the church there is only one audience and the audience is God. Our worship is God-ward and He is the audience. We are not here to entertain you, as I think I prove week in and week out.

People ask me all the time, “What’s GCA got? What do you church have for our youth? Do you have programs? Do you have some stuff for the kids? Do you have any clubs? Do you have singles meetings? Do you have adult-volleyball-karate lessons? Do you have financial counseling? Do you have how-to-build-a-better-family meetings? What have you got for me? What can you supply for me?” Because people think that that’s how a church works now. That a church is supposed to be an entity separate from the people who attend the church. And then the church, whatever that is, supplies the congregants with services, and for however much you put in the plate, you can take advantage of whatever services the church offers the members who come.

It’s completely wrong!

You know what I’ve got for you, same thing I got for your kids. You young single people, I got the same thing for you. You older folks, same thing for you. Young people, old people, I’ve only got one thing for you.

I’m going to teach you the Bible week in and week out.

And if you understand the truth of Scripture, your finances are going to work out. Your human relationships are going to work out. If you need to learn karate, go up the road, do a karate studio and learn that. I don’t know it. I can’t teach you.

I got nothing for you but the Truth of the Scripture and an understanding of the doctrines of Christianity. That’s all I’ve got for you. All we’ve got for young and old and in between, all we’ve got is the truth of the Scripture. And if you belong to God you’ll be engaged in that, you’ll care about that, you’ll want that, you’ll look for that, you’ll seek that out.

And that’s what makes GCA unique, and small. It’s that we don’t have all that stuff. [But the outreach over the internet is unbelievable. I get the email constantly from people who are learning from our website.]

Because that’s all I got for you. It’s all I got for you is another opportunity to learn about the truth of God, which ought to then, which is the reason why I’m doing it, which ought to then become the basis for your worship. So that your worship is not a period of time when the band is playing and the audience is corporately dancing. That is not worship.

Worship, get this right, is how you live.

Worship is an all the time, every minute, every day recognition of the supremacy and presence of God in your life all the time.

God is not just suited for worship from ten to eleven on Sunday mornings. God is to be worshipped in two in the morning when you can’t sleep. When you’re driving to work. When you’re disciplining your kids. When you’re at your best. When you’re receiving awards. At all times, at all places, whatever happens in your life God is to be worshipped.

It’s not a lifestyle, it’s a life.

There is only one audience in the church. All of our worship is toward God. And is not designed to entertain you. The Puritans had it right. The reformers had it right. The purest form of worship in the collective church is the study of Scripture. Study what the Word says, you can’t do better than that. Because it drives you back to the truth of who God is, so that in your prayer, in your life, in your worship-full life it is all designated—it is all directed toward the only true God because you know the Truth.

That’s why I pound the Scripture. That’s why I do what I do. I do it because I can’t think of any higher form of worship to the God I love…the God who saved me. I can’t think of any higher form than to go where Jesus went. To go back to the written Word of God and say, “Here’s the truth!” Worship in accordance to the Truth.

And I don’t have to tell you truth is getting hard to find. Truth has left the building in most churches. And it’s been replaced with worship “designed to make you feel good about you.” And if you really enjoy it and have a great time, you’ll come back and you’ll bring your wallet. And that’s what’s substituting for worship these days.

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- Jim McClarty, Defining Worship, January 4, 2009

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