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Boring Worship

Sometimes we hear the complaint about the boring worship. Some feel excused from attendance because “church is boring.” The songs are too slow, the prayers too long, or the preacher talks in a monotone. Sometimes these are factors that can be fixed. This, however, gives the idea that the worship is for those in the pew. While some benefit of the worship may go to those who attend, (we are to sing one to another, agree in prayer, and the preaching is for our instruction) we need to understand that worship is for the Lord. A better thought might be, Is the Lord bored with our worship?

Perhaps the Lord is bored with the murmurer.

The murmurer (or complainer) is a continual problem in many congregations. Never satisfied he (or she) always has an opinion on one thing or another. It may be the sermon length or the preacher’s wife or the songs dragging or that someone didn’t say hello. They don’t suffer in silence, not the murmurer! Murmuring is a symptom of the rejection of authority (see Exod. 16). When authority is accepted the worshiper will accept without complaint that not everything will always be to their liking. Note that we are warned against murmuring:

nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer (1 Corinthians 10:10).

Do all things without grumbling or questioning (Phil. 2:14),

Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door (Jam. 5:9).

Show hospitality to one another without grumbling (1 Pet. 4:9).

Murmuring happens so often that I think that, yes, the Lord might be bored with our worship.

Perhaps the Lord is bored with the wanderer.

As I began preaching in a small town away from home one Lord’s day I could hear, in the audience, the snip, snip, snip sound of a worshiper(?) taking care of their fingernails. I have seen note passing, baby entertaining (not by the mother but by others in the audience) and even open talking and laughing. I know of others whose thoughts are of that afternoon’s football game, the deer stand, the fishing hole or what’s being served at the cafeteria. All this while the Supreme Ruler of the Universe, the Holy One of Israel, the Maker and Sustainer of man sits on His throne unattended. He is deserving of the worshiper’s full measure of worship. I can only imagine how boring worship must be for Him.

Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth!
Serve the LORD with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing!
Know that the LORD, he is God!
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him; bless his name!
For the LORD is good;
his steadfast love endures forever,
and his faithfulness to all generations. (Psa. 100)

Perhaps the Lord is bored with the hypocrite.

In worship they appear holy, they sing, pray, give, study, and partake of the Lord’s Supper as attentively as anyone but when they leave the church building it is a different matter. Jesus put it this way:

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. (Matthew 23:27-28)

Sometimes Christians can’t see the hypocrite (Matt. 13:24-30, 36-43) but God can (Acts 1:24). I think he might be bored with hearing the hypocrite’s praise in His worship.

As a preacher, and as a Christian I am not much worried about whether someone thinks that the worship is boring. Usually it is the murmurer, the wanderer and the hypocrite that have made it that way.