Acceptable Worship: What Kind of Worship Does God Accept?

By Dr. C.H. Snyder

Whenever worship is mentioned there seems to be an immediate vision of what worship should be. That vision is generally produced from past experiences and practices. Very seldom does anyone stop to consider the possibility that what they believe to be worship may not be worship at all in the eyes of God. For many people, worship is just another form of entertainment and self-gratification. If one is to truly worship the Lord we should consider what God says is acceptable to Him. In Genesis 4:3-7, we have Cain and Abel coming before the Lord to worship; Abels worship was accepted and Cains rejected. In verse 7 God basically tells Cain that if he did it right he would be accepted, if not sin lies at the door. The challenge for anyone who seeks to worship the Lord is to do it right!

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jun 23, 2016
• ISBN: 9781512745542

Dr. C.H. Snyder

I was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on May 16, 1946. I met my wife, Pat, during high school, and we were married in December 1965. We have two daughters and seven grandchildren. Our older daughter, Stephanie, went home to be with the Lord on October 21, 1998, at age thirty. Our younger daughter, Kristen, has two children and currently lives in the Washington, DC, area. I had the privilege of serving my country in the United States Air Force during the Vietnam era, and I served on the Prince George’s County Police in the late sixties. In 1972 I responded to God’s calling to enter the ministry. At that point I entered Washington Bible College, and in 1974 I accepted the call to pastor my first church. My formal education began at the University of Tennessee in 1965. I graduated from Washington Bible College and then went on to study at Trinity University in Indiana and at the International Seminary in Plymouth, Florida. My desire is to help as many people as possible to know God in a personal, intimate way and to grow in their relationship to Him.

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Copyright © 2016 Dr. C.H. Snyder.

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Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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ISBN: 978-1-5127-4555-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-4556-6 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-4554-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016909631

WestBow Press rev. date: 06/22/2016

CONTENTS

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. The Mystery of Worship

2. The Meaning of Worship

3. The Method of Worship

4. The Enemies of Worship

5. The Examples of Worship

6. The Experience of Worship

7. The Results of Worship

Notes

About the Author

FOREWORD

Before you read this book, you should know who Dr. Snyder is, and how he approaches his faith in Christ.

Dr. Snyder is a lifelong student of the Bible who always asks, What does the Bible say about that? His concern is to understand what the Bible says, to believe what it says, and to obey what it says. It is as simple as that, and at the same time as profound as that.

For example, Dr. Snyder has led numerous people to the Lord, yet he does not consider himself to be an evangelist. He simply sees that we are supposed to be about the work of evangelism, and so he obeys. Dr. Snyder is less than enthused about maintaining the administrivia of his church, but since the Bible commands us to be good stewards, he maintains the church’s records fastidiously. Dr. Snyder is typically the smartest person in the room, and yet if you stand in that room you would never know it. It is not that he hides behind false humility as so many intellectually gifted people do; it is just that he simply does not care that he is the smartest person in the room. This is what biblical humility looks like when it saturates the very core of a man’s heart.

In short, Dr. Snyder is focused on believing in Jesus with all of his heart and obeying Him in every aspect of his life. He comfortably inhabits the place between understanding what the Bible says and wisely implementing it in our lives, and that is the place from which he preaches and teaches. That is also the place from which this book was written.

In reading this, you will quickly see what I already know about Dr. Snyder: he is balanced and thoroughly biblical, and he communicates with large doses of grace. He is not given to extremes and doesn’t have hobby horses that he focuses on to the exclusion of more important matters. He stays focused on the Bible and what it means to live it out.

This book wisely takes the reader to that space between understanding and wise implementation. It is not a weighty tome designed to discuss abstract theoretical ideas of worship; those Dr. Snyder leaves to other people. Instead, the focus of the book is on moving from correct understanding to wise and proper obedience. In the end, that is what really matters: obedience to Jesus born of a correct understanding of Scripture.

I was blessed to read this book and am confident you will be equally blessed.

—Anthony Papadakis, ThM

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

To Morgan Allen for her dedicated and professional editing and suggestions concerning the final document.

INTRODUCTION

From the very beginning of creation, man has been actively involved in worship: of God, self, money, power—the list is endless. Man by his very nature is a worshipper. The object of worship may differ from person to person and place to place, but the practice is often very similar. God has placed within each of us the need to worship, and it is His desire that all men worship Him.

And therein lies the problem: man by his nature is in rebellion to God, does not seek God on his own, and turns his worship to other areas. This rebellion began with Satan when he tried to replace God, and it has been an ongoing problem with mankind ever since.

In Matthew 4:10 (NKJV) we have the account of Jesus being tempted in the wilderness by Satan. The goal of Satan was to take worship away from God and become the one being worshipped. Jesus gave a very clear response to Satan’s offer: You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.

God desires worship, but it is not to be blind, ignorant worship. …true worshippers will worship the Father in sprit and in truth: for the Father is seeking such to worship Him (John 4:23 NKJV). To get to the place where one actually worships in spirit and in truth involves the emotion, the intellect, and the will. It is necessary to get the emotion, intellect, and will under the control of biblical principles, guidelines, and limitations, which will result in acceptable praise, honor, and glory being given back to God.

The worship we find in the Old Testament is different from that of the New Testament, but there are some factors that remain in place for both time periods. Looking at worship from a New Testament perspective, we are very quickly aware of the association between worship and the church. Down through the years since the day of Pentecost, worship has been identified with a place, a building we call the church. It appears that for the last two thousand years most professing Christians seek to satisfy the God-given need to worship by entering into a physical church building.

However, today we find many shying away from what we call the organized church and the building associated with it. Today many are seeking to worship God in ways that simply satisfy their personal ideas of worship. While changes are clearly taking place, the need for worship has not changed. The church building is still the place that most see as the place to organize, come together, and collectively offer worship to God. It is in the church building that Christians seek to draw close to God, learn about Him, and in some cases, serve Him.

The way an individual worships is in direct relationship to how that person sees God; his concept of God will determine his acts of worship. This can be seen in the variety of churches that exist today. While God has instituted the church, man has tried over the years to fashion it after his own likes and dislikes, altering the purpose—and in some cases becoming like the Pharisees of old and perverting the message. The result is often the destruction of biblical worship and the replacement of it with something that fails to honor God and simply honors men.

Since the very beginning of the church, it has suffered from those who would pervert and alter the worship of God to fit their liking. The church has endured persecution, bigotry, jealousy, and false teachers. It has been split into east and west, liberal and conservative, and Pentecostal and traditional, all in the attempt to worship God. But through all of this, the church has continued to grow and bear witness to the world of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Even Jesus recognized the attacks, but He was very clear in his response to them. I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it (Matthew 16:18). It is within this context that the church must seek to understand exactly what acceptable worship involves.

Obviously, the challenge is a real one and not something to be taken lightly. God expects us to honor Him in the proper way and to figure out what is acceptable to Him. We are not left without help; the Scriptures give clear and encouraging statements to guide us to the proper position. The church body is called to worship collectively, and in order to do that, a building is an appropriate place to gather.

While all creatures are called to worship God,