Has God been evicted from your church?

2 Kings 16:17-18 recounts King Ahaz’s use of sacred items from the LORD’s temple for the sake of showing respect for the king of Assyria. The scene is gut-wrenching: “King Ahaz cut off the side panels and removed the basins from the movable stands. He removed the Sea from the bronze bulls that supported it and set it on a stone base. He took away the Sabbath canopy that had been built at the temple and removed the royal entryway outside the temple of the Lord, in deference to the king of Assyria.”

Essentially, Ahaz dismantled certain items of the temple of the LORD to show deference to a foreign king. But this was not just an example of deference; it was a payment from Judah to Assyria. Instead of reforming their ways and repenting of their idolatry, Judah aligned with Assyria for support. Ahaz placed his hope in the king and country of Assyria for protection. He believed that if he could keep them happy, they would dwell in safety and prosper in the land. And they paid for it with the very items dedicated to the LORD in the temple. As one commentator put it, “These verses… are the last example of the misdeeds of Ahaz.”

In what way do these verses address the church of Jesus Christ? As I read these verses, I could not help but see parallels between the motives of Ahaz and the motives that often lurk beneath the surface of my life as a lead pastor.

Hope for “Success”

In the case of Ahaz, he placed his hope for success in his alliance with a foreign nation and foreign king. He believed that if he had their support, he would have success. Yet, these actions betray Ahaz’s lack of faith in God’s promises to His people. The success of the king depended upon faithfulness to the LORD. Similarly, church leaders can fall prey to the deception that overtook Ahaz. If we are not careful to prioritize faithfulness to Christ and believe that the fruitfulness of our ministry depends on Him (1 Corinthians 3:6-8), we might find ourselves embracing the idea that “showing deference” to pagans is our only hope for “success” in ministry. In this way, hope for “success” in the church can end up looking more like Ahaz’s approach to pleasing the pagan king than praising the King over all (Philippians 2:5-11).

Desecrating the Holy

Not only must we be mindful of the motives the lurk beneath our actions in corporate worship, but we must also pay attention to our actions themselves. Whereas Ahaz took physical items that were holy (i.e., “items set apart”) and desecrated them for the sake of showing deference to the Assyrian king, we too have aspects of our corporate worship that are holy. To be sure, I have no interest in getting into a debate about whether or not physical items are holy in a similar sense to what we see in the Old Testament. In very significant ways, many aspects of the Old Testament temple cultus have been fulfilled and transcended in the person and work of Christ. Instead, my point here is that I fear, if we are not careful, we will forget that certain aspects of our corporate worship are ultimately about God, not us.

When the church gathers to sing praises to God, while we undoubtedly need to make sure that the songs selected are congregationally singable (Ephesians 5:19), we must also prioritize singing songs that are unquestionably true and bringing rightful praise to God. We do not want to be found guilty of taking the gift of worship in song that God has given His living temple, the church of Jesus Christ, and using it or changing it to please someone other than Him. Worship is about ascribing to God the glory due to His name. When we are more concerned with how people perceive our offerings to the Lord than how the Lord himself perceives our offerings, we are guilty of Ahaz’s sin: using the sacred things of God to show deference to people who are not God.

False Hope Exposed

Why do we do this? I believe it is because our hope for “success in ministry” is more tied to pleasing people we perceive we need than for living faithfully before the Lord and Savior who promises to be with and empower His church through the Holy Spirit. At the root of our decision to desecrate the holy is the blasphemous belief that God cannot produce fruit in our ministries unless we cater to people’s preferences. While we would never say it out loud, our actions reveal that we believe that God’s preeminence is a threat to God’s church.

We tell ourselves, “If I preach from that passage on that topic, people will leave and go to another church down the street.” We say, “If we don’t have the best _______________ (fill in the blank), then the church will not be fruitful. We will die.” So, we make alliances, and we desecrate the holy to make people comfortable in the presence of God. Ironically, we want people to experience the transforming power of God’s presence, but we have often sought to evict Him to make room for other things that we believe will bring us success. Yet, the only true success in ministry comes from God.

The Whom & The Why of Worship

It is easy to write an article like this and not conclude with any practical application, but such a conclusion would be dangerous. I do not intend for this article to cause harm, but instead, to provoke healing through repentance and reflection.

Here is my practical application: When thinking through corporate worship, always remember the Whom and the Why. Corporate worship is preeminently about ascribing to God the glory due to Him for all that He is and all that He does. God is “the whom” of our worship. He is the object of our affection, which leads to “the why.” We gather for Him. The holy aspects of our worship exist chiefly for Him. Our pursuit of excellence in our preaching, our programming, our ministry, and our music is because He is worthy, not because it will draw “the people we need.” The only need a church truly has is God, and He loves to inhabit the praises of His people. Don’t try to evict Him to please others. Instead, please Him, lift Him up and place your hope in Him, for He is faithful!

CBH

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