Begin with 2 minutes of silence and stillness before God.

When we arrive for worship each Sunday, we can expect to experience a few things: several worship songs to prepare our hearts and mind for the message, opening prayer, baptisms with stories of a new faith journey, a focused scripture with life application delivered by one of our skilled, educated pastors, an altar call with the option to take communion and enter into guided prayer, as well as any announcements of what Venture is doing in the community.

In today’s reading, Paul details orderly worship as a “hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation…, or an interpretation. Everything must be done so that the church may be built up” (1 Corinthians 14:26). Venture clearly is excelling at meeting the mark of true worship. Some churches step outside of Paul’s guidelines to entertain, push an agenda of false teachings, or fatten their purses by demanding large tithes, and they are guilty of propagating false worship. Paul warned that there would be such leaders in our time (Acts 20:28-30; 2 Peter 3:14-18).

However, so many churches are failing their members. Recently, I listened to a message where the pastor demanded 21 people to give $1,000 or they would remain trapped in their illnesses, debts, and personal failures. The message was that their healing and God’s approval were contingent on giving large sums of money.

This pastor is among the body of religious leaders who preach “The Prosperity Gospel.” According to Harvard Divinity School, the “health and wealth” gospel is manipulative and predatory in vulnerable lower economic communities where heavy tithing is pushed and expected. The Prosperity Gospel is not a new-age teaching. Paul noted that a similar ideology was infiltrating and contaminating the faith of early believers in the church (1 Timothy 6:9-11).

Think about it: If Christian believers were expected to live in wealth and prosperity as an important life goal, Jesus would have pursued money, and it would have been his central message. However, he chose simplicity, preferring instead to have no place to lay His head and teaching His disciples to do the same (Matthew 8:20). Of the disciples, Judas was the only one preoccupied with storing up money. (John 12:6).

In today’s reading, Apostle Paul asks ten different rhetorical questions to appeal to their intelligence, reasoning, and discernment when it comes to true and false worship. Charles Spurgeon said, “Discernment is not knowing the difference between right and wrong. It is knowing the difference between right and almost right.”

Today, church planters and even established churches must help people discern the difference between the biblical Gospel and the prosperity gospel. Pray that God would continue to give our leaders discernment and wisdom when preaching the one true Gospel.

Take 2 minutes to reflect in silence

Reflection:

• Read 2 Timothy 4:3-4, Matthew 7:15-20, Colossians 2:8, John 4:23; and Romans 12:1-2. These verses are about discerning between true and false worship. After reading, ask God what He wants you to take from them. 
• Prayer:  Magnificent, Holy Father, I come before you with adoration and praise on my lips. You are my Sovereign God who orders my steps. My only desire is to stay within the fold and care of my Great Shepherd Jesus Christ. I ask that His rod will defend me in the presence of my enemies and that His staff will keep me from wandering away from your truth and my community. I place my life in your caring hands and submit completely to Your will. In Your Son’s name, amen.

Family Devo: 1 Corinthians 14

Head: the knowledge of God and His Word | Heart: the personal connection from scripture | Hands: a missional mindset 

Head 

Wow! 1 Corinthians 14 is a hard one to understand, but one important thing we can learn from this passage is that we all have different gifts that God can use to help others know Him better.

Heart

Sit with God, listen to your favorite worship song, listen to the lyrics, and see what God is trying to tell you through the lyrics.   

Hands 

Prayer: I pray that no matter where I am, I hear You. I pray that whatever You are trying to tell me, I have open ears and an open heart to hear and understand what You’re trying to tell me. Amen.