The Preaching is Great But the Worship is Awful. What Do I Do?

Should I leave a church if the worship is cringeworthy? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. Well, hi, this is Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day.

That's 833-THE-CORE. You can also post your question on one of our social media sites. You can actually watch Adriel right now on our YouTube channel and send him a message that way. And of course, you can always email us at questionsatcorechristianity.com. First up today, here's a question we received from one of our listeners named Brandon.

I just had a question about a situation at work, how to maybe talk to a couple of the guys I work with. One of the guys, he constantly listens to some pretty demonic heavy metal to the extent of where is praising and saying there's no way to heaven, so let's run to the gates of hell, you know, that kind of music. There was a comment made today about, hey, I'm going to hell, and he just seemed pretty content with that. How would you recommend talking to that guy?

Thank you. Brandon, I love the fact that you are wanting to engage your coworkers with the gospel, and it seems like there's an open door here, an opportunity to talk about these things. I mean, if they're speaking with you and saying, hey, I'm going to hell and I'm okay with that, an opportunity for you to talk about just the seriousness of what it is that they're talking about. I think most people, they just sort of minimize the idea of hell, of God's justice, of God's judgment. I think that you can help, one, in just bringing the sobering reality to bear. This isn't something that we should be joking about.

This isn't a small thing. Ultimately, what you need to be doing is praying for your coworkers, that the Spirit of God would open their hearts to receive the gospel, and that God would give you boldness to share the gospel clearly with them. As you continue to work with them and build a relationship, a friendship, but also one where you're talking about the Lord with them, may the Lord be with you and bless you. The one passage of scripture that comes to mind here is what Paul said in 2 Timothy 2, verse 24. The Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness, God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil having been captured by him to do his will. That's what your prayer is, is that your coworkers would come to their senses, that the Lord would grant them repentance. As you pray for them and pray for that, pray that the Lord would open their eyes and that God would give you opportunities, wisdom, boldness to share clearly. God bless you, Brandon, as you do that. Brandon, thanks so much for your call, and we do appreciate the fact that you care about these coworkers and want to see them come to trust Christ.

I mean, what a blessing that would be. So we'll be praying for you in that whole situation. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and if you have a question about the Bible, the Christian life, Christian doctrine, theology, or how your faith intersects with today's culture, we'd love to hear from you. Here's our phone number. It's 1-833-843-2673. We'll be taking questions for the next 20 minutes or so, so hop on the phone right now.

833, the core is the number. Well, here's an email we received from one of our listeners named Christiania. She says, How important is worship in service? I live in New York City, and finding a church sound in doctrine is quite a feat. I found a church with great teaching, but the worship is, alas, in a word, dreadful. I'm convinced the singer's voice is a joy only to the Lord. I'm visiting and trying to determine if I want to become a member of this fellowship, but the singer's screeching both depresses and aggravates me.

Though it's difficult to imagine, it's only me thinking this. Should I look elsewhere for fellowship, time my arrival for right before the preaching begins, or wear earplugs during the singing? Sorry to hear about this experience. Sounds like pretty painful to sit through the worship there. I'm glad to hear that the doctrine sounds good. It sounds like the preaching is good and you're able to receive that well, but you're having a hard time being distracted by the worship.

By the way, let me just say this. There are two things that can be really distracting when it comes to the musical part of church worship. It can either be such a big performance. I mean, it's just a bunch of professionals up there basically doing the worship on behalf of everybody else. It's a performance, and that can be a distraction because it keeps us from engaging because we feel like, well, I'm not good enough to sing. They're doing it up there. They're up there, and I'm here, and I'm more of a spectator.

I'm observing this show. I've seen that in churches, in large mega churches. That's one distraction that we need to be careful that we don't fall into, but the other distraction is sometimes, and this can be the case usually in smaller churches, sometimes the music can just be so bad that that's the distraction that we're not really caring to do this part of the service with excellence. I think it's important that we do the entire service with excellence. So the worship, quote unquote, the musical part can either be a distraction because it's a performance or because it's just poorly done. It sounds like in this case you're distracted because it's being poorly done.

There are a couple of ways to go about this. One, you could just have a conversation with the leadership of the church and say that this is a distraction to you. The apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 12-14, he's talking about ordering Christian worship services. He says everything needs to be done for the edification of the body, for the building up of the body, and it needs to be done. He says this at the end of 1 Corinthians 14, decently and in order.

In other words, it's not just this big spectacle that is a distraction. Again, it's fixing our eyes on Jesus, and everything that happens in the service should help us to do that. So if the singing is not helping you to do that, I would say have a conversation with the leadership of the church and just say, hey, I'm struggling here.

How do we go about picking the songs and who's up there singing and whatnot. Really, I think that's an important conversation to have. I think that can be a way maybe that you even encourage the church there. So I don't know that I would say you need to go find another church. Certainly, I would say the main thing that we need to make sure we're getting from the churches we're in is faithful Bible teaching, the proclamation of the gospel.

So if that's there, great. I wouldn't say show up in the middle of the service so that you just hear the preaching but you miss everything else. No, part of it is still fighting to be engaged even when it's hard for you to be engaged, even when maybe you don't like the song or the singers aren't as good as you would like. I would say seek to be focused on the Lord still, to try to get through the distractions. Obviously, we don't want to have those distractions, but to continue to worship there with others and to draw near to the Lord and to worship Him. So thank you for that question and may God bless you as you get plugged in under the ministry of the word and as the Lord continues to work in your life.

That's great advice, Adriel, but let me ask you this. What if that worship singer is the pastor's wife? Oftentimes, isn't that the case?

Maybe that's why they're up there. Well, I would say maybe still have that conversation. That's a little touchier in that situation, isn't it? My wife does not sing on the worship team and she'd be the first to tell you, you wouldn't want me to. We need to have the humility to be able to say that, but I appreciate this question. Again, I think it gets us right to the heart of, in worship, we don't want to be distracted. We want to focus on the word. We want to focus on Christ.

So trying to remove those distractions, I think, is important. That's great. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. If you are a parent or a grandparent, we have a special resource we want to tell you about today. It's a book by a friend of this program, author and theologian, Nancy Guthrie. The book is called What Every Child Should Know About Prayer. I know that just as a pastor, prayer is something that many of us struggle with. How many of you can think back to when you were a child, lessons on prayer, times where your parents or grandparents came alongside of you and tried to help you at that young stage grow in your prayer life? Many of us didn't have that, but it's so important that our children learn about prayer. They can go to the Lord too, and this book is going to help them to do that.

It will help you encourage them as well. If you have children or grandchildren, please get a hold of this resource. Again, it's called What Every Child Should Know About Prayer. You can find it by going to corechristianity.com forward slash offers. Again, corechristianity.com forward slash offers and look for What Every Child Should Know About Prayer.

Well, our phone lines are open right now. If you have a question for Pastor Adriel about the Bible or the Christian life, theology or doctrine, call us at 1-833-843-2673. Let's go to John in St. Louis, Missouri. John, what's your question for Adriel?

Yeah, I wanted to ask. Jesus is sitting on the right hand of God, and you have the devil attacking you personally. How does God the Father intercede between what the devil is accusing you of, or a Christian follower, and then what Christ is doing to intercede for his saints? And ultimately, how does the Holy Spirit work in people's lives, and how does the Holy Spirit reflect Jesus? While Jesus is not here on earth, but he's in heaven, how does the Holy Spirit bring Jesus' presence into someone's heart? And I want to stand there and hear his qualities into someone's life, and I want to stand there and hear your comments.

Hey, John, thanks for that question. So, yes, Jesus has ascended bodily at the right hand of the Father, this position of authority and power. He's reigning right now, making his enemies a footstool for his feet. This is what the apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, quoting from Psalm 110. And so Jesus has been exalted.

I mean, we see this very clearly at the beginning of the book of Acts. And what did he do when he was exalted, when he ascended on high? He sent his spirit into the world. He baptized his church in the Holy Spirit.

That's what took place on the day of Pentecost. And the Spirit of Christ lives in us. We are the adopted children of God now. Paul talks about this in Romans 6-8. And the Spirit bears witness with our spirits that we are the children of God. And we cry out, Abba Father, to the Father through the Spirit of Christ who lives in us. So the Spirit of Christ is in us, conforming us day by day more and more into the image of Jesus, sanctifying us. Sanctification is a work of the Holy Spirit.

Now, you brought in the topic of spiritual warfare. How does Jesus interceding for us address that issue? I think of what Jesus told Peter. You know, Satan has desired to sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you, he said to Peter.

You're going to be restored. And that's a hope that we have. The Bible teaches very clearly, John, that Jesus ever lives to make intercession for his people. It's part of his priestly office. He didn't just offer himself for us for the cleansing of our sins. That was a part of his priestly office as well. But he also is still interceding for us as our great high priest. Romans makes this clear. The book of Hebrews makes this clear. And so through his intercessions, through his prayers, we are kept in the hands of Almighty God and protected from the evil one. And so a lot going on there, but that's a great comfort that we have that the Spirit of God lives in us, that Christ is in us by the Spirit, and that he keeps us by his grace.

Thank you for your question. Hey, John, thanks for calling in and thanks for being a listener to CORE Christianity. Let's go to Scott, who's listening in Iowa today. Scott, what's your question for Adriel?

How are you doing? Thank you for having me. I want to know a little bit more about Mel Kadizek. He's, like, mysterious, and he's only, like, I think, three times in the Bible you can find him.

Can you tell me a little bit more about him? I'll hang up and listen. Yeah.

Hey, Scott, great question. Yeah, I've been preaching through the book of Genesis, so when I got to that scene in Genesis chapter 14 with Mel Kadizek, I had a great time. So the passages you're going to want to go to as we think about Mel Kadizek are Genesis chapter 14.

You're right, there are only three places. Genesis chapter 14, Abraham, after this great slaughter, this great battle, is met by this priest of God Most High, whose name is Mel Kadizek. And you learn more about him. The other text to go to is in the book of Hebrews, in Hebrews chapter 7.

So I got both of those texts opened here before me. Let me just read some of Genesis 14. It says, after his return from the defeat of Kedrow Laomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him in the valley of Shaveh, that is, the king's valley. And Mel Kadizek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, and he blessed him and said, Blessed be Abram by God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth, and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand. And Abram gave him a tenth of everything. In other words, he gave him a tithe. So this is kind of an interesting scene because you have this great father in the faith, Abram, giving a tithe to this guy, this mysterious figure who seems like he dropped out of the sky. There's no genealogy given, and of course, if you're familiar with the book of Genesis, oftentimes we get some background, some genealogy, nothing like that here, but he's identified as this priest of God Most High, and he blesses Abram.

In other words, he has this position of authority, this superior position. Abram gives him a tithe. We hear about him again in Psalm 110, verse 4, but he really has got a picture of Christ and of the priestly office that Christ would fulfill. An eternal priesthood, if you will, or an everlasting priesthood, not like the Levitical priests who are going to be instituted later in the Old Testament.

This is a priesthood long before the Levitical priesthood, and one which focuses on Jesus' work, his special work as the Lord, as our great high priest. So you turn to Hebrews chapter 7, and the author of the Hebrews gives us a little bit of an exposition of that scene. He says in verse 1, For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met Abraham, returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him. And to him Abraham appointed a tenth part of everything. He is first, by translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then he is also king of Salem, that is, king of peace. He is without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the son of God, he continues a priest forever. Now that word resembling is really important.

It means to be similar to or like something else. In other words, I don't think that Melchizedek was a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus Christ. I think he was just this individual, this kingly priestly figure there, who, according to the revelation we're given in the Old Testament, doesn't have any background.

There's no genealogy given. He just sort of falls out of the sky, as I said. And insofar as that's the case, he resembles the son of God, who is uncreated, who had no beginning, who is the eternal son of God, Jesus. And so Melchizedek is, really for us, a picture of Christ, who is the great prophet, priest, and king of the people of God, who we submit to, who we love, who we worship. So it's really amazing when you trace all of these stories in the Bible, way back there in Genesis chapter 14, to see these great pictures, if you will, of Christ, of his priestly office, of his kingly office.

Even there in Genesis 14, what does Melchizedek do? He brings out bread and wine. It sort of reminds you of what Jesus did with his disciples right before he went to the cross, sitting with them in the upper room there.

He brings out bread and wine and says, this is my body, this is my blood for you. And so check out those passages, read those passages, Genesis 14, Hebrews 7, meditate on those texts, and be in awe of the glory of Christ. God bless. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Just a reminder, the wonderful book we have available for parents and grandparents just in time for the holidays.

It's called What Every Child Should Know About Prayer by our friend Bible teacher theologian Nancy Guthrie. You can find out more about that by going to corechristianity.com forward slash offers. Well, let's go to Janine in Missouri. Janine, what's your question for Adriel?

Hey Janine, are you there? Yes, why did God make the serpent? Why did God make the serpent?

Yeah, we're going back to Genesis again. So early on in Genesis, you have in Genesis chapter 3 the serpent, more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made, and the serpent deceives Adam and Eve. And as a result, sin enters into the world, and death through sin, and we've been in a terrible condition ever since. Now why did God make the serpent? I think I'd put it a little bit different, because everything that God made, and this is absolutely clear from the first two chapters of the book of Genesis, was good. There was no sin. Everything that God made was good, including the angels, all of them.

So what happened is you have this rebellion, if you will, this fall, rooted in pride. One of the angels, Satan, Lucifer, wanting to ascend to God, wanting to be like him, and as a result, he fell. God gave him free will, if you will, just like he gave Adam and Eve free will, freedom of choice here in the garden. And so I would say God made everything good, all the angels good, but some of those angels, including the serpent, chose to rebel, and God allowed that. Now that's a separate quote. Why did God allow this to happen? Well, that's getting into some pretty deep waters. One thing we do know is that God did not allow anything that he hadn't already determined and purposed how to deal with, how to fix, and of course we have the promise of the gospel given to us in Genesis 3.15, that the seed of the woman was going to crush the head of the serpent.

So God allowed the serpent's deception to come into the garden, but he didn't make the serpent in that sense. So I think we have to be clear with our language, and that's how I would unpack your question. So thank you for that question, and may the Lord bless you. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Let's go to Debbie, who's listening in Martin, Illinois. Debbie, what's your question for Adriel?

Hi. My Bible study teacher and I were talking about the deal with Texas and the abortion thing, and anyhow, she said she was both pro-life and pro-choice, as she doesn't think the government should rule on anything like that. And I don't understand how a Christian can be pro-choice and pro-life, pro-choice period. But anyway, how would you have handled that? Yeah. Thank you for that question, one.

So a couple of things. God instituted civil government, he gives us civil government. You can read about this in Romans chapter 13. And those governments that God has instituted, he's allowed to operate under his, ultimately, his sovereign rule, are accountable to him. And they're accountable to do good, to do justice. Now, I would say abortion is a great injustice.

It's the taking of a life. And so it's okay, I would say, it's right for there to be good and just laws pertaining to this. And people are going to disagree about it, right? But we can't disagree about what's just and what's unjust, what's right and what's wrong. I think it's clearly, with regard to this issue, it's clearly spelled out in the scriptures.

Now, it seems like, I'm not entirely sure with why or what the reasoning is behind this particular friend of yours or this Bible teacher who says they're both pro-life and pro-choice, which I take to mean that they think there are some circumstances where an individual, it's just fine for them to terminate their baby's life. I would want to get a little bit more information, but I think, just in answering your question the way you've stated it, it is okay and it's right. I mean, it's important that civil governments here on earth today govern justly. We should pray for that, too. We should pray for that, we should pursue that. Ultimately, that's what's the best for our neighbors. In terms of loving our neighbors, you think of the law of God, the second table of the law, what Jesus calls us to. Part of that is how we treat the vulnerable, and not just the unborn, but all the vulnerable in society. And so, I've heard people say this before, too, you know, pro-life doesn't just refer to how we treat unborn babies.

And that's true. We also want to think about all the other vulnerable people out there who we often overlook, and it's never okay to overlook any of them. So we should have a consistent, I think, as Christians, pro-life ethic across the board, but that certainly includes taking a stand against, taking a strong stand against abortion. So, yeah, I would just encourage you to continue to have those conversations with this friend and point to the Scriptures and encourage them as well. So, Debbie, thank you for giving us a call. Israel, here's a quick email question before we go.

This listener says, Thanks so much for your ministry. My daughter is 11 years old. She has a good relationship with her dad who doesn't live with us. He's told her he doesn't believe in God, and many of my daughter's friends at school are also non-believers. She's expressed that she finds it hard, as I'm really the only one she can talk to about this, and sometimes she feels embarrassed. She's expressed to me she would like to be a Christian and enjoys reading her Bible. I want to help nurture her relationship.

What would you advise? Yeah, I would advise that you certainly encourage her in her relationship with the Lord in reading the Scriptures. Do that together. Pray with each other. Make sure that you're in a good church, right? You're not always going to be able to talk about the things of the Lord with the people in your school, although it is nice, and I think you want to be able to be bold and talk about Jesus with the people around you. But make sure you're in a good church where you're surrounded by other believers who can encourage you in your walk with the Lord, and so I do hope that you are in a local church. That's going to be important. It's not just you and your daughter doing the Christian life, it's the body of Christ together, walking together, seeking to honor the Lord and to worship Him faithfully, so God bless you as you do that. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this program and be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's word together.