The Deception of Having it Your Way

Burger King had a slogan back in the early 90’s that they used on most all of their advertising. ‘Have it Your Way.’ However you wanted your burger, this was Burger Kings way of saying, “Whatever you want, we will make your preferences our priority.” And they made a bundle off of their willingness to give their consumers what they wanted.

Many churches have adopted Burger Kings slogan in order to to draw a crowd. When it comes to repentance, ‘Have it Your Way.’ When it comes the worship service, ‘Have it Your Way.’ When it comes to contemporary music verses traditional music, or the way the pastor preaches, ‘Have it Your Way.’

The reason there are churches that have a ‘Have it Your Way’ mentality is because they view the church primarily as a business, not a movement. And they view their members as customers who need to be kept happy, not souls that need to be saved. Therefore the pastors and elders begin to play the role of CEO’s who focus on numbers and not spiritual shepherds who focus on leading people to the Lord.  

But the church is not a business, it’s a family of God’s redeemed people. And the questions that many Christians need to ask themselves are these; Is the church primarily about me, or about God? Should God be concerned with meeting our preferences? Is worship about us, or is it about God? How should our worship be directed?

To answer these questions, we need to look to God’s word and what it tells us about worship. In Leviticus, the sons of Aaron went to worship the Lord. In our modern day context, they played some part in the worship service. They were church folk.

And the sons of Aaron would have claimed to love the Lord. God had given guidelines for how He was to be worshipped. It was clear that worship was to be about God, and not man. But Nadab and Abihu decided they wanted to add fire to the altar.

Maybe they thought fire would spice up the worship service. Maybe fire was just their preference. Regardless of their intentions, God had never told them to get creative with worship and add in whatever they felt was best. Here is the account and how God reacted.

“Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded them.And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord.” Leviticus 10:1-2.

God was not pleased with their attempts to change His worship to conform more to their own preferences. God killed the sons of Aaron in church. God killed them while they were worshipping Him. God does not care about marketing tactics or making the worship service more palatable to the people so that they are pleased. The church is not a ‘Have it Your Way’ organization. Worship is all about Him.

Worship that is centered around man’s preferences will draw a crowd, no doubt about it. But worship that is led by what we want is ultimately us worshipping ourselves. It’s not enough to just be in the church building. It’s not enough to go through the motions of worship. God looks at the intentions and motivations of our hearts in worship. Are we motivated to praise by what we want? Or are we motivated to worship because of how great God is?

In Malachi, we see again the issue of God’s people offering insincere, man centered worship. And we see in passage this the example of the people of God coming before Him yet again and kindling fire upon the altar as an act of worship. They were worshipping God by their own standards, with no regard to honoring the Lord. And God says something shocking to His people who worship Him in vain.

“Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hand.” Malachi 1:10.

In essence, God says to His people, “I wish you would bar the doors to the church building and not even come.” Because their worship was more about them than it was the Lord. They wanted to have it their way, not God’s way. And then the Lord says that even if they do come before Him in worship, He will not accept it. Because the Lord sees the self centeredness of their hearts.

‘What if I don’t like what the pastor is saying?”

Your opinions are unauthorized fire. The question is not do you like what he says, but is what he is saying backed up with the truth of God’s Word? If that man in the pulpit speaking the word of God, nothing else matters.

‘Contemporary music or traditional music?’

Your preferences are unauthorized fire. The question is not ‘Does the music make me feel like worshipping,’ but rather, ‘Do the words that I am singing serve to draw my mind to who God is and to make His glory known?’

“The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe.” Proverbs 29:5.

The problem is that our default position is to fear man more than God. And the snare is the temptation to compromise on the issue of prioritizing God in worship. And when we compromise in order to please man rather than God, it is ultimately the sin of not trusting God. And so many church leaders fall prey to this snare, because they fear man more than God.

I was called to pastor the church that I am currently at almost six years ago. And at that time six years ago, it was a church that epitomized worshipping the Lord with unauthorized fire upon the alter. The worship music was for the most part, man centered. The leadership model was comprised of what they called the PAT, or Pastor Advisory Team rather than Biblically qualified elders. And I was told on more than one occasion that my practice of preaching verse by verse through books of the Bible was something that I should change. As I was told by one leader while I was preaching through the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes, “We are not an Old Testament Church, we’re a New Testament Church.”

Did I have a fear of man? With five kids and a wife to support, you bet I did. Was there a strong temptation to just compromise and go with the flow? Absolutely. But I chose to trust God. Not because I am so spiritually strong, but rather because I saw how spiritually weak I am without God. And I knew that if our congregation was to ever experience the power of God, then I would have to refuse to go along with the status quo, even if it cost me my job. I was forced to trust God.

I did not come in as the new pastor and make any immediate changes. For the first year, I just loved on the people and just observed as continued to preach God’s word. After about two years, I began to see the Lord using His word to bring about changes. After a string of sermons on Biblical worship, some congregants began to voice their problems with many of the man centered things that were going on in our services. Then after going through the book of 1 Timothy, some of our deacons approached me and said, “Eldership is clearly in scripture, so why don’t we have elders?” To which I replied, “That’s a great idea.” We began a two year process of teaching on the Biblical leadership structure and training future elders.

I wish I could say this road was paved with silver and gold. But it was not. As these changes began to take place, many others in the congregation voiced their anger at the church beginning to deviate from what they preferred. And as a result, a great many people ended up leaving the church. Those who wanted a worship service to fit to their preferences left the church. Those who did not like verse by verse preaching left the church. And those who lost their control of the church after the PAT was disbanded left the church.

On more than one occasion, I had irate individuals make threats to my job security if I continued to preach things like eldership and promote changes in our worship service. I had two choices before me. I could have fallen to my knees before these individuals who wanted a ‘Have it Your Way’ church and pleaded for their forgiveness, and said if they would only stay I would make sure to do whatever they wanted. Or, I could trust God along with the small handful of people in the church who desired to stand firm on God’s word and to make our worship more about Him. From a business standpoint, the first option would have been the obvious one. I was scared. I was tempted to compromise for fear of man. But I, along with other Godly men and women, chose to trust the Lord and stand on His word.

Throughout the following years, the Lord has continually brought people to our church that do not want a ‘Have it Your Way Church.’ The Lord has continued (and is continuing) to lead people to our church who desire the pure and unaltered word of the Lord and nothing else. And I take absolutely no credit for any of it. I did nothing. I merely stood and read the scriptures each week. The Lord brought the change, and He has been faithful to those who resisted the temptations of man centered worship.

You can have it your way in worship. But don’t expect God to be there. Unauthorized fire is still placed upon the altar in worship service today. It just comes in the form of our preferences and opinions. When it comes to worship in the church, we are to lay our preferences at the door, and place our eyes upon Christ, not ourselves.