Now I’m not what you would call a fashion guru, but I do like to watch what people are wearing and point out some patterns on their clothes. We all live with patterns in our daily lives.
Get out of bed, get dressed for school, have your breakfast, go to school registration, some classes, break time, some class, dinner time, some classes break time, some classes, go home, do your homework, get changed, have your dinner, go out and play, have a bath and go to bed and the next day you do the same thing.
Adults get out of bed, get kids ready for school, make their breakfast, take kids to school, go to work, have some lunch, go back to work, come home, prepare dinner, watch EastEnders, bathe kids, relax and watch CSI, go to bed, sleep and get up the next day and do it all again.
We all live by patterns, and they are important because they help to keep our lives organised. The law of the land gives us patterns, and if we break those patterns, we will end up in prison.
God loves patterns, too; that’s why He gave the Israelites the Ten Commandments. Patterns are important to Him so that we can enjoy life with Him and worship Him according to the pattern He has given us in the Bible.
Read Exodus 25:1-40 and notice that twice in that one chapter, God says, “Make the tabernacle and everything in it according to My pattern,” Exodus 25:9 / Exodus 25:40.
Would God be happy if people just did their own thing and ignored His pattern for us? There were two men named Nadab and Abihu who decided not to stick to God’s pattern.
Let me tell you about another man named Uzzah, who God killed because He didn’t stick to the pattern.
Even today, God has a pattern for us; He has a pattern for the way we are to worship Him.
Does that mean that we should worship God in any way we want? No, He wants us to worship Him in the pattern of Spirit and Truth. In other words, He wants us to worship Him with everything we’ve got, with our mind, body and soul.
And He wants us to worship Him according to the truth or pattern which He has told us about in the Bible. So no matter how much we think this or that would be great to do during worship, we have to listen to God and do what He says.
Now, does God say that we should use guitars, drums and tambourines to make music? No
We should worship God according to the pattern we find in the Bible because, as we saw in the Old Testament, He doesn’t like it when people just do what they want to do. That’s what Jesus told His disciples to remember and what the apostles told all the other Christians to remember.
Now, would I love to hear one of the ladies preach sometime on a Sunday morning, yes, I would, but God’s pattern says that that’s the men’s job. Would I love to see you form a choir and listen to you all singing praises to God on your own on Sunday mornings, yes, I would, but God’s pattern says we’ve all got to sing together.
Now you may think that worship is boring sometimes, but what we adults are doing is worshipping God according to His pattern. The pattern that says to come together on the first day of every week to worship God.
The pattern that says, when you come together, pray, sing, give, encourage each other with a Scripture reading and sermon, remember the Lord’s Supper and enjoy the fellowship with one another and God. Because if we didn’t have that kind of order with our worship, we would be all over the place.
I love the film Toy Story, which, as you know, is about a little boy named Andy who loves to be in his room, playing with his toys, especially his doll named “Woody”.
But what do the toys do when Andy is not with them? Do they come to life? Woody believes that he has life (as a toy). However, he must worry about Andy’s family moving, and what Woody does not know is about Andy’s birthday party.
Woody does not realise that Andy’s mother gave him an action figure known as Buzz Lightyear, who does not believe that he is a toy and quickly becomes Andy’s new favourite toy.
Woody, who is now consumed with jealousy, tries to get rid of Buzz. Then, both Woody and Buzz are lost. They must find a way to get back to Andy before he moves without them, but they will have to pass through a ruthless toy killer, Sid Phillips.
That’s happened in the church at Corinth, where people were following people instead of following God, 1 Corinthians 1:12. They were all saying well, I have this talent and gift, and you haven’t, and my gift is better than yours.
And they were becoming jealous of the gifts that someone had, and someone else didn’t have, and the whole worship service to God was a mess. So Paul finally had to write a letter to them and say.
So if you ever wonder why we do things the way we do and are different from everyone else around us, it’s simply because we want to please God and follow the pattern that He has given us.