Lights Out! Preaching in the Ohio Valley has many special blessings to enjoy.  There are several strong faithful congregations around that work together for the cause of Christ and can help one another in many ways.  Being so close to one another affords us many opportunities to attend one another’s Gospel meetings and once in a while even to exchange pulpits. On one occasion I had the opportunity to exchange pulpits with a brother on a Sunday morning.  I taught the morning Bible class and preached the morning lesson.  I had been there before several times to visit them during Gospel meetings but never preached for them before.  It was a small congregation like the one for which I preached and felt right at home with these fine brethren. I chose to use a sermon that morning that I had heard about 30 years before and I had already preached it at home as well.  The sermon was titled, “The Day Christ Came Again” and the first time I had heard it I enjoyed it very much.  I made some changes, but it was still about the same as I remembered it. The audience was very attentive and even the children seemed to be extra quiet as they listened to the lesson.  Just as I got to the place where there was darkness all around and many in the lesson were trying to find a place to hide from the Lord, all of the lights went out in the building.

Just how important is our worship to God? Must we worship God, and does it really matter how we worship God as long as we are sincere? The Scriptures provide the answers for these questions (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Yes, we have an obligation to worship God. “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching” (Hebrews 10:25). “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). Further, our worship must be from the heart as well as in truth, that is, according to his Word (John 17:17). God did not leave Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Abraham or David without worship instructions. Likewise, neither has God failed to provide worship instructions for the Lord’s church. Not all worship is acceptable to God. Cain’s worship may have been sincere, but it was not by faith; his worship was not the result of hearing and doing God’s will (Hebrews 11:4; Romans 10:17). Jesus rebuked the scribes and the Pharisees for their vain and useless worship. “This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Matthew 15:8-9). Worship today also becomes vain and useless when human worship practices are substituted for divine worship. We live under the New