When is Music Worship?

Is it possible to sing the praises of God and His Word among the gathered people of God every week and yet it not be worship? Unfortunately that is a possibility.

Our music-making that is completely focused on the Biblical revelation of our great God is not necessarily by itself "worship".  It can be idolatry, it can be self-centered, it can be culturally relevant and significant and even greatly emotional.  But what makes our music-making worship?

We all know from experience that those who prepare and "lead" worship get great benefits from their efforts.  In fact, there are three parts of that process in worship.

First, the work we intentionally do for God's glory is worship.  In a very Biblical sense, Wednesday rehearsals are a "worship time"!  Because we come together and our worship is the giving to God His due with the devotion of our bodies, our time, and our energy for His glory.

Second is our prayer preparation.  Psalm 24 says, "Who may ascend the hill of the Lord?  He who has clean hands and a pure heart . . . Such is the generation of those who seek Him."  So it becomes more than our worship in rehearsal.  We must also come before Him in prayer and make sure our heart and our life connects with our song.  Our preparation for worship must include making sure we are confessed up to date, coming with clean hands and a pure heart before God and His people.

Finally is the actual leading of worship.  We must come to the point that making music in corporate worship with the gathered body of Christ is never for ourselves.  It must be for the purpose of drawing others in the joy and understanding of what we have learned and now sing.  Hebrews 13 reminds us that leading worship is "the fruit of lips that confess His name."

It is a high calling, special joy and obligation to lead the people of God to sing praises to His name!  May we always be becoming "living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God."  If we have all of these things in place, that is when our music is worship!  mjm

Continuing Worship When We Gather

The very heart of Old Testament worship from Moses on is connected with the tabernacle and then the temple.  But in the New Testament the focus of our worship changes to Jesus Himself.  It is suggested in the New Testament that He is the temple, the priest, the Passover Lamb, the Bread of Life, etc.  Therefore, worship of the Old Testament patterns and language changes from a place or a time to all of life in the New Testament.  Worship is now for all the people of God at all times in all places and is connected to how they live out their lives. 

New covenant worship suggests constant "worship".  So we might say that when the New Testament Church gathers, it gathers to continue our worship that is already going on.  When we gather to continue our worship we find mutual edification or encouragement among the gathered people of God as we sing praise together, edify and encourage one another in the faith, experience confession, public prayer, the ministry of God's Word, etc.  

I have said on many occasions that our corporate worship can never surpass our personal worship.  This makes our personal daily worship and obedience to God even more important, in that it determines our gathered worship to a great extent.  What are you doing to improve your church's worship as we gather to continue our worship?  mjm

Him ..., Us..., or Them?

The worship of the church was never meant to be entertainment or a show. In fact, I literally cringe when someone from the congregation comes up to me and says, "good show."  And, yes, it does happen.  Too much of what the contemporary church calls worship is strictly on a horizontal level.  We are performing for one another as opposed to seeking to connect with God Himself.  We are not vertical in our approach.

If the things we do in God's house are basically all about us, God is not going to be in the house.  We call it worshipping God and yet are more aware of one another and asking questions like . . . "How is this coming across? . . . Is everybody happy with the music? . . . How's the sermon? . . . How do we look?" . . . or "Are we still on schedule"?  And before we know it our so-called worship is degenerated to being completely human centered. The focus is on us.

Another thing we do is look at the purpose of worship as being evangelistic. When we are focused on "how are the visitors perceiving this? . .  . are we impressing them? . . . will they want to come back?" So everything being done, sung, and said is put through the filter of the perception of the outsider.  Don't get me wrong.  I believe in evangelistic efforts and events.  

But on a week by week worship basis, the focus or the agenda is different. Worship should not be designed to attract people.  It should be designed and prayed for to attract the manifest presence of God and then He and His manifest presence will attract people to worship.  Our purpose in worship is to reach out to God.  He is the audience of one...not the congregation. Another way of putting it is. . . we shouldn't be seeking results.  We should seek Jesus and He'll give the results.  "But seek ye first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you."  If we as His people will go after God, He will bless beyond our imagination or expectation.  mjm

Singing Praise

Singing to the Lord throughout Scripture is not a suggestion.  It is a command.  And there are many of those commands.  There are many believers who say, "I just don't sing because I don't have a good voice."  But the problem is not with a bad singing voice, or the practice of singing.  The problem is disobedience.  We don't sing to God because we are good singers, we sing to Him because He has commanded it and He is worthy of our praise.

Oh that we would be free of the fear of people's judgement so we could put the pleasure of God first.  A sacrifice of praise costs us something, which often includes stepping out of our comfort zones.  Sacrifices are for the purpose of giving honor and glory to God.  They are not for our convenience.  Sacrifices are uncomfortable.  Our singing doesn't have to be the best in the world, only OUR best.  

Children's Choirs are so important in our churches as we teach children to be comfortable with singing and learning the importance of using their singing in worship.  We are preparing them for a lifetime of obedience in worship.  We must always encourage our children and youth to sing.

When I heard my children and grandchildren in their earliest days raise their voices to God, it gave me great pleasure even when they messed up songs or invented songs that didn't make sense.  For me as a father and grandfather, their songs were priceless.  

All should realize that our songs are priceless to the Heavenly Father.  We shouldn't worry about whether or not we can sing good enough to be a soloist, or a worship choir member, or on the radio.  Those are not our audiences.  Our Father is our audience...and He loves to hear us sing.  So, sing praise to His Name!  mjm

Don't Feel like Worshipping

I am sure sometimes we feel that way, that we just don't feel like worshipping.  Where does "feel like" come from?  It comes from our present circumstances or environment.  In thinking about that I was reminded of the phrase, "a root out of a dry ground" found in Isaiah 53:2, which of course was prophesying the coming of our Lord.  What does that phrase mean? The root is the channel for supplying life.  A root out of a dry ground means there is no supply from circumstances or outward environment.  If our Lord Jesus had tried to get His life from circumstances He could not have kept going, as many times it seemed all was an utter failure.  And yet He rejoiced in spirit. Jesus knew nothing circumstantial can move or help us.  In Romans 8:37 Paul states that "in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loves us."  Paul doesn't say "above" or "out of" all things, but in the very midst of all circumstances.  There is no source from outside. There is only one source or supply of life.  

"A root out of a dry ground" means that our joy, our life, our peace does not come from outside.  We have to come to a place where we know that all we have is in God alone.  Otherwise, we are held up by things and even people who are seemingly the Lord's.  If we are trying to draw life from our circumstances rather than . . . "God, our exceeding joy" then we will end up with nothing to carry us on, and we will not "feel like worshipping."  Our worship is not fed by outward circumstances, but by God alone.  If we are being supplied only by assembly of fellow believers, or whatever else - we must take it with a grain of salt.  Yes, we live with our fellow believers, but we do not live by them.  Our Lord Jesus rejoiced not in His circumstances or the people around Him.  He rejoiced and lived in the Father.  He knew from where the supply must come to keep Him going steadily.  May we learn the same lesson . . . and then, we will always feel like worshipping.  mjm

It is More Than . . .

It is more than singing certain kinds of songs... more than praying... more than clapping, shouting and lifting hands... more than reading of Scripture... more than preaching.  Yes worship is more than all of these things.  Our worship is based on Matthew 22 - "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." And . . . "Love Your neighbor as yourself".  This, of course, is known as the first and greatest commandment.  

But as we said in the beginning of this blog, it is more than the above.  We see it hinted at in the Sermon on the Mount as Jesus expands on that command.  We also see insight in the book of Amos when the old prophet gives some strong words about abuse and even condemns Israel's worship.  He talks about the "assemblies being a stench", says "away with the noise of your songs" and then he says, "But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!"  Amos is saying that you are not living out a life of true worship.  He addresses their idolatry and mentions their injustice and abuse of the poor five times.  He charges them with the following:

*becoming self-important

*using wealth as a means of luxury

*neglecting the poor

*treating people like commodities

*perverting justice in the courts

*idolatry

As worshippers today we need to look at these things and say, "Lord, examine my heart and speak to me."  True worship will include the glory and honor that is due our Lord because He is worthy.  But it also must include the enacting of God's love and justice, mercy and kindness in our world.  How's your life of worship?  mjm

The Real Worship War

Been reading through the Gospels this week.  That's where we find the real worship war as opposed to the ones some have tried to create in the church.  It is made clear in Scripture that Jesus is fully God and fully man.  Satan purposes to kill, take from, and totally destroy all humans - because we are created in the image of God.  Above all he wants to destroy our worship and steal our relationship with God, making sure we are destined for hell.  Looking in the Gospels we see where satan therefore tries to do the same to Jesus, replacing Christ's worship of God with worship of him.  So, satan declares a worship war against God in the flesh!

After His baptism Jesus is led into the wilderness "to be tempted by the devil."  First satan tries to get Jesus to doubt God's Word.  But Jesus knew He was the Word and the Bread of Life and rebuffed satan.  First attack was to doubt God's Word.  He will do the same today in his war on worship with us.

Secondly satan seeks to get Christ to put God to a test.  Will He really catch and care for Him?  He seeks to sow doubt.  But Jesus answers with Scripture, "You shall not put the Lord Your God to the test".  Again, satan will do the same in the midst of our trials and difficulties, he will seek to sow doubt in our hearts therefore hindering our worship of Christ.

Then satan goes for broke, challenging Jesus directly to worship him.  Satan tries to force Jesus to choose an inheritance by worshipping him rather than God.  But Jesus knew you couldn't inherit what is already fully yours.  We need to be very aware that many times satan will seek to entice us to worship the gift rather than the giver - which will destroy our authentic worship of Him.  

Lastly, we need to realize that satan attacked Jesus right at the time He was seeking to obey the Spirit who was leading Him into the wilderness.  Satan will try the same ploy with us.  He will seek to lure us away right when we are praying or worshipping, through distractions or restlessness.  We must never forget we are in a spiritual battle for our worship! mjm

A Prophet's Song in the Night

During my readings this week, I read through the book of Habakkuk taking note of some things that corresponded to worship.

The first point of worship reference I saw was that Habakkuk's account of his time is written in the form of a dialogue between the prophet and the Lord.  Worship is dialogue.  God speaks or acts and we respond.  Habakkuk is questioning God's actions allowing evil ones among God's people to go unpunished.  Habakkuk is stunned by the Lord's response that He is sending judgment on His people. But in the midst of that knowledge of overwhelming judgement, the prophet affirms the Lord, "I will rejoice in the Lord . . . The Sovereign LORD is my strength". (Habakkuk 3:18-19)

Habakkuk right in the middle of difficulties, went to God in prayer waiting patiently for His answer (2:1) G. Campbell Morgan said that when Habakkuk looked around at his circumstances, he was confused (1:3); however when he waited on God and listened to Him, he sang a song in the night. (3:18-19).  When we prepare for worship in the midst of the confusion of our world we need also to pray and wait on the Lord.  And, when we listen and hear God speak we should sing songs of worship just as the prophet did.  It is believed that Habakkuk was not only a prophet but also one of the Levitical choristers in the temple and may have helped arrange the services. (3:19). 

There are actually two dialogues between the prophet and the Lord in this historical record and then the book ends in a hymn and doxology stating a new confidence in God and His Sovereignty.  This song was set to music and sung by the Jews at public worship accompanied by stringed instruments.  After the sincere prayer of the prophet God's glory appeared. If we are to see God's glory, we also must pray, we must have confidence in God's sovereign plan and sing unto the Lord even in the midst of difficulties in the night time of life.  mjm