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Change Without Compromise: Worship

Change without Compromise
Worship – Only a Truly Worshiping Church Can Reach their City

My wedding anniversary is on July 24th. Suppose on this upcoming anniversary day I brought home a dozen long-stemmed red roses for Rachel. When she meets me at the door I hold out the roses, and she says, "Bob, they're beautiful, you are the greatest, and so thoughtful, thank you," and Rachel gives me a big hug. Then suppose I hold up my hand and say matter-of-factly, "Don't mention it; it's my duty." What happens? Isn’t it a good thing that I remembered the anniversary date? Isn’t it a good thing that I bought Rachel flowers? Not if there's no heart in it. Dutiful roses are a contradiction in terms. If I am not moved by my heart’s desire for Rachel, the roses do not honor her. In fact they belittle her. Every morning I must kiss my wife goodbye; simply stated my wife wants a kiss goodbye. I must kiss her but not that kind of must. Unless my kiss goodbye comes from a deep affection for her, my dutiful kiss is stripped of any value of love.

Just as I at times do things out of duty in my marriage stripping it of moral value, I likewise do this in my worship. God says that we must worship Him. But not that kind of must. What kind then? The kind C. S. Lewis described: "It is a Christian duty, as you know, for everyone to be as happy as he can.” The real duty of worship is not the outward duty simply to show up on Sunday, nor is it to simply stay awake for the sermon (although I do appreciate that), nor is it to tolerate the worship music or dutifully sing. Worship is the inward duty, the command-"Delight yourself in the Lord!" (Psalm 37:4). "Be glad in the Lord and rejoice!" (Psalm 32:11). The reason this is the real duty of worship is that this honors God, while the empty performance of ritual does not. If I take my wife out for the evening and she asks me, "Why do you do this?" the answer that honors her most is, "Because nothing makes me happier tonight than to be with you." If a visitor asked you why do you come to listen to the preacher, or why do you sing those songs what would you tell them. There is one and only one answer that pleases our God – I come Sunday, I track the preaching and I sing loudly because nothing makes me happier. You know what that means…that means, I don’t want to be sleeping in, I don’t want to be at breakfast, I don’t want to be skipping church for a ball game…I’m here on Sunday because nothing makes me happier than to worship God through His Word and in Song on the appointed day for the local church. When it comes to being a worshiping church, the first thing we know is that it does not happen if you are dutifully showing up; instead worship happens when nothing makes you happier. Nothing makes me happier than to give my wife flowers on our anniversary; nothing makes me happier than to give my wife a kiss in the morning; and nothing makes me happier than to gather on Sunday to engage God’s Word and exalt God in song.

Turn in your Bibles to the book of Ephesians, chapter 5. The apostle Paul wrote a letter inspired by God and without error to encourage the local churches in Ephesus. Ephesians 5:18-20: “be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Paul is looking for a church to be a group of people who are constantly being filled with the HS. As we draw closer to God, He gives one gift to his children. Do you know what that one gift God gives – God’s singular gift is Himself, the HS. Sometimes we call it grace, peace, strength, power, hope, help, but God gives only one thing – Himself through the HS. So, Paul is saying that people in church should be growing in their relationship as God gives them a filling of the HS. When this happens, when the HS is given, then we cannot contain ourselves and we bust out in speaking and learning the Scriptures and we bust out singing songs. Engaging in God’s Word and singing praises to Him are acts of worship. Have you ever wondered why you love to exalt God in song or you are fully engaged in the sermon? It is because God is loving on you and filling you with a gift of himself; when you are worshiping like that God is drawing close and doing a miracle in you. On the other hand, if you are struggling with God’s Word in preaching or you could careless to sing for whatever reason, the problem is not being continually filled with the HS. The second thing we know about being a worshipping church is that it depends on individually being filled with the HS.

Maybe your pushing back right now saying – I just don’t like to sing; or I don’t like to sing those songs; or I do like the sermon but only sometimes when Bob is funny or when it is about my situation. Let me interpret what you are saying, “I am not a real worshipper,” or “I am a selective and preferential worshiper.” God created you for a primary purpose - it is not to worship yourself and your preferences; it is not to worship your family; and it is not to worship your job. So what do you think God created you to worship? God created me to worship Him. Further, God created the church to be a group that worships Him. Not only did God create me to worship him, but God created WE to worship Him.

There is a difference between being a lead worshiper like Jimmy; but, you are a worshiper. God created you, he designed you to be a great worshiper. Worship is the central theme in the life of God. Almost everyone would agree that biblical worship involves some kind of outward act. Worship in Hebrew means to bow down. Worship is bowing down, lifting hands, praying, singing, reciting, listening to preaching, and so on. One definition of worship I like is this: Worship – is a full life response to the greatness of God. Worship if a lifestyle – what we talk about; what we sing about; what we think about. Godly worship is a full life response to the greatness of God. Worship is not about preference, it is not about style, it is not about choice of music, it is not about whether or not you have drums. Worship is a lifestyle of being happiest when you are in God’s Word; you are happiest when you are singing about God in whatever style of music; godly worship is being happiest when you are God-centered rather than self-centered.

Worship is the central theme in the life of God, yet worship is the central divisive issue in the churches. The division in worship most often does not center around preaching, but centers on music. I see this as good and bad. It is good because as the preacher-man I most often avoid the controversial comments. It is bad because there is nothing more important than the teaching, preaching and learning of God’s Word. As you know, the divisiveness in the church centers around worship music. The controversy includes the style of music – do you like ancient songs for example Be Thou My Vision is 8th century; do you like classical music; do you prefer traditional hymns; or maybe you like 1970’s gospel music; do you like slow hymns or faster hymns; and maybe you like 1980s-1990s praise songs; or maybe contemporary; but not any contemporary just cutting edge stuff; what about rap worship. We call this the preference war because each one of us has our preferences, and many of us complain. Complaining is not my issue today, instead it is the reason behind complaining. The reason we feel empowered to complain is that the preaching or the music did not hit my personal standard. Each of us has a preference standard and when the preaching or music is outside of our preferences then we complain. When it comes to worship what we must learn is that we don’t set the standards, God alone sets the standards.

In the book of Leviticus, God set the worship standard…things would be burned as acts of worship and God would pronounce whether or not he was pleased with the worship. God decided the rules of worship. Only certain animals were allowed to be sacrificed; and those animals could not have certain defects. God decided the type and quality of the animals; God decided where the sacrifice would happen and God decided when and how it must be done. If the people followed God’s ways of worship and only if they had the right heart then their acts of worship would be accepted by God. In the NT churches – like us – God’s standard is that local churches gather on Sundays and they engage in the bible and exalt Him in song. The local church today is engaged in preference war – we all set our own standards and we decide if we like the worship or not. This would be like us living in the OT and questioning God’s choice a sacrificial system; our preference would be to offer this animal and not that animal; the animal does not really need to be of that good of quality for heaven sake it is being burned up anyway. God alone sets the standard – the local church will worship in Word and Song, in truth and spirit. We don’t personally get to set the standard; and when we complain about the songs we are saying they did not hit my personal standard.

The only argument that you may have is in the NT we have more freedom under the new covenant. That is right. So, you continue then we could do the preaching I like or the songs I like. That is right. There is freedom. So, if that is true then is it okay to complain if I or Jimmy does not hit your preferences…I don’t think so. God called us to be lead worshipers, so that means we understand and appreciate this church of worshipers – your strengths and weaknesses. And just as importantly, as leaders God’s gives us wisdom and discernment that he does not give the individual worshiper for a vision of where to take the worship. We do not take popularity polls to determine what to do, instead we trust in God’s guidance. Leading worship demands that we are being led by God not by humans. This of course does not preclude you from talking with us. We use our discussions as research; we want to know what you are thinking; we want to know where you are and what helps you worship best.

God does not decide based on form alone but also the substance of our hearts. We must sing songs that are true of God but just as importantly we must have the right spirit – the right attitude – the right heart – for God to accept our worship. When the offering was accepted the people shouted for joy. It was acceptable to God when the aroma or fragrance was acceptable as it was breathed in through God’s nostrils. How do you get an aroma – only if you crush it or burn it. You can carry around an orange all day, but only if you rip the peel off and squeeze the juices will you get its excellent aroma. God is looking for your aroma, your fragrance through worship. What is God receiving from you? Are you offering God the very best sacrifice for worship where God will be pleased with your worship aroma or will it be rejected. We tend to be so arrogant to actually think that God would accept any worship I give him. You are sadly mistaken; see our God demands the best and accepts nothing less then the best.

The only question regarding our worship is this – will God accept this worship. In other words, we ask this question: is God happy with blank? Is God happy with my preaching but also is God happy with your engagement during preaching. Is God happy with Jimmy’s leading in song, but also is God happy with your engagement during songs. We often solely talk about whether or not we like the sermon or we like the song selection. We think we are the determiners of acceptance, but in reality everything we do is done for God, not for you but to help you worship God so that he will accept it. This church hired me and Jimmy to lead a people of God to worship.

God’s Evaluation: If people came to see God among his people what would they see and what would they hear? God would look to us and say is that what you think of me, is that the voice you will lift up to me, is that how you think you will impact a city for me. That was weak, that was lame, that was pathetic. Would God tell you today that your singing was pathetic not because of the quality of your voice but the quality of your heart and your intention, your attempt, your love to shout praises to God. Really, is that all you are willing to give to God?

God’s Growth: I believe the greatest method way to mature spiritually is becoming a great worshiper. Fully engage God’s Word through preaching and exalt God through song. If you do that, your spiritual growth will begin to skyrocket. You need to realize that spiritual growth is connected more to the heart first then to the mind first. To intellectually learn the Word, you must have the right heart attitude. It does not stop there, God is growing us to spiritual maturity for a purpose – to reach the unchurched and the unbelievers. The singular greatest way God will reach this city through us is when we become a worshiping church. We are commanded to remove all of the barriers to reach the lost – we improved the building, we changed the sign, we try every week to give the best music and best preaching…we have made many changes to remove barriers and we need to make more…but the greatest way we will bring God to this city is by becoming a truly worshiping church. Fully engaged in the sermon; fully engaged in exalting God through song.

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