As a worship leader, my heart longs to encourage
the Church to pursue true worship. And
most of all, I am keenly aware that if I am going to stand in front you all and
sing songs about the Living God – the God who struck Uzzah for touching the ark
of the covenant and the creator God who gives and takes away, my heart better
well be in the right place too. We all know that Satan offers many counterfeits
in this world. Worship is no different.
In an American Idol age – we have often made our corporate
worship gatherings about either performing on stage or critiquing from the
audience. We have made ourselves God. We have made our opinions God. We have
worshiped worship. We have missed the mark.
God tells us what worship is not:
Isaiah 29:13 Then the Lord said, "Because this people draw
near with their words And honor Me with their lip service, But they remove
their hearts far from Me, And their reverence for Me consists of tradition
learned by rote. (NASB)
So what does
God expect? “John 4:24 God is spirit
and His worshippers must worship him in spirit and in truth.”
Singing songs with a disengaged heart
is.not.worship. It is simply singing. We must engage our spirits to be worshipers. We must worship with truth – my own
interpretation of that? A true view of God, a true view of self and truly
meaning it – authenticity not lip service.
Really this idea seems simple enough on paper but
anyone who has sat in the pews knows how Satan tries to woo our hearts away
from God…towards…well….anything. A lost toddler shoe on the way out the door. A
fight with your spouse the night before. Feeling self-conscious like everyone
is watching or flippantly sipping coffee while the pastor prays.
So what does God require of us in worship?
Hebrews 12:28,29:Therefore let us be
grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer
to God acceptable worship, with reverence
and awe for our God is a consuming
fire.
If my research is correct…and it might not be
because I’m a better musician than theologian, in the Old Testament reverence
occurs as the translation of two words “Yare” which means “to fear” and
“shachah” which means “falling down”. In the New Testament there are three
words translated to reverence “Deos” which means “awe and godly fear”, “phobeo”
which is “fear or alarm” and “entrepo” which is an awareness of position - in this case, our inferiority and God’s
supremacy.
As I sit in churches I know that our corporate
worship rarely reflects this. Reverence has been replaced with "accessible" and "casual" and while I understand that the curtain was torn and God is now accessible,
I believe that unless we first
revere Him we cannot grasp the grace of an accessible God. Comments I hear
tell me that as worshippers we are inwardly puffed up and concerned about self.
Not bowed down. We are greatly lacking in entrepo.
Since we are leading a worship service from the book
of Revelation this Sunday let me tie that in - there is no better example in
the Scriptures of fear, and awe and falling down before God than in Revelation.
The picture of true worship – that which we are seeking to attain on earth and
never fully will. That which will only be
fully realized in eternity.
Worship isn’t singing. It isn’t a ritual. It isn’t
a physical posture. It is and inward posture. More of You and less of me, God.
Bowing down to prove our position and Yours, Lord. Every knee shall bow and
every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
