Worship Matters

“Worship matters. It matters to God because He is the one ultimately worthy of all worship. It matters to us because worshipping God is the reason for which we were created. And it matters to every worship leader, because we have no greater privilege than leading others to encounter the greatness of God.”

The above quote is referenced from Bob Kauflin’s book, Worship Matters. I am preparing to lead my worship team through this book as a study on worship for the fall semester. I plan on posting the study guides online as a resource for my worship team. Here’s the link to the first one :

• Worship Matters :. Intro & Chapter 2 – “My Heart, What Do I Love?”

I pray that this study will continue to drive me and our worship team at Kings back to God’s Word, that we may continue to discover how to become better worshippers!

Heart Attitudes For The Worship Choir

You may be wondering why I haven’t posted anything over the last month. The previous posts on this site have been my weekly reflections which I’ve shared within my own Worship Ministry. Over the last several weeks, I’ve been teaching through various scriptures on what the heart of a worship-leader (specifically geared to my worship choir) should look like. Here is a link to the handouts I’ve been using:

 

The Foundation Of Our Worship

The Frustration Of Our Worship

The Framework Of Our Worship: AUTHENTICITY

The Framework Of Our Worship: FEARING GOD

The Framework Of Our Worship: HUMILITY

 

I pray these will be helpful to you wherever you may be serving. Blessings!

Becoming a “Wellspring” Worshipper

One thing we learn about worship from John 4 is that worship is about real life. It’s about your lifestyle from Monday to Saturday as much as it is about your service on Sunday mornings. Jesus couldn’t be clearer about this point in his own teaching on worship. Consider the passage where Jesus teaches his disciples about worship using a harlot as his test case!

When Jesus comes to Sychar, a city of Samaria, he meets a Samaritan woman at a well. While the Samaritan woman is amazed that Jesus, being a Jew, would even speak to her, he raises her level of amazement by offering her living water. He then speaks to her saying: “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty forever. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:13-14). What does Jesus mean by the teaching that living water becomes a spring that brings eternal life to yourself and to others? He’s teaching her about becoming a worshipper. I recently read an artical discussing this passage by a well-known pastor, John Piper. It reads:

 

What did Jesus mean? Proverbs 13:14 says, “The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life.” Perhaps, Jesus meant that the wisdom he gives satisfies the soul and turns a person into a fountain of life. Perhaps, his water is teaching. But the closest parallel to verse 14 is John 7:37-39: “‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive.” But here, John makes plain that Jesus is speaking about the Holy Spirit. It’s the presence of God’s Spirit in your life that takes away your frustrated soul-thirst forever and turns you into a person who overflows with life for others. However, probably both of these are true – that Jesus’ teaching satisfies your thirst and makes you a fountain of life, and that the Holy Spirit satisfies your thirst and makes you a fountain of life. When we come to Christ to drink, what we drink is truth – but not dead, powerless facts. The Spirit and the Word unite to quench our thirst and make us a fountain of life. This is what Christ offered to the Samaritan harlot. (By John Piper. Used by permission of Desiring God Resources: www.desiringgod.org).

This is the goal of worshippers everywhere. Our aim is crystal clear: We must lead others to drink from the well of Christ, who is the source of all-satisfying joy, by showing them that ultimate soul-satisfaction comes through the Spirit and the Word of God. This should also be an encouragement to us. Sometimes, it’s easy to feel spiritually dead and think, “Can God really use me to accomplish this?” But God reminds us in this passage that a sinful, shameful, unspiritual harlot can not only be saved, but can become a well-spring of life for others. Therefore, if we continue to turn from our sin and drink from the well of Christ, God will use us to be a source of life and joy to those in our home, our church, and our community.

The Prelude to Worship: Purification

One of the most appropriate prayers we should pray before any attempt to “lead” in worship is Psalm 51:

Be gracious to me, O God, according to your loving-kindness; according to the greatness of your compassion, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, I have sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified when you speak and blameless when you judge. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, you desire truth in the innermost being, and in the hidden part you will make me know wisdom. Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness. Let the bones which you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence and do not take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and sustain me with a willing spirit (Psalm 51:1-12).

In order to engage in authentic, biblical worship, sin cannot be present in our lives. Sin disrupts everything. When we sin, we fail to conform to the moral laws presented in God’s Word. Furthermore, God hates sin because it contradicts his very nature of being eternally good. That’s why sin mars the image of God in our lives. We no longer reflect the nature God has designed us to reflect. While sin doesn’t change our standing before God, it does affect our fellowship with God because he is grieved by sin (Wayne Grudem, “Christian Beliefs,” p. 62). Therefore, our worship will be hindered until we repent of any sin in our lives. For we know that if we earnestly confess our sin, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).

Psalm 51 presents a proper method of biblical purification: remember God’s mercy, repent of your sin, and request God’s cleansing. We must come before God with a contrite heart, lamenting over sin and seeking purification from God. The Scriptures place great emphasis on purification from sin for the worshipper. The Psalmist says it this way: Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? Who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood. He shall receive a blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation (Psalm 24:4-5). The author of Hebrews echoes this: Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water (Hebrews 10:22).

As a side note, I love reading books by the Puritan writers. One thing that has always stood out as a hallmark of these texts is their constant awareness of their sinful condition and their earnest desire for repentance. As I was recently reading a book of Puritan prayers, I came across an entry entitled “Purification.” This prayer is a healthy and necessary perspective on the need for purification as a worship leader:

“Lord Jesus, I sin. Grant that I may never cease grieving because of it, never be content with myself, never think I can reach a point of perfection. Kill my envy, command my tongue, trample down self. Give me grace to be holy, kind, gentle, pure, and peaceable. Deliver me from attachment to things unclean, from wrong associations, from the predominance of evil passions, from the sugar of sin as well as its gall, that with self-loathing, deep contrition, earnest heart-searching, I may come to thee, cast myself on thee, trust in thee, cry to thee, and be delivered by thee.”

(Taken from “Valley Of Vision,” p.81).

Revelation: Response

Isaiah’s vision as recorded in Isaiah 6:1-7 helps us gain a proper perspective on worship:

In the year of King Uzziah’s death, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called out to another and said, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory.” And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke. Then I said, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” The one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs. He touched my mouth with it and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven.”

Authentic, biblical worship begins and ends with God. It begins with God revealing himself to us and ends with us responding to him. In this text, Isaiah receives a revelation and immediately his life is changed. In seven short verses of revelation, Isaiah’s life is transformed. The magnificent revelation of God’s holiness was the foundation and ongoing support of his future ministry. Furthermore, throughout Scripture, we find examples of individuals who accomplished amazing tasks because of a significant revelation from God.

Contrast this with the revelation God provides to us today. God has given us 1,189 chapters, which is 31,103 verses of Scripture so that we might know him. Upon further study, one would discover that Christian Book Distributors (the largest online Christian Book Store) has over 2,900 editions of the Bible. The local LifeWay Christian Bookstore stocks approximately 750 copies of the Bible daily. Furthermore, there are numerous resources available today that can bring us closer to God through his revealed Word.

Isaiah’s life was radically transformed after his encounter with God. Imagine what would have happened to Isaiah as he faced difficult circumstances and persecution if he had not been changed by the vision in Isaiah 6. He would have faltered. He might have failed. So, we too, like Isaiah, need revelation from God to fuel our worship and our passion to do his work.

Just imagine a multitude of changed believers who have been deeply impacted by God’s Word. Picture the intensity, the excitement, and the beauty of God-centered, Christ-exalting, Scripture-filled worship. We need God to reveal himself to us! Spending time in his Word and reading his revelation to us is essential for our worship of God and our walk in faith. For we know that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ (Romans 10:17).

The Path To Life

This is my first of, hopefully, many blogs to come. I’ve entitled the blog, “The Path To Life,” based on one of my favorite passages of poetry in the Bible, Psalm 16. The content of this site will be based on my personal studies of God’s Word (and probably many thoughts on the topic of worship). Please leave comments as often as you like. Hopefully, this will be an encouragement to you and to those you might pass these thoughts on to. God bless you!