Worship Matters: Leading Others to Encounter the Greatness of God

by Bob Kauflin

We're helping people connect with the purpose for which they were created-to glorify the living God. We're pointing their hearts toward the Sovereign One who is greater than their trials and kinder than they could ever imagine. We get to display the matchless Savior who died in our place, conquering sin, death, and hell in the process.

Worship is about what we love. What we live for. It's about who we are before God.

A quote from the outstanding book, "Worship Matters", by Bob Kauflin.

Worship matters. It matters to God because he is the one ultimately worthy of all worship. It matters to us because worshiping 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. That's why it's so important to think carefully about what we do and why we do it.

Your greatest challenge is what you yourself bring to the platform each and every Sunday. Your heart.

Whenever we love and serve anything in place of God, we're engaging in idolatry. We love our idols because we think they'll provide the joy that comes from God alone. We think having them will truly satisfy us. We think they're worthy of our worship.

Idols enslave us and put us to shame (Isaiah 45:16; Psalm 106:36).

The apostle John warned his readers and us, "Little children, keep yourselves from idols" (1 John 5:21).

Idols are powerless to help us and end up making us into their own...

Like David, we should hate idols and those who pay regard to...

When some of us hear the word idolatry, we picture primitive tribesmen bowing down to statues of wood, metal, or stone. Or we think of countries like India where Hindu temples dot the landscape. When I went to train pastors in India years ago, I met many men who had grown up worshiping idols as a daily ritual. But idol worship ...

As Christians we're sometimes like the people described in 2 Kings 17:33: "they feared the Lord but also served their own gods."

We fear the Lord externally, doing all the right things on Sunday morning-singing, strumming a guitar, lifting our hands-yet actively serve false gods throughout the week. We profess to love the true God but actually love false idols. It's a condition that God, in his mercy, is committed to changing.

"Gary, I don't know what to do. I feel hopeless all the time. Completely hopeless." I expected Gary to say something like, "You'll be okay, Bob. God is faithful. He's working all things for your good." Instead he looked at me with compassion and stated, "I don't think you're hopeless enough." I'm not sure what the look on my face said at that moment, but inside I was picking myself up off the floor. Gary smiled. "If you were really hopeless, you'd stop trusting in yourself and what you can do and start trusting in what Jesus accomplished for you at the cross."

I started seeing a reality that dominated my life-the reality of my sinful cravings. My problems-emotional, physical, and otherwise-stemmed from battles within my heart of which I'd been largely unaware.

I'd been in a relentless pursuit of glory. I relished hearing my name mentioned, reading my name in print, and being commended by others for my wisdom, my musical gifts, my parenting, and my care-even my humility. I'd grown increasingly offended when people found fault with anything I did. I bristled inwardly when someone questioned my integrity, gifting, or planning. I tried to avoid any kind of criticism and worked hard to persuade others that I was an exceptional (but humble) Christian, pastor, and worship leader.

Here's my sobering discovery. I learned that I could lead others in worshiping God and be worshiping something else in my own heart.

But we can't love anything in the right way unless we love God more. Our desires will be out of whack.

How do I know what I love the most? By looking at my life outside of Sunday morning. What do I enjoy the most? What do I spend the most time doing? Where does my mind drift to when I don't have anything to do? What am I passionate about? What do I spend my money on? What makes me angry when I don't get it? What do I feel depressed without? What do I fear losing the most? Our answers to those questions will lead us straight to the God or gods we love and worship. That's why as worship leaders our primary concern can't be song preparation, creative arrangements, or the latest cool gear. Our primary concern has to be the state of our hearts.

That's why as worship leaders our primary concern can't be song preparation, creative arrangements, or the latest cool gear. Our primary concern has to be the state of our hearts.

The Great God values not the service of men, if the heart be not in it: The Lord sees and judges the heart; he has no regard to outward forms of worship, if there be no inward adoration, if no devout affection be employed therein. It is therefore a matter of infi...

The better (i.e., the more accurately) we know God through his Word, the more genuine our worship will be. In fact, the moment we veer from what is true about God, we're engaging in idolatry.

Our meeting place with God-the "place" we now worship-is the exalted Lord Jesus Christ. Not a temple. Not a church building. Not a sanctuary or auditorium. Jesus is where and how we meet with God.

There's nothing about our worship of God that isn't defined or affected by Jesus Christ.

"For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (1 Timothy 2:5). A mediator is a person who intervenes between opposing parties to help reconcile them. Without a mediator, there's no hope of the two connecting or being restored. To magnify God's greatness in Jesus Christ means more than worshiping Jesus as God, extolling his example, and thanking him for his love. It involves drawing attention to, and trusting in, his specific work as our mediator and Savior.

Most people haven't spent much time considering their need for a mediator in their relationship with God. That's because we grossly underestimate the gravity and offensiveness of our sin in light of God's infinite majesty, holiness, and justice.

As C. J. Mahaney explains: When you tell non-Christians, "God loves you," they aren't surprised, they aren't perplexed, they aren't stunned. Regrettably, the same is true among most evangelicals, who simply assume this gracious disposition of God-and therefore presume upon it. And we'll continue to ...

God is gracious, to be sure. But not in the way m...

God's perspective is different. He faces an infinitely more difficult dilemma. How can he forgive those who have defied his good and holy laws without compromising the integrity of his just and righteous character? When we sin against God, and all sin is against God, we aren't sinning against someone like us. God is perfect. He is all-good, all-powerful, sovereign, and holy. And with each sin, we raise our fists in defiance against him. We assert our authority over his. Because God is holy and just, he must punish sin. He can't simply "sweep things under the rug" or "forgive and forget." The entire Bible reveals God's unflinching commitment to the glory and honor of his name. We make a mockery of it when we sin.

For that reason, we need to be saved from God's justice. We need to be protected from his fierce jealousy for his supreme and unique glory.

And what we need has been provided for us i...

do you pray specifically, asking the Spirit to reveal Christ to everyone gathered, to help the congregation sing with understanding, and to bring forth fruit in people's lives?

No Sunday is a "normal" Sunday. No meeting is a "routine" meeting. Every time we gather, we can expect God to do the miraculous, transforming us into his image as we behold his glory (2 Corinthians 3:18).

That's why I've started to identify myself more often as a continuationist rather than a charismatic. That means I believe that all the spiritual gifts mentioned in the New Testament have continued to the present day and don't limit the Spirit's work to specific gifts. Ultimately, I'm not nearly as concerned about the label as I am about cultivating an active dependence on God's Spirit as he works in and through us for his glory.

Not sure what he's trying to get across here.

Some Christians have so separated worship and the Word that they'll attend one church to experience the Spirit during the music, then visit another to get good teaching. But singing and preaching aren't incompatible or opposed to each other in any way. Both are meant to exalt the glory of Christ in our hearts, minds, and wills. The whole meeting is worship; the whole meeting should be filled with God's Word. And the whole meeting should be characterized by the Spirit's presence. Eagerly expecting the Spirit's power in our meetings goes hand in hand with a radical commitment to the authority and sufficiency of God's Word.

Our churches can't be Spirit-led unless they're Word-fed. A church that's dependent on the Spirit's power in its worship will be committed to the study, proclamation, and application of God's Word in its personal and congregational worship.

I love this excerpt from "Worship Matters".

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. (2 Timothy 3:16) Not only did the Spirit of God inspire God's Word, he illuminates our hearts so we can understand it. God's Spirit and his Word go together.

God has always wanted us to know more of him than can ever be conveyed through impressions, images, and experiences, as powerful as they may be.

How can we ensure that the Word of God is central as we lead the church in worship? By treasuring, singing, reading, showing, and praying God's Word.

Referencing rock stars, funny stories, or lines from a recent movie can appear relevant and trendy. But in so doing we can leave people starving for what they need most to hear from God.

A very Methodist tradition.

Songs are de facto theology. They teach us who God is, what he's like, and how to relate to him. "We are what we sing," one man said. That's why we want to sing God's Word.

Singing God's Word can include more than reciting specific verses in song. If the Word of Christ is going to "dwell in [us] richly" (Colossians 3:16), we need songs that explain, clarify, and expound on what God's Word says. We need songs that have substantive, theologically rich, biblically faithful lyrics. A consistent diet of shallow, subjective worship songs tends to produce shallow, subjective Christians.

Too often we can be tempted to choose songs because of the music rather than the theological content. We need to realize that when words are combined with music we can be deceived. Music can make shallow lyrics sound deep. A great rhythm section can make drivel sound profound and make you want to sing it again.

A pitfall that we need to be concious of.

That's why I typically read the lyrics before listening to a CD or playing a song from a songbook. If the words on the page are theologically shallow or vague, music won't add anything. It will only give the illusion that the words are actually substantive. It's not that music is irrelevant. If great words are being sung to terrible music, no one will remember them or want to sing them. But according to the Lord's command, what should be dwelling in us richly is the Word of Christ, not musical experiences.

The bottom line is: Sing God's Word. Lyrics matter more than music. Truth transcends tunes.

In other words, don't use the Bible as filler.

Scripture can be seen as well as heard. Sometimes we project verses on the screen during an instrumental break of a song or as an introduction to a song. If we plan it in advance, we can have a Scripture projected when the worship leader mentions it. That kind of visual reinforcement can help people better grasp the meaning of a passage being read.

This needs to be done!

You can make your public prayers more biblical by praying the Scriptures back to God privately. Psalms usually work the best. Read a verse, then begin praying the thoughts contained in it, applying them to certain situations or people in your life. Psalms 23, 33, 62, 86, 103, and 145 are good places to start.

A faithful worship leader combines the Word of God with music to magnify the greatness of God in Jesus Christ. We don't need music to hear God's Word. We don't need music to worship God. But the Bible connects music and worship often enough to persuade us that music might be an important aspect of our relationship with God. How important? That's the question I seek to answer in the next two chapters.

amen!

But if we don't understand God's purpose for music in worship, we can misuse it. Even worse, it can rob God of the glory we want to give him.