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Worship is about what we love. What we live for. It’s about who we are before God.
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.
worship isn’t primarily about music, techniques, liturgies, songs, or methodologies. It’s about our hearts. It’s about what and who we love more than anything.
While it’s simplistic to say that worship is love, it’s a fact that what we love most will determine what we genuinely worship.
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.
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 infinite importance, to have the whole heart engaged steadfastly for God.1
The better (i.e., the more accurately) we know God through his Word, the more genuine our worship will be.
a worship leader exercises various gifts listed in 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, Ephesians 4, and elsewhere. These include pastoring, leading, administration, and teaching. Under the oversight of the pastor, he combines those gifts with musical skill to care for, guide, and instruct God’s people as they sing his praises.4
A faithful worship leader magnifies the greatness of God in Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit by skillfully combining God’s Word with music, thereby motivating the gathered church to proclaim the gospel, to cherish God’s presence, and to live for God’s glory.
Today, vast stress is laid on the thought that God is personal, but this truth is so stated as to leave the impression that God is a person of the same sort as we are—weak, inadequate, ineffective, a little pathetic. But this is not the God of the Bible! Our personal life is a finite thing: it is limited in every direction, in space, in time, in knowledge, in power. But God is not so limited. He is eternal, infinite, and almighty. He has us in his hands; we never have him in ours. Like us he is personal; but unlike us, he is great1
How could anyone ever think worshiping God is boring? There’s no limit to his holiness, glory, and sovereignty, no end to his riches, wisdom, and righteousness. All his attributes exist together in perfect harmony, perfect balance, perfect cooperation, with no contradiction, no confusion, and no diminishing of their glory forever. He is the source of everything good and beautiful. No wonder Paul breaks into worship as he describes God’s greatness: “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!” (Romans 11:33).
Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. (John 4:21–23)
To worship God “in spirit and in truth” is first and foremost a way of saying that we must worship God by means of Christ. In him the reality has dawned and the shadows are being swept away (cf. Hebrews 8:13). Christian worship is new-covenant worship; it is gospelinspired worship; it is Christ-centered worship; it is cross-focused worship.1
There’s nothing about our worship of God that isn’t defined or affected by Jesus Christ.
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.
Biblically speaking, no worship leader, pastor, band, or song will ever bring us close to God. We can’t shout, dance, or prophesy our way into God’s presence. Worship itself cannot lead us into God’s presence. Only Jesus himself can bring us into God’s presence, and he has done it through a single sacrifice that will never be repeated—only joyfully recounted and trusted in.
The ultimate factor of acceptable worship is faith in and union with Jesus Christ. Our spiritual sacrifices are “acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:5). It is his sinless offering of worship that cleanses and perfects ours.
It’s not the excellence of our offering that makes our worship acceptable but the excellence of Christ. We cannot worship the eternal Father apart from the eternal Son. He was able to offer his own righteous life as a perfect offering because he had no sins of his own to die for (Hebrews 7:26). Even now he intercedes for us, saving us “to the uttermost” (Hebrews 7:25). Our worship is accepted not on the basis of what we have done, but on the basis of what Christ has done.
If we help people focus on what God did two thousand years ago rather than twenty minutes ago, they’ll consistently find their hearts ravished by his amazing love.
It is in Christ, and specifically in his atoning work, that all the attributes of God shine most clearly and brilliantly.
In Christ we behold the wisdom, goodness, love, grace, mercy, and power of God all working together for the great work of our redemption and salvation. The wisdom and love of God are in themselves infinitely glorious. But we cannot see how glorious they are except in the redemption and salvation of the church which is achieved only in and by Christ.6
One of the most important aspects of biblical worship we desperately need to recover today is a passionate, scripturally informed exaltation of Jesus Christ and his redemptive work.
Therefore, one of our primary thoughts as we plan a Sunday meeting should be: Will our time together cause people’s view of, trust in, and desire for God’s glory in Christ and him crucified to increase? For a worship leader’s preparation, focus, and evaluation, no question is more important.
Just as we can’t worship the Father apart from Jesus Christ, worship is impossible apart from the Holy Spirit.
We are desperately dependent. God has sent his Spirit to help us. We show our dependence by asking him to empower us by his Spirit. That’s why we’re taught to pray in and by the Spirit and to pray for the Spirit’s working (Ephesians 6:18; Jude 20; Romans 8:26). He helps us in our weakness. Prayer is one of the primary ways we show that we’re desperately dependent on God.
Do we individually and personally really believe that God still acts, can act and will act—in individuals, in groups of individuals, in churches, localities, perhaps even in countries? Do we believe that He is as capable of doing that today as He was in ancient times—the Old Testament, the New Testament times, the book of Acts, Protestant Reformation, Puritans, Methodist Awakening, 1859, 1904-5? Do we really believe that He can still do it? You see, it is ultimately what you believe about God. If He is the great Jehovah—I am that I am, I am that I shall be, unchanged, unchanging, unchangeable,
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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.
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.
When we treasure God’s Word, it means we’ll love it more than the sports page, our favorite TV show, or time on the Internet.
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 words we sing should also be clear, not obscure or subject to personal interpretation. The Spirit of God wants to illumine our minds when we sing. We don’t want to hinder that process through our songs. In congregational worship, poeticism and creative imagery have their limits. If you don’t understand each line of a song you’re singing, people in your church probably won’t either.
Sing God’s Word. Lyrics matter more than music. Truth transcends tunes.
We can also read Scripture between songs. Reading the Bible between songs doesn’t necessarily break the flow or inhibit true worship; it feeds it. Reading a Scripture passage can help people understand why we’re singing the next song, give a biblical basis for a line or verse from a song, or serve as a change of focus between two songs.
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.
God gave us music to deepen and develop our relationship with him.
We remember what we sing, and nothing is more important to remember than God’s Word.
We know that people need songs that feed them, not simply songs that feel good.
Vitality and meaning will not be restored to Christian gatherings until those who lead and those who participate can recover a biblical perspective on their meetings, seeing them in relation to God’s total plan and purpose for his people.2
Biblical worship involves proclamation and leads to proclaiming God’s truth with our lives. We’re doing more than emoting or having a “worship experience.” We’re declaring why God is so great, what he has accomplished, and all that he has promised.
God’s Word commands us to “proclaim his salvation day after day” (Psalm 96:2, NIV). Proclaiming this salvation should be a daily practice and preoccupation for as long as we live.
There are many things we can proclaim during and after a time of corporate worship. God’s glory is unending, and his perfections are infinite. But the fuel of our praise will always be the gospel of Christ who has redeemed us and brought us to God.
Reminding ourselves of the gospel is the most important daily habit we can establish. If the gospel is the most vital news in the world, and if salvation by grace is the defining truth of our existence, we should create ways to immerse ourselves in these truths every day. No days off allowed.6
Nothing should ever displace or obscure the centrality of the gospel in our worship. And nothing will bring us or the people we lead greater joy.
What we’re celebrating is more than a reminder or a mere symbol. The risen Savior is present with us through faith as we remember his work of reconciliation. In a profound way we’re being freshly strengthened in our union with him and with each other.
“Objectively, what brings us into the presence of God is the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus.”
Christian musicians must be particularly cautious. They can create the impression that God is more present when music is being made than when it is not; that worship is more possible with music than without it; and that God might possibly depend on its presence before appearing.2
six ways that worshiping God on Sunday should transform the way we live the rest of the week. WORSHIPING GOD SHOULD MAKE US HUMBLE
One reason we so often fail to be humbled by worship is that we focus on other things and end up obscuring God’s glory. It would be like visiting the Grand Canyon and foolishly being enthralled with parking signs, souvenir shops, and the railings. We enjoy a picnic lunch, toss a football around, and leave—happy but unaffected by the glory of God’s creation. No one does that. We never allow the surroundings to distract us from the magnificent splendor of the canyon itself. And the effect is always the same. Suddenly we feel small, helpless, insignificant. As John Piper says, people never leave
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WORSHIPING GOD SHOULD MAKE US SECURE
WORSHIPING GOD SHOULD MAKE US GRATEFUL
