From David: This is a guest post from Tyler Braun. Tyler is a pastor from Portland, Oregon whose first book, Why Holiness Matters, just released. You can find Tyler on Twitter or his blog, manofdepravity.com.
Worship in church can often become a frantic pursuit for an experience with God, instead of allowing Him to shape us.
Holiness, similarly, has always been presented as a frantic pursuit of right standing with God through legalistic measures.
Too often worship in life is only experienced for an hour on Sunday, when the band plays well. Holiness, even worse, has been abandoned as out of touch with reality and an impossibility in our culture.
We must reconsider all that we have left behind by ignoring a God who is holy and desires a holy people to worship Him.
As a worship leader, I often catch myself saying phrases such as, “Sing it louder!” or “Give God everything you have!”
I want to challenge the congregation, as if worship was first about our action.
Psalm 96:9 says,
“Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness! Tremble before Him, all the earth ” (NKJV).
If we so often misunderstand our worship and ignore the calling toward holy living, what is the connection between worship and holiness?
Worshiping in the beauty of holiness is an invitation to be participants in the holiness of God, not perfecters of it.
The Center Of Our Worship
Through Paul, in Colossians, we learn that in Jesus Christ we are able to fully see the “image of the invisible God.” Not only is He fully God but He is also the author of our salvation, through His sacrificial redemption. In our worship, as Christians, we worship Jesus for being to us what we could never be for ourselves:
Savior.
All our problems in church worship happen when we turn our attention away from Jesus and toward other things. We boil down “great worship” into these small categories:
- Musical excellence
- Plenty of people raising their hands
- People singing along real loud
- Perfect guitar solo during the instrumental.
In our worship we often act as if we’re the initiators, and when done correctly, God then responds to us.
All this worshipful effort, done under our own power, is meaningless—a chasing after the wind.
Through Jesus, and our participation in His life, we are able to worship in the beauty of holiness.
Once I recognized that God wasn’t looking for perfection in my worship, I began to see all the hard things God called brought into my life as opportunities to grow, not things to avoid.
By calling us into difficult places in life, God isn’t holding out on us, He’s allowing His perfection to be worked into our lives through the struggle. Our worship is then a response to His working.
Holiness is found through our struggles and through our pain, not without them, because our worship of God is not dependent on our perfection but His.
What is Beautiful About Holiness?
The beauty of holiness is found through God in Christ making us holy. Through our participation in Christ’s life we can become holy, because holiness is not something we accomplish on our own power.
Just as God forgives us of our sin, He also releases us from the bonds of seeking holiness through perfection.
We worship in the beauty of God’s holiness because we cannot truly worship Him from any other place.
Book Giveaway
Tyler has agreed to give away a copy of his brand new book, Why Holiness Matters. All you have to do is comment on this post.
Question: How does the knowledge of God’s holiness transform the way you worship? You can leave a comment by clicking here.
—This post is adapted from the book Why Holiness Matters. Learn more about an exclusive offer for purchasing the book—
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Photo Credit: Paul Bica (Flickr)
Thanks for posting this article and reminding us about the centrality of Jesus Christ in our worship. Yes – we do worship in the beauty of HIS holiness. I like what Torrance says, “Christian worship is…our participation through the Spirit in the Son’s communion with the Father, in His vicarious life of worship and intercession. It is our response to our Father for all that He has done for us in Christ.” Years ago we used to sing a little song that said something like, “Lord I love the spirit of Your holiness in me.” He is holy and has set us apart unto Himself in His holiness. What a great and freeing place to be!
Dave, this is so refreshing. It transforms your worship when you focus less on your performance and striving and more on the perfection of the God you worship.
You’ll be happy to know I quote Torrance in the book 🙂 He has such wisdom regarding worship and the Trinity. Great comment Dave.
God brought me through a rough spot last week. I thought for sure others were to blame for the feelings I was experiencing, but after a bit of soul searching and prodding from the Lord, I saw that my sin was to blame. Though that was difficult to walk through, I am so thankful that the Lord allowed it. Based on your blog post today, He will use it to continue His work of holiness in me. This week I found this Bible verse~~~ If you return to me, I will restore you, so that you can continue to serve me.(Jer 15:19) I love it because God promises, if I return to Him (confess and repent) then He will restore me so that I can continue to serve Him. What an honor and blessing to be allowed to serve the King of Kings!!
Great verse, Cindi. Isn’t it amazing how we can relentlessly come to Jesus despite our sin and find forgiveness and hope?
Thank you for this post. It’s is very important as worship leaders to focus on the invitation to God’s presence. I think that we should ask people to join us in our worship experience and not be legalistic in commanding them to lift their hands, or clap and praise, but giving them all the reason why God is so great so they do it naturally and of free will.
Great job
EJ
Right. It isn’t that our outward expression doesn’t matter but that we often go there first rather than engaging our heart’s toward God. We get things flipped around and then worship is something we do rather than something we participate in.
I love what you said in the opening:
Worship in church can often become a frantic pursuit for an experience with God, instead of allowing Him to shape us.
That is so true! Thanks for sharing this post today…it really encouraged me. I’m a youth worship leader, and I have to constantly remind myself and the team of these things.
Thanks!
I lead youth worship at my church as well Brandon. Many blessings to you. Keep in mind leading for middle school students will always be a little frantic 😉
Haha! I’m learning more and more every week! We have middle and high school together, so it is interesting! 🙂
I’m going now to follow you on twitter!
When there is no sin between us and God our fellowship is all the more intense.
True, but I’m also reminded of the truth: He who is forgiven much loves much. When you know just how far God has brought you, you can’t help but grow a deeper love for him over a lifetime.
Wow!!! There’s definitely some great insight here!
Anybody who decides to follow God’s calling into the worship ministry should make pursuing holiness a top priority. The more time we spend alone with God, the more we allow Him to shape us and and conform us to him. Those times that we allow God to transform us will spill out into our worship leading.
Absolutely. I know David has talked a lot on this blog about leading being an outpouring from what is already going on between the leader and God. I think this fits as an extension of what he’s shared before.
Great Comments! I’m already planning to use some of these ideas in my next service!
Glad this is helpful for you Mark.
Love all your posts on worship Dan. I really appreciate you taking the time to share. I learn a lot from reading them!
Who’s Dan? 😉
This is another perspective I have gained about what it means to worship God in holiness. Worship without holiness is false worship. The premise for true worship is ‘spirit and truth’ and its foundation is holiness. How can the same mouth and hands used to worship God be used to commit sin. Our God is a consuming fire and without holiness, no man shall see God. We can never attain perfection or holiness by ourselves because it is in God that we are holy. But it is something that we ought to strive for. Worshiping God in holiness is something that is very important. It requires giving off of our best to God and not the “diseased animals” such as were offered to him by the Israelites. Our God is a holy God and often we tend to forget that. Worship comes from a place of understanding who God is and one of his attributes is holiness.
Great post! I just found this blog and have been sharing it with some of our worship team. i think failure to see how holy God is, is also failure to see how unholy we are. In-turn we are not able to truly worship Him completely and give him the glory He deserves.
Tim, welcome to the blog and thanks for sharing! Make sure you check out Tyler’s blog as well. Great stuff: http://manofdepravity.com
Awesome and timley topic for this generation. God’s Holy word says “be Holy for I am Holy” and that is sort of confusing to some because we aren’t Holy but “declared” Holy through Jesus Christ. In essence is means, be set apart, consecrated, this is the call of everyone who belongs to Christ and without doubt, those of us who stand between God and his church when sacrifices of praise are being offered.
M_
Truth. Sometimes I wonder if we’re more amazed with our performance and our passion than we are the holiness of God.
Spot on Marc. Well said.
I believe that when You come in worship before Our LORD it has to start the moment You get up in the morning. I drive My mom and sisters to church on Sundays because they can’t attend during the week (My mom and sister are handicapped)and even on Sundays they have to be up at 5:30 in order to be ready by 9:10 (service starts at 9:30) As We leave the house we start praying for the LORD’s presence in the service and singing hymns all the way to church.Once at church I go to the altar to invoke his presence and thank HIM for forgiving My sins and always providing for their daily needs. When We sing at church I close My eyes and raise My hands to touch HIM.If You leave them open as You start to praise, satan will not miss an opportunity to distract You from the Holy GOD You are worshiping and You will leave empty.
This was such a powerful blog post and much needed insight. I myself have often misread the verse Psalm 96:9 “Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness! Tremble before Him, all the earth”. This exemplifies even more the need to develop a life of holiness even when we are NOT in front of people or leading worship. Our worship should be displayed in our lifestyle and therefore it springs forth in our worship towards our God. We strive alot to be perfect within ourselves instead of finding our perfection in Christ Jesus
I think the most important thing you pointed out, to me any way, is “Holiness is found through our struggles and through our pain, not without them, because our worship of God is not dependent on our perfection but His.”
Timely and challenging.
Great to read a post from someone fairly local. I’m across the river in Longview, WA.
The knowledge of God’s holiness being in the forefront of my mind when I worship erases feelings of inadequacy, guilt, unworthiness, and falling short. God is holy, and He deserves to be worshiped no matter what I am going through- just because He is God! =) When I zoom in on who He is, all the ways I don’t measure up don’t matter, and can’t distract me from worshiping purely and sincerely. My brokenness is the perfect place to worship Him from…because in my weakness, He proves Himself strong!!
Beautiful, Charisa. I love that phrase, “zoom in”. Essentially, that’s what we need to do as a worship team. Zoom in on what really matters. Thanks for sharing!
We the Worship team is an instrument redeemed from sins, awe-inspired by the Holy God, sanctified and set apart as holy to lead worshippers to sing praises and thanksgiving to this Holy God.
God has led us to difficult places for we are still prunable; we need to be shaped by God. We learn to lavish grace on the unlovable because church is the only place where grace can be generously ex
Sir I would love to receive you book. I am a graduate student working on my Masters in Worship Leadership and I would enjoy reading further on the holiness of worshiping our Lord.
I needed to be reminded what holiness and worship truly means. Thank You. Looking forward to read the book.
How does the knowledge of God’s holiness transform the way you worship?
It totally takes my attention away from me and to God. I am no longer interested in say, how I feel (in totality), but I’m more focused in who God is. I think this just liberates me in my worship, where I don’t have to conjure up some inner strength to say, dance, or clap, or sing energetically, rather, I just pour out my thanksgiving from an honest heart.
The reason I stumbled upon this blog is I was looking for the distinction between perfection and holiness, especially for the worship leader struggling with breaking habitual sin (addiction).
Thanks.
I want to know more about Holiness and how to live in holiness
How can we worship God if we don’t know Him? Knowledge occurs when we begin seeking God, Praising God for what He’s done and worshipping Him for who He is. I’m on a path of, discovering God. I want a deeper relationship, I want God to allow me to enter in, I want to understand how to Worship God in Spirit and in Truth. When we have knowledge we have understanding. I want to truly understand Holiness for God is Holy. This morning I was searching out, Pursuit of godliness and ran into holiness. God speak to me, teach me so I may teach others. My Lord I desire to know you, to do your will to bring glory to you from how I act, speak and walk.
Help me to understand the truth that my life is a living sacrifice for Him, He lives in me by His Holy Spirit, His holiness covers me, the Holy Spirit empowers me to live by Spirit and not by flesh.
The purpose of worship is for us egocentric children of God to DELIGHT in Him—
to “Worship the Lord in the splendor of His holiness!”
What’s up,I read your blogs named “What Does Holiness Have To Do With Our Worship?” daily.Your story-telling style is awesome, keep it up! And you can look our website about proxy server list.
with a question
Who can a worship team observe holiness