I suppose it happens to all of us.
You’re under the spotlight. The congregation is singing. Everyone is having a good time.
But in the end…is God truly being worshiped?
Because it’s possible for your band to be tight with musical chemistry.
You congregation singing at the top of their lungs.
Everyone can be dancing, shouting, lifting their hands and… the glory of God be completely ignored.
The Scariest Verse In The Bible
How can we be sure God is glorified? How can we be certain that we’re not just basking in the praise of man and making ourselves feel better with music that moves us?
You’re probably familiar with the scariest verse in the whole Bible – the passage where worship leaders go to cry:
“I hate, I despise your religious festivals; your assemblies are a stench to me. Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them. Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream” – Amos 5:21-24.
The last thing I want to hear after a worship service is, “I hated that. That was smelly, unacceptable, disrespectful noise!”
After reading this passage, there’s a few things I know:
1. It’s not about the offering – there was plenty being offered.
2. It’s not about good music – it was merely noise to God’s ears.
So what’s important? What can we take away from this?
This begs for a discussion. If you’re used to reading this blog (and haven’t commented yet), now is your chance. This community needs you.
Question: How can you be sure that God is glorified in your worship? Add your thoughts in the comments!
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David-
First off, what a wonderful post. Scary, certainly, but wonderful all the same. I admit, I cringed when I saw the title. All too often, I find myself thinking more about myself is the worship setting.. i.e., what I am doing, what others were doing, etc. It can be very distracting, even for a seasoned musician.
While an intern at my home church, I had the blessing of preaching on this very passage. However, it’s implications for leading worship did not necessarily strike me while I was preparing. Oh, how God’s Word molds itself around all parts of our life!
To start, I think that it is really important that not only the leadership, but also the congregation, understand the implications of the passage, Certainly, it is possible to me moved by dramatic music, and not have it be accomplished via the Holy Spirit for the glory of God. Worship calls his to recognize who God is, and reflect that reality back to Him. A true, undefiled worshipper understands who God is. So, to give God glory, to truly worship, we have to be grounded in christ centered, biblical theology.
Secondly, prayer, at least for me, is important for me to enter into God’s presence through music and drama. We have to yearn for His presence, or we really, truly, won’t desire His presence. God will ignite our hearts for Him, when we seek Him with all our hearts first. Jeremiah 29:11-13 nails this home for me. We all want the plan that God has for us, to bless us, etc. But, it’s a conditional that we are seeking Him first, above all other things, including corporate worship.
Great thoughts, Drew. I remember when God convicted me about this passage. He said, “How can you stand before people to lead worship when you don’t even have a prayer life?” Ouch.
Fantastic passage and yes it is an eye opener that all of us need to hear. God is a God of mercy and justice. The idea that we can pour ourselves into music and praise but cannot pour ourselves to meet the needs of those around us, that is a noisy sounding offering.
God desires our hearts to respond to him and our hearts to Obey what his complete word says, so in essence, if we aren’t showing faith expressed in love towards others and aren’t being obedient, our worship (offering) expressed in music is useless.
God is greatly glorified in a life completely submitted to him in absolute surrender, a heart living this way is a pleasing aroma to God. (Romans 12:1)
M_
So good, Marc! How would you go about encouraging your congregation to worship in this way? I think that’s where it can get tricky.
Certainly, I would try to establish these principles by sharing scripture throughout worship, even in the small transitions verbally, using words of “submission” or “surrendering our lives, hearts and minds” just using the small moments to point to the greater picture.
The half of this is creating this culture within the creative teams outside of Sunday. These are what I have been pointing towards.
M_
First off, very thought provoking.
In my simple terms, it is about my/our hearts – Corinthians 13 shares with us that we are nothing without love. So, my desire is to make sure that my heart is prepared to worship, that I have spent time with God during the week through prayer and the Word. That I have confessed my sin to God and to those that I may have offended and that I simply loved as Jesus loved. Not easy for sure, but God knows our hearts.
1 Cor 13:1-7, “If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. 2If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing. 3-7If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.”
The preparation of our hearts prior to worship is so important but it also how we live our daily lives that is worship to Him as well. I love this simple phrase, “Worship is everything you do, done to the glory of God. It’s the natural expression that God is at the center of your life.”
C
Perfectly written David,
You hit the nail in the head because anybody can sing songs and make noise but if your heart is not calling out to God and declaring Him as the most High then it is empty words. David wrote his Psalms with a passion for God and so our worship should mirror that desire. God already does alot for us every day so it is only right to bring worship back to the heart of it, in the words of Matt Redman.
Our worship should be passionate to have true meaning. Passion is the ultimate example of true love. This is an example I read about not too long ago about passion. When we trully want something we go thru every means to get it and we dont rest until it is in our posession. So if we worship with the utmost passion we will not leave any corner uncovered because it means that much to us. Its restless sacrifice for the one who makes all things possible for our lives.
God will be glorifed in the middle of it if our heart is after Him and we put our focus on Him and Him alone.
“When we truly want something we go thru every means to get it and we dont rest until it is in our possession.” – I love this, Leo. That was super challenging for me today. I want to love Jesus with this intensity.
Great post David. I don’t have any deep or intense insights to add to your thoughts, but I can say that if we are more concerned with making sure that God is being glorified in our worship, then our priorities are certainly in the right place. I think that specific pursuit in worship is what the journey is all about, finding it’s ultimate fulfillment in our heavenly future.
Matt, that was quite deep and intense 🙂 Very encouraging!
What an encouragement to monitor ourselves. See Message Bible understanding of the words.
21-24″I can’t stand your religious meetings.
I’m fed up with your conferences and conventions.
I want nothing to do with your religion projects,
your pretentious slogans and goals.
I’m sick of your fund-raising schemes,
your public relations and image making.
I’ve had all I can take of your noisy ego-music.
When was the last time you sang to me?
Do you know what I want?
I want justice—oceans of it.
I want fairness—rivers of it.
That’s what I want. That’s all I want.
Love it!
Awesome scripture that shows us once again that worship is much more than a song. It is more than what happens in a Sunday morning service. What happens in our private lives and how we live our lives should be sweet smelling offerings in the nostrils of our maker. When our private lives are lives of worship only then can our public display of worship be meaningful. Justice and fairness, that characterizes a life lived in harmony with who our maker is. When we like for him, that’s worship, when it’s not about us but about Him and his church, that’s worship….which I think is acceptable to our God.
What good is our worship on Sunday if we lack the essence of Christ Monday thru Saturday? It’s not enough to go through religious motions, to just have church or go to church. We have to be the church, all day, every day
What a quote! Tweet it, people!
Wow, thanks, friend! You know how to get the best out of me 🙂
We can be sure that our worship glorifies God if it is an extension and overflow of a life already lived, through grace and by faith, moment by moment, every thought, word and deed submitted under the rule and reign of Christ in the power and freedom of the Spirit.
So good! Worship is “an extension and overlow of a life already lived” for the glory of God.
This is really good. Often I find myself fighting the regularity of worship because it’s “what I do” for a living. This is a challenge to keep it fresh every day.
Hi! For a couple of months now I’ve been reading your posts and I most say since then I’ve been very blessed, both by the posts and the comments from the readers. While reading them, the first thing that struck me was that you in the States have some similar problems to what we have in our little church here in a small quater of Douala (Cameroon) called Bonaloka (which I didn’t think was possible).
One day I read one of your posts and it helped me in my major worry when we worship, exactly what your talking about here: Glorifying God! I had a problem with one of our drummers because I didn’t like the way he played during worship. And it disturbed me alot because I wanted to worship but was often distracted by his play. I play piano at church myself and have to make sure the music is good and worrying about how the drummer plays was one more worry I didn’t want to have while in my quest of worship. Then I read one post here about how musicians can worship God and it just clicked in my head. You know, often I would pray that God would helped this drummer understand the way he plays disturbs (I wasn’t the only one complaining). After reading the post and undestanding many things, I decided nothing will ever again distract me from worshipping God. I’ve always known that every person involved in the choir must be worshipping for God to fully be glorified and move. In our church we are not the best of musicians and we have just one piano and a durm but I’ve seen God move even in our poorest performance and I know He wants us to be dedicated fully to Him during this moment because it’s all about Him, not our instruments or voices or whatever is involved in worship.
After taking that decision, I remember one day we were worshipping and I was so lost in the worship that I didn’t even notice that the drummer was playing the way it always annoyed me. It’s only by the end that I realised it and all I could say was: “Lord, You are too much!!!”. So when I read your post today and you talked about bad music not being a problem, I just said to myself:”oh this is soooo true”.
I love quotes and I often take the ones you write here and write them down in my “quote book”.
I never commented your posts because I feel like many of the people commenting here are far too experienced than I am and since we’re coming from different places I don’t think I can really be helpful or add something more to all that has been already said. I did today because you challenged all does who’ve never done it to, so…
Any way, God bless you for all your posts and may he continue to inspire you.
A reader from Cameroon!
Thanks for commenting! There’s always a place for you here. Whether you are a beginner or a pray, everyone carries a unique perspective that encourages.
Just to clarify, I wouldn’t say bad music isn’t a problem. It definitely is. Bad music can distract just as much (if not more) than super creative music. It’s a both/and not an either/or.
Hi David,
Thanks for the opportunity to respond. As most have already stated, it’s a matter of the heart. God cares much more about what’s happening on the inside of the believer, than what’s on the outside (1 Samuel 16:7). It’s about our motivation, which God is able to discern.
Another passage in the bible that I find ‘scary’, is Isaiah 1 (particularly verses 10-20):
“Stop bringing meaningless offerings!” Ouch…
Fortunately, we can ask God to help us and to transform us by the power of the Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:18).
Amen
Hi Bren Praise the Lord..!!
I am really blessed reading the scripture portion from the book of Isaiah 1:10-20
Thanks my friend God Bless you
That’s a great scripture, Bren. Isn’t it interesting how Scripture uses such forceful language sometimes?
Hi David,
Our God is never delighted on our outward appearance,but His eyes are focused on the condition of our heart(I Sam. 16:7).Why? For HE IS EERNALLY RIGHTEOUS (Ezra 9:15) God seeks true worshippers who will worship Him in Spirit and in Truth. In Spirit means nothing from the outside but all from the inside. Truth means our worship must always in line with His Word. What does His Word declares in Psalm 19:9 ? ” The fear of the Lord is pure,enduring forever. The ordinances of the Lord are sure and altogether righteous”. God accepts our worship only if we are living a life of righteousness. Not a life a lying on Monday, having sexual immorality on Tuesday, cheating our boss on Wednesday and so on. Then, dance,sing or serve the Lord on Sunday. That won’t work at all. This is certainly UNACCEPTABLE to God. Matthew 6:33 says “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His RIGHTEOUSNESS and all these things shall be added unto you”. If we truly fear the Lord,love Him as we always utter publicly, then offer a life as a living sacrifice,holy and acceptable to a God is holy (Romans 12:1). FOR WE ARE CALLED TO BE HOLY……
Preach it, Nelly! “Seek first the kingdom” – a great word to live by.
Wow. Just joined the group today and what an eye opener. It’s so important to remember that God is not religious. He will always cut through all the fluff in search of true worshipers who will worship in spirit and in truth. I believe the more we spend time with God, the more we will understand His perspective and stay in line with His desires and as a result, bring him glory. . . be conformed to His righteous ways.
Good Suzanne and true. It’s that time alone that really counts, in “every” area of our life…Great thoughts!
I do Worship God daily, in Spirit and Truth. It is not always as intense and I’d like it, but it’s real. So when I get before Male and Female Inmates, at Jails/Prisons, it is not without spending much time, prayer and meditation with God and His WORD. I often have to “Bring The Word” right after the Worship & Praise period, so I “really” have to be “ready” in the Lord. So the key for me is a “Prepared Heart”. Being truly open and transparent before the Lord daily. We start off together every morning. I try to quantify our time alone, more and more. I’m praying to “lose myself” more and more in the Worship and Praise times in these corporate settings, as the Lord leads me.