Worship

I go to a very unique church. It's a southern Baptist church, and, while many of its members are as red and country as they come, the love and mercy of God has done some incredible things there. What sets this church apart from any Baptist church I've ever been to is the worship. We do not have a "traditional" or "contemporary" service. We just have a worship service. A freedom-to-do-whatever-God-leads worship service. We haven't opened a hymnal in probably 5 years, and guess what.... the Spirit is thick in that place.
I believe one of the reasons it is that way is because God has revealed His freedom in worship. He has done this in several ways, some of which are music, teachers, and history. It's that last part (history) that has really opened my eyes (not to mention my church's eyes) and allowed us to understand the deeper meanings of worship. If you haven't been part of the Ignite study, you will soon see what I mean. However, you have to do something. You have to apply it. Take it and apply it to yourself, to your worship. If you have been part of the Ignite study, bare with me. I will get to new stuff eventually.
I have said this before and I'll mention it again. We are all worship leaders. What I mean by this is that though you may not be the "lead singer" of a song, if you are involved in the worship your part should be carried out as ministering before the Lord. I'm not just talking about the musical instruments. Sound technicians, power point people (or media shout, whatever), preachers, volunteers, as well as the musicians, should all be totally focused on worshiping before the throne of God. Before we can do this we have to understand what it means to worship.
We derive our definition of worship from 2 verses, Romans 12:1 and Mark 12:30. These are the "what" and the "how" of worship. Romans 12:1 tells us what we do: " I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service." I used this translation for a couple reasons. First, it shows that worship has a sacrificial aspect to it. We may not like to hear it, but worshiping should involve some form of sacrifice. Second, I like the term "reasonable service." In view of the "mercies of God" it is our "reasonable service" to offer ourselves to God. It just makes sense that since Jesus gave his life for us, we should do the same for Him.
Mark 12:30 tells us how we should worship. "And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength." We should worship completely. Wholeheartedly. Without abandon. With everything we have.
Here is the definition. I urge you to memorize it. Worship is the acts and attitudes of wholeheartedly giving yourself to God - spirit, soul, mind, and body. Again. Worship is the acts and attitudes of wholeheartedly giving yourself to God - spirit, soul, mind, and body. The acts are the "what" of worship, while the attitudes are the "how" of worship. Note: you cannot wholeheartedly carry out an act of worship to God without having the proper attitude of worship, or vice versa. This is in the same realm with the verse in James that says that faith without works is dead. I will make another post with a list of some acts and attitudes mentioned in Scripture.
This brings me to a rather eye-opening fact. We, as worship leaders, are priests. What's the first thing you think of when you hear the word priest? Unfortunately, today the word priest may be seen in a negative way. However, in the Old Testament, it was the priests, the Levites who ministered before the Lord. This is us. We have accepted the call. When the ram's horn sounded we went with Moses to the presence of the Lord. We cannot take this lightly either. The High Priest of Israel was the only one that could enter the presence of the Lord, the Holy of Holies. When he entered, he wore a breastplate with 12 precious stones representing the tribes of Isreal, as well as names that were written close to his heart. That priest was the representative for all Jews. This is us. We are representing the church, bringing sacrifices to the altar of God, to His throne.
(By the way, another rather scary fact about the High Priest is that when he went into the Holy of Holies, he wore a rope tied around his waist with bells on it. If there was unconfessed sin in his heart, he would die and the other priests had to pull him out. This is a huge responsibility we have.)
When a worship team understands and puts into action these understandings of worship, a congregation will change. When a congregation changes, a community changes, then a city, a county, a state, a region, a nation, a world. We have been blessed enough to live in a time of a worship revival. Not since the days of Bach has the church been looked upon for musical ingenuity. This is beginning to happen today. But if we are not using our instruments as instruments of prayer, offering, sacrifice, then it doesn't matter if we are playing "Holy, holy, holy", it will be no different than that of any secular song out there.
This brings us to a major (and obvious) point: Not all worship is acceptable to God.
I can hear the grumbling masses now. "B-but ... but Vater, how can it be unacceptable if we are singing hymns to God?" For an answer I will point you to Genesis 4:1-8. This is the story of Cain and Abel, which I'm sure you all know. Cain, a successful and religious farmer, and Abel, a successful and religious rancher both bring sacrifices to God. Cain brings fruit of the land, while Abel brings the firstborn of his flock. God accepts Abel's offering, but not Cain's. Cain gets jealous. Cain kills Abel. Not cool.
It turns out that it wasn't what Cain offered that made his sacrifice unacceptable. It was how it was offered. Worship is the acts and attitudes of wholeheartedly giving yourself to God. Cain did not understand this. His attitude did not match his act of worship. He was not giving himself wholeheartedly to God, but was making an offering out of obligation. His sacrifice was unacceptable.
Does this sound familiar? Not the story. I know the story sounds familiar. But I know I have been in the spirit of Cain before. Maybe not the killing part, but the heart behind the worship. I know we have all been there. We have to show up too early, or too often and play songs that we have played 9 million times and I'm hungry and oooh look Melissa's here or Josh is here, and what key is this song in again? It's so easy to get distracted, to forget why we are there. Here's a great question that I can't answer, but should be thought over...Why is it so easy to forget who we are supposed to be worshiping? In light of what Jesus did, and what God has done throughout history and throughout our own lives, how on earth can we not stay focused? You know the angels gotta sometimes sit back and go, "Hmph...silly humans..."
Abel on the other hand gave acceptable worship. What made it acceptable? Simple. He just loved God. I see Abel as that guy, or girl, that is way to happy about life. You know that person that's got this light shining from their eyes, always smiling, just in love with the Creator. I love being around those people. They make things fun.
I'm going to leave you all with some examples of acceptable and unacceptable sacrifices. It's amazing to see what God has done when His people wholeheartedly worshipped Him. It's also amazing to see what happens when people do not worship Him wholeheartedly.
Some examples of acceptable sacrifices: Abram's sacrifice (Gen. 15), Moses' sacrifice (Lev. 9), David's sacrifice (2 Sam. 24-25), Elijah's sacrifice (1 Kings 18), Paul's sacrifice (Acts 16:22-32).
Some examples of unacceptable sacrifices: The worship of false gods (the first 2 commandments), the worship of God mixed with the worship of other idols (2 Kings 17:41), the worship of the true God in the wrong way (1 Chron. 13:8, you have to pay attention to this one to see why it was unacceptable), the worship of God in the right way with the wrong attitude (Acts 5:1-11).