Isaiah 6 teaches us something foundational about public worship. If you read the first few verses you’ll notice the first thing Isaiah encounters in the house of God is the glory of God. It doesn’t first say he encountered friendly faces or hot coffee, or soft bagels or a booming sound system. It says he encountered the glory of God. In the Bible, the glory of God is God’s “heaviness”, his powerful presence. It is God’s prevailing excellence on display. In God’s house, Isaiah meets a God who is majestically in command.
What does this mean for our worship services? It means we ought to come, first and foremost, expecting to encounter the glory of God–his powerful presence. We should come ready to sing of who he is and hear of what he’s done. We come to feel the grief of our sin so that we can feel the glory of his salvation. We come, in other words, to see God on display, not preachers or musicians. A worship service is not the place to showcase human talent. It’s the place for God to showcase his Divine treasure. A worship service that contains the power to change you is a worship service that leaves you with grand impressions of Divine personality, not grand impressions of human personality.
Isaiah did not leave the temple thinking, “What great music, what a great building, what a great preacher.” He left thinking, “What a great God.” This is why songs and sermons need to be about God first. Everything done in worship ought to communicate God because it is God and God alone who can transform your life and mine. Seeing me will not help you. Seeing God is the only thing truly capable of moving you from one place to another. This is why John Piper rightly asks, “How shall entertaining worship services – with the aim of feeling light hearted and friendly – help a person prepare to suffer, let alone prepare to die?”
I agree whole-heartedly that we should expect to encounter God. But…couldn’t it be said that one of the most significant ways that God demonstrates he is “majestically in command” is by inspiring the Body of Christ to offer the unique gifts of individuals…submitting themselves to one another with one voice in praise of the One who made them? If so, then it has at least a little bit to do with the gifts of the people. There is significance in seeing my church family in worship with me…knowing their gifts…sharing in their gifts…and adding to them with my own. God’s majesty can be found in the tendency to play more demanding music outside the church than to focus on leading non-musicians in praise. God’s majesty can be found in our tendencies as sinners NOT to worship together, but to run errands or sleep in. 2 Chron 5 paints a picture of God revealing himself as a result of the efforts of individuals who join together (with many talents) to show dedication to Him. God is not “on display” because folks show up…He reveals himself because the church enthusiastically offers their gifts to Him. I would suggest that “showcasing your talent” isn’t the problem…although it is a problem…the problem is more likely the mentality that “the talent” is the reason people showed up in the first place!
Oh that we would offer worship that is totally about God, for God and to God!
I guess one way of achieving this while singing is to use more God-centred “we” songs instead of man-centred “me” songs.
A few years back, I heard a sermon about worship that opened a few eyes pretty wide, because we have come to equate worship, with singing, whereas, the Bible uses the word ‘worship’ in place of about seven different words in the original Hebrew and Greek and only three of those words involve our voices, while the others have to do with attitudes of the body, as in kneeling, prostrating oneself, bowing the head, and/or raising the hands.
As the man went through this study on worship it became apparent that the most important thing was the attitude of our heart. Search the scriptures as you will, you won’t find a single instance of anyone worshipping God in a light-hearted manner, or with a flippant attitude. There isn’t a single mention of a person coming to worship the Lord, whose attitude is anything less than reverential awe. Even (or perhaps particularly) when there’s an account of a miraculous spiritual encounter, such as when Isaiah sees the Lord in the temple, or Paul is taken up to the third heaven, or John is visited by Jesus on the Isle of Patmos, the person in question is reduced to a state of trembling fear. Unfortunately, the vast majority of ‘worship’ leaders in churches today seem more intent on trying to prove how cool they are, by being as disrespectful to God as they can be. I recently came across a YouTube clip of a woman who is a worship leader at a church in California, who took that to a whole new level when she told her audience that she believes that God is much more fun than we think He is and that the Seraphim around His throne that cry; “Holy, Holy, Holy”, probably have farting contests!!! I apologise for the shock there, but this church is so highly regarded that people travel from all over the world to attend their school of ministry to learn all kinds of different aspects of ministry, including worship, from people like this???
I thought I’d heard it all, but I’m stunned at the number of christians who’ve tried to laugh off that behaviour as just high spirits that got a little out of hand! Non christians at my work place tell me that THEY”VE been offended by the casual attitude to God evident at a ‘seeker-sensitive’ church in the neighbourhood. Something’s wrong when non-christians have a better grasp of reverence than christians do.
I know there will be some out there thinking; “Man, this guy’s on a real downer!”, but I believe worship is fast becoming a word that is losing it’s true meaning. If you want to know what I mean, go read Isaiah 6 & Revelation 4:4 &10, 5:8 & 14, 7:11, 11:16, 14:3, or any other passages that speak of the throne of God, then ask yourself how you would act if you were there.
He is worthy to be praised.
God bless.
Alan.