May, 2009:

Let’s try to separate music from the idea of worship for a while.  We’ll talk about it a little bit at the end.

Worship as a noun
1. The feeling or expression of reverence and adoration for a deity : the worship of God
2. The acts or rites that make up a formal expression of reverence for a deity; a religious ceremony or ceremonies : the church was opened for public worship.

Worship as a verb
1. Treat (someone or something) with the reverence and adoration appropriate to a deity
2. Take part in a religious ceremony

Like many English words, the meaning and usage of the word “worship” has taken a few turns.  In its earliest use it was used in reference to God but then it became a less religious word and was used to describe anything virtuous – like a home or a town.  In all cases it was still indicative of the “worthiness” or “worthship” of a person or thing to be ultimately honored.

As Christians, we believe that only God is ultimately worthy of our highest affections, and so that is the context in which we will discuss worship this morning.

Worship as a Living Sacrifice

Before sin entered the world, finite man and infinite Creator were in a harmonious relationship. God created us with a desire to worship – that is, a desire to call something worthy above ourselves.  This desire still exists in every human being, child of God or not.

Because of this, there is no question about whether we will worship; we will, the question is “What will we worship?” Worship is the seeking out and admiration of that which we perceive to be greater than ourselves.

To the Christian, worship must be telling God how much he is worth and showing how much he is worth to us in the actions of our lives.

Worship and Idolatry

A proper understanding of worship must also include an understanding of idolatry. If worship is the acknowledgment that God is the only worthy recipient of our highest affections, then it’s opposite – idolatry – is every action we take or word we say that contradicts that belief.

Idolatry is not just another sin, it is the underlying root cause of all sins. Just as Jesus told the woman at the well that worship would no longer take place only in set places at set times, now too idolatry is loosed from its definition as people worshiping a graven image. Now, idolatry happens any time we indicate by action or word that something is of greater worth than God.

Martin Luther pointed out that the first two commandments (1. No other Gods 2. Do not make an idol) refer to idolatry and then the other eight commandments refer to more specific things like murder and adultery and stealing and lying.  Luther proposed that if you never broke the first two commandments, you would never break any of the others.

Whatever commandment you break, whether it’s a problem with sexuality or stealing or lying, the sin itself is not the problem.  The underlying cause is that you are an idolater.

Elements of Worship

Some common word pairings:

“Worship service”

-    What is the “service” that happens in a worship service? “Service” is the action of helping or doing something for someone. How does this happen in a typical Sunday morning gathering?

-    What is distinct about when we gather on a Sunday morning is not that we are worshiping, but that we are worshiping together in order to build each other up.
-    Does every element of the service contribute to the worship of God?
-    Worship is more than what we do in a worship service; it emerges from our entire being, it indicates what hope our hearts are set on. If on God, then worship is true and gives joy; if on anything other than God, it is robbing from God and leads to misery.

“Place of worship”

-    Is this the church building? -    Jesus tells the woman at the well in John 4:

21 “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 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. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

-    In the OT worship was associated with times and rituals and places.  In the NT it is for the people of God at all times and in all places – how we live IS our worship! No longer is worship tied up with the sacrifice of animals, now it is ourselves that we must sacrifice, we are to become “living sacrifices” as it says in Romans 12.
-    If what we call “worship” only happens inside the walls of our church buildings we have done a poor job as leaders. If the only time we can be bothered to give all the praise and honor that is rightly due to God is for one hour on Sunday morning, well, that says a lot about our priorities.

“Worship leader”

Having established what “worship service” is and what and where the “place of worship” is, and having defined worship itself as the living, continuous, sacrificial acts of a child of God that affirm a stated belief that only God is worthy of ultimate honor, what then does it mean to be a worship leader?

In many churches this is the term used for what is actually a song or bandleader.

Who is a worship leader?

Just like the question “Who will worship?”, the answer is EVERYONE. Whatever or whomever you have decided is most important to you – you give your time, your energy, your money, your love, your devotion, your hopes, your dreams, your fears to that person or thing – THAT is what you worship. Today, you might lead the worship of Nascar, or your favorite TV show, or your favorite band.

As soon as you place something in the highest place of your affections, above God you are going to sin, you are going to walk into a trap that you set for yourself.

Anyone who is an example of putting God first in their life, of showing that God is the thing of most worth in their life is a worship leader. When we sing, “I will give you all my worship…” do we understand what we’re saying? “I will give you, God, all of my notions of worth. Above my job, my spouse, my money, my car, my family… I think you are more worthy of my attention than any of those things!”

Music

So what is the place of music? Why do we equate “worship” with “music”? I think its because the culture (and we along with it) worships music.  For an obvious example: American Idol. Could we make our intentions any clearer than that?!

Music can open a place in the heart where a door is closed. It may be for just a minute or two, but when that place is open, Christ can come in, pain can go out, sin can be revealed, anger and doubt – sometimes hidden even from their possessor – are seen and are dealt with.

I believe that this is the power of music, both for good and for bad.

In addition to music, various descriptions of corporate worship in scripture include the following:
-    Corporate prayer
-    Reading of scripture
-    Preaching based on scripture
-    It is linked with gathering to eat
-    The singing if songs that praise God and encourage one another
-    Giving to the poor
-    Public confession of faith
-    The receiving of God’s blessing
-    Response to praise and prayer with the saying of “Amen”
-    Baptism and communion
-    Prayers of thanksgiving and the breaking of bread

Challenge

Worship is our proper response to God, ascribing all honor and worth to Him because He is worthy.  “In other words,” says D.A. Carson in the excellent work Worship by the Book, “worship becomes the category under which we order everything in our lives.” (p46)

Genuine worship is loving God with heart and soul and mind and strength, and showing what a statement like that means in the daily decisions of life.

How will you lead in the worship of God today?