Responding With Worship

By Jeff Taylor, Pastor of Worship

Psalm 150:

¹Praise the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens.
²Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness.
³Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet; praise him with the harp and lyre,
⁴praise him with timbrel and dancing, praise him with the strings and pipe,
⁵praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals.
⁶Let everything that has breath praise the LORD.

We can take all kinds of things away from this passage of scripture. 1) We are supposed to worship God. 2) We are given some ways TO worship God. 3) Worship is a response to God. C.S. Lewis said, “Praise is the culmination of our enjoyment of anything.” So allow me to pose some questions I have wrestled with through the years, even recently. When we come to church each Sunday and the music starts and it is “time to worship,” what is that time a culmination of for you? Is our response in worship based on whether or not we enjoy the music? Is it contingent on if we enjoy the atmosphere in the room? Is our ability to worship determined by how our week has been? Is our response a response in the moment based on our mood when we walk through the Worship Center doors?

For me, at varying points in my life the honest answer to all these questions is, “yes!” And I have found myself being content with believing that God didn’t really expect anything more from my worship than to follow the leader, do my best, eek through, and tolerate whatever service or music was in front of me and circumstances happening in my life. The reality is, the praise of God should be one thing: our response to God. Anything else is man-made, contrived, and an act that we put on the way we act polite when going to a relative’s house where we know our parents expect us to be polite. If worship is not in response to and directed to God, we are literally singing for our own enjoyment (or out of guilt to go along with a program). When we see worship happen in the Bible, it is not because it is “time to worship.” It happens as an overflow, as a response to a move of God in someone’s life, a response that cannot be stifled or held back. 

Mark 1:40-45: “A man with leprosy came and knelt in front of Jesus, begging to be healed. ‘If you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean,’ he said. Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out and touched him. ‘I am willing,’ he said. ‘Be healed!’ Instantly the leprosy disappeared, and the man was healed. Then Jesus sent him on his way with a stern warning: ‘Don’t tell anyone about this. Instead, go to the priest and let him examine you. Take along the offering required in the law of Moses for those who have been healed of leprosy. This will be a public testimony that you have been cleansed.’ But the man went and spread the word, proclaiming to everyone what had happened.”

When one has an encounter with the living God, the response is worship. When one has an understanding of the power of God, the response is worship. When someone truly surrenders to the Lordship of Christ, the response is worship. When we seek first the Kingdom of God and in His faithfulness He adds all that is according to His will, our response will be worship. 

In this context I can recognize how small my singing for the sake of singing is. In far too many settings my singing has been a response to a worship leader telling me to, or because I have been conditioned to sing whatever is on a screen in a church service, or if a particular song does or doesn’t move me. The hymnist Isaac Watts said, “God values not the service of men if the heart be not in it. The Lord sees and judges the heart. He has no regard for outward forms of worship if there be no inward adoration. It is therefore a matter of infinite importance to have the whole heart engaged steadfastly for God.” Real worship can only happen when the condition of our heart is steadfastly toward God; not when the music is just right, or when we are in the mood, but when our pursuit of God is at the forefront. When that happens, whether life is good or bad, whether we are at church or in the car stuck in traffic, we can authentically worship because we are authentically bringing ourselves to God.

For a period of time at LBF we are going to simplify our approach to God musically. Our desire is, and always has been, to provide the opportunity to worship through music because it is a great way for us to join together with one voice and praise God, declare our faith, and intentionally invite
His Spirit to move among us. There is no magic music style or band instrumentation. We see everything from complex instrumentation as in Psalm 150 – to a simple shepherd in a field with a lyre. Yet simplifying things musically does offer a greater flexibility to stop, reflect, and even respond with fewer distractions in front of us. So you will not see a full band as we typically have on Sundays. The music will take on a more acoustic feel with a single person or small group on the stage to lead.

As those of us in the worship ministry, both staff and volunteers, take this period of time to intentionally and passionately pursue God and His will and calling on our life, we anticipate and expect God to move in some new ways among our church. We believe that God has so much more for us than any ritual or routine can provide. So as we simplify and the music fades, may this be a time that each of us can approach the throne of grace in a very intimate and authentic way, with confidence, and invite the Holy Spirit to move among us. It must never be about what happens on a stage, who is leading, song selection, or anything else. It must always be about allowing our hearts to be steadfast toward God and seeking Him; not just on Sundays at church when it’s “time,” but everyday in every aspect of our lives.