The Language of Worship
This post is based off the last one.
God receives worship from us, how is it understood or evaluated?
My immediate response would be that He listens and He watches. But, that is so ‘human’. God must be able to evaluate our worship with a different sense. The reason? Listening and watching is not effective when it comes to judging authenticity. Sure, we can look at someone and think they are telling the truth or are sincere, but God is not that sketchy. When our ‘worship’ arises to God, He must know from beginning to end if that worship is real or forced…if the motive is true or alternative.
Most modern churches place a lot of emphasis on the production of our worship at church. We ask questions like: Are the melodies and tempo right? Is everyone on key? Are the instruments tuned and ready? What about lighting and video sequences?
The focus drifts from original intent (communicating with God) to impressing the five human senses. We feel like if we hear, smell, taste, see, and touch that the worship is good, then it is pure. I can’t help but think that God’s senses rely on sensors beyond the human capability. They must be so much more reliable.
What if God received worship by:
- The Intent of your Heart (Romans 2:29) – If melodies and words come from your inner most being…
- The percent of Talent you use (Matthew 25) – If you are using all your available resources and not holding anything back…
- The unity of the Believers (Matthew 5:24) – If you are unified with others, holding no grudges…
If you are wanting to please God with your worship, offering, and talents, I would look at how you match up with the three above. Even more than making sure you are singing on key, getting the music just right, or saying the ‘right’ words.
-robin
Posted on February 12, 2009, in Daily Word. Bookmark the permalink. 7 Comments.
Robin Steele 
If you have a deficit of any of the 3, then please address those immediately. Don’t let anything get in the way of your praise. Please read the passage from Matthew 5:24, it is a powerful message to us all.
Wow, get ready for a full weekend message on this one… it is getting me fired up!!
Psalm 51 says this:
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
And renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me away from Your presence,
And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of Your salvation,
And uphold me by Your generous Spirit.
Then I will teach transgressors Your ways,
And sinners shall be converted to You.
Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God,
The God of my salvation,
And my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness.
O Lord, open my lips,
And my mouth shall show forth Your praise.
For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it;
You do not delight in burnt offering.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,
A broken and a contrite heart—
These, O God, You will not despise.
Worship is not about talent or ability. Every noteable move of God began with people humbling themselves and joining together (unity) to see God.
If worship was about talent or ability…I would be up a creek. If it was about talent then there are so many churches out there who should be experiencing might moves of God; they have the talent.
Where is the heart? What is the condition of the heart?
God doesn’t care about our sacrifice either. Obedience is better than sacrafice. Obedience is seeking righteousness (right standing) with God.
We have to be willing to be broken before God.
this is so right. but, the business of “church” doesn’t really allow un-talented people to hold a microphone. what i mean is that someone that can’t sing a bit will not get a chance to lead in worship from the stage–even though that person may have the purest form of worship coming from their soul. another thing to think about is something that gets confused so much. music is not worship. it is a form of worship. so when the music at church is good—that doesn’t mean that the worship to God was pleasing to Him. i’m not saying that we shouldn’t put our best foot forward musically. trust me when i say i don’t agree with that. but let’s always try to do it with pure hearts and pure motives. that’s great pastor.
thanks for the input Casey and Jacob!
Great point Jacob about worship not being only music.
I believe that talent has a lot to do with worship. Let me explain my point “The percent of Talent you Use”…
This comes from the parable of Matthew 25. Talent is not crucial when it comes to comparing yours to someone else, but it is extremely crucial when you look at your available talent and the amount you give in worship. If you have 10 singing talents and you use 3 talents when you sing, then you are not worship God with everything you have. If you have .5 singing talents and you stretch it to .7, then you are worshiping God with more integrity and authenticity than the previous 10 talent person.
Therefore, this concept goes beyond music like Jacob said. Where ever you have talent, you should give that talent to the Kingdom of God. When you do it is worship.
The “Church” often mistakes talent (musical giftedness) for anointing. Talent can be corrupted by sin. Better to have a pure heart with less talent than the most talented corrupted worshipper leading.
What I am understanding you to say is that giving our talent to God (using our talent – whether singing, writing, teaching, sweeping, cooking, making coffee, digging post holes, etc. – for the kingdom) is a form of worship.
yep
yyeeezzzzz!