I led worship in small groups and corporate settings for many years. It is difficult to imagine anyone loving it more. While leading worship in small groups I have seen the floors of dens and living rooms covered with people on their faces expressing their worship toward God. In corporate settings I have seen people dance, shout and clap their hands while at the same time others knelt, bowed and wept.
During extended times of praise and worship I have seen church altars crowded with people repenting of sin, reconciling wrongs and being transformed and revived by the Holy Spirit. (May I insert here that music and singing does not save anyone, however, the presentation of the gospel through music and song can be a tool to draw people to Christ. It is the gospel that is “the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes”) (Romans 1:16).
As wonderful as these experiences have been I have come to understand that the experiences themselves are neither worship nor the purpose of worship. Because we enjoy seeing people being touched by God we can find ourselves worshiping the experiences that sometimes accompany our worship. It can even become tempting to worship our praise and praise our worship. Because music is such a powerful medium, we may even find ourselves worshiping the music instead of God.
“The purpose of our worship is not to experience the hand of God, it is to touch the heart of God. Worship is for God! The reason we worship is to glorify the magnificence of his excellencies. He alone is worthy of worship.”
While enjoying breakfast with a long time friend who is a pastor, he asked if I would be interested in working with the praise band at his church. He felt there were some hurdles keeping the praise team from reaching their full potential. I would be doing some teaching and working with the music. We didn’t get far into the conversation when I realized the real reason he wanted me to come. “When the worship is good it opens people up to hear the word. I preach better when the worship is good” he said. When I suggested that the purpose of worship was not to help him preach better he was visibly offended.
We can be so wrapped up in our agendas that we miss the real reason for worship. First of all we are born with a nature with self at the center. We live in a society that tells us to better ourselves. Hollywood and the media are constantly at work to persuade us to pamper ourselves. We often choose the church we attend based on what it has to offer us rather than how we can serve its people.
I Corinthians 6:20 reads, For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s. Every believer in Christ has been bought with the blood of Jesus and we are not our own. If our lives are not to be centered around us, how much more our worship? Though we benefit greatly from expressing our worship and should receive pleasure from it, the main purpose of worship is not to have an “experience”, or to make us feel good about ourselves. Voddie Baucham writes, “Our worship is not a response to how Jesus makes us feel. Our worship is a response to Jesus’ worth regardless of how we feel.”
Worship has one agenda; GOD. All true worship has God at its center. The purpose of our worship is not to experience the hand of God, it is to touch the heart of God. Worship is for God! The reason we worship is to glorify the magnificence of his excellencies. He alone is worthy of worship.