Friday, April 12

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Psalm 150:1-6

Praise the Lord. 

Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens. 

Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness. 

Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre, praise him with tambourine and dancing, praise him with the strings and flute, praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals. 

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. 

Praise the Lord.

Hebrews 12:28-29

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.

Every week in our weekend worship services we invite people to use the tear-off portion of the weekly bulletin to communicate with our ministry staff. And every week we receive information about new visitors, requests for information about our ministries, prayer requests and, quite often, comments about worship as well.

Most of the comments we receive about worship are very positive and encouraging as people appreciate the skill and efforts of those who lead our services. Occasionally, we will also receive helpful and constructive suggestions for things that might enhance our shared worship experience. Sometimes folks will share that the music was too loud or too soft; too contemporary or too traditional (sometimes commenting on the same service!); or that they had to stand too long, or that there was too much singing, or not enough singing. And we do our best to consider all the thoughtful comments we receive because we can always learn and grow in how we lead our church family in worship. 

But every now and then we receive comments that actually cause me to grieve. We don’t get these very often at all, but sometimes people will anonymously share something like this:

“I didn’t get anything out of worship today” or “Worship was boring.”

I grieve when I see comments like that because they reveal that we have not adequately taught people what worship is and what worship is not.

For the truth is; worship is not something we get; worship is something we give.

Worship is not about us; worship is about the glory of God.

Worship is not a performance that we critique; worship is an attitude of the heart that we bring before God.

Our hearts and minds are to be turned toward God in what one writer called “joyful fear.” 

We are to be joyful in our praise because God is good and loving and generous. This is why the Psalm writer says:

Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness. 

Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre, praise him with tambourine and dancing, praise him with the strings and flute, praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals. 

But we are also to have a reverent kind of fear, or respect, for God because he is holy and mighty. This is why the New Testament says:

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.

And, finally, our worship is to come from our hearts. In Matthew 15:8 Jesus quoted from the prophet Isaiah:

These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Matthew 15:8

Jesus is saying that it’s possible to be saying or singing the right words in worship – but fail to offer our hearts to God.

So next time you attend a public worship service, whether at FBCG or another church, resist the temptation to be distracted by any of the dozen or so things that draw your mind and heart away from God himself; sound, lighting, song selection, noisy neighbors, hard-to-follow sermon; and focus instead offering yourself in joyful fear; in reverent awe - heart, soul, mind and strength – to God in extravagant devotion. 

You might be surprised at how much you enjoy the service!

Brian Coffey