Worship for RevivalSample

Beyond Entertainment

It seems the vast majority of churches are overflowing with talented musicians leading their congregations in everything from modern praise and worship to classic hymns. The people are undoubtedly being entertained by these gifted servants, and musical entertainment has its role in the Christian life. But worship through music was never meant to be about entertaining God’s people. It was solely about leading us into the presence of and into communion with the Creator of heaven and earth, our glorious Savior.

Authentic worship will draw the redeemed of the Lord so deeply into His holy habitation that their faces will shine like that of Moses in Exodus 34:35. Away with frivolous music and lyrics. Bring us that which humbles us and exalts the Excellent One. Let us worship again in the adoration of His holiness. Let us sing with uplifted voices with the strength of doctrinal accuracy. May our admiration and celebration belong to and center upon the only One worthy to receive it. May our every voice, shout, clap, dance, and instrument be touched by the Holy Ghost and break forth with effervescent sounds that cannot be silenced. May we fall prostrate upon tear-stained faces. May we run and leap in unrestrained and unashamed joy and freedom, for He has made us glad.

True worship compels us to place our entire lives upon the altar of self-abandonment afresh. The Lord Jesus Himself spoke of true worship in His conversation with a Samaritan woman over a drink of water. “True worshippers,” He explained, “will worship the Father in spirit and truth. For the Father seeks such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth” (John 4:23–24). Worshipping “in spirit” is impossible unless and until the whole heart becomes engaged. All else is the folly of emotionalism, falling far short of the throne and void of all but surface relationship, fellowship, and communion. Without the human spirit involved, the offering of worship becomes polluted and an unholy union of the secular and divine.

We know that God does not listen to sinners. But if anyone is a worshipper of God and does His will, He hears him. —John 9:31