Heart Worship

Music is big business....
Praise and worship music is big business....
There are tunes being written and churned out daily in hopes of becoming the next big Christian hit. I never will forget when Christian Brothers ran a record and book store. This was back in the late 70's and early 80's when finding contemporary Christian music was near impossible in our town. So we were trying to make available the music that was coming out of the JESUS people movement. A man stopped by one day and during the conversation made a comment I've never forgotten. "When the world discovers it can make a buck with this music, they will latch on and sell the people a bill of goods." How true this has become.

Praise and worship is about the heart. It is my heart telling God how much I love Him. How much He deserves to be worshiped by us, His creation. Is life perfect here on planet earth? I think not. Do we all have problems? Yes we do. But none of those things should play into our worship unto God. I keep going back to the story of Job. He had probably the worst day ever recorded by the human race. Yet in the middle of everything that was going on, Scripture tells us that Job put dirt on his head, tore his clothes, sat down and worshiped God. I'm pretty sure that what transpired in Job, and what came out of his mouth wasn't a "Happy-happy-joy-joy" moment. I'm sure it was more like a "Oh God, I need you now more than ever" moment. 

Worship is (or rather should be) a part of every believer's life no matter what their state or condition is. We give God glory and honor because no one deserves it more. But what I have seen transpire over the past 35 years, is that praise and worship has turned into a spectator sport. We will shell out bucks to go sit and watch a person or group worship. That's kind of like paying to watch someone else eat a meal. At our LIVING SACRIFICES worship conference last year, during a time of teaching, John Barnett made the comment that worship isn't real worship unless it flows from the stage into the room and engages everyone present. In other words, those who are leading worship must "set a table" with the music, where everyone is invited to come, sit and dine in the presence of God. Take into your spirit His presence and free yourself to give back to God the worship that is due Him.
Worship should take us from our troubles...our problems....our condition, into the presence of God Himself. We should remember who is the giver of life and of all good things. We return back to Him the praise that is stirred within our hearts.

Too often worship is nothing more than sound that stirs the flesh. Worship...true worship always begins in the heart and not in our minds.
Matthew 15:8 reads "These people draw near to Me with their mouths, and honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me." In other words, these people have a "form of worship" but are denying the Power that they are giving their worship to. They are simply going through the motions. They are playing a part in a religious play that becomes nothing more than a collective activity among themselves. 

I want to create a time and place in our meeting on Saturday night where we all can be free to worship. That we can "Posture" before God as we are directed to by Him. What do I mean by "posture"? Well, suppose you are in a time of corporate worship and you are very much aware that God wants you to get down on your knees. Do you feel the freedom to do such? How about lying down on your face? How about standing and raising your hands to your heavenly Father? Do you have the freedom to do such? Or do you worry about what others may think if you do something like what I've written. Well, you don't ever have to worry about such if you come to our Saturday night meeting. In fact, when people do engage in such posturing, it is a sign that God is probably at work in the room. We are not trying to create an emotion or a behavior with our music. We simply want to sing to God and allow Him to move us. We want to collectively create a worship card and send it to God to tell Him what an awesome God He is. Not for what He has done to us and for us...but simply because He deserves our praise and worship.

Think on these things and see what God would say to you about your worship.
If you feel so inclined, come out and join us this Saturday night / Vineyard ReCovery Church @ 7 p.m.

God on you...
I want to leave you with a video from Keith Greene.