7/8/01

Authentic Worship

Part One

“Sing to the Lord a new song.”

Psalm 96:1

I.                     Introduce subject and series

This is a mini-series on worship. We will take three Sundays to focus on corporate worship, but the scope of what we want to go after is much larger than that.  What is corporate worship supposed to be anyway?

Ill. Years ago a Southern Baptist pastor wrote a remark in his denominational paper.  He made the remark that (this hour) Sunday morning  was “the most wasted hour of the week”.  Church folks were up in arms!  Little did he realize the impact that comment would have.  People picked up on it all over the country.

                What did he mean?

                Ill. In most of the churches we grew up in, worship planning consisted of hymn selection in the front pew two minutes prior to the service. Typically, throughout much of the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s worship services involved little to no planning. It wasn’t expected. 

The church’s practice of corporate worship has changed drastically in the last couple of decades.  Back then, churches did not waste money on sound systems.  

                Ill. I am so old that I remember the arguments… “Don’t bring microphones and speakers into the church.”    “Satan is the Prince of the power of the air”  Satan will destroy the church through sound in the air waves!?

                Today, church buildings are some of the most technologically sophisticated buildings in the community.  Sound, lights, computer technology, video, digital graphic support, visual arts to aid us in worship,

                Ill. Bob Ditsch of Harvest Productions – a church in Kansas City just installed a $1.4 million sound and light system (pyro-technic capability). That may be extreme, but these are tools that can be used for God’s glory.

With these good changes have come some fresh challenges. 

· Too much focus can be placed on the music.   “If the music is “right”, then I can worship.” (problematic)  We may be guilty of putting too much importance on the song selection, role of the singers and musicians, worship leader, the theme of the worship.  If the focus of our worship is on the worship we are not worshiping.  Or, (worse) we are worshiping worship and not worshiping God. 

·We must not confuse the power of music and visual media with the presence of God. 

“If the music lifts my soul, then that is God’s presence.” Not necessarily. It might be moving music.

It might be emotion, not spiritual obedience and commitment and authentic worship.

·What part does music play in authentic worship? 

·We must rediscover something that has little to do with music.  What is the essence of authentic worship?

We are going to wrap our thoughts around an oft-repeated phrase found in the psalms.  “Sing unto the Lord a new song.”

Sing…

It is God’s commandment that makes music important and not the reverse.

We sing because we are commanded to. (Psalms 95,96,98)  Inspired psalm= authoritative encouragement. 

And we make faithful music to the best of our ability because we are to bring our best to God, not the leftovers.   

Ill. Mal. 1:8  The priests dishonored God by accepting blind and lame and sick sacrifices.  God expects and deserves our best in worship.

II.               “Sing to the Lord…”

Part of the challenge we face as worshipers in the twenty-first century is the challenge of rebuilding our perspectives of corporate worship.  It is an awesome challenge.

Sing to the Lord…

·In some ways, the musical part of corporate worship is merely us overhearing each other singing to God.

There is an audience of one.

And the only worship team worthy of the name is us, the congregation. 

We are the worship team and the musicians, singers, and choir are here to lead us in giving to God the gift of worship.  

I fear we stand this on its head.  Over time, we begin to think that the singers and musicians are here to sing to us.  Like every other thing in our lives, we think it becomes for our entertainment; for our enjoyment.  And then, our corporate worship experience is not what it should be.  It is about us and not about giving something to the Lord. It is not “singing to the Lord…”.

We move from being participants to being spectators.  Observing the worship.  Critiquing the songs and the musicians.  I prefer this group to this one, and this style to this one.  We can go a long way down a bad road.

(We will talk more about this later) If the attention in our worship is on anything other than the Lord, it can become a religious form of idolatry. Worshipolatry or musicolatry;  not authentic worship.

Ill.  I can tell you who is really worshiping God today (not rocket science).  It is the ones who were engaged in spiritual battle all week.  It is the ones who were praying, singing, listening, offering to the Lord, being silent, confessing, growing, and being broken, serving, witnessing, etc.

And so, what you do throughout the week shapes the continuum of what happens when the church gathers corporately.

So, this is just your opportunity to add your voice to the army of fellow-soldiers in offering something to the Lord.

III.  “Sing unto the Lord a new song.”

Sue and I put ourselves through college on a music/ missions scholarship.

Lots of churches, national TV, concerts in amusement parks, missionaries in foreign countries, lots of churches of all kinds.  We criss-crossed the eastern 2/3 of USA as a short-term guest in all kinds of churches.  Some of the largest churches in the world and sometimes there were more on our singing team than in the church. That was fine too.

Ill.   We visited some churches that we called “No slacks, tracks, or blacks” churches

They had a fighting stance – distrust of anything different from the past.

Psalm 40:1-3

I waited patiently for the Lord;

And He inclined to me,

and heard my cry.

He brought me up

out of the pit of destruction,

Out of the miry clay;

And He set my feet upon a rock

making my footsteps firm.

And He put a new song in my mouth,

a song of praise to our God;

Many will see and fear

and will trust in the Lord.

For me, it reflected so much of my personal pilgrimage.  I was saved at 8.  At 18, in a crisis of faith, I surrendered my life to God for whatever He would choose.  He became my Lord as never before. Immediately, all those old songs (dozens of hymns I’d memorized) now became alive.

“New song” means fresh, not novel.  

Old songs can be sung newly, and new songs can be sung with a freshness.

We need a freshness from God that comes in the wake of committed devotion. 

The psalmist says that we are to “worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness”.

It is in the beauty of holiness that we experience the freshness, the newness that God has for us.

“If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature;  the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”  -II Cor. 5: 17