Heart of Worship

Romans 15:5-6 - Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus, that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

I love my little church in Arizona. It has a new pastor. Pastor Nathan is a big man with a booming voice...and messages that are pointed...right to Jesus, right to our hearts and right to our spirits, the way messages should be. Oh, I love my church in Wisconsin too. I get the best of both states.

A couple Sundays ago Pastor Nathan spoke on Acceptable Worship. Seems I’ve heard something like this before from my Wisconsin pastor! God loves a joyful noise. And He loves and knows a heart of worship that comes out of spirit and truth.

What Pastor Nathan was telling us, however, was we should get into the habit of worship NOW. Pastor Rory said something similar. Some day in heaven it’s what we will do. We should get used to doing it today. We don’t need to know the words to the song nor do we need to like the sound of the music, Pastor Nathan suggested. We come to worship God with a heart of humility and out of an attitude that it’s between He and me! We come out of an act of obedience; it is what we are called to do.

He used the example of King Saul who had been appointed to be the king of Israel because of his heart for the Lord. When he began his days as king he was humble and he was obedient to God in all he did. As time went on, however, he became proud and thought he knew better than God and acted against God’s command.

He was told to battle against the Amalekites and that God would see to it he would capture them. He was also told that he should not spare the lives of anyone or any beast. Nothing should be spared. Nothing. But Saul spared the king’s life and all the best of the animals and crops and any thing that was good, to become a sacrifice to God. But this was clearly against God’s command. He did not want the sacrifices; He wanted obedience (1Samuel 15:22). Samuel had not even been aware he had gone against God. His pride took over. His thinking that what he did was good. 

This can happen to us when we determine we do not like the music. It’s not about the music; it’s about our hearts and our obedience when we stand to worship before God. As Pastor Nathan said, Any arrogance or pride will destroy our worship. If we determine that this music doesn’t suit us so it must not suit the Lord, we are making our own decision. We don’t know God’s heart, other than He loves a joyful noise! 

There's a song by Michael W. Smith called the Heart of Worship. The lyrics tell us it goes much deeper than the music. The song is not what is required; it is our heart and what comes out of that heart. A heart that knows that it's not about the music but it's all about Him.

Worship should be between God and me. If my heart grouses at the music, I’ve destroyed that time of worship right then and there. I have been disobedient; I’ve not sacrificed my time, my heart to be with the Lord. It is displeasing to Him that I have placed more importance over the sound of the music than my closing in and worshiping Him. There’s no reason why we can’t take in the words and form prayers within our hearts out of them.

No church will ever meet the needs of all people. We would love to have an atmosphere of unity, but is it possible to ever attain this? As far as music goes, which is most important, unity of worship or music that “I” like? Could that be an attitude of pride? Could it be an attitude that says it's all about me and my likes and dislikes? Could it be an attitude of the heart that God finds undesirable?

A humble heart is what is acceptable to the Lord. Humbleness in our attitude even when we don’t always agree with the music...or anything that causes disunity within the body of Christ. There are times when something is not right and something needs to be pointed out as wrong. It’s just not always all about me, or anyone. Music seems to be the typical hot topic of disagreement. And isn’t that just what the enemy wants?

Is my worship between me and God or is it an outward display for others to see? It’s all about Him. If we are doing it for the sake of others seeing us, they are empty actions. God knows our hearts and our thoughts. He can see right through our actions. Sometimes actions can be visibly seen as defiance because we don’t like something. There goes unity. Are we sacrificing our own feelings and thoughts about something in order to worship God? Are we laying those thoughts and feelings at His feet and humbling ourselves or are we being defiant? God delights in obedience.

1Samuel 15:22 - So Samuel said: "Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams."