I have been in many churches, not for one time visits either... many denominations... yet again not for a one time visit. I have been in them for two and three years at a time. I did not grow up with my family all piling in the vehicle on Sunday morning and going to church. I was not in church every time the door was open, but I was always going with friends, friends of the family, girlfriend's families and I became pretty involved in many of those churches for the period of time that I was there. Looking back I believe this was God drawing me to Himself little by little. The point however is that I have seen all kinds of different worship in many different churches and denominations. My personal experience is for the most part, they all looked the same, worship was all in all pretty standard.
So what does the Bible say about worship?
Lets look at Luke 6:22...
22 Blessed are you when men hate you, And when they exclude you,
And revile you, and cast out your name as evil, For the Son of Man’s sake.
23 Rejoice in that day and leap for joy! For indeed your reward is great in heaven,
For in like manner their fathers did to the prophets.
What is the first word in verse 22? Blessed... does this make sense to you. What's your natural response when people hate you? When people talk bad about you? Throw you out of their circle? You can't hang out at our house anymore, we don't like you? Our natural response is not rejoicing....or leaping for joy. This is not what we normally think to do..but what does the Bible say...when times get tough...and especially if people hate you.... and there isn't anything you can do about it... what do you need to do? Rejoice...but that is not enough, you have to leap for joy. Did you know this was in the Bible? Rejoice and leap for joy when your life is in shambles.Every believer in Christ has a first and foremost call on your life which is to be worshipers of God. God is Spirit, those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth, for such the Father is seeking to worship Him. You were made to worship and glorify God.
So let me ask a question? If the Bible says it ....should we do it?
You have probably heard some form of this before but the Bible is not a salad bar, we do not get to pick and chose which parts we like and leave the broccoli. Tell me what is the most often given commandment in the Bible, not the most important command, which is love the Lord your God with all your heart, but the command that is most often given in the Bible? Praise the Lord is given more than any other in the Bible. Lets take a look. Let's settle something first. The book of Psalms, is it in the Bible? Oh yes, right in the middle and the longest. Psalm 92 says this...
92 It is good to give thanks to the Lord,And to sing praises to Your name, O Most High;
2 To declare Your loving kindness in the morning, And Your faithfulness every night,
3 On an instrument of ten strings,On the lute,And on the harp,With harmonious sound.
Self explanatory really, but it is good to give thanks, sing praises to Your name.
95 Oh come, let us sing to the Lord! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.
2 Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving;Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.
3 For the Lord is the great God
This must be a misprint or something.... Let us shout joyfully? When was the last time you went into a church and the congregation, choir, or pastor shouted joyfully. Notice it didn't say reverently. Wait a minute, they misprinted twice, Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms. Have you ever had to tell your children something twice, you know, just to make sure they got it, just to make sure they heard you. If the Bible says it, should we not be doing it. Should we not be more excited about what God has done in our lives than the half heartedness that typically occurs. What does the Bible say I'm to do to the Rock of my salvation? Shout joyfully...question? Do you have to be joyous before you can shout joyfully? Yes you do, because if you shout and you and joyful then you are not shouting joyfully. Is this deep or what?
Out with the old... in with the _______
Psalm 96 in the Bible says...
96 Oh, sing to the Lord a new song! Sing to the Lord, all the earth.
2 Sing to the Lord, bless His name; Proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day.
3 Declare His glory among the nations, His wonders among all peoples.
4 For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised;
Well they misprinted again... Sing to the Lord a new song!....Ever been in a church where they only sing hymns. Where its almost considered blasphemy to do anything else. Our world, society, and churches are unbelievably resistant to change. I would even say so myself, but when I read clearly in the Bible that God has commanded us to sing a NEW song, then my hard resistant heart has to give in. I would never say change just for the sake of changing, or if its unbiblical, there is too much of that happening all the time. Many of us however can remember when contemporary music began making its way into churches probably 15 or so years ago. There was a strong defiance in many churches against this movement. There are churches that still only cling to the hymns as though they are life giving water themselves, don't get me wrong, I love some of the traditional hymns [The Old Rugged Cross, Just as I am, Victory in Jesus, I'll fly away, Nothing but the blood] but they are not a solitary commandment given by God. The early church exclusively sang only the Psalms, however a trouble maker arose, a man began writing hymns that summarized the psalms. These hymns at first like all other changes was rejected. They were thought to be unauthorized by God since they were not directly and expressively written in the Bible. We now have people who have done the same exact thing with hymns, the same hymns they are singing now were once rejected by the church. Would it not be called complete and utter blindness to reject contemporary Christian songs now?
Oft given command
Psalm 100....
100 Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands!
2 Serve the Lord with gladness; Come before His presence with singing.
3 Know that the Lord, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;a]" >[a]
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
I've always tried to live by this, all though, like most people I don't always live up to my own standard. Yes, I'll admit it, just like you, I have been a hypocrite at times, but on a consistent basis I usually am not. When people tell you the truth, what does it do? Before it sets you free it usually makes you mad. Why? The truth is usually in direct opposition to how you thought things were before. You will typically reject it as truth until God opens mine and your blind eyes. So with that said... here we go. Psalm 100 again says shout to the Lord. You and I both have been in churches where reverence was regarded above all. You don't get too loud, you show extreme respect, you don't talk unless at an appropriate time, and I could go on but you know what I mean. Praise and worship time during church, would that be an appropriate time to get loud? The point is, you can't be reverent [at least in the way man regards reverence] and shout at the same time. When you think about a group of people all of the same heart and mind towards Christ Jesus, who saved their eternal souls, who have a reason for unending gratitude shout to the Lord, do you think reverence? Reverence is of the heart, in American church we have taken it to mean sit down, be quiet, and go unnoticed!
Shout to the Lord...
God wants your heart. Why does the Bible command us to shout! There is an element of shouting, getting emotional that makes us vulnerable. When we shout we have to throw away our dignity before men. We have to give up what other people think. When we shout we can no longer hide in the crowd, we can no longer blend in, we can no longer pretend it wasn't us. When we shout everyone knows it was us who shouted. What if though...we all shouted together. When we joyfully shout to the Lord we abandon ourselves, our pride, and our fear of looking stupid in front of others. When we see others shout and become emotional during worship, there is something tearing at us isn't there? We think, look how crazy they look doing that, but there's a small twinge of a thought also, look how free they look.
Psalm 103- all that is within me. That means all of you, all your heart. You ever heard the say "Do this with all your heart." I've looked around church before and wondered if we just had really small hearts and if you were to be honest with yourself, at some point in time you've done the same thing.
I asked someone recently if they had ever been to any other church besides their own. They said yes. I asked them to describe the praise and worship portion to me. They said about the same as everywhere else. I then asked, in your opinion did the people look and sound as though they were worshiping with all their heart? He said oh no, not at all.
Psalm 107 O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.
2 Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy;
Psalm 111 Praise ye the Lord. I will praise the Lord with my whole heart, in the assembly of the upright, and in the congregation.
Where am I suppose to praise God at? In the assembling of the Saints, with other believers.
Psalm 113 -
113 Praise ye the Lord. Praise, O ye servants of the Lord, praise the name of the Lord.
2 Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and for evermore.
3 From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same the Lord's name is to be praised.
When should I be screaming, hollering, and praising God- from the rising of the sun to the setting of the same. Am I reading this out of the Bible or is this the reader's digest?
So what is the most oft given command in the Bible? Praise the Lord! Why? You were made to. You were created to.
So for you New Testament believers....
You may be thinking, that's all Old Testament. I'm a New Testament believer. Well here you go then.Praise the Lord is all through the Bible, Old and New Testament.
Philippians 4:4 -Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!
The Greek word for Rejoice is chairo, meaning to be glad, joyfully. If you are rejoicing in the Lord you should look glad to be doing it. If you look like a frozen person that is not rejoicing.
Jesus likes praise.....Loud praise at that. Look I'll prove it.
Luke 19: 28-40
The Triumphal Entry
28 When He had said this, He went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. 29 And it came to pass, when He drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mountain called Olivet, that He sent two of His disciples, 30 saying, “Go into the village opposite you, where as you enter you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat. Loose it and bring it here. 31 And if anyone asks you, ‘Why are you loosingit?’ thus you shall say to him, ‘Because the Lord has need of it.’”
32 So those who were sent went their way and found it just as He had said to them. 33 But as they were loosing the colt, the owners of it said to them, “Why are you loosing the colt?”
34 And they said, “The Lord has need of him.” 35 Then they brought him to Jesus. And they threw their own clothes on the colt, and they set Jesus on him. 36 And as He went, many spread their clothes on the road.
37 Then, as He was now drawing near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen,38 saying: “ ‘Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!’" Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
39 And some of the Pharisees called to Him from the crowd, “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.”
40 But He answered and said to them, “I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out.”
Real quick question...what were Jesus' disciples doing when He came in riding on the colt? They began to rejoice and praise God with LOUD voice. This can't be right, I've been in many many many churches and hardly any of them praised God in a loud voice, usually only the Pentecostal Churches do this. But wait the the other denominations [I mean Pharisees] showed up and told Jesus how to handle this problem. They said tell your people to quiet down, be silent, quit acting so out of order. So Jesus rebukes the Pharisees instead, "If these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out." Jesus loves our praise....even loud boisterous praise. Praise that has energy, excitement, that seems out of the norm, can you not see that from this passage of scripture.
Jesus doesn't mind emotional displays of worship...
I have heard, as you probably have, that those churches where the pastors or worship team builds the congregation up into an emotional frenzy or moment is craziness. They get emotional for a moment but nothing really changed on the inside. Ever heard this? Ever seen it? I have seen this many times, yet I will agree that there are times when the emotional display was fabricated by man and not God. We have taken this to mean that almost no one should get emotional in church in anymore. If the emotion comes from deep inside a person and is brought forth out of their heart by the Holy Spirit then its completely valid. This happens in the Bible...Luke 7:38 - 50
A Sinful Woman Forgiven
36 Then one of the Pharisees asked Him to eat with him. And He went to the Pharisee’s house, and sat down to eat. 37 And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, 38 and stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil. 39 Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he spoke to himself, saying, “This Man, if He were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching Him, for she is a sinner.”
Jesus is yet again around one of the religious elite [Pharisee]. A woman finds out where Jesus is comes in anoints His feet with fragrant oil, is crying and washes Jesus' feet with her hair. Picture this in your mind, imagine this happening with you sitting there, does this create an awkward moment or what? Is this an emotional moment or what? The religious man yet again has a problem with this act of emotion, as most religious people always do. Jesus justifies her in front of him though. Jesus is touched by this display of emotion, Jesus wants His followers to worship and praise Him for all He has done.
Is what He did for you a minor thing....
Would you consider what Jesus did for you in your salvation a minor thing. An event that you should say "thank you" for and move on. There is an example about this in the Bible in Luke 17: 11 -
Ten Lepers Cleansed
11 Now it happened as He went to Jerusalem that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. 12 Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off. 13 And they lifted up their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”
14 So when He saw them, He said to them, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed.
15 And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God,16 and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan.
17 So Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? 18 Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?” 19 And He said to him, “Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well.”
Ten lepers were cleansed, but only one came back. Only one came back to worship Jesus, was Jesus sacrifice on the cross for you and I not one hundred times more than that of healed leprosy. Leprosy was the worst of the worst diseases of that time, but the Bible teaches that our afflictions are only light and momentary while on this earth. Jesus saved us from eternal damnation, from eternity without God, from a timeless torment, how much more thankful should we be! The one leper who came back worshiped Jesus did so very loud and emotionally. He fell down at His feet, cried out and glorified God, however, Jesus was not bothered by this at all, Jesus was bothered by the nine who did nothing. Does your worship match the weightiness of His sacrifice? I'm not telling you that you need to go worship harder, be more emotional, or praise Him out of guilt. Maybe you should spend time thinking about the sacrifice of your Savior, getting to know your Savior, deepening your relationship with Him and the praise and worship will come.
What is in the heart must come out...
Have you ever heard the phrase from someone, well you don't know their heart! I would say that is correct but to a certain extent this is not actually correct, we can get a rather large glimpse of what is in someone's heart. Luke 6:45 says "A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart" brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks."
That last part is the kicker, if praise, adoration, and thankfulness is in abundance in your heart for God then it will flow out of your mouth. This is how we know what is in the hearts of men. You may say "Well people can fake it, they can look genuine and not be genuine." Granted I consider this to be a valid point, but we are speaking in terms of people who say they are genuine but there is no abundance of Jesus in their heart. Could you really be a disciple of Jesus, have a genuine attitude of worship in your heart to Jesus and it not come out in your words, in your expressions, in your emotions? In other words, would you downplay through your words and actions what is really in your heart? Absolutely not, so the only likely conclusion is that it is not really there?
It is not just a personality thing...
What if what you had perceived as worship, been taught as worship in your church, or experienced as worship your entire life was not Biblical at all. When I say not Biblical, I mean that it doesn't look like what is presented in the Bible. Many will use the excuse, "Well its just not my personality, I'm laid back, I do not like the attention." There is no problem with this in the least, I married a person very much so like this. However the problem comes in that there is no way the entire church is full of laid back, type B, emotionless people. I completely understand that some people are very intense, demonstrative, emotional, and outgoing. The very nature of these people would do this, be at church or anywhere. Yet again I maintain though, that the entire church can't sing half-heartedly like zombies.
What should praise and worship look like...
I cannot give a definite answer for every single person out there. We all have different emotions, ways of showing those emotions, personalities, etc. Do I believe that everyone who ran into Jesus that worshiped Him for what He had done in their lives was a Type A personality that always was energetic, excited, and emotional? No I don't. These were normal people that had their lives changed by God Almighty and could not help but break out into song, praise, crying, and loud voices. Reverence is great, I believe in reverence, the Bible speaks about reverence but the examples presented in the Bible as praise and worship of God do not fit our modern day understanding of what reverence really is. 2 Samuel 6 which is probably one of the more famous praises in the Bible definitely does not fit what our American church definition of reverence. 2 Samuel 6
12 Now it was told King David, saying, “The Lord has blessed the house of Obed-Edom and all thatbelongs to him, because of the ark of God.” So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David with gladness. 13 And so it was, when those bearing the ark of the Lord had gone six paces, that he sacrificed oxen and fatted sheep. 14 Then David danced before the Lord with all his might; and David was wearing a linen ephod. 15 So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the trumpet.
16 Now as the ark of the Lord came into the City of David, Michal, Saul’s daughter, looked through a window and saw King David leaping and whirling before the Lord; and she despised him in her heart.17 So they brought the ark of the Lord, and set it in its place in the midst of the tabernacle that David had erected for it. Then David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord. 18 And when David had finished offering burnt offerings and peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord of hosts. 19 Then he distributed among all the people, among the whole multitude of Israel, both the women and the men, to everyone a loaf of bread, a piece of meat, and a cake of raisins. So all the people departed, everyone to his house.
20 Then David returned to bless his household. And Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David, and said, “How glorious was the king of Israel today, uncovering himself today in the eyes of the maids of his servants, as one of the base fellows shamelessly uncovers himself!”
21 So David said to Michal, “It was before the Lord, who chose me instead of your father and all his house, to appoint me ruler over the people of the Lord, over Israel. Therefore I will play music before the Lord. 22 And I will be even more undignified than this, and will be humble in my own sight. But as for the maidservants of whom you have spoken, by them I will be held in honor.” 23 Therefore Michal the daughter of Saul had no children to the day of her death.
David a man the Bible describes as being "a man after God's own heart" dances before the Lord... with all his might. Dancing has definitely not been allowed in churches, this goes well beyond loud praise. The people of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the trumpet. Shouting? You definitely can't be reverent in our churches today and do any sort of shouting while praising God. Notice the one person who is not enjoying the ark [God's presence] being brought back into Israel. Michal..why is this? She's religious, religious people are always more worried about what others will think than just letting the Spirit of God reign in their life. Religious people might even scold you for doing so, but one more time, who does the Lord favor in this situation? Those who worship Him, those who do it loudly, those who cry out to Him, those who joyfully sing His praises, those who leap for joy!
What is the point of praise and worship...
This is how we show God our adoration of Him. This is how we show God our love for Him. Praise and worship is also an act of faith. Lets take a look into Acts Chapter 16...
Preview: Paul and Silas come upon a woman who is doing fortune telling. A medium. They cast out the Spirit that was giving her the ability, but the men who were making profit off of her fortunes are now mad at Paul and Silas because their cash flow has ceased. They take Paul and Silas to the magistrate and have them beaten with rods and thrown into the inner prison with their feet fastened in stocks. Do Paul and Silas have a reason to be angry? To whine and complain? Get down on their situation? Of course they do, this has never happened to most Christians [Refer to Luke 6:22] but what do they do.
25 And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. 26 And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed. 27 And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled. 28 But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here.29 Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, 30 And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.32 And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house.33 And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway.34 And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house.
Praising God and worshiping God will cause the chains that bind your life to fall off. Praising God will cause others to look at what you have and want it also. Notice what the Phillipian jailer did immediately after he ran in there. He wants to know, what must I do to be saved? Praising God will cause those who once persecuted you to become your friends. Praising God will help you be able to forgive those who previously persecuted you. Notice, the Phillipian jailer was about to kill himself, Paul and Silas could have let him do so thinking he deserved it. Remember he belonged to the those who had just beat them and imprisoned them. What would most of us have done?
Stirring up the gift of God that is within you...
The Holy Spirit is always present, He is ready and waiting. But we have to do something. We have to stir up the Holy Spirit [2 Timothy 1:6] What does it mean to stir up the Holy Spirit. We have to create an atmosphere where He is praised, where is worshiped like those in the Bible did, where He can have total control. The Holy Spirit of God gets a bad rap in many churches because the theology of what He does to you has been abused in some churches. Have you ever been invited to another church, went to another denomination and the praise and worship was different than your church? The music was alive, not just upbeat, but actually seemed to have an effect on you. You weren't sure about it at first because you had been taught differently, worship your whole life didn't look like this. Your mind was telling you this isn't right but something, a small voice of the Holy Spirit was telling your body something different. Before long you were tapping your foot with the drums, your were nodding your head to the beat, you had a strange sensation to sing loud to the Lord, you were actually having fun at church. Skeptic swill say this is just a response to an emotional charged atmosphere, that they were on an emotional high. If that is the case could the same not be said of David and all of Israel when they returned with the Ark of the covenant? What keeps us from having the same worship experience today that they had then?
As we grow deeper in to the Gospel we should rejoice even more...
I Can't tell you the number of times someone has told me about their salvation experience and something [Holy Spirit] welled up inside them and they break down crying...from sorrow and joy at the same time. Now if we are that emotional in the moment we are converted and believe, where does all that emotion go five, ten years later? Have we lost sight of what God has done for us or are we so worried about what people will think that we hold it all down, become numb to God's Spirit welling up inside us, let our hearts become hard to the point of apathy. I am not telling anyone to including myself to go and start worshiping louder, crazier, more energetically. God says for without Me you can do nothing. Maybe we need to ask God where did my passion go for you, why has it grown so cold. When your passions for God are "white hot" and the more you understand the gospel and what Jesus has done for you the more you see why you should praise God exuberantly. The Holy Spirit inside of you gives you the ability to worship God to a degree that you never have. He sets your heart to heaven causing you to shout with a loud voice, leap with joy, rejoice always. You don't need to be more disciplined, you and I need more of God.
Lets look at Luke 6:22...
22 Blessed are you when men hate you, And when they exclude you,
And revile you, and cast out your name as evil, For the Son of Man’s sake.
23 Rejoice in that day and leap for joy! For indeed your reward is great in heaven,
For in like manner their fathers did to the prophets.
What is the first word in verse 22? Blessed... does this make sense to you. What's your natural response when people hate you? When people talk bad about you? Throw you out of their circle? You can't hang out at our house anymore, we don't like you? Our natural response is not rejoicing....or leaping for joy. This is not what we normally think to do..but what does the Bible say...when times get tough...and especially if people hate you.... and there isn't anything you can do about it... what do you need to do? Rejoice...but that is not enough, you have to leap for joy. Did you know this was in the Bible? Rejoice and leap for joy when your life is in shambles.Every believer in Christ has a first and foremost call on your life which is to be worshipers of God. God is Spirit, those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth, for such the Father is seeking to worship Him. You were made to worship and glorify God.
So let me ask a question? If the Bible says it ....should we do it?
You have probably heard some form of this before but the Bible is not a salad bar, we do not get to pick and chose which parts we like and leave the broccoli. Tell me what is the most often given commandment in the Bible, not the most important command, which is love the Lord your God with all your heart, but the command that is most often given in the Bible? Praise the Lord is given more than any other in the Bible. Lets take a look. Let's settle something first. The book of Psalms, is it in the Bible? Oh yes, right in the middle and the longest. Psalm 92 says this...
92 It is good to give thanks to the Lord,And to sing praises to Your name, O Most High;
2 To declare Your loving kindness in the morning, And Your faithfulness every night,
3 On an instrument of ten strings,On the lute,And on the harp,With harmonious sound.
Self explanatory really, but it is good to give thanks, sing praises to Your name.
95 Oh come, let us sing to the Lord! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.
2 Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving;Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.
3 For the Lord is the great God
This must be a misprint or something.... Let us shout joyfully? When was the last time you went into a church and the congregation, choir, or pastor shouted joyfully. Notice it didn't say reverently. Wait a minute, they misprinted twice, Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms. Have you ever had to tell your children something twice, you know, just to make sure they got it, just to make sure they heard you. If the Bible says it, should we not be doing it. Should we not be more excited about what God has done in our lives than the half heartedness that typically occurs. What does the Bible say I'm to do to the Rock of my salvation? Shout joyfully...question? Do you have to be joyous before you can shout joyfully? Yes you do, because if you shout and you and joyful then you are not shouting joyfully. Is this deep or what?
Out with the old... in with the _______
Psalm 96 in the Bible says...
96 Oh, sing to the Lord a new song! Sing to the Lord, all the earth.
2 Sing to the Lord, bless His name; Proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day.
3 Declare His glory among the nations, His wonders among all peoples.
4 For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised;
Well they misprinted again... Sing to the Lord a new song!....Ever been in a church where they only sing hymns. Where its almost considered blasphemy to do anything else. Our world, society, and churches are unbelievably resistant to change. I would even say so myself, but when I read clearly in the Bible that God has commanded us to sing a NEW song, then my hard resistant heart has to give in. I would never say change just for the sake of changing, or if its unbiblical, there is too much of that happening all the time. Many of us however can remember when contemporary music began making its way into churches probably 15 or so years ago. There was a strong defiance in many churches against this movement. There are churches that still only cling to the hymns as though they are life giving water themselves, don't get me wrong, I love some of the traditional hymns [The Old Rugged Cross, Just as I am, Victory in Jesus, I'll fly away, Nothing but the blood] but they are not a solitary commandment given by God. The early church exclusively sang only the Psalms, however a trouble maker arose, a man began writing hymns that summarized the psalms. These hymns at first like all other changes was rejected. They were thought to be unauthorized by God since they were not directly and expressively written in the Bible. We now have people who have done the same exact thing with hymns, the same hymns they are singing now were once rejected by the church. Would it not be called complete and utter blindness to reject contemporary Christian songs now?
Oft given command
Psalm 100....
100 Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands!
2 Serve the Lord with gladness; Come before His presence with singing.
3 Know that the Lord, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;a]" >[a]
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
I've always tried to live by this, all though, like most people I don't always live up to my own standard. Yes, I'll admit it, just like you, I have been a hypocrite at times, but on a consistent basis I usually am not. When people tell you the truth, what does it do? Before it sets you free it usually makes you mad. Why? The truth is usually in direct opposition to how you thought things were before. You will typically reject it as truth until God opens mine and your blind eyes. So with that said... here we go. Psalm 100 again says shout to the Lord. You and I both have been in churches where reverence was regarded above all. You don't get too loud, you show extreme respect, you don't talk unless at an appropriate time, and I could go on but you know what I mean. Praise and worship time during church, would that be an appropriate time to get loud? The point is, you can't be reverent [at least in the way man regards reverence] and shout at the same time. When you think about a group of people all of the same heart and mind towards Christ Jesus, who saved their eternal souls, who have a reason for unending gratitude shout to the Lord, do you think reverence? Reverence is of the heart, in American church we have taken it to mean sit down, be quiet, and go unnoticed!
Shout to the Lord...
God wants your heart. Why does the Bible command us to shout! There is an element of shouting, getting emotional that makes us vulnerable. When we shout we have to throw away our dignity before men. We have to give up what other people think. When we shout we can no longer hide in the crowd, we can no longer blend in, we can no longer pretend it wasn't us. When we shout everyone knows it was us who shouted. What if though...we all shouted together. When we joyfully shout to the Lord we abandon ourselves, our pride, and our fear of looking stupid in front of others. When we see others shout and become emotional during worship, there is something tearing at us isn't there? We think, look how crazy they look doing that, but there's a small twinge of a thought also, look how free they look.
Psalm 103- all that is within me. That means all of you, all your heart. You ever heard the say "Do this with all your heart." I've looked around church before and wondered if we just had really small hearts and if you were to be honest with yourself, at some point in time you've done the same thing.
I asked someone recently if they had ever been to any other church besides their own. They said yes. I asked them to describe the praise and worship portion to me. They said about the same as everywhere else. I then asked, in your opinion did the people look and sound as though they were worshiping with all their heart? He said oh no, not at all.
Psalm 107 O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.
2 Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy;
Psalm 111 Praise ye the Lord. I will praise the Lord with my whole heart, in the assembly of the upright, and in the congregation.
Where am I suppose to praise God at? In the assembling of the Saints, with other believers.
Psalm 113 -
113 Praise ye the Lord. Praise, O ye servants of the Lord, praise the name of the Lord.
2 Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and for evermore.
3 From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same the Lord's name is to be praised.
When should I be screaming, hollering, and praising God- from the rising of the sun to the setting of the same. Am I reading this out of the Bible or is this the reader's digest?
So what is the most oft given command in the Bible? Praise the Lord! Why? You were made to. You were created to.
So for you New Testament believers....
You may be thinking, that's all Old Testament. I'm a New Testament believer. Well here you go then.Praise the Lord is all through the Bible, Old and New Testament.
Philippians 4:4 -Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!
The Greek word for Rejoice is chairo, meaning to be glad, joyfully. If you are rejoicing in the Lord you should look glad to be doing it. If you look like a frozen person that is not rejoicing.
Jesus likes praise.....Loud praise at that. Look I'll prove it.
Luke 19: 28-40
The Triumphal Entry
28 When He had said this, He went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. 29 And it came to pass, when He drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mountain called Olivet, that He sent two of His disciples, 30 saying, “Go into the village opposite you, where as you enter you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat. Loose it and bring it here. 31 And if anyone asks you, ‘Why are you loosingit?’ thus you shall say to him, ‘Because the Lord has need of it.’”
32 So those who were sent went their way and found it just as He had said to them. 33 But as they were loosing the colt, the owners of it said to them, “Why are you loosing the colt?”
34 And they said, “The Lord has need of him.” 35 Then they brought him to Jesus. And they threw their own clothes on the colt, and they set Jesus on him. 36 And as He went, many spread their clothes on the road.
37 Then, as He was now drawing near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen,38 saying: “ ‘Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!’" Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
39 And some of the Pharisees called to Him from the crowd, “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.”
40 But He answered and said to them, “I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out.”
Real quick question...what were Jesus' disciples doing when He came in riding on the colt? They began to rejoice and praise God with LOUD voice. This can't be right, I've been in many many many churches and hardly any of them praised God in a loud voice, usually only the Pentecostal Churches do this. But wait the the other denominations [I mean Pharisees] showed up and told Jesus how to handle this problem. They said tell your people to quiet down, be silent, quit acting so out of order. So Jesus rebukes the Pharisees instead, "If these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out." Jesus loves our praise....even loud boisterous praise. Praise that has energy, excitement, that seems out of the norm, can you not see that from this passage of scripture.
Jesus doesn't mind emotional displays of worship...
I have heard, as you probably have, that those churches where the pastors or worship team builds the congregation up into an emotional frenzy or moment is craziness. They get emotional for a moment but nothing really changed on the inside. Ever heard this? Ever seen it? I have seen this many times, yet I will agree that there are times when the emotional display was fabricated by man and not God. We have taken this to mean that almost no one should get emotional in church in anymore. If the emotion comes from deep inside a person and is brought forth out of their heart by the Holy Spirit then its completely valid. This happens in the Bible...Luke 7:38 - 50
A Sinful Woman Forgiven
36 Then one of the Pharisees asked Him to eat with him. And He went to the Pharisee’s house, and sat down to eat. 37 And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, 38 and stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil. 39 Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he spoke to himself, saying, “This Man, if He were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching Him, for she is a sinner.”
Jesus is yet again around one of the religious elite [Pharisee]. A woman finds out where Jesus is comes in anoints His feet with fragrant oil, is crying and washes Jesus' feet with her hair. Picture this in your mind, imagine this happening with you sitting there, does this create an awkward moment or what? Is this an emotional moment or what? The religious man yet again has a problem with this act of emotion, as most religious people always do. Jesus justifies her in front of him though. Jesus is touched by this display of emotion, Jesus wants His followers to worship and praise Him for all He has done.
Is what He did for you a minor thing....
Would you consider what Jesus did for you in your salvation a minor thing. An event that you should say "thank you" for and move on. There is an example about this in the Bible in Luke 17: 11 -
Ten Lepers Cleansed
11 Now it happened as He went to Jerusalem that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. 12 Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off. 13 And they lifted up their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”
14 So when He saw them, He said to them, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed.
15 And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God,16 and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan.
17 So Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? 18 Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?” 19 And He said to him, “Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well.”
Ten lepers were cleansed, but only one came back. Only one came back to worship Jesus, was Jesus sacrifice on the cross for you and I not one hundred times more than that of healed leprosy. Leprosy was the worst of the worst diseases of that time, but the Bible teaches that our afflictions are only light and momentary while on this earth. Jesus saved us from eternal damnation, from eternity without God, from a timeless torment, how much more thankful should we be! The one leper who came back worshiped Jesus did so very loud and emotionally. He fell down at His feet, cried out and glorified God, however, Jesus was not bothered by this at all, Jesus was bothered by the nine who did nothing. Does your worship match the weightiness of His sacrifice? I'm not telling you that you need to go worship harder, be more emotional, or praise Him out of guilt. Maybe you should spend time thinking about the sacrifice of your Savior, getting to know your Savior, deepening your relationship with Him and the praise and worship will come.
What is in the heart must come out...
Have you ever heard the phrase from someone, well you don't know their heart! I would say that is correct but to a certain extent this is not actually correct, we can get a rather large glimpse of what is in someone's heart. Luke 6:45 says "A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart" brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks."
That last part is the kicker, if praise, adoration, and thankfulness is in abundance in your heart for God then it will flow out of your mouth. This is how we know what is in the hearts of men. You may say "Well people can fake it, they can look genuine and not be genuine." Granted I consider this to be a valid point, but we are speaking in terms of people who say they are genuine but there is no abundance of Jesus in their heart. Could you really be a disciple of Jesus, have a genuine attitude of worship in your heart to Jesus and it not come out in your words, in your expressions, in your emotions? In other words, would you downplay through your words and actions what is really in your heart? Absolutely not, so the only likely conclusion is that it is not really there?
It is not just a personality thing...
What if what you had perceived as worship, been taught as worship in your church, or experienced as worship your entire life was not Biblical at all. When I say not Biblical, I mean that it doesn't look like what is presented in the Bible. Many will use the excuse, "Well its just not my personality, I'm laid back, I do not like the attention." There is no problem with this in the least, I married a person very much so like this. However the problem comes in that there is no way the entire church is full of laid back, type B, emotionless people. I completely understand that some people are very intense, demonstrative, emotional, and outgoing. The very nature of these people would do this, be at church or anywhere. Yet again I maintain though, that the entire church can't sing half-heartedly like zombies.
What should praise and worship look like...
I cannot give a definite answer for every single person out there. We all have different emotions, ways of showing those emotions, personalities, etc. Do I believe that everyone who ran into Jesus that worshiped Him for what He had done in their lives was a Type A personality that always was energetic, excited, and emotional? No I don't. These were normal people that had their lives changed by God Almighty and could not help but break out into song, praise, crying, and loud voices. Reverence is great, I believe in reverence, the Bible speaks about reverence but the examples presented in the Bible as praise and worship of God do not fit our modern day understanding of what reverence really is. 2 Samuel 6 which is probably one of the more famous praises in the Bible definitely does not fit what our American church definition of reverence. 2 Samuel 6
12 Now it was told King David, saying, “The Lord has blessed the house of Obed-Edom and all thatbelongs to him, because of the ark of God.” So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David with gladness. 13 And so it was, when those bearing the ark of the Lord had gone six paces, that he sacrificed oxen and fatted sheep. 14 Then David danced before the Lord with all his might; and David was wearing a linen ephod. 15 So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the trumpet.
16 Now as the ark of the Lord came into the City of David, Michal, Saul’s daughter, looked through a window and saw King David leaping and whirling before the Lord; and she despised him in her heart.17 So they brought the ark of the Lord, and set it in its place in the midst of the tabernacle that David had erected for it. Then David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord. 18 And when David had finished offering burnt offerings and peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord of hosts. 19 Then he distributed among all the people, among the whole multitude of Israel, both the women and the men, to everyone a loaf of bread, a piece of meat, and a cake of raisins. So all the people departed, everyone to his house.
20 Then David returned to bless his household. And Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David, and said, “How glorious was the king of Israel today, uncovering himself today in the eyes of the maids of his servants, as one of the base fellows shamelessly uncovers himself!”
21 So David said to Michal, “It was before the Lord, who chose me instead of your father and all his house, to appoint me ruler over the people of the Lord, over Israel. Therefore I will play music before the Lord. 22 And I will be even more undignified than this, and will be humble in my own sight. But as for the maidservants of whom you have spoken, by them I will be held in honor.” 23 Therefore Michal the daughter of Saul had no children to the day of her death.
David a man the Bible describes as being "a man after God's own heart" dances before the Lord... with all his might. Dancing has definitely not been allowed in churches, this goes well beyond loud praise. The people of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the trumpet. Shouting? You definitely can't be reverent in our churches today and do any sort of shouting while praising God. Notice the one person who is not enjoying the ark [God's presence] being brought back into Israel. Michal..why is this? She's religious, religious people are always more worried about what others will think than just letting the Spirit of God reign in their life. Religious people might even scold you for doing so, but one more time, who does the Lord favor in this situation? Those who worship Him, those who do it loudly, those who cry out to Him, those who joyfully sing His praises, those who leap for joy!
What is the point of praise and worship...
This is how we show God our adoration of Him. This is how we show God our love for Him. Praise and worship is also an act of faith. Lets take a look into Acts Chapter 16...
Preview: Paul and Silas come upon a woman who is doing fortune telling. A medium. They cast out the Spirit that was giving her the ability, but the men who were making profit off of her fortunes are now mad at Paul and Silas because their cash flow has ceased. They take Paul and Silas to the magistrate and have them beaten with rods and thrown into the inner prison with their feet fastened in stocks. Do Paul and Silas have a reason to be angry? To whine and complain? Get down on their situation? Of course they do, this has never happened to most Christians [Refer to Luke 6:22] but what do they do.
25 And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. 26 And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed. 27 And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled. 28 But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here.29 Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, 30 And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.32 And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house.33 And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway.34 And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house.
Praising God and worshiping God will cause the chains that bind your life to fall off. Praising God will cause others to look at what you have and want it also. Notice what the Phillipian jailer did immediately after he ran in there. He wants to know, what must I do to be saved? Praising God will cause those who once persecuted you to become your friends. Praising God will help you be able to forgive those who previously persecuted you. Notice, the Phillipian jailer was about to kill himself, Paul and Silas could have let him do so thinking he deserved it. Remember he belonged to the those who had just beat them and imprisoned them. What would most of us have done?
Stirring up the gift of God that is within you...
The Holy Spirit is always present, He is ready and waiting. But we have to do something. We have to stir up the Holy Spirit [2 Timothy 1:6] What does it mean to stir up the Holy Spirit. We have to create an atmosphere where He is praised, where is worshiped like those in the Bible did, where He can have total control. The Holy Spirit of God gets a bad rap in many churches because the theology of what He does to you has been abused in some churches. Have you ever been invited to another church, went to another denomination and the praise and worship was different than your church? The music was alive, not just upbeat, but actually seemed to have an effect on you. You weren't sure about it at first because you had been taught differently, worship your whole life didn't look like this. Your mind was telling you this isn't right but something, a small voice of the Holy Spirit was telling your body something different. Before long you were tapping your foot with the drums, your were nodding your head to the beat, you had a strange sensation to sing loud to the Lord, you were actually having fun at church. Skeptic swill say this is just a response to an emotional charged atmosphere, that they were on an emotional high. If that is the case could the same not be said of David and all of Israel when they returned with the Ark of the covenant? What keeps us from having the same worship experience today that they had then?
As we grow deeper in to the Gospel we should rejoice even more...
I Can't tell you the number of times someone has told me about their salvation experience and something [Holy Spirit] welled up inside them and they break down crying...from sorrow and joy at the same time. Now if we are that emotional in the moment we are converted and believe, where does all that emotion go five, ten years later? Have we lost sight of what God has done for us or are we so worried about what people will think that we hold it all down, become numb to God's Spirit welling up inside us, let our hearts become hard to the point of apathy. I am not telling anyone to including myself to go and start worshiping louder, crazier, more energetically. God says for without Me you can do nothing. Maybe we need to ask God where did my passion go for you, why has it grown so cold. When your passions for God are "white hot" and the more you understand the gospel and what Jesus has done for you the more you see why you should praise God exuberantly. The Holy Spirit inside of you gives you the ability to worship God to a degree that you never have. He sets your heart to heaven causing you to shout with a loud voice, leap with joy, rejoice always. You don't need to be more disciplined, you and I need more of God.