Instruments of His Glory II

Throughout the entire Old Testament, God revealed His glory in order to establish His sovereignty and reveal His character and goodness to His people.  He was preparing them for the day when God would become flesh and dwell in their midst through the person of Jesus Christ.  This shift in how God revealed His glory is clearly described in John 1:14.

“And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

In the New Testament, we see God’s glory fully revealed in Jesus Christ.  God no longer showed up in a cloud or a pillar of fire.  His glory appeared in the person of His only begotten Son. Once again, all of the Father’s goodness was revealed to His people as they were healed, delivered and forgiven of their sins. But it didn’t stop there.  In the longest recorded prayer of Jesus (John 17), we find that He took the Father’s glory and gave it to everyone who would believe in His Name!

The Apostle Paul gave the early church even more insight into this incredible truth in Colossians 1:19, 26-27,

“For it pleased the Father that in Him [Jesus] all the fullness should dwell… the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

What an awesome privilege we have to literally be carriers of God’s glory through Christ Jesus!

As I sit and take a moment to think about what that truly means, I am completely overwhelmed and humbled.  Overwhelmed because in and of myself, I don’t deserve to have God’s presence manifested in my life like that.  I am humbled because in spite of that, the Father has chosen to see me through the shed blood of Jesus and claim me as His own; entrusting His glory to me.

Our calling, as followers of Christ, is to be conformed to His image and become instruments of His glory.  In the musical world, an instrument is formed and shaped to release a unique sound.

As instruments of God’s glory, we have been designed by the Creator to release His unique sound in the earth.  A sound that carries His presence with it.  A sound that releases light into darkness.  A sound that creates something from nothing.

I believe that His glory was meant to be experienced every time we come together to exalt His Name.  As we continue our pursuit of God in our personal worship times, His glory will increase in our public worship times and He will reveal His character and goodness to His people as He has always done!

COMING SOON:

Scripture shows us how we can avoid being easily cheated from God’s true glory by accepting a cheap substitute!

Instruments of His Glory (Part 1)

As a worship leader, I used to think that it was my “job” to bring people into God’s presence every Sunday and what a difficult task that became.  After many years of testing out that theory, I’ve found that God truly has a better way mapped out in Scripture that is applicable to all believers; not just church leaders!  God has called His children to be instruments of His glory – day in and day out.  Now, instead of vainly attempting to drag people into the throne-room, my team and I endeavor to bring the throne-room to the people.

When we have been in the presence of God throughout the week, Sunday becomes one big worship encounter where God’s glory can be released.

One of the most beautiful examples of this is found in the Old Testament.  Solomon had just completed the Temple where God’s presence could finally abide permanently and he scheduled a worship service in order to celebrate.  In preparation for the gathering, the priests went into the Most Holy Place and consecrated themselves. When the musicians and singers “were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord, and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music…the house of the Lord was filled with a cloud so that the priests could not continue ministering because the glory of the Lord filled the house of God.” (2 Chronicles 5:13-14)

When Jesus died on the cross, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, indicating that we have been given access to His holy presence through the blood of Jesus.  Peter says we have become a “holy priesthood offering up spiritual sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 2:5)

As believers everywhere commit to relentlessly pursue God’s presence in their personal daily lives, they will become instruments of His glory.  Then, when we come together as one voice, God’s glory can be released through our corporate worship like never before!

The Other Crucifixion

As Christ followers, we are all familiar with the Biblical account of the crucifixion of Jesus. But there’s another crucifixion that isn’t as widely followed or talked about.  It is the crucifixion of self.  No beating around the bush, glossing it over or sweeping it under rug will make it disappear.  In the end, we will answer to God for both accounts: Did we accept the price our Savior paid on the cross?  And did we take up our own cross and follow after?

The Apostle Paul says it this way:

“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” Galatians 2:20

As gruesome as the word “crucify” is, we can’t delete it from the Bible or dress it up to fit our every day, modern lifestyle. In it’s simplest form, being “crucified with Christ” could be defined by the phrase, “Humbly obey.”  It would be so much easier if merely singing a nice chorus or hymn would be all the worship God desires, but He asks for us to follow His Son’s example of true worship. It is what it is. It’s painful, it’s hard, it’s sacrificial.  It’s also fulfilling.

“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”  Philippians 2:5-11

Worshiping a Holy God

“Who among the gods is like you, LORD? 
Who is like you—majestic in holiness, 
awesome in glory, working wonders?”  Exodus 15:11

God is HOLY. Sinless. Perfect. Pure. His character is flawless.  His ways are higher than ours.  His might far outweighs all of our greatest strengths combined.  Our brilliance of  intellect comes nowhere near His knowledge.  Yet His presence is something we long for, pursue, and desire above all else.  When He reveals Himself to us, are we ready to respond in a way He deserves?

The Prophet, Isaiah, had an encounter with the holiness of God that shook him to the core and changed his life forever!

Isaiah 6:1-9

¹ In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. ² Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. ³ And they were calling to one another:

“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory.”

⁴ At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.

⁵ “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.”

⁶ Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. ⁷ With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”

⁸ Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”

And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

⁹ He said, “Go…

This account of a man coming face to face with God’s holy presence challenges us to step it up in our worship of this holy God.  Three things really stand out here…

• God’s holiness exposes our heart’s true contents.
• God’s holiness requires a response.
• God’s holiness sets us apart to carry on His work in the earth through the power of His Holy Spirit. 

Worshiping a holy God is so much more than singing lyrics with the word “holy” in it.  The contents of our hearts are poured out before God as we live out our lives of worship.  Whenever we join other believers in worship, it’s the song of our hearts that God hears, not the merely words that flow off our tongues.  What kind of worship does your vessel produce?  Is my worship worthy of  a holy God’s attention?  Is it something He can put His stamp of approval on?

The truth is that no matter what we do in and of ourselves, we will never be able to produce the kind of worship God deserves.  However, in His great and awesome love and through the blood of His Son, we who were not worthy to grace His presence are made righteous and can (through repentance) walk right into the presence of a Holy God, pouring out our worship and releasing His glory into our world!

 Worshiping a holy God is not a genre of music. It is not a hobby to fill our time.  It is a call from a holy God to every believer who calls on His name to enter into the eternal song that resounds from the very throne room of God where every nation, tribe and tongue cries out: “Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God Almighty Who was and is and is to come!”

The Faces of Worship

As a worship director, a major chunk of my life is dedicated to music.  Listening to music, selecting music, learning new music, writing music, arranging music, directing music, discussing music.  Music, music, music.  Because my main responsibilities revolve around creating a Sunday worship experience for our church family that includes music, I’ve noticed that it is easy in the church world to fall into the trap of defining worship as merely a certain musical genre or as the special time slot in the service devoted to congregational singing.  While music has always been and will continue to be an integral part of church life and history, it is still just one of the many faces of worship.

Worship shows up throughout the Scriptures as adoration, obedience, consecration, submission, intercession, warfare, thanksgiving, sacrifice, offerings and singing songs, hymns and spiritual songs.  I just love how our multi-faceted Creator God has given us so many ways to express our worship to him.  (And this is really good news for anyone out there that doesn’t have a musical bone in their body!)  In fact, had the heros and heroines of the Bible only worshiped congregationally and skipped all these other expressions of worship, their life stories would have been dramatically altered!

Abraham might have missed the life-changing revelation that God Himself would provide the Lamb for the ultimate sacrifice.

Moses might have never experienced leading the greatest mass exodus out of bondage in the history of the world.

King Jehoshaphat might have lost the war and missed out on the victory that came through praising in their darkest hour.

Hannah might have remained barren and never given birth to her miracle child.

Isaiah might have missed his God-given calling.

Mary might have been passed over as highly favored and blessed among women and missed the privilege of giving birth to the Savior of the world.

Paul and Silas might have never seen the light of another day and missed seeing the chains removed from all the prisoners that heard them worship in the midst of their pain.

The thread that connects each of these stories is the individual’s response and heart attitude in the midst of their situation.  God spoke and someone obeyed.  He asked a question and someone answered.  He touched and someone touched back.  Or He was altogether silent and someone simply trusted and pursued Him anyways!

Sometimes worship is a sacrifice, other times it is intercession or warfare.  Often it is thanksgiving or songs of praise.  But it is always the response of our heart to the presence of our Father moving in our lives as He so desires. It is this response that brings substance to our songs of praise during congregational worship.

When our days in this life are through, we will see the culmination of worship as it erupts around the Throne in an eternal response to God’s presence.  And we will know beyond a shadow of a doubt that He is always worth pursuing in worship!

The Heart of the Matter

Have you ever noticed that no matter what topic is presented or what type of audience is present, Jesus always has a way of getting to the heart of the matter?  He peels off the layers of pretense in a single breath and leaves no stone unturned.  When it comes to serving God and becoming a worshiper after His own heart; it’s the very words and lifestyle of Jesus that paint a clear picture of what the Father is looking for…because according to scripture, He really is looking for something specific!

Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.  (John 4:23-24)

I would love to be on the Father’s “right-kind-of-worshiper-list,” wouldn’t you?  But how in the world do we make it on that list?  Jesus wrapped up his conversation on worship a few verses later when his disciples were trying to figure out if he was hungry or not.  Jesus, once again going back to the heart of the matter, says: “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.”  (John 4:34)  I don’t think this was just a random conversation about food. He was defining a different appetite; spelling out for us the essence of what “worshiping in the Spirit and in truth” looks like in everyday clothes.  ”To do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work” is a phrase loaded with humility, sacrifice, and complete obedience.  It completely removes my own ambitions from the equation and exposes what the true desires of my heart really are.

In Mark 7:6-7, Jesus denounced the Pharisees as hypocrites because they honored him with their lips, but their hearts were far from Him causing their worship to be in vain.  In looking at these verses and the ones following, my pastor recently asked us in a staff devotional time what a heart that was far from Jesus could possibly look like.  Sometimes it’s easier to make an attempt at judging someone else’s heart instead of my own, but I think the easiest way to assess where the compass of my own heart is pointing is to look at the fruit of my life.  A person tends to pursue the secret desires of their own heart.  If the Pharisees had truly desired a God-pleasing existence, the fruit of their life would have shown that.  Instead, their actions, words, and life choices showed that the compass of their hearts were pointing to fame, fortune, status, and recognition by man.  Those desires polluted their worship.

Week after week, believers all over the world gather in homes and churches and lift their voices in worship.  The styles of expression vary, the words are different, but the secret outflow of the heart is what God really sees and hears.  When I stand before Him and pour out a song or a verse as an offering of worship, does he see humility, sacrifice and true obedience or does he see selfish me trying to exalt me?

If I can align my heart with the Father’s heart, His desires will become my desires.  When my heart pursues godly desires, I believe my worship will be “in the Spirit and in truth.”

The really awe-inspiring core of the whole concept of worship is that the eternal and almighty God who created the universe desires to be in my presence.  Yes, HE wants to be with me!  So much so that when I was still a sinner, Christ died for me.  When I receive the grace He offers through the shed blood of Jesus, my heart can be free to worship.  And He joins in by “surrounding me with songs of deliverance.”  (Psalm 32:7)

And that is the essence of worship: “I love because He first loved me!” (1 John 4:19)

Broken

In my home, broken things end up in the trash.  I don’t know about you, but while I’d like to think of myself as resourceful and creative, I rarely take the time to fix things or figure out a new use for them.  If something is broken, the time has come to throw it away and get something new!

Unfortunately, this pattern is also prevalent in our world when it comes to viewing people.  They have become a commodity that can be used, broken and trashed.

God’s view of brokenness, however, is completely different!  Scripture tells us that His ways and thoughts are higher than ours (Isaiah 55:9).  While we humans rarely find a use for brokenness; He sees brokenness as a pre-requisite for authentic worship. We like to come to God after we have everything fixed and cleaned up in our lives.  He asks us to come broken.  King David is a prime example of someone who came to this realization after making a mess out of his life.  Bad decisions, wrong choices, and crazy circumstances piled up leaving David in a broken heap.  God could have overlooked him and sent him to the trash pile, but He offered forgiveness instead and David’s brokenness became an offering of worship.  Out of his brokenness came this heart-song:

“Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart  you, God, will not despise.” (Ps. 51:10-12, 17)

Our brokenness tells God that we are no longer in control; it’s no longer all about us.  And in order to truly worship, our focus must be on Him alone…the One who was willing to carry our brokenness to the cross and make all things new.

Authentic Worship

She was a sinner. A well-known sinner.  Despised, criticized, humiliated, broken.

He was religious.  A well-known leader. Respected, celebrated, proud, influential.

Both met a forgiving and compassionate Jesus, yet their responses to His presence in their lives was very different.  This is their story…

When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table.  A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.” Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.”  “Tell me, teacher,” he said.   “Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?” Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.”  “You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.  Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.  You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.  Luke 7:36-47 NIV

Thousands of years later we are impacted by the contrast between authentic worship  and mechanical motions that serves to remind us of one of the most important components that makes our worship sincere…our testimony!

Everyone who has been forgiven by Jesus has a powerful and significant testimony.  His grace has covered our sins that separated us from His presence.  His sacrifice has made the way for us to come to Him in worship any time of the day or night; not just on a Sunday morning.  And our testimony gives our worship credence – when we remember that we deserve punishment instead of grace – it gives wings to our words of love and releases the sound of heaven in our songs.

They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; Revelation 12:11