Friday night is "youth-group" night for our family. All 9 of us drive to our church to hear a great Bible study, and praise God with music. This past Friday a brother shared on the hypocrisy that sometimes follows our praise. How humans are so easily accepting of other things that don't necessarily appear replace God, but somehow make it to the worship altar alongside God. Almost like we come to church, then check off the "God" box in our to do list for the week, then move on with our week, never returning back to the sacred time of worship that Sunday morning.
Most people haven't heard the story of Micah, in Judges 12. Micah was a sick man, the Bible tells us that he stole money from his mother, and when he offered it back to her, the mother then made two idols from the silver. (What a random response!) After Micah had his two little silver idols, he turned his house into a shrine, and trained his sons to perform priestly duties to these idols.(Verse 5) Then along comes a Levite, and Micah offers him a yearly pay if the Levite will stay and perform priestly duties to God. After all, Micah wanted to please as many gods as possible. Micah was sure that the LORD would bless him because of his considerable act of worship. (Verse 13) How nice that Micah considered Yahweh in all this. He opened a slot right next to his other idols, and placed an altar to God. The Levite, who should of known better, was compliant, and along with Micah, they both lived on. God did not prosper Micah.
What can we learn from this?
The "worship" that Micah offered God was a mockery of real worship. God is a consuming God, and cannot work properly if there are other idols in His place of worship. Whenever we come to worship God, but are focused of other things, we are not praising God with 100% of our heart. If we expect God to be really praised with our worship, it has to be for Him alone. If we expect for God to change us through worship, it must be worship to Him alone.
Being worried of what others think of us while we worship is hypocritical. Not being "in the mood" for worship is hypocritical. Having a wondering mind during worship is hypocritical. I even believe that letting the music "get us in the mood," or "draw us" to worship is hypocritical. Worship is like walking on water. When we have our eyes focused on Jesus, we continue to move closer to Him, but the moment something els catches our attention, we begin to sink.
When we worship God, it should be a "you and Me" moment. That time cannot be shared with anyone, or anything els.
I would love to hear your thoughts! :)
-Jerry
Wow, what a great topic!
ReplyDeleteI had never heard that story about Micah. That's really interesting.
Oftentimes, it's hard for me to truly just worship without thinking about the actual music. Since I love music so much, I always love to hear the musicality of worship, and oftentimes, I can tell when someone played a wrong note or messed up or is just improvising so I have been distracted by things like that. I try my best to focus solely on worshiping God when I worship, but I have to admit, it's hard for me sometimes. I have had thoughts about wondering if that was related to hypocrisy so that's why I've been trying so hard to forget about what's around me and the music I'm listening to and just focus on the lyrics and worshiping God. Thanks for the great reminder, Jerry!
This is so true.. and so convicting. :3
ReplyDeleteI agree with Sophie; I love music, so it's hard to worship to a song I don't "like" or when it isn't very "good" music. Of course, once I set my petty opinions aside, worship becomes great! In my church, our Sunday morning schedule is set in stone. The service never fails to start with a song, then a 30-second welcome (which is barely enough time to talk to one person, let alone say hi to everyone), then three more songs, the message, another song, a how-to-fill-out-the-information-card, a song, and then announcements. I hate that! It's so routine, so redundant! There's no flow, no change, no passion. Worship was never meant to be so set like that. I've even mentioned it to my pastor, but nothing has changed since I did. But when real worship happens, usually led by my best friend's sister's band or at a camp or concert, it is amazing. Simply. Amazing.
ReplyDeleteGreat post, man. I love it.