In Genesis  22:5, Abraham told his servants: “Stay  here.  I and the boy will go over there.  We will worship and then we will come back to you.” When I teach on this subject, I usually ask: “Can anyone remember the name of that song that Abraham and Isaac sang on the mountain?” Usually there is a period of silence as people try and recall the name of the song mentioned in the bible. “Was it Jehovah Jireh, my Provider?” I question, as people scan each other’s faces for an answer.  The truth is there is no record of a song of words and music being sung on top of that mountain.  And yet a song was sung. When Abraham laid his son on the altar and obediently raised the knife over his long awaited promised heir of God, this act of obedience was the song that God both enjoyed and heard.

     Matt Redman, a contemporary songwriter, has written a song that is being sung around the world called “Heart Of Worship”.  Part of the lyric says:  “I’ll bring you more than a song, for a song in itself is not what you have required.” So many people today have relegated worship to nothing more than the songs that we sing.  And we lend support to this commonly held misconception by saying things like “I go to worship services” as if to imply that is the place where we do our worshipping.  That is where we give God His due - an hour of our time, a few songs, pray our prayers, listen to a message and think having done our duty, we have worshipped. This can be a diluted understanding of worship that leaves the world around us largely unaffected.

     Often the singing of songs to God is nothing more that lip service.  In Isaiah 29:13, the Prophet warned: “These people come near to me and honor me with their mouths, but their hearts are far from Me.” Do we mean the words that we are singing or are we just giving lip expression to Jesus? Have we lost the fire of passion to see His Kingdom come on the earth beginning in each of our lives? The world goes largely unchanged by the diluted worship of the church that worships God with their lips but not with their lives of obedience.       

It is true that God is worthy of excellence, but far too many are concentrating on the performance of the music rather than the obedience of our lives. They work long hours to excel musically while inwardly their lives and families are a wreck. When our primary understanding of worship is based on the song we sing and our performance of that song, the enemy already has us in his grasp.

     Jesus said in John 4 that “the hour is coming and now is that the Father is seeking those who will worship Him in spirit and in truth.”  The life of this Samaritan woman, who was despised by the Jews, was so transformed by her encounter with Jesus that many believed in Him because of her testimony. She attributed such value to His words and character that she, in fact, worshipped Jesus. Her life was so affected that others could see a difference in her. True worship is so enveloping that it transforms us, and the world around us.

     Paul wrote to the church in Romans 12:1:  “I urge your brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship.”  Paul was talking about how we live, love and forgive each other, and how we love our God.  We have been commanded to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.  Does the attitude of our hearts communicate that we are living expressions of ‘dying to ourselves’ as we sing “I Surrender All”?

     When Mary came and broke the alabaster box on Jesus and anointed Him with oil, her worship of Jesus, like the fragrance, filled the entire room.  She came and poured out her most treasured possession on the One she loved with all of her heart.  And through this pouring out, this emptying of all that was precious to her, her true worship changed her life and touched the lives of others around her.   You know when you’ve met them. You can see Him in their eyes and countenance. Their world has been transformed and joy is increasing in their walk. He has become and is their Lord and God. The heaviness that once consumed them is gone, released to God. And through their brokenness and surrender, life has come.

In the hour that we are living in, the world is waiting for the fragrance of worship to fill the whole earth. When and where it does, many will be converted and come to the saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

     And as with Mary, there will always be those who do not understand and criticize our worship of Him because they stand outside the door of His Presence, telling us what a waste of our time, money and energy. But our worship is not for people.  It is for God. In the same way that a worm on a fishhook is for fish, and not for us, so our worship is for God, not people. It is not too common to see a fisherman tasting his worm and saying, “Now I like that! Since it tastes so good to me.  The fish should really like this worm” No, our worship is for God alone. He is worthy of all of our worship. And we need to worship Him in ways that taste good to Him.  We need to worship Him in truth and in the Spirit, in ways that He enjoys. May we all so live our lives that we bring Him more than a song. He is the King.