Extravagant Worship, that is a popular phrase in the church today and in what I understand that is meant by it, I wonder if I ever enter in.
In my mind if someone comes to our church and asks are we extravagant worshipers, I would say no, not at all, for in my mind when I think of extravagant worship I think to my days growing up in a Charismatic Church and all the extremes that happened in the name of extravagant worship. So Again, if asked about PEC are you extravagant Worshipers, then I would say no.
As I have been thinking about this phrase for a while I thought I would look at some definitions of what the word Extravagant actually means and found that the definition confirmed my negative association with it as far as worship of God by His people is concerned. The definitions were as follows: "excessive: unrestrained, especially with regard to feelings"
HOWEVER, as I have continued to look at this over time, I am becoming more and more challenged that my attitude to worship and my expressions of worship,are way to safe when compared to what I see in Scripture. Let me list some verses that have played their part in shaking my thinking:
Psalm 9:1
I will praise you, O LORD, with all my heart;
I will tell of all your wonders.Psalm 30:11
You turned my wailing into dancing;
you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,Psalm 95:6
Come, let us bow down in worship,
let us kneel before the LORD our Maker;Psalm 100:1-2
1 Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.
2 Worship the LORD with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.Psalm 138:1
I will praise you, O LORD, with all my heart;
before the "gods" I will sing your praise.Psalm 149:3 3
Let them praise his name with dancing
and make music to him with tambourine and harp.Psalm 150
1 Praise the LORD.
Praise God in his sanctuary;
praise him in his mighty heavens.2 Praise him for his acts of power;
praise him for his surpassing greatness.3 Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet,
praise him with the harp and lyre,4 praise him with tambourine and dancing,
praise him with the strings and flute,5 praise him with the clash of cymbals,
praise him with resounding cymbals.6 Let everything that has breath praise the LORD.
Praise the LORD.And one from the New Testament that shows how things will be forever around the Throne of God:
Rev 5:13-14
13Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing:
"To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
be praise and honour and glory and power,
for ever and ever!" 14The four living creatures said, "Amen," and the elders fell down and worshiped. 13Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing:
"To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
be praise and honour and glory and power,
for ever and ever!" 14The four living creatures said, "Amen," and the elders fell down and worshiped.
The other thing that challenges me about a lack of expression and perhaps even extravagance in my worship to God is that if you read through the Bible looking for references to the praises of God you will find that these perhaps to us, extravagant expressions of worship are all responses to how awesome God is and the wonderful deeds He has wrought for His people, not the least of which the saving of my sinful heart from worshiping myself instead of Him. So why aren't my expressions of worship as extravagant as theirs, as God has Done as much for me as them, and I also have the privilege of relating to God in the light of the cross, which most of them didn't!
Let me address the most common objections in general to expressiveness in worship, that it is just not culturally what we are comfortable with or secondly that these extravagant worship expressions are all for show and that it is the heart that matters.
Well I will address the culture point first, I agree that perhaps how the Israelites responded to God was sensitive to the culture of the time, perhaps, culturally they were more prone to shouting for Joy or bowing low in adoration or dancing a jig. However, this hasn't helped me absolve myself of the nagging doubt that this is just an excuse to hide behind. The question is that if people from Plains come in and observe how I worship this amazing God I have told them about, would they, who are from my culture, look and say wow see how extravagant he is in the praise of his God.
Secondly, the matter of extravagant expressions of worship are all about show and it is really the response of the heart that is important. Well as someone who has come from a Charismatic background I know al about the excesses that are a dangerous possibility in public worship. However, am I sure that my lack of expressions in worship is as a result of a pure heart? It can be true that the peer pressure that exists in a Charismatic church to be extravagant in worship can be just the same in a more reserved church to be more restrained in our worship. What I should surely be striving for is freedom to from a pure heart respond with as much passion as I can muster to my all awesome God.
Let me finish up by making clear the challenge I am working through in all this, have I fully apprehended the enormity of how Glorious our God is, and is my body, mind, heart, soul etc responding accordingly in public worship, not showing off, not inhibited to fit in with those around me but a heart responding rightly to an Awesome God. If as John Piper says, God is most Glorified in me when I am most satisfied in Him then I want to be extravagantly joyfully deeply seriously overwhelmingly satisfied in Him and as Psalm 138 says I will praise Him with my WHOLE heart before all these other “gods” that vie for my affections!
Jim
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Jim, this is very thought provoking. I think issues of culture and personality type are relevant though not decisive. The most reserved guy in town gets excited when his team goes one - nil up with 5 minutes to go!
ReplyDeleteBut I think we need to take very expansive view of worship as well to get the full picture. When the Word of God is faithfully preached and faithfully heard true worship is taking place. Often that involves worship with the feelings but often it involves worship with the mind too. What does extravagent worship look like in relation to the Word?
Pushing that even further, all of our life is to be worship to God. When I am in the office; on the building site; a university, is there a distinctiveness about the way I live? Is the Joy of the Lord apparent in my life? I think these things are important to consider in 'extravagent worship' as well.
I suppose it is about the whole person worshipping. There would be something incongruous about someone appearing 'lost in wonder, love and praise' during the music, asleep during the sermon and depressed at work would there not.
Anyway mate, these are just some intial musings. You are spot on with your post we do need to worship the Lord exuberantly and honestly.
A good opportunity for a heart check up for us all!
Thanks Alan, it is important to remind us all that although I have focused on a small area of our lives (Corporate worship) we must never lose the big picture that our whole lives are worship.
ReplyDeleteI love the illustration of 'lost in wonder, love and praise' during the music, asleep during the sermon and depressed at work' awesome! And yes that is certainly not what I am getting at.
I guess I am just aware that we as people can be just as false by standing still not even scratching our noses in case someone might think we are raising our hands in worship than those that might be swinging from the chandeliers and that we all as the body of Christ should be aiming to passionately and unreservedly (whatever that honestly means for the individual) worship our God.
Spot on Mr. Coyle!
ReplyDeleteI have been at two very different churches recently. One where we sang only unacompanied psalms and one where the music was loud and animated. At the one singing only the psalms there were non christian friends and relatives there who observed how lively and sincere the singing was. The other church where the music was very exhuberant and extravigant was also very sincere. In both churches there was a feeling that the people were truly worshipping God out of love and gratitude. I believe that what God wants is a sacrifise of praise and hearfelt worship and if non christians come into a church where that is the case the style will not matter, what will matter is the sense of God's presence and the sincerity of God's people singing praise centred on the Lord and not on themselves. I believe it is also true Alan that what God wants is a life of worship where we live in obedience to God and where our joy is in the Lord (although we may be depressed)and not on feelings or circumstance. Here is a quote I found interesting recently in A W Tozer book called The Coming King.
ReplyDeleteQuote:"Revelation 4:1-2, 6-11
What a moving thought it is to learn that in the heavenly realm God receives unceasing worship from the living creatures surrounding His throne! Day and night they never stop singing: Holy, holy, holy in the Lord God Almighty who was, and is, and is to come. Rev 4:8... Looking at what John wrote, I wonder how so many present day Christians can consider an hour of worship Sunday morning as adequate adoration of the Holy God who created them and then redeemed them back to Himself...The heavenly scene John describes is the unceasing cry of the adoring living creatures, Holy, holy, holy! They rest not day or night. My fear is that too many of God's professing people down here are resting too often between their efforts at praise." End of quote.
So my question has got to be "Is my life a life of acceptable worship and praise - do I live on earth in preparation for eternal praise in heaven? I trust that with His help I may become more glorifying to Him.
good post jim
ReplyDeleteMay, (or Anon) I think the points you make are very useful and the Tozer quote is spot on. Of course i recognise that we can all get 'depressed' either medically or just because we are fed up. I suppose I was pointing out the incongruity of 'swinging from the rafters' on a Sunday and being in the doledrums on a Monday.
ReplyDeleteI think your closing question is very much the issue. Al
Anon, I couldn't agree more when you said " if non christians come into a church where that is the case the style will not matter, what will matter is the sense of God's presence and the sincerity of God's people singing praise centred on the Lord and not on themselves. " The only thing I would say is that we need to be careful not to be defined by "OUR" style, whatever that is in whatever church we go to. We, no matter the style of worship we prefer must worship with Passion, I have become aware in my own life of the importance that the most passion I display in my life must be in living for and worship of the Lord, not when a football team scores a goal or if I get a birdie at the golf!
ReplyDeleteanyway thanks for your post.
I know I am a bit late in reading all this about how we worship God,I can only say that we should be worshiping God every day in our prayers,our style of living ,our manner,and our thoughts all comes under worship.I also believe that in some area's I can get carried away in my worship to the Lord on a Sunday morning when it is me and him,I feel the presance of the Holy Spirit who touches my heart and I am alone with Jesus,I cry I laugh and sometimes I have to sit down,[used to kneel but knees can't take it any more] I really don't care who see me just when I open my eyes I realise I am still down here for I wasnt in my heart to stay where I am .Safe and sound. SO I am still a bit Charismatic in my style. But I am like this in my worship time in my home when I put on my CD'S they help me to worship my Almighty GOD AND father. But I do agree with Jim I also have seen some people putting on a BIG show more so when they are up front of the church,I have seen they don't always seem to be there or it is a every week performance, I am glad God see's the heart of man,even me at times when I am low,I don't always find the place to God's heart which is me and not him So praise the Lord for All Style of Worship.
ReplyDeleteMargaret C