If there’s not Scripture in the worship set, then it’s not really a worship set.

Let me begin by saying this post is not just for worship leaders. I would encourage anyone to read as I believe we all need to understand what the worship of God IS and what it ISN’T….since God, in His Word, expresses a clear hatred of all idolatry (Ex 20:3-6, Ex 23:13, Deut 4:23-24, 7:25, Ez 14:3, etc.).

Most good definitions of worship have something in them of “seeing” and “responding”. I like the following definitions, which you may have heard before:

1. Worship is a rhythm of revelation and response.

2. Worship is seeing God for who He is, seeing me for who I am, and responding accordingly.

Or one that I often say: Worship is seeing glory (the outshining of internal excellence) and giving glory (adoration or praise).

In this post, I’ll be working from that premise, so if’s very important that we establish this before we move forward. Worship is seeing and then responding. It’s seeing worth then giving worth. For example….one might truly worship on a saturday afternoon in Athens, GA while cheering on the Georgia Bulldogs. They’ll paint their body, they’ll stand for 4 hours, and they’ll bark like a dog the entire time. Why? Because they saw a kind of glory….they saw the 90 towering giants in red & white running onto the pristine green field on a perfect day surrounded by 100,000 screaming fans. That’s a kind of glory…..a SMALL glory….but a glory nonetheless….and they are simply seeing it, and responding to it. With barking.

In terms of Christian worship, worship is seeing the Triune GOD, and then responding accordingly.

Now….this begs the question: What do you mean by “seeing God”? How do we see Him? Where do we see Him? Good questions.

First: How do we see God? We see the Holy One with the eyes of the heart (Eph 1:18). God is invisible (1 Tim 1:17). He is Spirit (John 4:24). He says that no man can see Him and live (Ex 33:20). God the Son has already come and has resurrected. Thus, in our day and age, we must see Him with the eyes of the heart.

Second: Where do we see God? As I travel and do ministry, I ask this question often, and frankly I am BLOWN AWAY by how most Christians will answer this question. They’ll say things like, “the sky” or “in people” or “in creation”. These things might reveal SOME things about God…in a general sense…but they are inadequate revealers of God and will lead to idolatry apart from the gospel (Rom 1:18-23). The way we “see God” today is in His Word. Period. The Bible is the revelation of God to mankind. We see the glory of God in the Scriptures and in the story of the Scriptures, namely, the Gospel.

This is why if there’s not Scripture in the worship set, then it’s not really a worship set.

Imagine with me….you are in a church service. The service starts and the band begins to play an emotionally stirring progression. The drums kick in. The front row starts clapping. The lights begin slowly fading up. You can feel the excitement in the room escalating. And as the band hits the first chorus, the place erupts with worship….hands lifted all over….people singing, etc….

The funny thing is….no Scriptures have been read….no one has mentioned the gospel…and the song they’re singing is a familiar one from Christian radio….the content of which is banal, shallow, and focused completely on the worshipper and not the One being worshipped.

These people are certainly worshipping, but WHAT are they worshipping?

I would venture to say they are not worshipping God. They are worshipping their feelings, the experience, the lights, the song, and perhaps even the band. How do I know this? Because they’ve yet to see the glory of God. They’ve only seen the glory of some worship band. And they are responding to it. One word:

Idolatry.

And this little fictitious scene I have created is FAR too common in church-world today.

Brothers and sisters….worship leaders….pastors…etc….I say this with love….if the Scriptures or the story of the Scriptures cannot be found in our songs or in our worship sets, then we are leading people into idolatry! Music alone cannot PRODUCE worship that God is pleased with. Only God’s Word and the Gospel can do that. They are how we SEE GOD. YES, we must do things with excellence. YES, we must be artistic. YES, we must play skillfully to the LORD. But what do we want people to remember? That slick presentation? That cool transition? What are you counting on to create that “moment” in your worship service? Your performance, or the work of Jesus Christ? Do you want the people to remember you, or do you want them to leave with their jaws dropped about the fact that the God of the universe loves them in Christ.

You decide.

Writing with faith in God’s Word and the Gospel to create an army of worshippers,

Matt

I realize I have taken a hard stance in this post, but I do so with love and with the hope that more and more worship leaders will not be content to throw a set together of songs that “sound cool” or that “people really like”. I also pray that more people worshipping in worship services would be keen to what exactly it is that they are responding to. I pray this has encouraged you and I’d love to hear your feedback.

November 29, 2011 • 23 Comments • Posted in Blog Subscribe via RSS

Ajmann2344

“Music cannot PRODUCE worship that God is pleased with.” What a common misconception in the church today… good post
Brian

As a guitarist in a worship band, this hits home. I am too often concerned with the quality and audibility of some inventive line I just played. I ask my wife how the music sounded and if she could hear my guitar. This is a good reminder. Thanks for writing.
Dee

Amen and amen, Matt. This is a real issue in many churches today. Thank you, Matt. Sharing this with a friend who is walking a hard road right now in his own church over their desire to “be all things to all people” and make the church a coffee shop environment with the music they want to hear etc, so as to appeal to their senses… Unreal. This is so timely… God bless you, Matt.
Matt

Matt, I love your stuff and all you do. I’m a HUGE fan of your music and your intellect with the Scriptures. This post is EXTREMELY thought provoking and I have a question for you: Why can’t music (apart from scripture) cause someone to worship God?

Here is why I ask…

Upon seeing a beautiful sunrise saturated with colors so brilliant it stupefies my awareness of anything else OTHER THAN how amazing God is AND causes me to give glory and praise to Him…isn’t that worship? Revelation and response?

I understand the point being how we can idolize people on stage and miss the whole point of worship, but I still think people are able to see/hear/experience (and respond to) the glory of God without the need of words.

What do you think?

Humbly responding,
Matt

Matt Papa

hi matt! thanks for the thoughtful response….

psalm 19 does teach that “the heavens declare the glory of God” and also Romans 1 teaches that men CAN see God through that which is created.

However the thing about creation is that it only reveals enough about God to damn us (see Rom 1). it is “revelation”, but it’s what’s called “general” revelation. i.e. things you can know about God through philosophy….His eternality, His power, His omniscience, etc.

Only “specific” revelation (Scripture) lets us know WHO it is we are worshipping….namely….the triune God who came in the person of Jesus Christ….who died on the cross and rose on the third day. Philosophy is AWESOME, but it can’t tell you all that.

that’s why missions is necessary. everyone knows deep down there is a GOD. they just don’t know who He is or what He has done.

worship that is rooted in general revelation will be lacking in understanding and gratitude. however, I will say…..that there is NOTHING at all wrong with you worshipping Jesus after seeing a sunset. i’m sure you know the gospel and are responding to Jesus w/ worship. however, if we were to teach people week in and week out that they should worship Jesus by looking at sunrises, we would seriously be hindering their worship and leading them into idolatry. The Word is the specific disclosure of who God is to man.

is this helpful? thanks for writing….

MP

Matt

DUDE! Amazingly put! Very clarifying and easily understood. Thanks so much for the response and wisdom! You regularly challenge me to be a better worship leader.

btw…”Hymn in C” is still my favorite song EVER!

Thanks!
Matt
http://www.facebook.com/people/Allison-Kling/69100575 Allison Kling

I think I understand what principle you’re trying to get at. Worship should be focused on God, and not on our experience or emotion. It would be wrong for Christian leaders to only provide the emotional experience without the theology to back it up.

But I think that you’re putting a fake requirement on worship by saying it needs Scripture.

I would argue that it is possible to see God working, to feel his mercy and love, apart from my experience with Scripture. My perception of God is informed by Scripture. But it is possible for me to truly worship God without using Scripture.

Is it acceptable for corporate worship to not involve Scripture? I’d say yes, to an extent. If you take the lack of scripture to an extreme – nowhere in the church service anywhere, with a total emphasis on human experience and feeling and not on God or doctrine. I’ve attended churches like that – then that is obviously a failing of the church.

But it seems like you’re saying that if the worship set doesn’t begin with or prominently include Scripture, then it’s not pointing at God – and I think that’s a terribly harsh conclusion. It’d be like saying that any prayer that doesn’t begin with “Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus, and Holy Spirit” is only addressed to part of God, and so isn’t “real” prayer.

You also say that nature doesn’t tell us about WHO God is, just some general facts about him. As somebody studying Biology and Chemistry, I’ve come to know God as the engineer and inspired Creator, and sometimes feel that just learning about his Creation is an act of worship. It is possible to appreciate nature, even worship it, without knowing God. But I feel like parts of God that are revealed through nature and experience – outside of scripture – are *also* deserving of worship.

In short, you have a good principle, and one I support – worship that is more centered on God than on experience. But you’re putting restrictions on it that are unbiblical and overly harsh, and condemning a lot of worship services needlessly.

Alex Spurling

Hey Matt. I am a HUGE fan of yours. I was wondering if you would check out my blog? It would mean so much to me. The address is http://alexspurling.edublogs.org/ Thanks soooo much for everything you do to give glory to our sovereign God.
http://twitter.com/_robhardy Rob Hardy

Hey bro! Thanks for the post. It’s very challenging and thought provoking. I shared it with some of my friends and our discussion resulted in some questions: what does this mean as far as David in the Psalms is concerned? Does this mean that before they were used in the temple or tabernacle, say, when David was writing them and using them personally, that they wouldn’t be considered worship? Or would it be that it was under the old covenant so things would have been different, especially since the Psalms weren’t canonized at that point?
I hope this doesn’t come across in a confusing way; I’m having a hard time communicating what I’m saying, lol. Thanks!
http://twitter.com/IrkedIndeed Brian D

Hi Matt! Here via

Intourarms

100% agree. Beyond this, the songs we sing…Are they not scripturally based?

Furthermore, let’s not forget…The Word is alive! Everywhere we go, He is speaking. To this day, He still whispers in a small voice. He is not only found in scripture. He is alive wherever we choose to open our eyes to see and our ears to hear.

We don’t want to make a formula out of worship ie Reading of Scriptures + Songs = Worship

God is never constricted. Creating a formula attempts to do just that.
http://www.facebook.com/postcalvinist Dutch Wood

Adam walked with God in the Garden. Moses heard his voice and saw the tail end of his glory. David was commended by God as a man after God’s own heart. Also, David CONSTANTLY references scripture in the Psalms. Their direct, physical, in person interactions with God are quite different than ours, and they are the basis of our knowledge of God. It’s unfair to compare their experiences with ours.

http://twitter.com/IrkedIndeed Brian D

Dutch Wood,

I have to fundamentally reject your thesis here at the most basic level. The great men and women of Scripture are described to us, in part, as examples – as people for whom we can say, “When they follow God, they show us how to do so; when they fail, they show us what to beware of.” Your argument here – which would treat their experiences as something other and incomparable to ours – is at odds not only with this description but with the way the New Testament continues to call back to them as models.

Nowhere is this clearer than Paul, who likewise had a “direct, physical, in person interaction” and yet said, “Imitate me as I imitate Christ.” Would we say that it is “unfair to compare [our] experience” with Paul, because of his encounter on the road? Does this somehow give him a spiritual connection that we cannot emulate – so that while he worships in one way, we cannot? Surely not!

Where in Scripture do we find an idea even remotely suggesting that biblical figures were afforded a kind of worship that is inaccessible to us? And where, again, do we ever find the idea in Scripture that worship must contain Scripture?

(I think there’s one further problem here, though it may only be one of word choice: the Bible is not *the* basis of our knowledge of God, as Christians. Rather, it is one of two, the other being the ministering of His Spirit within us directly. The two cooperate in harmony, and together provide a witness that the patriarchs of the faith longed for.)

Justin A Hill

I’m 16, I started playing guitar about five or six months ago, and have a deep desire to lead worship that I can’t really explain (I’m also scared that I’m wanting to lead just to feel more important). Anyways, this topic has definitely been an eye opener. Thank you. Also, it says somewhere (maybe one of the later chapters in 1 Corinthians) that true believers worship in spirit and truth. Now that i think about it though, it might actually be in Hebrews or 1 Peter. I’m leaning towards 1 Peter, and I knew its near the end of its specific book.

Brian

Hey Justin–

I’m sure it’s in other places, too, but Jesus himself says it to the woman at the well on John 4.

Glad you started playing guitar It is indeed a challenge to do it for him, but he is often gracious to give me a heart of worship instead of a heart of self-admiration. May he do the same for you.

- Brian

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1478190889 Theng-Hian Ng

Timely reminder we so often slipped behind and lost sight of the true glory, the only Lamb who is worthy!
http://adamranck.com Adam Ranck

Thanks for your words Matt. I’ve realized recently the importance of helping people refocus every time we get together on why we sing and to who using God’s Words. The benefit of doing so is great, because we are a people who allow ourselves to be distracted, giving our worship either halfheartedly or to the wrong “god”. In fact, I’d say it’s essential. We have to help our people turn to God.
Allen

“I would venture to say they are not worshiping God.” This dangerously steps toward judgement of the heart… and potentially neglects the work of the Holy Spirit in spite of ourselves.

That being said, this is great food for thought, solid encouragement – ESP the prodding to lead congregations and families to the Glory of Christ not the excellence of anything we can muster.
Jamie Dover

hey man, this post has really encouraged me to use more scripture in my sets. Thanks for you faithfulness
http://about.me/revchadbrooks chadbrooks

Serious props here. Christian worship should be blatant and based off of the revealed presence of God. The best place for us to understand that Revelation is from the scriptures.

I would add that the public sharing/response via the scripture is what makes worship truly corporate, instead of a bunch of people in a room doing similar things at the same time (I really like what you said about worshiping emotion, feeling, etc).

I have read in some primary sources that the most rambunctious moments in the worship of the early church were when scripture was read. Folks responded very vocally and enthusiastically.

Thanks for sharing with us. Very good stuff.
http://www.facebook.com/postcalvinist Dutch Wood

Also, it seems there’s a slight misunderstanding. The title is, “If there’s not worship IN the set…” No “the set must only contain scripture…” I don’t hear Matt arguing for “singing the scriptures” – though that would be pretty awesome. in his own words: “if the Scriptures or the story of the Scriptures cannot be found in our songs or in our worship sets…” i feel like there’s been some overreaction because people didn’t read all the way to the end.

Also, how can anyone truly argue with the premise that scripture is necessary and most beneficial? That argument never ceases to confuse me.

http://twitter.com/IrkedIndeed Brian D

I believe you’re misunderstanding, here; I have not claimed, nor have I seen anyone else do so, that Matt was arguing a set must consist *only* of Scripture.

But the claim that one cannot ever worship without explicit reference to Scripture is… well… ungrounded in Scripture. It’s simply not there. Biblically, I can worship God without using words at all – how, then, can the Bible possibly mandate the use of Scripture?

No one’s argued Scripture is, for the Christian life, not necessary or beneficial – I’m not sure where that criticism comes from. What has been argued is that it’s perfectly possible to worship without recourse to Scripture in every single set.

For an analogy: communion is both necessary and beneficial for us as Christians. That doesn’t imply that we need to take communion in every single service, or it isn’t “really” a service.

Zach

This post has really gotten me curious about the bible. I have very little experience with the bible and I want to gain some experience. Could somebody tell me some places in the bible where I can see God the best? Some good places that would be a good place to start?

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If there’s not Scripture in the worship set, then it’s not really a worship set.

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