Vertical Worship

How do you spend your best hours and where do you use your best energies?  The answer to that question might provide a clue about what you worship.  We were made to worship God, not to worship working or shopping or watching movies or playing ping pong or eating food or even raising kids.  It's okay to do any of those things, if it doesn't become the focus of your life.

The sermon at my church today was about worship, and was the first of a series called "The Most Powerful Thing We Do."  I want to mull over that sermon today and you are welcome to come along.



What is worship?  It is a declaration of God's worth.  The word worship comes from "worth-ship."  Worship happens when someone who loves God enthusiastically tells Him or shows Him how valuable He is.  And here's some news for you:  worship is not "about" God.  Worship is "to" God.  Maybe that's not news to you, but it was a revelation to me!  Worship is vertical.  It's upwards.  It's relational.   It's for God.  It's not for me or you.  You know how we tend to think that the most important thing about a church service is the sermon?  Well, it shouldn't be.  The most important thing about a church service should be worshiping God in an enthusiastic way that pleases Him (which doesn't include mindlessly singing along with a group of people while you mentally rearrange the furniture in your living room).

Psalm 27:6b  "...at his tabernacle I will sacrifice with shouts of joy; I will sing and make music to the Lord."
Psalm 95:1  "Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation."
Ephesians 5:19  "...speaking to one another with psalms, hymns and songs from the Spirit.  Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord."

Notice?  When we worship, it's "to the Lord," not "about the Lord."  It's all too easy to fall into a mind-set of talking about and singing about God, without actually singing directly to Him.  There's all the difference in the world between those two activities.  If my husband came into the room, stared vacantly toward the wall and muttered, "I love Lisa," it would not have the same effect as if he came into the room, took hold of my hands, gazed into my eyes and said, "I love you so much, Lisa."  What a difference!

So what does vertical worship look like practically?

Check out Psalm 33:3 (It's fun because the date today is 3/3/13 and the scripture is Psalm 33:3).  "Sing to Him a new song; play skillfully, and shout for joy."

Vertical worship looks:
1)  Fresh, creative and new.  Don't just sing an old song.  Sing old ones, but sing a new song too!  God likes it.
2)  Skillfully done.  This is not to say that you need to have special musical skills, but isn't it great to sing along with skillful musicians and singers?  God likes it.
3)  Loud.  Shout for joy.  See?  God likes it.

Worship isn't about what you like.  What you're comfortable with.  What kind of personality you have.  It's about what God likes.  Read Psalm 33:3 again.  As a matter of fact, find a Bible, and read all of Psalm 33.

Don't wait until next Sunday to worship with your church family.  You can worship musically at home too!  Find a radio station, put on a CD, look up some music on Pandora... worship music is pretty easy to find.  Just make sure you worship "vertically"-- that's to God, and not just about Him.  He is an awesome and amazing God and so very worthy of our worship.



Of course, these are just my musings on today's sermon.  If you want to hear exactly what Pastor Nathan said, look for the podcast at this link:  Providence Community podcast.  Also, you're officially invited to join us at 10:00 next Sunday at the Hanover High School in Hanover, PA to hear the next message in the series-- and to worship with us-- vertically.