it’s a funny thing, worship. we come into a room together with people we may not know, we sing songs to a God we can’t see, and we walk away like it’s completely normal. we act like what we did is just another “thing” that we do like laundry or grocery shopping. what’s interesting to me is that “worship” in the bible was never just a routine, it was passionate. i titled this “:make a loud noise” because in psalm 98, in the king james version, there is a colon…..and i find that colon very important. it says this:

                “make a joyful noise to the Lord all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise.”

in the coming weeks i’m going to get into some more examples of passionate worship, but this is one of my favorites. when we enter into corporate worship, we are not just doing something routine because we have to. we are coming before the God of the universe and telling him collectively how important he is to us. he is there with us, and this is an incredible reality.

Worship leaders everywhere hear statements like this a lot: “wow, the music was really good today,” or “your voices sound great together,” or even “you are my favorite singer!”  my fear about these compliments is that they were enjoying the music but not engaging the creator! enjoying the music and letting someone know isn’t the problem. the problem is enjoying the music for the music and not letting the music lead you to a moment with God.

as a musician, I love hearing someone tell me they enjoyed the music, but as a worship leader, i would rather hear someone say how they got lost in the overwhelming presence of God. worship is not meant for entertainment but for experience. we were created to respond to something. we were created to give our hearts to something. worship is our way to to do that. it is our time to respond to God and tell him that he has our hearts.

i know that music is a powerful tool. music is unique in that it can change someone’s life without saying a word. don’t get me wrong, i love when people tell me that the music was great today, but my job is not to entertain, it’s to help you encounter God. when we worship we are encountering the God of moses, of abraham, of isaac.

the God who parted the red sea so people could WALK ACROSS IT!

                    the God who brought down the walls of jericho with trumpets.

                                          the God who made israel a mighty nation from nothing.

            the God who saw our depravity and knew that the only way to fix it was to offer up himself in Jesus.

         the God who comes after us when all we do is ignore him.

      the God who freely offers salvation for those who will just receive it.

shouldn’t this change us? shouldn’t this require more than a half hearted response? i just want to encourage you, that when you are in a moment of corporate worship, take advantage of it. you are doing something incredibly unique. this is a time of celebration. when we celebrate, we do not sit nice and quiet with reverence, but we shout with joy. when your team wins you shout in triumph. wanna know a secret? God has won. we have victory in Jesus. we can “shout to God with a voice of triumph” as hillsong united puts it. i know our culture has groomed us to be reverent and quiet in church, but that is not what the bible shows us at all. like i quoted earlier from psalm 98 “make a joyful noise to the Lord all the earth: make a LOUD noise.” I encourage you to try this out sometime, you might be surprised by how God moves your heart.