Sunday sermon review - Christ-centered Worship

What is acceptable worship of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit? That was the I tried to answer in yesterday’s sermon. Of course, there are many different answers based on the context, and yesterday I focused on corporate singing since that was the context of our text:

Colossians 3:16

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

This verse gives us three very clear principles for corporate worship singing.

1. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly” means that our worship singing is to Christ-centered and saturated with the Bible. We are “Christians.” We are followers of Christ. This means that we are to worship and exalt Christ. Of course we worship all three persons of the Godhead, but even God the Father said that Jesus is the Name that is exalted above every name, so we will worship Christ preeminently (Philippians 2:9-11).

Therefore, when we sing, we should sing about God, especially, God the Son. We only have a short amount of time together each week when we gather for worship. I do not want to waste it by singing about me or even heaven (apart from Christ).

I don’t want to sing songs that make a vague reference to God either. If a song about god could be sung faithfully by a Muslim or a Mormon, then I don’t want to sing it in worship on Sunday. You may know what you mean when you sing that song in your car, but if the words are not explicitly magnifying Christ as LORD, then I don’t want them.

There are plenty of Christian songs to sing that explicitly exalt Jesus as God. Let’s sing those when we gather in worship.

2. “singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs” means that we should have variety in worship. I had five points yesterday about having variety in style, emotions (each in response to a different characteristic of God), instrumentation, physical expression, and even in the age of our songs (we need old and new songs).

I grow weary of the “worship wars” that threaten to divide churches over music preferences. I think the Bible is actually quite plain that there is a proper “style” in worship. I can’t define it very easily, but it involves a wide variety of instruments, songs, and emotions that span the generations of Christ’s church. We are to use EVERYTHING at our disposal to magnify Christ.

Even if a church collectively and happily decides that they want one narrow “style” of worship in their church which results in peace among the members… that is wrong. It is selfish. That church is saying, “We are going to worship God this way and no other.” They are not interested in worshiping God the way He deserves to be worshiped. They just want to worship Him the way they feel comfortable.

Now if a church throws personal preference out the window and asks the question humbly, “God, what is acceptable worship? How do we worship you rightly?” I guarantee you they will not arrive at merely one “style.” How do I know this? Simple.

The church is made up of multiple generations of believers. That does not automatically mean that we have to pick different songs to make each group happy. That is a very man-centered view of worship. But it does mean that God has acted in each generation, and different songs will have been written to honor him in those generations. Those songs will naturally be different styles because we are a creative people like our God, and we are constantly coming up with new and different ways to express worship in music. So, if we want to be faithful to praising Him for ALL the works of God, even throughout history, then we will include some of these older songs (which have different “styles”) in our worship.

At the same time we will recognize that God still works in the Church today. And as new, Chirst-centered songs are written and proliferated throughout the churches, we will want to sing those too because we want to celebrate the new works of God and the creativity expressed in magnifying Him.

3. “with thankfulness in your hearts to God” means that we must worship with the right heart. Very simply put, our words that we sing must be a reflection of the the affection for God in our hearts.

Jesus’ harshest critiques were always directed to the Pharisees. And one of the criticisms leveled against them involved the disparity in their hearts and actions…

Mark 7:6

And he said to them, "Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,

"'This people honors me with their lips,

but their heart is far from me”

We must make sure that we do not come to “worship” on Sundays and sing songs that we do not mean. Jesus says this is the evidence of a hypocrite: singing “praise” to God while your heart is not in it.

It is of utmost importance that we mean what we sing.

So, what do you do if you find your heart cold and sullen when it is time to sing of our joy in the LORD? There are three possible responses, and only one is acceptable for the Christian.

A. Just don’t sing. This would at least be honest. “I don’t feel like it, so I am not going to sing it.” The obvious problem with this response is that we are commanded to sing and worship Him. So, this is honest but still disobedient.

B. Just sing along anyway. This is the response of the hypocrite. God is not honored by this response. This is what people do who are just going through the motions usually just to please themselves or put up a good appearance at church.

C. Sing repentantly praying for God to change your heart. This is the response of the true worshiper. We will all have days when we do not feel like worshiping, when we do not feel like obeying God. It is not right to disobey just because we do not feel like obeying. Nor is it right to “obey” with a heart that does not want to obey. So, what we do is obey repentantly. Sing the words asking God to help you mean them. Repent of your cold heart. Look to Christ to find your satisfaction for your heart’s desires.

God is in the business of changing stone, cold hearts to hearts of living, vibrant flesh. So call to Him and plead on his mercy. Then you will have something to sing about.