The Pressure's Off

I’ve been leading worship in churches for almost 20 years now, and I’ve always felt this pressure to initiate worship each and every time I set foot on stage.  And if I didn’t do a good enough job, or the band or singers messed up, or the slides for the screens were out of order, then no worship would take place.  And if no worship took place, then God would be disappointed in me and the church.  My guess is that most worship leaders/pastors feel this way.  I mean, this is what we are gifted in.  This is what we have been called to do.  And yet, each time things didn’t go perfectly I would have this feeling that I let the church down and ultimately, let God down.  But recently, I’ve begun to see things differently. 

I’ve realized that I’ve put way too much emphasis on myself and my own importance.  The worship of God doesn’t begin and end with me each week.  God is continually being worshipped, whether I’m leading it or not.  At every moment, all around the world, God is being worshipped by someone.  There are millions of Christians all around the world and every second of every day, someone is praising God.  And even if they all stopped, Jesus said in Luke 19:40 that “the rocks would cry out”.   Now, we think of rocks praising God

as not normal, but the Bible tells us in Psalm 66:4 that “Everything on earth will worship you; they will sing your praises, shouting your name in glorious songs”.  Notice that it says “everything” not “everyone”.  Everything on earth worships the Lord, even the rocks.  The entire chapter of Psalm 148 is about creation worshipping the Lord.  The heading in my Bible even says “All Creation Praises the Lord”.  And if that weren’t enough, in Isaiah 6 we get a small glimpse into God’s throne room in heaven.  In verse 2 it says that there are seraphim angels hovering around God singing “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty!  The whole earth is filled with His glory!”  Even in heaven, God is continually being worshipped. 

So you see, worship isn’t about you or me, it’s about God.  And when we worship Him each week, we aren’t starting something brand new.  We’re just joining into the worship that is already taking place.  We’re connecting with believers, creation, and even heaven itself to worship the one who loves us and created us.  And when you look at it that way, the pressure’s off. 

Here’s a video to go along with today’s post:

Worship Big!

Brad