Imagine for a moment a rusty old building in the middle of nowhere. It’s dimly lit and full of the forgotten people of this world, the hurt, abandoned, the criminals, the broken. But tonight these people have gathered here for one united purpose, to worship the God who has saved each one of them. The broken piano starts to play and the leader begins a song, hoarse and off key. Slowly the small gathering starts to raise their voices in song. Not a beautiful song, but a sincere one.Meanwhile in heaven, God is seated on His throne in all His glory. He is enjoying communion with his children who have already come to dwell with Him. Suddenly, the Father shushes the crowd. A sweet fragrance has caught His attention. He turns to listen to the precious melody that is rising to His throne. His children are worshipping.
He closes His eyes and breathes deeply as He soaks in the adoration of His people. A tear rolls down His cheek as His heart is truly touched by the gentle song of love. The Father has silenced heaven to hear true worship.
This is the picture that has inspired us to look past the songs, or building, or clothes, or anything else that we worry about in this world. When we come to worship, we come for one purpose, to express our love to the heart of God. It doesn’t matter how it sounds on earth, it only matters how it sounds to the Father.
Corinthians describes our efforts to operate in the spirit with out love as “a clanging gong, or a banging cymbal.” We have been in some of the most dynamic, musically beautiful worship services that are truly just a banging cymbal to heaven. They have spent great lengths of time preparing their fingers and voices but no time preparing their hearts. We want to be proficient on our instruments and in our singing, but that is priority number two. The first thing we have to be proficient at is making our hearts prepared to offer sincere worship to the Lord. Our goal is to make sure that the Lord leaves touched, not anyone else. It is not our job to change or touch the hearts of man, that is up to God. Our job is to adore the Lord out loud, and let God decide what happens next. That is our call, our responsibility and our joy. To present to the Lord our adoration for Him.
