Transformational Worship

The Keys:

1) Worship of anything, by nature, transforms you into what you worship.

2) We need to have an awareness of our need for Holy Spirit to show up if anything real is to happen. He is the only one who can reveal Jesus to us.

3) Real worship doesn’t just look emotional during worship time. It encourages us to push through the hard times. It encourages us to be wise. And transforms our whole lives into living acts of worship that reveal God to others.

This Isn't A Sing-A-Long!

Too often, we can find ourselves coming into service with a lazy attitude. We are just there to sing a few songs, right? What we are missing is the awareness that if we are really worshiping, we will be transformed in that very moment.

This is such a truth to Elly and I that we have made jokes about our best times of worship at the HUB. Many times, we will get to the HUB from work and be hurrying to put the set together. Under those kind of circumstances we can be either tired or cranky, neither of which we desire. We will say things like, “I think tonight is just going to be low key.”

The night may start that way, but somewhere in the middle of worship, something shifts in the spirit. There is a rush of energy and it ends up being the best night of worship.

Because of this, we often joke, “How do you have the best night of worship? You come in with a bad attitude and let the Holy Spirit confront you.”

Is that the way I really want it to happen? No. I don’t want to start that way. But why does the Spirit seem to hit so hard in those times? I believe it is because in those moments we are very aware of two things:

1) Our need for the Holy Spirit to intervene.

2) The ability of worship to transform us in that moment.

You Become What You Worship!!

By God’s design, we are creatures of worship. And by the very nature of worship (true worship, not just the singing of songs), you become like what you worship. Don’t believe me? Look around. If people make a big deal out of businessmen, they become like those businessmen. If they like celebrities, they start acting like miniature versions of that celebrity. So you become like what you worship, and therefore cannot hide what you worship. This is exactly why God commands us to worship Him. It isn’t because of some egotistical side of Him that needs to be fulfilled, but that if everything would worship Him, it would function rightly and produce much fruit that remains.

Now, I am drawn to move back to this picture of people wanting to be like celebrities and businessmen, even like clergymen. You can even tell when a person wishes they had the glory that a celebrity, businessmen, clergy, etc. has but they do not want what it takes to get there.

Those businessmen have an innate desire or drive to go after what they are after. Many times, it isn’t the glory side at all. Many times, there is a drive to serve behind a businessman. They want to serve people better so they create a great product. They want to serve their family better so they work their tail off. But that is the key, they worked and sacrificed. The same goes for celebrities.The glory is just a natural consequence, just like for us, God’s manifested glory is a natural consequence of relationship with Him.

So you notice there are a lot of people out there who will talk about this big businessman or that celebrity, and they will act a lot like them and try to look a lot like them. First impressions may be powerful, but time reveals that person lacks the power of the people with the success. Why? Because all they want is the glory and none of the sacrifice.

So in true communal worship of God, we focus on Him and who He is. We celebrate those things. And it urges us to let go of the things that keep us from living at our fullest. It encourages us past the trials that will take us to that next level. We have the choice in that moment, "Do I want to hang on to the fact that I had a hard day, or do I want to stay in this place of peace, rest, and goodness?”

When we truly receive Him and His goodness, we see that transformational power truly happen where our lives produce fruit everywhere we go. It isn’t just that we act emotional in worship but then have nothing in any other part of our life to show for it. We don't look like little Jesus wannabe-s with now power in our lives to show for it. Our whole lives become acts of worship and, therefore, look like God.

Our Worship Changes Lives!

So we can’t afford to come into our worship times to just play music. It has to be a time where our whole goal is for the Spirit of God to permeate the building and truly manifest in our lives both in that moment and permanently. My desire is for this to happen every time there is a gathering for worship. Of course, receiving God is up to the individual. But I desire that all the people there would literally feel a move to embrace the Presence of God and that people could trace back the fruit that is produced in their lives to those times of worship. They could say, “In that moment, God revealed this part of Himself to me. I embraced it and let go of what hindered me from it. And that is why you see this specific glory manifested in my life today."

I hope you enjoyed the first two videos on playing guitar. I will be putting the next one up later this week. Feel free to leave any questions or comments. We are excited about building a community that can all grow in worship together!