Forgetting to follow our Faithful High Priest as we lead others in worshiping Him is a worship leading mistake that is all too easy to make. We must remember Christ’s once-for-all-time work of salvation for us as we rely on His ongoing work of intercession for us before the throne of God above. We need Him to lead us as we’re leading our congregations.
No matter how prepared or unprepared we think we are, or how well or poorly we execute our songs in rehearsal, and no matter how amazing or lousy we sound in our own ears, we will fail to lead our people well if we attempt in our own strength to make ourselves and our worship acceptable. We need God’s Spirit to humble us and lead us on level ground as we sing and play our instruments in leading worship. We can’t do this without His Spirit’s work in us. We are His handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
So What’s The Problem?
We often take credit for His work in us. We need our faithful High Priest to wash our hearts with the cleansing fountain of His blood, because we have idolatrous hearts that worship ourselves and long to be worshiped by others. We’re all tempted to make much of ourselves, especially when we’re standing (usually elevated) in the center of a room full of people eager to hear pleasant sounds and give their praise to someone.
We want their approval and affirmation of our job well done. But we are not the Someone who is to be praised. Everything we say and do as worship leaders should be pointing to our Savior King who is most worthy of praise.
This is all the more reason we need to keep the Cross before us as a convicting reminder that Christ died for our sinful idolatry and self-righteousness.
- We are sinners in need of a great Savior.
- Christ is sufficient–He suffered in our place, interceding on our behalf to make us right with God so that we could freely and boldly worship Him before His throne.
- We are saved that we might know, love, obey and make much of Christ. We are saved by Christ for the glory of the Father’s great name—that many would see and fear the Lord and put their trust in Him. This is all about Jesus and His work in and through us.
Before You Begin Each Worship Service:
We must come to our worship services with humble, thankful hearts, acknowledging that we are nothing apart from Christ and that He alone is most worthy of all praise. He, as our faithful High Priest, makes our worship acceptable to God.
We should aim to practically prepare our hands and voices with excellence and to prayerfully prepare our hearts for the work of service we’re called to. But in all of our efforts, we must remember that our best works are filthy rags apart from the cleansing work of Christ.
Thanks be to God who has provided the perfect substitute—the atonement for our sins through the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. He is our faithful High Priest who ever lives to plead for us and make our praise beautiful and pleasing to God our Father. He leads perfectly. And to follow Him is to lead our people well.
“Pastor’s School” artwork above by Sojourn Art Director Michael Winters
{ 1 trackback }