Jesus said, “Love.” Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself. As believers, we are called to love our God and love others. Jesus also said that if we love Him, we’ll obey Him.
As believers serving as worship leaders (no matter your role on your church’s team, no matter the size of your church), we are commanded to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. We are directed to love our neighbors (our congregations) as we love ourselves. We are instructed to obey the Lord our God. He has commanded us to worship Him alone because He alone is worthy of praise. He has exhorted us to prefer others better than ourselves out of reverence for Christ.
Sometimes we grow weary of obeying and serving God. Our love for Him seems to wane. Sometimes we grow weary of loving and serving our congregations, of deferring our preferences for musical styles, lyrical and liturgical complexity, order and length of services, etc., in order to serve them out of reverence for Christ.
Remember, we love because God first loved us. I John 4:10-11 says
“This is real love—not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other.”
Jesus told us to abide, to remain, in His love. He also said the greatest love a man can demonstrate is to lay down his life for his friends. How can we know and fully rely upon the love of our Savior (I Jn. 4:16) if we are not abiding in it?
Worship leaders, as we approach our roles of service, we should reflect on God’s love for us and what it compelled Him to do to rescue us from the stranglehold of Satan, sin and death. Remember that living in God, abiding in His love, causes our love for Him and others to grow more perfect (I Jn. 4:17). We are called to lay our preferences and our lives down for our friends, our neighbors, our congregations — just as Jesus did for us. We are called to love the Lord our God by obeying Him, and we can’t do this without His grace and help. Remember He has helped us through Jesus Christ who lives in us and has lived perfectly for us.
While we live and walk in love for God and others here, as we worship our Saving God here, we are already participating in the eternal worship of Heaven. If we ever fear that our love for God will fail, that we’ll grow tired of praising Him forever, we must remember again that God loved us first and He will perfect His love in us which will empower us to praise Him forever.
Augustine said,
“We shall not be wearied by the praise of God, nor by His love. If your love should fail, so would your praise; but if love will be everlasting, because the beauty of God will be uncloying, inexhaustible, fear not that you will lack power ever to praise Him, whom you will have power ever to love.”
As you serve your congregations and lead them in worship each week, remember God’s great love for you (the gospel) which fuels your love for Him and others. Remember to abide in His love. Remember to trust Him to perfect His love in you and help you to follow the way of His love. Then follow as you lead your congregations in praise of His glorious name.
“Love” photo above by Aunt Owwee via creative commons license