The Wrong Kind of Worship

The Dream

I’d be lying if I said I’ve never dreamed about a crowd chanting my name.

Now, it’s been a long time ago since that was a dream of mine, but boy, was it ever a dream.

When I was little, my friend and I created our own band. It was called Rejects for God. Lord, help us. 

We would get out a little drum that my brother brought me from Mexico and a tunnel toy that would make a howling sound when you swung it in a circle. We had a keyboard and guitar at our fingertips too, but these were the instruments of our choice for some reason. 

We’d go outside and sing and play. We’d write songs. We’d dress up in crazy clothing and stand on the bed like we were rock stars performing for thousands of people. We’d pose for magazine cover shots and pretend to talk to our boyfriends, the Jonas Brothers, at night on our iPod touches. 

I had performed piano recitals, had a few solos here and there in school productions, and had a journal filled with songs that I had tunes for in my mind. I even bought a wig so I could be like Hannah Montana and still have my normal life as a little southern girl while secretly being a pop star.

However, it wasn’t until I was 10 or 11 that I actually felt what it was like to be a professional performer. My childhood best friend, Beth, had passed away unexpectedly when I was nine years old. Her parents decided to put on a benefit concert to raise money and awareness for other sick children. They had gotten Greg Long from the group Avalon to come and perform a concert, and there was a competition for a solo performance as the opener for the concert. 

I didn’t get the solo performance. Just wanted to make that clear upfront for all of my friends who are reading this and are like, “You can sing?!?!” But I did get to be a part of the group of contestants that went on stage and sang along with Greg Long in the closing song.

“This is my moment,” I thought. “All of my life, the ten years I’ve lived have led up to this moment.” And as we were backstage getting ready to go on, I got so many butterflies in my stomach. My palms started to sweat. I second-guessed what I was wearing and if it was cool enough to wear on stage. And finally, the moment I had been waiting for happened. I got to sing on a stage in front of hundreds of people. 

Well, when I say “sing on stage,” what I really mean is that I was the smallest by far of a group of ten, and I kind of faded in the background. We also didn’t have microphones, so no one could actually hear us. But I was there. It was my moment. And I don’t remember a lot from that performance other than I remember the spotlight, the warmth, and the crowd - and I remember getting done and being overwhelmed with joy but also thinking, “Is that it?”

Is that what I had been waiting for forever? Is that what I had DREAMED of? Is that all it felt like? Was it nothing more than a moment?

The Lesson

It’s a great memory and a fun story to share with friends, but in all, that experience didn’t shape me. For someone who wanted so badly to be a famous singer and to be on stage all the time and to hear the crowd cheering for me, it really wasn’t all that. Obviously, this experience is very much downscaled from some people’s experience, but I learned an important lesson that day.

I learned that there’s a right kind of worship and a wrong kind of worship. 

Part of me didn’t feel the “weight” of performing because it was a Christian concert. People weren’t there to get autographs. They were there to worship. And they couldn’t care less who was on the stage. To much of my dismay, some of my classmates who were there didn’t even see me on stage! But could I really be upset about that? Could I really be mad that someone didn’t see me because they were so busy worshipping Jesus?

As I’ve grown in my relationship with God, my calling, and my giftings, I’ve found that many people, myself included, have craved attention, applause, appreciation, and acceptance. We desire to be known and to be seen. In other words, we crave to be worshipped. 

But hold on. That’s not a good thing. Not a good thing AT ALL. Why? Because that’s exactly what got the devil thrown out of heaven. 

*Quick theology break*

Some theologians believe that passages in Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14 talk about the fall of Satan. I won’t get into that discussion now, but maybe we will discuss it one day. Ultimately, it has been interpreted that the passages in Ezekiel and Isaiah have a double meaning, one discussing actual kings on earth and one discussing the fall of Satan. If this is the case, then we read this about Satan in Ezekiel 28:17:

Your heart was filled with pride because of all your beauty. Your wisdom was corrupted by your love of splendor. So I threw you to the ground and exposed you to the curious gaze of kings.

This verse also makes sense because we see in the Gospels that Jesus “saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning” (Luke 10:18). We also read in Revelation 12 that there was a “war” that happened between the angels and the “dragon” or, as he’s now called, “Satan…was cast to the earth” (v.9). So even if you can’t get on the theology train of Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14 referring to the devil, you can’t deny these New Testament verses. They all make it clear that Satan was in heaven at one point, and now he’s not. 

*Back to the blog*

The desire to be worshipped, better known as pride, is a dangerous thing. And because the enemy fell victim to it, he wants us to fall to it, too. And because he got kicked out of God’s presence because of it, he wants us to get kicked out, too. 

Thankfully, we have the grace of God through His salvation, so He can help us on issues like pride. But pride is one of those things that if we don’t conquer now, it will only continue to grow. 

The Right and Wrong Kind of Worship

I was reading in Acts a few weeks ago, and the Holy Spirit showed me an incredible display of the right and wrong kinds of worship, and this is why I’m sharing this with you today. I want you to know and understand the difference because not all worship is bad. In fact, worship is one of the greatest tools we have! But why is it a risky area for us? Let’s find out. 

In Acts 13 and 14, we see Paul preaching and performing miracles in Lystra. The people of Lystra were very religious and believed in many gods. As Paul gathers crowds and preaches, people begin to worship him and his companion, Barnabas. The Bible actually says in Acts 14:11 that the people thought they were “gods in human form.” Therefore, the people were getting ready to offer sacrifices to Paul and Barnabas. When they heard about this, they quickly rejected it. This is what Paul said:

“Friends, why are you doing this? We are merely human beings—just like you! We have come to bring you the Good News that you should turn from these worthless things and turn to the living God, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them.” - Acts 14:15 NLT

When I first read his response, I was like, “Okay, Paul! I see you!” But then I kept reading, and things got ugly. Some religious leaders showed up and, since Paul and Barnabas said they weren’t gods, the leaders convinced the people to stone Paul. Stone him. Not good. 

And I couldn’t help but think, “Why did that happen?” How did the people go from literally worshipping them to stoning them? 

Because they denied praise. 

So people love Paul. They’re crazy about him. They think he’s fantastic. Until he’s not who they want him to be. And then they decide to try to kill him. It’s casual. 

Paul rejects worship and is almost killed. Was it God’s will for him to be stoned? Should he have just accepted the praise and moved on?

Well, before any of this happens, we read a crucial piece of the puzzle in Acts 12. Acts 12 tells us about a king named Herod Agrippa. Herod Agrippa had just signed the deal of his life (literally…), and people were worshipping him, shouting, “It’s the voice of a god, not of a man!” (Acts 12:22). And Herod enjoyed it. He let it happen. He let people worship him. 

And the Bible says that “instantly, an angel of the Lord struck Herod with a sickness because he accepted the people’s worship instead of giving the glory to God” (Acts 12:23). Yikes. King Herod Agrippa was struck with sickness and later died because he didn’t reflect the praise back to God.

And I can’t help but think, again, that Paul was thinking of this story when the people of Lystra were trying to offer a sacrifice to him. I can’t help but think that Paul was thinking, “I don’t care what they do to me - I have to give God the glory because I’m not being struck today!” 

And this is the point that I want to make so desperately today. As believers, leaders, performers, worshippers, etc., we have to get to where we fear the Lord more than we fear people. 

Deuteronomy 6:13 says that we “shall fear only the Lord [our] God; and [we] shall worship Him and swear by His name.” 

What’s the right kind of worship? Fearing the Lord. 

What’s the wrong kind of worship? Fearing people. 

We worship what we value most, and if we value people’s opinion of us over God’s opinion of us, if we allow ourselves to compromise our values, if we become what people want us to be and ignore the person God created us to be, then we’re not worshipping God. We’re worshipping people. 

Paul feared God more than people, and he chose to give God the glory for his success, even though it led to physical harm. However, he made it out alive. King Herod Agrippa didn’t. Just saying. 

I don’t think it’s a sin to desire to use your gifts. I don’t think it’s a sin to be gifted in worship, leadership, pastoring, teaching, communicating, or whatever your gifting is. Heck, I don’t think it’s a sin to be famous. But here’s the deal: it becomes sin when the glory becomes your own. 

The Bible says in Genesis 1:27 that mankind was made “in God’s image,” which means we are a reflection of Him. If we are a reflection of God, then our purpose is to reflect all the glory, praise, and honor we receive back to the one who deserves it, and His name is Jesus. 

To fear the Lord is to worship Him, and to fear people is to bow to them. May we be a generation that knows the difference between the right and wrong kind of worship, and may we be a generation that chooses to fear God above fearing people.