Humility – leading with perspective
True worship isn’t supposed to lift us up, it is supposed to bring us facedown.
As we are going through this series on end times at North Side, I wanted to focus on some worship passages from Revelation. So rich.
In Revelation 4, the Apostle John sees a vision of heaven in which the 24 elders are seated on thrones themselves in proper heavenly attire. Who are these 24 elders? There are different opinions, but I think it represents the 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 disciples. They are the big dogs when it comes to the Kingdom of God. What’s interesting in this passage is that they are exalted on a throne…until you-know-who arrives. These elders are big deals until Jesus comes in. Then they move out of their thrones onto the floor – facedown.
“Around the throne were twenty-four elders…sitting (Rev 4:4)…and when the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, to Him who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders will fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and will worship Him who lives forever and ever, and will cast their crowns before the throne, saying, ‘Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created‘” (Rev 4:9-11).
In worship leadership within a church, there is a sense of dignity associated with it. Right or wrong, people can put those on stage on imaginary thrones. They expect more out of us (part of that is right, we’ll get to that next month), but if we don’t watch it, we’ll let our God-given mantle of leadership turn into pride.
Until Jesus walks into the room. Then we are compelled for the need to lead facedown.
Even though we lead, we lead with perspective – with humility. We’re in the presence of the King. And if we engage in true worship, we shouldn’t be lifted up, we should be brought facedown. True worship isn’t supposed to lift us up, it is supposed to bring us facedown.
Travis Agnew serves as the Lead Pastor of Rocky Creek Church in Greenville, SC. His most recent book is Just (About) Married.
Yes, I agree that the worship team's focus, posture, spirit, sincerity, etc. are important, but the thing I noticed is that whenever I have perceived that true worship has taken place, it was driven by the spirit of the congregation. The worship team just "gets the ball rolling", if true worship breaks out and the focus is fully on Jesus, then the team has done it's job. One of my buddies in our fellowship recently noted that "we could get up there with an old djembay and a five string guitar and they'd worship, because they come here ready for the worship".