Stop Trying to Impress

I know that playing music or singing can be an extremely vulnerable thing. I mean, essentially, you are putting yourself out there for others to make some kind of judgement. Will they like my playing? Does he like my voice? Do I sing better than she does? Do they like my leading better than his? Do they think I am better than him? All these thoughts are real. Real questions. Real insecurities. Real fears. Real weapons the enemy will use to make our worship leading more about us than it is about Jesus. Satan will turn our hearts from exalting Jesus to exalting others and ourselves. If we are not careful, we will become more consumed with what others think of us and our offerings to the Lord than we are with what He actually thinks. There is a passage I want to remind you of today. It is 1 Samuel 16:7 and in this text the Lord sends Samuel to anoint His next king.

“But the Lord said to Samuel, Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the hearts.”

In spite of the impressive appearance and attributes of Eliab, we see here that the Lord had rejected him. At the end of the day, what matters most is not what man thinks, its what God sees. Is He pleased and satisfied with the posture of your hearts? What we need to remember is that we have a strange tendency to make gods of others. We look at how they sing. How they lead. How they dress. How they move around the stage. What guitar or gear they play with. All these things can begin to draw us away from what really matters… the heart of that person giving all they have to see Jesus lifted high and others lifted out of darkness. Just because other worship leaders have a successful ministry and swagger doesn’t mean that God values them more than you, or that He is even accepting what they are doing. Be thankful and satisfied with what He has given you and stop making idols of others and their abilities and ministries.  People can be pretty ruthless. We can tear each other down and criticize each others abilities and in the next breath praise God. Just read James 3:9-10 and see how evil and hurtful we can be. We must remember that the worship that we offer … we are not offering it to each other… we are offering it to God. So, who are we to think that the worship that others offer to God is on display for us to accept as good or reject as bad? In the same way, we may be able to fool others with our abilities in worship, but if our hearts aren’t right before God, we cannot fool Him. Remember Psalm 51:17, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”  Be confident that even when you don’t see it or when others don’t see it… God sees your heart and what motivates it. He sees you as special and He knows you better than anyone, and He is passionate about your worship (Psalm 139:13-16). He has purposefully given you what you have for HIS glory, and not for yours or others. Believe me, there is freedom in embracing this! Do the best you can because God is worthy of it. Nothing and no one else really matters after that.

There is no place for competition in worship because our worship is not for sale, nor does it go to the highest bidder. It is reserved for the only one who is worthy to receive it… JESUS (Rev. 5:13-14). So, with that being said, let us lift each other up instead of sizing each other up. Let us encourage each other to do our best and be our best, even if that means that someone else’s best is better than ours. Our worship ministry should be about exalting Jesus and no one else. It should be a place where we are building each other up and not tearing each other down. So, stop trying to impress. You have nothing to offer God that is impressive outside of Jesus. If you are striving to impress anyone else or build a fan base; that is idolatry and there are plenty of platforms for that in our culture today but worship leading is not one of them.