Worship Auditions

Bethany’s expanding Worship Teams on Saturday, Sunday, and Wednesday are looking for additional musicians to join in this ministry. Guitars, Keyboards, Drums, Vocalists (Worship Teams), Brass, Woodwinds, and Strings are some of the areas needed. If you desire to be part of any of Bethany’s Worship Teams, please sign up at the Hospitality Counter. Auditions will be scheduled after the Easter holidays.

“The Way” Revolution Youth Album

It’s been been a while since Revolution Youth put out their last worship album “One Step Closer”… seven years to be exact. A few of the “veterans” from that debut project teamed up with the next generation of talented songwriters and musicians and self-produced/recorded “The Way,” a full length, studio recorded, youth driven worship album. The songs are fresh and passionate, and have a clear purpose to lift the name of Christ and inspire people to live their lives worthy of the calling they have received. Buy your copy at the church bookstore, or on iTunes, Amazon.com and similar online vendors.

Extravagant Worship

Over the years, I have heard many sermons on worship, and choose the title of this article from one or two of those sermons. What is extravagant worship? The Old Testament has example after example of worship throughout the history of the Nation of Israel, from a worshipping Abraham to the great stories of Joseph, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and Daniel, the worship of the prophets, and who can doubt the worship of the Psalmist David himself. When you get to the New Testament, however, the picture of worship seems to be less clear until you get to the wonderful passage in Luke 7 where Jesus has been invited to dinner by Simon, a Pharisee. We’re not sure of Simon’s motive, whether to learn from Jesus or try to trap him, but there Jesus was, accepting the invitation and reclining at Simon’s table.

“When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that
Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster
jar of perfume, and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she
began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her
hair, kissed them, and poured perfume on them.

When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself,
“If this man was a prophet, he would know who is touching him and
What kind of woman she is – that she is a sinner”.

Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you”. “Tell me,
Teacher”, he said.

“Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five
hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to
pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them
will love him more?”

Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled.”
“You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.

Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this
woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my
feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.
You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered,
has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but
she has poured perfume on my feet.

Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved
much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.” Then Jesus said to
her, “Your sins are forgiven.” The other guests began to say among
themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” Jesus said to the
woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” (Luke 7:37-50, NIV)

What leaps from these words in Luke’s gospel is a profound picture of what extravagant worship looks like. The irony of the example is that it is demonstrated by a local prostitute in that town. Look with me at her example of extravagant worship.

SHE WAS DESPERATE TO GET INTO THE PRESENCE OF JESUS. She had evidently heard Jesus’ teaching, and in repentance, had determined to live a new life. When she knew Jesus was at Simon’s house, she knew she had to get to him.

SHE DIDN’T CARE WHAT ANYONE THOUGHT. She “crashed the party” and went into Simon’s house. (I can probably guarantee she wasn’t on the guest list). Her long, (presumably) uncovered hair revealed her profession, but she wasn’t focused on the demeaning stares and silent jeers of those righteous people in the house. She was focused on Jesus, and didn’t care what anyone thought.

SHE BOWED AT JESUS’ FEET. Because Jesus was reclining with his feet behind him, it was easy for her to kneel behind Him without disturbing Him.

SHE WAS BROKEN AND HUMBLE. She was crying, her tears covering Jesus’ feet. She took her hair and wiped His feet, and kissed His feet. I would have trouble kissing someone’s CLEAN feet much less dirty feet of dry, dusty Palestine. But, she did.

HER WORSHIP COST HER SOMETHING. She broke an alabaster jar of perfume and anointed Jesus’ feet. While we have the account of Mary (Lazarus’ sister) performing a similar act in John 3, we have no specific reference in this passage as to the worth of the perfume. Regardless, it was her costly gift of precious perfume lavished on Jesus.

SHE CAME PREPARED TO WORSHIP JESUS. Her actions weren’t “spontaneous”, but thought out and planned. She knew what she wanted to do, and she was prepared to do it. Carrying a large Alabaster jar of perfume with her wasn’t an afterthought – it was preparation for her worship.

HER WORSHIP BROUGHT HER FACE TO FACE WITH THE ONE WHO COULD FORGIVE SIN AND ADMINISTER GRACE BEYOND MEASURE. After a “teaching moment” given to Simon, Jesus turns to her and says, “Your sins are forgiven. Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

We sing the worship chorus “Breathe”, by Marie Barnett, which has the words “I’m desperate for you” in the bridge. Desperation to move into the presence of Jesus is a key to extravagant worship. Desperate people do desperate things. Am I desperate to move into His presence, or is my worship more by rote and form rather than heart-driven and passionate to fall at His feet? Our focus in worship should be on Him and not what anyone else thinks or presumes we should or should not be doing. I have come to the conclusion that any offering of worship unto the Lord in our services, no matter how bizarre or strange or “out of the box”, when done with a sincere heart, is OK with me. There is a man in our church who, when singing worship songs of praise or hymns of thanksgiving, runs the aisles in praise to God. For him, much has been forgiven, and we need to learn from his sincere exuberance.

We fall at his feet in submission to Him, and are broken and contrite before Him (Psalm 51:17). Real men don’t cry, you say? On the contrary, real men and women are broken before God in worship, and we feel the emotion of that interaction with Him. Emotionalism – no, but when we move into the Presence of the One who has redeemed and saved us from eternal banishment from God, how can we help but be broken before Him. I have gone through “dry spells” in my walk with Christ, and it has been those times of intimate worship that I have become broken once again before Him.

Our worship must cost us something more than a brief moment in a worship service on Sunday. Our worship is everything we are, everything we have, everything we hope to be, presented to Jesus every moment of every day. It was the Psalmist David who, again, provides wisdom and direction to all of us in 2 Samuel 24:24, when in response to a gift of land and cattle for an altar for David to offer a sacrifice to God, King David replied, “No, I insist on paying for [the land and oxen]. I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.” There have been times at the end of corporate worship in our church that I am spiritually lifted up and encouraged, yet physically drained. That is a small microcosm of our worship costing us time, effort, and the displacing of other priorities in our lives.

As Pentecostals, we have been taught to respond to the wooing of the Holy Spirit, and be spontaneous as it relates to His ministry in and to our lives. We make the mistake, however, in thinking that our worship TO God should be just as spontaneous. Our worship to Him should be planned and prepared in advance. Coming into a corporate worship time should be preceded by prayer and focus on what God’s Word says about our relationship to Him, and we should come with an expectation of God to inhabit the praise of His people. If we have nothing to bring to our personal worship in terms of preparation and planning (much like a worship set prepared by the music worship leader), then our worship is no more than “lip service” to our Lord. I cannot remember who coined the phrase, but I remember this warning. “As Pentecostals, we must be willing, when the Spirit directs, to lay aside everything we have prepared in order to follow His leading. If we have nothing to lay aside, we have lost our credibility as leaders”.

When we move into His presence with extravagant worship, we find ourselves in a place where His grace and power touches us in ways unimaginable, and we transcend from our earthly existence into His Divine presence. While all our actions represent worship to our Lord to one degree or another, there are specific times in our homes, in our quiet devotions with Him, and even corporate worship with our church families, where we come with those characteristics and desires of our hearts to worship Him in Spirit and truth, and He speaks with Divine power and authority into our lives. The bottom line of our worship unto Him is that we have been forgiven much, and nothing less than extravagant worship will do. I want my worship to my Lord to be extravagant!

SNED Music Conference

The annual SNED Music Conference is coming up on Saturday, September 19 right here at Bethany. Randy Quackenbush will be joining us as the keynote speaker and Regi Stone will be leading worship. The cost is $25 if you register before before September 8. Students will receive a $5 discount.

Click for Registration Form