Extravagant Worship, Extraordinary Praise
. . .and day and night they do not cease to say, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God, the Almighty. . .the twenty-four elders will fall down before Him who sits on the throne. . .and cast their crowns before the throne. . .Revelation 4:8,10 (NASB)
Your right hand, O, Lord, is majestic in power. . .shatters the enemy. And in the greatness of Your excellence You overthrow those who rise up against You; Exodus 15:6-7 (NASB)
This title may be problematic for some people because they cannot fathom the concept of "extravagant worship"; they have not yet grasped the "worship" part. The burden on my heart is that God's people understand that coming to church is not the same as worship. Only the habitual worshiper truly understands God is deserving of extravagant worship. And why not? In our reference text one group in heaven never stops saying, "Holy" while another group falls down before the throne AND, so says the text, they throw off their crowns and say, "Worthy". The Bible says this kind of behavior goes on all the time in heaven. Yet, here on earth, all many of us want to do is go to church on Sunday; we don't invite God to go with us, don't invite Him into the service, and if we do invite Him into the service, we leave Him there after the benediction. God desires our continual fellowship with Him. If all of heaven can shower such great worship on Him, can we not do the same? Can we not offer up heart-felt, Spirit-led worship, whether in good times or bad?
Following their crossing of the Red Sea, and the total annihilation of Pharoah's army, the children of Israel sang a song of praise to the Lord. They sang of His majesty, of the warrior He is, the greatness of His excellence, and how He works wonders. And if that wasn't enough, Miriam took her tambourine and went to work dancing before the Lord. Now I would certainly call that extraordinary praise! It wasn't half-hearted. It was all-the-way praise! David gave God an all-the-way, no-holds-barred praise when they brought the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem.
I want to encourage somebody to let go and give God the worship and praise He so deserves. Maybe you've been so down this year that your faith has taken a beating and your praise has been, and perhaps, still is, sacrificial. Good news - that's okay! Sacrificial praise is all the more pleasing to God. Go ahead and open your mouth and bless God's excellent name; go ahead and offer Him worship from deep inside you. When you do, you can experience the joy of the Lord come back into your spirit.
Used by churches all over the world to help teach worship, the Experiencing Worship study can help your worship team too.
Your team will learn why we worship and gain a better understanding of how to worship.
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This is the debut album by EXW friend Paul Langford. Paul is a Chicago based singer, arranger, keyboardist, producer and conductor. Paul has a career that spans 14 years. Paul's work includes arranging for groups like GLAD, Voices of Liberty, VoiceTrek, The Chicago based "Caroling Party" and Day of Discovery Singers. His arranging has appeared on recordings side by side with greats like Gene Puerling and David Maddux, and he has sung with Don Shelton, Bonnie Herman and Bob Bowker, among others.