Tag: Music

Living Sacrifice Day 18 – A Lifestyle of Worship

Justin Hibbard


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Begin by reading John 4:1-26

Being involved in music and worship teams and in traditional and contemporary churches, I’ve heard every possible criticism about music that you could possibly hear. I can still picture the older gentleman, wearing a suit to church, making a serious face as he bellows the words from the hymnal he holds in his hand. He praises the old hymns as great doctrines of theology, while criticizing songs like “Holy is the Lord,” because he’s repeating the same thing over, and over, and over again.

In the other corner, I see the young person, hands raised, signing out the refrain of the contemporary praise song. He criticizes those who sing about the Lord without emotion and says that the hymns of old seem to lack emotion themselves. He rolls his eyes at “We are One in the Bond of Love,” as he mocks the song by singing with a dramatic southern twang.

These are often the arguments in churches that try to appease the traditional and contemporary crowds, and for the first twenty-something years of my life, this was something I constantly heard. But to be honest, arguments about worship styles are nothing new. In the passage we just read, we saw a Samaritan woman who tried to argue with Jesus about worship styles. We even see this earlier in the Bible, as David’s wife Michal rebuked him for being so expressive in public worship.

Yesterday, we redefined the common understanding of worship by analyzing Romans 12:1. We said that “worship is a voluntary activity in response to God’s goodness, predetermined to glorify God – a personal expression of gratitude at any time, at any day that is pleasing to the Lord.”

In the case of Michal and the Samaritan woman, the worship they were referring to were moments of worship, whether they be a physical expression of praise or a sacrifice at the Temple. However, Jesus explains what true worship is – a seeking of the Father in spirit and truth. This is similar to what Paul writes in Romans 12:1 when he uses the phrase – “a spiritual act of worship.”

What Paul is saying is that if we are committed to being living sacrifices, then every moment, of every day is an opportunity for worship. It doesn’t matter what the activity is, as long as its predetermined to glorify God and is something that actually pleases Him. In other words, what Paul and Jesus are saying is that becoming a living sacrifice doesn’t mean merely having moments of worship but rather adopting a lifestyle of worship.

We’re so used to thinking of worship as those moments involving music. That’s what’s been ingrained in our heads. But it’s time to grow out of that thinking and adopt a Romans 12:1 understanding of worship. So, let me challenge you today to make your activities worshipful. What are some things you’re going to do today with an attitude of worship? And how will you begin or continue adopting a lifestyle of worship that will permeate every corner of your life? Those practical things you offer to the Lord are indeed spiritual and acts of worship.

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Missed a day? You can find previous devotionals here.

Living Sacrifice Day 15 – Soli Deo Gloria

Justin Hibbard


Prefer to listen to today’s devotional? Click here.

Begin by reading Genesis 4:1-16

The great composer Johann Sabastian Bach wrote over 1100 compositions in his 65 years of life. It’s quite remarkable. These aren’t just simple three minute songs that we’re used to hearing on the radio; some are quite lengthy cantatas, chorales, and some are written for a number of instruments. Bach didn’t have Garage Band, recording devices, or some of the other fancy programs we might use to record and make musical notation. Living in the 1700s, he did this all by hand. Bach was commissioned by a number of various courts and churches to practice his art. However, no matter who he worked for, at the end of many of Bach’s compositions, he wrote three initials – S.D.G. They stand for the Latin words Soli Deo Gloria – To God alone be the glory.

As we’ve been talking about worship and Romans 12:1, we are now at the place where we are discussing what constitutes something as worship. Paul gives us two criteria. We discussed the first one yesterday – that the activity must be set apart. Today, we are talking about the second criteria – that the activity must be pleasing to God.

If you will recall, in the very first challenge I gave, I said that the beginning point to becoming a living sacrifice is to know God. If you don’t know God, you don’t know what pleases Him. This is extremely important. Today’s reading about Cain and Abel’s sacrifice gives us insight into this lesson. Abel knew what type of sacrifice God wanted and offered the first of his flock. Cain, a worker in the field, offered God some of his fruits and vegetables. God looked with favor on Abel’s offering but rejected Cain’s.

Let’s step back for a moment and ask, “why did God reject Cain’s offering?” In a sense, Cain’s offering was personal. He worked the field, so naturally he offered something that he worked to produce. While that seems reasonable, that isn’t how God saw it. God wanted them to bring an animal sacrifice – most likely to begin the understanding of what it meant to sacrifice and the cleansing of sin through the shedding of blood. Instead of rising up to give what God wanted, Cain offered what he wanted.

While we have said that we can offer any activity at any time to be worship, the truth is, not every activity can be worshipful. The criteria that Paul states is that it must be pleasing to the Lord. Let me issue a strong warning here. There is a lot of teaching and activity mulling around the church today – teaching that it’s okay to divulge in the carnal, sinful pleasures, and those that teach these heresies are framing it as something that’s pleasing to God. People are cheating on their spouses, engaging in promiscuous and shameful behavior, ignoring their families, and mistreating others and labeling it as pleasing to the Lord. This is nonsense. Do not confuse what’s pleasing to yourself as pleasing to God. In the same sense that we can’t rob a bank and legitimately call that worship, not everything is pleasing to the Lord.

At the beginning of each day, each activity, each thought, the discipline of being a living sacrifice compels us to determine to set it apart to the Lord. At the end of the day, we should look over our day, our activities, and our thoughts and give the stamp that says, “Soli Deo Gloria – to God alone be all the glory.” If we can’t, in good conscience, put that stamp of approval on something we did, then we should work hard to eliminate that thought or activity from our day tomorrow. The purpose of everything we do is to glorify and honor the Lord. That’s what it means to be a living sacrifice.

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Missed a day? You can find previous devotionals here.

Living Sacrifice Day 3 – Motivated by Mercy

Justin Hibbard

When you are in a corporate worship service, what motivates you to worship? Is it the music, the lighting ambiance, the people you are with, or your feelings? Let’s be honest, sometimes those things impact our worship, and sometimes we don’t feel like worshiping at all. Sometimes we want to stand there with our hands in our pockets and say, “I’m so tired” or “I can’t wait to take that Sunday nap” or “I can’t wait for the football game.” Our emotions can lead us down some dismal roads.

That’s why worship shouldn’t be motivated by how we feel. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t use our emotions in worship. I’m saying that our emotions shouldn’t dictate when we worship. We shouldn’t wait until we’re in the right environment or have the perfect music to worship. We might be waiting our whole lives.

Paul says in Romans 12:1, “in light of God’s mercy.” In other words, the motivating factor in worship should be God’s goodness. Why? Because it never changes. If our worship depends on our emotions, well, who knows what we might feel like. If it depends on someone’s music, then the music is bound to stop or they might play the wrong note. But God’s mercy, we’re told in Lamentations 3:22-23 “never fail. They are new every morning. Great is His faithfulness.”

We began our 40 day challenge with focusing on who God is and our place in His Kingdom. That’s the important first step. Now, we are beginning to look at how we should act in our Father’s world.

Today, even right now, whether you feel like it or not, close your eyes and tell God how thankful you are for what He’s done for you. Be motivated to do this just by the very fact of what God has done for you. Tell Him how good He is. Let that be the beginning of your worship today.

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Missed a day? You can find previous devotionals here.