It is a sigh of relief to know that we don’t have to be perfect to worship God. If God required that we had to be perfect before we offered ourselves before Him, no one would ever get there. God can use hypocrites to preach the Gospel as well as people striving after His will. The point that Paul makes in Philippians 1:15-18 is that either way the Gospel is preached. But that doesn’t give us an excuse to shove off the pursuit of righteousness for the sake of convenience and selfish ambition. I think the challenge that can be taken from those verses is “What is your motive?“
Paul uses the words envy and rivalry when talking about motives. These are serious words. When applied to worship, it is clear that it’s very easy for worship musicians to become envious of other churches and musicians simply because we want what they have. We tend to use the excuse of “striving for excellence” to mask our own obsession with trying to be perfect. There is nothing wrong with wanting to be great at something, as long as the motive remains pure. So I must ask myself, does my worship contain envy and rivalry? Am I worshipping in spirit and in truth or am I simply playing music because I like it and want people to see me instead of the Lord?
One of the things I like about Seacoast is that the worshipping community is a great blend of quality production mixed with authentic Spirit-filled worship. If you’ve ever been to a First Wednesday service, you know what I’m talking about. Some churches do things a lot differently. And its awesome. I’ve been in enough church music situations to know that there are so many ways to encounter the Lord through music. That being true, there is no room for envy or rivalry in our worship because God is bigger than our small-mindedness. If we fix our eyes on the Lord and strive to conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of the Gospel, we will look at differences in worship as beautiful musical variations that glorify the Father. It’s not by accident that the word one is so prevelant in the New Testament as well as the idea of unity.
