Emotions & Worship. Part I.

Posted on by Tanner Royalty

I want to begin by saying that I could do 400 blog posts on this single subject and not touch all the aspects of emotionalism and worship. This isn’t an end all. That being said… I do plan on making this a multi-part series of posts over the next few weeks. I do hope that this can cause each of us to begin to think about our emotions, how we display them, and where they fit in the context of worship.

What is the place of emotions in worship? Where do we draw the line on emotional displays or responses? How far can we go before we are simply manipulating our emotions?

These are all legitimate questions when it comes to emotionalism. Questions such as these have caused considerable debate throughout the years and will continue to do so because of the varying responses you can get from each.

Why are emotions necessary?

I’m sure we would all admit that… emotions are a natural and essential part of life. God created us as emotional beings.

In Mark 12:29-30 Jesus says,

“The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’”

After reading the passage out of Mark I would say that part of loving God with our whole heart must include our emotions. Think about it… emotions are the outlet for displaying what the heart feels. How convinced would your “significant other” be if you told them that you loved them without ever showing any “feeling” or “affection” towards them? Probably not very convinced. Think about a time you have given a gift and the person on the receiving end absolutely loved it. How could you tell? Most likely they displayed emotions of joy, shock, or thankfulness upon receiving the gift. If they had simply said, “Thanks, I love it” without smiling at all would you believe them? Nope. How come? I believe the best way to answer that question would be to say that, “Words alone can only express so much… but when void from emotion much of the meaning is lost.”

A husband shows his love for his wife by expressing feelings of affection or love towards her. In the same way, we should show our love for God through expressed feeling towards Him. A relationship partner wouldn’t be satisfied with a merely intellectual love… so why would God be?

The Bible is filled with the expressions of emotion. We see in Jesus himself displaying varied and intense emotional expression. He wept, He rejoiced, He felt compassion, and He righteously raged at those who defiled God’s house. Consider the strong emotions expressed from the Psalmists in these Psalms:

Psalm 42:1-4: “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?” These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival.

Psalm 84:1-2: How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God.

In fact the Psalms are overflowing with emotion. David and the other writers of the Psalms got very emotional in their relationship with God. They weren’t scared of something that they couldn’t always control or contain. But… what did their emotions do? They pointed to God. You see… if we aren’t careful we can allow our emotions to take the front seat in our worship and to a certain extent we can end up worshipping the emotion itself rather than the giver and initiator of the emotion.

In the end… emotion in worship needs balance.

Many of us have a fear of being controlled by our emotions or manipulating other peoples emotions. We realize that our emotions can mislead us, and we know that worship is not based on feelings, but on truth. How can we stand and speak or sing of God’s greatness and His amazing love, and feel nothing inside? How can we not respond to His love by loving Him in return? Our worship needs to have a proper emotional response to God.

Ultimately our focus should be on worshipping God because He is worthy of our worship. We should worship Him regardless of how we feel because He deserves it, not because it makes us feel a certain way. If we are worshipping for any other reason or because we like the ways it makes us feel then we are worshiping the wrong thing or for the wrong reason.

If we say we love God with all our hearts, that we desire him more than anything else, that we count all things as loss for the sake of knowing him, then surely our emotions will be affected during God-honoring worship.

Just don’t lose one of God’s greatest gifts to us, emotion, because you have seen it abused. Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. I challenge all of you, as well as myself, to learn to express our emotions towards God appropriately in authentic God-honoring worship and see how it changes the way we sing, think, and feel about God.

What is your Heart’s Song?

Posted on by Tanner Royalty

What songs connect with you? Do you have a specific hymn or chorus that melts your heart every time you hear or sing it? Do you consistently hum or sing a melody when without music or while alone?

Would it surprise you if I said that God has given you a song?

To many I think it would. But in reality we are wired to make and sing songs to our God. Christianity is a singing religion who serves a God who is one day going to sing over us, according to Zephaniah 3:17. The human heart is an interesting thing… we as people experience emotional highs and lows constantly and without a way to express the excitement or melody inside we would be in a world of hurt.

Music is a powerful thing. Music can change the mood or emotions of a person, act as a carrier for suggestions, and even influence the mind and heart. We have all experienced a situation where we happen to hear a certain melody or a particular song on the radio and all types of emotions and memories arise based on past events. Now obviously that artist had no clue how that song would impact us individually but our hearts over time have tied all sorts of things to the sound of that song or melody. We do it unknowingly! We are undeniably musical and expressive beings.

The world has even caught onto this as well! Think about how advertisers use music to influence us all the time. They use those awful, but catchy, short jingles so that we remember their products while we walk past them on the store shelves… or in my case in the middle of the night while I am lying in bed.

What song are you singing?

You see, God has placed a song or melody on your heart and you may not even be aware of it. Ephesians 5:19-20 says,

Addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We can sing songs with our mouths all day long but until we sing from the heart nothing is truly changed… nothing is happening. The world sings all kinds of songs, but we connect with music not with our ears… but with out hearts. The section of that verse hat says, “singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart” signifies that when it is coming from our hearts we truly mean it and feel it. We are moved by it.

What is your heart singing? What connects with you? When the Lord gives us songs we should share those experiences with others and allow those songs to connect with them in their time of need and minister to them in the same ways they have ministered to us. Colossians 3:16 says,

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

Share your song.

The importance of this is something that we often miss. We often get caught singing songs in church because that is what we do… but in reality our songs carry so much more weight than that. Your hearts song can change lives. If you only take one thing from this blog I hope that it is this:

Our hearts song can be used to reflect the works and glory of Christ to the world around us.

Why does your heart’s song matter? What does this all mean? Read the story below.

One man’s song…

Horatio Spafford was well known in 1860s Chicago. He was a prominent lawyer, a senior partner in a large and thriving law firm. He was a wealthy, had a beautiful home, a wife, four daughters and a son. He was also a devout Christian and faithful student of the Scriptures. His circle of friends included many well-known Christians of the day including evangelist Dwight L. Moody. Spafford seemed that he had it all together, and was living what most of us would call a dream… but soon his life was turned upside down and his dream quickly became a living nightmare.

At the very height of Spafford’s financial and professional success, he and his wife Anna suffered the tragic loss of their young son. Shortly following, the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 reduced almost every property Spafford owned to ashes, and destroyed nearly all of his investments.

Two years later, in 1873, Spafford wanted his family to take a much needed vacation somewhere so he scheduled a boat trip to Europe in order to give himself and his family a break and time to recover from the tragedies that had fallen upon them. Spafford sent his wife and daughters ahead of him to England knowing that his friend D.L. Moody would be preaching there and wanting to join Moody in his evangelistic campaign. Spafford had to stay behind in Chicago for a few days while he was delayed with unexpected business.

On November 22, 1873, while crossing the Atlantic on the steamship Ville du Havre, the ship carrying Horatio’s wife and four daughters was struck by an iron sailing vessel and 226 people lost their lives, including all four Horatio’s daughters. Anna Spafford survived the tragedy, and upon arriving in England, she sent him the now famous telegram, “Saved alone …”.

Shortly afterwards, with a heavy heart, Spafford boarded a boat that would take him to his grieving wife in England. As Spafford traveled to meet his grieving wife, his deep sorrow mingled with his unwavering faith in God’s goodness inspired and caused him to write the well known words that we all know as “It is Well with my Soul” as his ship passed over the location of his daughters’ deaths.

Spafford’s heart had a song…

For more than a century, the tragic story of one man has given hope to countless thousands who have lifted their voices to sing. One man who faithfully sang his heart’s song to God has provided words to those at a loss for words in the face of tragedy.

When peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll; Whatever my lot Thou hast taught me to say, “It is well, it is well with my soul!”

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come, let this blest assurance control, that Christ hath regarded my helpless estate, and hath shed His own blood for my soul.

My sin—oh, the bliss of this glorious thought—My sin, not in part, but the whole, is nailed to His Cross, and I bear it no more; Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

And Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight, the clouds be rolled back as a scroll the trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend – “Even so, it is well with my soul”

For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live; if dark hours about me shall roll no pang shall be mine, for in death as in life thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul.

What is your heart’s song? Will you be faithful to sing it?

Whose kingdom are you building?

Posted on by Tanner Royalty

We live in an age of self-promotion. We love attention. Think about it… social media, reality television, selfies. Everyone strives for likes, pokes, shares, retweets, clicks, and followers. What is our motivation behind anything that we do?

We know that 1 Corinthians 10:31 calls us to do all thing unto Christ and for His glory…

 “Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do ALL to the glory of God.”

But do we? What is our motivation behind the things that we do? Whose kingdom are we building? Are we building up our own? Are we building someone else’s? Or are we building God’s kingdom?

I believe most of us deep down want desperately to build the Kingdom of God… but sometimes without even knowing it our intentions or methods can get cloudy or twisted. We want to see souls saved, lives changed, community built amongst believers. We desire to see believers equipped, young Christians discipled, and churches grow. Doing this with the correct motive and without a human agenda in times of struggle (and especially success) is the real challenge. Colossians 3:23 says:

“Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men.”

While we are on this subject there are a few things I’d like to think about out loud…

  •  If people can go to our websites and hear about all of OUR ministries, OUR successes, and the things that WE can offer them, but they can’t see or hear about Jesus then we are in serious need of a wake up call… we are building OUR kingdom. In the end, we don’t really have much to offer apart from Christ.
  • If the thing that continuously brings people back to our churches is the great music, comfortable atmosphere, or free coffee and donuts before service then we have totally missed the mark. Don’t get me wrong; these things are good things if we are using them for a greater purpose. We should desire more than membership… we should desire life change.
  • Church membership, numerous programs and opportunities, and worldly excellence doesn’t change lives… Jesus does.
  • If we are constantly worrying about what people (outsiders, our church members, etc) will think before we make a decision then who is really in control of the Kingdom we are building? It obviously isn’t our Father… because He tends to get ignored often times when we make decisions.
  • Are we in the Gospel business or are we just businessmen? What are we building, promoting, and growing? Are we growing or expanding our kingdoms just for growth or expansions sake? You know… Steve Jobs would have made a heck of a church planter, consultant, or “church growth expert” while he was alive. He may not have been saved… but he knew how to communicate, promote, and grow a business. He was a good leader. God wants more than successful businessmen and leaders… He wants sold out servants. If you happen to be both then I’m sure that is okay too!

Here are a few things we can keep in mind when we think about the work we are doing and what kingdom we are building on a daily basis.

It’s kingdom work… not a competition.

Sometimes we can get so caught up in the things we are doing as individual bodies of Christ that we neglect the fact that we are all on the same side. We are part of the same family. We must face the reality that not every church has the same strengths as another. The “body” language in 1 Corinthians is often looked to within a single church or “body of Christ” whereas in reality we are all the body and many of us serve different purposes than each other. 1 Corinthians 12:12-26 says,

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.

We don’t all use the same means to get to the common end. We all have different strength, passions, resources, and gifts. We MUST work together as a unified body to see that we are playing to our individual strengths and covering for each other’s weaknesses.

You may be asking… how is this practical, or how can I actually apply this?

Well let’s say you have a prospective member of your church that struggles in a particular area that your church doesn’t have the resources to effectively come alongside them in… but another Gospel loving Christ-centered church in town does. Do you point them in the direction of a ministry you know can help them or do you keep it to yourself and hope it works out? By pointing them in the direction of someone who can minister and disciple them effectively in their current situation you are growing God’s kingdom… you may not see your particular church or ministry “kingdom” grow because of it… but who cares? We don’t all have the same strengths! We need to stop acting like we do and work as a team!

Pride comes before the fall.

There are some of us in the ministry that will be part of a movement of God and we will see rapid growth in the ministries in which we serve… we must remember that it isn’t anything in which WE are doing. God has given us a gift… a moment to be part of something amazing. The show can and will go on with or without us. Stay humble, fight pride, and be a part of it! Allow God to work in and through you!

We must continually ask ourselves who is being glorified with this action? What kingdom is being advanced? All that we do should point to Christ and work to the advancement of His kingdom. James 4:6 says,

But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

Be used and stay humble.

Numbers may not equate to success.

Growth is super encouraging, but how and why are we growing? How is this kingdom being built? Are we establishing a strong foundation on the Word of God or are we building a kingdom to ourselves, our trendiness, flashiness, or excellence in arts or leadership? The Word of God isn’t always popular, but it is ALWAYS necessary. Preach faithfully, sing faithfully, and let the Lord do His work.

We need to be working to share the Gospel with the lost. If our ministries or churches are growing substantially but we aren’t baptizing ANYONE then we need to think about where those people are coming from. Are we just reshuffling church members from one church to another or are we reaching our communities? Now obviously church-folk shift from one church to another at points in their lives for numerous reasons… but that shouldn’t be our target audience. If our ministries or churches are growing primarily by stealing evangelized people from other ministries or churches that already part of the kingdom of God then what kingdom are we really growing? Probably ours if they already have citizenship in His…

We must check our motivation, stay humble, and allow God to move. Let’s work together for the one and only kingdom that matters.