clear the stage.

Clear the stage and set the sound and lights ablaze


If that's the measure you must take to crush the idols


Jerk the pews & all the decorations, too 

Until the congregations few, then have revival


Tell your friends that this is where the party ends 

Until you're broken for your sins, you can't be social


Then seek the Lord and wait for what He has in store 

And know that great is your reward so just be hopeful



'Cause you can sing all you want to

Yes, you can sing all you want to

You can sing all you want to

And still get it wrong; 
worship is more than a song


 Take a break from all the plans that you have made 


And sit at home alone and wait for God to whisper




Beg Him please to open up His mouth and speak 


And pray for real upon your knees until they blister




Shine the light on every corner of your life 


Until the pride and lust and lies are in the open




Then read the Word and put to test the things you've heard 


Until your heart and soul are stirred and rocked and broken


'Cause you can sing all you want to


Yes, you can sing all you want to


You can sing all you want to


And still get it wrong; worship is more than a song


 We must not worship something that's not even worth it


Clear the stage, make some space for the One who deserves it





Anything I put before my God, is an idol

Anything I want with all my heart, is an idol

Anything can't stop thinking of, is an idol

Anything that I give all my love, is an idol

'Cause I can sing all I want to


Yes, I can sing all I want to
I can sing all I want to


And still get it wrong


And you can sing all you want to


Yes, you can, you can sing all you want to


You can sing all you want to


And still get it wrong; worship is more than a song

Worship is more than a song

 Clear the stage and set the sound and lights ablaze


If that's the measure you must take to crush the idols

I wanted you to get a glimpse of our days as I go about this house in worship.  This song struck a nerve in my spirit this week and I have listened to it 30 times since.  Every time I hear it I hear something new; something that challenges me and changes me.  

Did you know that God tells us that anything we put before Him is an idol?  Anything.

Did you know that God tells us that anything we can't stop thinking about is an idol?

Anything that we want with all our hearts.  Anything that we give all of our love to.

They are idols.

Your church.

Your friends.

Your children.

Your clothes.

Your food.

Your job.

Your spouse.

Your healing.

Your music.

Your exercise.

God tells us that we are to love nothing above Him.  I look at these children and the amount of love that I have for them is overwhelming and yet I am to love Him more.  

Do you know how much I love them?  Do you know how much He must love us.  

Enough to be jealous for us. 

 For our affection, for our time, for our adoration.  

What kind of God is jealous for me?  Do you know what kind?

The kind whose love is seeping and bending and breaking for you.  The kind of God who will persevere beyond your circumstances to whisper your name.  He will interject Himself into the crevices of your heart and your home with or without invitation.  He desires for you to want Him there but I believe that even if you aren't ready He will fight for your attention.  He is a God of showmanship, remember?  A God who is bigger and beyond all things that we can fathom.  He is a God that is unimpressed by our rituals but rather intrigued by our truest and most raw form of worship...whatever that is.

Do you understand that your most sincere form of worship probably comes in the silence?  It is in the moment when you are simply breathing; exhaling with thankfulness and at ease in your thinking.  It is in the moment when you give of yourself to someone else around you who is unexpectedly in need of your voice, your shoulder or your look of empathy.  Worship, in it's truest form, is the very thing that we do from day to day.  It's living with the knowing that we have an amazing God and walking freely in that.

Some of the people in my life that are most dear to me struggle with the idea that in order to love the Lord or to be a good Christian that they must pray more than they do or they must attend a church service with proper attire.  I want to encourage you today to simply live.

Live with the knowing that we have a perfect Lord.  Think about Him, converse with Him in your thinking. Saturate yourself with His presence in whatever way feels right and true to you.  He is there.  He is in it all.  There is no need for the rituals, only for the sacrifice and whatever praise comes in that is worthy.

Just clear the stage friends.  

Clear it for yourself so that you can enjoy a true God; involved and present in your every day.

When you do that be confident that you cannot get it wrong, for when you plead for the real-He is near.