There is a danger with pushing for “crazy praise” in our worship. Why? Because pushing performance based worship, meaning, “what I can do”, rather than “what He can do”, puts the focus on self rather than the cross. I am not saying lets not worship and praise God joyfully with all of our heart and all of our might, but let us use wisdom and not use the Holy Ghost and speaking in tongues as excuse to go nuts to satisfy our flesh.
Remember what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14:1-23. If you haven’t read it before, please read the entire chapter, but for the sake of time here are a few verses.
1 Corinthians 1:4
The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church.
1 Corinthians 1:19-23
19 Nevertheless, in church I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue. 20 Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature. 21 In the Law it is written, “By people of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners will I speak to this people, and even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord.” 22 Thus tongues are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is a sign not for unbelievers but for believers. 23 If, therefore, the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your minds?
The Bible never requires that we physically go out of our minds and make a spectacle in our worship to impress God, the key word here being “impress”. Christ already loves us and “crazy praise” is not going to make Him love us more. The purpose of praise and worship is to exalt and lift Him up with all of our heart in worship, so that we can be closer to Him; our worship is about a deeper relationship with our savior.
We have all heard the example, “they shout and scream and go nuts at a ball game”. Are people really going nuts for their team? In reality they have no relationship with their team, they are just there to fulfill their own emotional release and being apart of the experience. When we make worship performance based, it then becomes about our intensity level, and seeking to satisfy our flesh for a physical experience for a few minutes, rather than seeking a consistent daily relationship with our savior. I think there lays the problem, confusing the experience with the relationship.
If you are a parent, you don’t make your child perform to gain your love, nor do you require an intense level of performance from them to provide for them. The same is with our Father, He loves us, and He died for us to be closer to us to have a deeper bond and relationship with us. To think that He requires performance and/or works to gain His love, blessings and/or approval cheapens the power of the cross.
Please don’t think I am against speaking in tongues, expressive worship, dancing in the spirit, etc. This article was meant to get you to think honestly, look inward and consider why you worship in however you choose to worship Jesus Christ. Are you doing it to impress God? Are you doing it because somebody is saying you have to get your “crazy praise” on? Are you doing it because you need the physical and emotional release? If you answered yes to these questions, ask yourself why you don’t feel The Cross is Enough?