ALTARS & IDOLS
I often see worship videos with stunning production value, cinematic camera work, pristine audio, powerful imagery.
I find myself impressed. Sometimes I even wish I had been in the room when that moment was captured.
And I have been.
For two remarkable years, I lived in Sydney, Australia. I still remember stepping outside the airport onto Australian soil for the first time. I felt like a kid on Christmas morning finally able to open that giant present I had been eyeing for weeks! I took my first breath. “Even the air smells better here!,” I thought. It felt like heaven… or close to it.
That euphoric feeling lasted until my first meal, but that’s another story for another day.
I attended what was, at the time, arguably the most innovative ministry school in the world:
Hillsong International Leadership College.
I had followed Hillsong music closely, so when I discovered I could study the technical side of worship, recording, songwriting, and production, I was all in.
I interned in the recording studio where the albums were produced. I was a sponge. I studied everything, the reverb effects, tonal shaping, decay rates, delays. I was blown away. Every beat of every measure was examined and perfected. And that was just the audio. Another team meticulously edited hours of multi-camera footage to craft the final visual experience.
Here’s what surprised me most:
what i thought happened on recording nights…
didn’t.
I assumed they captured the live audio and simply polished it. In reality, the live recording was more of a roadmap. Nearly every instrument and vocal was re-recorded in a controlled studio environment. Cleaner mics. No crowd noise. No electrical hum. Fewer mistakes.
Even some of the “crowd singing” is enhanced by carefully recorded vocalists blended with the original roar of the crowd.
The goal of the studio? Recreate the moment for those who weren’t there.
And they mastered it!
Pun intended.
But years later, as a worship pastor and perfectionist, I found myself comparing my local church to those polished recordings.
That was a mistake.
Comparison really is the thief of joy.
One week it was evident my drummer loved heavy metal. The next week a different drummer made it feel like I’d recruited a Civil War drummer boy. He was old, but I knew he wasn’t THAT old. At times, the electric guitar sounded stuck in the wrong decade. A male singer insisted on singing the choir bass part… without a choir.
Some Sundays were just…hard.
Which led me to ask:
What does God actually like? Should we chase the latest trends? Buy the newest $4,000 keyboard? Curate the perfect aesthetic?
Isn’t God worthy of our best?
Shouldn’t we strive to make the worship experience the BEST we can make it?
Absolutely!
BUT MAYBE NOT THE WAY WE THINK.
Let’s talk about idolatry.
In Exodus 20, God says:
“22 Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘This is what you are to tell the Israelites: You have seen for yourselves that I have spoken to you from heaven. 23 You are not to make any gods alongside Me; you are not to make for yourselves gods of silver or gold.’”
God makes it clear: I alone am God. I will not share worship with anyone or anything manmade. Even with beautiful, expensive, impressive things.
It’s actually possible to worship…worship
It’s actually possible to Worship…Worship
I think at times, we chase a worship “moment”, something we can create, a spontaneous “wow” moment, and we end up chasing that more than simply chasing God’s heart.
We may chase perfect guitar tone or finding a place to play a solo more than simply chasing God.
Or we may chase that insane vocal riff our favorite singer nailed, more than simply chasing God.
God is FAR more important than that moment, that solo, that riff.
We shouldn’t ever chase something we make, our silver and gold worship, more than we pursue God.
It continues:
“24 You are to make for Me an altar of earth, and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and peace offerings, your sheep and goats and cattle. In every place where I cause My name to be remembered, I will come to you and bless you.”
God is saying here that no silver or gold idols have any place in our worship.
It’s all about the altar and the sacrifice.
And His blessing will rest where HIS name is lifted up!
And what kind of Altar is He looking for? An altar made of EARTH. And what did God use to make us? The dust of the earth!
Genesis 2:7 says, “Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground…”
You and I are altars made of earth!
Now, let's fast forward in Genesis to when Abraham was asked to sacrifice his only son on the altar (Genesis 22:2). Abraham went to the mountains of Moriah and leaving his servants he said “...The boy and I will go over there to worship, and then we will return to you.”(Genesis 22:5)
Notice, this act of sacrifice was Abraham’s WORSHIP.
Genesis 22:6 “Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac…”
His son had to carry the wood up the mountain to the place where the sacrifice was to be made. When Isaac asked where the lamb was for the sacrifice, Abraham replied in Genesis 22:8 “God Himself will provide the lamb….”
Are you catching this? Abraham's one and only son is to be sacrificed, the wood is placed upon his back, he carried it up to the place he would be sacrificed, and he is likened to a lamb. God is painting a prophetic picture of the coming sacrifice of His one and only Son, Jesus, the Lamb of God. The lamb that God has provided!
If that doesn’t blow you away, check this out! Mount Moriah and Calvary (Golgatha) are
THE SAME mountain ridge in Jerusalem.
Not only was God painting the prophetic picture, He fulfilled it at the same location 2,000 years later!
Now let’s put this all together.
Worship is an altar and a sacrifice.
God is looking for an altar made of earth
The sacrifice is to be placed above it.
The sacrificial lamb has to be perfect, without spot or blemish
The altar is crude. It’s made of earth.
Jesus is our sacrifice.
We are the altar covered in the blood of the perfect lamb.
An altar by itself is just dirt and stone. Worthless.
But when covered by the blood of the Lamb, it becomes holy.
That’s worship. It’s not a song. Worship is an offering of our very lives. Worship is what we lift high. We offer our lives as a living sacrifice (“Romans 12:1). He took our mess and made us holy! It’s not about you and I or our own efforts at achieving perfection. It’s about Him cleansing us, making us righteous, making it possible for us to be in His holy presence!
Exodus continues:
“25 Now if you make an altar of stones for Me, you must not build it with stones shaped by tools; for if you use a chisel on it, you will defile it.”
We don’t like being unshaped stones.
We see our flaws. Our weaknesses. Our failures.
So we grab a chisel and go to work, trying to fix ourselves.
We polish. We perform. We curate.
We try to become impressive.
But the worship God is looking for starts at that messy pile of stones. If we try to bring Him a perfected act of worship, an unauthentic performance, something designed to impress people, we have just defiled our worship.
The moment worship becomes about impressing people, it’s no longer worship for God.
It’s for man.
Or worse, it’s for me, so I get praised.
Yuck.
I remember another being that wanted to be praised (Lucifer) and take the place of God. It didn’t work out too well for him or his buddies, and it won’t for us either.
God is not looking for perfected performers.
He’s looking for undefiled worshippers, humble altars.
unpolished.
authentic.
real.
When we lead worship, it’s not ultimately about perfect pitch, lighting, or sound. It’s not about stage presence.
It’s about Him.
It’s about Him receiving all the glory.
It’s about all eyes seeing HIM.
It’s about people experiencing His presence.
We’re just a pile of stones, lifting Him high.
I urge you and pray that you search your heart and ask yourself honestly…
Am I lifting Jesus high… or myself?
I think at times and at different levels, we’ve all wanted to be lifted up and impressive. Ego is a battle we may find ourselves always fighting against.
AND, I’m not saying we shouldn’t work on our craft, grow in our musical abilities, or that excellence and modern media technology is idolatry. It’s can be very impressive. It’s just not impressive to God, or necessary to impress Him.
AND…I still like it. And that’s ok. I just realize lights, perfect tone, and haze are not what it’s about, and shouldn’t be the focus during worship.
When it’s time to lead, whether a stadium, a small church, or just yourself in your living room,
