The Lucifer Syndrome.
Screwing Up Worship. Part 3 of 4.
March 3rd, 2007
God wants our worship so much that he’ll take whatever we give him, right? Not quite. Our worship to God can become defiled. Inspired by a teaching I heard from Jack Hayford, “Screwing Up Worship” is a four part series of blogs explaining four instances where our worship can become defiled. Part three is called . . .
The Lucifer Syndrome
Lucifer was a glorious angel in heaven who had the job of directing all of the worship from the angels and all of creation towards God. Imagine that. All of the worship the angels offer to God. Plus all the worship that mankind offers to God. Plus all the glory in all of creation (planet Earth being only a small portion) offered to God. All added together, that’s A LOT of worship. Lucifer was a magnificent worship leader.
As Lucifer directed all of God’s glory towards Him, pride entered his heart. Lucifer told God that he would rise up and become like God — sort of as His equal.
God didn’t like that. God kicked Lucifer out of heaven. We know Lucifer today as Satan. The only person to ever get kicked out of heaven was a worship leader.
I don’t think that God waited until Lucifer actually walked up to God and said, “Yo God-dawg! I’m dissing you - I’m gonna hold the same position that you hold! And my peeps be backin’ me up, too!” I don’t think it was quite like that. I think it was more of an internal moment. Lucifer had pride in his heart - just pride. He didn’t actually do anything wrong yet. It was in his heart. The pride was an intention of rebellion within him.
But God saw it - even through the worship.
And God sees our hearts today as well.
True worship occurs when the sought (that’s us) realizes the unmatched worth of the seeker (that’s Him). At that moment — our worship occurs. Anything less than that isn’t really worship. Worship is all about Him. That phrase gets overused and its easy to read it quickly without realizing the significance of that. Pause for a moment and think about it this paragraph. Read it again if you need to.
If you’re someone who leads worship services - be extra careful of pride. Pride can slip in - little by little. So slowly you hardly notice it. If you think you’re a worship leader - yet there is the slightest bit of pride in your heart - you are no worship leader. You are leading songs, not worship. Leading worship means you’re directing worship towards God - and you can’t do that with pride in your heart.
Our worship is screwed up when our hearts are not focused on the unmatched worth of the Creator. That’s the Lucifer Syndrome.
March 3rd, 2007 at 5:25 pm
Hi…it’s me. And, I’m back with some questions. (I know, I know…I’ll keep it short. I promise!)
I agree with the underlying principle you are talking about here, but, I’ve been studying what the Bible has to say about Lucifer/Satan/the devil/the evil one/etc. I’m having trouble finding scripture that talks about what he did and why he was kicked out of heaven. So, I guess I have two questions:
1. Where would I find such scripture?
2. If I can’t find anything definitive, then how can we come to any sort of conclusion on what sin got Satan kicked out of heaven, and what his job was when he was there?
I know that it seems a little off-topic, but I’ve always just bought what I’ve been told about Satan, and now that I’m looking to see what the Bible says about Him it’s not adding up…so a quick push-off in the right direction would be gladly welcomed!
March 4th, 2007 at 12:47 am
Ezekiel 28:13–>
Calls Lucifer the “anointed cherub that covereth,” (KJV). This suggests a high level of authority. And Cherubs were the worshipers. The “holy mountain of God” refers to the presence of God. Verse 13 has a reference to music even, which sounds to me like Lucificer actually had musical instruments built into him. That’s sounds sort of weird - but hey its there.. . “timbrels and pipes.”
(The Ezekiel scripture can be controversial because literally, its is speaking of the King of Tyre. But I believe its got to be at least allegorical - it just doesn’t make much sense to call a person the “Cherub that covereth.”)
Satan got kicked out of heaven because of the pride in his heart. (Isaiah 14:12–>)
But like you said, that IS a little off topic.
March 4th, 2007 at 2:44 am
Yeah…it’s a little off topic, but not much. I have been having trouble finding good solid scripture to describe Lucifer before the fall. When you mentioned his relationship to worship, it made it hard for me to follow what you were thinking because I was having trouble with Lucifer’s involvement in worship, or lack thereof.
Anyway, thanks for the resources. I will get to studying!