The Story Behind “Heart of Worship”
by Matt Redman

Ephesians Chapter five, verse ten says, “Find out what pleases the Lord.” For me, really, that’s the heart of worship. Find out what the Lord desires and requires, what’s gonna please the heart of God, in our own particular situation

–you’ve probably heard the story-

There was a special time in the life of our church when it felt like God was highlighting something to us about what worship is and what worship isn’t. We’d had some amazing times and accounts with God and threw ourselves into it, but recently, in this little season, we lost something of that dynamic and it became a little bit of a spectator’s sport.

So Pastor Mike did a brave thing. He said, “We’re not gonna have a sound system for a while, no instruments, no lead worshipers, nothing. We’re gonna get in a room with our voices and our hearts and just check where we’re at.” And the point was to just strip it all away for a while and find out where we go. And if you come through the doors of the church on Sunday morning, what are you bringing to the offering?

It was a painful time at first, but slowly and surely we began to rediscover what it meant to bring an offering to God. I wrote “Heart of Worship” to describe the time. “When the music fades, all is striped away and I simply come, longing just to bring something that’s of worth, that will bless Your heart. I’ll bring You more than a song, for a song in itself is not what You have required. You search much deeper within through the way things appear, You’re looking into my heart.”

Before long we brought the band back and the sound system, but something had changed in our hearts. As the chorus says, “I’m coming back to the heart of worship and it’s all about You, it’s all about You, Jesus.”

I commend Pastor Mike for obeying God. Even when it meant doing what seems to be a foolish thing for most people. This story show us what the heart of worship is. Would you join me in this struggle to “get past the music”?