2010 marks 20 years of leading worship for Sidney. He started at the age of 17. He described it as a fish being put into water.
He is a pastor in a Jakarta church. He grew up in California. He received the Lord in 1990 and went back to Indonesia. He apologized that he thought Indonesia is the best country in the world. :)
I got a nice picture of him here.
What they are doing in JPCC (as True Worshippers) are gaining international attention. A radio station from South Africa called him on his mobile to interview him live on air. We often invite people from other nations to come to Asia to bless us. Now, it’s the time for the Asians to bless the nations! Hosanna is a song released in a album called Love God, Love People by Israel Hoghton. It’s #1 in the Gospel charts and #7 overall.
Sidney encouraged us to write songs. He started by accident. He was in a band, GMB (Group Makan Babi! Giving My Best.). The songwriter left and he was given the task to write songs. A lot of people think they cannot write songs when they don’t have any instruments or a studio. A great songwriter in Indonesia use a mobile phone to record any melody that comes to mind. Sidney does that do.
Sidney got inspiration of the song, Hosanna in the shower. He quickly recorded it down before finishing his shower. They were doing a recording of an album that night. He shared the song with his team and asked them to help him put down the chords and music notes.
The number one reason we don’t write songs from the inspiration we received from God is because we are LAZY. Share our inspirations with the others who can write songs and express emotions.
Sidney then shared about the power of worship. We all worship something, including the people who don’t believe in God. God designed us to worship. The question is what do we worship? To some, girlfriends, career, Startcraft II, PS3, etc. A wise man of God once said if we find out the thing we spend the most time / money on, we will find what is sitting on the throne of our lives. We need to know who / what do we worship.
What is praise and worship? In many people’s mind, praise = fast songs and worship = slow songs. God doesn’t cross our mind. Worship is not just about singing songs to God and helping people to get into the presence of God, it’s telling God not our will but his will be done. He must be enthroned in every aspect of our lives, our family, ministry, work, etc.
We tend to focus on the technical aspects. The actual worship is much deeper. The definition of worship is to attribute the worth on something / someone. Some people worship worship!
Worship is for God and about god. Something is wrong when we say we like or don’t like a worship session. It’s not about how we feel or whether we feel like to worship. When we worship, we give 100% to show the world how much God is worth to us.
Have we ever got something that we treasure so much we want others to handle it with great care?
If someone has not come into church before witnesses our worship, what will they think of our worship? If we give everything, i.e. every part of our being, then they know how much we love God. We are often too concerned about how other people look at us. Instead, we should be more worried about how God look at us.
Sidney commented that in the past many years of producing albums, he never had a good photos. He doesn’t care.
We should not.
It always start with the worshippers, who shake the church, the city and the nation. Worship is not a routine, it is a lifestyle. Worshipping on stage is just a reflection of our worship lifestyle.
The Power of understanding
There is power in our worship. But that will never happen if we don’t have the power of understanding.Joh 4:21-24 Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. (22) You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. (23) But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. (24) God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth."
The Samaritans worshipped what they did not know. The Jews on the other hand worshipped what they knew. Truth will always be true despite the lack of understanding. Whether we believe it or not and whether we understand or not, the law of gravity is the truth.
There has to be understanding in what we do as understanding is an element of truth. Do we understand what we do as we worship God? Do we just do it because that’s what other people do? Do we do it because it’s the tradition? If do not understand why we worship, it’s just like karaoke. We are just mouthing out the word which means nothing to us.
Sidney heard Brian McKnight’s song, One Last Cry and found it to be a good song. Then he broke up with his girlfriend, he understood the song. The understanding makes a great difference. We can sing more powerfully with understanding.
Many times we comment think a movie, a haircut, a friend is great. When we sing How Great is Our god, do we appreciate the greatness of our creator?
God deserves our everything.
Be lifted up from glory to glory to glory
We offer up our praises
That you deserve
the power of atmosphere
Mar 6:1-6 He went away from there and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. (2) And on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished, saying, "Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands? (3) Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?" And they took offense at him. (4) And Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household." (5) And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. (6) And he marveled because of their unbelief. And he went about among the villages teaching.Jesus was not able to perform miracles in the atmosphere of unbelief. We as worshippers are called to change the atmosphere of the church, the city and the nation.
A consistent atmosphere can change the climate. We are the catalyst. We are the change (not related to Obama.) Consider the thermometer and the thermostat. The thermometer tells us temperature. The thermostat on the the hand can change the atmosphere.
A consistent climate can change a culture. We are the thermostat in our church, city and nation. We can do it/ Don’t be a thermometer that just nitpicks. Once we create a culture, this culture will influence other cultures.
The power of expectation
(Added during Planery Session 3.)The different between an event / conferene and a normal Sunday service is in the level of expectations. We don’t expect anything to happen on a normal Sunday service as if there is a God of Sunday service and a God of Conference. It has nothing to do with God but our own expectation. Whenever we go to a gathering, be it a Sunday service or a special conference, we need to ask ourselves whether we are expecting God to do something.
2Ki 3:10-16 Then the king of Israel said, "Alas! The LORD has called these three kings to give them into the hand of Moab." (11) And Jehoshaphat said, "Is there no prophet of the LORD here, through whom we may inquire of the LORD?" Then one of the king of Israel's servants answered, "Elisha the son of Shaphat is here, who poured water on the hands of Elijah." (12) And Jehoshaphat said, "The word of the LORD is with him." So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went down to him. (13) And Elisha said to the king of Israel, "What have I to do with you? Go to the prophets of your father and to the prophets of your mother." But the king of Israel said to him, "No; it is the LORD who has called these three kings to give them into the hand of Moab." (14) And Elisha said, "As the LORD of hosts lives, before whom I stand, were it not that I have regard for Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, I would neither look at you nor see you. (15) But now bring me a musician." And when the musician played, the hand of the LORD came upon him. (16) And he said, "Thus says the LORD, 'I will make this dry streambed full of pools.'
In heaven, there will be no one preaching. We are going to worship God forever. The problem in a lot of churches and with many worshippers is that we don’t expect God to work. Every time we pick up the mic or play an instrument, expect the power of God to come and touch our lives and change our lives.
Act 16:20-26 And when they had brought them to the magistrates, they said, "These men are Jews, and they are disturbing our city. (21) They advocate customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to accept or practice." (22) The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates tore the garments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods. (23) And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely. (24) Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. (25) About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, (26) and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone's bonds were unfastened.
There was an earthquake. All the prisoners became free. Only Paul and Silas were worshipping God. The other prisoners just listened, i.e. they were being thermostat. Worship team should not be discouraged when they feel the congregation is not into worship. From this passage we see even those who are not actively worshipping God are also freed.
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