After singing in English, the students closed their eyes and sang in Romanian. Their worship was beautiful because God is their Hiding Place. Those students lived under the fear of imprisonment, but God was their security. Their music was an expression of what they had discovered.

This has been true throughout history. A biographer wrote, "Because Handel lived fully with his heart, his suffering was deep, but out of it came his great music."4

Other great hymn writers have written from the depths of their experience. The family of Chicago businessman H.G. Spafford went down with a French steamer. Spafford's wife was rescued, but their four children drowned. Through deep pain, he wrote a poem that has become one of the great hymns of the past century, "It Is Well with My Soul."

"When peace, like a river, attendeth my way. When sorrows like sea billows roll; Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, It is well, it is well with my soul."5

The final characteristic of worship in the revived church is that the quality of public worship is directly related to the quality of our private worship.

Revival grows out of hearts that seek God. When those hearts find God, there is a joy explosion. A new song reigns.

The fruit of the awakened church will be in her worship of the true and living God, worship in Spirit and Truth, rooted in truth that God Himself is the object of the worship.

The church in the West has produced some of the most exciting, talented, and creative Christian musicians, but we must recognize that talent and creativity do not in themselves constitute awakening. Much of contemporary Christian music is more entertainment than worship.

In the United States recently, a talented, contemporary Christian music group was singing prior to my speaking to 10,000 young people. To advertise their latest album, they threw huge beach balls out among the young people as they sang. The young people climbed over each other trying to touch the beach balls.

The arena became chaotic. The youth began doing "the Wave." Thousands lost complete sense of any worship experience. To say the least, it was difficult to preach after that.

Several months earlier I heard a very popular contemporary Christian musician say on national television that she had taught this generation of Christians that it was OK "to dance your brains out."

The purpose of Christian music is not entertainment. It is worship. True worship will bypass neither the intellect nor the will. True worship involves mind, will, and emotions.

Contemporary musicians should remember the words of Handel when the Messiah was first performed in Dublin in 1742. A nobleman complimented the composer on the great entertainment of the Messiah. Handel replied, "My Lord, I should be sorry if I only entertained them. I wished to make them better."6 And we are better people because of his music.

We could experience one of the greatest revivals of all time if we would learn to worship. We were created for that purpose.

We cannot afford for Sunday mornings to be funeral dirges. Nor can we afford to allow this generation of Christian young people to be satisfied with the passing winds of Christian entertainment. We must give ourselves to worshiping the Father.