Leading praise and worship is a dangerous place. It was for Satan:
How you are fallen from heaven,
O Morning Star, son of Dawn!
How you are cut down to the ground,
you who laid the nations low!
You said to yourself,
“I will ascend to heaven;
I will raise my throne
above the stars of God;
I will sit on the mount of assembly
on the heights of Zaphon;[c]
I will ascend to the tops of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.”
But you are brought down to Sheol,
to the depths of the Pit. (Isaiah 14:12-15)
The leader is not God and has no right to bask in his glory,
The preacher of righteousness is not righteous by the preaching
Do you not know that in a race the runners all compete, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win it. Athletes exercise self-control in all things; they do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable one. So I do not run aimlessly, nor do I box as though beating the air, but I punish my body and enslave it, so that after proclaiming to others I myself should not be disqualified. (1 Corinthians 9:24-27)
I was sitting near the front of a church when I heard these words: “Prancing peacocks on the platform.” It was a phrase I had never heard before. For me, it was a very sobering one.
Preaching the Lectionary 