I recently went to an all mens event at Trinity Baptist Church. It was entitled "Awakenings". It was amazing what God did that night. The Reverend Jennings Tyson spoke. He was an engaging and excitable minister. He even brought his own amen corner because he knew our church may not get fired up as his does. As he went to the pulpit, he started to sing, "Oh how I love Jesus." As he sang, we realized we were going to get involved in his message. Something I soon found was not comfortable for many of us. When he started speaking, he would almost continually ask us to amen or fuel his fire. As I watched the reaction of some of the men, it was very evident, they were uncomfortable. Of course I loved it and was able to fell free to yell and holler and engage in the message on a personal level. He spoke about taking responsibility for yourself, your family, and your community. He taught us it was a "real man's" responsibility.
I left that night feeling uplifted but embarrassed. I was uplifted from what God taught through Rev. Tyson, but ashamed at how I had been worshipping God. I was brought up in church to think an outward expression of worship was only acceptable at times. I remember they lady in the choir who would shout when she got excited and we would talk about how awesome the service was because someone shouted.
Have you ever wanted to raise your hands or cry in happiness? Have you ever been touched so much you wanted to just shout it out that God is awesome?
I have.....and didn't....
When I looked across the auditorium during the "Awakenings" service, I saw men who are very vocal in the community and considered leaders in our town. As I drove away, I thought to myself how many of us get fired up at ballgames hollering at the top of our lungs to cheer on the players. I thought to myself how many of us post play by play on facebook and twtter as our teams play the game. If many people would be in our homes as our favorite teams are playing, they may think we were crazy at how we dress ourselves in team colors and wear all the good luck charms. If you are like my father in law, you yell out things no one else can understand and if we are losing you know not to talk to him, but if we are winning you can get money from him or whatever you want. We all are guilty of it.....
Then we go to church. The house of God. The winning team. We sit in our assigned seats. We stand at the appropriate time. We sing at the right time. We stand for invitation. We pray when we are told to bow our heads. A few raise their hands in worship. The rest of us just go through the motions.
What are we teaching our families? You can get excited and hoot and holler at a ballgame or event, but when you go to church to worship the one true living God, you just sit and go through the motions. I don't think we realize we are teaching our kids 1/2 worship. I am not saying we should act in the same way at church we do at a game, but why not?
Worship is not a show. It is an action. The preparation for the time to worship. Making sure you come to God as an open vessel. Showing him how much you love Him. Feeling His presence. Worship may move us to raise our hands. Worship may move us to cry. Worship may move us to dance.
In my first year as a youth pastor at Richmond Avenue Church, I was taught a very important lesson about worship. We were about 3 days into camp and my kids were not getting the worship thing. I was mad and upset. It just seemed they were there for the fun and not for the right reasons. I finally got so fed up, I loaded Parker in the car and just left without without telling anyone. I don't really know what I was going to do, but as I drove through the Kiamichi mountains, I saw one tree that stood up so much taller than all the others. This tree was different than all the others. As I noticed the tree, Parker started crying and wanted his bottle. As I pulled over to give him his bottle, I knocked my bible off of the console into to passengers seat. The following verse was where it opened.
Hebrews 4:14-16
"therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firm to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are - yet he did not sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may received mercy and find grace in our time of need."
You see, that tree is us as Christ followers. We are called to be different. We should stand apart from the world. I realized the problem was me. I had not taught my youth group how to worship. They had not seen an example. I had to go to the throne of grace to receive mercy as a sat there in my car crying over my faults and worshipping God for showing me the way. I went back and begin to teach my youth group about worship. I taught them by my example.
Today as you watch your football games, play kickball, watch basketball, or practice whatever you do make a comparison to the feeling you have right then to the ones you have towards worshipping God.
As parents, it is our role to teach our children how to worship just like it is to throw a curve ball, balance a check book, and make good morale choices.
Worship is an action, will you do it....
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