I think, that in talking about Revival, these past two Sundays, I may have caused some confusion over what I mean by that word and the reason for that is because Revival, is not a word that we hear much about in the churches of Christ.
We know what the word Retreat means, we know what the words gospel meeting mean, we even know what the word seminar means.
But when it comes to the word revival, the preacher runs the risk of meaning one thing while the people in the pews arrive at a completely different conclusion.
So this morning I want to use some scripture and some stories of my own spiritual journey to illustrate what I mean when I use the word Revival.
Now, before I begin to do that, I want to share with you what I think about our heritage as the churches of Christ. I know that every church and every tradition has it’s share of problems and struggles.
But when I became of member of the churches of Christ, I was impressed by the three things that they stressed most often and have impacted my life more than anything else through the years.
# 1. A love for the Bible. Being exposed to the churches of Christ has taught me to have a deep love for the bible, to have a high view of the bible, to believe that the bible is Gods word and that in it, I could find everything I needed to know about life and Godliness. And I have a high view of the bible because of that.
# 2. The desire of wanting to be just a Xian. Not a certain brand of Xian, not some kind of Xian, but just a Xian. I am thankful that I belong to a fellowship that says, all we want to be is just Xian.
# 3. And finally, what this fellowship, this brotherhood / Sisterhood taught me was to love the church. Now, I know the church has it’s flaws. Church is kind of like Noah’s ark, if it was for the storm raging on the outside, we sometimes couldn’t stand the stink on the inside.
I know that every church has it’s problems.
But I belong to a fellowship that loves the body of Christ. And my family and I have been the recepiants of that love many times over, in other congregations where we have ministered and in this congregation especially.
Those three things have impressed me the most about the churches of Christ and they have impacted my life more than anything else through the years.
And, I am grateful to be a member of the churches of Christ
In those years as a member and minister of the Churches of Christ, I have heard a lot of sermons about evangelism from her pulpits and I have heard a lot of sermons about our need for fellowship.
But, the one thing that I have not heard much about from the pulpit, are sermons on Praise, especially when it is connected to the word Worship.
Worship and Praise is that part of our having to deal with God and his dealing with us, on the corporate level, as well as on the individual level.
Maybe the reason why we don’t talk much about Praise and Worship in our assemblies is because, our experience in it has sometimes been so shallow.
Please, listen to what I am about to say in the context of what I said earlier about my coming to love the churches of Christ and what it has taught me about the Bible and the people who make up the church.
I really meant it when I said that I am grateful to be a member of the churches of Christ and I wouldn’t change any of my expreiences in it, for all the gold in the world.
But I must also tell you, that what we sometimes call worship, can better be described with words like un-inspired, empty, mundane and yes, even sometimes boring.
And I am including in that description some of the sermons that I have preached. I mean to tell you that some sermons that I have preached have been so boring, that I looking at the clock wondering when it’s going to be over.
I am telling you, that in some assemblies the issue should never have been the holding up of hands, the issue should have been the holding up of eye lids.
It’s like the little boy who walked up to the minister in the foyer, the minister was standing in front of a plaque and the little boy asked him;Preacher what’s that? Young man this plaque holds the names of all the men from this congregation, who have died in the service. The little boy asks, which one? Morning or Evening?
What I have heard most often from pulpits when it came to talking about Praise and worship, was that we were to do it right (Cross all the “T”s and dot all the “I”s) and as long as we didn’t do it wrong, (i.e. like the church down the street).
Then the fact that we did it without passion, without enthusiasm, without desire or any kind of emotion, didn’t seem to bother no one!
I have been a minister in congregations were specially called Elders meetings were held to deal with the issue of teenagers clapping during the worship service.
But I have never been in a congregation were elders meeting were called to deal with the issue of adults napping during the worship service.
What should have been the real issue there ? Dealing with those who looked alive or dealing with those who seemed alseep?
In all of my experiences in the churches of Christ, I remember only two things that were said over and over about how to worship. By the way, the words Praise and Worship were never mentioned together in the same sentence.
# 1. True worship, must include the five acts. Singing, Praying, Preaching, Giving and the Lord’s Supper. Now, don’t get me wrong, I believe in all of those things.
But you know of course that the phrase “Five Acts of Worship” is not in the book. And you must also surley know that there are more than just five acts of worship, right?
And here is something else, did you know that a person can do all five of those, Acts of Worship and still not worship?
Because worship is an attitiude of the heart and not just of the head.
The only other thing I remember being stressed to me in the churches of Christ about worship, was this;
“Everything must be done decently and in order”
Which in the original Greek must have meant; “The way we’ve always done it”. Anytime, anybody suggested doing something different, I always heard, we better not, cause all things must be done decently and in order.
Now, I went to Sunset school of preaching to learn to be a preacher for the churches of Christ and in all of my training they never offered a single course in Praise and Worship. You know, why?
Because it just wasn’t important enough.
They taught me how to run a bible school, they taught me how to plan a retreat, they taught me how to be a missionary, but they never said;
Mister, your going to be a preacher, your going to be a leader among God’s people, now let us train you, to teach them to Praise and Worship their God.
They never trained me to do that! The fact that I wasn’t offered a course in worship was OK with me, because I always thought that Worship and Praise was about having a Song Service, the right number of Prayers, the Lord’s Supper and then the Preaching and to do all of that within an hour and then go home until the next appointed time.
That’s all I knew! And that was good enough for me. I mean it was so all right with me that during the song service and sometimes through the Lord’s Supper I would be looking over my notes on what I was going to preach.
But then something began to happen in my life, the Lord embarked me on a spiritual journey, one which I haven’t reached the end of yet. I hope that some of you will be able to relate to what I’m about to say. In talking about my Spiritual journey.
You see, I went to Sunset School of Preaching and learned all kinds of things about the Bible and about God that I never knew before, I got to study under some very godly men and I was loving it, I mean I thought that it just couldn’t get better.
After graduating from Sunset, I was hired fulltime as a Hispanic minister for the “Central Church of Christ in Victoria, Texas.” I preached every Sunday, taught adult bible classes on Sunday and Wednesday and taught and trained men to be elders and deacons in the Lord’s church, I did television evangelism and some radio, I taught in the local jails and juvenile detention Centers.
I was giving people all of this knowledge that I had learned at preaching school and then I came to realize that I had lots of thoughts about the good news, but not a lot of good news. That made me change some things that I always thought about the truth.
By the time I came out the other end of this spiritual struggle, all I had was more questions than answers.
Things were no longer just black and white for me anymore, they weren’t all gray either, most of them had become red, colored by the blood of Jesus. I began to learn about Grace.
At first, I didn’t know what to do with it, all I knew, was that I was experiencing dryness in my spiriutal life.
I thought that all I needed was a new book or another commentary to read, so that I could study my way out of it. But this time I couldn’t study my way out.
The Lord began to bring people into my life who had a hunger for God and God used them to show me that my relationship to Him was more Intellectual and informational than it was spiritual.
He helped me to realize through these people that he brought into my life that I needed to change some things, IN HERE!...(Point to Heart) Not just up in here... Point to Head)
These people that God brought into my life had a rich prayer life and they loved to Worship, they were Passionate about Praising God, at first it was scary and awkward and just plain uncomfortable.
I just tried to dismiss it by saying to myself, I don’t have to be that way, I said to myself, all I have to do is study harder. Get into the book and Acquire more knowledge ABOUT God.
But then, the Lord led me to see something every important, God helped me to realize something about myself, he helped me to see, that in my relationship to him, I was always willing to spend all day with my face in a book reading ABOUT him, more than I was willing to spend ten minutes on my knees talking to him.
I was just too busy, doing church. I was not a worshiper!
I have never spoken from the pulpit what I am about to tell you, but this is what God used to make me a worshipper. Remember, I was running on empty during this time, I was dry.
I was doing the preacher thing on Sunday and Wednesdays and the Xian thing during the week. But,the only time I would crack open my Bible was to prepare a sermon or to teach a lesson for Sunday School.
Oh, it wasn’t because of laziness or cause I didn’t want to. I mean I was as busy during this time as I had ever been with community outreach, evangelism, visitation, all kinds of activity.
But I was dry! Just going through the motions.
I was so busy, that I did not realize how far from God I had strade while doing his work. I’m not talking about going off the deep end into sin, nothing like that. I was preaching about him every Sunday and Wednesday. I was dry!
I could not shake what the Lord was doing to my heart. He was turning me into a Worshipper and I did not know what to do.
But, I did know one thing, I did not need another book ABOUT God, I did not need to teach a series of lesson’s on the attributes of God, I needed to learn how to Worship and Praise God.
You see, I wasn’t a worshipper of God back then. And it’s not because I was reading books about him, that I wasn’t a worshipper of Him, it was because all the books that I was reading didn’t say enough about Him, How great and how awesome and how wonderful he his and therefore my vision of him was too small and my vision of me was too big.
Isaiah describes Praise and Worship with these words, in Isaiah 6: 1, , ,
In the year that King Ussiah died, I saw the Lord seeated on a throne, high and exalted and the train of his robe filled the Temple. Above him were Seraphs, each with six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet and with two they were flying and they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty, the whole earth is full of his glory”. At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the Temple was filled with smoke. And then I cried; Woe is me! For I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”
Here are the highest and mightiest of Gods angels and they bow down in his presence, that’s Praise and Worship!
Luke 5:1-8 says; . . . One day as Jesus was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, with the people crowding around him and listening to the word of God, he saw at the waters edge tow boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon and asked him to put out a little from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat. When he had finished speakiing, he said to Simon: “Put into deep water and let down the nets for a catch.” Simon answered: Maaster, we have worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything, but because you say so, I will let down the nets. When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. So they signeled their partners in the other boat to come and help them and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said: “Go away from me Lord; I am a sinful man.”
By reading these verses we can see that Worship is;
Recognizing who God is , , , Recognizing who you are , , , And Responding appropiatly!
Like Isaiah did , , , Like Peter did.
When it comes to Praising God, it is one of the hardest things to program and yet it is the easiest to ignore.
There are several reasons for that and here are just a few.
# 1. Praise is so hard to design and define. I mean we know when we have done it, but we don’t know exactly how to explain it.
Illustration:
How many of you have bowled? How many of you ever got a strike? How many of you, after haven got the first strike have been able to get a strike every time after that? You know when you are going to get a strike, don’t you. I mean you just know that when you release that ball, it was going to be a strike, it felt good, it felt just right.
But how many of you could do it again any time you wanted to?
If you knew how you did it, you would do it again and again and again and again, right? If you could do it every time that you wanted to, you probably would be inducted into the hall of fame, for doing it so consistently, every time.
That is how it often is when it comes to Praising and Worshipping God.
I mean, if you were to come to church and the singing was good, the sermon was great, the Lord’s Supper was really meaningful and people in droves responded to the gospel invitation, you would leave the assembly knowing that God was among his people that day.
Praise and Worship is like that. We know when we’ve done it, but were never quite sure how we got there.
If we knew how we got there, all we would have to do is repeat what we did that Sunday whe it happened and it would happen again, right?
But Praise and Thanksgiving in public worship just doesn’t happen like that.
Psalm 111: 1 = “Praise the Lord, I will extol the lord with all my heart in the council of the upright and in the assembly, great are the works of the Lord, they are pondered by all who delight in him.”
I’m convinced that great worshipers are great ponderers. They ponder the works of the Lord and delight themselves in them.
David was a magnificent ponderer, he wrote in Psalm 19: 1 = The heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim the work of his hands, day after day they pour forth speech, night after night they display knowledge, there is no speech or language where their voice is not heard, their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”
What a great Ponderere David was and he was a great Worshipper because of that.
Astronomers look up into the sky and all the see are constellations. A physicists looks up at those same stars and he sees nothing but matter in motion, but a ponderer looks up and he sees the works of God, you want to grow in praise and intensity of worship, become a ponderer!
Psalm 139: 13 = David wrote; “You created my inner most being, you knit me together in my mothers womb, I Praise you because I am fearfuly and wonderfully made, your works are wonderful, I know them full well.
My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”
You know what I think just happened, I think David had just witnessed the birth of one of his children and as he pondered that miracle he had just witnessed, he worshipped God and he broke out in praise.
Great are the works of the Lord!
If you’re sensing a dryness in your heart and your wanting to grow in a pilgrimage of praise, here is my counsel to you: become a ponderer.
Everyday God bombards us with countless ways in order to get us to ponder his works. In the gospel of John 11: 40 Jesus says; “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?”
Now Jesus is talking to Martha, the sister of Lazarus who has now been dead for four days and Jesus had just asked them to remove the stone from the entrance to the tomb, because unbeknownst to the rest of them, Jesus is about to raise Lazarus from the dead.
Marthra, responds to Jesus requuest by saying: But, Lord, by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.
Now, Some of us may have read that verse all of our lives and we still don’t get it. Maybe the reason for that is because we know how the story ends and so we read past that verse without pondering it.
We think that it says: “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see Lazarus rise from the dead.” But, that is not what Jesus says.
There were many people that day who saw Lazarus rise from the dead and they still didn’t believe, Jesus said; “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” You didn’t have to believe to see the miracle!
You had to believe, To See The Glory!
Every day, God showers us with reasons to ponder and praise and we just drive right on by, when we do that, we miss the Glory. Did you see the sunrise this morning? Did you hear the birds chirping?
How many people do you think saw all of that and only noticed the sun shining? How many people do you think noticed all of that and saw the glory of God.
The worshippers, saw the glory and the rest of us just saw the sunshine.
If you want to grow in Praise and Worship to God, then begin to look for the glory that is around you.
God is so good, he gives us so much to praise him for. Sometimes when we want to praise God the most that happens is that we begin to think thoughts like this; Who are you to so freely accept God’s grace and love?
You know your life, you know your sin, you know your inadequacy.
Buddy your not just a clay vessel, you’re a cracked pot.
Has that ever happened to you? Is that happening to you right now?
I mean, you want to surrender, you want to lift your hands or fall on yourknees and Worship Him. But your afraid to let God have his way with you.
Then what you need to do is ponder the works of God in you life and you need to tell that devil, I am washed in the blood of Jesus, I am his precious child and in the eyes of my God, he sees me as righteous.
And you need to tell that devil, leave me alone!
I am going to praise my God in worship, for all that he has done in my life.
I beg you, I beg you, look for the glory of God in everything and praise his name for it and worship him like you have never worshipped him before.
Can any of you relate to my pilgrimage? Those of you , who have grown up most of your life in the churches of Christ, where the most you heard about worship was, don’t do it wrong.
Remember, Worship is seeing God for who he is, seeing yourself for who you are and Resonding to that appropiatly. Lets fill this house be full of people who are not afraid to worship and praise God.
Scripture tells us that God inhabits the praise of his people, lets invite him to come, let us do that now as together we stand and together we worship.
