[Call to Worship]
I love going to the movies. I love the smell of popcorn, the comfortable seats, the experience of being with friends and family. I even love the way that my shoes stick to the floor! But most of all, I love the sense of anticipation!
You know what I mean? You’re sitting there in a barely lit room, answering the trivia questions that pop up on the screen. There is a sense of excitement as you wait for the movie to start. And then the lights begin to dim…the screen changes from trivia questions to previews of upcoming movies. The sense of anticipation builds even more as the previews end and everyone stops talking. It’s almost time…
How many of you know what I’m talking about? There’s a sense that you are about to experience something truly amazing.
I get the same feeling when I go to a concert, or to a professional baseball game. There’s that sense that I am about to experience something that will energize me and stay with me for days, weeks, or even years.
When was the last time that you felt that way as you walked through the doors of church? When was the last time that you had a sense of anticipation for what you are about to experience? When was the last time that you walked through the doors in the back of this room with the sense that you are about to experience something that will energize you and stay with you for days, weeks, or even years?
[Message]
There is a story told of a church that was having air conditioning installed in the sanctuary and so the pastor was meeting with the contractor. The man asked the pastor a number of questions about the seating capacity, square footage, usual attendance, etc., all the while taking notes. Then in the midst of his calculations, he suddenly crumpled up the paper he was figuring on and started over.
"What’s wrong?" asked the pastor.
"I was figuring for a theater instead of a church," replied the contractor.
"What’s the difference? Wouldn’t they be the same?"
"No, not really," answered the contractor. "You see, in a theater, with all that’s on the screen, there are certain biological changes that take place: heart rate is elevated, blood pressure increases and body temperatures can begin to climb. In other words, there is a greater need for cooling when people get excited. On the other hand, in the church . . ."
Without even realizing it, this contractor portrayed a common view of worship found in the lives of many people.
God spoke these words to the prophet Isaiah, “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.”
Today, this would often be referred to as half-hearted worship. We go through the motions, but there is a disconnect between our words and our hearts. We participate almost as if we were half asleep, rather than fully alive. We treat worship as the previews, rather than the feature presentation.
Where is the sense of anticipation? Why don’t we have the same sense of expectation as when we go to the movies, or a baseball game? When we gather together for worship, we come to unite ourselves with God…with the Alpha and the Omega…the Creator of the Universe…the Sustainer of Life…the one who holds eternity in His grasp. Do not let worship be the preview; make it the feature presentation.
Richard Foster in his book Celebration of Discipline writes the following: “To worship is to experience Reality, to touch Life. It is to know, to feel, to experience the resurrected Christ in the midst of the gathered community. It is breaking into the glory of God, or better yet, being invaded by the glory of God.”
Are you invaded by the glory of God when you worship, or are you invaded by the ho-hum of humanity? Do you view worship as a time to unite yourself with God, or just another religious duty that you need to check off your list for the week?
God is actively seeking worshipers. Jesus declares, “The true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.” (John 4:23)
Archbishop William Temple, wrote the following:
“To worship is to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, to feed the mind with the truth of God, to purge the imagination by the beauty of God, to open the heart to the love of God, to devote the will to the purpose of God.”
Worship is a connection between us, as children, and God, as Father. It is a bond that can only be experienced by emptying ourselves and accepting into us the fullness of God.
I know a woman who cries every time she worships God. I used to think this was odd behavior for a grown woman. Sure, it’s okay to cry periodically, when the emotions are really high, but every time?
One day, though, it hit me. She is connecting with her Father. There is a uniting of heart, spirit, and mind. The love that she had for God flowed so greatly from her that all she could do was cry.
Many of you know that my wife, Karen, is pregnant with our first child. She is due in only seven weeks. Periodically, we will be at home together and Karen will want to watch those shows on TLC, you know…a dating story, a wedding story, a baby story. All those shows that guys immediately cringe when they see them.
Well, I’ll be honest with you. I cannot watch a Baby Story any more without crying. The emotions are running so high as I watch somebody else see their baby for the first time, that I can’t help myself.
I can only imagine how I am going to be the first time that I see my baby. I am going to be a mess. It is going to be a moment where I look down upon my child for the first time, and the love that I have for that baby is going to overwhelm me.
It will be a moment of union for father and child, a moment that will stand in eternity as one of the most amazing moments in my life. This is how God feels when we come to him in worship. He looks down upon us, and thinks that it is one of the most amazing moments of His life. John Ortberg would call it a “dee dah day moment.”
Let me explain…in his book “The Life You’ve Always Wanted,” John tells of a time that he was giving his three children a bath together…a custom that was designed to save him more time than anything else.
Johnny was still in the bathtub, Laura was out and safely in her pajamas, and he was trying to get Mallory dried off. Mallory was out of the water, but was doing what has become known in his family as the Dee Dah Day dance. This consists of her running around and around in circles, singing over and over again, “Dee dah day, dee dah day” – a simple dance expressing great joy.
When she is too happy to hold it in any longer, when words are inadequate to give voice to her euphoria, she has to dance to release her joy. So she does the Dee Dah Day.
However, John was irritated that particular evening. “Mallory, hurry!” he prodded. So she did – she began running in circles faster and faster and chanting “dee dah day” more rapidly. “No, Mallory, that’s not what I mean! Stop with the dee dah day stuff, and get over here so I can dry you off. Hurry!”
Then she asked him a profound question: “Why?”
He had no answer. He had nowhere to go, nothing to do, no meetings to attend. He was just so used to hurrying, so preoccupied with his own little agenda, so trapped in this rut of moving from one task to another, that here was his life, here was his joy, here was an invitation to the dance right in front of him – and he was missing it.
So he did the only thing he could do – He danced.
We each have an invitation to the dance, yet we often come to worship with other things on our minds. Lunch plans we’ve made, projects we need to complete, a phone call we forgot to make…barriers that distract us and keep us from truly connecting with God.
Every time we worship, we run the risk of becoming a “people who honor [God] with our lips, but not with our hearts.”
King David danced once. In 2 Samuel 6, we read the account of David bringing the ark of God to Jerusalem. As they entered the city, verse 14 tells us that David “danced before the Lord with all of his might.” He even took off his clothes! When he came home, his wife asked him how he could have done such a thing. He replies, “I will celebrate before the Lord. I will become even more undignified than this!”
What was happening with David? He had made a connection, a union with God, just as the woman I mentioned earlier. She cried. David danced. They each had their own way of expressing their worship of God. What’s your way?
Some of you may sing louder, some of you may lift your hands in the air, some of you may drop to your knees, some of you may stand quietly just listening. You see, it doesn’t matter what the form is, as long as you are worshiping God.
Let me put it this way…how many different ways are there to eat an Oreo? Some of us simply start eating it, nibbling at it as if we had all the time in the world. Some of us will twist it apart and lick the filling out first. Some of us will get a glass of milk and hold the Oreo in there until it almost ready to fall apart, and at the last minute pull it out and eat the whole thing in one bite!
Does it really matter how we eat the Oreo? In the end, the Oreo is still being eaten!
I have been a Christian for nine years, and during that time I have experienced a number of forms of worship.
I have sung hymns with a handful of people in a rural Baptist church.
I have sung praise songs and choruses with large groups of college students and adults.
I have bellowed out the words to “Amazing Grace” with over 65,000 men.
I have worshiped God accappella around a campfire.
I have danced in the aisles with over three thousand high school students.
I have worshiped God in complete silence in a local monastery.
The forms and rituals have changed and yet, in each instance, there has been a connection with God. A connection that could only have happened if I removed all of the barriers between God and me.
So what are your barriers? What do you need to remove before you can truly connect with God in worship?
Perhaps, it is the barrier of forms. You have never worshiped God, quite like this before. I have some close friends here in the church who come from a Catholic background. When they first started attending Fox Valley, the husband simply could not worship because it was not the style of worship he was accustomed to. Slowly, over time, though, this barrier is being eliminated.
Perhaps it is the barrier of distractions. As you worship, are you focused 100% on God or are you allowing yourself to think about other things?
Did I turn the curling iron off? I forgot to do my Sunday School lesson; I wonder if I have time during the sermon to get it done? Oh yeah, there’s Bob – I meant to call him yesterday. I wonder how the kids are doing in the nursery? Taco Bell or Wendy’s? Taco Bell or Wendy’s?
There is only one solution to this barrier. Stop being distracted! You are the only one who has control over this barrier.
Perhaps it is the barrier of inexperience, you have never truly worshiped God before. Please do not let this become a barrier. If you don’t know the words, listen as others sing them. If you don’t recognize the music, listen to it flow. If you don’t know what to do, watch other people and learn from them. Do not let inexperience in worship keep you from uniting with God.
There are only two ways to overcome the barrier of inexperience. And they are the same two ways for jumping into cold water. You either start gradually, slipping a foot in first and then a leg, and eventually your whole body. Or you take a running leap, and jump into the deep end. No matter which method you choose, because both of them work, just make sure you get wet! Don’t stay on dry land!
Perhaps, it is the barrier of embarrassment. What will people think of me if I clap, or if I raise my hands? With as much gentleness as I can muster, my response to that is, “So what?” Don’t worry about what other people are thinking. You are here to worship God; you are here to unite with God Almighty.
Have you ever eaten at an expensive restaurant for a special occasion? There you are, all dressed up, with three different forks, fine china and crystal. You are very careful to not embarrass yourself by spilling anything, or doing anything inappropriate.
Now compare that to eating a meal at home. There you are in comfortable clothes, you definitely only have one fork! If you are like Karen and I, you are eating your meal on the coffee table while watching TV. There is no fine china or crystal. If you drop something on the floor, you wait to see if the dog will eat it. Obviously, you are relaxed and comfortable.
You see, God didn’t design worship to be an expensive meal at a fancy restaurant. He designed worship to be a family meal, a time to come together in a comfortable setting, with your brothers and sisters.
Does it really matter whether you raise your hands or clap with the song? No one is going to look at you any differently because of it. Our focus cannot be on pleasing people with our worship; our focus must be on pleasing God.
I want to close with this simple illustration. A friend tells of the day he visited his son’s school as a classroom observer. What he remembers most is a teacher’s use of an obstacle course as an object lesson. She randomly placed chairs in an open area of the classroom. She then selected a volunteer to help make her point. The student was given time to walk through the course to memorize each obstacle; he then was blindfolded.
Immediately, the teacher put a finger to her lips to quiet the other students then quietly removed all the obstacles. The boy began to search around the room, zigging here and zagging there, arms outstretched. Slowly, he made his way through obstacles which now only existed in his mind.
The obstacles that prevent us from worshiping God are most often imaginary. God has removed all of the obstacles that could prevent us from being the people He wants us to be. Yet, the reality is that our progress is much like the progress of the student: fearful, erratic, and slow.
I want to encourage you to continue to pursue an authentic worship experience with God. Remove the obstacles that exist in your lives, so that it may never be said of us – these people come near to God with their mouths and honor Him with their lips, but their hearts are far from Him.
This morning, we have intentionally divided the worship time into two segments. I want to encourage you to remove the barriers that exist, and truly worship God. Will you stand with us now, as we worship again.
