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Who Is the Audience?

What do you expect out of church? 

If you are about to answer that question, then back up and think about it again.  I would imagine that the first thing that popped into your head was a worship service.  Since church and worship are two separate things, let’s reword the question…What do you expect out of worship?

STOP!  Don’t answer that.  That question is one of the biggest problems that Christians try to answer.  Who is the audience?   Last time I checked, God is the audience.  We spend so much time and energy trying to make worship (or what we call “church”) meet our expectations.  Too often, worship is about us.  I didn’t like that song.  That prayer was too long.  Why did the preacher talk about that today?  We’re going to be late for lunch.  When did we become the object of our worship?

God must be at the center of our worship.  We are called to praise and honor Him who has created us in His image.  When we begin evaluating the quality of worship according to our needs and desires, we diminish the purpose of our praise. 

We often think that we come together to hear a great lesson, encourage each other through singing and pray for those who are sick.  While all of those things are good and important, they are not the purpose for our worship.  The 19^th Century Danish Christian philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard, said that “worship has three components: the performers, the prompter, and the audience.  It is vital to know who plays each part!” (Mike Cope, In Search of Wonder, p. 31)

Consider what the psalmist, David, wrote:

¹ Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.

² Worship the Lord with gladness;

            come before him with joyful songs.

³ Know that the Lord is God.

            It is he who made us, and we are his;

            we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

⁴ Enter his gates with thanksgiving

            and his courts with praise;

            give thanks to him and praise his name.

⁵ For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;

            his faithfulness continues through all generations. (Psalm 100 NIV)

Notice that it is the Lord God who is the recipient of David’s praise.  It is for the glory of God Almighty that we worship.  God is the audience.  He is our Creator, our Redeemer, our Salvation. 

The question should never be, “What do you expect out of worship?”  The question must always be, “How am I honoring and glorifying God through my praise?”  Who is the audience?  God is the audience.  Worship has never been nor will it ever be about us.  Worship is for God alone.  It is His name that we praise.

Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,

            from everlasting to everlasting.

Let all the people say, "Amen!"

Praise the Lord. (Psalm 106:48 NIV)

Pruning

I have a holly bush in my front yard that is just nearly dead. For a long time, Susan and I have talked about what we could do to improve the curb appeal of our house. There were six holly bushes in front of our house. At one time, there must have been seven, but one died so a previous home owner pulled it out and put a birdbath in its place, leaving a hole in the hedge. We decided that we would remove the two holly bushes that were around the brick column of the front porch. One morning, I borrowed a tow chain and pulled them out of the ground with my truck.

The plan was to just throw both bushes out. However, after pulling them out, I thought, “Hey, why don’t we put one of these bushes where the birdbath is so that there is a full hedge.” The roots were badly damaged but we thought we would try it anyway. I dug a hole and put the bush in making sure that all of the roots were well covered. It’s been a couple of months now and the bush looks terrible. From the street, it looks completely dead, but there is some new growth on it. I think that if we will give it a good pruning, we might save it.

Sometimes, the same thing happens to us. We go through traumatic experiences that seem to rip us apart physically, emotionally and spiritually. While the bush in my yard is dying from the outside in, we tend to wither away starting with the heart.

Fortunately, there is a master gardener. Our God has the ability to give new life to a once dying heart. Jesus said, “He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful,” John 15:2 (NIV). It may be painful and there may be a lot of pruning that needs to take place. There may be times when the pain seems unbearable but if you allow God to work on your heart and mold you into the person He has called you to be (and in the place where He has planted you) your life will turn out more beautiful than it was before. You will be stronger and more resilient through the work that God does in your life.

Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
(Psalm 139:23-24 NIV)

The Darkness

It was about 9:00 last night and I had just finished reading a book to the kids. It was bedtime. Susan was about to say their prayers and tuck them in when there was a loud pop outside and immediately the electricity went off. A transformer had blown. Lynzie nearly lost it. She didn’t know what had just happened but she knew it was out of the ordinary. Colton was a little bit confused too. He didn’t want to go to sleep in the dark; which was funny to me because he goes to bed every night in the dark. The difference was that it was dark and there was nothing we could do about it. There was no light at all.

Have you ever been in utter darkness? I mean the kind of darkness that you can’t see your hand right in front of your face? It’s an eerie darkness. It’s an uncomfortable darkness. It’s a darkness that is heavy and thick and it seems that it is hard to breathe. If you have ever experienced this kind of darkness, it makes you appreciate light; any kind of light. It’s just nice to have light.

In the first chapter of the Gospel of John, the apostle describes Christ as light and, in contrast, he describes the world as darkness. Jesus came to earth to shine the light into an otherwise dark world. He said in John 3:19-21, “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God." (NIV)

Evil lurks in the darkness. Uncertainty finds home in the darkness. But, there is comfort to the light that pierces the darkness, causing it to fade away. When the electricity went off, Colton immediately wanted his lantern. There was a sigh of relief in his voice when I was able to grope around to find the flashlight and then find and hand him his lantern. There was a peace in the house again when we were able to find a little bit of light to guide our way.

After the kids went to bed, Susan and I didn’t sit in the darkness either. I went through the house and lit a number of candles so that there would be a little bit of light by which to see. I kept a flashlight nearby. There is little comfort in the darkness, but there is great comfort in even a little bit of light.

There are so many people who are sitting in the dark. Our world is full of sin; the lies, deceptions, and manipulations of Satan. I am so very grateful for the light that Jesus exposed to me; the opportunity for him to live in me and to be free from the darkness of sin.

“God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.” (1 John 1:5 NIV)

Giving From the Heart

For some time now, I have been spending a couple of hours each week working at our Benevolence Center. It seems to me that there are two basic types of people who come for assistance. First, there are the enabled. These are the people who are always looking for a handout. They are quick to manipulate and have no qualms about abusing the system…whatever system that may be. This group of people tends to create callousness within those (in this case, servants of the Lord) who are trying to help them. Then, there is a group of people who have truly fallen on hard times. In this group, you find hearts of gold; people who brighten your day as soon as they walk through the door.

It is this second group of people of which James says, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” (James 1:27 NIV) They may not all be widows or orphans, but there are people in our world who need the help of those who have been abundantly blessed.

I believe this is the primary reason that God commands us to give. Luke records Jesus’ words, “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” (Luke 6:38 NIV) Giving is not about the blessings we will receive, nor is it about paying the church’s electric bill or hosting a fellowship after Sunday worship. While all of those things are important, giving is, above all, a benevolent act. It is an opportunity to help someone who cannot help themselves.

Recently, while at the Benevolence Center, I looked in the basket of coupons and saw a Red Lobster coupon. Now, I love me some Red Lobster! Then I thought about where I was standing. I was standing before a group of people who were waiting in line to be given free food because they could not afford to buy it for themselves! I am so blessed to be able to buy all the food that my family needs and more. We are able to enjoy fine dining out such as Red Lobster (although I left the coupon there that day) and we are able to splurge on Promised Land milk from time to time (although that has been years).

My question today is how tight is your fist? How often do you help someone in need?

It’s easy to become calloused by those who constantly have their hand sticking out; looking for some poor sap to feel sorry for them. But, even in those times of hard-heartedness, there are still so many people who need assistance from those who have been abundantly blessed. (By the way, if you can put gas in your car and food on your table, then you have been abundantly blessed.)

There is still icing on the cake! “Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” (2 Corinthians 9:6-8 NIV )