Chardon United Methodist Church

A little over an hour ago, I got in my Jeep and drove home from a band practice with both of our church bands. We are playing together this Friday night at a different church, and needed to get ourselves all organized and ready to go. On my way home I started thinking about practice and some of the songs that we played, and the meaning behind them. One song in particular made me really question our understanding of the word WORSHIP. Both bands play a song called “More Love, More Power”, and in the song it suggests that we will worship God with all of our hearts, minds, and our strength. Looking back on the many times that we have sung that song, and the fact that we don’t appear to be putting all of anything into them,  I don’t believe the we really get what it means to worship.

            Dictionary.com defines worship as, “reverent honor and homage paid to God or a sacred personage, or to any object regarded as sacred.” And the word reverence is defined as, “a feeling or attitude of deep respect tinged with awe.” When I look back on previous praise services, I can say for sure that most of us are not showing awe-struck honor and homage to God when we sing. Can you honestly remember the last time that you were really taken back by God’s greatness so much so that you truly offered him worship.

We have it so good, that we don’t know what it is like to look up to someone so great and to truly be amazed by that greatness. It is sad to say, but sometimes Lebron James gets more real worship from us than God does. I have been in pretty good seats at a Cavaliers game, and have seen the reaction that people have when they see Lebron up close. The look at him like it was the greatest moment of their life to be so close to someone so amazing.. Think about that. A basketball player gets more real affection, praise, and worship than our Lord and Savior. It sounds bad but it is true. Compare the cheers, the energy, and the love that exudes from the fans at a playoff game to that of the congregation at our church when we are singing that we will worship him with all of our heart, our mind and our strength. There is no comparison. Lebron and the rest of the Cavaliers are getting so much of the fans love that the fans won’t be able to talk tomorrow. When is the last time that you heard someone say that they lost their voice from praising the Lord too hard at church on Sunday? Yet we call the effort that we give on Sundays, worship.

The connection between the two is simple.  We choose how much, how often, and to what extent we are going to praise and worship.  When Lebron is playing bad, and the team is losing, the fans get quiet. When the songs aren’t our favorite, or we’ve got something else to do, or the sermon wasn’t what we wanted to hear, we get quiet. Lebron doesn’t choose the level of praise that he receives, nor does God choose the level that he receives. If we truly loved Lebron, he would have our cheers no matter how he was playing. In the same way, if we truly love God, nothing would matter except our relationship with Him. Worship is personal connection with our Lord, and praising him should be an undivided awe-driven show of our love for Him. Every song should be sung as if God were standing right in front of us listening. We have been given a wonderful opportunity to open our whole selves to His majesty, and we choose to mumble or not sing at all sometimes. And sometimes even when we do sing out, we are so preoccupied with other things, that we don’t actually lift the words up to Him, but rather sing with no purpose. Worshiping and praising with passion takes extra effort from us. Is God more important to you than a professional athlete? Think about the last time you went crazy cheering for your team, and then try to give that kind of effort back to God.  If you really want a team to be on, let it be His.