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Christmas Series
I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday.
I know we did.
I am still recovering from all of the food that I couldn’t stop eating.
Now that December is here we are finally starting to see the end of summer.
As we approach Christmas and celebrate the birth of our Savior we are going to do a series on worship.
This series is based on a Life Church series, so some of it may seem familiar to you.
The idea is that as we get closer to Christmas we want to pause, stop what we are doing — focused on — worried about, and acknowledge who Jesus is — what He has done for us.
We want to worship Him.
Let me start by asking “What does worship mean to you?”
It probably means something different to everyone, but I want to look at what it meant to the wise men who traveled to worship Jesus when He was born.
In fact, this series title comes from the book of Matthew when the wise men arrived in Jerusalem looking for Jesus...
Think about these magi — wise men for a minute.
What strikes me about them is how they traveled a long way to worship Jesus and bring Him gifts.
They put their lives on pause, stopped whatever they were doing, traveled for who knows how long, brought gifts that cost them their money or other resources, worshiped Jesus and then went home.
They didn’t do all of this then ask for anything in return.
They weren’t coming to see what they could get from God or to see what God would do for them.
Simply to worship.
In our world today, Christianity often puts US at the center instead of God.
“God, what will you do for ME.
Help ME.
If I do this, what will you do for ME in return?”
Sadly, commercial Christianity treats God like He is some kind of supernatural Genie.
Craig Groeschel calls it “treating God like a Cosmic Coke Machine.”
If we act the right way, do the right things, then God is going to do whatever we want Him to do.
Rub on His lamp the right way and POOF, He’s gonna pop out and say, “Your wish is my command, you have 3 wishes today, what is your first wish?”
The reality is that is not why God exists.
He does not exist for us, we exist for Him.
We are created to glorify Him, to make Him known, to worship HIM.
I believe that God wants us to BE worshipers.
To not see worship as something we DO, but WHO WE ARE.
For our worship of Him to flow from the depths of our hearts, our souls, and our every day lives.
So my prayer for us as we study the topic of “Coming to worship”, is that we would know God intimately and worship God passionately, because God is pleased with our hearts of worship.
So for the next few weeks we will be examining different postures of worship.
The first posture that we are talking about this week is...
LIFT YOUR HANDS TO GOD
How many of you lift your hands when you worship God?
Or maybe you want to but you are nervous or afraid someone will be watching you.
Tim Hawkins, the comedian, has a joke about raising hands to worship where he talks about the different ways that people raise their hands to God in worship.
I know we’ve watched the video clip before but it is one of Amy’s favorite bits and she wouldn’t be happy with me if i mentioned it and didn’t play it, so let’s just watch it real quick...
*Tim Hawkins on Hand Raising
LIFT YOUR HANDS IN WORSHIP
Regardless of how you raise your hands, when you experience God’s love in your life it is hard not to lift up your hands in worship.
It’s almost an automatic response.
I know I’ve had experiences with God and His love where my hands just went up in worship.
Why is it that we do something with our hands as a reflection of what is in our hearts?
I would argue that we can’t experience God’s love and not show gratitude.
In a Psalm David talked about lifting his hands in prayer.
He was actually at a low point in his life when he said this...
When we lived in OKC, Amy and I were pretty involved at Life Church and I always loved pastor Craig’s testimony.
In fact, I want to share a clip with you and let you hear it directly from him....
*Craig Groeschel testimony.
(10:10 - 12:55)
When you truly understand who He is and what He has done for you want to express your heart in worship for Him.
In 1 Timothy, Paul was giving Timothy instructions to help other Christians worship.
Essentially Paul thought that as Christ followers, we should pray and set good examples.
But specifically in verse 8 of chapter 2 he says this...
I don’t know why he singled out the men here, but I have a couple of guesses.
First, at least in Christian culture today, when you do see people lifting their hands it is normally the women.
I don’t know why that is, maybe to us guys it seems like a girl thing to do.
Or maybe we think we won’t look tough.
For whatever reason, maybe it was the same back then and men tended to not lift their hands in worship.
Second, men are normally singled out in scripture when they are expected to be leaders.
When you look at the theme of Paul’s language in the surrounding verses, I believe that he expects the men to set the example.
To step up and lead the way with reverent worship.
To lead their families in worship to God.
For their children to see their fathers seeking the heart of God and surrendering to God for their source of strength.
Why does God want us to lift our hands in worship?
This may be a bit anecdotal, but I believe God loves it when we reach out to Him...
LIFT YOUR HANDS REACHING OUT TO GOD
In another psalm, David was crying out to God for help when he said this...
I’ll never forget when my oldest nephew was barely able to walk my brother brought him to visit.
It was cold that day and my mom had a pellet stove that was running.
You know how kids that age are, if you take the time to turn in a complete circle, but the time you finish they can be 100 yards away and trying to start a lawn mower.
That happened on this day.
I turned just in time to see him climb up on the hearth and put both hands on the glass before anyone could get to him.
What do kids do when they get hurt?
They turn to you and lift their hands.
God loves it when we turn to Him and raise our hands to reach out to Him.
No loving father would turn from the lifted hands of his child.
James 4:8 (NLT)
8 Come close to God, and God will come close to you.
We raise our hands to worship God, to reach out to Him, and we lift hands as an offering of praise...
LIFT YOUR HANDS AS AN OFFERING OF PRAISE
Lifting up your hands can be an offering to God.
In fact, that is exactly what David called his upraised hands in a prayer at a very low point in his life.
He said this in a Psalm...
Psalm 141:1–2 (NLT)
1 O Lord, I am calling to you.
Please hurry!
Listen when I cry to you for help! 2 Accept my prayer as incense offered to you, and my upraised hands as an evening offering.
Have you ever lifted your hands as an offering to God? Looked past the awkwardness.
Stepped out of your spiritual comfort zone.
Just lifted up your hands in worship and said, “God I’m offering my heart to you.
I’m offering my praise to you.
Not because of what I see, but because of who you are.”
God loves it when we lift our hands in worship.
He loves it when we reach out to Him.
He loves it when we offer our praise to Him.
Another reason we lift our hands is to do battle...
LIFT YOUR HANDS TO DECLARE BATTLE
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