By: Mike Kelly
Retired Pastor
Have you ever been to a sporting event and not gotten involved? Can you imagine watching Caitlin Clark sink a 1/2 court shot and going, “Ho-hum?”
Or what about watching Ohio State kick a winning field goal with just a few seconds left on the clock to beat Michigan (ok, maybe not Michigan lately but…)?
Can you imagine just sitting there going, “Oh, how nice?” It is our nature to engage. What really confuses me sometimes is how people go to church and refuse to engage in worship.
People go to the worship service and sit there through the whole thing and seem to have not really been involved. How can that possibly be? They don’t react. They don’t let their emotions get involved.
They don’t join in the singing. They fall asleep during the sermon or worse, just ignore what the Holy Spirit is trying to tell them through scripture and their pastor’s words.
That just doesn’t seem like we truly believe that we are in God’s presence in a unique way during church service. I read Rev. 4-5 and hear about the 100s of millions of angels crying loudly, “Glory to God in the highest.”
Imagine being in Heaven and hearing what John described in Rev 5:11-14: “Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand.
They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. In a loud voice they were saying: “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!”
Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying: “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!” …and then going “Ho-Hum”? How could this not get us engaged? How can it not get us excited?
How is it possible for you and me to come to a service where we are specifically there to worship God and go, “Ho-hum, hope this gets over before lunch?”
There is a time to be still and know that He is God, but that time isn’t always Sunday morning during the worship service. Sunday is a corporate time for all of us to join those hundreds of millions of angels crying out, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty.”
Worship that engages us draws us closer to Him. It doesn’t matter what form we choose, hymns or choruses. Whether we sing acapella, with an organ or a guitar or a band. It only matters that we allow ourselves to be fully engaged in worship.
Maybe you can engage in worshiping the King of Kings by sitting or kneeling or standing. The style isn’t the issue. It’s the engagement that matters. Just worship like you do when attending a sporting event.
Let your mind hear the words and your heart join in the rhythm of the music. It shouldn’t matter what other people think either. 2 Samuel 6 tells us that David danced before God and upset his wife, Michal.
It seems that many of us think that we need to hold back our emotions before God. Aren’t we just a little confused? When we come into the presence of God on a Sunday morning shouldn’t we be willing to mentally, emotionally and physically engage?
Maybe to stand, or raise our hands, or sing at the top of our lungs or dance before the Lord. Whatever! The more excited about God we are the more our bodies ought also to be engaged in our worship of Him. God wasn’t upset by David dancing.
In fact, God was upset with Michal’s attitude. God condemned her to never having a child because of her attitude about David’s freedom in worship.
Let us worship God with all of our might, with all of our power and with all of our being. Let us hold nothing back from the worship of the One who is worthy of all worship. He held nothing back from us, including His Son.
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Mike Kelly is the founding pastor of Bryan’s Grace Community Church (retired) and Board Chairman of Bryan’s Sanctuary Homeless Shelter and Williams County’s Compassion (free) Medical Clinic.