Worshipping in Expectation
A few years ago I had the privilege of teaching on the subject of expectation. To be more specific..."worshipping in expectation". For some reason, this is where God has me yet again. I guess eventually everything comes back around. I'm just not sure I agree that the 80's should come back around, but, to all of our amazement, they have!Anyway, I thought I'd post my notes from that message & see if it sparks any thoughts, debates, conversations...etc...etc...etc...
Psalm 62:5 “FIND REST, O MY SOUL, IN GOD ALONE;
MY EXPECTATION COMES FROM HIM."
What are YOU expecting?
The tent of meeting (parallel to modern day church) – Exodus 33:7-11
Verse 8 – The people were expectant of what would happen
Verse 10 – The people worshipped as a result of their expectancy
Glory revealed to Moses – Exodus 33:12-23 & 34:5-8
Verses 12 & 17 – Moses had a relationship with God
Verses 33:18 & 34:8 – through his relationship with God, Moses desired asked & expected to experience God’s glory. And, HE DID!!
“If we're going to move in anything, whether it's faith, any of the spiritual gifts, preaching the Gospel, or whatever it is we're doing for God, we need to have a sense of expectation. I'm expecting something to happen today. I don't want to live a day without expectation. I can't think of anything worse. We look up, it's Friday evening, and we've not had a meaningful conversation with Jesus all week, and we've just drifted. What a way to live. When I wake up in the morning, I want to have an expectation that God is going to do something.” – Graham Cooke
Another great example of expectant worship: Unclean Woman
Luke 8:40 - The people welcomed Jesus in expectation
Luke 8:41-47 She expected to be healed.
Hebrews 4:16 - “Come boldly to the throne of grace that you might receive help and mercy at the time of need”.
Is our passion for Christ such that when we worship Him we have a burning desire/expectation to reach out to Him or do we just expect Him to reach out to us?
What is God's expectation of us? Is it that we hold nice, comfortable worship services with three praise songs, two worship songs, one prayer, one offering, one message, two altar calls and a closing hymn? Is his expectation our comfort, our enjoyment, our tradition? NO! God's expectation is that the world will know (have a relationship with) His Son.
“Worship is not a result of how good the music is or whether my favorite songs are sung. It is not a consequence of whether I stand or sit, lift my hands or kneel. My worship must be an expression of my relationship with God - in song, in shouts and whispers, sitting, walking, or driving the car. Worship is my response to God.” – Geoff Bullock
I can only assume that many of you recognized the title of the best selling book "What To Expect When You're Expecting". Lisa & I still have a copy on our bookshelf. NO, we are not! As many of you know, I love a good parody. Even though the title "Expect the Unexpected..." is somewhat of a spoof on the aforementioned book, it struck me as having a lot of truth in the context of worship. As I've said before, one of the many things I love about serving our God, is the mystery.
posted by Me at 11:46 AM
7 Comments:
I think that's why I couldn't fit in anywhere else but FBC. I really tried, but I just couldn't be happy in any other Baptist church around here, and I went to several. I think God has graced us with an atmosphere that welcomes the Holy Spirit to break out however he wants to.
As for me personally, I wake up every morning not only expecting a Word from God, but totally desperate for it, and he never fails me.
I live each day expecting God to be active in my life in conversation with Him, in our homeschooling atmosphere (chaotic as it seems sometimes), in my phone calls, etc, etc. However, with expectation comes the fact that we may not SEE what's going on. God is always working somewhere and one someone, but we may not see the reality of that right away and I think as we live and worship with expectation, we need to remember that our expectations may not be fulfilled in our own timetable. I love when I expect something to happen and specifically pray for something rather minute and God gives me something all too grand and sweeps me off my feet again. Truly He's the lover of my soul!
Many times we come to church to worship EXPECTING the wrong thing. We think it is for our benefit. Our goal must be to bring pleasure to God, not ourselves, as Rick Warren says in Purpose Driven Life. We might learn to truly worship in spirit and truth when we stop EXPECTING that we are going to be pleased, and when we start seeking with all our heart to bring glory and pleasure to our Creator. In chapter seven of the book he says, "Real worship is all about falling in love with Jesus." Oh, what we missed when we dwell in wrong EXPECTATION with our focus on ourselves, what we want, what we need, what we like. Max Lucado wrote a book about it, It's Not About ME.
I think Diane's onto something. Expectation should never be substituted falsely for plain old selfishness. Expect God to move in your life. However, the mystery lies in how He chooses to move. If we enter into worship expecting what WE want, we've got it all wrong. It's all about what He wants to do through me.
I think the selfish expectation is a very common misconception amongst congregations. I have heard the comment made many times through the years and probably have made it myself, "The worship just didn't do a thing for me today". With maturity I think we realize worshipping doesn't have that much to do with what it does for ME. Who's on the receiving end of the worship anyway? I loved this quote, "Worship is not a result of how good the music is or whether my favorite songs are sung." Right on!
But don't you think you can go into a church where the Spirit has been quenched and find it very difficult to worship there? Beth Moore tells a story about speaking in a church where the Spirit had been quenched and as a result she couldn't speak with any release of freedom and power in her spirit and went home feeling like a failure. Later when she found out about some sin in that church, that oppression she felt made sense to her.
I hear ya, I figure quenching of the Spirit leaves both parties unfulfilled.
Post a Comment
<< Home