Sometimes days, weeks, months, and even years go by so quickly we don't even notice how much time has passed, and in the end, another day, week, month, or year has passed and we wonder what we've done that has really made a difference in our lives or in our world.
It's not that the things we wrap ourselves up in aren't important. We need to eat, we need to clean, we need to be productive members of society. We pour countless hours into these pursuits, many times feeling as though - in spite of our best efforts - we've ended up right back where we started the day before. It is at times like these that we can fully relate to Solomon's words in Ecclesiastes 1:2-8.
“Meaningless! Meaningless!”
says the Teacher.
“Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless.”
What do people gain from all their labors
at which they toil under the sun?
Generations come and generations go,
but the earth remains forever.
The sun rises and the sun sets,
and hurries back to where it rises.
The wind blows to the south
and turns to the north;
round and round it goes,
ever returning on its course.
All streams flow into the sea,
yet the sea is never full.
To the place the streams come from,
there they return again.
All things are wearisome,
more than one can say"
at which they toil under the sun?
Generations come and generations go,
but the earth remains forever.
The sun rises and the sun sets,
and hurries back to where it rises.
The wind blows to the south
and turns to the north;
round and round it goes,
ever returning on its course.
All streams flow into the sea,
yet the sea is never full.
To the place the streams come from,
there they return again.
All things are wearisome,
more than one can say"
As I look at my own life, and when I look at the preponderance of unecessary garbage that fills my thoughts, my hopes, my fears on a daily basis, I sometimes feel as though I've missed the whole point. In fact, when I truly focus upon that side of my life, I begin to feel an incredible draw toward getting back to basics - a draw to eliminate all that is unecessary and start over again, focusing intently on what truly matters.
Here in America, we tend to want a quick fix for everything that ails us. We want fast food to cure our hunger, strong medicine to heal our pain, and who wouldn't love it if scientists were to invent a single pill that would cause us to lose weight, grow back our receding hairlines, eliminate all of our various sagging, wrinkles, and gray hair?
What if I were to stand here today and tell you that if you truly wanted to do something that would change your entire focus - something that would immediately release your heart, mind, body and soul from all of the garbage that has beaten you down throughout this entire week, and something that would energize you and release a mighty work of God's Spirit within your life - it could happen for you in just 15 minutes per week? Would you laugh? Would you think I'm insane? Would you say that nothing is that simple?
Well, it's true. Every Sunday, in every church across America, people gather together for various reasons. Some come to be taught, some come to be entertained, and some come simply because they believe that doing so will somehow gain them favor with the Lord. But there's something very wrong within many of our churches. We have somehow become a church filled with spiritual "consumers." People come with the mindset that they want to be taught, enlightened, moved, or instructed, but the vast majority of us have never been taught about the most important reason we're there.
We can be taught countless lessons, we can be led to countless passages of scripture, we can bow our heads and agree in our hearts with what other people pray, and we can still walk away feeling little or no change in our hearts or minds. So what are we missing? What is it that we tend to disregard without much thought? The answer can be found if we ask ourselves just one simple question: What is the main purpose of our gathering? The answer can be found in Psalm 100:1-4
Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
Worship the Lord with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
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.
Worship the Lord with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
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.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name
We are to come together with one simple purpose........to praise......our.....God. How important is this, and how does God respond when we do this? The answer can be found in 2 Chronicles 5:13-14. Solomon had spent many years building the temple, but when did the Spirit of God actually make His presence known within the temple?
"The trumpeters and musicians joined in unison to give praise and thanks to the Lord. Accompanied by trumpets, cymbals and other instruments, the singers raised their voices in praise to the Lord and sang:
“He is good;
his love endures forever.”
his love endures forever.”
Then the temple of the Lord was filled with the cloud, and the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the temple of God"
Years of hard work and preperation had gone into building the temple, but the Spirit of the Lord didn't show up until ........."Accompanied by trumpets, cymbals and other instruments, the singers raised their voices in praise to the Lord and sang:
“He is good;
his love endures forever.”
his love endures forever.”
Many of us go to church every week without ever fully understanding what true praise and worship can mean in our lives. It is the true, heartfelt expression of love, honor, and respect directed toward the God we serve, and nothing moves His heart more than when His people gather with that sole purpose in mind, raising their hearts, voices, and hands in truly heartfelt praise that rises up from the core of their souls.
I sometimes wonder how it must break God's heart to see His people sitting in His church, not feeling even remotely moved to join in singing praises to Him as those around us do. To see us sitting on our hands, looking around, waiting in the lobby until it's over, reading our bulletins, or thinking about all of the completely unecessary things that fill our minds. He is God. He has blessed us in ways we never could've imagined. Our very existence depends solely upon Him..........and yet, we don't feel any need to sing His praises.
We have many reasons why this isn't a part of our weekly experience at church. We don't have good singing voices, we don't feel comfortable singing in front of others, we don't care for the style of music, the volume of the music, and the list goes on and on. Many of us even feel so uncomfortable about this, we'll arrive late every week simply to avoid the whole experience. But God doesn't care about how our singing voices sound. He doesn't care if we sing off key. He doesn't care if we prefer old hymns or newer music. He simply wants us to offer Him praise from the core of our souls - and doing that for a mere 15 minutes, once per week, can and will draw Him more near to us than we've probably experienced at any time during the week. And that, my friends, can be an absolute game-changer.
Do you want to get back to the absolute basics? Would you love to have a starting point for the upcoming week that can absolutely center you, ground you, draw you more near to God and provide you with a spiritual "ground zero" from which you can build your next week upon? It all starts there. Worship and praise is the absolute center of where we're called to be. It should continue throughout our week, but it has to start somewhere. Why not make it start this coming Sunday?
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