An
Invitation to Worship
By Pastor Jack Hayford
If we are to gain meaningful
direction for fulfillment in our lives, then worshiping God on God's
terms is the central point of all understanding. The Bible is very
explicit that our bodies are to be involved in worship. In Psalm
50:5 the Lord says, "Gather my saints together to Me, those
who have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice." In Philippians
2:17 Paul speaks of himself as being a sacrifice. Romans 12:1 says,
"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God,
that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable
to God, which is your reasonable service."
I was with one of the
executives in our congregation. He's a man who represents one of
today's best-known corporations worldwide, and he travels to help
them solve their problems. I watched him in one of his seminars.
As he began the seminar with these cool-headed, calculating executives,
he said, "I'm going to ask for your response. I'm going to
want you to show me some skin." What he meant was that he wanted
them to signal with their "skin." What he meant was that
he wanted them to signal with their hands when they responded. He
wanted them to actuate and activate their responses. When we come
to worship the Lord, I think He would say the same thing to us,
"Show Me some skin." The Lord wants us to demonstrate
our response to Him, and He wants us to use our bodies to do so.
I'd like to invite you
to enter a time of worship with me. In our worship, we will come
before the Lord and the reality of His person will begin to touch
us. In worshiping Him, we welcome His working in us and He begins
to change us. He comes among us to touch our hearts and meet us
where we are, to forgive our sins and to show us how to take the
next steps with wisdom only He can give. So we worship the Father
in Jesus' Name.
We're going to sing
and lift our hands when we worship. Some people don't lift their
hands for reasons that are wholly invalid—though not known
to be so. Reasons like..."Well, I don't want to just do it
because everybody does"… or…"I really don't
feel worthy today be-cause I fouled the nest this past week"
…or reasons like… "Well, this is just some kind of
a sectarian exercise. Why doesn't every church do this if it's supposed
to be done?"
I can't answer for every
church, but I can discuss with you what the Word of God says. God
calls us to present ourselves with upraised hands and there's a
reason for it. Psalm 63:3-4 says, "Because Your lovingkindness
is better than life…I will lift up my hands in Your name."
In the naturalness of
our humanness, we use our hands when we express thanksgiving. Sometimes
you use your hands to hug somebody with thanksgiving…just to
say, "oh, thanks that was so thoughtful." Or sometimes
you just take the hand of someone and say, "thank you."
Hands are used to say "thank you." It's the most logical
thing in the world to thank God with expressive hands.
There's another reason
for physically lifting our hands in worship. By the physical expressions
of worship, I not only acknowledge a commitment that I am not just
having cerebral notions—but that I am saying, "Lord, I
live in a real, physical world, and I know You want to meet me in
it. I'm here to meet You now." God has called us to express
ourselves with hands—not only to require something of us, but
also to remind us that He is coming into a real, physical world.
He is not saying, "Try and walk your mind to some place beyond
the solar system and touch me." But He is saying, "you
reach to Me, and I'm going to meet you right there, where you are."
Let's come before the Lord. Let me invite you to join me in worship.
Lift your hands and lift your voices and declare His holiness and
worth! |
Jack
Hayford Ministries
14800 Sherman Way, Van Nuys, CA 91405-2233