"Not Me! youth ministry message -Morgan Young 12.9.01
(original drama of kid standing in service during worship music set---can hear worship music in background, but we hear are the distracted & uninteresting thoughts in his head)
That used to be me. For real! When the worship time used to roll around, I'd start counting down the minutes 'til it was over.
I'm one of these guys that God gave ZERO melody to. I've played the drums since I was 4 years old and I can keep a groove ALL DAY if you want me to --- but ask me to carry a tune & it's the TOTAL OPPOSITE.
Seriously --- some people say, "I can't sing" and what they really mean is, they CAN sing, just not like Sarah Stoneking.
I have enough of an ear for melody to know when someone ISN'T on pitch --- so I def know that I can't carry a tune. I'm the kind of guy who cannot even sing "Happy Birthday." When I AM on key I have NO IDEA HOW I got there!!
Anybody else in the house "vocally-challenged?" Anyone feel my pain?
I looked up forms of the word "sing" and found it mentioned 168 times all throughout the entire Bible! And around those 168 entries, I couldn't find any loopholes
Like: "Thou shalt singeth unto the Lord unless thy voice doth really stinketh."
So it seems pretty clear in those 168 references that one way of worshiping God, that He really digs, is through singing.
BUT, it's right HERE that I think I we get confused about worship. Because even though it's mentioned 168 times in the Bible, when we think worship is about singing, we're not on the right track.
So what does "worship" mean anyway? Does worship mean to sing? (Audience part >>>) Anybody have any ideas what the word "worship" means?
"Worship" literally means to "bow down." (repeat)
So what does "bow down" mean? (audience part>>) What do you think it means?
Right --- "worship" or "bowing down" means: Respect honor obey out of love look up to
If we physically bow down to a King --- we're saying, "You are above me!" I am LOW, you are HIGH.
What in our cultureour city countrydo we bow down to?
We OBEY laws ---- OBEY teachers & parents (sometimes!) ---- we OBEY a lot of things, but is there ANYTHING in our culture we BOW DOWN TO?
Get it? "Bowing down" is MORE than just obeying. It's an "I'm not worthy to be on the same level as you" kind of thing. ---IS there ANYTHING we see as being "Up here" and we're "Down here?"
Honestly, I don't think there is. I think there are things we maybe get obsessed about ---- or things we love ----but we don't BOW DOWN to them
We love certain friends or relatives
love certain kinds of clothing
love our hair when it's one of it's "good days"
love a certain CD (THIS month)
love the new Game Cube
some of you guys are obsessed or love a certain kind of car
Again, I don't think we BOW DOWN to those things. We don't think of those things as being "Up here" and we're "Down here"---
But the word "worship"---- basically means, "God's up here and we're down here." (repeat)
And THAT'S why worshiping God doesn't come easily to us. We may love "this" and obey "that," but we don't put us "Down here" in relationship to anything
It's almost UN-AMERICAN to put us BELOW or UNDER something or someone! I'm not kidding --- this country was born out of a spirit of INDEPENDENCE --- nobody's going to be OVER US! We fought for independence ---- we fought for the right to be "Up Here."
When you guys were little kids, you were DEPENDANT. (That was a whole 3 weeks for some of you)
But now, you guys are at a place in life where you're tired of "Being down here" while your parents are "Up here."
Right now you are exercising your right as an American to exert your INDEPENDENCE! Exercising your right that NO ONE is going to be OVER you! (hand analogyyou going up, parents down)
Guess what? Your parents did the same thing. They won't admit it, but we ALL do the same thing when we get to be teenagers
The independence gene kicks in and we're all about NOT bowing down to ANYONE.
The truth is NOBODYNOBODY likes to be "down here."let's just admit that!
But the rest of the truth is Jesus said to us in John 4:24 (niv), "His worshipers (Christ followers) MUST worship"
And to worship we HAVE to put God "Up here"and US "down here."
To worship, we have to be down here where we don't like to be down here where we're NOT used to being.
If we want to worship God --- if want to experience Him in a REAL way --- we HAVE TO come to Him on HIS terms---which is "He's up here and we're down here."
Let me switch gears a little so I can show what it takes to be "down here.":
When one of your parents says,
"Whose turn is it to take out the trash?"
"Whose turn is it to put away the dishes?"
"Whose turn is it to vacuum the living room?"
"Whose turn is it to do the laundry?"
What do you always say? ("NOT ME!") (Try above again with studs responding & add next sentence)
"Who is worship about?" (repeat)
"Not me." That's exactly who worship is about. Worship is about God, "not me,".
You and me CANNOT worship unless we have a "Not me" attitude. An attitude that's focused on God, & "not me." If you're focused on YOU, you're always gonna try to be "Up here."
We'll NEVER get "down here" we'll never "bow down" unless we get a "Not me" but You, attitude.
"Not me" is like a paraphrase of what John the Baptist said in John 3:30:
"He (Jesus) must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less."
John the Baptist said, "It's about Godnot, me."
The heart of worship is about "God, not me." --- so the reason I used to have a hard time worshiping was because I thought it was about SINGING. Worshiping AIN'T about singing
Worshiping is about saying from your heart, in a sincere "Not me, but You" kind of way, saying, "God, YOU are 'up here' in my lifeand God, I am 'down here' because I am not worthy to be any place else in relation to You"
Worshiping is telling God from our heart how much we LOVE Him. To the best that we can it's about communicating to God, how we feel about Him. It's that simple ---- THAT'S what worship is. (repeat)
When we have worship here at FW we do it THROUGH singing --- just like the 168 examples show us in the Bible. We do it THROUGH singing---but it's not ABOUT the singing---it's about our HONEST "not me, but You" spirit behind the singing
A chick with a great voice that sings her head off during worship but is NOT honestly saying in her heart, "Not me, but You, God --- This is ALL about YOU God"
A girl who worships like that with the sweetest singing voice in the world ----is NOT any more "on it" in worship, than a guy who stands there and doesn't sing a note.
Worship isn't a singing contest --- it's not even about IF we can sing.
Let me show you what I mean
Do you know or have you ever met someone who has a little bit of a lisp when they talk? Or have you ever known someone who stutters or has some kind of speech impediment?
Think of that person right now Do you suppose that if they prayed out loud to God #1 Do you think God would be able to hear their prayers?
And #2 do you think God likes hearing their "lispy" prayers ANY LESS than He likes hearing someone with a really clear and warm sounding voice?
I assume everyone is hip that that is a really stupid question OF COURSE God hears the prayers and LOVES to hear prayers of someone who speaks with a lisp or a speech impediment!
It's ridiculous to imagine God would hear it any other way! Shuuh! God wants our prayers, He doesn't give a rip about the quality of our speaking voice!
Sodon't you imagine that even though I can't carry a melody in a bag --- Even though that when I sing, I have a "singing impediment" ---- that God LOVES to hear how I feel about Him EVEN THROUGH my stuttering singing voice?
The heart of worship is nothing about the VOICE we have. The heart of worship is the HONEST FEELINGS, BEHIND our voice. God doesn't give a RIP about pitch --- He cares EVERYTHING about your heart. (repeat)
There's an adult guy I know who comes to church here who I met back in my former life before I worked in a church
And early on in his adult life, he was in a serious car crashserious And ever since then, his body has been permanently affected he doesn't walk and move as easily as you and I do
And he doesn't talk like we do, either. "Now he talks like this. He works hard to speak it's really breathy and it never gets louder than thishe can look like he's screaming, but this is as loud as it's ever going to go"
I don't where this guy is in his walk with Christ. But at one of our adult worship services, The Gathering, during the worship I looked over across the room and SAW him singing
I couldn't hear him and I didn't have to --- to know what it must have sounded like
And I remember that image, seared into my brain of this guy who struggles to talk louder than a loud whisper SINGING ---WORSHIPING to God
And I thought of all the times I didn't "FEEL" like enduring the awkwardness of singing out loud, with my "normal", but off-pitch voice
Here was this guy who only had a shred of a voice left but the best he could, was lifting it up to God
And at the same time, I looked around and saw guys with GREAT 100% voices, who CHOSE NOT to sing
Sometimes God serves me up little mind pictures like that ---- to keep me from taking what I have for granted.
And I don't suppose that since the night I saw him worshiping that I have been quite so self-conscious about my speech-impaired singing voice.//
God wired us all up differently. Some of you, He gave killer singing voices to some of us have singing voices that drive us nuts that embarrass us that make us feel self-conscious
Look at the word "self-conscious" (PPT). With "self" in there, it's not exactly a "Not me" attitude is it? That's what we'd call an "It IS about me" attitude.
And when it's about me --- it just stopped being about God. And when it's not focused on God ---- we've stopped bowing down ---- So, you and me have to move from being self-conscious in our worship to being God-conscious. //
Just in case some of you aren't big fans of worship (like I used to be) and you just find this whole church thing a little out of your comfort zone --- let me hit you with Hebrews 10:25 that says,
"Let's NOT AVOID worshiping together as some do" It IS ok to worship God in privateplenty of accounts of that in the Bible --- but also, (repeat Scripture)
But in John 4:19-24 a woman asks Jesus WHERE is worship supposed to happen. And He won't tell her where instead He tells her the most important thing about worship . Which is it's more about our heart than the place.
So far we've learned WHAT worship is: to bow down.
And WHERE it happens: together and in private
And whether you're alone or here, you need to know that connecting to God is not a mystical problem ---- being able to experience worship isn't really about being able to figure out God.
Because God says, "For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And the door is opened to everyone who knocks." Mt 7:8 (promise!)
Finding God in worship is totally opposite to how we live our life ----because life for usis on OUR terms
We have a PERSONAL computer the whole concept of a PC is that it's something we customize to run like WE want it to!
We listen to the kind of music WE want to listen to
Wear the clothes WE want to wear
Do our hair like WE want it to be
Have our OWN cell phone
We design our life around US so we are in control as much as possible and so we feel comfortable.
But in worship world --- it's on God's terms. (repeat) God's NOT a PC ---We can't come to Him and set the preferences
It's NOT about us being in control ---it's not about us feeling comfortable.
We ALL have to wrestle with being obedient and vulnerable with God
We have to ask ourselves questions like:
"Am I going risk having someone HEAR me sing?"
"Am I going to risk being vulnerable before God here in this room in view of people my age?"
"Am I going to risk being seen as weak? --- That I'm NOT so all together that I actually NEED I God?"
It's like we have to wrestle with the question: "What's more important my image or the worship God wants from me."
We can be totally in control --- totally safe--- totally apart from God Or we can get our eyes off of US--- let down our guard ----forget our image and come to God on HIS terms...
If we will come to God in worship on His terms, with a "Not me" attitude, where we're "down here" and He's "up here" where He's a Holy King Our Holy King
Then when we knock --- just like the promise of Matthew 7:8 says, "The door WILL be opened.
Right now we're going to watch a video from last summer when about 35 of us went to Big Stuf camp in Florida.
Listen to the words of the song that plays in the background listen to the sound-bytes of the speakers watch the images of guys your age coming to God in a "Not me, but You" spirit And listen to how God may pull on you to respond in the worship that follows.
