How great is our God, sing with me how great is our God, all will see how great, how great is our God. - Chris Tomlin, How Great is Our God.
I just led worship for the Sunday morning congregation of Acts Center yesterday. Wow!
The people were really singing their hearts out to God and encountering God in a real way during the worship. And again I had the satisfaction of bringing people to encounter God, using just a guitar and the anointing he gave me.
Of course I had help. People who lent me the guitar and the mike, people who helped project the lyrics for the congregation and of course a dear sister-in-Christ from Tuesday Group who specially took the time and effort to be there and sing backup for me to help the congregation flow in worship.
Kinda interesting, this sister, Sister F, arrived late for the pre-service preparations because her car broke down. And after the service when we were chatting she told me that the projected cost of repairs was $2000.
I couldn’t believe it. She too sang her heart out during worship and during the sermon she was furiously soaking in every word from the pastor. It was as if she wasn’t given a $2000 piece of bad news just that very morning.
Either that or she has a God who is greater than a $2000 problem.
Which brings me to the question I have for you. How great is YOUR God?
O LORD my God, you are very great; you are clothed with splendor and majesty. He wraps himself in light as with a garment; he stretches out the heavens like a tent. (Psalm 104:1-2, NIV)
Now, we all have the same God as Sister F. But not all of us can shrug off a $2000 problem just like that, because not all of us have a revelation of God in which he is bigger than a $2000 problem.
Let’s look at things in a different way. If you discover that you’ve left the baby’s things behind at home JUST after you’ve struggled to get the pram and the two boys up the bus, and you’ve got to get off, head home, grab the bag and then head off to church to meet the rest of the family, does that ruin your Sunday worship service and leave you fuming at yourself (or your spouse) during worship? Or is your God so great that all that hassle is a hiccup barely worth mentioning or thinking of?
What I am getting at is that you can see how great your God really is to you by seeing how great a problem has to be before it can trouble your peace and affect the way you relate to God and to others. The greater God is in your eyes, the smaller other problems become.
Now of course problems are problems and need to be dealt with. But do they need to affect your peace? Or you can just deal with them as if they are no big deal, because your God is bigger than they are? One very common source of quarrels for Sunday mornings is being late. I know of people who will argue bitterly with their spouses over being a few minutes late for worship.
And when the arguments start getting hysterically historical (“You ALWAYS XXX, I told you not to XXX for the last 3 Sundays and you promised that you won’t XXX again. Now you’ve XXX-ed again and we’re going to be late again, just like the last 3 Sundays…”) that’s when we tend to forget that nowhere in Scripture are we specifically told to be punctual for services, but we are repeatedly admonished to watch how we treat our siblings-in-Christ. Do we honestly believe God is so concerned about our punctuality for services that he’ll close one eye to us emotionally abusing our spouses or children for the sake of punctuality?
Anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. - 1 John 4:20, NIV
Of course, I’m not advocating that you should be late for worship. In fact you should make a special point to be on time. (Especially when I am the one leading worship, of course). What I am saying is how great is your revelation of God will determine how much all these matters trouble you to the point that you forget what is really important to God.
So how do we grow in our revelation of the greatness of our God?
1) Pray for such revelation
I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. - Ephesians 1:17-19, NIV
2) Feed such revelation.
How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? – Romans 10:14, NIV
We feed the revelation of the greatness of our God by exposing ourselves to preaching, whether during church sermons, sermon CDs, the preaching in the Bible, the preaching we sing to ourselves and to others during worship, or even from the indirect preaching of others as we hear their testimonies.
I’m willing to bet that if I were to quantify the amount of time, money and effort Sister F has put into feeding her revelation of the greatness of God, it will be easily be worth more than $2000. Because she has a greater than $2000 revelation of the greatness of God, I am looking forward to seeing how God will deal with her car problem. Will he just do something to the repair bill that it becomes negligible? Or give her a sudden windfall to cover the repair cost? Or just give her a new car? I don’t know, but I look forward to finding out.
Important note: If you are serving as a worship musician, don’t let your service deceive you into thinking you don’t need to further feed your revelation. There are musicians who serve in church for the sake of the music, not for the sake of serving God and his people.
Frankly, I’ve got absolutely no problem with that at all. If people want to indulge their desire to play music, I’d rather they do it in the house of God and let his people be blessed, than do it in a pub someplace, where the quality of their music is judged on how many alcoholics they can attract to that pub. And besides, there’s less 2nd hand cigarette smoke in church.
What I am concerned about, however, is that the musician may spend lots of time in the house of God and not feed the revelation within. And that would be such a waste. Here’s a quick test for you to see if a musician is there for the sake of the music or feeding the revelation of God’s greatness. Look at what happens when something goes wrong with the music.
Yesterday when I was leading the worship, the E bass string on the guitar went drastically out of tune, going to some out-of-tune D. So I had to immediately change my playing style to avoid that string, and tune that string later at the first available break. (Since I was the only musician, that break took a long time in coming.)
And I totally forgot all about it after that. It was only later yesterday evening when I was thinking through the points of this email, how Sister F just shrugged off the car problem she had, that I remembered that something went wrong with the music also. But because I knew my God is greater than the E bass string on the guitar it just didn’t affect me at all. My peace was unruffled and I just continued leading worship, being a blessing to God’s people and being blessed by his presence myself.
So that’s it for this somewhat longer post. Feed your revelation of the greatness of God. And may he reveal his greatness to us in ever-increasing measure as we continue to grow in him!
Prayer time: I’m going to be conducing worship training for the worship personnel of Acts Center this coming Saturday. Because I know the people involved (and have sat in for the services even when I am not playing for the worship) I am going to adapt my sharing to be more specific for this group (rather than share what applies to many churches across the board). Pray for me that I will say the right things and that what I share will be received in the right way. Other words, pray that if there are people offended with me, let them be offended because they heard me correctly and didn’t agree, rather than because they misunderstood me. Thanks, everyone! Be blessed!
I just led worship for the Sunday morning congregation of Acts Center yesterday. Wow!
The people were really singing their hearts out to God and encountering God in a real way during the worship. And again I had the satisfaction of bringing people to encounter God, using just a guitar and the anointing he gave me.
Of course I had help. People who lent me the guitar and the mike, people who helped project the lyrics for the congregation and of course a dear sister-in-Christ from Tuesday Group who specially took the time and effort to be there and sing backup for me to help the congregation flow in worship.
Kinda interesting, this sister, Sister F, arrived late for the pre-service preparations because her car broke down. And after the service when we were chatting she told me that the projected cost of repairs was $2000.
I couldn’t believe it. She too sang her heart out during worship and during the sermon she was furiously soaking in every word from the pastor. It was as if she wasn’t given a $2000 piece of bad news just that very morning.
Either that or she has a God who is greater than a $2000 problem.
Which brings me to the question I have for you. How great is YOUR God?
O LORD my God, you are very great; you are clothed with splendor and majesty. He wraps himself in light as with a garment; he stretches out the heavens like a tent. (Psalm 104:1-2, NIV)
Now, we all have the same God as Sister F. But not all of us can shrug off a $2000 problem just like that, because not all of us have a revelation of God in which he is bigger than a $2000 problem.
Let’s look at things in a different way. If you discover that you’ve left the baby’s things behind at home JUST after you’ve struggled to get the pram and the two boys up the bus, and you’ve got to get off, head home, grab the bag and then head off to church to meet the rest of the family, does that ruin your Sunday worship service and leave you fuming at yourself (or your spouse) during worship? Or is your God so great that all that hassle is a hiccup barely worth mentioning or thinking of?
What I am getting at is that you can see how great your God really is to you by seeing how great a problem has to be before it can trouble your peace and affect the way you relate to God and to others. The greater God is in your eyes, the smaller other problems become.
Now of course problems are problems and need to be dealt with. But do they need to affect your peace? Or you can just deal with them as if they are no big deal, because your God is bigger than they are? One very common source of quarrels for Sunday mornings is being late. I know of people who will argue bitterly with their spouses over being a few minutes late for worship.
And when the arguments start getting hysterically historical (“You ALWAYS XXX, I told you not to XXX for the last 3 Sundays and you promised that you won’t XXX again. Now you’ve XXX-ed again and we’re going to be late again, just like the last 3 Sundays…”) that’s when we tend to forget that nowhere in Scripture are we specifically told to be punctual for services, but we are repeatedly admonished to watch how we treat our siblings-in-Christ. Do we honestly believe God is so concerned about our punctuality for services that he’ll close one eye to us emotionally abusing our spouses or children for the sake of punctuality?
Anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. - 1 John 4:20, NIV
Of course, I’m not advocating that you should be late for worship. In fact you should make a special point to be on time. (Especially when I am the one leading worship, of course). What I am saying is how great is your revelation of God will determine how much all these matters trouble you to the point that you forget what is really important to God.
So how do we grow in our revelation of the greatness of our God?
1) Pray for such revelation
I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. - Ephesians 1:17-19, NIV
2) Feed such revelation.
How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? – Romans 10:14, NIV
We feed the revelation of the greatness of our God by exposing ourselves to preaching, whether during church sermons, sermon CDs, the preaching in the Bible, the preaching we sing to ourselves and to others during worship, or even from the indirect preaching of others as we hear their testimonies.
I’m willing to bet that if I were to quantify the amount of time, money and effort Sister F has put into feeding her revelation of the greatness of God, it will be easily be worth more than $2000. Because she has a greater than $2000 revelation of the greatness of God, I am looking forward to seeing how God will deal with her car problem. Will he just do something to the repair bill that it becomes negligible? Or give her a sudden windfall to cover the repair cost? Or just give her a new car? I don’t know, but I look forward to finding out.
Important note: If you are serving as a worship musician, don’t let your service deceive you into thinking you don’t need to further feed your revelation. There are musicians who serve in church for the sake of the music, not for the sake of serving God and his people.
Frankly, I’ve got absolutely no problem with that at all. If people want to indulge their desire to play music, I’d rather they do it in the house of God and let his people be blessed, than do it in a pub someplace, where the quality of their music is judged on how many alcoholics they can attract to that pub. And besides, there’s less 2nd hand cigarette smoke in church.
What I am concerned about, however, is that the musician may spend lots of time in the house of God and not feed the revelation within. And that would be such a waste. Here’s a quick test for you to see if a musician is there for the sake of the music or feeding the revelation of God’s greatness. Look at what happens when something goes wrong with the music.
Yesterday when I was leading the worship, the E bass string on the guitar went drastically out of tune, going to some out-of-tune D. So I had to immediately change my playing style to avoid that string, and tune that string later at the first available break. (Since I was the only musician, that break took a long time in coming.)
And I totally forgot all about it after that. It was only later yesterday evening when I was thinking through the points of this email, how Sister F just shrugged off the car problem she had, that I remembered that something went wrong with the music also. But because I knew my God is greater than the E bass string on the guitar it just didn’t affect me at all. My peace was unruffled and I just continued leading worship, being a blessing to God’s people and being blessed by his presence myself.
So that’s it for this somewhat longer post. Feed your revelation of the greatness of God. And may he reveal his greatness to us in ever-increasing measure as we continue to grow in him!
Prayer time: I’m going to be conducing worship training for the worship personnel of Acts Center this coming Saturday. Because I know the people involved (and have sat in for the services even when I am not playing for the worship) I am going to adapt my sharing to be more specific for this group (rather than share what applies to many churches across the board). Pray for me that I will say the right things and that what I share will be received in the right way. Other words, pray that if there are people offended with me, let them be offended because they heard me correctly and didn’t agree, rather than because they misunderstood me. Thanks, everyone! Be blessed!
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