Passive Worship

I have been thinking about a statement I made in a message a few weeks back..."One thing that angers me is PASSIVE Worship."  I  got to thinking about what that looks like to me.  Maybe I should define that a little better.  After all, I don't want you to come to church and sit there and wonder if I think you are being passive in your worship and upsetting me.  So I ask myself, "what are some words that describe a person passive in worship?"

First off, maybe we ought to describe "worship".  I am not saying that this is about all that singing that we do...that is only part of it.  We are so blessed to have Shawn who is picking out some God-glorifying songs for us to sing.  Our lifting our voices is only one part of it.  Part 2 would be, (at least in our service), the worship of giving.  Then there is Part 3 - the worship in Prayer and Preaching of the Word of God.

Worship is ascribing worth to something - a object, a person, a god, a sport, a feeling - etc.  It is what we spend our time on.  It is how loud and vocal we are in praising the efforts of something.  It is what is captivating our souls.  Often worship is loud, and cheerful.  Sometimes it is silent and reverent. Most often your true worship is evident by others.  Evident in what they see you doing.  Evident in how often they see you doing it.  Evident in what symbols or emblems grace your house or yard or even your bumper. 

So, with all that ground work aside, back to the question - what does passive worship look like to Pastor Nate?

1) Passive worshipers come to church with NO JOY.  The fruit of the Holy Spirit of God, that lives in you, is LOVE, JOY, and so on.  Passive worshipers look like they sucked on a lemon and had to eat coal prior to coming to church.  They forget that they are coming to worship the God of the universe.  Their creator and thier sustainer of their very life.  Now I am not saying there are moments when I feel the burden of life and I am not joyful...but I think about Nehemiah who couldn't come before an earthly king with a sad face, and feared for his life when he did, (Nehemiah 2:2), and then I think - HOW MUCH GREATER IS GOD!  Too often pettiness and self-pity rob us of the utter joy of worshiping God.
2) Passive worshiper come to church TIRED.  Being tired is no excuse for not maximizing your worship.  I am saddened that the days have passed where Saturday Night was a night of being home and getting ready to for worship.  My dad reminded us often that "tomorrow we are going to worship King Jesus...You need to be wide awake and ready!"  I often scoffed at his notion, but now I see it.  To many Christians come to church and have no chance of ever getting anything out of the message from God...because they are exhausted from staying up all night doing needless things instead of allowing the mind to rest and meditate on the thought that "tomorrow I am going to worship King Jesus!"  I realize some people work, and I look at those troopers and I rejoice that they are doing their best to stay awake...They are not passive...they are trying.  Passive worshipers have chosen an all night movie marathon, or playing the latest video game, or chating with friend on some on-line site, or worse.  The truth is, I wonder how many would act differently if they knew Jesus Christ was physically going to be there?  Would we lay our our cloths? Would we go to bed early and get up even earlier?  Would we shower and use some good smelling spray before we left our house?  Would we line up ready to see him?  Would we sign up to help set up the room so everything is just right?  And when he came - would we sing our loudest and listen our very best?  Or would we sleep right through every thing he says?
3) Passive worshipers care more about how they sound then engaging in songs of praise.  The truth is church, none of us would make any reality show and all of us are off just a bit.   But when God says in his word, "Praise the LORD! Sing to the LORD a new song, his praise in the assembly of the godly! " (ps. 149) - what I don't see there is anything in relationship to how good you sound.  Praise for what he has done must pour forth from you mouths, whether you are tone deaf, or an opera singer, monotone or have a 4 octive range.  I say, let it fly sister, let it fly.  Passive worshipers would never stoop to do that, rather to stand silently.  God doesn't tell us to "do" to many things - He does tell us to SING!  (and to sing a new song...God loves new songs)
4) Passive worshipers are too proud to participate. Participate in what?  Good question. 
- To proud to participate in welcoming and greeting - "People can come to me...I don't want to get to know people."
- To proud to participate in the pastors "zingers" that our designed to help keep other awake, (those who have worked all night) or designed with a purpose - "they didn't make me do that at my last church...(right, and they didn't care about you either)."
-  To proud to participate in giving and sharing.  Giving of tithes and sharing of burdens.  It is not to infrequent that the most sharing I get on our friendship registers is so surface level, that I wonder if people really want to have God help them in their big problems.  Scripture says - "Cast all your cares on Him, for He cares for you."

Well - that's a pretty full list.  Did you find yourself there?  Here is the good news...1 John 1:9 tells us that we must confess our sins to God, 9and passive worship is a sin), AND - he will forgive us and cleanse us from that unrighteousness.  God, who is faithful and just, will not cast you aside, but welcome you back with open arms...

Also, consider these helpful hints:
- If tomorrow is worship, get plenty of rest.
- If tomorrow is worship, come with the goal of blowing away your pastor with you enthusiasm
- If tomorrow is worship, message the pastor and ask him what the passage of scripture is, so you can read it ahead of time.
- If tomorrow is worship, unplug the Xbox/ps3 gaming system at 10pm
- if tomorrow is worship, invite all your on-line friends to Harvest.  "that's crazy, they won't talk to me..." Exactly, and then you can get some sleep.
Lastly, if tomorrow is worship I hope you get butterfly's.  Why?  well it's not the President you are meeting, or the Queen of England, or even some famous person or athlete...no, I hope you have butterfly's because you are going to see the King of Kings and to tell him of all his wonderful love and grace and mercy and how much you have adored his death on you behalf.

PNate Out