Get your back up off the Wall

It was a bitterly cold night in January in Ellsworth Maine in 1989 but the shoe box was jumping. The shoe box was what many of the locals called the gymnasium of Temple the Highschool I went to. It was called this because it was one of the smallest gymnasiums in the state. The center court circle and the three point line were mere inches from each other. 

My highschool was very small only 15 kids made up my entire sophomore class that year and there were only around 45 kids in the whole highschool. So we were the David’s when we played the other larger schools in the region. 

During the entire history of our school we had never been able to beat Deer Isle Stonington in basketball. They were the juggernaut of our region. They were big, physical, and a very deep team. Usually when we played them by the end of half the game was pretty much out of reach and we were playing all their subs and I think the water boy and equipment manager suited up as well. 

However on this cold night in January the tide turned. At half we were up by 3 and Deer Isle was visibly frustrated and mad. Start of the second half the score went back and forth. There was not a single person sitting. From the bleachers to the balcony, to the snack bar the entire place was energized. Jumping, screaming, yelling, waving their hands and acting like complete mad men. 

Score was 63-65 good guys with 12 seconds left and they were inbounding the ball. I was on the right wing of the full court press. The ball came in and we trapped the ball in the corner. Wiggling, twisting, and turning the player with the ball was trying to find any opportunity to get free or get the ball to another player. He got flustered and passed the ball over the head of his teammate out of bounds.

Everyone in the gym knew what this meant, we were finally going to beat Deer Isle Stonington and their team of goons for the first time in school history. 

The final buzzer. Victory! 

The place went absolutely nuts. The crowd rushed the floor. It was bedlam. Grown adults were dancing, screaming and hugging each other. Some fell to the floor rolling back and forth, some had tears of joy streaming down their faces. I looked over and saw my dad and one of my teammates' dads holding hands jumping in circles up and down yelling with excitement. Classmates in the balcony hung over the balcony and jumped down to the main floor. My entire team was going crazy running all over the gym completely drunk with excitement. This game every year was our Superbowl and we had done the unthinkable. We beat Deer Isle and not only beat them but ruined their perfect season. 

Yet, all this excitement was for a bunch of high school kids playing a game in a shoebox gymnasium up in Maine, but it was considered completely normal for everyone to be acting like this. 

If my emotions are invested this much into a game am I willing to give this much in my worship to God? How much of myself am I willing to give God?

I have asked myself for many years why is it ok for us to have this type of emotional response at a sporting event, or at a bar, or at a bowling alley, or at a wedding reception but when it comes to Jesus we have theologized exuberant physical joy down to a hand raised sway, nod of the head, clap of the hands, and maybe if we're in a really progressive church we have flags and flag wavers.  

We are not comfortable with being undone and undignified before the Lord because of what someone may think of us. So we call it emotionalism and make it a 4 letter word. Our emotions cover the gauntlet over a meaningless game, but we are almost emotionless when it comes to our worship to God. We get so consumed in trying to manage and control our emotions in personal and corporate worship that we lose complete focus on who we are actually worshiping. 

So because the church in general will not surrender themselves to undignified worship the enemy has taken our physical expressions of joy and happiness and uses it as a weapon. He has tainted it, corrupted it, made it about self, sexuality, and provocative expression while the church stands there like the nerdy outcasts at the school dance with their backs against the wall. While deep down inside they want to be out on the dancefloor with the kids that don't care what they look like or sound like.  We have allowed the enemy to hijack our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving as we the church stand on the sidelines and settle for a half full glass of red punch.  

My wife and I were invited to a Pastor's son's wedding here in Tampa. There were over 300 people at the reception. The reception was held in a magnificent ballroom with majestic chandeliers, pure white marble floors and a beautiful double staircase cascading down from the second floor to the main floor. Large round white tables with high back chairs and large colorful decorative centerpieces circled the ballroom dance floor.  But this was not some stuffy quiet melancholy reception dinner with an awkward best man speech. They had an all-out party. The DJ was on it, playing all the classic hits. The dance floor was full with people getting down with their funky bad self. Everyone was laughing, shouting, jumping, and singing. Kids were running around and having a blast. Dads and Moms were dancing together. Full families were dancing and singing in huge circles lost in the moment. Pastor and his wife were right in the middle of it, completely overwhelmed with such happiness. This was not just their son’s wedding we were celebrating, it was his church family doing life together.  The evening was centered around celebrating the union of two beautiful people. God wants this same type of emotional joyous praise in our daily lives and corporate worship. His desire is for us to sing, laugh, jump, and dance with Him and celebrate with each other our eternal union with Him. He calls us His bride, and puts on us a ring of identity. He gives us hope, delivers us, heals us, and sets us free from the bonds of sin, and all we are willing to give him is a golf clap and a little sway as we stand on the sidelines with our backs against the wall sipping our glass of red punch.  

Do you realize that two of the pillars of our faith were undignified when it came to worship? David in 2 Samual 6:14-22 and Jesus in Matthew 26:30. 

Matthew 26:30 “ and when they had sung a hymn they went out to the Mount of Olives”. We skim over this little verse and think they sang a depressing funeral dirge from a dusty old synagogue hymnal. The word “hymn” in this passage in the Greek is “Hymneo” - which refers to the singing of a hymn taken from Psalm 113-118 and Psalm 136. These are known as the Songs of Ascent which Jews also referred to as “The Great Halal”. This set  of songs Jesus chose from is based on a form of worship in the Hebrew language that refers to raucous and clamorous praise, celebrating God in all His greatness. Jesus demonstrated that in his greatest time of trial and fear even to death, He was going to worship with all His being and all his might. His undignified worship was the initial act of laying down his life, even before He laid it down on the cross. He laid himself down in emotional worship, first, before the Lord. It cost him everything, and yet he understood something so many of us wrestle with. Worship is not about what we are comfortable with, it’s about offering our bodies as a living sacrifice to God and should be the natural outflow in every situation in life. Demonstrative praise should be a Christians calling card in all situations. Almost everyone Jesus healed, touched, and changed during His physical ministry while on earth had a physical emotional response as a result of His presence.  

Jesus and David gave undignified emotional worship from a place of extreme passion and surrender to God. So many have conjured up these inaccurate internal visions that those in our bible walked around sober and somber clanging bells and humming like monks. Jesus was anything but somber, and David was anything but sober when it came to their worship to God.  

When your love is fully surrendered you will go where He leads and you won't care what it looks like or sounds like because your only focus is Him. 

We pray all the time “God do whatever you want in me and through me.” So He asks “Dance and rejoice with Me?” and we're like “Naw God I’m good. It doesn't take all that. I'm gonna stay where I'm at.” But we never see true victory or complete Joy because we are still wrapped up in self not willing to surrender everything to Him. See, surrender is not giving up what we are already comfortable in giving up, it's giving up all those uncomfortable areas in our life that we stubbornly control and hang onto.  

When we receive our ultimate Victory in Jesus we won’t care what we look like or how we act because our eyes will be locked on His. We will hold hands with Jesus and jump up and down and become undone because we grasp the magnitude of what it truly means to belong. Like David said “I will become even more undignified than this” and we will not be able to contain our emotions because of the freedom and Joy He gives and we will become undignified before our God and praise Him with all of our might. He has given us Victory so with our lives we must celebrate what He has done. 

Instead of trying to find ways to control emotion why don't we start being like Peter in Acts 2 and teach those who question the emotions when He said in Acts 2:15-17 ”For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel: And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour my Spirit on all Flesh “ Peter had to explain why people in a second story room were so loud and acting so intoxicated in the Presence of God that it was heard by people passing by on the streets below. He was not apologizing for their actions, he was encouraging and supporting the emotions that came along as part of the outpouring of the holy spirit and letting everyone know that this is what they had been waiting for since it was prophesied many years prior by the Prophet Joel. God was pouring His spirit out on all flesh, and everytime a person comes in contact with the presence of God there is always a physical emotional response as a byproduct of His Presence. You can't control emotion and still have His presence, that would be like saying you can swim in the ocean and not get wet. 

In almost every account in the Bible when people come in contact with the Presence of God there is an emotional response. Read Revelation depiction of heaven Let’s admit it. The descriptions of the Throne of God in heaven put the sound of any rock concert or sports stadium to shame, not to mention most churches.

Myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice . . . (Revelation 5:11–12) 

And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea . . . (Revelation 5:13) 

And all the angels . . . fell on their faces before the throne. (Revelation 7:11)

Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder . . . (Revelation 19:6)

The example of heaven challenges the assumption that worship should be reserved and subdued. While we cite proof texts, claim to honor tradition, and avoid looking too fanatical, might it be that we’re actually just failing to see how great God’s glory really is? We are content standing with our backs against the wall sipping our glass of punch while our Creator is asking us to get our backs up off the wall and come dance, sing, jump, laugh, and make a joyful noise with Him as we celebrate life with Him. To surrender everything and become even more undignified in the Joy of His Presence. Let our cry be “God do in me whatever you will.” and when He calls us off the wall to come dance with Him we will take him by the hand and follow where he leads no matter how uncomfortable it makes us feel.