Worshipping as a layman has been good

As vocational pastors it is easy on Sundays to get caught up in the structure of worship and trying to provide an atmosphere that is conducive to worship, to where we leads others yet don't truly worship ourselves. That his me this morning at the beginning of worship as I realized I was free to worship because the responsibility for making sure the "structure" of making sure everything happened when it was supposed to happen was not mine.

Today I visited a Southern Baptist Church here on the outskirts of town that advertised a "contemporary" service. They had a nice praise band and the songs were certainly fresh. The people were singing, but not loud and celebratory as I am accustomed to and so it was easy to hear myself sing. Truth is there were times when I could only hear myself singing. I thought that off but the Holy Spirit prodded me and reminded me that I was worshiping for an audience of One, so I should sing as thought I were the only one lifting His name and giving Him the praise due His name.

The pastor was wrapping up a series on the life of Samson and preached from Judges 16:23-34. He contrasted the sacrifice of the Philistines as they worshipped their god Dagon and paraded blind Samson around on display with the sacrifice of Samson. In those days when people went to war it was believed that their gods went to war as well. It was kind of like the “My dad can beat up your dad” kind of thing except this time it was “My god can beat up your god.” They were celebrating that in their mind their false God had defeated the Lord God, God of Samson. Because Samson had sinned and his hair had been cut, he’d lost all of his strength. But the real tragedy was verse 20 where it says, “he did not know that the Lord had departed from him.”

I think by this day in our text as he’s paraded around blindly he is painfully aware that the Lord has departed from him. As he asks the guard to position him between two of the main pillars Samson begins to cry out to God. The first thing Samson prays is “Oh Lord God remember me.” Question – Do you think God had ever forgotten him? No! But there are times when our sin or situations make us feel as though He has forgotten us. I think for 38 painful chapters Job felt like God had forgotten him. We need to remember that no matter where we are or what we have done, God has not forgotten nor has He given up on us. 

In verse 30, even though Samson was cognizant of the fact that any victory achieved would have to come by the hand of the Lord, the bible says “he pushed will all his might.” The idea here is that he gave to God all that he had, all that he was. And the scripture says the roof of the temple fell and 3,000 Philistine leaders were killed that day. It says that the dead that day outnumbered all of those Samson had killed in battle up to that point. In spite of his willful sin, in spite of his getting into bed both physically and metaphorically with the enemy, God was not done using Samson. There are times we feel as though we are too far from God or we have done too much for God to use us. Truth is we were never worthy to be used by Him in the first place. That means that He can and will still use us for His glory, and like Samson we can finish strong in spite of our past. 

The pastor had 3 takeaways that he called “Steps to developing a sacrificial attitude” but he never got around to giving them in the 11:00 service. He said at the end before dismissing us that he thought maybe God wanted us to go home and reflect and come up with the 3 takeaways personal to us. So I close with my three:

1.    It’s not a matter of our having to pray for God to remember us but rather us remembering the character and nature of our God.

2.    If we remember and return to God, our most useful days of service can still be in front of us.

3.    Even though God is the One who delivers the victory, He still expects us to give all that we have.

Being a layman has been good for me. I’m learning and relearning truths about God as I walk each with Him by faith. 

Tom