Reverence

Reverence is not a reaction to an environment, it is a Response to an Encounter.

We’re at the end of our series on Reverence here at 5PM. It’s been a great series.

I want to end by doing something different - not our usual service.

Many of you have heard me preach for a while will have heard me use this story - one of the most profound moments of my life.

ILLUSTRATION: Kinetic + Amos 5

Kinetic was about to do one of our encounter nights - these are nights that we set aside specifically to do prayer and worship; 3 hours dedicated to lifting God up through worship and prayer. These nights are a surefire way to have a great service and give a good boost to momentum while we’re at it. On this particular night, I was getting ready to go up on stage to deliver one of those big exhortations, to shout and scream until everyone was clapping and we were glorifying God in that particular way. And I remember praying hard for a verse, that God would give me something that would communicate His heart and will for this youth group. The passage that He gave me could not have thrown me off more - it was from Amos 5:21-24

specifically in the message translation; it reads “I can’t stand your religious meetings. I’m fed up with your conferences and conventions. I want nothing to do with your religion projects, your pretentious slogans and goals. I’m sick of your fund-raising schemes, your public relations and image making. I’ve had all I can take of your noisy ego-music. When was the last time you sang to me? In fear, i didn’t read it out loud to the congregation. That night went on to be possibly the worst encounter night that we’ve ever had. That question rings in my head constantly even up until today “When was the last time you sang to me?”

Why was that such a big moment for me? I’ve always wondered why that moment affected me so much.

Here’s the thing with Reverence - that we have to know.

Reverence is not a reaction to an environment. It is the response to an encounter.

It may be somehow possible for you to think that after all this preaching on reverence, it is something that only applies to when we are in church.

It is simply a reaction to an environent. When you’re in church - and it’s a holy place, you react by putting on good behaviour.

Or maybe when you’re around Christian friends - you tame up your language, and you change the way that you act to suit the environment that you’re in.

Let’s call a spoon a spoon - let’s call it for what it is. That’s not Reverence - that’s just social programming. You’re doing what you need to do in order to fit in with whichever crow you’re with.

It’s not reverence because it doesn’t last. It changes - it changes depending on the environment that you’re in, you will react different depending on where you’re at.

and that may be fine for you - that’s just the stage of life that you’re in.

But what you need to know is that our faith starts with genuine reverence.

Proverbs 9:10 (ESV)

10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,

and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.

All things that come from faith - begin with Reverence. A life lived in constant awe and deep respect of God. This is Reverence as a response to a very real encounter with a very holy God.

True reverence goes far beyond a reaction to a specific environment, true reverence is a response - it is a rational, thought out, almost calculated decision to put God above everything else - and live you life in a way that shows a profound awe and deep respect for God and His word.

It goes far beyond a SINGLE environment and extends into our every day.

The reason for this is because we carry that Encounter with us wherever we go. That encounter was so weighty, so heavy - that we understand it affects everything we do, say, think, the way we live.

Reverence is giving proper weight

Can I put it this way - it is giving the proper weight, the proper heaviness - to your relationship with God.

We give God weight - because of the WEIGHT of His Glory

If we live life the way we want, doing whatever we want, saying whatever we want - we are not living in Reverence of God.

We have not realised the WEIGHT of our relationship with Him.

True reverence lives life in such a way that every action, word, thought gives WEIGHT to our relationship with God.

And in that way it is a proper RESPONSE.

It is a response to the heaviness of God’s glory, the weightiness, the significance.

So no, Reverence is not a church thing. Reverence is not a person thing. Reverence is not an environment thing.

Reverence is a God thing, and only a God thing.

My lips sang one song, my life sang another

So I want to come back to my initial story - and that initial question. Why did that moment affect me so profoundly?

“When was the last time you sang to me?”

I really think it’s because I realised in that moment that my lips were singing one song, but my life was singing another.

My lips were singing songs of praise and glory to God - but my life was singing the song of self.

I was living life on my terms, living life according to my own decisions, holding on to my own dreams.

We can become so absorbed in everything that we do that God just becomes a part of it. If you, at any point, can say that God is a PART of your life - something is wrong. God is not a part of our lives - our lives are a PART of God’s plan.

I was just doing the show, the routine. And mind you, I was a pastor at this time too.

That moment was pivotal in my life because it opened my eyes to see that while I definitely had a relationship with God, I did not Reverence Him.

Response

And I just feel so convicted - like I did back then all those years ago, to come back to the altar - as a church, and rediscover a newfound Reverence for God through an Encounter with Him.

Reverence is a response - to an encounter with God. We must choose to Reverence God, we must choose to give weight to God.

And so I want to remove the preacher from the equation - and let’s just meet with God today in worship and in prayer.