Lift Your Hands
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We are full on with the Christmas season aren’t we? The decorations look great. The tree is up at my house? Anyone else have their tree up?
Christmas gets earlier and earlier doesn ‘t it?
I love it. I didn’t used to. I find that as I get older I am enjoying the season more and more. I used to put off Christmas saying that it made no sense to listen to Christmas music until the last week or so. And then one year I realized that when I put it off like that that I missed it. I missed the Christmas season.
I find that as I get older I really enjoy the whole season of Christmas and not just the day.
So in our family, we have been listening to Christmas music since Nov 1 I think it came on. I said bring it on. And for the most part my family agreed.
One of my kids on black Friday made the comment, “finally, it’s legal to listen to Christmas music”.
So now I guess they have a clear conscience.
We have a tradition at our house that we usually put the tree up just a few days after Thanksgiving. We put on the movie White Christmas and we decorate the tree. It’s a lot of fun.
I guess all of this is to say that the Christmas season is here. The Christmas season is here and that is going to mean something for those of us who worship God.
Today, we begin a new 4 week series that will take us right up to Christmas. The series is called Come To Worship, which is the only right response to God. Worship.
Remember that God had a plan. And God’s plans always prevail.
God sent His son to the world to take care of our sin problem. He lived a perfect life, he healed, he raised the dead, he exercised His authority over the earth, over disease, over spiritual beings. He came to clean house and finally, He was executed for your sin and my sin. And three days later He rose bodily from the grave so that whoever would believe in Him would have eternal life. Amen, Hallelujah!
And what is our response? What is our response to God loving us so much that he would send His one and only son to die? What is our response?
WORSHIP
Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”
Why did the wise men come to find Jesus? They came to worship Him. To pay honor to this little baby that didn’t do anything yet. But they knew that this was the King that was to come and their response was worship!
They didn’t come to the king to get something from Him, they came to Him to worship Him.
This is an issue that we have here in the west. In America, especially.
We look to God to see what we can get from Him. We make deals with God, “God, I will follow you, but I expect something in return”. God I will follow you but I want you to provide this and that for me.
Even in the way that we tell others about God, and try to convince them to give their lives to God, many of us, and I have done this too will try to sell God on people for what God can do for you, or will do for you.
And God does do great things for us because He loves us but, our attitudes need to be different. Not for what God will do for me, but me responding to God for who He is.
This is such a big deal. And you need to understand this. If you don’t understand this principle than I am not doing my job and I am not serving you.
Our lives are supposed to be centered on worshiping God, not on what God owes us, or can give us. That is completely backwards.
In this culture of Christianity, God is viewed as Craig Groeschell puts it, the Great Cosmic Coke Machine. You know that machine they have where you hit the buttons to get just the right drink for you?
There is such an emphasis on self in our culture. What I want, what is going to make ME happy. What about MY rights? It is all about ME ME Me but that mentality of...
“God, what can you do for me” is the exact opposite of what our relationship with God should be
The relationship that we have with God begins with worship.
We are here for God, God is not here for us.
If you want to please God, please Him with worship. That is how God is pleased with us, when we worship.
So that is what we are going to do for the next 4 weeks, we are going to talk about 4 different postures of worship.
We will talk about lifting hands to God, we will talk about bowing to God, we will talk about bringing gifts and pouring our our hearts. But today we are going to talk about the physical aspect of worshiping God by raising the hands.
This is
Now I know that people get really nervous about being demonstrative in their faith. They feel really awkward especially if you aren’t that person.
Now if you are a hand raiser in worship then you get excited about that. You have no problem with it. Some of you don’t really know how to react when you see that.
Tim Hawkins the Christian comedian talks about how different people worship God through the raising of hands.
He talks about carrying the tv.... large screen.
The fishing one
Wash the windows.
We laugh but understand that worshiping the Lord is probably the most appropriate thing you can do with your life. Raising your hands is just one aspect of that.
I want to talk about raising hands in worship because it is a scriptural way for you to demonstrate your relationship to the Lord. To the Lord.
O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
beholding your power and glory.
Because your steadfast love is better than life,
my lips will praise you.
So I will bless you as long as I live;
in your name I will lift up my hands.
We throw up our hands as a way to honor God. Not to show off, not to make people think we are more spiritual than them, we do it to honor God.
When Paul writes Timothy as he was instructing Timothy on how to help the Christians in his church to worship Paul tells him in
I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling;
Interesting here that the Greek word for man is aner. That word means man, specifically, man. Not mankind, not humans. But men.
The men are to lead in worship. I have said it before. Men, you are the pastors of your homes. Don’t let your wife out worship you. You, men take worship seriously and let your kids, let your wives learn from you.
You be the one who leads in worship. You be the one on Saturday nights to say, “hey, gotta get to bed because we are going to church tomorrow and we are going to be on time.
Men, show your family how to worship. If you don’t have a family yet, then practice now.
remember that worshiping god is for god and that lifting our hands in worship is a good thing, and it is important. Why do you ask is it important?
1. God loves it when we do. God loves when we give Him praise, when we lift our hands in worship.
God loves it when we do. God loves when we give Him praise, when we lift our hands in worship.
Some of you have heard my feelings when it comes to little babies. I loved my kids because they were my kids but I get really nervous around babies.
When a new parent says, do you want to told the baby, I will, but I don’t feel slighted in the least if I don’t get to hold that baby.
For me, I like it when the kids are old enough to feed themselves and tell me what is wrong. When they can shower themselves, go to the bathroom by themselves, those are great times. But there is a time in the middle there that I absolutely love.
It’s right about that time when they first start walking and they do that Frankenstein walk. Real wobbly and they fall a lot.
But something happens at that point. That little toddler, I guess, will communicate that they want to be picked up. What do they do? They pick their arms up and they tilt their head back and they really reach for you.
Now no loving parent can resist that. When they reach for you it is almost automatic. They reach and you want to lift them up into your arms.
When the child puts themself out there. No loving parent is going to refuse. God is the same way. When we lift our hands to him, we have His attention. He is a loving Father and he will respond to us when we lift our hands to Him. He is a loving Father.
Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
James
Lifting our hands because God wants us to.
Another reason why we raise our hands
2. to give God an offering of praise .
O Lord, I call upon you; hasten to me!
Give ear to my voice when I call to you!
Let my prayer be counted as incense before you,
and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice!
Raising your hands to God just because He is God. Because He deserves the sacrifice of praise. God deserves it.
Whether we feel like it or not. Just so you know, you act like a follower of Christ regardless of how you feel. You praise Him when times are good, you praise Him when times are bad. It is as easy as that.
And when we posture ourselves like this we are really vulnerable. We are really putting ourselves out there. And God loves it.
The raising of hands is a normal part of worship. It isn’t the only part of worship but it is definitely, scripturally part of worship.
So the lifting of our hands has to do with giving an offering to God but it is also reaching out to God, because when we draw near to God, He draws near to us.
Another reason we lift our hands is
3. to declare battle
Raising our hands to God is also a way to battle. Yes, War!
But raising our hands to God is also a way to battle. Yes, War! There is a story in Scripture about how the raising of hands gave a great victory
Some of us are in a battle right now. You are battling something and you don’t want to do that on your own. You never want to battle alone.
And you can declare that. You can say, “I declare battle against that dark thing, that dark place and I need the help of an all-powerful God to bring me victory for His will in my life. Not my will but God’s will in my life.
I will stand and raise my hands to worship the one who will battle for me.
There is a great story in Scripture about how the raising of hands gave a great victory.
The Amalekites came to make war on Israel and Moses told Joshua, his successor to go and chose some men and go to war with the Amalekites.
They want a piece of us? They will get a war. God gave us this land and we are fighting for Him. Go get an army together and I will stand up on this hill and I will lift up my hands and I will pray to God
So Moses said to Joshua, “Choose for us men, and go out and fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand.” So Joshua did as Moses told him, and fought with Amalek, while Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed, and whenever he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed.
So Joshua did as Moses told him, and fought with Amalek, while Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed, and whenever he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed.
So here is what is happening here. When Moses is on top of the hill and he raises his hand in worship, the Israelite army begins to win the battle.
So here is what is happening here. When Moses is on top of the hill and he raises his hand in worship, the Israelite army begins to win the battle.
But whenever Moses’ hand came down, they started losing, they started to get overwhelmed.
Interesting isn’t it? Up = winning, down = losing.
When Moses’ hands are up—recognizing the Sovereign hand of God he is winning. I should say God is winning.
But when the hands go down, when the worship stops the army starts losing the battle.
Again, I can’t help but think that some of you are in a battle today, right now. And what you need is to raise your hands in worship, to position yourself as a worshipper of God, in your rightful place drawing near to God and having Him take care of your circumstance.
Raising your hands saying “I declare O Lord that YOU fight for me.And greater is the One who is in me than the one who is in the world, that no weapon formed against me will prosper, but God is for me, and has plans to bless me. I lift up my
And
greater is the One who is in me than the one who is in the world, that no weapon formed
against me will prosper, but God is for me, and has plans to bless me. I lift up my
hands.”
Lets continue the story
Exodus 17
But Moses’ hands grew weary, so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it, while Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side. So his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. And Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his people with the sword.
Moses’ hands got tired. What did his friends do? They held up his hands. This is really interesting to me. They held up his hands for him.
When Moses couldn’t hold up his 80 year old hands anymore, two friends came and held them up for him.
Moses can’t do this on his own. He needs some people by his side to give him some strength, to hold him up if you will.
For those of you who pray for other people. Keep doing that. Keep praying for other people because you are holding them up when their strength fails. You are at their sides holding them up.
For those of you who pray for me, keep doing that, because we are all battling and need to have one another hold us up so that we can do God’s will.
So not only do we need God, we need each other. Not only do we need God, but we need each other. We can’t do this alone. God gave us relationships because we need each other to be held up.
The lifting up of our hands is not just crazy charismatic people who may be looking for attention. It’s not to make some people feel more spiritual than other people.
No, the raising of our hands is a tangible way, a tangible way for us to make our allegiance to a God we don’t see.
We lift our hands because
God loves it when we do. That should be reason enough
To give God the offering, the sacrifice of praise.
And finally, to declare battle.
We are going to sing a final song this morning and as we sing I am going to ask you to raise your hands. Raising your hands because God loves it, to give God an offering of praise, and finally to declare battle.
Will you praise your God this way?
You know there are two things that raising hands have symbolized throughout all of history.
One is victory.
You have probably done this. Whether it was at a sporting event, or a concert.
When the Eagles one the Superbowl, my hands went up. When the Orioles made the playoffs, or won a game my hands go up. Yes! Yes!
Raising your hands proclaims victory.
There is victory in Jesus. Victory in the work that He did on the cross. When I think about the reality of Jesus coming back from the dead and paying for my sin. If I really think about it, really think about what that means.
Yes!
The other universal meaning in raising your hands is very interesting in that it is the complete opposite meaning.
Surrender
If the bad guy is behind you and sticks the gun in your back what do you do? Raise your hands
So raising your hands is a symbol of victory, or surrender.
But in the context of worshiping God it is both. It is simutaneously victory and surrender.
That is truly what worship is. It is victory and surrender at the same time.
I find that as I get older I really enjoy the whole season of Christmas and not just the day.