CtW - wk 1 - Lift Your Hands

Christmas Series

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday. I know we did. I am still recovering from all of the food that I couldn’t stop eating. Now that December is here we are finally starting to see the end of summer. As we approach Christmas and celebrate the birth of our Savior we are going to do a series on worship. This series is based on a Life Church series, so some of it may seem familiar to you. The idea is that as we get closer to Christmas we want to pause, stop what we are doing — focused on — worried about, and acknowledge who Jesus is — what He has done for us. We want to worship Him.

Let me start by asking “What does worship mean to you?” It probably means something different to everyone, but I want to look at what it meant to the wise men who traveled to worship Jesus when He was born. In fact, this series title comes from the book of Matthew when the wise men arrived in Jerusalem looking for Jesus...

Matthew 2:2 NLT

2 “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose, and we have come to worship him.”

Think about these magi — wise men for a minute. What strikes me about them is how they traveled a long way to worship Jesus and bring Him gifts. They put their lives on pause, stopped whatever they were doing, traveled for who knows how long, brought gifts that cost them their money or other resources, worshiped Jesus and then went home. They didn’t do all of this then ask for anything in return. They weren’t coming to see what they could get from God or to see what God would do for them. Simply to worship.

In our world today, Christianity often puts US at the center instead of God. “God, what will you do for ME. Help ME. If I do this, what will you do for ME in return?” Sadly, commercial Christianity treats God like He is some kind of supernatural Genie. Craig Groeschel calls it “treating God like a Cosmic Coke Machine.” If we act the right way, do the right things, then God is going to do whatever we want Him to do. Rub on His lamp the right way and POOF, He’s gonna pop out and say, “Your wish is my command, you have 3 wishes today, what is your first wish?”

The reality is that is not why God exists. He does not exist for us, we exist for Him. We are created to glorify Him, to make Him known, to worship HIM. I believe that God wants us to BE worshipers. To not see worship as something we DO, but WHO WE ARE. For our worship of Him to flow from the depths of our hearts, our souls, and our every day lives. So my prayer for us as we study the topic of “Coming to worship”, is that we would know God intimately and worship God passionately, because God is pleased with our hearts of worship. So for the next few weeks we will be examining different postures of worship. The first posture that we are talking about this week is...

LIFT YOUR HANDS TO GOD

How many of you lift your hands when you worship God? Or maybe you want to but you are nervous or afraid someone will be watching you. Tim Hawkins, the comedian, has a joke about raising hands to worship where he talks about the different ways that people raise their hands to God in worship. I know we’ve watched the video clip before but it is one of Amy’s favorite bits and she wouldn’t be happy with me if i mentioned it and didn’t play it, so let’s just watch it real quick...

*Tim Hawkins on Hand Raising

LIFT YOUR HANDS IN WORSHIP

Regardless of how you raise your hands, when you experience God’s love in your life it is hard not to lift up your hands in worship. It’s almost an automatic response. I know I’ve had experiences with God and His love where my hands just went up in worship. Why is it that we do something with our hands as a reflection of what is in our hearts? I would argue that we can’t experience God’s love and not show gratitude. In a Psalm David talked about lifting his hands in prayer. He was actually at a low point in his life when he said this...

Psalm 63:1–4 NLT

1 O God, you are my God; I earnestly search for you. My soul thirsts for you; my whole body longs for you in this parched and weary land where there is no water. 2 I have seen you in your sanctuary and gazed upon your power and glory. 3 Your unfailing love is better than life itself; how I praise you! 4 I will praise you as long as I live, lifting up my hands to you in prayer.

When we lived in OKC, Amy and I were pretty involved at Life Church and I always loved pastor Craig’s testimony. In fact, I want to share a clip with you and let you hear it directly from him....

*Craig Groeschel testimony. (10:10 - 12:55)

When you truly understand who He is and what He has done for you want to express your heart in worship for Him. In 1 Timothy, Paul was giving Timothy instructions to help other Christians worship. Essentially Paul thought that as Christ followers, we should pray and set good examples. But specifically in verse 8 of chapter 2 he says this...

1 Timothy 2:8 NLT

8 In every place of worship, I want men to pray with holy hands lifted up to God, free from anger and controversy.

I don’t know why he singled out the men here, but I have a couple of guesses. First, at least in Christian culture today, when you do see people lifting their hands it is normally the women. I don’t know why that is, maybe to us guys it seems like a girl thing to do. Or maybe we think we won’t look tough. For whatever reason, maybe it was the same back then and men tended to not lift their hands in worship.

Second, men are normally singled out in scripture when they are expected to be leaders. When you look at the theme of Paul’s language in the surrounding verses, I believe that he expects the men to set the example. To step up and lead the way with reverent worship. To lead their families in worship to God. For their children to see their fathers seeking the heart of God and surrendering to God for their source of strength. Why does God want us to lift our hands in worship? This may be a bit anecdotal, but I believe God loves it when we reach out to Him...

LIFT YOUR HANDS REACHING OUT TO GOD

In another psalm, David was crying out to God for help when he said this...

Psalm 28:2 NLT

2 Listen to my prayer for mercy as I cry out to you for help, as I lift my hands toward your holy sanctuary.

I’ll never forget when my oldest nephew was barely able to walk my brother brought him to visit. It was cold that day and my mom had a pellet stove that was running. You know how kids that age are, if you take the time to turn in a complete circle, but the time you finish they can be 100 yards away and trying to start a lawn mower. That happened on this day. I turned just in time to see him climb up on the hearth and put both hands on the glass before anyone could get to him.

What do kids do when they get hurt? They turn to you and lift their hands. God loves it when we turn to Him and raise our hands to reach out to Him. No loving father would turn from the lifted hands of his child.

James 4:8 (NLT)

8 Come close to God, and God will come close to you.

We raise our hands to worship God, to reach out to Him, and we lift hands as an offering of praise...

LIFT YOUR HANDS AS AN OFFERING OF PRAISE

Lifting up your hands can be an offering to God. In fact, that is exactly what David called his upraised hands in a prayer at a very low point in his life. He said this in a Psalm...

Psalm 141:1–2 (NLT)

1 O Lord, I am calling to you. Please hurry! Listen when I cry to you for help! 2 Accept my prayer as incense offered to you, and my upraised hands as an evening offering.

Have you ever lifted your hands as an offering to God? Looked past the awkwardness. Stepped out of your spiritual comfort zone. Just lifted up your hands in worship and said, “God I’m offering my heart to you. I’m offering my praise to you. Not because of what I see, but because of who you are.”

God loves it when we lift our hands in worship. He loves it when we reach out to Him. He loves it when we offer our praise to Him. Another reason we lift our hands is to do battle...

LIFT YOUR HANDS TO DECLARE BATTLE

The holiday seasons normally magnify whatever is going on in your life. If things are going great the Christmas season may come and go in a flash and you just skip along the clouds the entire time. But for a lot of us, this season may magnify the bad things that are going on in our lives. This could be a depressing or difficult time for you and your family and you may need to lift your hands to declare battle against the enemy.

The best example of this is in the OT when the Amalekites attacked the Israelites. Then Moses said to Joshua, “Choose some men and go to battle. Tomorrow I’ll stand on top of the hill and raise my hands to God.”

Exodus 17:10–11 (NIV)

10 So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill. 11 As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning.

Winning (hands up), Losing (hands down).

If you are in a battle, it is probably time to raise your hands. Raise your hands in worship to God for who He is and what He has done for you. Reaching out to God for His comfort and His help. Raising your hands offering praise to Him, even when you don’t feel like it. Especially when you don’t feel like it. If you are really struggling it might be time to get serious and declare battle. Raising your hands to God for Him to do battle for you.

What’s interesting is the very next verse. Moses held up his hands all day, but after a while he had to start getting tired and not able to do it on his own.

Exodus 17:12–13 (NLT)

12 Moses’ arms soon became so tired he could no longer hold them up. So Aaron and Hur found a stone for him to sit on. Then they stood on each side of Moses, holding up his hands. So his hands held steady until sunset. 13 As a result, Joshua overwhelmed the army of Amalek in battle.

Not only do we need God, we need each other. We worship together. We raise our hands together. When doing the good work God has called us to gets difficult and we can’t do it anymore, we absolutely need each other to hold up our hands to God. Think about the last time you raised your hands. What was it for? Did you raise your hands for God or was it something else? Was it for a football team? Some other sport?

There is nothing wrong with that, but here is the point. We lift our hands all the time for things. But what would happen if we would lift our hands to worship God by reaching out to Him, to offer Him praise, to face our battles with His victory? Think about it like this… Throughout history lifting hands have symbolized 2 things.

Victory - go crazy at games, jump up and down, etc...

Surrender - someone points a gun at you, then your hands go up in surrender.

When you lift your hands to God it means both at the same time. In the moment you surrender to God you find victory in Him. As we close today, I want to challenge every one of you to lift your hands to God in worship as we pray. You may simply be reaching out to God, you may be offering Him praise, you may be declaring battle, or you may have some completely different reason for lifting your hands to God this morning, you may even have a specific prayer in your heart that you pray while we close, but the important thing is that we all lift our hands in worship this morning as we pray.

Let’s pray (raise hands)

Father, thank you for who you are. Thank you for sending your Son to bring victory. Today we surrender to You and give you praise for your love and mercy. We lift our hands to you in worship.