Make His Praise Glorious

We’re going to carefully examine some things this morning so that we can make His praise glorious. Amen! Is that your heart? Would you love to know that the worship and praise you present to God is as possibly free from self as possible, and as pure an offering to His glory as possible? In short, I want to talk about how we need to avoid some serious potholes of praise. I have a pothole at the end of my street that has been there so long I should probably name him - I don’t know - but the neat thing about a pothole is no matter what you do to it, it’s never quite fixed. It just varies in depth. You can pour dirt in it, you can pour gravel in it, you can tar it over - I believe you could cement it - you could pour liquid titanium in it - but it would not be fixed! So, it just becomes a part of your life that you continually drive around. How many of you have a pothole on the way to work, or to the store, or to school that it has just become a part of your life? Anybody have one? Well, I hope that you never see that pothole the same. Now when you look at it you’ll think about praise and how we have to avoid certain potholes.

The first big pothole I want to call “narcissistic worship.” Narcissus was a youth from Greek mythology who wouldn’t respond to any of the female nymphs running in the woods who loved him. One of the nymphs was so hurt she prayed that he would experience what it’s like to want to give love but not have the one loved respond. And sure enough, Narcissus went one day and looked in a very clear fountain of water and saw his own reflection and he fell in love with himself. And he would lean down to kiss himself and the image would disappear. Then he would rise up and he would see it come back. He was fixated on this image and when he cried the image would disappear. So he kept looking and looking and looking and eventually he lost his handsomeness because all the life and all the vigor drained away from him. It’s said that even after he went over to the other side in death and he was being transported across the river Styx that he still leaned out over the edge of the boat to try to look at himself.

There is a pastor named Chuck Smith at Calvary Chapel - the fellowship where the Maranatha label was born - and he went out into his congregation one time to interview them about what they were expecting out of their worship service. Here’s what he writes:

“Almost every person expressed something different. One person wanted relief from stress at work. Another was hoping to see God answer a prayer for a friend, etc. In other words, each person’s expectation as to what would happen during the service was born out of personal need and desire. They saw going to church that night as a resource to help them cope with their current concerns. We learn that in spite of our efforts to give worship a particular meaning, people bring their own meanings to the service. Second, the one expectation the majority of people shared was for some kind of encounter with God. Beyond the program, the social interaction, the music, the message, they wanted to touch God. Again, this desire was born out of personal need, a need they believed God alone could fill.”