Much of the interaction between Moses, Israel and the living God involved confrontation, condemnation, confession and contrition. The Old Testament books of Exodus through Deuteronomy inundate us with a sequence of painful stories that tell how God led those rebellious people for all those years. And one thing we know for certain, my friend: No one, positively no member of that massive march from Egypt to Canaan, went around singing, “Every day with Moses is sweeter than the day before!”
Exciting? The wilderness experience was a lot of things, but, for the most part, it was hard work, constant disputes, difficult assignments and long walks across desert terrain. The excitement showed up years later when they remembered only the good parts. (I can hear the children saying, “Oh grandpa—was it exciting following Moses all those years?” And I can imagine the old man struggling to find just the right combination of words, words that will inform, but not disillusion, that will enlighten without disappointing.)
When the prophet, Nathan, confronted David about his string of deadly sins involving Bathsheba, her husband—Uriah, a baby and one lie after another, it was something that had to be done, it was healing, and it was life-saving. But it was not exciting. It was pure misery for all involved, I guarantee.
Church services sometimes involve confrontation and confession, contrition and conversion. The aftermath is exciting, but the moment itself is like life in the “labor and delivery room.”
There are indeed great and exciting moments in the Lord’s service.
Someone gets saved and gloriously so. The congregation is rightfully thrilled and bursts into applause as he or she is baptized.
A new pastor is called, and a difficult interim time is now history. The congregation is excited and enthusiastically responding to his leadership.
The massive church debt which had crippled the ministries for years is finally retired, and the congregation turns out en masse to burn the note and celebrate.
The pastor had no way of knowing that today’s sermon would be different, but for reasons known only to the Holy Spirit, his message really connected with everyone in the building. The scriptures came alive as he spoke, hearts were open to God in unusual ways, tears were shed and worship went heavenward. The altar was filled and lives were changed forever. Exciting Few things are more exciting for the pastor, I’ll tell you that.
Oh, that it were this way every time we meet for worship.
As soon as you decide every worship service ought to be exciting is when you start making some foolish decisions.
Once your people demand excitement in every service, you, the pastor, soon resort to gimmicks and celebrity guests and carnal music and flashy ideas you picked up from friends. Pleasing God drops far down your list of goals, while pleasing your people takes over top-billing.
It’s all downhill from there.
I will not ever forget a service I attended as a young pastor. A church down the highway was reputed to be exciting and reaching a lot of people for the Lord. So, when they announced a revival meeting, I decided to visit.
What I saw that night sent chills up and down my spine.
