Heart Tracks - Onlookers?

" Then Elijah stood in front of them and said, 'How long are you going to waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him! But if Baal is God, then follow him!' But the people answered him not a word." I Kings 18:21..."Elijah's audience was noncommittal. They did not declare themselves. They were spectators, onlookers." Vance Havner

This passage of Scripture and what follows it in I Kings should give us great pause, for it is repeated weekly across our fellowships. Elijah had boldly declared the power and supremacy of the one true God, Jehovah, over and against that of one who is no god at all, Baal. He confronted the people with a choice, one that required an answer...."but they answered him not a word." I believe the crowd had gathered here in anticipation of watching a good "show," a contest between Elijah, God's man, and Baal's priests, 400 of them. They came to be entertained. If you read further, you see that God did indeed move with great power in the midst of it all, and the people most certainly had a wondrous "show" before them, but nowhere do we see them worship the Father. Can we dare to ask if much of the same is happening in what we call worship today? Are a great number of our people coming for "the show" rather than to come humbly before Him, to behold Him, to choose Him with all of their being, and simply worship Him? In I Corinthians, Paul writes of knowing and experiencing "the simplicity that is in Christ." Have we become so dependent on appealing to the senses that we have lost the simplicity of knowing Him in the Spirit?

I do understand that we live in a time when people are more "sense" oriented to sights and sounds than ever before, yet I have to ask, have we gone too far in all of it? Have we tried so hard to bring about a "mood" of worship that we're missing the One we're to worship in the midst of it all? Have we so made our sanctuaries to resemble movie houses and arenas that we've made it very easy for the people to be anonymous onlookers, spectators in the midst of it? They may love the effects, and greatly enjoy the show, but when it comes to the purpose of all worship, giving all of themselves to Him, are they too, "answering not a word?" Do they exit the sanctuary no differently than they exit the movie theater? In all the glitz, have we lost the simplicity....and wonder and beauty, that is Jesus Christ?

I ask these things not with harsh criticism but with a desire to really allow Him to search us out in all of this. Are we ruled more by cultural trends, or the One who is unchanging, and who needs no supporting props? Are we raising up a generation of onlookers, or worshipers? I leave with this; back when I first came to Christ, I was hungry beyond words for Him. I'm of the generation that fully embraced what could be visually experienced, and embraced it myself. Yet the church that drew me had nothing to offer in this realm. What it did have was a preacher devoted to His Word and life, and who could make Christ real to me. I knew little or nothing of the Bible, and I was a stranger to what a church worship service was, but I knew He was in the midst of it.....and I wanted all of Him that I could lay hold of. That was enough, He was enough. I believe He's still enough. Is He enough for you?

Blessings,
Pastor O