Responding to God

Francis Chan had amessage that was thought provoking during the conference. This blog is a mixture of his message and my thoughts on it.

How do people respond to the God we serve? Better yet, how do WE respond to the God we serve. Most believers know the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal. There was the showdown of who's served the true God. Was it Elijah? Or was it these prophets of Baal? Both camps build an altar, placing a sacrifice upon it. Whoevers god lit the fire would be the true God. Baal's prophets go first, praying to Baal and dancing around their altar. There was no answer so the men screamed louder and began to cut themselves, as Elijah mocked them.

Finally, it was Elijah's turn and just to make sure there was no doubt about the altar being lit, he had it soaked with four large pots of water three times. After all the preparations, Elijah approached the altar, praying "let it be known that You are God...Answer me so that this people will know that You, Yahweh, are God and that You have turned their hearts back." With those words, fire from heaven fell and consumed the offering, the wood, even the altar itself. When the people saw this, they fell facedown saying "Yahweh, He is God! Yahweh, He is God!" There response was one of fear and great awe. There was no doubt who God was and they had just encountered and experience His awesome power.

Today, do people respond like the prophets of Baal when they encounter God? When people come to our worship services, is their response, and our response for that matter, one in which we fall facedown and proclaim that God is Lord? Today, I don't see or find much fear and awe amongst churches. What I find in many churches today is people serving more of a man-made god than the God who created the whole universe. I find people worshipping the pastor or the music, rather than coming face to face with the God who makes mountains tremble and who knows the number of hairs on our head. It's easy to worship and follow a god that is more like us because to follow a god like us means there will be very few moments in which we are asked to be uncomfortable, or to sacrifice. It's a lot easier to serve a god we know really doesn't have anymore power than we do.

I can't help but ask the question then, are our worship services really about God, or about us? Are the services really supernatural? Or, are we too consumed with man-made performance? I think one of the biggest pitfalls of the American church today is comfort and complacency. When was the last time that you really responded to God like the prophets of Baal? When was the last time you were so overwhelmed by the magnificence of God that all you could do was fall facedown before the Lord because you recognized that He, indeed, is the true Lord. Not money, not man, not music, not power or pride, but that He was and is the true God.