Forgive me for doing this, but I'm not even going to cover the morning events at Passion 2010. It's not that they weren't important, but I just need more room to share with you about the evening session. I'm not sure that I have ever been in the midst of a more passionate and authentic movement of worship in my entire life.
The Passion band led worship and it was rich in its intensity. You could sense a different kind of vibe if you will. The songs were the same ones they had been leading us with the past couple of days but tonight they just sounded and felt different. Maybe it's because we were more familiar with them, I don't know.
John Piper brought the message tonight and if you are even remotely familiar with him then you understand that there was a ton of stuff to unpack from our brains after he was done. He spoke on the topic "Is Jesus an Egomaniac?" and he drew on instances from people such as Oprah Winfrey and others who have declined to enter in a relationship with God because they couldn't see themselves worshiping a God who commanded that His followers give Him glory and praise. To them, that makes Him an incredibly arrogant and self-seeking God.
Piper countered that with the truth that God is relentlessly God-centered not because He needs us to worship Him but rather because He is gracious to us. When we are invited by God to give Him the highest praise then we receive the greatest joy. There is no joy, no grace apart from God. So if we don't worship Him and give Him glory then we are a pitiful people. So God's desire for exaltation is not the act of ego but rather an act of love to us. Got that?
At the end of his message there was just a sense of God moving in the place, an almost sixth sense that it wasn't time to go just yet. So under the direction of Louie Giglio we waited quietly upon the Lord, not saying or doing anything, just waiting. And when it was time to leave the arena to go to community groups we did so in complete silence. 21,000+ people leaving Philips Arena and the GWCC in complete and total silence is an incredible sight to behold.
After we tried to break down what we had just heard and experienced in our family community groups, we headed back to Philips Arena for a light night Hillsong United concert. Actually, it was not really a concert but rather a worship event. United is one of my favorite worship groups and seeing them live was something I was pumped about experiencing, but following their lead in worship was even more worthwhile. An hour and a half show seemed like only minutes and I didn't know that I could possibly sing that long or that loud.
Tonight was one of those nights when God had his way with all of us. It's really hard to describe or put into clearer words than that. When God truly becomes the object of our worship and not just the topic of a praise song, then He is truly receiving the glory that is due to Him alone.
No comments:
Post a Comment