This post is about the connection between Hall of Famers and Worship.
Stay with me …
His name was Wilbur “Pete” Henry. They called him “Fats” and he was legendary as football lineman. Inducted into the Football Hall of Fame, actually. How big was he? An astounding 5 feet 11 inches and 245 pounds. I know: suddenly not that impressive, is it? How many High School seniors have those dimensions? Compared to New Orleans offensive tackle Ryan Ramczyk, who is 6 foot 6 inches and 313-pounds, poor Pete wouldn’t stand a chance.
It's humbling, isn’t it, to discover just how serious one’s limitations are.
Consider our own star, the Sun. (note: see the links below!)
With a circumference of 432,000 miles, it is 109 times larger than our Earth. It is massive beyond imagination: a mass about 330,000 times that of Earth. In fact, it is so dense, that it comprises about 99.86% of the total mass of our Solar System. How much of that mass do you comprise? Every second, the Sun's core fuses about 600 million tons of hydrogen into helium, and in the process converts 4 million tons of matter into energy. The surface of the sun is 10,000 F – if you took a pinpoint of that nuclear reaction and somehow placed it on earth, it would be the equivalent of a hydrogen bomb, evaporating 90 square miles. Yet without the Sun, life on Earth would be impossible; it’s planets spin round it in perfect, synchronous order. Me? I have trouble remembering to take my blood pressure meds …
But let’s compare our Sun to another star in our observable Universe: consider Canis
Majoris – The Big Dog. It is 4,982 light years away from us. It is so large, you could fill it with 9.3 billion of our suns into it. Humor me by letting me by letting me repeat that for dramatic effect: it is so large, you could fill it with 9.3 billion of our suns into it. (see the illustration)
Why do I mention this? To make you feel small? No, but to empirically say: you are small – profoundly small. But that doesn’t mean you’re not important. Like many things in the Universe – just because they are small doesn’t meant they have immense importance.
God tells us in Genesis that he “simply” spoke the Universe into existence. He just thought it, spoke it, and it was – from the macro-view of the observable Universe down to the smallest quark (one of the smallest sub-atomic quantum particle we can find … so far) – He did it all. But his most prized possession? People. You and me. We are so valuable that he disrupted the Fellowship of all fellowships so that we could be a part of his family. The cost was high – so high, I don’t think we’ll ever understand. But this you can appreciate: human beings far underestimate the priority and lengths God would go through in order to protect his Family.
Why do I talk about this?
It’s in light of a message that I’m giving on May 28th and the primacy of worship. For you, it might be different, but for me, I believe that to the degree one is enchanted by the holiness of God, the beauty of God, the terrifying power of God, the immensity of God, and the magnificence of God, is the degree to which our lives will forever be changed. Label me for being caustic, but if you can walk away from that unchanged, it is not God who is the problem. It will accelerate the intensity of our earnestness in seeking him, empower our work in growing or serving him, and it maximizes his intended fruitfulness of our lives. In other words, when you finally understand how small you are – and yet how unimaginably important you are to him – nothing else will matter but Him, his fame, his renown, his pleasure, and the very best worship that we can bring.
Perhaps the prophet, king, and poet-warrior David said it best:
Ascribe to the Lord, you mighty ones, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. 2 Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; worship the Lord in the splendor of his[a] holiness.
Psalm 29
The one thing I want you to know after Sunday is that your praise matters. It matters to you. It matters to others. And most importantly, it matters to God and for God. No one else can construct praise like you can.
My prayer is that to your dying day, you will strive to achieve the most passionate emotion, the loudest shout, the fiercest applause, and unified spirit for his fame and glory.
Other Stuff
"Still In Control" by Jesus Culture with Mack Brock
This is the song I referred to in the message and "sang" (but didn't even come close to actually singing it).
There's a point where he says, "Maybe you're at a place where you can't sing 'it is well"; maybe you're a place where you say, "I don't want to say 'it is well'; but we're going to speak it, anyway."
Right then, I made an altar to the Lord and gave him my sacrifice of praise. Sometimes the most important songs can't be sung; the most important decisions we never see; the most important actions, deep in our heart.
Would you like to expand your awe? Expand your sense of wonder? Grab a golf ball (you’ll understand later), and try these Louis Giglio videos on for size:
Indescribable: https://youtu.be/Qh4HcVY2_KE
How Great is Our God: https://youtu.be/atUGBua2AzE
Learn more about the incredible Dr. Helen Roseveare:
https://deeprootsathome.com/helen-roseveare-congo-missionary-doctor-grace-to-forgive-rapists/