Do You Mock Emotional Worship?
We should be embracing emotional worship and crying out to God for more of His Spirit in these dire times.
Shane Idleman addresses the mockery of emotional worship in conservative churches, emphasizing that such criticism often stems from a lack of genuine experience with God. He draws a parallel between being filled with the Spirit and the way people seek fulfillment through substances and food, urging believers to desire a deeper connection with God. Idleman highlights the importance of worship in preparing our hearts to receive the Spirit, especially in a time when society is increasingly confused about good and evil. He encourages congregants to embrace worship songs that express a longing for God's presence rather than ridicule them. Ultimately, he calls for a more authentic and Spirit-filled Christianity to combat the challenges facing families and communities today.
Full Transcript
As we were singing that song, Fill Me Up, it's disheartening for me to see a lot of those at conservative churches mock that song. The reason they mock it is they've never experienced God. Because we say fill me up with other things, give me another beer, give me another beer, give me another beer, we get filled up.
Give me another bite of that hamburger, another bite of that hamburger, another bite, give me those french fries, we get filled up. It's interesting, Paul correlates being filled with the Spirit with drunkenness. What Spirit are you guided by? What do you want to be filled with? And the reason many are touched by the Spirit of God is we've been worshipping all week.
That's why you'll see a stark difference between those who have been worshipping and those who have not. So that's a song we shouldn't be mocking, we should be embracing. God, fill me up.
Our heart cry should be I want more of you, more of you, more of you. Let it rain, oh my God, let it rain. Do you see the perversion that is overcoming our nation? Do you see that we're calling good evil and evil good? Do you see families breaking up? Do you see the opiate crisis? Do you see? Our heart cries should be fill me up.
Let it rain, God, I need more of your Spirit because comfortable Christianity is not going to cut it in these dire times. I don't even want to preach, I just want to worship, but I know we have to preach as well. But let me just encourage you, let's do a few more lyrics or stanzas of that song, Let It Rain, and the altar's open.
There were 63 people here yesterday at 6 a.m. for morning worship, hungry for more of God. Why are we embarrassed to come to the altar? We should be embarrassed not to. See, many people would be rather seen leaving a bar than leaving a church.
Christians, let's be honest. Hope my friends don't see me leaving, but if they see me leaving coaches, I'm good. Christians, and we think that's going to cut it? We think that's going to keep our marriages together and our families restored and fill with the Spirit of God? No, that's the problem is we're not filled with God's Spirit.
We mock the songs we should be embracing. I mean, I know myself in my 20s, I would have laughed at these songs. I would have said, you're a bunch of weak people.
Now I know better. I was weak. I could go get drunk and be filled with the wrong spirit, but God forbid I come in and want to be filled with the right spirit.
Sermon Outline
- The Problem of Mocking Emotional Worship
- The Importance of Being Filled with the Spirit
- A Call to Embrace Emotional Worship
- Our heart cry should be to want more of God
- The need for a deeper experience of God's Spirit in difficult times
Key Quotes
“What Spirit are you guided by? What do you want to be filled with?” — Shane Idleman
“Our heart cry should be I want more of you, more of you, more of you.” — Shane Idleman
“Let it rain, oh my God, let it rain.” — Shane Idleman
Application Points
- We should be embracing emotional worship and not mocking it.
- Our heart cry should be to want more of God and be filled with His Spirit.
- We need to come to the altar and be hungry for more of God's presence.