Hi! My name is James Barnes. For those of you who don’t know me I am one
of hundreds of volunteers that has the privilege of serving the Lord and
the body of Christ on a weekly basis here at the Vineyard. I
specifically work with the Jr. High E.D.G.E. youth Group on Wednesday
evenings, oversee the Youth Greeter Team on Sunday mornings, and oversee
the Fifth Sunday Greeter Team for the Main Service. As well as working
with youth, I am currently going through the Vineyard Leadership
Institute offered here at the church. For those of you who may have
considered attending VLI or are considering it I would highly recommend
it. VLI has been the most incredible experience for me personally and
spiritually as God has stretched me and grown me. The Lord has shown me
that he has made me and “wired” me a specific way for a reason. Over the
past five months he has begun to reveal his plan for my life and given
me vision and purpose for ministry. Sorry if this sounds like a
sales-pitch, but if you can’t tell, I’m totally sold on the program!!!
I
am writing this article to share with you something that the Lord has
laid on my heart. A few weeks ago I was a counselor up at the Jr. High
and Sr. High Winter Camps. This is my third camp as a counselor and for
those of you who have never thought of volunteering for a camp I can
tell you I am always blessed and ministered to far above and beyond
whatever I can humbly offer.
Over the course of the two weekends I had the opportunity to observe our
youth during worship. Let me tell you there is something special about
seeing a hundred youth getting excited about worshipping our Lord! It’s
a contagious type of excitement to see kids raise their hands, jump up
and down, kneel, or even cry for the first time as a result of being
touched by the Holy Spirit.
During Sr. High Camp the Lord began speaking to me. One night during
worship I felt the Lord say to me, “Why is it that you only get this
excited about worshipping me at a camp or a retreat?” As I began to
ponder this it broke my heart. The last time I could remember our youth
getting this excited about worship was at summer camp. I then remembered
attending a men’s retreat and how powerful the worship was then and how
many of the men really seemed into it. I asked the Lord why we couldn’t
worship him with the same fervor year round regardless of our where we
were. I felt the Lord answered, “The fear of man”. As a result of
this I ended up feeling led to get up in front of the camp and challenge
them to not leave the experience of intimate worship “up on the hill”,
but to bring it home to their respective churches and youth groups. So,
if you see any of our youth up front during the worship service don’t
panic.
About a week after camp during a time of
personal prayer and worship the Lord again began recounting the things
at camp and the things that he had placed on my heart about worship and
I strongly felt the Lord urge me to challenge the rest of the body as
well. After a few moments of arguing with the Lord, out of the fear of
man and the fear of my own inadequacies, I decided it best to call my
mentor and friend, Pastor Trevor Estes to share what God had laid on my
heart. Pastor Tri graciously agreed to let me write this article.
So here it is. Have you ever felt like
you wanted to raise your hand, kneel down, jump, or shout to the Lord,
but didn’t because you were afraid of what people might think? The “fear
of man” is a tool of the enemy. Satan hates it when we worship. He
especially hates it when we really get into it, focusing all of
our attention and energy on God and not on anyone around us. He uses our
fears and personal hang-ups to keep us in a place of bondage, impeding
us from TRUE worship. I’m not saying you have to get emotional or jump
up and down to worship. How we choose to worship the Lord is a personal
matter between you and God. Our worship should be from our hearts; it
should be true and authentic, spontaneous and real; not scripted and
thought out. BUT, if we feel like getting excited during worship and
don’t then we are allowing The Enemy to steal something very sacred to
God, our uninhibited worship and praise.
I want to challenge us as a church body
to step out of our comfort zones. If you have never raised your hands
before, but wanted to, I challenge you to close your eyes and not worry
about your neighbor, but focus on the Lord and raise your hand as a sign
of love, worship, and praise to the King.
If you have ever wanted to bow down,
kneel, or sit during worship and haven’t, I want to encourage you to be
obedient to the Lord and worship him the way you feel He has impressed
on your heart to do so, without feeling embarrassed.
If you have ever felt an excitement
bubble up within you and have wanted to “shout” to the Lord, or jump, or
dance, but have never allowed yourself to do so, I want to encourage you
to worship the Lord “in Spirit and truth” today! “Where the
Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom” and I believe the Lord wants
to deliver us from the bondage of the “fear of man” and impart a Spirit
of Freedom upon his children to worship him however we feel led. Jesus
paid the precious price for our fears and personal hang-ups, with his
blood so that we may worship in absolute freedom.
e have every reason to get excited!
We have been given the gift of eternal life! We have the Holy Spirit as
a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance and empowering us to walk out
this Christian life. We serve the King who has already been declared
victorious over death, the grave, and the enemy and has been seated at
the right hand of the Father!!! So lets not save up our best or most
intimate worship for camps and retreats, but instead let’s lay it all on
the line every time we have the privilege and honor to
enter into holy worship of our awesome God and Creator, our precious
Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!!!!
Psalms 150:6”Let everything
that has breathe praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.”
