Praising God for the Wrong Reason

Gene A. Smith, an American historian, authored a book entitled, "When the Cheering Stopped". The book told of Woodrow Wilson and the events surrounding WWI. Upon the end of the war, people ere optimistic, people had hope for freedom and democracy everywhere, people started cheering. Every place Woodrow Wilson went, he was cheered. He went to Europe and he was cheered. He went to parades and he was cheered. Throughout the land, he was cheered.

The cheering lasted about a year until things changed. European leaders started caring more about their region than the entire world, and the cheering stopped. Politicians within the Senate defeated the idea of league of nations and the cheering stopped. In the next election Wilson's party lost, and the cheering stopped.


Jesus experienced this on Palm Sunday. People always cheer you as long as you do what they want you to do. SO they cheered Jesus. The Jews desired a king to free them from Roman rule, to end the oppression and to set restore them to an elite status again. As Jesus sits on the colt, prophecy is fulfilled and people cheered.


Then, it all changed. Jesus didn't gather any troops, didn't lead a revolt, instead of shaking up the government, he shook up the church, and the cheering stopped. He taught in order to be great you must be a servant, and the cheering stopped. He gave to Caesar what belonged to Caesar and rendered to God what belonged to God, and the cheering stopped. The question begs to be asked,

"Why do we Praise God"? The people had: THE RIGHT MESSAGE----HOSANNA, SAVE US THE RIGHT METHOD-----PRAISE WAS VERBAL AND VICTORIOUS THEY HAD THE WRONG MOTIVE--THEY DIDN'T WANT A REDEEMER, THEY WANTED A KING

They were like the Pharisees that Jesus warned us about when he said, "They praise me with their lips but their heart is far from me". This is why it was so easy to flip the script from "save us" to "Crucify Him"! Authentic Worship is not based on signs and symbols such as palm branches or meaningless words.

Authentic Worship is about SURRENDER. Surrender to the Will of God for the Purpose of our lives, SURRENDER to the Way of God that protects our lives and SURRENDER to the Word of God which Prospers our lives. Authentic Worship is not about what God has done but we worship God for who he is.

A secular analogy to teach a spiritual premise, "A wife does an activity or blesses her husband in a certain way, the husband becomes spoiled to this, One day , things change beyond her control and the activity ceases. Does the Husband trade her in for a newer model? Sadly in some case this happens because the husband fell in love with the activity rather than the essence of the wife that made her perform the activity. As long as her essence is the same, the activities may come and go, change and alter, but the essence that makes her give in the first place is still there.

A lot of people are in love with God and praise God for his activity and have not worshipped God for his essence, that is who he is, and who is HE?

He is Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.
He is my redemption, my ransom, my sacrifice, my propitiation, my kinsmen redeemer,
He is my lily of the Valley my bright and morning star, my rose of Sharon, .............................


Owens