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Gypsy Smith began preaching when he was 17; he died at the age of 87.
He said, "I was born in a field; don't put me in a flowerpot!"
He was told that he should preach and sing from his diaphragm, but he said, “I don’t want to sing from my diaphragm, I want to sing from my heart.”
Gypsy Smith was 82 years old and still preaching; full of vigor and vitality when he was asked, "What is the secret? How do you do it?" He said, “I have never lost the wonder.”
We must never allow serving the Lord to become mundane and routine that we lose the wonder. We must not allow the sacredness of the office to become so commonplace that our worship is no longer sincere, genuine, truthful, earnest, or heartfelt.
Joshua 24:14 a
14 Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in truth:
Our worship must be whole and complete, lacking nothing; it must be sincere! There’s no room for hypocrisy in worship!
When our worship becomes casual and careless, we're in danger of losing the wonder and awe in worshiping Almighty God.
Malachi 1:14 b
14 For I am a great King, saith the LORD of hosts, and my name is dreadful among the heathen.
There are some good people in bad churches that need to get out of those churches. Yet some stay in dead or dying churches because their grandmother is buried in the church cemetery. Some churches have gotten so bad that grandma would get up and leave herself if she could! When a church loses the wonder of worship it has lost its purpose.
We worship when we see God in His proper place, high and lifted up! He is exalted above all other gods!
He is God and there is none beside Him.
We worship when we see ourselves in our proper place! Without Him we are nothing and we can do nothing. He knows the frailty of our frame and that we are but dust.
Worship is not a frivolous or a light thing! It requires our full attention and our whole heart! Worship doesn’t just happen, it's not passive, it is with purpose and intention.
Psalm 9:1
1 I will praise thee, O Lord, with my whole heart.
“I WILL” ~ We must purpose to worship God!
It is possible to go to church week after week and never worship God. It takes a willful effort and purpose to give ourselves to prayer, praise and worship.
Matthew 15:8-9
8 This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoreth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.
9 But in vain they do worship me.
Maybe it's time we took Gypsy Smith's advice to lock ourselves in a room, kneel down in the middle of the floor, draw a circle around ourselves and ask God to start revival in that circle. That's how we keep from losing the wonder!
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