Are You a Better Microphone or Mute?

Are you a better microphone or mute?

One of the highlights of growing up was getting into Jr. High. If you were in Jr. High, you were cool. You had arrived. You were a mature young person on your way to the top! Things were different in middle school than they were in elementary. For example, you ate in the cafeteria only with the big kids – no sharing a table with a lowly first grader! If you wanted pizza and nachos, you could help yourself. Sports were more competitive (so we thought). The girls were definitely better looking. And then there was band – ah yes, that first experience into a musical panoply that just couldn’t be had in 5^th grade music class.

Band was cool. All my life, I had wanted to play the trumpet. I had played Winthrop in our community’s production of Music Man when I was 6 years old. At the end of the play, Winthrop is given a brand new shiny coronet by the infamous Professor Hill – and since that moment, I wanted to play one! And so it was. On my 12^th birthday, I got an old, beat up coronet that I thought was amazing. In time I learned to play and began to excel beyond the skill of all my classmates. When I was in the 8^th grade, I finally made first chair, and I was so proud. However, there was a brand new 6^th grader in band that year who also wanted to play trumpet. In truth, he was horrible. Try as he may, he had very little musical ability – but he loved to hold up his horn and blow loudly. In time, his playing got so distracting that the director decided to give him a mute to stuff in the end of his horn to take the edge off of his wrongness. But that didn’t discourage Chuck in the least. He still showed up everyday and played his heart out - out of tune, out of sync, and out of his mind!

What we didn’t know is that behind the scenes, the director had committed to work with Chuck to improve any amount of skill that might be hidden within him. When our end of the year concert came, we all showed up to the performance in great expectation of showing off to our family and friends. Every year, the director would give out awards to individual members who had various achievements. One such reward was the “most improved” award given to the member who had show the biggest turn around that year. When the time came to give that award, it was given to none other than Chuck. We were all astonished that he was given any award; afterall, what we heard each week was a muted version of a bad trumpeter. He then called Chuck to the stage, make a few remarks and had him play a few notes with the mute in. Everyone grimaced (even more so than usual at a Jr. High band concert). Then he had Chuck take his mute out and play a simple song into the microphone. The transformation was amazing! The notes were clear and precise. The crowd erupted in applause, and we all sat in awe of what he had done.

I’ll ask it again. Are you a better microphone or mute? The reign of God is breaking in all around us. He is doing incredible things and has poured out blessing upon blessing. When God works an amazing thing in your life, are you a better mute or microphone? Are you quick to put a stopper in the end of your praises, or do you step up to the microphone and shout out what God has done for you. When others experience great things, are you quick to stifle their happiness with sarcasm and negativity, or do you rejoice with them in praising God? In our worship this Sunday, we are going to look at the great ways God worked in the life of HO in 2005. Just as Jesus took what was little and made a lot, so too has he taken what would have been meager in our hands and turned it into a feast of his abundance. We are also going to face our hopes forward for 2006 and ask for a continued blessing for HO. Come to worship this Sunday ready to shout out your praises to God, not with a mute but with a microphone!

Resounding Themes:
God’s Resounding Faithfulness
Magnificence and Might of God
Thankfulness and Gratitude
Voicing our Praises

Ready, Set, READ

Matthew 14:13-20

Ready, Set, MEDITATE

- How are Jesus’ and the disciples’ reaction to the crowd different?

- What does Jesus do before the blessing is received? Does this have anything to say to us about reviving a blessing from God?

- In 2005, how did God bless your life through Highland Oaks? Did you thank him?

Ready, Set, PRAY

Most magnificent Father, I praise your glorious name. Your faithfulness to me began before I was born and will continue past the edges of my existence. Not only have You been faithful, but You have poured out Your generous blessings upon Your body at Highland Oaks! Time and time again in 2005, You lavished Your love upon us, and we say “thank you.” What was meager in our hands, O Father, You turned into an innumerable bounty. What could have only achieved a small affect by our own efforts was given great power by Your blessing and, in turn, affected many. Even so Father, give me the ability to also look forward to the amazing bounty that You have in store for Highland Oaks in 2006. We are hungry for spiritual food that does not spoil, but that endures unto eternal life, which comes from Your hands. And most holy Lord, we will forever give the praise, glory, and honor due Your name for the great things You have done! In Christ. AMEN.

Ready, Set, WORSHIP!