Better than a Hallelujah
Today’s sermon was not the one I had planned on giving, I guess I will save that until next week. This weeks sermon is based on the new song by Amy Grant “Better than a Hallelujah.” See if you have been following along my wife and I just had a new baby and I heard this song on the radio after my daughter O.J. was born and I wept like a baby and it just played over and over in my head until I turned it into a sermon this morning. Here is the music video for the song. At the bottom of this post you can find the Audio for the Sermon you can click here and download it on iTunes
Hallelujah, this is Hebrew for Praise the Lord. However, it means so much more than simply praise the Lord. It is a verb, it means to give everything we have to God as a thank you for what God has done. When David dance naked in the streets and said he would become even more undignified for God. That is what it means to give Hallelujah to God.
The Hallelujah praise is what God desires and loves and wants from us. However, I think there is something else that God wants more than a Hallelujah.
Our daughter, O.J. almost died while being born. She came out blue and had the cord around her neck. In those moments my prayers were Oh God! Hallelujah came later when she started screaming but I think that the tearful prayers for help are the ones that maybe God likes better because it is in those times when God gets to do what God does.
God is still in the business of creation and salvation and loves to show off the works of His hands and when we call on God, is when God gets to get down to business.
Our cries to hold our loved one’s hands just a little longer, they sound better to God than a Hallelujah
Our prayers that say “God, I’m ready to see you face to face” they are better than a Hallelujah.
These are the times when God gets to work, when God gets to come into our lives, do something brand new and create a whole new thing that we have never seen before and God loves that.
When our prayers are filled with tears of shame, or our prayers just won’t come because it hurts to much to speak. To God it is better than a Hallelujah.
When we bring our honest, open, and messy hearts to God and say “I have no idea what to do.” God hears heaven’s melody and loves it more than a hallelujah, because it is in our broken and hurting times that we are raw and God can use us the most.
Sermon Audio
Tags: Amy Grant, Hallelujah, jesus, Prayer, suffering
