Preached in Markham Baptist Church, July 10, 2005

WILD FOR GOD!

Today you are setting out on a safari adventure in which you will be encouraged to be wild about God! This is the theme of our camp this year - WILD FOR GOD!

Now, wild is not a word we often associate with God. We talk about serving God, loving God, praising God, and worshipping God but being wild about God? Well, we don’t often hear that idea. We know of people who are wild about cats, wild about horses, wild about gardening and some of you may be wild about Harry. Are you any of you wild about Harry?

Do you know that this coming Saturday the sixth book in the Harry Potter series will be released? Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince hasn’t even been released and it has already been at the top of the Barnes and Noble best seller internet retail site since last December! The last book release in 2003 sold 5 million copies in 24 hours. And all of this has created a group of people who are wild about Harry. On Friday night there will be millions of people around the world who will line up outside their local bookstores in order to get a copy of this next installment in Harry Potter’s life. These people are wild about Harry.

If you are wild about Harry you can buy Wild about Harry tote bags, buttons, you can buy Wild about Harry t-shirts, And of course the Wild about Harry coffee mug. Even your dog can be Wild about Harry!

So in this world there are all sorts of things you can be wild about.

Do you get a sense of what it means to be wild about God? It means to be so in love with him that He is the focus of your life. At Kids’ Kamp you are going to meet several people this week who are wild about God. You will meet people like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego who were told that they had to worship an idol made of gold – but because they were wild about God they refused. They were so in love with God that God was the focus of their life and no idol could replace Him.

You will meet Daniel this week who was told that he had to pray to the king – if he didn’t, he would be thrown into the lion’s den to be eaten. But Daniel was wild about God – he loved God so much that he refused to pray to anyone but the living God.

That’s what it means to be wild about God – it means to be so in love with Him that He is the focus of your life.

But not only this, but to be wild means that you are untamed. That’s what it means to be wild, you are not tame, you are not reserved. That’s what the word means most often, so we speak of wild turkeys (as opposed to ordinary barn-raised turkeys), wildflowers, the wild man of Borneo, Wild Bill Hickcock (the old symbol of the untamed west), “two wild and crazy guys” (Steve Martin & Dan Akroyd), and the Wild Thornberrys (that crazy family who do not live a conventional, tame existence).

And so to be wild about God not only means to love God so much that He is the focus of your life, but it also means that you hold nothing back from God, you love Him without reserve, with no limitations. To be wild about God means that you give yourself to Him 100%, no holding back, no limitations.

This is what your Bible passage for the week calls us to do – To be wild about God. Turn to Psalm 150.

Do you see what this Psalm is saying? It’s saying be wild about God! In verses 3-5 it tells us that we are to praise Him with everything we’ve got, don’t hold anything back. Let your praise, let your love for God be untamable. Sometimes we can so tame in our worship of God, we can be so reserved in our love for God. We can say we will serve God on Sundays but not on Mondays. We will love God when everything is going right, but let one thing go wrong and we hate God.

But the Psalm says in verse 3-5 – hey, don’t hold anything back from God. It speaks specifically about praising God, don’t hold anything back. Get your hands on anything that you can to praise God. If there’s a trumpet nearby, praise Him with that; if there’s a lute or harp, use that, a tambourine or dance, or strings and pipe, or cymbals - loud clashing cymbals - praise God with that! Don’t hold anything back from praising God.

And praising God is not just an event, it’s a lifestyle, so don’t hold anything back from loving God or praising God – be wild about God. Give yourself to Him 100%.

And we may well ask, Why? Someone might say, “I can understand why someone would be wild about Harry, but why should I be wild about God? And the Psalm tells us why we should be wild about God.

“Praise him for his mighty deeds.” Be wild about God because of all that He has done. Think of all the things He has done. This week you will be surrounded by the wonder of creation. There will be the beautiful trees, the huge rocks, the fantastic starlit sky. And all of this was created by God. Now that’s a mighty deed – have you ever tried to create a tree? It’s no small thing. Or think of this – when you sit out in the field at night, and you look up at the sky and you see the stars - thousands upon thousands – when you look at all those stars, do you know that God knows each of those stars by name? (Isaiah 40:26). Creation is one of God’s great deeds and because of that, we should be wild about God.

Or think of the mighty deeds He did for His people all through the ages. Think of how He rescued the whole clan of the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt. Think of how He fed them all – thousands of thousands of people - in the wilderness every day for 40 years. Can you imagine that? Have you ever been in charge of making one meal for your family? And you know how hard that is for one night. But God fed all those people every day in the wilderness for 40 years.

The Bible is full of the mighty deeds of God – and you will study some of them this coming week. But of course one of His greatest deeds was coming to earth to live among us. It astounds me that God would actually leave all the beauties of heaven to live here on earth. But He did and He was hung on a cross and on the third day He rose from the dead.

Now rising from the dead is no small thing. It is a mighty deed.

And just in case you think that all of God’s mighty deeds are in the past, make sure you study modern history because our God is the living God, and He is active in this world. He is acting through men and women who are wild about Him and through them He is still doing mighty deeds. Do you know the organization called World Vision? It is a Christian organization filled with men and women who are wild about God and as a result millions of hungry people in this world are being fed daily. Do you know an organization called African Enterprise? It is a Christian organization filled with men and women who are wild about God and as a result the people of Africa are finding solutions to the Aids pandemic, hunger and illiteracy.

Do you know of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association? It is a Christian organization that is filled with mean and women who are wild about God and as a result millions of people around the world have heard about the love of God and the saving power of Jesus Christ.

Don’t think that God is only alive and well way back there – ask any member of this church and they will tell you of some mighty act of God that they have witnessed in their own life – of how they have had prayers answered, stresses relieved, diseases healed, children blessed, struggles met and overcome.

Praise God for His mighty deeds.

But it also says in that verse that we are to praise God according to His surpassing greatness! So not only can we be wild about God because of what He has done, but we can be wild about God because of who He is. Think of who He is. There is no other being on earth that is greater than God. If you were to take all the water that covers the earth – take all the water that is in the Arctic, Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans. Don’t forget all the water that is in the Mediterranean, Arabian, Carribean, Black, Caspian, Norwegian and North Seas and don’t forget to add all the great lakes, Superior, Huron, Erie, Michigan and Ontario. Take all the water that covers the earth - do you know that they would all fit in the hollow of God’s hand? (Isaiah 40:12) That’s how great He is.

Or think of the stars and the moon and think of how we have discovered galaxy upon galaxy and do you know they are like a tent to God. The next time you put up your Coleman tent, you remember that – that is what the heavens are to God “he stretches out the heavens … like a tent to live in.” (Isaiah 40:22). That’s how great He is.

Think not only about His surpassing greatness but also His power. Is there anyone more powerful than God? Take all the power of the leading countries in the world. Take all the guns, the ships, the missiles, the armed tanks, the hydro energy and nuclear power of China, Russia, India, Australia, France, Spain, Germany, the United States and England and this is what they come to when compared to God - a drop in the bucket. “Even the nations are a drop in the bucket.” (Isaiah 40:15).

There is no power that is greater than God.

Are you wild about God? Are you so in love with Him that He is the focus of your life? Are you wild about God so that you have given yourself to Him 100%?

Why should we be wild about God? Because of His mighty deeds and His surpassing greatness. His greatness surpasses everything else in the world.

That’s why we need to be wild about God.

But can I give you one other reason? We can be wild about God, not only because of His mighty deeds and His surpassing greatness – but there this also needs to be said, you can be wild about God because He’s wild about you!

He thinks you are wonderful! And He loves you so much that He has given Himself to you 100% in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ came to tell us that God is for us and loves us and He demonstrated that 100% commitment to you by laying down His life for you and for me on the cross. So that we may be forgiven that we may have His life in us.

I am awed by God’s greatness, I marvel at His wonderful deeds but nothing makes me wild about God more than realizing that He is wild about me. The Bible says, “This is how we know what love is, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (I John 4:10)

Do you know that God wears a t-shirt in heaven? It doesn’t say, “I’m wild about Harry”, it doesn’t have anything to do with Harry Potter. It says “I’m wild about John, I’m wild about Victoria, I’m wild about Stephanie, I’m wild about Bruce, and Laura, I’m wild about Ryan.” (It’s a really big t-shirt!)

God is wild about you! I think of all the times I’m not even wild about myself but to know that God is wild about me, well, that makes all the difference when I feel like I don’t have any friends in this world. When I feel that I can’t do anything right. When I feel like I’ve hit the bottom, to know that God the great God of the universe is wild about me, about you, makes all the difference and that’s why you can be wild about God, that’s why I can be wild about God and why the Psalmist says, Let every thing that has breath praise - let everything that has breath be wild about God.