It's not out of the ordinary. It is just a way of expressing emotion when we praise God. I do that myself during worship when I hear a song that is just so moving and so powerful, that I want to raise my hand and lift God's name up, and praise Him.
Let me give you an example of one of the hymns that usually makes me want to just raise my voice and sing or raise my hands up. The hymn is called "In Christ Alone"
Now think about what Christians believe and what this song is saying! Especially this verse:
"There in the ground his body lay,
light of the world, by darkness slain;
then, bursting forth in glorious day,
up from the grave he rose again!
And as he stands in victory,
sin’s curse has lost its grip on me;
for I am his and he is mine,
bought with the precious blood of Christ."
Think about it. HE DIED!!! IMAGINE SOMEONE DYING IN YOUR PLACE WHEN YOU SUPPOSE TO BE THE ONE DYING!!! (yellow part) AND THEN HE CAME BACK FROM THE GRAVE, DEFEATED DEATH (red part) THIS IS NOT SOME NORMAL SACRIFICE, BECAUSE OF THIS SACRIFICE, MY SIN IS CLEANSED. I'M NOT CURSED OR HELD BY SIN!!! (blue part) AND THE BEST PART, I'M ADOPTED BACK TO GOD. SIN SEPARATED ME FROM GOD, AND CHRIST USED HIS BLOOD TO UNITE US BACK!!! I AM BOUGHT BACK (green part). (sorry with the caps, I get excited writing this as well)
I challenge you to read those lyrics again and think about what the message of Christianity is. That is the reason why the main message is called the "gospel," or "Good News" because it is great news. It shows what a loving God that we have!!!!! That He would bother coming to our puny level to die and save us from our own problems, our sin!! And these lyrics are not written only when your life is stable or peaceful or without problems. read the last sentence in the song: "till he returns or calls me home,
here in the pow’r of Christ I’ll stand!" (meaning, either He comes back soon, or if I die early before He comes back, I still stand here as a child of God, I'll still praise him)
If you think about it, there are other contexts that show expressions of emotion that could be seen as "weird" by certain people by looking at the action itself: bobbing heads in a rock concert, celebration in scoring in a sporting event, breakdown and grieve during a sad moment, all of these actions are done because of expression of emotion. Raising hands during worship and sermon is no different, only the context is to worship God and give praises to Him.
It's not out of the ordinary. It is just a way of expressing emotion when we praise God. I do that myself during worship when I hear a song that is just so moving and so powerful, that I want to raise my hand and lift God's name up, and praise Him.
Let me give you an example of one of the hymns that usually makes me want to just raise my voice and sing or raise my hands up. The hymn is called "In Christ Alone"
Now think about what Christians believe and what this song is saying! Especially this verse:
"There in the ground his body lay,
light of the world, by darkness slain;
then, bursting forth in glorious day,
up from the grave he rose again!
And as he stands in victory,
sin’s curse has lost its grip on me;
for I am his and he is mine,
bought with the precious blood of Christ."
Think about it. HE DIED!!! IMAGINE SOMEONE DYING IN YOUR PLACE WHEN YOU SUPPOSE TO BE THE ONE DYING!!! (yellow part) AND THEN HE CAME BACK FROM THE GRAVE, DEFEATED DEATH (red part) THIS IS NOT SOME NORMAL SACRIFICE, BECAUSE OF THIS SACRIFICE, MY SIN IS CLEANSED. I'M NOT CURSED OR HELD BY SIN!!! (blue part) AND THE BEST PART, I'M ADOPTED BACK TO GOD. SIN SEPARATED ME FROM GOD, AND CHRIST USED HIS BLOOD TO UNITE US BACK!!! I AM BOUGHT BACK (green part). (sorry with the caps, I get excited writing this as well)
I challenge you to read those lyrics again and think about what the message of Christianity is. That is the reason why the main message is called the "gospel," or "Good News" because it is great news. It shows what a loving God that we have!!!!! That He would bother coming to our puny level to die and save us from our own problems, our sin!! And these lyrics are not written only when your life is stable or peaceful or without problems. read the last sentence in the song: "till he returns or calls me home,
here in the pow’r of Christ I’ll stand!" (meaning, either He comes back soon, or if I die early before He comes back, I still stand here as a child of God, I'll still praise him)
If you think about it, there are other contexts that show expressions of emotion that could be seen as "weird" by certain people by looking at the action itself: bobbing heads in a rock concert, celebration in scoring in a sporting event, breakdown and grieve during a sad moment, all of these actions are done because of expression of emotion. Raising hands during worship and sermon is no different, only the context is to worship God and give praises to Him. 
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