Worship And Our Identity (Part 1 Series

Worship and Our Identity (part 1)

JCC 31.01.10 am

The first in a series on worship

This is the second of the 4 pillars we are to build in this church

Worship is a broad term we use in Church

We say it but don’t really understand the full meaning behind it

Some have said that it defies explanation

Illustration: Merriam-Webster defines worship as, “to honour or reverence as a divine being or supernatural power” or “to regard with great or extravagant respect, honour, or devotion”

Ill: William Temples says, “Worship is the submission of all our nature to God. It is the quickening of conscience by his holiness; the nourishment of mind with his truth; the purifying of imagination by his beauty; the opening of the heart to his love; the surrender of will to his purpose -- and all of this gathered up in adoration, the most selfless emotion of which our nature is capable and therefore the chief remedy for that self-centeredness which is our original sin and the source of all actual sin.”

Since I started searching the word about worship, I realise how little I know

What’s more frightening is the little I know of His presence

There have been intimate times which I cherish, but not enough

Times when I could tangibly touch Him

In the beginning:

God’s creation was very good

The human heart was in perfect harmony with God and all creation

The object of man’s desire was the Lord

Satan knew the powerful relationship that God had with man

After all he was said to be the worshipper before man or anything on earth was created

Read: Ez 28:13-17

The deepest desire of Satan after his fall was to ruin man’s relationship with the Lord

He understood what worshipping God really meant

After all, didn’t he also try and tempt Jesus to bow down and worship him?

We have no idea of the effect on our lives because of the fall of man

Many of us have forgotten the real purpose of our creation from God’s point of view

Whatever was created, was for Him

Rev 4:11 "You are worthy, O Lord, To receive glory and honour and power; For You created all things, And by Your will they exist and were created."

Tozer put it this way:

“God stood the first man on his feet and said, ‘Look around, this is all yours, and look at me, I am yours, and I’ll look at you and I’ll see in your face the reflection of my own glory. That is your end, that is why you were created, that you might worship me and enjoy me and glorify me and have me as yours forever’”

Do you realise Adam and Eve had something none of us have ever experienced?

Sinlessness

True intimacy with the creator, because nothing stood between them and Him

A deep awareness of who He is

An understanding of the mind of God

Freedom to partake with Him and just enjoy Him

They were perfectly beautiful in every way

Image a world where sin does not exist

Where the Lord doesn’t have to veil His face

Where He is your all in all

God came and walked among them

He came to them daily. Why? For the time of worship

We don’t read that God had this same relationship with the trees, or animals; just man and woman

Only Adam and Eve were able to give God what He desired=worship

Then it was lost in a moment of time

Adam and Eve lost the most precious thing there was

They spiritually died which meant they lost fellowship with the Lord

They grew old and ugly as sin took hold of them

They experienced pain, breakdown in family life, a son murdered, then physical death

By them seeing themselves and making coverings of fig leaves they started religion

And we still have the same problem today where man tries to cover his sinful nature

Fig leave religion where man relies on his own ways to cover himself and tries to please a God they cannot see, let alone hear

The foundation of true worship is to bring God pleasure and man in the sinful nature can never do that no matter how hard he may try

People say because of this one tragic event we now see the diseases and poverty, the hate and violence of men, the depravity of sinfulness in sexual perversion

But the real tragedy is that the purpose for being created was gone

Why do we now exist?

Man has no purpose without the Lord

There is nothing to live for without the Lord in your life

For eternity doesn’t start when we die and depart this earth, but it starts as soon as we find Him again