Sermon Central
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Adoration Of God Alone
Contributed by Stephen Belokur on Jul 30, 2020 (message contributor)
Summary: The words adore and adoration have been trivialized over the past few decades. Do we worship and adore the God of Heaven and earth alone or are others drawing our worship-attention away to places it does not belong?
Adoration of God Alone
Today we will be reading from 1 Chronicles 29:10-13
Adoration. I don’t know if you realized this but every song we sang this morning contained the word “adore” or “adoration”.
“Father, I adore You … Jesus, I adore You … Spirit, I adore You…”
“Holy, holy, holy! All the saints adore Thee …”
“It is You we adore, it is You praises are for …”
“Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee …”
“With all creation I sing praise to the King of kings.
You are my ev’rything and I will adore You …”
You see, adoration was originally closely associated with worship.
The Greeks used it almost exclusively in the worship of their idols.
However, today babies are adorable, puppies and kittens are adorable. Adoration is given to popular musicians and actors and actresses.
Adoration is a line of wigs by the Eva Gabor Wig Company
I have even seen the word “adore” used in the name of a line of underwear!!! Think about that!
Anyway, back to the adoration of God alone!
Who in the Old Testament was very good at praising, worshiping and adoring the Lord God Almighty?
David, the son of Jesse, that’s who.
Let’s read 1 Chronicles 29:10-13
“Praise be to You, LORD, the God of our father Israel, from everlasting to everlasting.
“Yours, LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is Yours.
“Yours, LORD, is the kingdom; You are exalted as head over all.
“Wealth and honor come from You; You are the ruler of all things. In Your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all.
“Now, our God, we give You thanks, and praise Your glorious name.”
(prayer for help)
So, how did we get from worshipping and adoring God alone to the worship and adoration of things and other humans?
That transition is clearly explained in the second half of Romans 1.
Romans 1:25 NIV
“They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.”
Romans 1:25 NLT
“They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator Himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen.”
Adam and Eve traded intimate fellowship with God for a lie.
The people of Israel who saw the mighty deliverance of Israel from the land of Egypt were so easily led astray. When Moses was up on the mountain meeting with Yahweh to receive the Ten Commandments the Israelites got the bright idea to make a golden calf and declare, “This is your god, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.” Exodus 32:4
After they did this they had a feast. What do you think they ate?
Do you think there was any beef on the menu? Do you think they sacrificed any bulls or heifers on the alter they built for their golden calf? What had happened?
Romans 1:25 NLT
“They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator Himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen.”
What was missing? Why did they fall for the lie?
They fell for the lie because they had NO RELATIONSHIP WITH THE TRUE AND LIVING GOD!
They had seen the mighty works of Yahweh, the Lord God Almighty of Israel but they did not know Him. There were times when they greatly feared Him but they had never reveled in His presence. They did not worship and adore Him or even know Him. They had traded the truth about God for a lie.
Here is a truth that runs through the Bible from the beginning to the end. Here is the truth.
The God of the Bible, the Holy Trinity, is A RELATIONSHIP GOD!
When I was writing this sermon the very next thing I wrote was that God is to be our top priority. But then the Holy Spirit corrected me. But, how could that possibly be wrong???
It is wrong because it is entirely possible for God to be our top priority without ever loving or knowing Him. How is that possible?
In the religion of Islam they believe that their god has no relationship with men whatsoever. He doesn’t care if any man goes to paradise or hell. And, he certainly has no care about any woman.
And, yet, the god of Islam is the top priority in the lives of millions of Muslims.
And, sadly, that is the truth in the lives of many who call themselves Christians as well. Many believe they are serving Him but do not know Him.
The God we serve does NOT want that disconnected, hopeless type of non-relationship. How do we know that?
