Back to the Basics - Worship
ME
Take a look at this video this morning as we get into talking about worship this morning. It is David Platt talking about religion and sports. (Video)
Isn’t that what someone from another country would see of our country when it comes to sports. Especially in the fall when it football season. I’m not picking on those who like football or like sports. I like sports as well and a big part of my life has involved sports.
But if someone from another country would come and evaluate what we worship in this country, I really don’t think God or Jesus would take the top spot any longer. Sports is the new religion in America.
Can we like or love sports and still worship God above them. Yes, but the question is do we. Can we hold things dear to our hearts and like to do things and like to have things and still worship God above them? Yes, but again the question is do we?
There are many things in life that I hold dear, that I like to do, and that I like to have. I like to fish and golf. I like to relax and sleep. I like to go on vacation and see things I have never seen before and do things I have never done before. I like to hunt and ride 4 wheelers and motorcycles. I like to spend time sitting around a fire and roast some hot dogs.
I like to have 4 wheelers, motorcycles, boats, fishing equipment, guns, and bows. I like to have nice furniture, a comfortable bed to sleep in. I like to have a iPhone and Mac computers and a coffee maker that makes coffee in 3 minutes. I like to have nice cars and trucks and I like to have good lawn care equipment.
I hold dear my wife, my sons and daughter in laws. I hold dear my grandchildren even though when they walk in the door I usually say, “Oh no the little ones are here.” I hold dear my father and mother and brother even though my mother and brother have passed. I hold dear my in laws (Maria’s family). I hold dear my grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins. And I hold dear my dog Izzy, I have never had a better dog than her.
I hold dear my friends and relationships I have with my brothers and sisters in Christ which includes not only this body of believers but so so many more. — I could go on with things I hold dear and things I like to do and things I like to have, but you get the picture that there are a lot of things in this world and of this world that are in my life.
WE
We all have these things. Oh, there not the same exact things, some of them are, others aren’t. But there are so many things in this world that the things of this world could dominate our lives. Many times they do, like when it’s football season as David Platt was talking about.
You will notice that I have not mentioned God yet. He kind of got squeezed out of the picture. Which He does in many people’s lives. After all with so many things in our lives that we like to do, like to have, and hold dear, where does He fit in?
Because really — we have lives to live and we only get one round on this earth so we better make the best of it here and now — right!?! And do the things this world has to offer, if we are ever going to do them — right?!?
That’s kind of where we are in this world. isn’t it? I mean just think about all the different things we can do and have and love. There are actually way more people taking advantage of the things of this world than are take Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
Matter of fact church attendance is down all across our country and hundreds if not thousands of churches close every year because God creation is more important than God who created it to so many people.
But these things available to us are just of this world. And don’t we know as Christians there is so much more than the things of this world. Yes I hope we do. But are they reflected in our life? I mean can others tell on a daily basis that God is the most important part of our life?
I don’t mean to suggest that we remove everything of this world from our lives, after all this is where we live. God has chosen to have us remain here. And even though we belong to the Kingdom of Heaven we remain here and we have to continually make choices, on a daily basis.
Over and over again we have to make conscious choices to put God over and above everything else this world has to offer. When we do that, that is giving Him honor, glory and praise and we are worshiping Him.
A couple definitions I got from the Facebook post last week were.
Worship is to put someone or something first. — Exactly, it’s about making the choice.
Giving all of your gifts, talents, and abilities back to God, not because of obligation, but because you love Him. — And that is the reason we choose God above all over things. Because we love Him, we love Him more than anything else of this world.
Webster’s dictionary defines worship like this — “Reverence offered a divine being or supernatural power; also : an act of expressing such reverence.”
I liked the definitions I got from Facebook better than Webster’s definition because Webster’s says “an act” and the Facebook response I received didn’t do that. They talked about prayer, signing praises, and being Christ like in our actions. They talked about giving our talents and abilities to God, but as well as spending quite time with God.
In Webster’s definition I would take out “an act” and replace it with “acts”. Why? Because worship is more than “an act”, but it is “acts”. A very well know verse on worship says…
GOD
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:1-2
I have heard it said that if we would just live out this verse we would do all that God wants us to do. I believe that is a true statement.
This verse doesn’t ascribe “an act” of worship and say this is your true and proper worship, but says to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice because of what God has done in your life. This is giving your whole life, every aspect of your life, to God. To give God complete devotion.
I said last week in talking about worship, that worship is what we were created to do. God created us to worship and adore him. I said worship is in our DNA and it is. That is why the things of this world can become objects of worship to us, rather than God, and God knows this. After all He gave all these things to us all the while knowing they could be what we worship, rather than Him.
But you see that is what makes worship of God special, because it is a choice. It is a choice to come here today. It’s a choice to sing praise to God. It’s a choice to devote yourself to God’s Word. It’s a choice to pray to God. It’s a choice to come together with other Christians in Christian fellowship. It’s a choice to remember the death of Jesus in the breaking of bread together.
It is also a choice when you are all by yourself and you know no one can see or could ever know what you are doing not to give in to what the devil is tempting you to do. It’s a choice to set aside your busy activities of this world to make God and serving Him a priority in your life.
Without choice, worship would be meaningless. So God had to give us choices, He had to give us freedom to make good choices or bad choices, because God desires true worshipers of Him. And there could be no true worshipers of Him without freedom and choice.
— When Jesus was talking to the woman at the well He said this to her…
Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” John 4:23-24
Paul told us in Romans 12 that because of what God has done for us to offer our bodies as living sacrifices to Him. Now Jesus tells us in John 4:23-24 that the Father seeks those who will worship Him in the Spirit and in truth. Again this involves all of us, but specifically our minds and our hearts. Neither of which we could survive without.
Here is something I’ve said before, but it is so true. If you don’t know the Word of God how can you know God? And to add to that, if you don’t know the Word of God, how can you truly worship God. You see the more you know of God, the more you love and appreciate Him and the more you want to give Him praise and glory for what He has done for you.
To worship God in truth is simply to worship Him through the truth you know about Him. The more you know of Him, the more you will worship Him, the more it will be the desire of your heart. And you will never worship Him with your heart (in the Spirit) unless first you know Him in your mind.
After all how did you come to have the Spirit of God in your heart? Isn’t it because you found out about God through your mind and that extended to your heart when you committed your whole life to Him in Christian baptism? Worship from the heart can only take place through the truth you know of Him through His Word, through life, and through what He has created.
True worship must be “in Spirit” that is, engaging the whole heart, but the heart will never be engaged without the truth. Through the heart (the spirit) true and real passion for God is engaged. Both the mind and spirit are necessary for satisfying and God honoring worship.
Spirit without truth leads to a shallow, overly emotional experience that could be compared to a high. As soon as the emotion is over, when the fervor cools, so does the worship.
ILLUS: I had a deacon tell me once (not here) that he was considering going to another church because he lost the “good feeling” he was getting at this church. This happened to not too long after we lost our worship minister.
When we are not worshiping in the Spirit and along with the truth, it is this type of thing that happens. We will always be looking for a high without fully knowing the truth.
Both Romans 12 and John 4 lets us know that worship involves our whole lives. Our bodies, our minds, and our hearts, our the Spirit inside of us. All of which is vital to life. This is why worship is a basic of basic because without it we cannot have life the way God intended. Because in our inner being we desire and long for something greater than ourselves.
This is why the very first things the first Christians did after being immersed in baptism and receiving the indwelling gift of the Holy Spirit was worship. I love this because they didn’t know anything else to do, but worship. Those verses in Acts once again this week are Acts 2:42-47
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common.
45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. Acts 2:42-47
The true results of real worship is that God is given praise, honor and glory in reverence for who He is and what He has done and it brings more people to salvation to God through Jesus Christ.
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. Psalm 107:1. Why do we worship? Because God is good and His love will last forever and ever. He has given us everything through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and is more than worthy of our praise.
The ultimate greatest thing you can do in your life is give your worship to God through Jesus Christ.
YOU
When God looks to you this morning is He seeing you give Him everything in worship? When He looks to you and considers this last week will He have seen acts of worshiping Him daily. What will He see this week?
In our lives there many, many things; things that can distract us and draw our attention to them instead of Him. But when we worship God with our whole lives we will choose Him over them every time.
This doesn’t mean we can’t have things or like doing things or even love other things, just that all other things, people and possessions are secondary to God in our lives. The greatest thing about giving God our whole life in worship is that through worship and God’s love in us everything else and every other person in our lives will receive the love of God through us as well.
WE
I hope this week you will take the message to heart and if you need to — rekindle your worship of God by giving Him your whole life by loving Him with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength. Let’s pray.
