In Spirit and In Truth
A Series on Worship
#2: Whom do we worship?
We are studying worship in these weeks. Last time we looked at some of the words that are used in the New Testament to speak of what worship is. We saw that worship is to be reverent, that it is more spiritual now than physical, how worship involves fear and that worship includes service. One of the most interesting things that we saw is that there is really only one time in which one of these words is used to describe what Christians do when they come together. I found that very interesting. We saw that in the New Testament worship is something that you live out, something that you do every day, not something that you do once a week on Sunday morning. I commented that when I said we were going to do a series of lessons talking about worship, I imagine that the idea that comes to your mind is what we do in here. That’s part of it, but that’s not all of it.
I want to continue studying worship, looking at "Whom do we worship?"
The First Commandment of the Ten Commandments--
"And God spoke all these words:
I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me."
No other gods. Prepositions can be tricky from one language to another. "Before me" means "besides me" or "apart from me." I will be the only one. There will be no others.
Jesus’ words--
"For it is written: ’Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’" (Matthew 4:10)
You’ll serve God only.
I hope that it’s not a surprise to you that we worship God. We do it for several reasons. We worship God because of
1) Who He is
Look at I Timothy 6:15-16
I Timothy 6:15 God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen.
In this passage, Paul praises God just for who He is. We worship God because He is God, He is Creator and we are the creature.
2) What He has done
An example is I Peter 1:3
1 Pet. 1:3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead...
We praise God for creating us, for sending His son, for saving us.
3) What He is doing
The most praise in the Bible is for what God is doing, not what He’s done in the past. That surprised me a bit. Read the Psalms and look at psalm after psalm that talks about that. One of my favorites is Psalm 103. Let’s just read a few verses:
Psalm 103:2 Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits — 3 who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, 4 who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, 5 who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
Praising God is the right thing to do. I Peter 2 says that that is what we are here for. We are here on earth to praise God. I think that God created man to be in a relationship with him and receive praise from him.
In the Old Testament, God’s people wrestled with idolatry, the worship of other “gods.” It’s a constant thing throughout the Old Testament. The people wanted to worship the gods of the people around them. It wasn’t so much that they rejected worshipping God. They wanted to worship God and worship other gods. Exodus 32 is a good example. The people of Israel had gone to Mount Sinai, they had seen the thunder and lightning, they had heard the very voice of God. Less than 40 days later they turned to a false god. Look at Exodus 32:4-5--
Exodus 32:4 He (Aaron) took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.” 5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, “Tomorrow there will be a festival to the LORD.”
Weird, right? They had their golden calf and wanted to use it to have a festival to the Lord. They didn’t want to reject God; they wanted to combine gods. That was a problem throughout the history of Israel. They wanted to worship God yet cling to their idols.
Even today, people worship all kinds of idols. If you think this is something from the past, search the Internet for "gods" you can buy to worship. Yet few of us in this room feel tempted to go bow down to an idol. They don’t attract us. So why talk about idolatry in this country in this age? Maybe I should go to India or Thailand or Africa, where they have problems with idols.
There’s an interesting passage in Colossians 3:5 --
Colossians 3:5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.
Guess what! Idolatry hasn’t left us; it just changed forms. Let’s talk about some American idols.
1) Money--This is the first and most obvious. We know many people that would do just about anything for money. Almost everyone can be tempted by money. Do you remember the movie "Indecent Proposal"? The plot is about a millionaire who, to prove that morality doesn’t exist, offers a young couple $1 million dollars if he can spend the night with the woman. The couple accepted and it ruined their lives. Money can be an idol.
2) Family--People we love can be idols. How many people have left God for someone they loved? Many have done things that they never would have done, but "they were in love." Or maybe things they would do for their kids. What wouldn’t you do for your children? Can our own children be idols?
3) Job--There are people that will put their job before God.
4) Patriotism--Our country itself can be an idol. We can get confused about what is Christianity and what is patriotism.
How can we identify the gods in our lives. Here are some questions to ask yourself:
1) What are the things that define you? When you think of who you are, what do you think of? Your job? Your family? What defines you? Do you define yourself as the parent of your children?
2) When you make decisions, what guides you? I have some friends that left a ministry position in California. They sold their home, bought an RV and traveled the country, searching for a new place to live. They traveled from California to Maine and ended up in Texas. Do you know how they decided where they wanted to live? They checked out the churches. When they found the church that they really wanted to be a part of, they started looking for a house and a job. Sounds irresponsible, doesn’t it? They have six children, by the way. But how many times have you known people that you say, "Oh, he’s got a great job and a great school situation. Too bad they haven’t found a church that they like." Hmmm... I wonder if my friends might not have their priorities straight when many of us don’t.
3) To what do you give your time and your money? That’s a quick way to discover what your values are. Where do you spend your time, your energy, your money? If you think I’m asking you to put more in the collection plate, you’re wrong. I’m just saying that many times you can see where your priorities are by looking at where you invest yourself.
4) What are your hopes and dreams built around? When you think about what you want for your life, what you want for your children and grandchildren, what do those hopes revolved around? Do you picture them with a nice education and nice job, comfortable and happy? Or do you imagine them going to heaven?
What are the gods in your life? This affects our corporate worship for one important reason: It’s hard to worship one god Monday through Saturday and worship a different god on Sunday. If you just can’t get into it or you just can’t wait to get out of it, maybe you’re worshiping the wrong god.
"You shall have NO other gods before me."
In Joshua 24, when Joshua asked the people to choose whom they would serve, the people were like most of us. They said, "Yes, yes, yes, we’re going to serve God, of course." I love Joshua’s answer. I wish I were as brave as he. Look at Joshua 24:19-20--
Josh. 24:19 Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the LORD. He is a holy God; he is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins. 20 If you forsake the LORD and serve foreign gods, he will turn and bring disaster on you and make an end of you, after he has been good to you.”
He’s a jealous God. He doesn’t want to be one of the gods of our life. He wants to be THE God of our life. This affects our public worship. Imagine a group of people that fully dedicate themselves to worshiping God seven days a week. Can you imagine what it would be like when they came together? Wow! We’d blow holes in the roof.
I wrestle with idolatry in my life. I suspect that we all do. Let us set aside our other gods and worship the one true God.
If you need to respond in any way to this one, true, holy and jealous God, we want to help you. Please come forward during the singing of this song.
Resources:
Series on worship by Mark Edge, presented at the Main Street Church of Christ in Winters, Texas
