Wired for Worship: You Become What You Worship
10.04.05
Pastor Mark Batterson
This evotional concludes the Wired for Worship series. To subscribe to the podcast, visit www.theaterchurch.com. Or check out Pastor Mark’s blog @ www.evotional.com.
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God — this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Romans 12:1-3
Last week I gave you a homework assignment: find something each day that you’re grateful for. Here are a few of mine from last week.
On Monday I was grateful for nerf basketball hoops. We celebrated Parker’s birthday and that was one of the gifts we got him. If we’re being totally transparent, I actually got the nerf basketball hoop for myself. Then we wrapped it up and disguised it as a present was for Parker! Man, I love those things. That night I showed Parker the “take two steps, spin around once, bank it off two walls, nothing but net” shot.
You know what I realized? Happiness is not the byproduct of bigger or better toys. Happiness is finding joy in the simple pleasures of life. It’s not getting what you want. It’s enjoying what you have!
One of the other things I did last week was collect Josiahisms. Everyday our three year-old, Josiah, is saying stuff that is so cute you want to pick him up and squeeze the Charmin.
Here are a few of the things he said last week.
Last Saturday I was headed out to study for my message and out of nowhere, Josiah said, “Are you going to study at the Capitol?” I didn’t even know he knew what the Capitol was, but what’s even funnier is that evidently my son thinks that big building on the hill is my office! Go figure. Of course, he also thinks that Ballston Common Mall and Union Station are churches.
On my day off last week we went to the National Arboretum and Josiah went running down this steep hill and totally wiped out. He immediately popped up and said, “I ice skated.”
One day this week he informed Lora that God has "superhero powers."
On Saturday morning he got up and asked me, “Is it tomorrow?” That totally messed me up. All day I was trying to figure out if it was today or tomorrow!
And, finally, one of my favorite Josiahisms is when Josiah gets really excited about something. He says, “Isn’t that so happy?”
I had my normal quota of stress last week. I had my fair share of issues and problems. But last week was one of my best weeks in recent memory. You know why? Because your focus determines your reality. I was looking for things to be grateful for and when you’re looking for things to be grateful for you don’t have to look too far!
Worship is living in a state of constant gratitude. Even when we do something wrong we have something to be grateful for: mercy!
Mercy
Romans 12:1 says, “In view of God’s mercy, offer your bodies as living sacrifices.”
It doesn’t say “In view of your righteousness.” It doesn’t say, “In view of your brilliant mind or witty sense of humor.” It doesn’t say, “In view of your impressive spiritual resume.”
It says, “In view of God’s mercy.”
The prerequisite to worship is mercy. And the prerequisite to mercy is doing something wrong. So if you’ve done something wrong you qualify for mercy. And if you qualify for mercy you qualify for worship.
Here’s my point: don’t let what’s wrong with you keep you from worshipping what’s right with God.
Here’s the challenge. I cited research last week that suggests that we talk to ourselves 50,000 times a day. And studies have found that, on average, 80% of self-talk is negative. I’m not good enough. I’m not smart enough. And, doggone it, people don’t like me.
One of the enemy’s tactics is to get you to focus on what’s wrong with you. Why? Because you’ll get so fixated on your problems that you’ll totally forget how good and how great God is. So throughout this series of evotionals I’ve been saying that you need to stop focusing on what’s wrong with you and start focusing on what’s right with God. I honestly think that is the key to worship!
I like the way The Message says it, “Embracing what God has done for you is the best thing you can do for Him.”
Here’s the difference between religion and Christianity. Religion is focused on what we can do for God. Christianity is focused on what God has done for us.
The Logic of Worship
Romans 12:1 says, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God — this is your spiritual act of worship.”
The KJV says that offering ourselves as living sacrifices is our “reasonable act of service.”
Nothing is more reasonable or more logical than worship.
If God doesn’t exist then worship is insanity. You’re worshipping someone that isn’t real. But if God exists then nothing is more logical or reasonable than worship. I don’t want this to come across as pejorative, but I want to make a point. If God exists, then anything less than all-out worship is totally illogical.
Worship is sanity. Anything less or anything else is insanity.
Blaise Pascal, the 17th century French Philosopher said it this way, “There are only two classes of persons who can be called reasonable: those who serve God with all of their hearts because they know him and those who seek God with all of their hearts because they do not know him.”
Those who don’t worship God don’t know God. If you know God you can’t not worship Him!
There is this passage in Jeremiah 2:11 that has gotten into my spirit: “My people have exchanged their glorious God for worthless idols! The heavens are shocked at such a thing and shrink back in horror and dismay.”
Anything less than all-out worship of God is shocking to those that are in heaven and have the full revelation of who God is.
Let me bring it down to a level we can all understand.
Idolatry is like being offered a filet mignon from Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse with extra butter sauce, potatoes au gratin, and crème brulee but opting for a McDonald’s hamburger with fries instead. I don’t care how many times you super-size it! You’re crazy! It’s illogical. It’s shocking!
Idolatry is setting for a cheap imitation, a substitute, a knock-off. It is settling for something less than best. It’s placing supreme value on something that isn’t supreme.
C.S. Lewis said, “We are half-hearted creatures fooling around with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us.”
Reproduced Illusions
A few years ago we included The Bourne Identity in our God @ the Box Office series. Jason Bourne loses his memory and the movie revolves around him trying to rediscover who he is. One statement is pretty profound. Jason Bourne says, “I’m a reproduced illusion.”
To one degree or another, all of us are reproduced illusions.
The Irish Philosopher, George Berkeley, said it this way: “To be is to be perceived.”
In other words, our perception of ourselves is based on others perception of us. To a large extent, we become who other people think we are. Psychologists call it “the looking-glass self.”
We live up or live down to the expectations of others!
Romans 12:2 says, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world.”
In other words, don’t live down to the world’s standards. Live up to God’s standard.
There never has been and never will be anyone like you. That isn’t a testament to you. It’s a testament to the God who created you. You are absolutely unique. That is the way God designed you.
All of us start out as one-of-a-kind originals but too often we end up carbon copies of someone else. We try to be like someone else instead of trying to be the person God has created us to be. We settle for conformity instead of originality.
We become reproduced illusions.
Romans 12:3 says, “The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by who God is and what God does.”
Let me try to say it as concisely as I can: if you base your identity on the opinions of other people you’re worshiping their opinions.
God’s opinion is the only opinion that counts!
Conformity is living down. Worship is living up.
Here’s the bottom line: you become what you worship. If you don’t like who you’re becoming you’re worshipping the wrong things! Identity problems are worship problems. Start worshipping God and you’ll become the person God created you to be.
Self-Fulfilling Prophecies
Let me share something that is really an extrapolation of last week’s evotional. I think all of us are self-fulfilling prophecies. We all live up or live down to our own expectations and the expectations of others.
Gaylord Perry is the quintessential example. Baseball fans recognize the name. He was a pretty good pitcher in the 1960s. But like a lot of pitchers, he wasn’t a very good batter. In 1963, Gaylord Petty said and I quote, “They’ll put a man on the moon before I hit a home run.”
Anybody want to guess when Gaylord Perry hit his first homerun? July 20, 1969. He hit a home run a few hours after Neil Armstrong took one small step for man and one giant leap for mankind.
Think about the juxtaposition.
On May 25, 1961, President Kennedy said, “This nation should commit itself to the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.”
What a study in contrasts! But both statements became self-fulfilling prophecies!
In the words of Henry Ford, “Whether you think you can or can’t—you’re right.”
Romans 12:2 says, “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” You can’t always change your circumstances, but you can always change your mind. Studies have shown that, at any moment, eight million bits of information are streaming into your brain. You’ve got to determine what you pay attention to.
The Message translation of Romans 12:2 says, “Fix your attention on God.” That’s what worship is. You stop focusing on what’s wrong with you and you start focusing on what’s right with God.
The Throne
In his book, The Air We Breathe, Louie Giglio says, “So how do you know what you worship? It’s easy. You simply follow the trail of your time, your affection, your money, and your allegiance. At the end of the trail you’ll find a throne; and whatever or whoever is on that throne is what’s of highest value to you. On that throne is what you worship.”
What’s on the throne of your life?
Anything less than enthroning God is idolatry. And it will leave you unfulfilled and unsettled. It’ll keep you from becoming the person God has destined you to be.
Louie Giglio says, “Whatever you value most will ultimately determine who you are. If you worship money, you’ll become greedy at the core of your heart. If you worship some sinful habit, that same sin will grip your soul and poison your character to death. If you worship stuff, your life will become material, void of eternal significance. If you give all your praise to the god of you, you’ll become a disappointing little god to both yourself and to all those who trust in you.”
You weren’t created to worship you. You were wired to worship someone so much bigger and so much better than you. Don’t settle for anything less!
