Everyone is a worshiper. We all have people or things that we love, sacrifice for, and are our number one affection. The main question each person should answer is this—Do you worship created things, or the Creator? God deserves to be worshiped. He created everyone and everything. Our place as the creation is to worship our Creator. We will investigate the many idols that we are completely oblivious too, and shows that every problem in life is, at its core, a worship problem.
Everyone who has ever lived, everyone who does live, everyone who will ever live is a worshiper.
We’re chasing someone.
We’re pursuing something.
And that’s the way that God made us. It’s a good thing.
But as we studied in the fall sermon, because of sin, our worship tends to be directed toward things other than God.
The question is not will we worship, but who and how do we worship?
One of the best things you can do when making decisions is ask this question: Is this holy and acceptable to God?
What is worship = it is glory and sacrifice
Glory means weightiness, heaviness, prominence, preeminence.
Whoever or whatever is in the position of glory in your life is that person or thing that is in the center your existence.
It’s the treasure that you cherish most deeply.
It’s where your passion, your longing, your yearning, your desires, your enthusiasm – it’s where they reside.
Who or what is in the position of glory? WHO or what are you positioning, centering your life around?
We’re finite, created beings, we only have limited resources; so much time, so much money, so much energy. We can’t divest ourselves of these resources unendingly, so we make decisions.
I won’t do this so that I can do this. I won’t give money or time or energy to these people or these causes or these activities, and instead… I will make sacrifices for them so that I can worship, I can glory in, I can ascribe supreme value to someone or something else.
We make these kind of decisions all the time, and they’re worship decisions.
They show up in our calendar.
They show up in how we invest our time.
They show up in our budget.
One of the best ways to understand worship is to contrast it with idolatry.
Because The opposite of worship is idolatry.
The human heart is an idol factory, and if we’re not careful, things that God has made or things that we have made can take the place of God, and everyone and everything gets sacrificed to the glory of that person or thing.
Your family, your friends, your church – we exist to encourage you toward Jesus, but ultimately personal renewal is between you and Jesus.
You’ve gotta get with him. You’ve gotta be with him. You’ve gotta hang out with him. And ultimately everything begins there.
So my final question to you is this:
How is your worship?
I pray you take a sober look at your life and search for idols or potential idols and you knock them down.