Youth: Worship

Good evening everyone, do you guys know what I have here? It’s a stool - or chair. Did you guys know that 3 is the optimal amount of legs a chair can have? Of course you do, you see it right here. I can put my entire weight on this chair and it works perfectly fine. If I take out one leg - it’s not stable enough to work - on the other hand, adding any more legs doesn’t add much more value to what it does. This optimal chair works only because of these three legs.

Today we’re talking about Worship - specifically the 3 legs of worship. When we talk about Worship, immediately, the picture that comes up in everyone’s mind is someone playing guitar and singing a song, maybe leading others into singing - maybe you have a pianist or a drummer. Worship is often associated with music - and it’s great! It’s biblical. But that’s not all that worship is. Truthfully, whether you’re christian or not - whether you’re religious or not, everyone worships something because worship can be defined as the way we centre our lives toward something. Some people centre their lives around studying, and building a career. Some people centre their lives around their family or friends. Some people centre their lives around whatever makes them happy. Christians centre their lives around Jesus. But even though everyone worships something, Christian worship is specific.

Worship is translated from 12 different words in the Bible, and their meaning can be condensed into 3 aspects - or what we’ll call legs, today.

Worship means:

Humility - The Bible describes humility as bowing to God. It means recognizing that God is supreme and king over your life.

Obediance - Worshipping God means giving yourself - your time, your treasures, your plans to God.

Devotion - refers to how you prioritize God down to the your spirit - the deepest and rawest part of you.

It’s funny, these definitions are like a distinction without a different. They’re just different ways to say convey the same idea. Three angles of the same image. But they’re all important. Because we can all sing lyrics that we don’t mean. We can all work for a person we don’t like or care about. We can all live life going through the motions, going with the flow - without any real investment. I just described how some people live Christian lives, but are not Christians in their heart - where it matters.

There’s a teaching from Jesus in Matthew 7:21-23 that goes like this…

New International Version (2011) Chapter 7

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Woah? What is Jesus talking about here? Jesus is saying that there will be people who sing worship songs and they call Jesus their Lord, their King and Savior. And Jesus’ response is that calling Jesus Lord and singing worship lyrics is not some magical spell where you say the words, and fwoosh you get a ticket to heaven. He says only those who does the will of the Father will enter the kingdom of Heaven. But wait, it doesn’t stop there. Another group will say to Jesus, I sang the songs and look! I even served you, I drove out demons and I performed miracles! What’s Jesus’ response? “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!” Now, what’s going on here?

Now, if you’re ever stuck trying to understand a bible verse, the first thing you should try is to look at the surrounding passages. Jesus is talking about how people fake their worship. Take a look, a couple of verses prior, this is what Jesus is talking about:

New International Version (2011) Chapter 7

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Jesus talks about person who presents as a Christian, they sound like one and they talk like one. But inwardly, they’re different. Jesus makes a distinction between sheep and wolves. Why? Because in Jesus’ analogy, sheep follow their shepherd. They listen for their shepherds voice and they trust their shepherd to protect them. They are, for the sake of our teaching today: spiritually devoted to their shepherd. What about a ferocious wolf? A ferocious wolf refers to a self-centredness at the core of their being. Jesus is talking about people who are missing spiritual devotion in their worship .

Now look at the verses afterwards:

New International Version (2011) Chapter 7

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Again Jesus is comparing 2 different people. People who built identical homes but ended with different results. Jesus is saying that “everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice” in other words, everyone who worships God with obediance is, “like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” But those who don’t worship God with obediance, “is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” Jesus is talking about people who are missing obediance in their worship.

Jesus just shared with us 3 stories that explain to us why the three legs of worship are essential.

Humility - The Bible describes humility as bowing to God. It means recognizing that God is supreme and king over your life.

Obediance - Worshipping God means giving yourself - your time, your treasures, your plans to God.

Spiritual Devotion - refers to how you prioritize God down to the your spirit - the deepest and rawest part of you.

My challenge to you this week is this:

Take inventory of your life. What do you spend doing? What do you spend your time thinking about? What dictates your goals and dreams? Your worship is what you centre your life around.

And whether you find that you worship God or not - maybe you’ve found that you centre your life around something else! Ask yourself this: Is it worth my worship?

I can speak for myself when I say that I happily worship Jesus - and He is worth everything to me. Let’s pray…