Created to Worship

Two weeks off, so recap all three, not just the last one. Fast — a sentence apiece.

- **Week one:** worship is your response to whatever you believe is most worthy. It begins with beholding Him.

- **Week two:** it's sustained by beholding Him — together. Division doesn't just hurt fellowship, it kills worship.

- **Week three:** spirit and truth. Worship is posture *and* life. What's inside has to make it out, and what shows on the outside has to have started inside. And you can't work it up — it comes out of surrender.

So for three weeks we've been answering what worship is.

Today we back all the way up and ask something more basic.

Why do you worship at all?

Not "why should you." Why do you — because you already are. Every one of you. You've been worshiping something since before you could talk, and most of you have never once thought about it.

I read part of this passage back in week one and told you it was a passage I don't like to read. We're going back to it today, and this time we're going to sit in it.

Romans 1:18–25 ESV

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. 24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

Look at verse 23 again.

Romans 1:23 ESV

23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

Exchanged. Not abandoned, not quit, TRADED.

You don’t exchange something for nothing.

An exchange means you walked out holding something else.

And what was their worship exchanged for?

Romans 1:25 ESV

25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

It wasn’t whether they worshipped or didn’t worship. It was that they exchanged the focus of their worship, trading the glory of God for the creation below.

Notice the language here, WORSHIPPED AND SERVED…

That’s the definition of worship from a few weeks ago. It’s not just that they focused their attention on something else, they served it!

Most of the time I build into a concept when I preach, but today, I want state it plainly and we are going to walk it out for the rest of this sermon:

According to this scripture and the biblical pattern:

Sin did not stop worship. Sin redirected worship.

The human heart never stops worshipping. It can’t, it just goes looking for another God.

And while we can look at those who may worship idols and feel disconnected from that type of idol worship, it’s not always a wooden figurine that is worshipped.

There are many who claim to worship nothing, but the truth is they are worshippers of self…

Worshippers of Self

You wake up every morning and the first face you see is your own, three inches away from your nose on a screen that you use to immediately check to see what people are saying about you.

You’ve built a whole life around what you want and what’s best for you and nobody tells you what to do.

You’ve created a bible that agrees with you in your own mind because you don’t want a Lord you want a God who signs off. And anyone around you must accept you “for who you are” because you refuse to entertain the thought that you might need to change.

If you’re the only deciding factor in your life, you’re the hero of your own story, and you don’t answer to anyone, you may be the god of your own life…

A servant asks what the Master wants. A god asks what he wants and calls it a conviction.

Worshippers of self.

Then there are worshippers of money…

Worshippers of Money

You worry about money more than you pray about it.

You know exactly what’s in your bank account and you couldn’t tell me the last time you read a chapter of the bible.

You’ve told yourself when things settle down you’ll be more generous, and things have never settled down. There’s always one more thing, one more job, one raise, one good year away from finally being able to relax and you’ve been one year away for eleven years now…

And here’s the tell: you know what your money costs you, but you do it anyway. You know the hours, you know the missed suppers, you know the missed Sundays, but you keep doing it because you see it as worth it…

Remember what we said a few weeks ago, you will worship what you see as worth it…

Worshippers of Status

You care about what they’ll say about you, which car you drive, what you wear when you go out, what accessories you have on, which pew you sit in, whose daddy did what, whose on what board.

You bought a vehicle you couldn’t afford so nobody would think you’re struggling.

You’d rather be respected than known, because if they respect you, they only see what you show them. If they know you they might see the rest.

You’re obsessed with your reputation or your families reputation.

And some of you have been in church a long time because you like the status of being Christian without the interior of it.

Worshippers of Control

You call it responsibility, but you can’t sleep unless you know how it’s going to turn out, and you can’t rest because if you let go for five minutes the whole thing might come apart.

That’s not diligence, it’s a person who sits on the throne of their own heart.

Worshippers of Comfort

You’ve arranged it so nothing hurts and nothing is asked. Nothing is required of you that makes you uncomfortable, causes you to stretch, or challenges you.

You’ve got the temperature where you want it, the schedule where you want it, the people who make demands filtered out one by one, and you don’t even remember doing it.

What’s worse is you don’t really need God for anything, then you wonder why He feels distant. You don’t fast, you hardly pray, and worship feels empty…

Worship of Being Right

This one dresses up in Sunday clothes, and looks good at first.

You’ve got the doctrine down, the politics down, you know how the church ought to run, you know better than your bosses or managers how the business ought to run, you know what music we should sing, you know who was wrong in the last split, you even know how a man ought to wear his hair.

And you have never once, not one time in your life, walked away from a conversation and thought, “I might’ve had that wrong.”

You don’t want understanding, you want the last word.

You don’t need to listen, everyone should listen to you!

Here’s how you know it’s got you. You get more satisfaction from winning than you do from worshipping.

When somebody’s wrong, something in you lights up. And the reason it’s so hard to see is it never feels like pride. It feels like you’re standing up for truth.

It feels like someone’s got to say it. It feels like discernment, but watch where it goes. You started out defending truth, then you were defending your version of it. Then you were defending yourself. And somewhere in there you quit worshipping altogether, because you cannot bow and posture at the same time.

Hear me, I’m not asking you to stop caring about the truth. I’m asking you which one you enjoy more: being right about Him or being WITH Him?

So why is it we are so susceptible to this kind of worship?

Because you were created to worship!

Isaiah 43:7 ESV

7 everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.”

Isaiah 43:21 ESV

21 the people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise.

In fact, all of creation was made to worship:

Psalm 19:1 ESV

1 The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.

Luke 19:39–40 ESV

39 And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” 40 He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”

Creation is built to worship!

We say we are a greenhouse where disciples grow…

A greenhouse is a building designed to let light in. It’s the whole architecture. Everything about it exists to get light to the thing growing inside.

And you don’t have to teach a plant to face the light.

Casia has these plants in our house and I’ve never once seen her go and have to remind those plants to face their leaves to the light.

They will find the light and lean toward it.

Our worship us us leaning in on Him, moving closer to Him, becoming more like Him!

Psalm 115:1–8 ESV

1 Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness! 2 Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?” 3 Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases. 4 Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. 5 They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see. 6 They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell. 7 They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; and they do not make a sound in their throat. 8 Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them.

Look at that last verse…

Those who make them become like them…

You become like what you worship.

You worship a thing with a mouth that can’t speak and you’ll lose your voice of reason.

Worship a thing with eyes that can’t see, and you’ll go blind to what matters.

Worship a thing with ears that can’t hear and one day God will speak, and you won’t pick it up.

That’s exactly what the biblical author said in Rom. 1:21

Romans 1:21 ESV

21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

But in contrast:

2 Corinthians 3:18 ESV

18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

This is the same word we have been engaging since the beginning: BEHOLDING!

You are becoming like what you look at.

That’s not a threat, it’s how you were wired and it’s happening right now whether you realize it or not.

Which means, worship isn’t just a church thing you participate in and it’s not just a service you engage with…

Worship is actually formational. You are being formed as you worship.

It is what you were created to do.

AND it is the only ministry that never ends.

One day preaching will stop. No one will need to explain Him when He is here.

One day evangelism will stop because the King Himself will sit on the throne and be seen in all His glory.

1 Corinthians 13:8 ESV

8 …As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.

But the thing that is left when this whole thing wraps up?

Revelation 4:8–11 ESV

8 And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” 9 And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, 11 “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”

Revelation 5:11–13 ESV

11 Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, 12 saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” 13 And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”

Revelation 7:9–12 ESV

9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” 11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”

We are practicing now what we will be doing forever!

So the challenge is, where is your worship focused?

What gets your best attention and your best energy?

What would you not survive losing?

Where do you instinctively go for comfort when things get hard?

Whose approval runs your decisions?

What do you believe you have to have to be happy?

What would you willingly sacrifice for, when you hesitate to sacrifice to God?

Where is your worship focused?

Maybe it’s time for a realignment of your worship today.

Will you turn your eyes upon Jesus again?

Let’s worship together.