Worship When It's Hard

2 Corinthians 4:1–18 ESV

Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you. Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe, and so we also speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

2 Corinthians 4:3–12 ESV

And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you.

3/4 Why Worship (Verses 1-4)

3/11 Be Foolish (Verse 5-

We worship Jesus because he is worth it.

2 Corinthians 4:16–18 ESV

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

He is worth more than the things we value (Value)

He is worth more than the things we’re focused on (Attention)

Suggested videos on YouTube

Scripps Spelling Bee

He is worth more than the things we trust in (Trust)

Has anyone ver watched the Scripps Spelling Bee before? Literally it’s a competition of kids spelling words and they televise it on ESPN. It’s crazy. If you’ve never seen it you’re probably like, why would anyone ever want to watch that?

But if you have seen it… you understand, You get it. It’s riveting! Something about watching kids spell words that you’ve never heard and will never use in any conversation in your whole life…it’s just great entertainment.

Last year was especially crazy. The Spelling Bee ended in an 8-way tie. They ran out of words that were hard enough to challenge the final 8, they kept going and going and it was obvious that nobody was going to get any words wrong, so they called it, they ended it. And it was an 8-way tie for 1st place.

Every time a contestant gets up to spell a word, they are allowed to ask a couple of questions to help them spell the word. They can ask for language of origin, they can have them use it in a sentence, part of speech, and they can ask fro the word’s definition.

I don’t know how knowing the definition of a word would help you spell it, but whatever.

Definitions are really helpful in other areas though. They help us know what something is, and they help us differentiate between things. When you define something you know that it is it and not something else.

Some things are really easy to define. Define a basketball.

You could talk about how it’s round, and made of leather, and you can describe it’s texture, you can mention how you dribble and shoot it and pass it. Somebody who has never seen a basketball before would be able to understand what you’re saying about a basketball and if they had a football, a soccer ball, and a basketball put in front of them, they would be able to pick out which one is the basketball based on your definition of it.

Other things are much much harder to define. If I said define beauty. How would you do it? You might say a sunrise is beautiful. You might say a painting is beautiful. There might be a guy or girl you might say is beautiful. But other than looking at things and saying they are beautiful, you can’t really define beauty.

The passage I just read a minute ago starts off by talking about glory. And like beauty, glory is a word that is really hard to define.

So Paul does what you might do if you were trying to define beauty. You start trying to give picture of what beauty is, Paul gives us a picture of what God’s glory is like...

The picture Paul gives us is all about a clay jar.

I’m going our passage

There is a word in the passage I read a second ago that I want to

Worship is about trust. (Do I really trust God?)

Worship is so important. But the only way for us to see it as important is to have a correct understanding of it. If we have the wrong understanding of worship then we will never get to a place where we see it as truly important.

If, in your mind, worship is the 10 minutes we spend singing on a Wednesday night in NXT Junior High … if that is all that worship is in your mind, then you will never see it as important. And I would agree with you! If that is all worship is then the 10 minutes we spend singing each week doesn’t even come close to the amount of time we spend doing other things in our week.

- I spend 28 minutes brushing my teeth each week.

I spend 28 minutes brushing my teeth each week.

I spend an hour driving in my car just between my house and church every week.

Just one episode of The Office is like 22 minutes.

If worship to me is only 10 minutes, then by time spent alone it is so much less important than all these other things I do during my week.

In order for us to get the right perspective on worship, we need to see worship differently.

I would argue that all of us, at all times, worship. It’s not something you get to opt out of or choose not to do.

Worship is valuing or treasuring something above everything else.

So whatever you are placing value on in your life. Whatever is worth the most to you. That is what you worship.

It’s a little bit of a trick question. I would argue that all of us, at all times, worship. It’s not a matter of worshipping or not worshipping, it’s a matter of what we are worshipping and then why do we worship.

I worship Jesus because he is worth it.

In order to answer the question, I want to look at three things that affect our worship. I’m gonna give them to you here a the beginning so you know where I’m going with this thing.

Three things that affect our worship:

Value

Attention

Trust

Value

Read

Worship is about Value.

Human beings are experts at assigning value to things.

We do it all the time.

Think about Gold. Or Diamonds. Literally just minerals that the earth produced. Essentially just rocks. But we have decided that they are valuable. Why?

Because Gold looks nice. Diamonds are sparkly. And there isn’t as much gold as other minerals. It’s rare. There are fewer diamonds than other rocks. they are rare. So we say that Gold and diamonds have a high value.

What about people? All people should be equal but in society it doesn’t play out that way. Certain people get treated better and valued higher because of how much money they have or how attractive they look or because of the job that they have, where they got their education, what family they were born into...

Read

Paul lists a bunch of things in that should give him value in the eyes of humans.

He’s from the right people group, he got the best education, he followed the law of God so closely that he actually persecuted people who he saw as a threat to God...

He once thought all of that was valuable, but now?

Everything that should have given him value in the eyes of people - he counts all of it as worthless, it’s like garbage, it’s nothing, compared with knowing Jesus.

In Paul’s eyes - Jesus is the most valuable thing - more valuable than the right job, the right education, the right people group. More valuable than money

What do you see as valuable? Where are you spending money? Where are you spending time? The way you answer that question has direct implications towards what you are worshipping!

So why worship Jesus? Because what he did for us is more valuable than anything we could ever hope to buy.

Attention

Paying attention to something is one of the hardest things to do and it’s getting harder every day I feel like.