Addicted to Love: You Are What You Worship

You are what you worship.

Clarity: I’ve been reflecting on what as your pastor I beleive God would want from us. In part, this is a reflection of my own journey… I believe each of us have an individal relationship with God and each person should persue him to the highest and fullest. But what does that look like in our community of faith? What does that look like at Harvest?

One of mottos here at Harves we repeat on a weekly basis is, “You are Loved.” I believe this with my whole heart! If I had to sum up today an over arching philosophical thought it would be this...

“You are Loved, but it’s not about you or me, it’s about Him.”

We are loved

to love what God loves.

to love as God Loves.

because God is loves

People Worship:

David Foster Wallace, an american author who tradgically took his own life in 2008, delieverd a commencement speach to Kenyon College graduating class of 2005. He opened his speach with a parable.

“Two young fish were swimming along when they happend passed an older fish who looked at them and said, “morning boys, hows the water?” The two younger fish swam on for bit until one fished looked over at the other fish as said, “What in the heck is water.”

David went on to say that he wasn’t there as a wise older fish to explain to the younger fish the ways of success and to impart knowledge. Instead, the parable addressed something far more profound.

The point of his story was this, “the most obvious, important realities are often the ones that are the hardest to see and talk about.”

Last week:

we covered the idea that we are what we love. Or to put it this way, Our hearts desires motivate us towards action that drives a hunger to know. It rarely works the opposite way.

Rarely does someone consum vast ammounts of knowledge on a subject out of obligation to become what they are studying. In church we might call this discipleship.

If we just cram enough head knowledge into someone it will fix their problems. How’s that working for you?

I’m not suggesting we need less knowledge, I’m saying that we need to be honest about what we find ourselves loving and see that these things drive our behaviors, good or bad.

Here’s the deal… some of our behaviors are so ingraned into our lives that they have become “second nature.” If you don’t beleive me…

Have you ever ridden in a car with a new driver?

They have to check everything! Mirrors, Gas Pedal, Brakes, Keeping there head on a swivel.. watch the speed limit… doing the best they can to obey all traffic laws. Never really settled into a place where they can relax.

Now, have you ever had a rough day? Perhaps you had an argument with your boss at work? Most the time those are pretty one sided… At the end of the workday, still angry from the earlier meeting, you walk to your car and replay every detail… thinking about what you wished you have said to your boss… teeth clinching and hands gripping the steering wheel tighlty you all the sudden relize your sitting in your driveway. How in the heck did I drive home.

It may feel obvious to hear, but so much of our lives are lived on autopilot that has been ingrained into us. These auto behviors were taught to you at home, in school, and from the culture that surrounds you.

To be human is to be religous… our actions reflect worship.

David Wallace continued in his speach:

In the day to day trenches of adult life, there is no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as “NOT” worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. He goes on to say.. An outsanding reason to choose a God or something spiritual to worship… is because anything else that you end up worshipping will eat you alive.

If you worship money and things - if that is where you tap into the real meaning of life, then you will never have enough

Worship your own body and beauty you will always feel ugly. And when time and age start to show you will have died a million deaths before they put you in the ground.

Worship power - you will feel weak and afraid, always needing more power to keep others at bay

Worship your intelelict, beeing seen as smart - you’ll always feel stupid, like a fraud, filled with anxiety that others will find out.

The insidous thing about these forms of worship is not that they are evil or sinful, but it is they are unconscious. They are defalt settings. They’re the kind of worship you just gradually slip into, day after day, getting more and more selective about what you see and how you measure value without ever being fully aware that that’s what you are doing.

Last week I said

To become a true disciple of Christ is to shepherd your heart.. or to be careful of the things you love.

What we really worship is seen in our actions on a daily basis. What we worship is driven by what we love… the question is, are you aware of what you really love?

Worship reflects our habbits:

Let’s look to the Apostle Paul Again. Last week we highligted in Philippians that Paul desired the churches love would abound more and more. In essense, that their love for Christ would drive them to a deeper knowledge of who God is.

Now, turn to Colossians 3.

Colossians 3:15-16 “And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”

What Paul describes in these verses sounds a lot like what the Church should be. Back up a couple of verses.

Colossians 3:12-14 “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”

This is what it’s supposed to look like with God’s people worship. These practices of Christian worship train our love - they are practice for the coming kingdom… developing in us the habits of a citizen of the kingdom of God.

A Historic Confession from the Book of Common Prayer: (Anglican Church 1542.)

Almighty and most merciful father, we have erred and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep, we have followed to much the devices and desires of our own hearts.

We are supposed to be a gathering of people who own up to the fact that we don’t always love what we say we do. That the devices and desires of our hearts outstrip our best intentions.

Self Awareness of our idols:

There’s a word in psychologist use to describe unconsious habbits, “automaticities.”

Timothy Wilson, a Psycologist at he University of Virginia, says: “only about 5 percet of what we do in a given day is the outcome of conscious, deliberate choices we make. The rest of what we do is managed just below the surface, by all shorts of learned yet unconscious ways of navigating our world.

Let’s look at how our culture shapes the way we worship. What are the activies we do on a daily basis that shape our worship?

The Temple of the Mall:

When you go to the mall no one greets you at the door giving you the statement of faith.

Their sixteen doctrines are nailed to the front door of the mall..

The Mall doesn’t beleive anything. it isn’t interested in engaging your intellect. The mall might not be theological or interested in what you think, but it is a place of public worship interested in what you love. “Victoria’s secret is that she’s actually after your heart.”

If we put on a set of glasses that sees the mall as religous behavior what would we see. How does the mall use its space, its practices, its rituals.

The entrance to the temple:

Large beautful architecture that gives a sense of familiarity no matter what city we are in.

Familiar flags and lables on the outside so even someone not from the area can identifiy what’s inside.

You walk into a large open space that welcomes you in, those familiar feel at home, and for visitors there is a large map to help them get oriented to the various spaces where you can make an offering.

The vaulted ceilings hold the only windows to the outside world and seem to transport us from the every day mundane into a place where time works a little differently.

Time feels a little differenlt, but the calendar governs the decorations and colors that coienside with holidays and festivals.

Inside the mall are numerous chapels devoted to various saints, each one with a unique art. Instead of stain glass windows, there are statues (mannequins) that show us what the good life looks like. Springs up within us the desire to imitate what we see.

The Gospel here s beauty, reaching for your deepest desires to expereince the good life.

When you go into a chapel:

You’re greeted by someone who offers to shepherd you through your experience, but offeres to let you take things at your own pace.

Sometimes you’re unsure of what you’re looking for and you curousily look around unsure how this place will meet your desire, but your sure it is in there. A sense of expectancy that you will find what you are looking for.

When we find our new relic we proceede to the alter where a priest procides over our transaction We’re invited to give and recieve, we don’t leave empty handed.

We are given a bennedition by the priest who assures us we are always welcome.

Here’s the point, the culture around us can form and shap our behvior and ultimate entice us to love things that will pull us away from God’s desires for you.

Adrian Rogers, “God wants for our lives what we would want if we could see it, were just to stupid to see it.”

The invitation today is this.

Unlike the two young fish, discover what’s going on around you. Pause for some self reflection and ask God to reveal to you the desires in your heart. As the Lord to help you discover where you have been conformed by the world and then seek to be transformed by renewal that can only come from Him.

Let’s pray