Great Art - Worship the Creator
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Worship the Creator
Worship the Creator
I love art. Art is defined as the expression or application of creative skill and imagination. In Human terms that means painting, sculpting, music or poetry to name a few. I am not one of those people that can stand for hours and stare at one painting, scrutinizing every brush stroke and color but, I appreciate the beauty that humans can create through various forms of art. Music and poetry are my personal favorites but I appreciate most forms of creativity that the human mind can conjure up. I would love to share one of my Poems with you right now.
In the beginning, you stood all alone
Before there was life, before there was light
But then you made all through your power and might
The bird and the ox, the fish and the stone
This beautiful masterpiece is yours alone
This art you created reveals who you are
The sunset, the flowers, the beach and the birds
The mountains, the valleys and especially your words
The oak tree, the grass lands, the deer and the star
The beautiful masterpiece is your work of art.
We worship you Lord Creator of all things
Artist, provider, redeemer and friend
Your goodness and justice, surely without end
Your name alone we worship and sing
Your name alone we worship and sing
Part of God’s great art work is you and me. His favorite part actually. Have you ever wondered why humankind exists? Or why you personally exist? What is your purpose on this crazy planet? Is it your career? Your Family? You Ministry? Your Church? Is it all of those things together? FOR WHAT REASON HAVE YOU BEEN PLACED ON THIS EARTH?
WORSHIP. You were made to worship. Ecclesiastes 12:13 “13 The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.”
The whole duty of man is .. FEAR GOD and keep his commandments. You may say well that doesn't say anything about worship. Commandment Number one from Exodus 20:1-5
Exodus 20:1–5 (ESV)
1 And God spoke all these words, saying,
2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
3 “You shall have no other gods before me.
4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me,
Our man purpose on this earth is to Worship the Creator. That is one reason we should worship him. Its our purpose, It is the purpose of creation.
Why Worship the Creator
He Created to be Worshiped
4 All the earth worships you
and sings praises to you;
they sing praises to your name.” Selah
7 Even every one that is called by my name:
For I have created him for my glory,
I have formed him; yea, I have made him.
When God created Man he created us with the ability to and for the purpose of rightly and solely worshipping Him.
Eve listened to Satan in the Garden and she decided she should be like God. She wanted the knowledge and power and worship that belonged to God. And Adam, in his failure as the leader of the human race also ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
This action, this SIN, made it so Adam and Eve and all the human race to follow were, and are still, unable, on their own, to worship The Creator.
Now we find ourselves willingly chasing other Gods. Bowing down to the things of this world. Just like the Israelites we are constantly whoring after other Gods. 1 Chronicles 5:25
25 And they transgressed against the God of their fathers, and went a whoring after the gods of the people of the land, whom God destroyed before them.
Through sin we have made it impossible to Worship the Creator on our own. We will talk more about that later on.
He is Worthy to Be worshipped
God alone is worthy of worship.
11 Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.
There is no other being or thing that is worthy of worship.
Matthew 4:10 “10 Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “ ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’ ””
Satan tempted Jesus with all the kingdoms of earth if only Christ would bow before Satan. Jesus himself said Only God is worthy of worship
John in Revelation 22 fell down to worship the angel. The angel rebuked him and said I am a servant like you. Worship God
Heaven is and will be filled with beings who continually worship God because he is WORTHY. As pastor said last week he was always worthy even before he did anything. He is worthy because he is God.
3 And one cried unto another, and said,
Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts:
The whole earth is full of his glory.
8 And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.
The heavenly beings know of his worthiness and continually cry out in worship. So should we
He Demands Worship
Because he is worthy and holy God demands worship.
29 Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name:
Bring an offering, and come before him:
Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.
All through out scripture it is clear that not only is God worthy of worship but, he also demands it.
The Creator of the universe through his word has commanded us to worship him.
We just need to go back to Exodus 20:1-5
1 And God spake all these words, saying, 2 I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me. 4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: 5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
Or how about Deuteronomy 6:13
13 Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name.
He Seeks Worshipers
God is seeking for people to worship him. He desires your worship. Jesus told us this in the conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well.
23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
The Creator of all things is seeking for people to truly worship him. He wants YOU to worship him
Unfortunately we can’t worship him. Our sin nature will not allow us to worship him. In our Natural state we can not know him. In our natural state like the woman at the well, “we worship what we do not know” because we cant know the Creator.
14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Thankfully God made a way that we can Worship him. He Sent his son. Through the work of Christ we are regenerated by the Holy Spirit. We are born again. We are given a new nature. We are new Creatures as 2 Corinthians 5:17 says.
This new birth, this regeneration makes it possible for us to worship God
What I am saying is We are saved to Worship the Creator. I am not sure if you have ever heard it said that way but it is true.
Worship is true humanity. It is the reason man was created. This true humanity was given up when Adam and Eve disobeyed and this false or incomplete humanity, we were born into continues with our disobedience. That is until the work of Christ is applied to our souls. The point of salvation is not to keep you from hell. It certainly does that. Salvation was brought to bare so WE CAN WORSHIP THE CREATOR.
A.W Tozer said “We are saved to worship God. All that Christ has done in the past and all that He is doing now is to one end”
That end by the way is Worshiping the Creator
John MacArthur said it this way “You see? Sacrifice made possible communion between man and God. If that’s true, then ultimate sacrifice made possible ultimate communion. And so, we say then that the death of Christ was to provide God with the fulfillment of His seeking after true worshippers. And as we meet at the cross, and our sin is dealt with, and we are purified by the blood of Jesus Christ, we then become acceptable worshippers of the Father. So, worship is always an issue of salvation. The basis of worship is sacrifice.”
The Creator Created for worship. He is worthy of all worship. He Seeks your worship through His Sons finished work on the Cross. He Demands our worship.
So how do we worship the Creator?
How do We Worship the creator
This is in no way an exhaustive list of ways to worship. These are some things that we can all do to varying degrees to show our adoration and devotion to The Great Artist and Creator of all
Worship in Spirit and Truth
23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
The Truth part here is easy to grasp. Jesus tells us the He is the way, the TRUTH, and the life. We worship in truth ONLY when we are in Christ.
There is no way for us to offer pleasing worship to the Creator without being in Christ. No matter how sacrificial the offering of worship is, if you are out side of Christ, your offering is as good as Cain’s offering.
The Gospel which is the word of truth according to Colossians 1:5. and it should be the endeavour of every Christian to rightly handle this word, This word is the truth that anchors our worship.
To worship in spirit is a bit more complicated to understand but let’s talk it out.
True worship is not external, but internal. It is shown externally because we are so filled internally it has to come out.
It is not the other way around. Sometimes we worship outwardly trying to make it go inward. It doesn’t work that way.
Also Worshiping in Spirit is rarely a quiet thing. It has no choice but to come out in some way. An AMEN during a sermon. Raised hands during a song. Bowing in prayer in the middle of one of Pastor’s messages.
Think of Jesus’ disciples as He made his triumphant entry into Jerusalem on that Sunday before the Crucifixion. The disciples
37 As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, 38 saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” 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.”
God The Creator and the Son WILL BE WORSHIPED. It can be you and me or it can be the Rocks Some one will cry out loudly in worship. We should be excited. LOOK WHAT GOD HAS DONE.
Worshiping in spirit is not solely an emotional response to some religious stimulus but, it is hard to imagine true worship not being emotional.
John Piper explains it this way
“Truth without emotion produces dead orthodoxy and a church full . . . of artificial admirers. . . . On the other hand, emotion without truth produces empty frenzy and cultivates shallow people who refuse the disciple of rigorous thought. But true worship comes from people who are deeply emotional and who love deep and sound doctrine. Strong affections for God rooted in truth are the bone and marrow of biblical worship”.
Worship by serving
8 And Jesus answered him, “It is written,
“ ‘You shall worship the Lord your God,
and him only shall you serve.’ ”
Worship in prayer and thanksgiving
36 And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all.
Paul knelt.... he recognized who he was in reference to God and he got on his knees before God
16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
Giving thanks to the Creator is an act of adoration and reverence. It is Worship
Prayer directs our focus toward God. Isn’t that a big part of worship? Giving our attention to the object of our worship? Can you worship someone if they don't have your attention?
Prayer brings us into the presence of the Creator. We “come boldly before the throne....”. Isn’t easier to worship God when we are in his presence? From everything i have ever heard you BETTER BOW IN WORSHIP BEFORE THE KING ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU ARE IN THE THRONE ROOM.
Praying in God’s will is an act of Worship
Worship through living
1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Our whole life as Christians should be lived in worship to God.
Paul says here that our lives should be a living sacrifice.
In the Old testament worship was usually associated with animal sacrifice. Still no when we worship God we are sacrificing something. It could be time or talent. It could be our pride when we raise our hands our shout amen during a song or sermon. It may be friends and family that we sacrifice when we start to live our lives the way the Creator intended.
Through this renewing of the mind Paul talks about we can live our lives in worship to God.
Worship through giving
Conclusion
You may be wondering why my Scripture reading this morning was Job 38 when i have used neither verse in my message. The key to worship is to understand rightly who we are and who God is. You would be hard pressed to find a better representation of this than God himself confronting Job about his wrong thinking. God for 3 chapters continually challenges Job. God said be a man Job. I am gonna ask some questions and you WILL ANSWER. Where were you Job when i laid the Foundations of Earth? Which one of us decided how big it should be Job? Did you tell the sea to stop at this point? GOD IS GREAT AN GREATLY TO BE PRAISED. Job, Noah, Abraham, Paul, Peter all exponentially pale in comparison to The Creator. Even the extreme power of Satan is no match for God. GOD ALONE IS TO BE WORSHIPED. The great Artist and Architect of all creation is worthy of our worship.
All of man kind will worship something. Money, cars, careers, sports stars, Pastors, denominations, politicians or a million other things. However, scripture tells us that there is a day coming when ‘EVERY KNEE WILL BOW BEFORE CHRIST. You may say well what does Christ have to do the the Creator. I remind you of John 1:1-4
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
Jesus is the word of God. Jesus was with the Creator at the beginning and even before the beginning. God spoke and Jesus moved. Jesus was the catalyst in creation. He was the reactionary force. So how can we speak of worshiping the Creator and not speak of the Savior. Not only that but He is the only one through which we can be redeemed to Worship. Thanks be to God for sending his son Jesus Christ so that our worship can be acceptable to God
Is God your treasure? Do you adore him? Is he the one you worship? Do you worship him in Spirit and in Truth? Do you worship him at all? Are you even in a position where you can worship him? If you don’t know Jesus as your lord and savior then you can not worship the creator in any worth while manner. Any work you do outside of Christ is just stubble and straw. Fuel for the fire that god will send on this earth. I don’t want that for you, I want everyone of you to rightly worship the one true God. The Creator of all. Put your faith in Christ today and you will be saved to worship Him.
Action Step
By God’s Grace I will reverently and wholeheartedly worship The Creator of all for both who he was, and is and is to come, and also for the beautiful art he has produced in His creation.