Keeping Company with Jesus: Worship

Who or what is most valuable in your life?

Be careful how you answer. Our lips may say one thing, but our lives often tell the truth.

“Human beings cannot help but assign ultimate value and worth to someone or something.” ~ Adele Calhoun.

It’s just the way we’re wired. We will give someone or something preeminence in our lives, and consciously or unconsciously. She goes onto say,

“Ultimately what we are devoted to will shape our lives.”

It will shape how we spend our time, money, energy, routines, thoughts …. Consequently, that which we value the most – we worship.

“Many of us are devoted to the same things our culture worships: houses, money, retirement plans, vacations, comforts, success. When we value these things more than we value God, we end up worshiping secondary things. Secondary things can never satisfy core longings. Only a love relationship with our Creator can do that.” ~ Adele Calhoun.

Truthfully,

Worshiping secondary things is Idolatry.

What was the cause of Israel’s demise? Idolatry.

How do we prevent or correct our bent toward idolatry, toward worshiping secondary things?

Spiritual disciplines.

We said last week that we are to train ourselves to be godly. Each person has a responsibility to develop their love relationship with Jesus – privately and corporately.

Spiritual disciplines are the practices we use to develop our relationship with Jesus. Spiritual disciplines help keep us in alignment with God. Spiritual disciplines create space to love and honor God, space to receive His love in return, and space to actualize our salvation.

The word actualize means to make actual or put into practice. As followers of Jesus Christ, we are to work out our salvation (Phil. 2:12). We are to work out or actualize or put into practice what Jesus Christ did on the cross and in our hearts. We are to make His work a reality in our lives, and we do that by creating consistent regular space for God to work in us. And in so doing, we keep company with Jesus – not just on Sunday, but every day.

Let’s connect those two dots - the first spiritual discipline and perhaps the most important of all is worship. That’s a massive topic, so before we talk about disciplines or practices of worship, we need a brief explanation of what worship is and its importance.

Rather than a definition, here are several words associated with the word worship.

Adoration. Ascribing greatness and value. Allegiance, total devotion, faithfulness, and loyalty. Acknowledgment of sovereignty or supremacy (humility, honor, respect, submission).

Bowing down (head, knees, face). Nurturing the deepest of relationships. Offering of heart, mind, body (physical, spiritual, emotional) and backing off. Priority. Service.

Where’s music? Music is a means of worship, but it’s not worship in and of itself.

Practically speaking, we will typically worship whoever or whatever has our greatest loyalty, our greatest adoration and devotion, and whoever or whatever has the loudest voice in our lives. For example, if money has your greatest loyalty, if money is the loudest voice – you worship money. If comfort or status or whatever has the final say so in your life ….

Chad W. Wintringham says,

Worship is a choice of who or what is master of our lives. Worship is a choice of who or what is truly in charge.

Who is master / lord of your life? Going back to what I asked at the beginning, who or what is most valuable in your life – I said be careful, our lives will tell the truth. Our lives will reveal who’s master. See,

Ultimately, worship is an outward expression of an internal god.

Not talking about being possessed. Who’s on the throne of your heart? That’s who you worship.

How important is worship? We are going to worship someone or something – fact of life – we need to make sure we’re worshiping the right thing, and more accurately, the right God. Of course, the right God to worship is the one who created us and our world. The One who loves us. You can believe it or not – the choice is yours but choose this day whom you will serve / worship. As for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.

How important is worship?

Exodus 20:1–3 ESV

And God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before me.

1. gods (elohim) - no other spiritual beings in this relationship. “I’m faithful to you. Be faithful to me. Don’t cheat on me.”

2. “Biblical Hebrew has no verb meaning ‘to have.’ Instead, it conveys the idea of possession in a variety of ways. The most common is the phrasing found here: “there shall not be to you [any other gods].” ~ Faithlife Study Bible.

What’s the difference? The difference is peripheral or primary. A person can be married and living with their spouse (primary), but heart is with another (peripheral). “Faithful to my spouse; never been with another,” but look at porn. No matter how you look at, you’re committing adultery. God says, “No other gods whether primary or peripheral – I’m the only One.”

I’ve got to say this – elohim are real. Some are good, some are evil - demons, and powers, and authorities, and cosmic beings that hate God and God’s people. They're looking for a way to destroy our lives, churches, families … and they want to get into your life and ruin your marriage with Jesus. Listen, if you have any connections with anything of the occult, get rid of it. Ouija board, horoscope, fortune telling, secret societies, magic 8 balls, form of witchcraft, New Age, tarot cards – God says, “No.” Repent. Confess.

Exodus 20:4–6 ESV

“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. 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, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

Put those two commandments together – “don’t bring any gods, real or manmade into the relationship. Read this with me -

Deuteronomy 6:4–5 LEB

“Hear, Israel, Yahweh our God, Yahweh is unique. And you shall love Yahweh your God with all of your heart and with all of your soul and with all of your might.

Before we can talk about spiritual practices (next week), we need to clean house. Let’s spend a few moments with the Lord, listening, confessing, repenting if need be. Ask if there are any gods in your life – anything that takes precedence over Him. Could be physical, spiritual, could be emotional.