Sunday Rewind 10.19.08

What do you have that God desires that only you can give? Here’s a hint. The answer isn’t any of your stuff. Ready for the answer? It’s your worship.

Worship is a big deal to God. From Genesis to Revelation, God’s Word is loaded with teaching about worship. But why? Why is worship so important? Let me share two foundational answers.

There is a war for your worship. God’s Word teaches us that God created an angel named Lucifer. He was more beautiful than any other angel, and was given a position of high leadership in heaven. Somewhere along the way, his desires turned darkly inward. He began wanting what only God was worthy of receiving (Isaiah 14:13-14). That is the moment the war for your worship began. God kicked Lucifer out of heaven. We know him as Satan and he's doing everything he can to redirect our worship from God to anything else.

You were created for worship. Worship is so much bigger than what we do on Sunday mornings. It's part of our nature. It's why we exist. It's our life. Fleshing all that out is way beyond what I can do in one post. So let me limit myself on what we do when we gather together for worship on Sundays. What are we trying to do? What are we trying to accomplish? What’s my part? What’s your part? When we come together for worship, there are two key players.

The audience. It's pretty clear who that is, right? Now here's why that's important. The audience has the power. The audience can like what I say, or not like what I say. The audience decides whether or not to return next week. The audience has the power.

The performer. It's obvious who that is, too. As I perform, I hope what I say will be helpful, will inspire you, or at least make sure your conversations at lunch will be nice about me and not bad.

That’s the picture most people have of what takes place when we come together on Sundays. There’s just one problem. You have never been, and you never will be the audience. The thing that happen on Sunday aren't for you.

We are the cast…all of us. We are worshippers together, with an audience of one, Almighty God, who created you for this purpose.

The moment we allow that reality to sink in, everything changes. We won’t come to receive something from God, even though we will. We won’t come to hear from God, even though we will. When we realize that God, and God alone, is the audience, we will come not to receive, but to give…our minds, hearts, soul, and strength.

So, what is worship. Simple. Worship is a response to who God is and what He has done.

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.” (Romans 12:1)

Can I ask you a question? What has God done for you? Look at your life…at the things you have done. Look at what you believe the Bible says about who God is…and about what he has done in response to what you have done.

Now, in view of that…in view of God’s mercy, there’s really only one reasonable response. In view of who He is and what He has done, we bring him an offering. We are that offering. That is worship.