We’ve been designed to worship
Worship means to ascribe worth
“Here’s something else that’s weird but true: in the day-to day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship….On one level, we all know this stuff already. It’s been codified as myths, proverbs, clichés, epigrams, parables; the skeleton of every great story. The whole trick is keeping the truth up front in daily consciousness.” – David Foster Wallace
Isaiah 44:9 ESV – “All who fashion idols are nothing, and the things they delight in do not profit. Their witnesses neither see nor know, that they may be put to shame.”
“To contemporary people the word idolatry conjures up pictures of primitive people bowing down before statues… Our contemporary society is not fundamentally different from these ancient ones. Each culture is dominated by its own set of idols. Each has its own ‘priesthoods,’ its totems and rituals. Each one has its shrines—whether office towers, spas and gyms, studios, or stadiums—where sacrifices must be made in order to procure the blessings of the good life and ward off disaster…What are the gods of beauty, power, money, and achievement but these same things that have assumed mythic proportions in our individual lives and in our society.We may not physically kneel before the statue of Aphrodite, but many young women today are driven into depression and eating disorders by an obsessive concern over their body image. We may not actually burn incense to Artemis, but when money and career are raised to cosmic proportions, we perform a kind of child sacrifice, neglecting family and community to achieve a higher place in business and gain more wealth and prestige…In ancient times, the deities were bloodthirsty and hard to appease. They still are.” -Tim Keller
“For when we cease to worship God, we do not worship nothing, we worship anything.” – G.K. Chesterton
Romans 1:18-25 CSB – For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth, 19 since what can be known about God is evident among them, because God has shown it to them.
20 For his invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made. As a result, people are without excuse.
For though they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became worthless, and their senseless hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles.
24 Therefore God delivered them over in the desires of their hearts to sexual impurity, so that their bodies were degraded among themselves. 25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served what has been created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever. Amen.
1 Timothy 4:4 ESV – “For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving”
1 Timothy 6:17 CSB – Instruct those who are rich in the present age not to be arrogant or to set their hope on the uncertainty of wealth, but on God, who richly provides us with all things to enjoy.
“The compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of god or spiritual-type thing to worship—be it JC or Allah, be it YHWH or the Wiccan Mother Goddess, or the Four Noble Truths, or some inviolable set of ethical principles—is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough, never feel you have enough. It’s the truth. Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly. And when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally grieve you.” – David Foster Wallace
What you worship will shape you
Psalm 135:15-18 ESV – “The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths, but do not speak; they have eyes, but do not see; they have ears, but do not hear; nor is there any breath in their mouths. Those who make them become like them, so do all who trust in them.”
Genesis 22:5 ESV – “Then Abraham said to his young men, ‘Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.'”
Proverbs 27:7 ESV – “The one who is full loathes honey, but to the one who is hungry everything bitter is sweet.”
Genuine Worship Produces Joy
Psalm 9:2 NLT – “I will be filled with joy because of you. I will sing praises to your name, O Most High.”
Ephesians 5:19b-20a NIV – “Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God for everything.”
Genuine Worship Produces Humility
Psalm 8:3-5 CSB –
When I observe your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you set in place,
4 what is a human being that you remember him,
a son of man that you look after him?
5 You made him little less than God
and crowned him with glory and honor.
Genuine Worship Produces Confidence
Psalm 66:8-12, 16-20 NIV –
Praise our God, all peoples,
let the sound of his praise be heard;
9 he has preserved our lives
and kept our feet from slipping.
10 For you, God, tested us;
you refined us like silver.
11 You brought us into prison
and laid burdens on our backs.
12 You let people ride over our heads;
we went through fire and water,
but you brought us to a place of abundance.
Come and hear, all you who fear God;
let me tell you what he has done for me.
17 I cried out to him with my mouth;
his praise was on my tongue.
18 If I had cherished sin in my heart,
the Lord would not have listened;
19 but God has surely listened
and has heard my prayer.
20 Praise be to God,
who has not rejected my prayer
or withheld his love from me!
Romans 8:28-32 NIV – And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?
