What we worship matters
I’m currently in the midst of preparing for a study I’m leading this fall on the topic of worship.
When you think of worship, what comes to mind? Odds are, the first thing that comes to mind is Sunday morning church services. The connection is so strong that most churches call their services “Worship Services.”
In his book True Worshipers, Bob Kauflin says this about a worship moment he had with the song “I Exalt Thee”
“I remember singing it over and over and being moved by the devotion it expressed. But we’re deceived if we think singing is necessarily the same as doing… My words are meaningless without actions to back them up.”1
Anyone who has ever had an interaction with another person knows exactly what Bob is saying.
Regardless of our relationship, if I express certain attitudes or beliefs to you but then go on with life as though we never had that conversation, you are going to assume I was just giving lip service and didn’t mean what I was saying.
Worship is better defined not simply as singing, but as using whatever we have at our disposal to honor God (Deuteronomy 6:5).
This means anything from our hearts, attitudes, and actions to our possessions and our time.
As a church, we’ve been in Exodus this summer, and we have referenced Exodus 32 quite a bit and the story of the Golden Calf.
Exodus 32:2–4 says:
“So Aaron said to them, ‘Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.’ 3 So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. 4 And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf.”
The people of Israel quite literally used what they had at their disposal to fashion an idol for themselves. But this real-life idol was also a symbol of what was going on in their hearts.
While not necessarily in the same way, we can do the same thing. There is a battle within us to use the resources we have at our disposal in a way that honors ourselves and what we want rather than what honors God.
Bob Kauflin comments:
“Worship in the wrong direction is called idolatry. It’s looking to anything other than God for our ultimate satisfaction, comfort, security, or joy. When I worship an idol, I’m saying, ‘Fulfill me. Console me. Protect me. Rule me. You are worthy of my strength, time, energy, and affections. Only you can make me completely happy.’ We don’t physically bow down to our idols. But that’s what we’re doing in our hearts.”2
In Luke 16, Jesus presents a rather odd parable about how we are to use our resources: the parable of the dishonest, or shrewd, manager.
To summarize, a manager is caught being dishonest in his management of his boss’s assets. But before he is officially fired from his position, he goes to those who owe his boss money and works out deals to lower the debts they owe, hoping that when he is fired, they will have mercy on him and help care for him.
Overall, these are pretty dishonest actions by the manager. He was dishonest, got caught, and then used what he had at his disposal to help secure a contingency plan for himself.
Yet, despite his dishonesty, Jesus praises the manager’s shrewdness. Why?
Because Jesus is trying to tell us that we should be like the manager and use what we have at our disposal—not for dishonest gain, but instead to point people toward Jesus.
That sounds a lot like worship to me.
Worship points to God. Idols point back to us.
This Sunday, Pastor Chuck will be talking about the choice we continually have to make to faithfully follow God.
The question is: Will we use our limited resources to point people toward God or to serve ourselves?
In the commentary on the parable of the shrewd manager, the ECNT commentary essentially says, “Do something while you still can.”3
What we worship makes a difference—not only in our lives, but in the lives of those we interact with.
This Sunday, we will see a great example of the impact worship makes. This Sunday, we are celebrating baptisms.
People are ready to make a public display of an inward belief that Jesus is Lord, and they are committing themselves to do the best they can to live for Him.
Somewhere along the line, someone was faithful in the lives of these people—someone who chose to honor God with what they had at their disposal instead of choosing to use those resources to point toward themselves.
What we worship matters, and worship is a moment-by-moment, day-by-day battle.
And we to choose worship because:
It glorifies God.
It is for our good.
God uses it to reveal His goodness to the people around us.
Adam
- Bob Kauflin, True Worshipers: Seeking What Matters to God (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2015), 26 ↩︎
- Bob Kauflin, True Worshipers: Seeking What Matters to God (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2015), 25. ↩︎
- David E. Garland, Luke, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), 1099. ↩︎