Worship is something that we talk about all the time at church. We’re always singing. Every time we get together its 3 or 4 songs about God. Worship is core to who we are as followers of Jesus. But it’s deeper than that.
Worship is core to who we are as people—whether we are followers of Jesus or not. We are always worshiping. How do I know this? Because we are constantly freaking out about stuff. We are forever going overboard. We are prone to obsessions.
PRONE TO OBSESS
Are you a football fan? I don’t mean you occasionally watch football. You schedule your Saturdays and Sundays around football. When your team is playing you plan your day around the game. You get a text from your friends asking you to go to a movie, dinner or to go see the alien spaceship that just landed at the end of your street and you’re like, “Uh, sounds fun but I gotta watch my team.”
Or maybe for you it isn’t football. Maybe it’s a movie, a book or a series of books and movies like Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars the Hunger Games or Twilight. When the newest movie comes out (cough Girl on Fire) you wait in line for hours to see the very first showing and you’re wearing a costume! You know everything there is to know about the series. You know all the characters, their special powers, what their weapon of choice is, and what their favorite flavor of ice cream is. You have a poster of Edward in your room! You are a HUGE fan. You might say you worship Star Wars or Twilight.
Or maybe you’re a gamer. You play Call of Duty, Battlefield, Halo, Final Fantasy or something like that. When the newest game in the series comes out you will be (air quotes) “sick” on that day and be forced, against your will to stay home from school and play ALL DAY. You are so into CoD or Halo that you might say you worship it. Or at least the 5000 hours of game play and your golden assault rifle would argue that you do.
Or maybe you aren’t a gamer, a nerd or a football fan but wow is that guy in English class attractive. In fact, he’s so good looking that you’ve thought of nothing else for the last…when did school start again? And you think to yourself, if only he was mine! Then I would be happy…and you continue to obsess over him and occasionally stalk his Instagram. You think about him so much in fact that your friends would say that you worship him.
WHAT IS WORSHIP?
We worship all the time. We were created to worship. How do you know if you are worshiping? Is your attention captivated? Does your heartbeat pick up? You might be worshiping.
When we devote ourselves to something we are probably worshiping. It’s the difference between using Google search for 5 minutes to find information for a school project and using Google search for 5 hours to scour for information on the possible characters and plots of the new Star Wars movie coming out in 2015.
GUILT TRIP
I know what you’re thinking. So, now it’s time for the guilt trip. It’s wrong that I like video games. I shouldn’t have that Edward poster in my room and now I feel bad for saying that guy in English class is hot. Nope. No guilt trip. I’m not saying it’s wrong to get excited or even a little obsessed with stuff. God has given us a lot of great things that He wants us to enjoy–like Starbucks.
The issue, is whether or not something is worthy to be worshiped and whether or not our affections are in the right place. I just wonder if what we spend our time worshiping is really worth all that devotion and passion. Because…
Football…let’s be honest for a second. Football is actually a bunch of guys wearing really tight pants running around chasing a ball.
And Twilight…[whispering] vampires aren’t real. Werewolves aren’t real. Stop freaking out about it.
And Call of Duty…no matter what way you slice it, you still just spent 12 hours straight in your mom’s basement. I’m just saying.
And that hot guy…he’s human. The truth is he’s like you. He drools in his sleep and gets a little gassy after eating Qdoba. He’s human–a really good looking human, but he’s human.
When you get to the core of what we are so obsessed with it kind of feels dumb. The question is: are the people and things we are so devoted to really worth our time and attention? Is what we are worshiping worthy of our worship?
WHAT THEY DO IN HEAVEN
Let’s take a field trip to heaven. Weird, I know but I’m serious. The very last book in the Bible contains visions of heaven. It’s pretty wild stuff but I want to look at what they do in heaven.
Revelation 5:11-13
Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. In a loud voice they were saying:
“Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain,
to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength
and honor and glory and praise!”
Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying:
“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
be praise and honor and glory and power,
for ever and ever!”
Angels, 10,000 x 10,000…if you’re not strong at math, that’s 2 million wings. 1 million beings are constantly worshiping Jesus because of what He has done for humanity.
In the previous chapter the author of Revelation describes a scene in which angels sing:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty,’ who was, and is, and is to come.”
And they sing this all day everyday…forever. Now that’s some serious worship. These people really know how to do church.
WORTHY
The truth is that there is nothing or no one in our lives who is more worthy of worship than God. He created everything. He set the universe in motion. He hung the planets. He invented all the animals and He breathed life into us.
He is infinitely powerful. There is nothing He cannot do. He is perfect in every way. He is justice and love. He is infinitely creative and good.
And, when we rebelled against Him, He rescued us from ourselves and from the disaster we had created. He became a man and died in our place to restore us to Him.
This is God. This is why they praise Him constantly in heaven. This is why the angels never cease singing. He is AMAZING. There is nothing like Him. Absolutely nothing can compare to the majesty, power and love of our God.
I’m not saying you need to burn your Twilight poster, crack your CoD game in half or stop having a crush on that guy on English class. I’m simply saying that maybe we need to create space in our lives for the One who is infinitely more worthy of our worship. You see, you were created to worship Him. There is a very real sense in which life is as it is supposed to be when we are worshiping God. Life is found when our affections are focused on Him.
