John 4, Romans 12:1-2

Matt Summerfield

What's the first word that comes to mind when you think of the word 'worship'? What images come to mind? What thoughts? Experiences?

When you worship something, it's as if you're saying that above all else, 'I need this in my life. My life will be better if I have this; if I'm close to this.'

The first instructions that God gave His people in the Ten Commandments were that they were to have no other gods or idols. He should be the focus of their worship. Jesus reinforced this by telling us that the greatest and most important commandment is to,
'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'

It seems that who and what you worship is of primary concern to God. Why is that?

The reality is that:

Everybody worships something and what you worship you become.
Everybody worships something and what you worship controls you.

The problem is that since the fall in the Garden of Eden humanity has an annoying habit of creating idols and gods by the truckload.

We end up worshipping the wrong things and therefore become the wrong things.
We end up worshipping the wrong things and therefore are controlled by the wrong things.

Imagine that your life is like a throne. What do you put on the throne of your life? What do we worship today? Pounds? Possessions? Pleasure? People? Power? To name but a few!

If these things dominate our lives; if they are our primary pursuit; if they've become idols or objects of worship, then we'll never be satisfied or content and our lives will be controlled by sorrow, fear, selfishness, jealousy, anger, shame, pain, confusion and emptiness.

So in light of all this, it's no wonder that God tells us in both Old and New Testaments that the primary issue in life is who or what is on the throne of your life.

The difference with all these other things and God - the one true God - is that God is for you. God created you. God knows you. God loves you. God is always there for you. You have breath in your body today because of God. In Him you live and breathe and have your being.

Pound, possessions, pleasure, people, power - all that stuff does, is take from you.

God is the only one who can give you what you need.

Author John Ortberg writes, "We worship God not so much because he needs it, but because we do. I need to worship because without it I can forget that I have a Big God beside me and then live in fear."