Worship Transforms
Morning Greeting:
Read Psalm 96:1-6
“Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised.”
“All the gods of the peoples are worthless idols.”
Let’s put aside from our hearts today any idols that we may cherish, for they are worthless, and instead turn to the God of heaven, the one of surpassing worth!
Introduction:
I am convinced that we need to worship God.
An interesting truth about worship is that God does not need us to worship Him – we need us to worship Him.
God has no need and can cause rocks to cry out to Him in worship. Angels adore Him at all times. And He existed before ever a worshipper was created.
While worship is and must be about God and directed toward God – the interesting twist is that we are the ones who need to be worshipping.
Worship must be about God, but He doesn’t need it, we do.
Review:
We have talked about real worship. “Worship is the believers’ adoring and spiritual response of all that they are – mind, emotions, will, and body – to who God is and what He says and does.”
We have discovered reasons to worship: God answers prayer, forgives sin, is good, holy, our Savior, our hope, admirable, and our provider.
In this last message on worship, let’s examine why we need to worship God. We need to worship God because of the effects that worship has on us. Worship changes us. Our hearts are prone to worship something – And depending upon who or what we are worshipping, that change will either be for the better or for the worse.
Theme: What We Worship Transforms Us
Text: Romans 1:18-32; Romans 12:1-2
First, let’s look at the first chapter of Romans for a negative example of worship. Romans 1 shows us what happens when people choose to worship things other than the one true God.
Text: Romans 1:18-32
Verses 18-23
To explain what Paul is saying in these verses, there are numerous things about God that He has revealed to all mankind. Maybe not everyone out there has a Bible, but through nature – the tumult of the weather, lightning, thunder, and disasters – signs shown from heaven, mankind is able to see that God is angry at unrighteousness. And God’s great power and divine nature are also shown through the things that He has made. It is clear that there is a powerful God up there and that our relationship with Him is not right.
But rather than seeking the true Creator God, rather than worshipping the true Creator God, mankind chose to worship other things. They crafted gods that looked like themselves and held the same kind of sinful desires that they had, and they crafted gods that looked like animals – weak gods, controllable gods, gods that would want what they want and approve of what they want.
People knew about God and they knew there was a problem, but they chose to ignore it and substitute Him for false gods instead.
And so, verses 18-23, we see mankind choosing to worship things other than God.
The following verses show the negative effect that worshipping things other than God brings. Verses 24-32 show what the fruit of worshipping false gods is. Let’s see how we are changed when we worship things other than God.
Verses 24-32
So what happens when people choose to worship things other than God? How are we changed? The short answer is sin. Any and every kind of sin. Awful things like heartlessness and ruthlessness. This list is pretty exhaustive.
God looked upon man’s choice to reject Him and worship other things and He “gave them up” to it. He basically said “I see that you have chosen sin and yourselves as your god. I’ll not stop you. Let’s see what happens.”
And, lo and behold, surprise, surprise, bad things happened. Mankind made various idols to honor sexual perversions, hatred, meanness, disobedience, and so on. Did these false gods help make the world a better place? Not at all. We worshipped what we wanted, we got what we wanted, and as it turns out – what we wanted was actually pretty terrible.
Our relationship with the source of all good things, our relationship with God, was decimated and things got worse and worse. We turned away from the Father of Lights; we turned away from the One called “Love.” We turned away from the one who answers prayer, provides for us, and made us, and it went badly and decimated our relationship with Him.
That’s the short explanation of these verses in Romans.
The principle I want to draw out from these verses is that we need to worship God because worshipping idols leads to serious problems.
There are things out there that we all love. And there are sins out there that we all gravitate towards. But when we cease to worship God and replace Him with other things – we are changed, and not in a good way. We are changed by what we worship.
Even if your heart is worshipping a good thing. You think “well, this thing – I don’t see anything bad about it,” our hearts can still be changed for the worse – maybe that thing you worship isn’t making you a hateful person – but maybe it is contributing towards envy, covetousness, or increasing selfishness.
Let’s take a TV show as an example. I don’t really watch TV, but let’s say you enjoy a wholesome show of some sort. There’s not really anything wrong with it. And there’s nothing wrong with someone enjoying a wholesome show.
But, let’s say that you have to watch that show. Let’s say you are watching this wholesome show and your child or spouse or someone wants to talk to you about something. So you angrily say “be quiet! I’m trying to watch my show.” I think we’ve all done that sort of thing before. But doing that, have you not just been selfish? By cherishing a good thing to a level that is inappropriate, you have put fiction above family. But if you worship God, the creator of family, the one we call “Father” – by whom all families are named, then you learn that God is delighted when you are kind and loving to your family.
I think we could probably all use some repentance and help in areas like these. Our hearts are prone to worship, but sometimes what we worship is the wrong thing. It’s something we all have in common and need to grow in and keep a watch over.
We need to worship God because the other things we worship bring sorrow and all sorts of the worst of problems.
Well, we’ve seen enough of the negative side of things. Bad things happen when we worship something other than God. Let’s see what happens when we choose to worship God.
Text: Romans 12:1-2
Here’s our key verse for worship. Romans 12:1. Worship is giving your life to God. The verses that follow describe what that looks like:
First, worshipping God means being transformed by the renewal of our minds. Worshipping God means that we learn to discern what His will is, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
As we worship God, our view of the world is changed. I think if you were to compare the average lifestyle of an American today with the lifestyle of one that worships God, you will find some differences. Sometimes vast differences. This is because we don’t look at things the same way that other people do. By worshipping God, we begin to have a different definition of what is good, acceptable, and perfect.
I tell you what, and I say it without apology, that my definition of what is good, acceptable, and perfect is on most points the opposite of the world today. And that’s not because I’m contrarian and just want to be different. It’s because I know and worship God, and He has utterly transformed my mind.
As we worship God, gossip, slander, malice, unfaithfulness, greed, etc., all begin to look more and more ugly – because God says that they are and we love God.
And as we worship God, we cease to be conformed to the world. We are out of place. For better or worse, being out of place in the world is normal for a Christian. You are supposed to be out of place. If you go to work and think “man, all my coworkers complain and gossip and have bad work ethics and I don’t know how to relate to them or talk to them because it’s like we are from two totally different planets” then, that is a good sign that you are not being conformed to the world but are instead being transformed.
It’s an uncomfortable place to be, I know, but it’s normal for the Christian. We don’t fit in anymore when we worship God.
Let’s just scan through more of Romans 12 and see some other fruit that comes from worshipping God.
*Read verse 3a* – As we worship God, seeing how extremely perfect He is, then pride begins to die.
*Read verse 9* – As we worship God, the one of whom John said “God is love,” then our love grows to become genuine. Evil is abhorred. Good is clung to.
*verse 10* – we love one another with a brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.
*verses 11-21*
And on and on. Compare Romans 12 with Romans 1. Which do you want? Romans 1 is what it looks like when you worship things other than God. Romans 1 is what it looks like to be conformed to the world.
Romans 12 is what it looks like when you worship God. Romans 12 is what it looks like to have your mind transformed by God.
We need to worship God because it is how we arrive at a life that looks like Romans 12. The alternative is a life that looks like Romans 1.
I don’t know about you, but to me, Romans 12 looks like heaven and Romans 1 looks like hell. If Romans 1 is what worshipping false gods looks like, and Romans 12 is what worshipping God looks like, then the choice is easy: I want to know and worship God more and more.
I need to worship God.
Application:
In fact, I would say, there is no goal in life more worthy of pursuit than to worship God more and more. As we do, other things will begin to fall into their proper alignment. Ultimately, it will mean that you look very different from the world. You no longer fit in. But if being out of place is the price that must be paid to love other people with a brotherly affection, rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer, to show hospitality, to bless those who persecute, rejoice, live in harmony with one another, and so on – then may I forever be an out of place weirdo.
*Go Immediately into Prayer*