Key Definition: “Worship is honoring God’s greatness and goodness.”
- Whether in church on Sunday or in our everyday lives, every time we acknowledge how great God is and/or how good He’s been to us, that is an act of worship. It is an act of honoring Him for who He is and/or what He’s done.
Key Question: “Why don’t I think more often about God’s greatness and goodness?”
- We can go days at a time without having any thought of how good God has been to us. We look past the blessings and supply that He’s given. “Who God is” and “what God’s done for us” simply drops from our radar screen. Then Sunday comes around again and we once again acknowledge that God is alive and brings good things into our lives.
- What are the things that are getting in the way of our seeing God’s greatness and goodness in our everyday life?
- Worship is not intended to be a Sunday morning activity, but instead our life should be have the refrain of how much God has done for us once again. Isaiah 6:3 says that “the whole earth is full of His glory,” yet many of us rarely think about God outside the walls of the church. What are the “detours” that are getting us off track?
Key Biblical Idea: Being at Jesus’ feet.
- Luke 5:8.
- Obviously being at Jesus’ feet is a place of worship. What can we learn by those at Jesus’ feet about the detours that get us off-track?
Six Detours On The Path To Worshiping God:
1. We get consumed by our pride.
- Luke 7:38-39.
- John 13:5.
- I want to focus on Simon’s response to this woman’s worship. His focus is not on God’s greatness because he gets sidetracked by his religious pride.
- In our lives, it may be religious pride or just a life that is self-centered, but in either case, we have put ourselves on the throne of our lives. We are interested in what will increase our reputation. We love to hear people talk about us and our accomplishments. How can we tout God’s greatness when we’re so consumed with our own greatness?
2. We get boxed in by people’s expectations of us.
- Luke 8:35.
- After you’ve been around people for a while, they have certain expectations of the way you’re going to act and what you’re going to say. If you deviate much at all from that, comments like “What’s wrong with you?” and “Why are you acting weird?” are sure to come.
- As we think of being people who regularly acknowledge and enjoy the greatness and goodness of God in our daily lives, that’s bound to come out in our conversation. In fact, perhaps such thoughts have come to our mind before. As we expressed them, though, we got those quizzical looks in response.
- “Aren’t we fortunate that all the kids are healthy and doing well in school?” brings a response of “Yeah, I guess so. Where did that come from?”
- “God has really taken care of all of our financial needs, hasn’t He?” brings a response of “Where did that come from?”
- When you begin to talk in ways you haven’t before, you’ll get those looks and comments. When it comes to seeing God’s greatness and goodness in daily life, our tentative explorations of that territory have left us believing that it’s not worth pursuing people’s uneasy glances.
3. We are concentrating on the pain of someone we love.
- Luke 8:41.
- When a family member is hurting (emotionally, physically, or financially), it’s easy to become consumed by that pain. We find ourselves thinking about them and their situation all the time, often worrying about it.
- When we’re worrying, it’s incredibly hard to see God working. It’s not that He isn’t. It’s not that it’s not possible to see His mercy in the situation. It’s just that we’re so focused on how bad the situation is that we can’t see how good God is being to us even in the midst of our tough situation.
- In moments of desperation like that, we need to lean on God’s strong arm. Too often, though, we’re not even thinking about God at all, except briefly during “band-aid” “fix-it” prayers.
4. We are distracted by our frantic pace.
- Luke 10:39.
- Sometimes we don’t think about God’s greatness and goodness because we have stuffed our lives full to the gills and, as we run through our lives at a breakneck pace, we never come up for air.
- Some live this way because it confirms to them their importance (i.e. busy = important). It’s tough to be thinking about God’s greatness when you’re running hard to maintain the illusion of your importance.
5. We are focused on our possessions.
- John 12:3.
- Kids love toys, but we as grown-up Americans sure spend a lot of time ourselves thinking about and playing with our toys. A new computer, a new boat, new clothes, the latest PDA, or whatever else we’ve just bought.
- God is the source of all the material blessings in our lives, but the dearth of tithing gives clear indication that the majority of Christians don’t believe that to be true.
- We turn our attention from today’s “latest thing” to tomorrow’s “latest thing.” We’re too busy bowing at the altar of technological advancement and materialistic hedonism to have time to think of God.
6. We are embarrassed by our sin.
- Luke 5:8 and Matthew 28:9.
- We all sin and experience the separation from God that that brings. Sometimes, when we sin, we do “damage control” by trying to hide from God and think as little about Him as possible. That inevitably leads to other problems in our lives, but we’re trying to make the best of a bad situation.
- Yes, you may have sinned, but Jesus stands ready to forgive and to welcome you back into full fellowship with Him. Don’t dwell in your sins. Bow at Jesus’ feet, release your sins to Him, and once again experience the joy of worshiping your Savior.
Conclusion:
The first step: Acknowledge that you’ve taken a detour, whichever one it may have been.
- The small group studies and the book will fill in many key details about how to begin to worship in spirit and truth during your everyday life, but a starting point this morning is simply to acknowledge that God is too often an afterthought.
- When we begin to honor God’s greatness and goodness as a matter of everyday life, there is not only the result of God getting the glory that He deserves, but as a side bonus we find our lives more filled with joy.
- Which detour have you been taking?
