Understanding Worship and Authority

religious idea, but it's used also in other contexts. Can you think of a way that it's used outside the church? That's right. Now, why is this funny? What is funny about that? What does it imply? That she is very important, and even the places where she walks, which is, for us, the most insignificant thing, your footprint, is he is to look at that and say, that is so much more important than me. So the idea of worship is what? This person being exalted as a very important person. Now, what did you get on some of your sheets? Start with this group right here. What did you write down? Okay, now, read one of those, just one of them. Attending what? A priority. Worship. Okay, I'm going to worship God, and it's going to be a priority for me, and see how this fits in? God is so important, this worship of God becomes a priority for me. Read another one. Attending church. When church, you have Sunday school where you learn the Bible, preaching service where you learn the Bible. So the Bible is God's instructions to me. So if I put God in a very important place in my life, then I want to know what he wants me to do. And worship is saying, okay God, you are the authority, you're in charge, I want to hear what you want me to do, and then I'm going to go do it. So worship is putting God in that position of authority. What else do you have on there? Believing in a God. Now, what you do there, is you are saying, this ultimate authority who is in charge of the world, I believe that one exists. Okay. We'll go on and move. What do you guys find? Anything different than that? Not really. We're just going to church. Okay, what do you guys have there? We have a fellowship. Excuse me, say that again. Having fellowship with others in the same group, a connection between those people who are followers of the same God, because you all recognize His authority, okay. Okay. Decisions that you make day to day that are obedient to God, would show to God that you value what He says, and His words have authority for you. Okay. Roz? We say going to church on Sunday, but not because we value most people. I don't think that most people look at it as going because they value what God has to say to them, or because they put God so much ahead of them. It's just, that's what we do for worship. We go to church, we walk in the door, we walk out, because we've been there. Not necessarily for most, a lot of people, because they're putting God on a higher level. Now, when you go to church, or you're around church people, how does the word worship get used? When we talk about singing. Singing? Yes. Having a church service? Yes. So, it's almost isolated in the church side. So, when people talk about going to church, and you have a great worship service, they're thinking about that time you're in that building. Or if they say, I like exciting worship, they're talking about what you do in that building as a focus for what the attention is. You guys have anything different over here? Bowing down, which is an acknowledgement, like Cliff was talking about, his wife walks across the floor, he bows down where she's walked, he's saying, you're so much better than me that I can't even stand in your presence. And that's the symbol in the Bible of people who come into the presence of God. One of the automatic things is they fall on their face, because they're so overwhelmed with the greatness of this person. Now, some people can be deeply fooled and do the same thing. Butch told me a story. I know you're not going to believe this, but he was once young, and he used to have braces, and he played the drums in a band that went around and played different places. And he told a story about going with this band that had the top 40 hit, and they were kind of the first act there, and he was sitting there playing the drums, and there was girls down there at the stage, you're playing the guitar, and the girls were standing there on the stage trying to get up and just touch his feet. And he said, I was sitting there looking at him thinking, I'm just a kid with braces, why are you doing this? In their mind, a musician, a rock musician on stage is worthy of being seen as a tremendously important person. If I can just touch his shoes, then somehow or other, I'm going to be better than I was before, because this person is so big and important that it will give value to me in my life. Bowing down, what else was it you used? Submission, yeah. See, now that moves beyond just the bowing down side to say, whatever you say to me, I will do. Now, what I want to point out here is when he talks about this in the Old Testament, that they're not to worship other gods, he is not saying that they're not just to go into a place where there's a statue and offer a sacrifice. That's not the limit of what he's talking about. For every god in power and authority demands of those who submit to them certain things, or they will not give the blessings that a god can give. The Baal gods, that the people of Israel went into the land of Canaan, that were worshiped there by those people were gods who promised, if you will come and you will honor me, either with gifts that you give me or some kind of sexual behavior, I will promise you that your crops will be better and your animals will have babies and your wives will have babies. That's what I do. Now, what I ask is you give me authority over your life. You do the things I tell you to do. Worship is the recognition of authority, whatever case it might be. It might be a, you know, a kid guitarist that you think is so wonderful and you say, oh, if I could just get to know this person, my life would be complete. Or it can be the god who creates the universe. Worship can be done to anybody. And sometimes we get caught with people who become so important to us that we can't live without them. It means that they have control over us so that our lives are meaningless without them. So you have somebody in your family that dies and they say, well, I just can't live anymore. You become so dependent and attached to them that your life loses its value without them. That means that they have a place in your life that God alone should have. Now, when the Bible, when the when they're talking about this in the Old Testament, they're not saying don't go and offer a sacrifice to that God. They're saying don't go and recognize the authority of that God over your lifestyle and behavior. Don't allow that God to tell you how to live your life, because I am the Lord and I have told you how I want you to live your life. That's the focus you have. Now, I was going to respond to this. Roz is talking about this in Chapter 12 of Romans, a very powerful passage. Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in the view of God's mercy to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual worship. Here, worship is described as giving your bodies in service to God, in obedience to God. Worship here is doing the things with your physical body that God tells you to do. Why would you do that? And why is it called worship? Because you're saying, God, you're so wise, so smart, so brilliant that everything you tell me to do, the way you tell me to live, I'm going to do it. And every choice you make like that is an act of worship. In other words, if you meet somebody and you have a chance, they've left their billfold there and they get up and walk in the building and they're not around and you look at that billfold and you say, I could take the money out of this billfold and leave and they'd never know the difference. And then it comes to you. God said not to steal. And in that moment, no matter how hungry you are, you say, I am going to do, God, what you tell me. In that moment, you've recognized the supreme authority of God over your life, even if it means you don't get to eat that day. That's worship. That's worship. So what God looks at for all of us is he looks at the choices and decisions we make, saying, are you doing the things I tell you to do? Or are you doing something else? Now, if you look at your sheet, I want you to look at this second question. What factors control the choices people make about handling money? About managing their time, about how to treat people around them. When you look at the people around you in the church and out of the church, what are the factors that control the choices that people make? What influences them to make the choices about money, time management, how to treat people? So talk about that and see what answers you can come up with. Okay. So didn't make Anything Your occupation. Work