When Worship is Misplaced

All Rights Reserved. Via Flickr Photo by: Vladimir Vidanovski

Romans 1:21-24

Pastor John preached an amazing message yesterday morning entitled, "You Are What You Worship". Many believers only associate worship with song, dance, skilled musicianship and the raising of hands. However, worship is so much more than a 1 to 2 hr church service with 3o to 45 mins of singing.  

God created us to worship Him. Since we are made for this purpose, we will worship something, even if we choose something other than the Creator. Our lives may be devoted to money, prominence, popularity, immorality, or some other desire or vice that can become a false god. But no matter how many earthly distractions we attempt to worship, none of them can satisfy like the living God—we will still be left with a horrible vacuum of unfulfillment.

In the first chapter of Romans, the apostle Paul illustrates this point in terms of one particular sin: sexual perversion. You may think you’re okay if that form of iniquity isn't part of your life. But any sinful indulgences—whether actions or attitudes—that take precedence over worshipping the Lord are wrong and destructive. Until we allow Jesus to save us from our self-serving nature, we will spiral downward into depravity.

By acting as if the Lord isn't real and excluding Him from our life, we miss out on the main point of our existence. By ignoring the fact that He wants a personal relationship and daily communion with us, we are rejecting His gracious gift and dishonoring Him. Without His influence, our thinking grows more and more futile, leading us to choose false substitutes as we try to fill the void only God can satisfy.

Denying Christ His rightful place as Lord of our life will ultimately unleash God’s wrath. But the Lord, in His great love for the whole world, does not want anyone to spend eternity without Him 
(2 Peter 3:9). He therefore continues to offer us “the riches of His kindness, tolerance, and patience” in calling us to repentance.