Choose Well What You Worship

If the last 14 months have taught us anything, it’s this: Anything in our physical world can be shaken. Our health can decline – with or without the coronavirus. Our savings and investments can go up or down.

When people ask me, “Ken, what have you learned from the last 14 months?” here’s what I tell them: Your sense of security will only be as secure as what you worship. To be fair, you might be thinking “I don’t worship anything.” I’m not suggesting God is the only thing that can be worshiped.

Worship is anything you declare worthy of your time and devotion.

We all know someone who worships being physically fit. If you don’t know someone, here’s hint: they usually don’t look like me! What’s the problem with worshiping your physical body? Your body changes! It begins to wrinkle as you get older … and it makes strange noises!

If your sense of stability is only as stable as what you worship, what should you do? You’d better choose well what you worship.

While you’re free to worship anything or nothing, what is at the heart of Christian worship? God is worthy of our reverence and awe.

As Christ-followers, we live in two kingdoms at the same time – one is temporary. When the temporary world gets shaken, bad things happens. Health declines, the economy tanks, and the Rockies trade Nolan Arenado. The temporary world will always be an imperfect world.

But what if you are in Christ? If you have a relationship with him?  Then you also live in a second kingdom.

28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, 29 for our “God is a consuming fire.” – Hebrews 12:28-29

While we live in a temporary kingdom that is constantly being shaken, we are also receiving an eternal kingdom that cannot be shaken. God himself hasn’t changed, but how we relate to him has.

Most major religions have certain things in common … they have worship rituals, say prayers, hold traditions, and have holy books. What makes Christian worship different? When God speaks, who does he sound like?

Jesus.

Christian worship is defined by the presence of the resurrected Christ. We believe God became flesh and was crucified, dead, and buried. But … and this makes us different … we also believe he came back to life. Which is why God is worthy of our reverence and awe.

St. Ignatius of Antioch was an early leader in the church. He was killed for his faith 70 years after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus. I’ll close with his words:

“Apart from Christ, let nothing dazzle you.”

If you haven’t yet seen the sparkle in God’s love, I pray that one day you will.