Doctrine Series – Itʼs all about God

Part 11 – Worship: God Transforms1

We believe in the Trinity, 1 God who is a community of 3 persons

who continually and eternally pour out unbroken, untainted,
unashamed love for each other as Father to Son, Son to Spirit,
Spirit to Father, Father to Spirit, Spirit to Son and Son to Father!

We believe that God reveals Himself to us through the revelation

of His Word, and in the Bible, which is true and good we receive
all that He has to say about Himself, about who we are, about
what He has done, about what we should do, and about what He
is going to do in the future.

We believe the Bible that says, God made us, He made us to be

like Him, to be His image-bearers on the earth, as creatures we
have been designed to rely on and obey and receive everything
we need from our Creator. And as His creation, we were made to
be good and to display His glory, because He alone is very good
God!

Unfortunately, we turned to the things that God had made

instead of keeping our eyes on God – instead of responding to the
continuous outpouring of the Creatorʼs love, we turned and rather
responded to creation! The created snake, convinced the created
man that the created fruit would create a better way of life for His
created ego, and so sin entered what God made good, and man
turned his back on the Creator – in favour of creation!

But the very good God, even through He was pushed away
bringing a change from the state of being “very good” to a cursed
world in which we now live, God still gave favour, held back on
destroying us all, and made a promise to pursue us and not leave
us alone.

1
We are using a book by Mark Driscoll & Gerry Breshears called “Doctrine: What Christians Should
Believe”, Crossway Books, 2010 as a guide for our doctrine series. Todays message on Worship, has
been further resourced from one of my favorite books: Wayne Grudemʼs “Systematic Theology” IVP,
1994. Check out our book table!

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Jesus, we believe is God the Son come as a man, born of a
mother like the mothers we celebrate today, only this mother
conceived by the Holy Spirit gave birth to the Incarnate Son of God
even though she was a virgin.

We believe in Jesus, who comes to a cursed world, humbles

himself under all the fullness of it, even to death upon a cross, but
in all His life continued to pour out eternal Trinitarian worship to
the Father by the power of the Holy Spirit and lives a sinless life
making himself the acceptable sacrifice for our sins – He lays
down His own spotless life for you and for me. And because the
Father is so pleased with the life and death of Jesus, He raised
Him from the dead so that we can be renewed in hope!

The Risen Jesus starts His church, 2000 years ago, and believers
from all nations gather together to devote their lives to God! Today
we get to be untied together with God because He has come to be
with us, to keep loving us, to point us in the right direction, to take
us home, and in the end we will worship Him for His glory and His
worthiness for eternity!

Wow!

I shared that with you all again on purpose because I want you to
see that in all Doctrine and the truth about all God and all about
what He has done – all of it, is motivation for a fitting response
from you and I, heartfelt Worship in spirit and in truth!

• What does it mean to Worship?

At this stage I want to introduce a pattern that I believe completes

worship, it is:
1. GOD – US – GOD.

I will explain this as we go.

To worship something is to place worth upon it. To pay homage to

or pay tribute to, to admire, revere… Ultimately, true worship
would be find that which is worthy of the highest place and ascribe
the worth due to it. “Worth-ship”.

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Another helpful word in worship is “Glory” and in Hebrew is
translated “Kabod” which means copiousness, weightiness –
abundant in supply and quantity, high renown, honour, magnificent
and having great beauty!

Well, this should be God.

1 Chronicles 16:29 says:

Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name;
bring an offering and come before him!
Worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness;

There is none more Holy than God, there is none more

splendorous than God! There is none more deserving of glory
than God!

If we come to understand who God really is, completely and fully

as He is truly is – that would mean having a biblically faithful
understanding of God, one deep in Doctrine, we would then see
how worthy God is, and worship would be a fitting response to
God!

It all starts with God! He is eternally good, He creates, He loves,

He gives, He is the source that never runs dry, He initiates every
action, be is the beginning, He is the start! Everything good
comes from God.

James 1:17
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming
down from the Father of lights with whom there is no
variation or shadow due to change.

2. GOD – US – GOD.

Well, if God is so generous and so loving and continuously

outpouring – then for us to be made in His image, to be like Him,
means that within us is the ability by nature to be extremely
generous, loving and continuously outpouring! We are made like
this to reflect God. We are not God, but we are in the image, or
reflection of God, and when we see God in character, we have
been made to have that character.

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In fact this is what we do – we pour out our lives, day by day, but
here is the key – we pour it out into things, people, stuff, whatever
it might be, we pour it out into things we believe are weighty, are
worthy of our time and energy and talents. We give ourselves to
the things we ascribe the highest amount of glory to.

It is helpful to know where it all comes from. It all comes from God
to us. Thatʼs the Pattern so far – even if unbelievers, atheists,
and demon worshippers would not agree, the point still remains,
that God pours out His rain on the just and the unjust! The air
we breathe, the food we eat, the talents and gifts and abilities we
have, the families we belong to, it all comes from GOD – to US.

He pours out to us, we are made to reflect Him, so we pour out…

but to what?

Well this is the moment of truth. Till now, biblically worship has not
really happened. God does what He does, we are made to do what
we do. Worship happens when we do what we are made to do, by
giving it all back to God!

3. GOD – US – GOD.

This is worship, to acknowledge Him, to ascribe to Him the glory

due His name for every little thing you have! To thank Him, to
praise Him, the love Him, to worship and adore Him! To declare
that He is good and there is nothing and no-one in all creation
worthy of the weight of worship we should give to our Creator!

Worship is God-centered, unselfish, understandable,

attractive!

Where do the scales tip in your life? What gets the weightiness of
your time, your energy, your emotions, your thoughts and
meditations. Your sacrifices and your delight? Where do you place
higher worth?

This is where we can get a distortion:

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 4. GOD – US – CREATION

This distortion is none other than idolatry. Any receiving from

God, which we all do, daily, not given back to Him in glory and
worship and thanks, but given back to anything else in creation –
is idolatry. God is seeking those who will worship Him with all of
who we are based on all of who He is! Our hearts are idol
factories, because we receive from Him, yet our worship, our
worth-ship does not go back to Him all the time.

Romans 1:18 – 25
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all
ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their
unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be
known about God is plain to them, because God has shown
it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal
power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever
since the creation of the world, in the things that have been
made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they
knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to
him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish
hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became
fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for
images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and
reptiles.

24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to

impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among
themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God
for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than
the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

Listen to this amazing picture of the folly of idolatry – but then I

will show you how it is not just a block of wood that makes
something an idol, but rather the lie that any created thing is our
deliverer or our Saviour!

Isaiah 44: 9 – 20
All who fashion idols are nothing, and the things they delight
in do not profit. Their witnesses neither see nor know, that
they may be put to shame. 10 Who fashions a god or casts

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 an idol that is profitable for nothing? 11 Behold, all his
companions shall be put to shame, and the craftsmen are
only human. Let them all assemble, let them stand forth.
They shall be terrified; they shall be put to shame together.

12 The ironsmith takes a cutting tool and works it over the

coals. He fashions it with hammers and works it with his
strong arm. He becomes hungry, and his strength fails; he
drinks no water and is faint. 13 The carpenter stretches a
line; he marks it out with a pencil. He shapes it with planes
and marks it with a compass. He shapes it into the figure of a
man, with the beauty of a man, to dwell in a house. 14 He
cuts down cedars, or he chooses a cypress tree or an oak
and lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest. He
plants a cedar and the rain nourishes it. 15 Then it becomes
fuel for a man. He takes a part of it and warms himself; he
kindles a fire and bakes bread. Also he makes a god and
worships it; he makes it an idol and falls down before it. 16
Half of it he burns in the fire. Over the half he eats meat; he
roasts it and is satisfied. Also he warms himself and says,
Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire! 17 And the rest of it he
makes into a god, his idol, and falls down to it and worships
it. He prays to it and says, Deliver me, for you are my god!

18 They know not, nor do they discern, for he has shut their
eyes, so that they cannot see, and their hearts, so that they
cannot understand. 19 No one considers, nor is there
knowledge or discernment to say, Half of it I burned in the
fire; I also baked bread on its coals; I roasted meat and have
eaten. And shall I make the rest of it an abomination? Shall I
fall down before a block of wood? 20 He feeds on ashes; a
deluded heart has led him astray, and he cannot deliver
himself or say, Is there not a lie in my right hand?

God is not pleased when He pours Himself out, and we take all
that He is giving as if it comes from something in creation – as if
the glory should go to our hands and our efforts and our abilities.
When we look to creation, people, ourselves, money, sex, alcohol,
drugs, doctors and give them glory by placing weightiness on them
higher than on God – thatʼs when those things become idols in our

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lives. Thatʼs when it would appear that we worship stuff, and
people, and our egoʼs, more than God!

Acts 12:20 - 23
Now Herod was angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon,
and they came to him with one accord, and having
persuaded Blastus, the king's chamberlain, they asked for
peace, because their country depended on the king's country
for food. 21 On an appointed day Herod put on his royal
robes, took his seat upon the throne, and delivered an
oration to them. 22 And the people were shouting, The voice
of a god, and not of a man! 23 Immediately an angel of the
Lord struck him down, because he did not give God the
glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last.

Sport, fun, winning all God given things, food, love, children, a
marriage, pets, come from God – if we receive them from God,
keep them in their proper perspective by glorifying God, keeping
God as the priority, the source and the one we return all our glory
to. None of these things can save us! None of these things can
bring us true happiness – not the happiness that God gives!

Our money, is not our God, we serve God with the money He has
given. Donʼt let Money use you so that you serve it. Use Money to
serve God! “We cannot serve both God and Money”

Our appetites are not God, we continue to show God that we have
a greater appetite for Him than we do for sex, food, sleep!

Phillipians 3:18 – 21
For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you
even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19
Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they
glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. 20 But
our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body
to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him
even to subject all things to himself.

Our families are not God, we love our families, but we donʼt
dishonor God if our families tell us to.

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Our appearance, pride, achievements and gifts are not God, no
matter how pretty or ugly you think you are, you have been made
for God! Not for your own pleasure or the standards of this
world.

Let the best of your recourses, the gifts that God has given, the
first fruits, the prime thoughts and affections and emotions, let it
belong to God and only to God!

Are you serving creation? Is creation making itself out to be a very

bad god?

I found this definition of Worship at www.theopedia.com:

Worship is an active response to the character, words and actions of

God, initiated by His revelation and enabled by His redemption,
whereby the mind is transformed (e.g. belief, repentance), the heart is
renewed (e.g. love, trust), and actions are surrendered (e.g. obedience,
service), all in accordance with His will and in order to declare His
infinite worthiness.

Lets get back to the pattern I mentioned, I want to show some

scriptures with it in:

Romans 12:1 – 2
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to
present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable
to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be
conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal
of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will
of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

(God) it was His mercies that appeal to us

(Us) we respond my offering our whole lives as living sacrifices
which is our spiritual worship
(God) by doing His perfect good and acceptable will. If we
received His mercy, are amazed at it, but donʼt respond, and carry
on with our lives as if they are our own – that would just be a GOD
– US – CREATION idolatry again. Or even if we worship God for
what He can give us – that too is G-U-C! But rather, lets aim for a
GOD – US – GOD lifestyle of worship!

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 Colossians 3:16
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and
admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and
hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts
to God.

(God) – the Word of Christ

(Us) – teaching, singing
(God) – thankfulness in your hearts to God!

Our Greatest Joy

Our greatest joy comes from completing this process of worship as
often as possible! Jesus, lived a life of complete worship before
the Father! Love the Lord with ALL your heart, soul, mind and
strength.

The beauty is, that He did it for you and for me. Let me explain –
when you put your faith in the life and death and resurrection of
Jesus, He covers you with His life. And His life, is worship to the
Father – so when the Father looks at you – He has acted towards
you to save you, and He sees you respond with faith and
repentance – believing in Jesus, apologizing and turn from sin and
idolatry, in that instant, the whole life and worship of Jesus covers
your life, and God see Jesus all over you! That completes this
pattern perfectly – GOD – US – GOD 100%

The more we think of this, the more we receive this knowledge, the
truth, and the more we are transformed into worshippers just like
Jesus!

2 Corinthians 3:17 – 18
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is,
there is freedom. 18 And we all, with unveiled face,
beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into
the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this
comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

The more we think that creation is our God, the more we will look
like creation to our ruin.

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But the more we look to God and reflect Him, the more we look like
Him to your joy!

The Westminster confession states “Manʼs chief end is to glorify

God, and fully to enjoy Him forever.”

John Piper says: “God is most glorified in us, when we are most
satisfied in Him!”

Evangelism
Another way that we can really enjoy worship, is to teach others
that God wants them to worship Him.

That there is a pattern: GOD – THEM – GOD. That God has acted
on their behalf in Jesus, that their lives are nothing if they keep
living for creation, but rather should turn and live to complete the
cycle – GOD – THEM – GOD! The reason we have missionary
work to do, the reason we need to tell others about the Gospel,
the reason for all of this is because the goal of it all for everyone is
to worship God forever – and many people do not worship God.

Tyrone Daniel said: “The reason mission exists, is because

worship doesnʼt.” Meaning that mission will end when all those
who should be worshipping have turned from idolatry!

Johannesburg is full of idols! We have a message to take. We

want to make worshippers! And in order for us to do that well, we
want to be those worshipers that the father Seeks! He is looking
for US to look to Him! God is looking at you, look back at Him!

GOD – US – GOD.

Lastly, I want you to know that when we worship, God is really

close – He says, “Draw near to me, and I will draw near to you.”

GOD – US – GOD.

He has already taken the first step, He is asking you to take the
2nd, He will then come even closer!

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