Is Worship a Big Part of Your Life?

We are picking up today with our continued application of taking what we have learned in Revelation 17 and finding out how this applies to our life today. We learned all about the false religious system that has its roots in Ancient Babylon and how that is infiltrating its way into the religion people practice today, because it is simply the way they have always done it. So how can we be sure we are not falling into the same trap?

We learned that there are four things we want to ensure we are not doing. We only got to the first one yesterday which was never be unwise in your worship. You can read more about that here if you missed it.

When we do what we're supposed to do when it comes to our time with God, our hearts will kick in and we see God for who He is. "Things" don't connect us to God. It is the connection we have between us and God. It's the expression from our hearts that make these things acceptable, like bowing down, kneeling, lifting up your hands, covering yourself with a prayer shawl, etc. People have a tendency to look at us funny when we worship a God that we can not see.

1 Peter 2:4-9 ~ "As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stand in Scripture: Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame. So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, "The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone." and "A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense." They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light."

How we worship is determined by our heart. When you know Him more, worship will become a dynamic part of your life. It will be expressed different, but it will become important to you.

2. We never want to legalize worship. (Mandates never work.)

Mandating the acts and art of worship. It's not found in the Bible. Worship is a spontaneous and creative moment with God with you alone. There is a time to express ourselves. It is different for everyone. There is NO one way to worship, that is when it becomes legalized worship. Everyone doing it all the same way, all the time.

You are bound in a routine or legalism if you can't express yourself freely in worshiping God.

Romans 7:6 ~ "But now that we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code."

2 Corinthians 3:6 ~ "who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life."

3. We never want to sterilize worship (Establishing a form kills).

Is it possible that we have confused the holiness of God and the Glory of God with man-made formalism, and rituals. The order of how we conduct church service?

According to the Bible, there is no set way to conduct a church service, whether worship after the message or before the message. Just like people think worship time allows them extra time to not be late to church, as long as they get there before the message starts. They don't appreciate worship and God warns against this practice of robbing Him of it.

Malachi 3:8-10 ~ "Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, 'How have we robbed you?' In your tithes and contributions. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you blessing until there is no more need."

Worship is all about Him and it is all for Him. Worship groups simply lead us in worship. They are not there for us to enjoy. Some people don't like certain forms of worship. They don't like guitars, they don't like music loud, and I would caution you if that is you today. In fact research 1 Chronicles 15 and 16 today. This is radical worship you will find here in the Old Testament. You have sterilized worship when you say, worship needs to be the same way it always has been.

You're not growing up, you're growing older, spiritually. If you grow up spiritually, you become more like a child biblically. If you grow old in your growing up, you begin to sterilize things and it has to be cookie-cutter worship.

2 Chronicles 1:3-4 ~ ~ And Solomon, and all the assembly with him, went to the high place that was at Gibeon, for the tent of the meeting of God, which Moses the servant of the LORD had made in the wilderness was there. (But David had brought up the ark of God from Kiriath-jearim to the place that David had prepared for it, for he had pitched a tent for it in Jerusalem.)"

For 100's of years, the Ark resided in the tabernacle of Moses, but David had the Ark of the Covenant, not in Gibeon but at Jerusalem, outside and away from Moses' tabernacle. It had been sterilized by sin. David had made a new tabernacle. It was personal. It was new. It was available. It was where God was!

Don't save your act and art of worship for church on Sunday, give it to God and worship Him anywhere you want, in your car, at home, on a mountaintop! Remember that the Holy Spirit dwells in your life as a believer and our bodies are now the temple of the Lord. We don't have to go to church to worship Him. We can do it anywhere! No more sacrifices are needed. Jesus paid it once and for all with His blood, and that alone should be reason enough to worship Him!

4. We must never fossilize worship. (Holding on to the Past). 

Psalm 27:4 ~ "One thing I have asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, and to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple."

Notice the one thing David wants more than anything in this world. To worship and be in the presence of the LORD. Worship is the single most thing that we will be doing in heaven, time to practice that now!

We Are All Worshipers, What Are You Worshipping?

We all worship something in our lives, even Atheists. It's not a question today of "are" you a worshiper, it's a question of "what" are you worshiping?

Humans are created to worship. We just need to ask ourselves honestly, what and who are we worshiping?

If you're an Atheist, are you worshiping at the altar of Chuck Darwin? Are you worshiping your own intellect? Are you worshiping, "Fill in the blank"?

Every culture discovered by man has a system of worship and has practiced it despite anyone's beliefs or unbelief's. Even Communism worships at the altar of Lennon's philosophy, thinking and words. They all worship men.

The worship of Ancient Babylon has crept into every culture since the opening chapters of the Bible. To authenticate this, you need to go all the way to the civilization of Nimrod and the city of Babel.

Revelation 17:1-5 ~ ""Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, "Come, I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who is seated on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality, and with the wine of whose sexual immorality the dwellers on earth have become drunk." And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns. The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality. And on her forehead was written a name of mystery: Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth's abominations."

We notice the many names given to this woman found in Revelation 17, the first being mystery. Paul referred of the doctrine of the church as a "mystery." This represents a false church system. She is also Babylon the great. Third she is the mother of prostitutes or harlots. This is the birthplace of abominations. This is not referred to a sexual, physical harlotry or fornication. This is religious adultery, yielding to someone or something other than God, Himself.

God doesn't want to be #1 on a list of 10. He wants to be #1 on a list of 1. He does not want competitors in your life as a believer. Would you say that you are a believer of Jesus Christ today?

You would be indicting yourself before God, man and the angels if you said that you are a believer of Jesus Christ. People can determine the truth of that by what you choose to worship. So how does Revelation 17 apply to our lives today?

It all boils down to the issue of worship, man's passion and desire to worship. Jesus said, "You're either worshiping Satan, the devil, who you don't have to believe in to be worshiping him, by the way. Just be in disobedience to God. Or you worship the God of heaven and earth.

It's either black or white.

One way or the other.

As humans, we throw up a wall the minute because we don't like to hear black and white. We have been brought up in a culture of absolute liberalism and whatever is relative, so goes it. We have plenty of bumper stickers to prove that or sayings. "If it feels good...do it." "Look out for Number 1!"

The world doesn't say to love your neighbor, it says to love yourself first. It is all about survival of the fittest! The Bible on the other hand, says No to all of that. It is considered self-worship and idolatry, also spiritual adultery when our allegiances are given to something or someone other than Jesus Christ.

In an article found in Delta's Sky magazine there is an article by Tanja Mohn called, "Carnival would be nothing without its music." I found a particular quote interesting in light of what we have been studying:

"And why shouldn’t it be, with Carnival’s lusty history? Most accounts point to the ancient Greek spring festival honoring Dionysus, the god of wine, as a prototype of Carnival. The Romans continued the idea with Bacchanalia and Saturnalia, festival days when slaves and their masters would exchange roles. These pre-Christian celebrations are thought to have been adapted by the Roman Catholic Church for the period preceding Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. Before the 40 somber days of Lent, when Roman Catholics abstained from eating meat, a party was definitely in order."

You can figure out quite a few of the reference mentioned here, but this goes to show you how Ancient Babylon and its influences are just about everywhere. We know that Dionysus is the god of wine and goes back to a different name in the Greek culture as Eros. We have mentioned here Baccahnalia and Saturnalia,  which are forms of Bacchus, the Roman name for Tammuz and Saturnalia, the Roman name for an agricultural deity that ruled over the world and from where Christmas traditions were developed. The interesting thing to note is it was adapted by the Roman Catholic church with the beginning of Lent. We know where the origins of Lent came from. Semiramis who lamented for her dead son Tammuz to be resurrected from the underworld for 40 days to the gods. 

Paganism was, is, and will be a threat to true worship. We want to look at certain things about our worship in this next three part study. If Babylonianism is in the Catholic or Christian worship systems today, how can we make sure that we are pure, healthy worshipers of God? 

There are 8 things we are going to study in depth with the first being:

1. We want to guard against being unwise in our worship. 

Satan demands worship. He deceived 1/3 of the angelic host to obtain worship. He infiltrated the Garden of Eden to get Eve to divorce herself from the obedience of God to listen to his false doctrine to worship Satan via the temptation. He surfaces again when Jesus' ministry commences and Satan comes to Jesus to tempt Him, saying to Jesus, "If you will only bow down and worship me, I will give you the kingdoms of the world." It is all about worship to Satan. 

It's all about worship when it comes to God. 

The battleground is earth and the war being waged right now if for your soul. What are you choosing or not choosing to do. What will you yield to or not yield to. What will you let yourself be free to do or not to do. It is all determined in the mind. What do you allow in and what do you allow to happen.We never want to be unwise in our worship. Knowing His person. We want to be smart about our worship. 

John 4:23-24 ~ "But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth."

The only way we can know more of God is through reading His Word, the Bible, every day. Then it is worshiping Him through our Spirit, which is the Holy Spirit residing in us as believers. Making ourselves available to Him. Declare that intention in your prayers to Him. It's the expression of worship that can be found practiced in every culture of every civilization. 

No one can know our thoughts or the intentions of our hearts, although they can come close through spending time with us. The Bible declares us to be the Temple of God. Something we take for granted when you really think about it. 

We really need to careful. 

Acts 7:47-49 ~ "But it was Solomon who built a house for him. Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands, as the prophets says, 'Heaven is my thrones, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what is the place of my rest?"

1 Corinthians 3:16 ~ "Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?"

We are all created in the image of God. You are worth more to God than any temple or shrine built for Him. Don't live your life religiously going through the motions without personally knowing what is is like to have the Holy Spirit of God dwelling inside of you. 

More tomorrow....