Worship and Idols | Total Authentic Adoration
Idols, rooted in the pursuit of the flesh and the things of this world, must be smashed. Our flesh is denied, our pursuits gone, and our identity stripped from us. There we stand bare and fully known by God completely vulnerable to Him. God, though, being rich in mercy and rich in grace, does not chastise our former ways but welcomes us into His loving arms as only a Father and High King over all creation could. We stand before God with nothing of any pure substance of our own as God clothes us with His righteousness and His glory, welcoming us as a child and bowing to Him as a King. We have nothing left but the one thing that is everything. And so, we worship God will all abandonment of pride, pursuit, or power, knowing that when we have God, we have everything we need to not just survive but to thrive. At the end of who we are is worshipping the Lord with all that we are in authenticity and in total abandonment.
Sing to the Lord , all the earth! Tell of his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples! For great is the Lord , and greatly to be praised, and he is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and joy are in his place. Ascribe to the Lord , O families of the peoples, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength! Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; bring an offering and come before him! Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness; tremble before him, all the earth; yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved. Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice, and let them say among the nations, “The Lord reigns!” (1 Chronicles 16:23-31, ESV)
Worshipping The Supreme God
The author of 1 Chronicles makes is abundantly clear that God is to be highly and greatly praised and feared above all others. There is none beside Him, none that compare to Him, and not that stand a chance of overthrowing or challenging the throne. Worshipping God finds its foundation in the sovereign rule and reign of God. As the Christian understands the rightful place of God, we bow and submit to the ruling God who sits on the throne victorious over all thing. All other things should be rightly feared when compared with the insurmountable power and grace that emanates from The King of Kings. Thus, the Lord should be worshipped and adored as the Supreme God of which no one else can compare to His glory. In our faith, we can never forget or minimize God’s sovereignty over all creation. The worship of God finds its foundation in a sovereign God who extends grace and love to His people for His glory.
As worship comes from a place of total submission, offering all of who we are to the glory of God, we submit in totality to God who rules over all aspects of creation. While we may think there is an ongoing spiritual battle with an unsettled outcome, in reality God has always, currently is, and will always stand over all creation. Even those who reject God will one day understand that God stands as the Lord over all things. Our worship submits every aspect of who we are before the King. Everything we are, our preferences, our passions, our wants, and our desires should be submitted to God in worship to the one who saved us from our sin. Nothing remains of our old self and our new self bows before the God who rescued us from the grasp of death and redeemed our souls to be with Him for all eternity so that God would be further glorified in the world. He is not only a King but a King worth laying down our lives for.
Worshipping With Abandonment
Thus, we can worship God with not only our praise through music but through the offerings we give with total abandonment. All too often as we engage in worship through praise we concern ourselves with our sensibilities. We worry we will look too crazy, too emotional, or any number of other things. We fearfully hold to our preferences, wondering what people might think if we sang out to God with recklessness, concerned about being on key or well vocalized that the end result is our withholding worship from God and acting reserved. Yet, when we view our worship through the lens of what we have been saved from and the righteous holiness of God, there should be no limit to our praise that we offer up to the Lord. The chasm of difference between where we were and the position that God allows us to be with Him remains so vast that we could only travel it by the grace of a loving God who drew us to Himself.
Furthermore, we bring an offering to the Lord, not out of an obligatory action of giving God a 10% of our income (as though God needed riches) but out of worship to the Lord. The offering we present to God orients our life to submit everything to God as we acknowledge that He rules over all things and everything ultimately belongs to the Lord. The offerings of scripture were first fruits of the harvest with the core idea being that God gets our first and our best rather than scraps and leftovers. Hence why offering and worship often times appears inextricably linked to one another. The offering of everything we are submits everything we hold dear to God knowing that God is greater than anything we could imagine. At the core of giving is worship and submission. Nothing is held back as we present the best of what we can do and what we have earned to the Lord.
About The Author
Daniel Burton is the founder of The Gospel Outpost. He is passionate about discipleship and seeing people grow in their relationship with Jesus Christ. To find out more about him, check out his Author Page.
