Dear Lighthouse,

 

            Football season is nearly upon us!  Next week we will see the beginning of regular season games.  If anyone knows me at all they know I love the Buffalo Bills.  So, I am excited to see them play.  I have elevated the Bills above all the other NFL teams in my mind and heart.  I cheer only for them.  I also avidly work at cheering against any of their opponents (some even more than others…).  I also enjoy reading about the Bills, watching them every Sunday, attending their games, talking about them, and I even wear stuff that has their logo on it.  That is all part of being a fan (atic).  You feel a part of the whole football community and you are ever interested in what is going on and when/where you can do your part by cheering and jeering.

In these ways football is like Christianity.  Sports and other hobbies do a good job of mimicking the feelings and actions of worship.  Go back through the first paragraph and you’ll see the comparisons.  It’s interesting to me that even the most hardened non-Christian still has a natural desire for worship -it’s just misplaced if it isn’t worship of God the Father.  Worship means “assigning worth to”.  We all do it - it’s built in.  You may not love football, but there is something in your life that brings you close to the feelings and actions of worship.

There are two caveats to this simile: (1) Have you placed worth on anything to the point that it replaces God in your life? and (2) Do you truly worship God? 

Sports, hobbies, passions, etc. are not evil, they’re fun.  However, Satan can use these things and many more to tempt you into replacing God.  God’s place should be as the central figure in our lives.  Worshiping something besides God is evil.  Giving too much of your time, attention, and honor to something besides God ultimately leads away from God. 

The third and final temptation that Jesus faced in the desert was when Satan asked Him to bow down and worship him after promising Him the world (literally).  Matt. 4:10 records Jesus response, “Away from me, Satan!  For it is written:  ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only’”.  Jesus, here, quoted from Deuteronomy 6:13.  This passage of Scripture includes many warnings and admonishments for us to be careful not to forget our God and not to try and replace Him with something else for He is a jealous God - the Only God. 

Jesus gives us a clearer picture of worship when He says in John 4:23-24, “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.  God is spirit, and His worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”  When a converted sinner, who now has the Holy Spirit of the Living God, comes to God with complete sincerity and honesty - making the connection of their spirit to His - that is worship.   The feeling of connection and community is awesome and cannot be replicated by anything.  You are placing God in His rightful position as Creator, Moral Law-giver, Justifier, Provider, One who gives grace, and One who reached out to you first in love.  Have you experienced worship?

When we gather on Sundays too often we are prepared for a song service instead of a worship service.  What’s the difference?  Worship brings the worshiper to the throne and the worshiper knows it.  You feel small, yet part of something larger.  You feel your sin, yet experience your forgiveness.  Worship places our God where He belongs - as the most important and passionate thing in our lives.

My point in all of this is not to condemn sports or hobbies or activity outside the Church building.  No, I still love the Bills; football is fun, but it’s just football.  My point is that we need to constantly be on guard of letting anything rival God in our lives.  God must be at the center of our focus, our joy, and our thoughts or He is nothing to us.  Seriously, if God is not God, then you are.  And, since you haven’t the power to save yourself, you’re in a wretched condition.  But if God is God in our lives, we must act like it in and out of the Church building.  Worship is not just an event on Sundays, but it is a lifestyle.  You always carry the Spirit with you, so you can always worship.  Worship is assigning worth to God from sunrise to sunrise.  Have you experienced worship?

Take time today to shun the devil’s attempts to bend your attention from God and then connect with the Father and worship in spirit and in truth.