Worship

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Jesus talked to a man who asked how to receive eternal life. Jesus responded that he was to sell all he had and give it to the poor. This man walked away dejected at the thought. To him, the reality in his realm of thinking, Jesus’ direction was not the truth. .

In that story, do you honestly believe that Jesus meant for us to take this verse literally as we often do. Instead, I propose that Jesus wasn’t talking about the material items owned by the rich man at all. Jesus knew that all things belong to God, as He was God. All material items of this world are created and given to fulfill His greater purpose. But this rich man saw his material items of this world as his god. His possessions or riches were what he worshiped. The price was much too high to give God what is His.

If you compare this story with the Israelites being led out of Egypt by Moses in the Old Testament, Jesus was simply telling the rich man to have faith that God would provide for him as He provided for the Israelites in the desert with Manna from the Heavens. Over and over in scripture, God provides for His children whether we are faithful or not.

Whether you believe in the truth of something or not has no real bearing on the reality of the situation. If I tell you that you can stick your toe in a mousetrap and that it will hurt if you do so, you may not believe it as truth. But if you stick your toe in that mousetrap not believing that it will hurt, the reality of the situation quickly changes your belief into truth. Truth without seeing is Faith. Do you need to stick your toe in the mousetrap to believe? Just because you may not believe doesn’t mean that it isn’t truth.

Our lives sometimes are complicated with all the material items in this world. Even our worship is sometimes is less about our God than it is about ourselves. The truth is that the worst Christians I meet are the ones who claim to worship on Sunday Morning and are respected members of the Church. They may demonstrate that they love God on Sunday, but as soon as church is over, they go back to the material items that occupy their lives the other six days of the week. Reality is that their real worship is the respect they receive in their church. Someone who fit this description may not believe this, but it doesn’t make it a non-truth. Truth is what we perceive it to be until our minds are changed. Reality is forced on us to change our perceptions.

So where does it end? It starts and ends with priority. The first commandment is the one that will allow all others to follow into place. Setting our priority with the God of all Gods cannot be ignored. Your eternal future depends on it.

Christianity is not what you do on Sunday Morning. Sunday Morning is about worshiping your God. It’s not about ourselves like we often believe. Christianity is the perception of how you are seen by a non-believer during the other six days of the week. Christianity is not what you project to believers. To pretend to be a Christian during Sunday morning service and not outside the Church is Christianity without Christ.

You cannot serve God’s purpose unless you step into the lion’s den on occasion to reach out to those who don’t know their God. You cannot fulfill the Great Commission as Jesus commanded of His followers if your not willing to step out of the comforts of His Body. Sunday Services and other forms of worship are to prepare us to serve God’s purposes. We cannot remain in that comfort zone and be what God intended his followers to be, ministers of His word. The faith in our Christianity comes from simply believing in our God to protect us as we work to serve His purpose. “There is no greater love than one willing to lay down his life for another.” You can’t lay down your life if you don’t ever step into the fire having total faith in God for protection.

Jesus gave the rich man the choice to server God or not. He gave him a choice to use his worldly possessions for God’s purposes or not. Jesus offered the rich man eternity in heaven as opposed to life and death on earth. How often do we use our property for God’s purposes? How often do we choose to not serve Him in the way that we should? Do we expect eternity in the Heavens or live and death of earth. The choice is all ours.

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