You are a Worshipper

Did you realize that 123 Million people tuned into watch this year’s Superbowl? Then consider that the number rose to 129 Million just for the halftime show.

To put that in perspective – the population of the United States is only 341 Million. In other words, the equivalent of well over one-third of the nation tuned in to watch the game.

And that last word is important to how we see this…

The Superbowl is still just a game played by a number of physically gifted men. They are certainly doing something that I would not be able to do, in truth, it would be something I would be destroyed by if I was to try.

But think of it as the person watching…We may have taken from 3 to 6 or more hours of that day to listen to the stories about the players, to talk about our favorites, why we like this quarterback over the other one, why we have become interested sometimes just to see a celebrity who is not even playing the game.

But did it really just start on that day – what about the build up in the weeks before? Rooting for certain teams through the playoffs, and the season before that…How much time? How much of our energy was committed to everything leading up to the Superbowl…

Just listen to the constant conversations on sports radio that would be both praising a player or a team for what they had done, or criticizing another because they did not do what we thought they should

You could call that being a fan? It is just part of the entertainment.

But if I asked you here what you would call it when we bring together a large number of people, to praise someone and celebrate what they had done and to talk about it endlessly on a Sunday…what would you call that?

Sitting in the church house – we would call that worship…you probably didn’t call it that when you gathered with friends for the Superbowl, but…

This morning, I am excited to think about that we have gathered a large number of people, to praise someone for what they have done…

Because unlike a football game where when it was done, life simply went right back to the way it was – the team’s victory brought no life-changing results for me…

But the work of the person we are celebrating together today – his work can truly bring life-changing results…eternal life-changing results.

I am thankful that we are all gathered to celebrate today and to celebrate for this entire year…

Because this year is the celebration of Faith Church’s 60^th anniversary, we have chosen to focus our ministries and our teaching on a theme of…

Building on Our Heritage

We chose that theme, because the truths that we are celebrating today are the same truths that our church has been celebrating for the past 60 years. The heritage of our church and its foundation are grounded in the gospel of Jesus Christ and in the inspiration, inerrancy, and sufficiency of God’s Word to provide us everything that we need for life and godliness.

Are you thankful that the message of the gospel doesn’t get stale and that you are not counting on me to come up with new and interesting things to say each week? I am thankful that I can simply talk about the truths that come right from the exposition of God’s Word. I would not want to even consider the stress that would come if I had to develop something new for you each Sunday…instead, I am happy to stick with talking about what God’s Word says

Over the past 7 weeks we have been unpacking some deep theological truths that Paul has included in the opening praises of God’s work in giving us a new life In Christ Jesus.

We have been doing this as part of our initial series for this year titled…

Remembering Our Identity as One in Christ

You see not only has God given us a new life, but He also gives us a new identity, not so as to hide us in a witness protection program to insulate us from the world, but rather to give us a new identity that we can boldly step out into the world as a witness for Christ to share the gospel with anyone who may be willing to listen.

And to find that boldness to witness for Christ, I believe we can be strengthened by knowing the truths about our new identity…

This is why each week, we have explored a single identity trait of a person who would be called one of the saints in Jesus Christ.

We can find our new confidence in holding onto the freedom the comes from being redeemed and knowing that you are forgiven. We step out in boldness because we have the assurance that we have been chosen and adopted into the family of Christ.

Each of these traits has been the specific work of God in our lives to change us from who we were to who God has made us to be through the work of salvation.

Today, we are going to spend the time that we have to look at a couple questions surrounding God’s work.

And I think it is good for us to then ask the question, why did God do all of this for me? Certainly, we could toss out the Sunday school answer – he did it all because He loves you…True. Every bit of it true and in ways that we cannot even comprehend, it is still true. But could there be more to it? I think there is and we will see that in our study today.

A second question that we should be asking every day would be to ask, if this is true, what does it mean for me and how I should respond to God?

I believe the answer to those questions come in the threefold repetition that Paul used in this passage, after describing who we are In Christ, he stated three times that it was to the praise of the glories of His grace…

Please listen for those refrains coming back in the scripture as we read together…

Open with me to the Letter to the Ephesians. If you are using the bible in the chair, you find we are on page 150 in the back section of the bible.

Read along with me as we start again, right from the beginning…

READ EPH 1:1-14

Did you hear it

To the praise of the glories of His grace, again, to the praise of His glory and finally, to the praise of His glory.

What I hear is a lot of praise going on…and that is why we are exploring the truth today that

You are Worshippers

And here within the text that we have today and from the whole of God’s Word, we can find that there are…

2 responses because of our identity in Christ

Unlike the prior weeks where we focused in on a single truth, even down to a single word from our passage, today I want us to look at context of “to the praise of His glory” to develop our response in a way that brings God the glory and shares the impact of these truths with all those who would see…

Amazingly, the 12 verses from verse 3 to 14 are all part of one complex sentence and within that sentence from which we can conclude that

I. Worship is the proper response for the Triune God’s work in salvation.

The doctrine of the Trinity is vastly complex and it is one of the mysteries of God that I do not believe is humanly possible to be explained or even to be accurately understood, because any example that has been used to describe the One God who is three persons who are equal and yet distinct…

I believe it to be true and I know that gospel falls apart if it is not true.

We are not going to delve into that more today, because that is not what we would get from the meaning of our text, but rather we are going to see that we should praise God for His work of Salvation and as we look, we find that it is the work of not just God, but of God the Father and of God the Son and of God the Holy Spirit…

Let’s take a look at the first few verses to see that worship is the proper response

Because of the work of the Father

Take a look again at how Paul started…

Ephesians 1:3-6 - Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.

Paul begins by blessing the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ…Paul is praising God the Father for the work He has done through salvation

God blesses us…blesses us with every spiritual blessing that we may come to value the things of the kingdom of God over the things of this world,

while at the same time, the Father shows us that it was He who chose us. To consider that the plan for salvation, which God established by His will even before the dawn of time, to consider that the plan of salvation included God’s choosing of my destination…predestining me…well that certainly brings me to a posture of praise before God.

But then we also recall His decision that we would also be adopted into His family. Each one of us was born into a family with an imperfect father on this earth, some better than others, some not even involved with their kids, but does it not bring you to praise God when you think about the truth that he has chosen and predestined us to be a part of His family.

And Paul reminds us that God the Father did all of these things for each of the saints in Christ Jesus, why?

To the praise of the glory of His grace.

If that were me doing all things for the praise and the glory of Rod…that would truly be a problem, that would certainly be a sin filled heart…but not so with God.

Why, because he is the only one worthy of praise, He is the sovereign over the universe who is perfect in every way and so His work to bless, choose and adopt His people back to himself to the praise of the glory of His grace…well that is not prideful, it is not narcissistic…it is praise worthy…

Because God is already holy and perfect without you and me…in truth, you and I, we can only drag God back down, our sin would corrupt anyone else, but in God, through his work of salvation, His holiness is glorified by the addition of His children.

How then shall we respond? Worship is the proper response…

How then will we bring that into our lives? I will try to give you some simple applications to cary through out.

First – Learn to open prayer as Jesus taught us in the gospels of Matthew or Luke.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed by your name.

In my own heart, when I lift up a prayer need to God it is easy for me to think, He knows what I think of Him, he doesn’t need me to remind Him of His holiness…I just want to get to the point and make my prayer request…

But then, that is just my prayer, with my requests based on my will with my eyes on me.

Thus a first application would be to strive to begin each prayer with a moment, may be much more than a moment, of praise, reminding ourselves the Truth of our Holy God who loves us deeply.

A second reason that worship is the proper response is

Because of the work of the Son.

Consider the wonder of the Trinity. It was God the Father’s will to save those whom he chose and adopted, but He needed someone to do the work of salvation, a work that we are incapable of doing on our own. God could not simply use the best possible candidate available, he needed someone just as holy as Himself, just as perfect as the Father, and so he looked to the Son…

Ephesians 1:7-12 - In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory.

And so it was God the Son who submitted to the Father’s will and voluntarily became the substitute that each of us needed.

The application and response of praise that is needed for these truths is that we would place our faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior

If you are here today and everything we are saying seems new to you…I am glad you are here, because you have an opportunity to respond in worship for the work of the Son.

But maybe all of this is not new…maybe you have grown up hearing these truths in church and you would say Of course I believe that Jesus died on the cross and that He rose again, but that when you look at your life, it certainly does not look like worship.

In either case – the response and application are the same

Will you choose to see the Work of the Son and respond.

It begins by acknowledging that we are all sinners, we all fall short of the glory of God, our lives cannot live up to the praise of the glory of His grace.

And because we all fall short, we are deserving not of glory, but of death.

But God son loved the World that he gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not die, but have eternal life

He gave His one and only Son to step into our place on that cross, to pay a debt that we owed, and then satisfied, the Father raised His Son from the dead making a way for you and for me.

Because of the Son’s work on our behalf, God receives the Glory and when we choose to praise the Son, God, it comes to the praise of His glory again and again…

So application #2 is to ask yourself honestly…Have you praised the Son for his work to make redemption and forgiveness possible? Have you chosen to may Jesus the Lord of your life?

If no, please tell me today and we will make time for you that we can explore what God’s Word says with you so that you can respond in worship.

One truth we know is that when God completes His work of salvation in our lives, that he gives us the assurances that we can hold onto to praise Him for the promises of what is yet to come. Because of that, we find that worship is a proper response again

Because of the work of the Holy Spirit.

When Jesus ascended to heaven after appearing to the apostles and 500 witnesses, he told them to wait as he would send the helper. We see this happen as the church was formed on the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2. And today, as each of us was added to the church, Jesus does not ask us to wait, or to wonder, he does not leave us to worry or fear that he may not complete the work, today when we come to believe, as a part of God’s work of salvation, He includes the work of the Holy Spirit.

Ephesians 1:13-14 - In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.

A third time, we see that it is to the praise of His glory that we receive the sealing and the assurance of the promises that are yet to come because of the work of the Holy Spirit.

And our proper response – to Worship.

I want to encourage you today to expand your ideas of Worship. Worshipping God is about praise through our words and in our prayers, but I also believe that we worship the Lord by living in a way that expresses what we believe…

So let’s get back to application again…

This week, I would encourage you to write out on one side of a piece of paper the spiritual blessings, and the attributes of your identity in Christ and then on the other side, write out one way that you can express worship through your actions that reflect the freedom that comes from the work of the Holy Spirit…

• If I am sealed by the Holy Spirit – then my salvation cannot be lost – How is my life impacted by this truth?

• If I am God’s own possession, if he values me so much that he sent His Son to redeem me, Do I believe that my identity as “In Christ” is enough, or am I still seeking to make my own name be made great?

The truth about the Triune God’s work of salvation for the glory of God should bring us to a place of worship each day,

But we must also consider the things that would take away from and even to spoil the nature of our worship…this is why our second response is to

II. Reject the temptation to Worship Something Else

When we see the wonder of God, the glory of His creation and vastness of his power and knowledge, we think that there could be nothing else that would compare…

And that should be true, but human history has shown us something different.

It started in the garden – Though Adam and Eve walked with God, they saw the Tree of the knowledge of god and evil and something even more desirable than listening to God’s compassionate warning. It only took 6 chapters into the book of Genesis for man’s worship of anything other than God to bring God’s judgement upon them in the flood. IN the Exodus, when Israel complained against God, it only took a matter of days for them to forget God’s work to bring them out of slavery and at mount Sinai when Moses was meeting with God, the rest of the nation decided to create their own gods and give them all the worship…This goes on and on, repeating the pattern that the people chased after other gods, God allowed them to receive the consequences of their actions, the people would cry out and God would make a way for them to return to Him…and soon after they would forget again and chase after false gods…even to the point of creating their gods out of silver and gold

Isaiah chapter 44 describe what the people are doing…

Isaiah 44:17-20 - But the rest of it he makes into a god, his graven image. He falls down before it and worships; he also prays to it and says, “Deliver me, for you are my god.” They do not know, nor do they understand, for He has smeared over their eyes so that they cannot see and their hearts so that they cannot comprehend. No one recalls, nor is there knowledge or understanding to say, “I have burned half of it in the fire and also have baked bread over its coals. I roast meat and eat it. Then I make the rest of it into an abomination, I fall down before a block of wood!” He feeds on ashes; a deceived heart has turned him aside. And he cannot deliver himself, nor say, “Is there not a lie in my right hand?”

When I read this – I can only shake my head and see the foolishness of it all.

But then I have to take caution in my own thinking and ask “do I do the same thing today?” Certainly I am not forming little wooden figures and covering them in silver and gold that I might pray to them.

But am I creating my own gods.

When the people of Israel were at Mount Sinai and Moses was meeting with God, they did not have their leader present and they quickly began to worry and to fear. What would happen to them? They were in the wilderness, in the desert? Where would they find food? Would there be enough water? Where would they go? Who would provide for them? Who would protect them?

You see this was not just about making a golden calf idol – it is really about why they thought they needed a golden calf idol…they thought they needed protection and provision, so they looked to a new god…maybe that would work…you can all see the foolishness of seeking protection and provision for a gold cow that you have to carry everywhere you go.

Are we prone to making our own gods today as well?

• Develop examples of idols that we make for ourselves

As we consider the things that we would choose to worship before we would worship the work of the Triune God, we must reject the temptation

Because you exchange what is glorious for what is fading

When our response is to worship God – we are praising the unchanging, everlasting glorious God, but the things of this world, they are fading away. That is why Romans 1 warns us by calling out those who worship idols as

Romans 1:22–23 – Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.

How foolish it is to think that we would exchange the real thing, the glory of the incorruptible God for an imitation or replica. But it is not just about the object of our worship, it is also about the path that our worship is placing us upon…

Man’s refusal to acknowledge and glorify God leads to a downward spiral that begins in foolish worthless thinking, continues to moral insensitivity and then onto idol-worship…which includes any religious practice that does not seek to glorify the God of the Bible in the way that God reveals himself in the Bible.

For example, if we reject God the Father’s work to choose or we neglect the necessity of the Son’s work upon the cross in the name of making a god who loves everyone unconditionally because we want to believe that everyone will go to heaven – we have created a false god in our own image rather than worshipping the Father because we are created in His image.

By worshiping anything other than the God of the Bible, all of the things we would be seeking would be lost.

Jeremiah 2:11 - Has a nation changed gods When they were not gods? But My people have changed their glory For that which does not profit.

If you choose to seek your acceptance through a relationship and ask that your wife or your husband be the one who provides you with that value…You will eventually fail them, or they will fail you and as compared to the glory of being adopted into God’s family, broken relationships of this world will hold no profit.

If I choose to believe that everyone is inherently good and that God will save all the good people, by rejecting the necessity of Jesus’ work on the cross – I may feel good about today thinking I am bring everyone into heaven with me, but in not sharing the truth of the gospel, you and others will not hear the truth and would be lost at the judgement seat because of rejecting Christ. What I thought was gain, would be a total loss.

We must also reject the temptation to worship anything else

Because your glory is made into shame.

When we worship the things of this world we do so because we believe it will bring us glory, but the truth is vastly different.

Again in Isaiah, the prophet warns that those who follow idols…

Isaiah 42:17 - They will be turned back and be utterly put to shame, Who trust in idols, Who say to molten images, “You are our gods.”

Not only will our idols fail and bring no profit, God will turn us back from what we desire in ways that will utterly put us to shame.

Consider a young man who says he wants to glorify God by remaining pure until marriage, but he justifies pornography as an outlet to avoid the temptation of sex outside marriage. Then several years later, he meets a woman whom he desires to marry…they choose to wait and honor God, but he continues in pornography to satisfy his own desires. After marrying, he enjoys the intimacy of marriage, but then he wants something more that he is not getting in the marriage, first he returns to the internet, then he reaches outside the marriage and before he knows it, he has broken the covenant with his wife, but he continues because no one knows…until…his wife discovers his phone and the texts and the pictures…What He had sought to his own glory…has truly become his shame along with the brokenness and hurt he has caused.

This is just one example –

In seeking to hold onto that which does not glorify God, we are walking as enemies of the cross and the end result is not a good picture…

Philippians 3:19 - whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things.

Those who set their minds on earthly things – just another way of saying that we are worshipping the things of this world.

Glory is turned to shame and the end is destruction…

When we see the contrasts between what God has chosen us for and what we would choose for ourselves, it should cause us to flee from all immorality, it should cause us to reject the temptation to worship anything else because

Because instead of being blessed, you are cursed.

It has been God’s desire to bless his people at all times…Wee do not just see blessing in Eph 1, but we see it in creation

Genesis 1:27-28 - So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them…

Blessing is God’s desire, but He cannot bless us in our disobedience, He cannot bless us when we choose to worship something other than Him…

Genesis 3:17 - Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life.

But it is not just about the curse that we might see as a punishment or a judgement, it is also the curse for what happens to use because we worship idols…

Consider how the Psalmist describes idols in Psalm 115… when he says that

Their idols are silver and gold,

The work of man’s hands.

They have mouths, but they cannot speak;

They have eyes, but they cannot see;

They have ears, but they cannot hear;

They have noses, but they cannot smell;

They have hands, but they cannot feel;

They have feet, but they cannot walk;

They cannot make a sound with their throat.

In other words, they are utterly incapable of doing anything for you…

Then look at the next verse

Psalm 115:8 Those who make them will become like them, Everyone who trusts in them.

In other words, we become useless to God as well…our curse becomes that become like the things that we worship…blind deaf and useless.

Our last reason for rejecting the temptation to worship something other than God is

Because you become empty instead of satisfied

When we look for satisfaction in the things of this world, not trusting in God for all we need, God’s word poses a question to us…

Jeremiah 2:5 - Thus says the Lord, “What injustice did your fathers find in Me, That they went far from Me And walked after emptiness and became empty?”

Where am I seeking to be filled up?

When my marriage is all that I need, what happens when I fail and the relationship is broken and empty?

When my job is all that I need, what happens when the boss hires somebody from outside for the job that you wanted, now instead of finding yourself wanted – you find your self empty

If you are with me to thins point, and you are saying that I want to reject the worship of the idols of this world, but I just don’t know what they might be…Let me recommend a book to you, very easy reading, by a pastor we work closely with….The Book is called Gospel Treason and the author’s name is Brad Bigney. Taking the time to read Gospel Treason will help you to not just identify, but also to reject the worship of those idols so that you can choose the God-pleasing response.

Our response to God’s work that is described in Eph 1 truly should be to the praise of His glory of His grace.

• He takes what was fading and makes it glorious,

• because more than fading we were dead in our trespasses, In God’s work, He has made us alive in Christ with assurance that we will one day see Him fully, in His full glory and we will be his glorious inheritance…

• Where we deserve shame for our sin which separates us from the Father, Jesus as taken our shame, paid our debt on the cross and has shared his glorious righteousness

• With every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places