Disciples of Jesus Christ live as Worshippers of God

Matthew 4:8-10  “Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.  ⁹ And he said to him, "All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me."  ¹⁰ Then Jesus said to him, "Be gone, Satan! For it is written, "' You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.'"

·         Jesus is the Son of the God; the Creator and Ruler of the Entire Universe. He is the Son of God the Father – the Holy One - whose presence bears no sin. God is the One who dwells in unapproachable light.

·          Jesus is also God; co-equal, co-eternal with God the Father.
·         Jesus resists the temptation by telling Satan that the Father has commanded that God and God alone be worshipped. And so, just like He always has, Jesus says He will obey the Father and worship Him alone and then He sends the devil away.
·         As we stand beside Jesus who has made us His friend, although we are clothed in filthy rags, unable and unworthy to approach the throne of God on our own, Jesus makes a way for all of us who have placed our trust in Him alone to come to the Father.
·         Jesus ushers us in and He places His robes of righteousness on us . He makes us clean. But just as the Son has bowed to the Father in worship, so it is our duty to bow before God and worship Him as well.

Main Idea: Disciples of Jesus Christ must live as Worshippers of God

·         Satan tried to tempt Jesus to worship him and he tried to tempt Jesus with the offer of “all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.” And the devil promised “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.”
·         His methods haven’t changed much today. Our enemy continues to try to tempt us today to bow before him – to fall down and worship him and tries to lure us in with promises of the kingdoms of the world and their glory.
·         It is not only the devil though, our old sin nature, the flesh, tempts us as well and we are tempted to worship all manner of false gods and believe the lie that they can satisfy us and fulfill us.

1.       Disciples of Jesus Christ will be tempted to worship false gods

·         Often, we want our own little kingdom and we are willing to sin to get it. But God is after our hearts and minds.
·         It is in the little moments of our lives that who and what we worship is tested. But these little moments matter too and not just the large tests of life that God is after.
·         It is these little, every day moments too where we are modeling what it looks like to live as a disciple for our children and everyone around us.
·         Will we choose to worship our own way? Will we bow down to false gods of our own making or will we worship God?
·         By God’s grace, when we fail though, we can seek God’s forgiveness and the forgiveness of our family and those around us, and God can use these times to help us learn and grow and by His grace to become more like Him.
·         The world around us and the flesh and the devil are all telling us to just bow down and we can get all that the kingdoms of the world have to offer and get their glory
·         But it is a lie, like the lie that Adam and Eve believed and bowed down to, when the devil told them that they could be like God – if they only did what Satan said – they would be as wise as God.
·         They were deceived and the worldly wisdom they gained ended in their death and the loss of everything that mattered – they lost their close relationship with God, they lost all the wonders that God had given for them to enjoy as He intended and traded them for a piece of forbidden fruit.
·         What is your temptation?
·         Don’t think that you won’t be tempted to worship false gods. Don’t think you are somehow above temptation to worship someone or something else.
·         Perhaps you are tempted to worship ease or comfort like I was this past week.
·         Maybe you are tempted to worship other people’s view of you and bow down to what people think you should do or say or look like.
·         Perhaps you are tempted to worship pleasure through sexual gratification?
·         Maybe you are tempted to worship through drunkenness?
·         Or perhaps food is a tempting god for you – either to over-indulge or perhaps you are tempted to not eat or to throw food up.
·         Maybe you are overly concerned with your physical appearance and find a sense of self-worth and fulfillment or satisfaction or control through manipulating your physical body.
·         Maybe it is a sense of power you are tempted to worship
·         Maybe it is the desire for nice things that you bow down to and look for fulfillment in
·         We are being tested all the time
·         Don’t be deceived by the lie that anything else other than God will satisfy you. Don’t waste your life on things that will never truly fulfill and that are fleeting – when God wants to truly satisfy you with living water.
·         Jesus says to us what He told the Samaritan woman that He met at a well in John 4:10. It says,

“Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water."

·         Jesus wants us to be fulfilled in Him – to look to Him for our life and to worship Him by being satisfied in Him and enjoying Him.
·         A few verses later, in John 4:14, He said  

“whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty forever. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

·         He promises to quench our thirst forever in Himself and He wants us to drink of Him and for His living water to well up in us to eternal life.

·         Let’s not look to the kingdoms of this world and their glory. Instead, let us follow Jesus and worship God, resist the devil and he will flee from you.
·         Jesus was tempted but He resisted the devil with God’s Word because He had hidden His word in His heart, as David said, so that He would not sin.
·         For us as disciples, if we would resist temptation and worship God, we must know the God whom we worship and we me need to know God’s Word. His Word is what will save us from worshipping and following after false gods.
·         We see that when Jesus answered Satan, He said it “it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve’”.
·         If we are to be disciples of Jesus Christ; if we want to grow in Christ and make disciples of Jesus, we must seek to worship God and serve Him only.

2.       Disciples of Jesus Christ must worship God & serve Him only

·         If we are to worship God and serve Him only, we must know who is this God that we must worship.
·         God wants us to not just know about Him but to know Him personally.
·         We can know a lot of information about God but we are not meant to just be information gatherers. We are meant to get to know God Himself personally.
·         The goal of knowing about God is not to accumulate information – the goal is relationship and transformation.

Romans 11:36 - 12:2  “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

·         God created everything and through Him and to Him belong all glory and honor forever.
·         As we get to know God and know His mercy to us personally, His mercies are meant to be the motivation for presenting our bodies to Him in worship.
·         Our “spiritual” worship is to present ourselves to be used for Him and live sacrificially for Him.
·         We aren’t to be conformed to this world’s ways of thinking and living – to live for the moment, for the pleasures of this world – for the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life.
·         Instead, we worship God as we renew our minds and are transformed; as we begin to learn to discern what the will of God is – what is good and acceptable and mature.
·         God uses our own sin and failings to help us learn and discern what His will is and how we can worship Him.

If Disciples of Jesus Christ must worship God and serve Him only - How must we worship Him?

·         There are three ways that we must worship God as disciples of Jesus
·         Later in his conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well, in John 4:23, Jesus says,

²³ 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.  ²⁴ God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth."

A.      We must worship Him in Spirit and in truth
·         If we are to worship God, it must be in response to the truth of who He is
·         You can’t worship your own idea of who God is. We worship God for who He has shown us He is, not what we imagine Him to be like but who He is revealed to be in the Bible.
·         Jesus has come as the Word of God incarnate, perfectly revealing the Father to us. Jesus said, “if you have seen me, you have seen the Father”.
·         When Jesus says to the Samaritan woman that “God is spirit”, He is reiterating the fact that God is divine and that we cannot approach him on human terms and in our own way, we approach Him in the way that He has commanded.
·         Mankind throughout the ages has always tried to worship a god of our own making.
·         Man has made idols of wood and stone and even His people turned to an idol of a golden calf. Such physical idol worship continues today with images of Buddha and Siddhartha and others
·         Idol worship continues in each one of us too, when we seek to get things and money to satisfy us
·         Or when we worship more subtle idols, like trying to be impressive in the eyes of others, or when we seek our own desires as more important than what God has called us to.
·         An idolatrous desire doesn’t necessarily come from desiring something bad, idolatry often happens when we want something too much, when we want something more than we want to please God.
·         Worship is not about mere ritual, it is about your heart
·         True worship flows from the truth of His Word. True worship is from the heart responding. True worship is from the spirit.
·         We worship God because of who He is and what He has done
·         We worship God in truth – living as a disciple of Jesus Christ is not about pretending or putting on a front. It is not about mere externals and living according to a checklist of standards or forming holy clubs.
·         We are called to live holy lives, but not to earn God’s favor or attain righteousness on our own. We are called to live holy lives as a response to His great love, His great mercy and His great grace in the forgiveness of our sins and the cleansing from all unrighteousness.
·         When the Allied forces liberated towns in France from Nazi rule during World War II, the local townspeople showered them with praise and thanks and they went out of their way to do things for them – to honor and serve the men who had liberated them.
·         God has set us free from slavery to sin – He is our greatest liberator, He is our great redeemer, he is our deliverer.
·         A life of true worship only comes from the enabling of the Holy Spirit – but He desires to give us His Spirit and we only have to come to Him, repent and ask and He desires to give us more of Himself.

B.      We must worship Him in whatever we do

1        Corinthians 10:31  So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

·         Worship is not just what we do in song on Sunday morning. Whatever we do is to be done all for the glory of God

·         If there is something we are doing in our lives and it cannot be done truly to the glory of God, we need to eliminate it and get rid of it.
·         This principle is meant to guide not just what we eat and drink and how much we eat and drink
·         It also is meant to guide our entertainment choices. Can we watch the TV show or movie or play or YouTube clip for the glory of God?
·         Please don’t hear me saying that any of those things are bad. In fact, many movies and TV shows and YouTube clips – even those that aren’t expressly Christian, can be enjoyed for the glory of God.
·         But let us be thinking about the content of what we watch and asking ourselves if we could worship God for what we are watching or listening to.
·         Whatever activity we like to engage in, ask yourself if you can worship God in it and do that activity for the glory of God.
·         You can play soccer and do gymnastics or karate or play corn-hole to the glory of God and worship Him through why and how you play – or you can worship yourself in those very same things
·         We are to worship Him in whatever we do for His glory

C.      We must worship Him wholeheartedly
Revelation 3:15 - 4:1  'I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot!  ¹⁶ So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.  ¹⁷ For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.  ¹⁸ I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see.  ¹⁹ Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.  ²⁰ Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.

·         We must worship Him wholeheartedly. God doesn’t want half of us; He is after all of us.

·         We are called to a radical, wholehearted life as disciples, fully given to worshipping Him with all that we have.
·         The reality is that even our best works are flawed and we will fail – but God knows our hearts and He stands ready constantly to help us – to forgive us, to pick us up when we fall.
·         None of us can perfectly fulfill His commands. None of us is able to worship God perfectly. But a life of worship is one constantly dependent on Him.
·         A life of worship is one that relies on His righteousness, that seeks to take no confidence in the flesh, that strives to love God with our heart, mind and soul. A life of worship rests in His forgiveness, His acceptance of Jesus’ merit on our behalf, and trusts in Him for His living water to give us eternal life.
·         Jesus counsels us to admit we are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.  He counsels you to buy from Him “gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. Those whom He loves, He reproves and disciplines, so be zealous and repent.” 
·         He says to all of us, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.”
·         We must worship God not because it is a duty but because it is the only way to delight
·         Towards the end of Revelation, in 22:1, we see a glimpse of the delight that we have to look forward to:

Revelation 22:1-5 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb  through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.  No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him.  They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.  And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.

Potential Application Questions:
1.       If Jesus saw worship as His duty and joy (and in fact, a huge part of His mission was to “glorify the father”), then how should we adjust the way that we view worship and how we carry out our mission?
2.       What false gods are you tempted to worship? (hint: what do you get angry or sad about and why?)
3.       Where are you tempted to look for fulfillment and how would God have you resist the temptation and serve Him?
4.       Have you hidden God’s Word in your heart, so that you might be able to resist temptation and worship God? If not, how is God calling you to respond?
5.       Are you thirsty for Jesus? We can begin to worship Him by asking for Him to give us living water and then drinking deeply of the life that He offers to us. How can you pursue more of Jesus personally?
6.       Are there any areas you’re living like a hypocrite in your life - like the Pharisees that worshipped externally only and yet their hearts were not in it?  God wants to set you free in that area – how is He calling you to respond?
7.       How has God been merciful to you personally? How can this be a motivation for your worship of Him?
8.       How is God calling you to be a living sacrifice in light of His mercies? (not to earn righteousness, but in response to the gift of Christ’s righteousness)
9.       Is there something we are doing in our lives that cannot be done truly to the glory of God? What do we need to do to eliminate it and get rid of it?
10.   How can we grow in wholehearted worship of God?