Who Do You Worship?

Welcome to God First with Brian C. Thomas, a program committed to encouraging you to put God first while viewing life through the window of the Bible. Now, in honor of the one and only true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, let's join Brian C. Thomas for today's message. Greetings in the name of our great Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. My name is Brian Thomas. And as always, it is a joy and honor and a privilege to join you each week.

And I want to thank you for tuning in. I want to begin today with a question. The question is, what or who do you worship? Even if you are not so-called religious, even if you are a person who identifies yourself as an atheist, you say, well, I don't believe there is a God. I don't do the religion thing. I don't worship.

I want to challenge you today. And I'm going to make the argument today that you do worship. We all worship. And that is because God created us to worship.

He created us. It is in our spirit to do so. It is just a matter of identifying who or what it is that you worship. So I want to draw your attention to the book of John, chapter four, verse 24, where we find the text.

God is spirits and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. I am so grateful to be a part of a church. That is the local assembly that I attend that gives genuine worship.

It is embraced and it just runs throughout the church. And it's not something that is done for show, but it is true, sincere worship to our Lord. And when the word goes forth from the pulpit that we give honor to the God of the Bible, everyone stands in unison to give honor to Him. And some people will lift their hands in praise. Some people will lift their voices for a hallelujah or thank you, Jesus.

Some people will clap their hands. But praise goes up in worship as we give honor to our Lord. And I just love it because not all churches embrace worship.

I've been to some services in which it is frowned upon if anyone were to really give worship to our Lord. And so I love the fact that when I gather together with this body of believers that we are going to give genuine, heartfelt worship to our great Lord. And the great thing about it is doing this with my family, my children and my wife, because children are watching. They see what their parents are doing. They take note of it. And and, you know, even children at a very young age, they may not understand it all, but that is how they are learning.

They're being trained. And we had an incident a few weeks ago in church in which my children, I was standing there giving praise to our Lord. We all were standing and my son was to my left and my daughter was to my right and my wife was to her right. And I noticed my son sort of glanced past me a couple of times and I turned to him and I asked him, I said, is everything OK?

And he looked into his sister, which is my daughter. He said, is she giving praise to the Lord? He just wanted to make sure that she also was praising because he knows that's what we do. And my children are 11 and 12 years old, but already they are giving worship and praise to our great Lord. And one of the things that I notice is my son in particular, he seems to take the lead from me.

He seems to really watch me and what I'm doing. And so when I stand and give praise and worship, he stands and gives praise and worship. When I lift my my hands and my arms in adoration to our Lord, he does the same thing. And so that is why it is so important that we have in worship service. And I understand that during this time of covid, a lot of churches have been closed at various times. And I'm not here to to debate on that. But that is why it's so important that we come together and worship in person.

You just can't do that at home doing a virtual service. And I know some may say, well, you know, we can't stand at home and give worship to our Lord. Yes, it can be done, but it's not the same when the entire body gets together and everyone is giving praise and worship to our great Lord.

And so it's a beautiful thing to be able to do that with our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ and with my wife and with my children as we all give praise and worship to our great Lord. But the thing about worship is we often think about it in terms of something that we do in a church service, physical outward expressions, but it goes beyond physical expression. The Book of Exodus 34 14 says, For you shall worship no other God for the Lord, whose name is jealous, is a jealous God. In the commands to the Israelites, God equated the worship of false gods to running after harlots. Sexual immorality is something that God uses throughout the scripture to convey. Going after idol gods, which ultimately is going after Satan, because either you're worshiping God or you worship in Satan. All of these idol gods are pointing to. Lucifer pointing to the devil. And so God uses that as an expression to convey that that is what it is like.

So when you're living your life of sexual immorality, what you are doing is symbolic of rejection of our great Lord God in heaven, the God of the Bible, and instead worshipping the devil. I saw a few weeks ago the Duke UNC basketball game. Now, the morning of that game, which was on a Saturday, I was not watching television, but I heard this account that was told about what happened now for anyone that is in this local area. You know how big the Duke UNC basketball game is.

That is a huge rivalry. And as a matter of fact, it goes beyond just this local area. Here we are in North Carolina.

It is nationwide. Everybody knows about the Duke UNC basketball game. But on this particular day, a couple of weeks ago, the students lined up or camped out at 4 a.m. All right. So they are getting prepared at 4 a.m. for this game. Now, the doors did not open until 9 a.m.

So we're talking about five hours. And what actually was going on is because the game itself did not start until 6 p.m. But for anyone that's not familiar, ESPN has this show called College Game Day, and they'll go to the sites of wherever the big game of the day is going to be. And they will air from there sort of a pep rally style of an event. And so the students lined up again.

They were camping out and they lined up at 4 a.m. to to get into the arena, the Dean Smith Center, when the doors open at 9 a.m. And the students ran in and they were running over top of some who had fallen and they were just all excited and and just ready for this. This great event. And as I'm I'm hearing this, I'm thinking to myself, who do you worship? Remember that the scripture that I just read said God is a jealous God. He has a righteous jealousy.

Imagine that. You are at home as a husband and you're watching television and your wife gets more excited about a man on television than she does over you. Or imagine that you notice your wife gets excited when she peeks out of the window and she sees the neighbor walking across the yard. How would that make you feel?

Or imagine as a man, you go out to dinner and your wife is there with you and another man walks by and she seems to be more interested in him and excited about him than she is about you, her husband. So how do you think it makes God feel when we are all excited about these things of the world and we don't show that kind of excitement for him? Do we run into church or do we drag in late? Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating necessarily to literally run into church because the way things are happening now, someone may think that you up to no good security may intercept you thinking that you're trying to bring some harm because it's not normal to see that. But what I am advocating is that in your spirit and in your heart, are you excited when it's time to go to church on Sunday mornings?

Are you excited when it's time to go to Bible study during the week? Because, you see, the world runs to everything but God. And that's idolatry. The world runs to games. They're excited about that. But we are to worship in spirit and truth.

And the truth is that only God deserves worship. And, you know, when it comes to sports, I have to be honest with you, the older that I get, the harder it is for me to watch sports. Now, let me be clear, and I've said this many times before, sports is not wrong in and of itself. I played sports in school.

I do watch the games. But because so many now make an idol out of sports, I almost feel guilt by association. When I see the millions of dollars being spent on football stadiums, when I see the millions of dollars that are being spent on basketball arenas and just the, again, enormous amount of money, coaches getting paid three, four, five million dollars, players getting paid in the professional leagues, over a hundred million dollar contract.

When I, when I see these things and I'm thinking about all that, how that money could go toward evangelism, all that money that could be used toward kingdom building, you know, I almost feel guilt by association, to be honest with you. And it's gotten to the point that I may still tune into a game, but I just don't get the same kind of enjoyment, the same kind of entertainment. And that is what it is, folks. Sports is entertainment.

It has no redeeming value to life. If you take sports away, contrary to what a lot of people may believe, life will carry on just fine. But we, so many in our society lifted up on a pedestal.

I see women falling all over themselves and getting all excited and trying to get with a man simply because he's famous for being able to play a sport. And I say that's idolatry. We should not do that. We should worship only our God in spirit and in truth. And if you are more excited about a game than you are about God, you are worshipping the game. You are worshipping entertainment.

And for that matter, anything that is that you put more value to, then God is something that you have made an idol. I want us to be excited about time with our Lord. I want us to be excited when it is time to go to church.

I want it. I want us to be excited when it's time for Bible study. My household, my family, we have morning Bible study devotion at seven a.m. And we had an incident a few days ago in which my children, my kids, they were dragging late. And for whatever reason, they showed up.

It was seven or two. They know Bible study starts at seven a.m. Now, I didn't bring down the hammer right away. I let them know. I said, hey, we are supposed to be here prepared and ready and excited about hearing from our Lord at seven a.m. And I said, now, this this happens again. They're going to be consequences. There's going to be punishment because we should be excited about our Lord. We run to things of the world. We should run to our Lord when it's time to worship him, when it's time to praise him, when it's time to hear from him because he's deserving of all the glory. He's deserving of all the honor. He is deserving of all the praise. So we're going to pause for a brief announcement, but I'm going to come back with more about who do you worship?

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My name is Brian Thomas. And today we are talking about who or what do you worship? And again, as I said at the outset, I want us to really be honest with ourselves and ask ourselves the question, are we giving worship to God or are we giving worship to other things? Are there things in our lives that we have made idols rather than God? Because the Book of Exodus, chapter 20, verse three says you shall have no other gods before me. But it's unfortunate that many have put other things before God.

And I want to be clear. I've been guilty of this in my life. I've had times in my life, even when it comes to sports. When I look back and as a UNC basketball fan, I had a time early on in which, well, I was an adult. But early on in my working career in which the UNC Tar Heels, they lost the basketball game. And I was so bent out of shape about it that when I went to bed that night, I did not want to get up the next morning and go out to work to face my colleagues. I was I was that down and out about the game. And the Holy Spirit convicted me because the Holy Spirit said to me in my spirit, seriously, is it that important?

These young men running up and down a basketball court in shorts and a tank top, dribbling this orange ball and the one that can put this orange ball through this hoop. The most number of times that dictates whether you're going to have joy in your day or not. And I realize I had made an idol out of the sport. And so I'm speaking from experience. And that is why I want to challenge others to not do the same thing, because when we do that again, if it if those things have more weight in our lives than God does, then we are having other gods before him. And God says that we are not to do that. That breaks the heart of God that disappoints him. And I know that what I'm about to say is probably going to get me into some trouble with some people.

But many people worship a lot of things that are not God in the time that we're living in. Now is that it seems as though many are worshiping covid shots. I was watching a service online, a church service in which there was a lady there speaking, and she was there to encourage the people there to take the covid shot. I want to read to you what she stated. I want to give the quote word for word so you can know exactly what she said. She stated, quote, Jesus saved our souls, but we can't look to him to save us from covid. We have to save ourselves, end quote. I was blown away by that.

I was truly left speechless. Let me read it one more time for anyone who missed it. She said, quote, Jesus saved our souls, but we can't look to him to save us from covid. We have to save ourselves, end quote. And again, this was in reference to her urging people to take the shot.

Now, I'm not here to make a debate or a discussion as to whether you should take a shot or not. That is a personal decision that is between you and God. And I feel like it is something that should remain personal and private. One of the things that really troubles me is the way in which this kind of stuff has been made so public in our society today.

It's divided so many people, even within families. But what I do want to state, though, is that do you put more faith in the shot than you do in God? Because, again, we are to worship in spirit and in truth. And the truth of the matter is, our Lord has all the power. Our Lord has power over covid.

He has more power than that shot. He has more power than the disease. He has more power than anything that exists because he is the supreme creator of all things. He is the supreme being. And so there is nothing that is too big for him. But I've heard preachers even say I'm protected now because I have my shot in my boosters.

As if to say, well, if you did not have that, you would not be protected. So I'm asking the question, what about God? Do you think that God protects you? Do you think he watches over you?

Do you think that he can heal you even if you were to get sick? But it seems as though people are putting more faith into other things than they are into God. Folks, we have to worship him in spirit and in truth, and we have to be honest with ourselves. Are we putting more value?

Are we putting more faith into other things than we are into God? Who is it that you worship? Do you worship money or do you worship sex, entertainment, power, food, sports, maybe a spouse? I see so many people that it seems as though it is their single mission in life to find a mate. It seems as though they throw out all their values.

They hold to no convictions as long as it means they can get that man that they are so desperately seeking. And folks, that's idolatry. We are not supposed to put that type of emphasis on finding someone to have as a romantic interest. Yes, the Bible says God said clearly in the beginning, be fruitful and multiply.

And so we are to do that. That is, unless God has given you the gift of celibacy. Now, there are some that do have the gift of celibacy. God has made it so that they were created to be single for a purpose.

That does happen. But barring that, we are created to be fruitful and multiply and to do that within the context of God's commands. That means getting married. We ought to do it within marriage. Unfortunately, it seems as though most of society today has chosen to do it outside of marriage because we see these percentages of children born outside of marriage just continues to go up and up. So people are living as if they are married, even though they're not. And I see people that, again, it's like their their golden life, if that if they don't find that that's that person, that that husband or that wife, that all is loss.

And it should not be that way. We should live our lives in dedication to our Lord. We should live our lives to, again, worship him and to put him first. And when the time is right in his time and when we focus on him, then he'll send that special woman to marry. Then he'll send that special husband to marry.

But even when you find that person, they don't they don't come before God. God comes first. He comes before that wife. He comes before that husband.

He comes before your children, because some people worship their children. And what I see just so pervasive in society today is people worshiping themselves. I've never seen a time like it in which when you all you have to do is look at social media, look at Facebook, and you see how much people love themselves. People constantly taking selfies, pictures of themselves and and posting them online so that people will look at them so that they can get attention. And the Bible said that that day would come in the last days and said people would be lovers of sales.

And that is exactly what we see. And that's simply another way of saying people would be worshippers of themselves. People only care about number one. I want all the attention. I want what's mine. It's not about being selfless and giving up something, sacrificing something in your life so that you can make someone else happy. But you're concerned about yourself. And when you do that, you are worshipping.

So I want to challenge you today. Is God first? Here on our program, God First Bible Fellowship, we encourage people to put God first in all things. The question is, is God first in your life? What's the first thing on your mind when you wake up in the morning? What is the last thing on your mind when you when you go to sleep?

Is it God? Now, if you are going through a major illness or something like maybe the loss of a job, I can understand that the initial shock of those things can cause you to when you wake up first thing in the morning. Those things can be on your mind. Those things can be on your mind when you go to bed at night. But but even in the midst of that, it still should come a point in which when you give it over to God and you say, God, I'm just trusting you in this, then he should be what's on your mind first. And he should be what's on your mind when you go to bed at night. But but what consumes your thoughts?

What consumes your mind? I see people that when it's time to go on a leisure trip, let's say an amusement park, Busch Gardens, Carowinds or or to go on a vacation. And and when the day comes, when the alarm clock goes off, they're excited.

They hop out of bed and they they have a smile on their face and they're getting dressed. You don't have to tell anyone. Hurry up. Let's go. Let's go on vacation.

People are excited about it. But then on Sunday morning, when the alarm clock goes off for church, you hear groans. On Sunday morning, when the alarm clock goes off, you're constantly hitting the snooze button. On Sunday morning, when the alarm clock goes off, you get up dragging.

You don't have a smile on your face. You're moaning, you're groaning. And it's time to get ready to go to the house of the Lord. Again, how does that make God feel? How do you think that makes our great Lord feel that you're excited to go to an amusement park? But when it comes time to go worship him, you're dragging, you're dreading it.

You don't want to get up. Do you rush through church service? And what I mean by that is if you're attending church, are you there and just wanting to hurry up and get it over with so you can go about your day? Or if you are one of those who is actually participating, maybe you're up front, you're in the pulpit. Are you rushing through it just to get it over with to to check the box to say, OK, we got through church.

And then you go home and you spend hours watching a game or watching a movie or TV show. This hurts the heart of God, folks. Think about all he has done for us. Think about if it were not for God coming to this earth in the form of a man that is Jesus Christ, God the son and dying for our sins, we would be headed for eternal damnation.

We would all be lost. And how do we thank him? We thank him, so many of us, by putting more weight and more value into things other than him, into things of the world.

And again, it breaks his heart. So I want to challenge you to be a worshipper of God. Don't get me wrong. I am not saying that we cannot enjoy other aspects of life. God is the one who blesses us, even with being able to to participate in entertainment.

I don't think God is anti sports, but it has its place in life. God wants us to have a spouse. He wants us to to enjoy food.

He wants us to enjoy sex as husband and wife. But again, everything comes in its proper place. It does not come before God. We cannot put so much weight into it that we worship it. So, again, we are to worship in spirit and in truth and we are to give glory and honor to our great Lord in all things. And so I want to, again, challenge you today. Here what I'm saying.

Examine your heart to examine yourselves and be honest with yourself. And I want to challenge you on Sunday morning when it is time to get up and go to church. I want you to be excited when that alarm clock goes off.

I want you to get up immediately. Start getting dressed. Have a smile on your face.

Start thinking about how it's going, how great it's going to be when you get there. You are lifting your hands and you are giving praises to God and you are thanking him just because of how great he is. Even putting aside all the great things that he's done for us, but simply because of who he is, he deserves the honor, the glory, the worship and the praise. I want you to be excited about it, to give worship to our Lord. So if your answer to the question of who or what do you worship, if it is not God, I want to challenge you today to repent and then turn to our God and give him worship because he's worthy of all the glory, all the honor and all the praise.

Well, we're all out of time for this week. I want to thank you again for tuning in. Please come back next time as we continue to encourage you to put God first while viewing life through the window of the Bible. Until then, remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Bless God's great nation of Israel. And to the only wise God, be glory through Jesus Christ forever.

Amen. You've been listening to the Bible teacher Brian C. Thomas, founder and president of God First. Brian and God First reserve all copyright protection under applicable law. Our copyright policy is available at our website, Godfirst.org. Until next time, remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, bless God's great nation of Israel and seek first the kingdom of God.