Worship Is Your Weapon

Matthew 2:2, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.”

The wise men travelled around 800 miles and it took them about two years from the time that they saw the star, historians tell us. When they actually met Jesus, He was already two years old and they met him in a house, not the stable. When the wise men got there, Bethlehem was a small town of about 1500 people with only 20 children, which were of the age of two and below. Of those, half of the children were female.

The wise men came to Jerusalem, following the star. It doesn’t actually tell us how many there were. These astrologers came to Jerusalem, to meet the spiritual leaders.

I want to tell you how worship can bring personal change in your life. I believe God’s goal before changing our surroundings is changing us first. As much as I believe God comes to restore marriages, He first come to save individuals who are married. The problem is not marriage; it is the people who are married. Equally, the problem is not with the world but the people who live here. If we are fixed, almost everything else will take care of itself. There will still be evil in the world but a lot of it will be suppressed by the people who are changed.

Worship Affects You Personally

Worship is the only thing we give to God that He first didn’t give to us. Click To Tweet

This means nothing you offer to God really is yours. He created our bodies from the dust of the ground and holds time in His hand. God doesn’t share worship.

The wise men who came to Jesus, were not fed by the supernatural multiplication of bread and fish. Lazarus wasn’t yet raised from the dead, or anyone who could have been a relative of theirs. They didn’t experience deliverance from evil spirits or healing from a physical sickness or infirmity. The only thing they saw was a physical phenomenon in the sky and they followed it not out of the curiosity to see the king but worship him. Wise men still seek Jesus and wise men still worship Him.

The wise men didn’t come to worship Mary; we love Mary, we just don’t worship her. They also didn’t come to worship worship. Many of us are in love with our preferences over the presence of God. We love the style of worship more than the surrender worship is supposed to be.

There was no band, music or lighting system when the wise men came to worship Jesus, there was just worship. Worship is not about the songs; it is about your surrender. Worship is not about hymns; it is about Him. Worshipping God is not about your preference; it is about your pursuit of His presence. Worship Him like you know He deserves to be worshipped.

The first mention of worship in the Bible takes place in Genesis 22:5, where Abraham was offering his son, Isaac to God. Biblically speaking, worship is your obedience to God. It expresses itself in singing, dancing, clapping, shouting and other ways but the heart of worship is obedience to God.

When the Samaritan woman asked Jesus where we should worship, Jesus said the time will come when those who worship will worship in spirit and truth. The place and preferences won’t matter but what matters is your heart being surrendered to God.

Personal transformation does not happen without worship and worship does not happen without surrender. Click To Tweet

True And Counterfeit

Matthew 2:8, “And he [Herod] sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the young Child, and when you have found Him, bring back word to me, that I may come and worship Him also.”

Anywhere you have true worship, you will encounter a counterfeit.

The world refuses to worship God because it says there are fake Christians. But fake Christians are the proof that there are real Christians. The genuine worship of the wise men caused fake worship, people who worshiped in pretence. There would be no counterfeit worship if there were no real worship. Don’t be distracted by counterfeit worship.

Fake worship is from those who don’t actually want to pursue God. They are so comfortable being where they are that they don’t want to pursue Him. Herod was very bad towards people. He killed people. However, some of us have done more damage with our tongues than Herod did with his soldiers. Our words are very powerful.

Abel and Cain are another example of this. Abel was a genuine worshipper, while Cain was a counterfeit. One of the signs of a counterfeit worshipper is revealed in how they treat people after they worship. Abel was killed by Cain. Herod claimed to be a worshipper, then had babies slaughtered. If you are hurting, abusing, mistreating and dealing with people in a way that doesn’t honor Christ, your worship is counterfeit. God doesn’t want us to worship Him and be nasty.

Not only was Herod nasty to the people around him but when he didn’t get his way, he even sought to destroy the one he said he would worship. Counterfeit worshippers only worship God until things go wrong in their lives, a prayer is not answered, a sickness is not healed or a breakthrough did not come. God doesn’t owe you an explanation because He owns you.

If your idea of God is that He is some genie that will make all your dreams come true then you are not worshipping Him, you are just using Him as a means to fulfilling your dreams. God is not somebody you use; He is somebody you worship.

God doesn’t exist for me. I exist for Him. Click To Tweet

God Is Good

While not all of my wishes have come true, God has surprised me beyond my wildest dreams. Don’t be like Herod who threw a tantrum when he didn’t get his way. People often question how come bad things happen to good people. The truth is that happened once and He volunteered for it. Bad things don’t happen to good people because we are not good people. We should be surprised how many good things happen to bad people like us. Jesus Christ was a good person and bad things happened to Him because He volunteered to die for me. When you see life through the lens of the Gospel, you will be grateful for the goodness of God.

God cannot fix us personally if we do not genuinely worship Him. History calls him Herod the Great. He was generous. Herod remodelled the temple in Jerusalem and built many great things publicly, but privately, he was a great failure, full of fear and paranoia. He tried to mask this inward failure with the pretence of worship.

When you begin to worship truly, God takes your problems and brings progress in your life. He begins to change your life. You cannot remain paranoid when you worship truly because God will bring you peace.

When you truly worship, God takes your worries and burdens and gives you blessings and peace. Click To Tweet

Fake worship only puts a bandage on something that is infected. God does not want you to be another Herod the Great who build a great house, business or career but are a nightmare to live with. God wants your private life to shine and your public life to be healthy. Like Paul and Silas, God wants you to be able to sing in the storm but to do that you have to be healthy on the inside. You cannot be healthy inside without God’s presence. You cannot be healthy if you don’t worship.

Worship Bends Our Will

If you don’t bend your will in worship, life will break it in crisis. Click To Tweet

In order for you to not encounter fake worshippers, you have to stop being one. You goal is not to change how you treat people first; your goal should be to come in full surrender to God as your King.

Look what the wise men did when they came into the presence of Jesus.

Matthew 2:11, “And when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshipped Him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.”

Can I encourage you to worship, even if your understanding and experience of God is in the baby stages? Maybe you don’t even feel anything? Worship Him anyway. Worship is bending your will. Our problem with character is that our will is too stiff. The older you are, the harder it is to bend.

If you don’t bend your will in worship, life will crush your will in crisis. When you bend your will in worship, you say not my will but Your be done. When you bend during a storm, you will not break during a storm. The Bible says when a storm hit Job’s life, he fell and worshipped. Maybe a storm has hit your life. Maybe your children or spouse do not serve God. God wants to take control of your life but you need to surrender your will to God.

In the face of fear, inflation, uncertainty, crisis, financial famine, doubt, worry, unpaid bills, doctor’s reports and pain, I will worship Jesus!

The transformation happens not just when you give God your pain but when you give God your treasure. Treasure is what is dear to you – your dreams, vision, pride, your way. When God not only has your trash but has your treasure, He will transform you. When you spend more time defending your heart than surrendering to God, you will never experience true transformation.

Give Him your treasure. Everything is safer under the shadow of His wings than under your control. That is surrender. Click To Tweet

Sermon By Vladimir Savchuk; Blog By Edward Gardiner

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