Hammer on Anvil '

Nope, it's not Saturday. Saturday came and went. Now it's Tuesday. I'm still learning my days of the week.

I saw this video on youtube the other day, and it made me laugh my socks off. You gotta see it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkuOSKk1nXY

Rhett and Link are probably my favorite internet entertainers. They threw this video together a few weeks ago and put it up on youtube. When I first saw it I laughed. But it also made me a little disturbed.

As I mentioned last week, I had been at bible camp all week, and my assignment was to teach on the 4^th commandment, “Honor the Sabbath Day”. During that week, I also got to sit in on a class where a pastor-friend of mine taught a class on the first and second commandments, “Love the Lord your God” and “Do not worship graven images.” The two commandments go hand in hand, for to worship God as the one and only is to forsake all others.

It should come as no surprise that we were created to worship. It is in our DNA. We CRAVE something to worship, to idolize, to set up as holy, and making other things merely common. God created us that way. We even have a language of worship. Have you ever noticed that? The next time you sing a worship song at church, pay attention to the language. “Love”, “adore”, “desperate”, “long for you”, “You complete me”… David used worship language constantly in his psalms.

Psalms 63:1-8 A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah. O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. (2) So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory. (3) Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. (4) So I will bless you as long as I live; in your name I will lift up my hands. (5) My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips, (6) when I remember you upon my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night; (7) for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy. (8) My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.

There is only one who deserves our worship. Exodus 20:3 "You shall have no other gods before me.” God alone is worthy of our worship! That thought is meant to bring us joy and gratitude! All that we need, all our heart desires, is found in one creator God, and we need not look to any created thing to fulfill our longing to worship. The one to whom we OWE our worship is the only one worthy of it!!

But the temptation that Adam and Eve faced in the garden was that they somehow set themselves up as gods.

Genesis 3:4-5 But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. (5) For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

Paul says that not only self-worship, but the worship of anything and everything OTHER than God - created things – invades our worship.

Romans 1:21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 1:25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

Foolish heart… darkened? When I cast my affections toward a created being rather than creator, with a language of worship, lifting some “thing” up on a pedestal as being supreme in my mind and heart, I have put another “god” before the Creator God, Who, as Paul reminds us, “is blessed for ever, Amen.” It is for this sin that the Israelites were thoroughly judged in the Old Testament. Their hearts were foolish and darkened.

Let me challenge you to consider the condition of your heart. What things stir your affections? Are there “created” things to which you cast your worship? Consider the psalm of David. His worship was cast solely toward the one and only Jehovah God. Is there some created thing with which you are obsessed, that makes you say “earnestly I seek you, my soul thirsts for you, my flesh faints for you”? Is there something you feel like you couldn’t live without, “as in a dry and weary land where there is no water”? Are you mesmerized by some created thing, “So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory”? Have you committed your days to speak the praises toward some created thing, “So I will bless you as long as I live; in your name I will lift up my hands.”? Do you find ultimate satisfaction in something other than God, “My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food”? Do you have an idol that you find yourself even thinking about in the middle of the night, “) when I remember you upon my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night?” Are you in love with an idol? “My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.”

We are worshippers. You may find that you are a worshipper of a created being. It may be an infatuation over a relationship. It may be an addiction, like video games, or sexual pleasure. It may be a fantasy in which your mind is thoroughly caught up in (movies, books). When your mind is darkened, you will tend to say “that’s normal! This stuff is fine!” But I challenge you to seek and pursue Christ with the same zeal, passion, and infatuation that you pursue other things. You will find that in your heart, “the things of this world will grow strangely dim in the light of His mercy and grace.” David found this out. My prayer is that you will find this out, as well. God’s law was not merely for the Israelites, out in the desert. They are for us, and they cut deeply, right into the heart of the matter.

Exodus 20:3-6 "You shall have no other gods before me. (4) "You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. (5) You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, (6) but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.