Preparing for Worship // June 25, 2017

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Over spring break one year when I worked for RUF, I helped lead a mission trip to London, where we worked with a church that reaches the large immigrant population from India, Pakistan, and the surrounding countries. Many of the people that the church seeks to share the gospel with come from a Hindu background, so as part of our trip, we visited a Hindu temple. This was my first experience with real-life, graven-image idol worship. There was something especially heavy and sad about watching people come in and physically bow down to these worthless pieces of stone.

But idolatry is not limited to this sort of worship. Anything that takes the place of God on the throne of your heart is an idol. Money, power, sex, acclaim, and comfort are all idols. And all these idols are takers. They make greater and greater demands on us before they ultimately destroy us. At first, they offer us exactly what we want, but they offer more than they’re able to give. Only when we worship God and seek His glory can our hearts be truly satisfied. Only as we forget our own happiness will we be happy. What is pulling you away from Christ? Is there something you put more time and energy into than your relationship with God? Then that thing is an idol. Following Christ means letting go of our idols; it means allowing God to shatter them in order to bring us closer to Himself.

THE WORD

Scripture: Matthew 19:16-30
Sermon: Entering Life with Jesus

SONGS

Holy Is the Lord (Chris Tomlin)
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Enough (Chris Tomlin)
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Be Thou My Vision (Traditional)
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Satisfied (Karl Digerness)
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Song of Preparation: Take My Life (Chris Tomlin)
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Song of Response: All I Have is Yours (Sojourn Music)
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