The Priority Of Worship by Dr. Myles Munroe: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

The Danger of Making the Means the End

There is nothing more tragic in life than abusing time, energy, and wasting resources. To waste your time on the wrong thing, doing the wrong thing.

There is nothing more dangerous than making the means the end. You can become so preoccupied with what you are doing that you forget why you are doing it.

You can actually worship what you are doing rather than using what you are doing to worship God.

The process should take us to the purpose but never become the purpose.

If you get more excited about your car than driving it, you will go nowhere. You can walk around your car for two months, shining it and talking about the horsepower, and never drive it. The purpose of the car is to drive you — not for you to walk around it.

Some people become so focused on how well they sound that they forget who they are singing to. You can become so focused on how you are playing the piano that you forget who you are playing for. So now the piano becomes more important than God — when in fact you are supposed to be playing for him. You end up aborting the purpose of the activity.

Worship is the greatest key to your freedom. When the means become more important than the end, the purpose is aborted.

His Presence Is More Important Than Teaching

For example, God told the children of Israel to come to a mountain at 3:00 with their clothes clean. At 3:00 sharp, the presence of the Lord came upon the mountain.

The Bible never says in the teaching of the Lord there is joy and pleasures forevermore. It says: in the presence of the Lord. His presence is more important than the preacher. And the problem is: his presence only dwells in your praise.

You can have good teaching and no presence. Teaching is not as important as worship. You miss the reason for coming together when you skip the worship time. We bring not a sacrifice of a lamb, but a sacrifice of praise.

You can become so habitual in doing something that you just go through the motions. God says: you worship me with your lips, but your heart is far. You got the formality down, but you deny the very power and presence of God.

What keeps me a worshiper is this: his presence is more important than your presence. Your presence means nothing to me if I came to worship God — because you cannot deliver me from sin, keep me out of hell, or take sickness out of my body. So you think I care what you think about me when I am praising him?

David told his wife Michal: woman, I am going to dance. If you do not like it, you can go away. He danced in front of her, embarrassing himself — worshiping. The largest book in the Bible is a worship book, written by a king. That king never said, "Y'all go into the house and bless the Lord." He said, "Let us go."

What Is Idolatry

The opposite of worship is idolatry. Exodus 20:3-5: "You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath. You shall not bow down to them or worship them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God."

Jealousy is a reaction to competition. When someone starts competing for your spouse's attention, you become jealous. God says: I do not want anyone to compete with me.

If you worship God but hinder worship in others — by coming late, by sitting on the end and making people step over you, by your coldness or detachment — you are messing with worship. If you hinder worship, you attract plagues. The justice angel passes over the praise houses. But where there is idolatry, where there is no worship, the plague comes.

Idolatry is God's greatest competition because idolatry is when you make something else God.

When more worth is placed on the means rather than the end, the means become an idol. When you make what you are doing more important than who you are doing it for, you have created an idol.

God does not want to compete with the song you are singing to him. Do not make the song more important than him. Shoot the song at him. The music is supposed to go into him.

King Saul brought fat sheep to God and kept them to worship with — but God had told him to kill all the sheep. Saul made the sheep more important than God's command. God cursed Saul and removed his title. He tried to make the sacrifice more important than the one he was sacrificing to.

Psalm 78:58: "They angered him with their high places. They aroused his jealousy with their idols." Terrible words near God's name — anger, jealousy, aroused anger. One thing that gets God angry is when your shoes and your tie become more important than him.

The Lord Your God — the Owner

The word Lord here is Adon in Hebrew — meaning master, owner, supreme proprietor, almighty owner.

Exodus 23:24-25: "Worship the Lord your God and his blessings will be on your food and water. He will take away sickness from among you and none will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will give you a full life."

Everything you are looking for is in that list. And notice what activates it: worship — acknowledging that he owns it all. Worship means: I acknowledge you as the owner. I give you thanks.

Worship is when you understand that everything you are using is not yours. The breath you breathe is not yours. Every time you breathe out, it should be thank you. The shoe on your feet is his cow. The clothes on your back came from his sheep.

When the creation becomes more important than the creator, the result is misplaced worship and the creation of idolatry. Anything you put before God is an idol.

Isaiah 44:9: "All who make idols are nothing, and the things they treasure are worthless."

1 John 5: "Dear children, keep yourselves from idols." Notice that word keep — God is not going to protect you from your attitude toward your necktie. You have to do it yourself. You have to make sure you are on time for worship.

God Let You Out to Worship Him

Exodus 8: The Lord said to Moses, "Go to Pharaoh and say to him: This is what the Lord says — let my people go." Now we all know that part. But read the next line, which is more important: so that they may come out to worship me.

God does not just let you out of bondage to give you freedom. He lets you out so you can worship him. When God delivered you from that situation — when he kept the house, healed the body, brought the money, cancelled the debt — he did it so you would worship. How come you stopped bringing rocks and you still have the house?

Exodus 4:23: "And I told you, Pharaoh: let my son go so he may worship me." God constantly states the reason why he lets us out. The primary purpose is: so they can worship me.

Worship is you constantly returning your manufacturing card to God. When you buy a product, there is a registration card in the box. The manufacturer wants to know who has it and where it is — because they want you to know that if anything goes wrong, they are the only ones who can genuinely fix it. Worship is you coming back to God constantly, saying: I know where my source is. I am dependent. You have the genuine parts.

The more you worship God, the more you tell God you are dependent on him. When you go weeks and months without praise or gratitude, God becomes jealous — because he figures you must have found another source somewhere.

The Source Is More Important Than the Resource

You can jog all you want. You can sign up for every health program there is. But if you want to live long, lift your hands and worship. Exodus 23:24-25: "Worship the Lord your God and your food will be blessed, your water will be blessed, I will take away sickness, none will miscarry, and I will give you a full life."

If you do not worship:

• Your bread will be cursed — every time you invest, it will fail
• Your water will be cursed
• Sickness will come upon you
• You will miscarry — every business you start will fail
• You will be barren in your investments

The greatest temptation in human experience is the elevation of the distraction and the preoccupation with the creation more than the creator.

Psalm 24:1: "The earth is the Lord's and everything in it, the world and all who live in it." Everything on this planet is his property. He is the owner.

When you acknowledge the source, you begin to worship. Everything I have is yours. The oxygen in the air is the king's property — so I have to give him thanks all the time. He says: your voice belongs to me. Send it out to worship me.

Lord, you have not let the plague touch my house. You skip right over me and I cannot explain it — except that I stand under the blood, I stand in worship, and you keep passing over. God, you are faithful. This company is yours. This breath is yours. This day is yours. I give it all back to you. Everything belongs to you, Lord.

Worship God wherever you are. Worship is not limited to a service. When you go to work tomorrow, take worship with you. Hallelujah.