“The Who of Worship, Part 4” (Ready to Worship S11E4)

February 14, 2020

Ready to Worship Season 11, Episode 4 for Friday, February 14, 2020

This season on Ready to Worship, we are investigating worship by asking the basic questions of who, what, when, where, why, and how. In this lesson, we will again be examining the who of worship. The who of worship seems like a foregone conclusion to most of us. We know that God is the aim of worship (John 4:23-24). However, as we have seen in prior lessons, it is not as clear to others. Some worship Mary, Peter, angels, nature, or idols. Perhaps, the most shocking thing of all is that some people worship the devil. If anything is a foregone conclusion, it should be NOT to worship the devil. Yet, some do. As a case in point, I had a lengthy Bible study with a couple in Mexico who had been involved in devil worship for ten years. How do people end up there? Well, in part, this couple ended up there because the man was abused in a church as a boy. The man reasoned that there must not be a God if He allowed this to happen. In his mind, the devil was more real and more powerful than God. We did our best to help him to see that the devil and not God was to blame for what had happened to him. He was actually worshipping the one who was behind that false religion and the abuse that has sadly been a part of its history. It should be clear to us that the devil wants worship. As you recall, he desired it of Christ. Mathew records, “Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve” (Mt. 4:8-10). We can only imagine the deceptive splendor that the devil showed Jesús. Yet, it did not change Scripture or the rightful aim of worship. Another common way that Satan tries to lure men into worshipping him is through sorcery and/or witchcraft. The fact that this sin was repeatedly discussed and dealt with in the New Testament shows just how prevalent the problem was (Acts 13:6,8; Gal. 5:20; Rev. 9:21; 18:23; 21:8; 22:15). Likely, you recall two clear cases of sorcery or witchcraft in the book of Acts – Samaria and Ephesus (Acts 8:9-13; 19:13-20). In Samaria, the sorcerer was converted and in Ephesus the magic books were burned in obedient response to the gospel. Of course, the most common way that the devil gets men to worship him is by getting them to worship in one of his churches or synagogues. You may recall that Jesús described some Jews at Smyrna and at Philadelphia as a synagogue of Satan (Rev. 2:9; 3:9). As Jews, the aim of their worship was likely correct. Jews traditionally worship God and not someone or something else. However, by standing in opposition to Christ and His church, they were really worshipping and serving Satan rather than God. As we get ready to worship this week, let’s make sure that we direct our worship to God. Let’s make sure that we don’t give our worship either directly or indirectly to the devil.