Who Will You Worship
By Senior Pastor Prince Guneratnam
[This one of the series of messages “Worship” preached
by Senior Pastor Prince Guneratnam]
God has
commanded us to worship Him only. With His command comes His enablement. He has
created us with the ability to worship. We can and we will worship. The
question is, “Who will I worship?”, not “Will I
worship?”
Exodus 20:2-5 says,
“I am the Lord your God, who
brought you out of
What Is An Idol?
The Bible says, if we
worship anything apart from God, we are an idolater. You have been created by
God to be a worshipper and if God is not the One that you worship, the you are an idolater.
An idol does not have to be
something that is tangible or visible. We often say to ourselves, “Oh, I am
certainly not an idolater. There is no altar or idol in my house.” But an idol
can be a doctrine, a creed, a philosophy, or a person that you idolize. This
then governs your lifestyle, the way you think and the company you keep.
Communism, for example, can
be an idol. I remember reading a letter from a communist. He was going out with
a very fine young girl, but because of his commitment to communism, he found
that his communistic idealogy did not permit him to
be totally committed to this lady whom he loved. He wrote a letter to this
lady: “I am sorry that I am so committed to communism, I have to end my
relationship with you that I cannot marry you because my relationship with you
is hindering that which I stand for and believe in. I have to cancel the
wedding because communism is my meat, my sleep, my comfort, my joy…”
An example like this tells
us how a doctrine or philosophy can be an idol. For Christians, an idol can
even be something that God has blessed us with. We can be so taken up with
God’s gifts that we forget the Giver.
The gifts
of God becomes the centre of our life because of the joy and
satisfaction they bring to us. It can be a child, a husband or a wife or even a
talent. They become the heroes of our life.
God tested Abraham in
Genesis 22 when he commanded him to sacrifice Isaac, the promise son. God
wanted to know if Abraham would love Isaac more than Himself. He is a jealous
God. When Abraham was willing to sacrifice Isaac, God said to him, “Do not lay
a hand on the boy. Do not do anything to him. Now that I know you fear God,
because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son” (Genesis
The important truth is this:
there cannot be any relationship that God supersedes our relationship with God.
God must be given first place in our lives. Is there a relationship in your
life that has taken precedence over your relationship with God? Is your career
more important than God? Are God’s blessing more
important to you than God Himself? If you answer “yes” to any of these
questions, then you have an idol in your life.
The Quality Of
Our Worship
Poor knowledge of God
results in poor worship. Some of us say, “Oh, I want to worship God but I don’t
know how to.”
I have discovered by reading
the Word of God that those who knew Jim worshipped Him excellently. When we
have limited knowledge of the nature and character of God, we will be very weak
worship. Therefore, to improve my worship of God, I need to grow in knowledge
of God. What then must I do to know God better? The Scripture teaches us that when
Jesus came to this earth, He came not only as a Saviour
to redeem mankind but also as a revealer of the Father. The more we know Jesus,
the more we know God. Our appreciation for God grows. Read the Bible and you
will know more about God through Jesus Christ with the help of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus The
Revealer Of The Father
This was one of the reasons
why Jesus was sent – “to reveal the Father to man.”
The Scriptures confirms this
in the following references:
John 12: 49
“For I did not speak of my
own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say
it.”
John 5:19-20
“Jesus gave them this
answer: I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only
what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also
does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, to your
amazement he will show him even greater things than these.”
John 14:9
“…. Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.”
John 14:11
“Believe me when I say that
I am in the Father and the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe
on the evidence of the miracles themselves.”
Hebrew 1:1-3
“In the past God spoke to our forefather through the
prophets at many times and in various ways but in these days he has spoken to
us by His Son, whom he appointed heir of all things and through whom he made
the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact
representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After
he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the
Majesty in Heaven.”
Christ, The
Only Way To The Father
Christ is the only way to
the Father. There is no other. In the story of the Samaritan woman in John
4:19-30, we see how her relationship with Jesus changed according to her
understanding of who Jesus is. She first knew Him as a prophet and therefore
acted to relationship with him as a prophet (John 4:19) but as she found out
that He was the Messiah – the way to the Father, she related to Him as to the
Messiah and began to testify of Him (John 4:39).
When we know who Jesus is,
we can worship God meaningfully. We have been set free through Jesus and can
say, “I worship you, Mighty God; I worship you, God of miracles; God of love.
You are Jehovah Jireh, my provider!”
Church, we need to improve
our knowledge of God so that we can develop the quality of worship. God made us
a worshipper, we must worship the true and living God.
Let us render to Him our highest praise!
No. 17, July – September 1992