The Real God

The Real God

Are you confused about anything in life right now? Are you seeking answers on something? Are you just flat out searching for some kind of meaning to the boring and stale existence you seem to be living out each week? If you answered no to all of these questions, can you tell me your secret? Please! I think most of us out there are searching, and the problem is we really don’t know what we are searching for. Christian and non-Christian alike, I think people know there is something more to life than what they see. I just don’t think most people know who He is. A quick glance through history shows us that we, as humans have always been searching for something to add meaning to our lives. As I have stated before I feel like God gave that desire to us from the beginning so we would be compelled to seek Him out and find Him. The problem is that we like to make things more complicated than they need to be. God said Here I am, come to me, and I’ll even give you the desire to do it. What did we do? All throughout history, we have decided to try to fill that desire with something else.

In the New Testament book of Acts, we find Paul making this case over and over again. The most incredible occasion, in my opinion, was when he went to Athens. Think of what you know about Athens in the first century. I know it is straining your brain to remember back to that high school world civ class, but stay with me. Who are some of the most famous Athenians you learned about in your history classes? Plato, Aristotle, Socrates. What did all three have in common? They were some of our world’s greatest and most famous philosophers. That means, they tried to figure out stuff. Like why are we here? Why am I insecure? And why do I want more? Now I know these men all lived and died before the 1^st century A.D., but we still know their thoughts and ideas today, and I’m sure the men Paul spoke with in Athens were very familiar with them as well. After all, Athens was still viewed as the center of intelligence in the ancient world. They were known for having many of the greatest and most intelligent minds in their city.

In this city full of the “most intelligent people in the world,” what did Paul find? In his own words, “a city full of idols.” In fact, he found a multitude of idols to gods of every name and description. If you are even mildly familiar with Greek Mythology you can probably name 3 or 4 of them. Many of us have heard stories about many more than that. Paul saw altars to each of them, and then he saw one that stopped him in his tracks, an altar to “an Unknown God.” It floored him, because the Athenians really had done something intelligent. They realized they could have been wrong. More specifically, they realized they could have missed something. And just in case they had, they did not want that god to be angry with them for not giving him the respect and worship he deserved. They were just trying to cover their bases, and make sure that all deities were happy in the case that there was something, or someone else. The altar “Unknown” stood among them just in case it turned out there was another object of worship superior to all the others that they already had. I told you they were smart. . . sort of.

What is also amazing is that when Paul went to Athens, he went straight to the common area of the city. If you don’t know this is where all the philosophers hung out during the day. They talked and bounced ideas off of each other, argued, got cocky and full of themselves, and figured “stuff” out. In other words, this is where all of the brightest minds in the most intelligent city in the known world would have been. These are men probably taught by the students of Plato and Aristotle. So Paul figures, why not dive into the deep end and go for broke. (Take a second to grasp how gusty that is. Remember where he is, and what kind of people he is about to confront with a completely brand new idea and philosophy.) Paul had to be prepared, because he knew he would meet resistance from the renowned scholars, and from many he did. Some of these men, however, were intrigued by Paul’s teachings and thoughts, so they invited him to come to the Areopagus and share his teachings there. The Areopagus is the governing body of the city, much like our congress, but maybe more like English parliament. In any case they made decisions for the city.

Paul shows up and get’s straight to the point. “Men of Athens, I see that you are religious in every respect. For passing through your objects of worship I also found an altar with this inscription ‘to an Unknown God.’ What you worship in ignorance, I now proclaim to you.” There wasn’t a lack of worship in Athens, these bright minds realized on their own that something else was out there, but they were unsure of what it was. They were not apathetic, in fact they were very devoted. They were just wondering if there was something more. Although the altars and idols of ancient Athens lie in ruins today, people everywhere are still searching, still building altars to everything under the sun. Wondering if there is a god they can know who will bring fulfillment. Maybe now we start to understand God’s word when it says “He placed eternity in our hearts.” Somehow we know He is there, all creation around us screams that there is more to life than living and dying-- painted skies, a perfectly rotating Earth in a perfectly spinning galaxy, the atom, all are pretty amazing, too amazing to be left to chance. But back to the story.

Standing before the men of Athens, Paul took a deep breath, and unfolded the mystery that his listeners had been searching for. He told them about “the God who made the world and all things in it.” Paul identified Him as ‘Lord of heaven and earth,” and said “this God gives to all people life and breath and all things.” In other words, Men of Athens, meet the God of gods. It turns out these intelligent guys were right all along. There was another God greater than all of their idols; more powerful than all the images inhabiting their altars. This God, as Paul proclaimed, is powerful enough to invent the whole world and everything it contains. He “does not dwell in temples made with hands, nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything” from us. So I guess God doesn’t live in that church building after all. Guess we might have to put an end to that threat we all got as a kid. You know the one that went something like: “SHHHHHhhhhhh. . . This is God’s house,” or “don’t use that language in God’s house,” or maybe “Settle Down! This is God’s house.” It is an effective threat to most kids. It strikes fear into them to think that God might actually live there. It is effective, but wrong. It does make for a nice image, though, doesn’t it? You know, God at the door after the service greeting everyone. “Thanks for coming, appreciate you being here, glad you made it, hope you enjoyed it, was everything ok? God Bless. Oh yeah, that’s me…ummm, I’ll bless. Come back to see me. Have a nice week!”

Is that God? Watching all the cars drive away, turning the church lights off, settling in for a long quiet week. Maybe He’ll play a little bit on the organ, or turn on the Xbox in the youth room. Maybe He might even have a huge ping pong Grudge match with Jesus while the Holy Spirit Judges. And then once again on Sunday morning He throws the doors open once a again and cries “Hey! Good to see you, come on in!” I don’t think so. God isn’t stuck in our church world. He might even care less about us running in the halls than we think! Why? Because He’s HUGE. Creator. Initiator of all things. Way too vast to be stuck in some building all week. Far too interested in our lives to watch us drive away from Him. Much more worthy of our time than just one hour a week.

Our all-sufficient God doesn’t need anything from us! He made the world and everything in it. Paul wanted the men of Athens to know He’s the constant supply of life, breath—Everything. And He wanted them to know that God is near.

Paul was describing a huge limitless God. God has “determined” for all humans “their appointed times (our lifetime) and the boundaries of their habitation (the details of our existence).” For what purpose? “That all men (people) would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him, and find Him. He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist.” No wonder our world is filled with worshippers. This is the searching soul God created us with. He made it so that we could find no rest until we find out rest in Him. The good news is God is searching us out, too. He is seeking us, because He wants us to know just how amazing He is. He’s seeking us so we can find Him and value Him with all our heart.

He’s seeking you because He is God. . . and He knows you can not live without Him!

That explains a ton of stuff for us. First off, it explains why we worship, and why we are so good at it. It is why, in fact, the entire world is worshipping (something) at this very moment. But most of all, it explains why Jesus willingly came. Jesus knew it was up to Him to bridge the gap, and connect us to God. The same God that created us, and desires to be with us. Jesus knew that He was the only way we could be connected to God. So God used Jesus as the way to allow us to fulfill all the desires He instilled in us from birth. In doing so, Jesus awakened us to the possibility of centering our worship on who, and what matters most. . . forever.

We are all worshippers

We are ALL worshippers. That is, we ALL worship……… something

“As I am writing, my flight home to Atlanta is climbing high above the Chicago night. Staring out across the horizon I am captivated by thousands of tiny lights dotting the landscape as far as I can see. Countless twinkling stars of earth, hundreds of thousands of beacon lights. It’s like a sea of little lights…all kinds of lights—streetlights, headlights, house lights, neon lights…all kinds of lights.

And I am thinking, everywhere I see lights, there are people. People everywhere. A sea of humanity. And every single person down there is someone created with amazing potential and purpose. All uniquely fashioned to reflect back to their Creator His beauty and wonder: each one breathing the air of earth in one accord. Each person given life to give Him praise. And that is only the view in one direction, looking out over just one city, in just one state, in just one nation, on one continent.

I’m floored as we jet through the darkened sky. I think of how this earth is home to Billions of worshippers, created to light the darkness with stories of who God is…with echoes of all He has done. But do they know it? Do you know it? Do you know in this moment that you were made by and for God?

While we soar over Chicago, our plane is just a tiny speck to anyone who might look up and see us, a little dot of light blinking its way through the night. Yet on board this flight are even more people. People everywhere. Across the aisle from me, a middle aged-woman is digging into a well-worn Bible. (No, I’m not making this up) She’s leaning forward as she reads, as if she knows this book holds some secret key. I’m thinking how the same God who is worthy of all the world’s worship is the author of the every pages in her hands. She’s holding His autobiography in her hands. There before her eyes is the extension of God’s hand. And she is devouring it in large chunks, miraculously forgoing another showing of “My Big Fat Greek Wedding.” It’s as if somehow within its pages she has discovered life’s very meaning. It seems we all are eventually captivated by the question of why. Why are we here? Is there a reason for our lives? Is there something we are uniquely destined to do?

It’s the age-old dilemma—what’s the purpose of life? The answer begins and ends with God. Simply put, you and I were made by Him, and made for Him. You and I exist for one purpose alone—to reflect back to God His matchless glory. You were made for a unique relationship with Him. And your life was designed to be a mirror that reflects all the best things about Him to the world around you. Finding our Maker and connecting with His purposes is the one thing we are all seeking.

Okay, to be fair, things have changed on board. Forty minutes have passed, and the woman across the aisle is now reading a David Baldacci novel sending occasional glances toward the movie monitor. Uh-oh the headphones are going on, I think she is being sucked into the movie. Apparently she’s seen My big Fat Greek Wedding a dozen times and is having no difficulty jumping right into the flow. It hasn’t been thirty seconds and she’s already laughing. (Not as loudly as the guy in front of me, mind you, who with headphones on is giving a loud blow-by-blow commentary of each scene to the guy trapped beside him.) I guess tonight we won’t see a miracle after all. The “little movie engine that could” wins again. The unstoppable force of a big fat Greek wedding rambles on. But she still gets major credit for her deep dive into the pages of God’s word. For she—just like the rest of us—is seeking God. And as far as I can tell, finding Him on a plane to Georgia.

(The guy next to me is sound asleep. The lady in front is talking in what sounds like a South African accent. The flight attendant buzzing around is tall and Romanian. A businessman behind me is wide awake and feverishly working.) And there are people all around you too. Today as you work out, sit at the lunch table, or study in the library, there are people everywhere.

All these people.

Do they know their lives have an amazing purpose?

Do they?”

-The Air I Breathe by Louie Giglio

You are a worhsipper. You are. Deal with it. Everywhere you go, everyday, all day long, it’s what you do. It’s who you are. I don’t know if you consider yourself a worshipping person or not, but you can’t help but worship…something.

Think of it this way, worship is simply about value. If I break it down into the simplest terms Worship is simply striving for and seeking out what we value the most. Worship is a thing we all do. We are all about it on any given day. I’m not just talking about the religious crowd. Not just the Christians and Churchgoers among us, I’m talking about every person on planet earth…a multitude of souls proclaiming with every breath what they feel is worthy of their affection, their attention, their devotion. Each step, each move, each action proclaims what they worship. Many people who would rarely set foot inside a church door would probably tell you worship isn’t a part of their lives, because they aren’t religious. But everybody has an altar. Everyone has a throne they kneel before.

If we look all throughout history, we can see the evidence of people worshipping. The timeline of mankind is littered with trillions of little idols. Every culture, every corner of the earth. Every time period has its set of gods that were worshipped. They may not have been gods in name, but they were treated that way by the people. Just circle the globe and see what cultures today are worshipping. Maybe it is alcohol, maybe it is technology, maybe it is football, maybe it is their country, but above all they are all seeking something to reach out for and hold onto. The really compelling question is “why?” What is it that makes us do this? Why do we have the innate desire to strive for something greater than ourselves? Why do we need something to believe in. Why are we so insatiably drawn from idol to idol, desperately in need of something to champion, something to exalt, something to adore? How do we know for sure that there are things out there that are more important than others? Things that deserve our worship. How do we even know that value, beauty, and worth exist?

As the Bible states, all things were created by Him and all things were created for Him. You were made by God, and if that was not enough, God made you specifically for Himself, because He values you. Because of that, you have a deep internal homing device that causes you to long for your Maker and pulls you toward Him. It’s like God placed this magnet inside of us, and it pulls us to Him. Hence, deep in our souls we realize that there is something we fit with, someone we belong to, somewhere that feels like home. God has created that in each of us since birth! Isn’t it amazing? The problem is that most people do not know what we are looking for, so they search for it all over the place. No one has told them about God, and His plans and designs, so they try to fulfill this desire He gave them with other things in life.

Worship does not have to have a single thing to do with God or anything spiritual, because worship is about saying this person, this thing, this experience, this WHATEVER, is what matters most to me. I put this first in my life. That thing might be a relationship, a dream, friends, social status, money, fame, stuff, a name, some kind of pleasure, anything. Whatever it is for you, whatever you call it, this thing or person is what you have concluded in you heart is worth the most to you. It is exactly what you worship. If worship shows us what we value most, we should pay attention to what we do. I’d bet we worship a lot of things more than we realize. Just look at your actions, and see what things are most important in your life right now. It’s easy to find out what we worship. You simply follow the trail of your time, affection, energy, money and loyalty. At the end of that trail you will find a throne; and whatever, or whomever, is on that throne is what is of highest value to you. On that throne is what you worship.

I’m sure not too many of us want to admit that we worship our Xbox, or our jobs, or certain pleasures of life, or him, or her, or our bodies, or just flat out ourselves. But I bet if we are honest we will realize that we worship these things infinitely more than we worship our Creator. The trail never lies. We may say that we value this thing or that thing more than anything else, but when we follow the trail, and see the volume of our actions, we will see what it is we actually value and direct our worship toward. In the end our worship is more about what we do than what we say. Worship is the activity of our soul, not the words that come out of our mouth.

So not only do all people worship, but they all worship all the time. Worship isn’t just a Sunday thing, it is an all the time thing. Right now there are people all around you. They come in all shapes and sizes, personalities, ages and purposes. And they are all worshipping, that is they are continually making decisions based on what is most important to them in their lives, what they value the most. Worship happens everywhere…all day long. Sadly, I think the purest and most passionate forms of worship occur outside of the church or worship service, and they have no reference whatsoever to the God of all Creation. All you have to do is go to the next big name concert at Freedom hall, or how about next years edition of the Louisville/Kentucky college basketball rivalry. Heck, in September the arguments generated by that one basketball game probably generate more passion in your school or office building than God has ever gotten on the Friday before Easter. But seriously, let’s take a look at these events. Many of you may not remember this, but in the 80’s Michael Jackson was THE event to see. He had an unbelievable following all over the world. Here is Louie Giglio’s reaction to a video he saw of Michael Jackson Concerts:

“Talk about worship! In Multiple cultures all over the world, mobs of people numbering in the hundred’s of thousands were glued as one to his every move. On every continent the gathered like an army, waving their hands in the air. Some fell to their knees. Others strained with outstretched hands, hoping for a brief touch from his. Seared in my mind is the image of one young girl with a look on her face of total awe. I couldn’t believe it. What I was watching was some of the most intense worship I had ever seen…anywhere. Far more “full-on” than much of what I’d experienced inside the church. And for what? Granted Michael Jackson is a living legend when it comes to entertainment, but he is not a great god. Nat even close. Yet the worship was phenomenal, demonstrating the God given capacity for adoration that is rooted in the soul of every man.”

Don’t you see it when your favorite band plays, or your favorite team plays? Maybe you are even guilty of it yourself. People naturally doing the thing it seems we were all created to do. Worship.

So take time today to do two things. First, analyze your life. Follow the trail and see what throne it leads you too. Figure out what you are worshipping the most. Second, pay attention to the people around you. Louie saw so many things on the airplane trip back to Atlanta. He noticed so many things about the people on that plane and how they chose to spend their time. What are the people around you worshipping? Where are they trying to find their home? Where are they seeking their happiness? What can you do to help them?