WORSHIP is not a religious word

Tonight we’re starting a new series on worship. What on earth does that mean?

While it is not spoken about often, worship is certainly the most basic human action. We use the word “worship” all the time when we talk about religion, but we never use it when we’re buying clothes or going to a concert. Even though we don’t think about worship all the time, the truth is we are constantly worshiping. We are, as Harold Best puts it, “continuous outpourers,” we are constantly giving ourselves and sacrificing to something larger than us.

Have you ever been to a professional football game? Have you seen a grown man paint his body blue and white to cheer on the Colts? Why is that man doing that? He is fulfilling his basic human need to give himself to something bigger, greater, and more awesome.

But what if there was something better than football? Better than clothes and iPods and sex? You see, worship is not a religious thing, worship is a human thing. The question is not am I worshipping? The question is, what am I worshipping? We may not physically bow down to clothing or technology or whatever, but we certainly give our hearts to so many different things. For the next four weeks we’re going to look at this idea of worship. What is worship? What is worth worshipping? And how do I worship? Is music the only way to worship God? Ultimately, if we humans are worshippers at our core, the most important thing we need to find out is: whom should we be worshipping?