Join us for week two of Fill The Earth! We're looking into how worship fuels our mission to fill the earth with God's image and how idolatry damages that image.
Worship Fuels Mission
Speakers
Sarah Blount
Lead Pastor
Worship
Notes
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1- Eden was the very first temple.
2- Adam & Eve were the first priests.
3- God created humanity in his image.
Genesis 1:26-28
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
God FORMS and then FILLS.
Like soldiers on the field, Christians must know their commander’s intent. In order to fulfill our commander’s intent in the changing and challenging situations of our lives, we must take time to form a compelling biblical picture of it.
G.K. Beale
Our commander’s intent is that the whole earth be filled with His presence.
I am content to fill a little space if God be glorified.
Susanna Wesley
Hebrews 10:19
Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places (holiest place, sanctuary, holy of holies) by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh,
Worship Fuels Mission.
Worship is the goal and the fuel of missions: Missions exists because worship doesn’t. Missions is our way of saying: the joy of knowing Christ is not a private, or tribal, or national or ethnic privilege. It is for all. And that’s why we go. Because we have tasted the joy of worshiping Jesus, and we want all the families of the earth included.
John Piper
Psalm 22:27
All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you.
Seeking the worship of the nations is fueled by the joy of our own worship. You can’t commend what you don’t cherish. You can’t proclaim what you don’t prize. Worship is the fuel and the goal of missions.
John Piper
Worshipers bear and reflect the image of God.
Romans 8:29
For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
eikón
IMAGE = ICON.
Metaphorically- we are meant to be a small picture file in the terabytes of God’s glory in creation. God has created us as icons of his powerful presence. Icons don’t point to themselves, but icons usher in a far greater reality. Similarly, we represent God so that our presence ushers in the presence of the Almighty God wherever we go.
G.K. Beale
We can only carry out our part in the mission to fill the earth with God’s presence if we recognize our identity as icons of God in his graphically interfaced amazing world.
Psalm 105:4
Look to the LORD and his strength; seek his face always
Psalm 105:4
Seek the LORD and his strength; seek his presence continually!
Worshiping God transforms us increasingly to reflect and represent God’s presence as his image and icons in this world.
2 Corinthians 3:18
And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
We reflect what we worship.
When human beings give their heartfelt allegiance to and worship that which is not God, they progressively cease to reflect the image of God. One of the primary laws of human life is that you become like what you worship; what’s more, you reflect what you worship not only to the object itself but also outward to the world around. Those who worship money increasingly define themselves in terms of it and increasingly treat other people as creditors, debtors, partners, or customers rather than as human beings. Those who worship sex define themselves in terms of it (their preferences, their practices, their past histories) and increasingly treat other people as actual or potential sex objects. Those who worship power define themselves in terms of it and treat other people as either collaborators, competitors, or pawns. These and many other forms of idolatry combine in a thousand ways, all of them damaging to the image-bearing quality of the people concerned and of those whose lives they touch.
N.T. Wright
An idol is anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give.
Tim Keller
A counterfeit god is anything so central and essential to your life that, should you lose it, your life would feel hardly worth living.
Tim Keller
Idolatry not only affects the sinner but also the community.
Called to responsibility and authority within and over the creation, humans have turned their vocation upside down, giving worship and allegiance to forces and powers within creation itself. The name for this is idolatry.
N.T. Wright
Sin = Missing The Target
When we WORSHIP anything OTHER THAN GOD, we are declining the divine commission to reflect God’s image.
When we worship and serve forces within the creation (the creation for which we were supposed to be responsible!), we hand over our power to other forces only too happy to usurp our position. We humans have thus, by abrogating our own vocation, handed our power and authority to nondivine and nonhuman forces, which have then run rampant, spoiling human lives, ravaging the beautiful creation, and doing their best to turn God’s world into a hell…
N.T. Wright
Isaiah 44:9-20
Colossians 2:15
And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he (God) made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
Idol worship damages the image-bearing quality of humanity, but worship of the one true God restores it.