Afraid to Worship

A friend of mine and I have been regularly listening to sermons from Fellowship Memphis via the extremely convenient app.

[A quick side note: I was listening to one of these sermons while building my back fence in the snow this weekend. I think the sermon was downloading and stopped for a while when I was too far from the wifi connection of my house. Several minutes went by with nothing, and I forgot I even had the earbuds in. Then, as I was putting up one of the last slats, somebody started talking to me. Startled, I looked around, through the fence, behind me. I ducked and look up, there was no one! Oh yeah, it's Brian Loritz. He is talking to me on the sermon. Right.]

This week I was challenged to think about Courageous Discipleship. One of the main points here is the relationship between fear and worship. I know that I have often been told that there is connection between fear and worship. Pastors will say that when the Bible says "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" they tell me it means something like reverence or respect. The same way you fear your Father.

I'm sure that's true, but I heard it in a little bit different way this time around. What I heard was, "You worship what you fear." It struck me, because I can see how it's true. I can see how our respect is given to those things which we consider powerful. I suggest this revision, though, "Your fears reveal what you worship."

Take the fear of the dark. The fear of the dark happens because you are unsure of what will happen to you. It reveals that you value, that you worship, your own life. You are afraid to die or to be injured. It's a perfectly natural fear - but Jesus has even conquered this idol for us. He has conquered death.

Or take a concern or worry about what others think of you. It may be that you worship them, or at least their opinion of you. Your fears about what they may say indicate that you respect their opinion. You worship their words over the words that proceed from the very mouth of God.

Or take my fear. My fear that I will not succeed in the roles in which I operate. This betrays that I value success. I value winning. I also value and worship my own abilities and am afraid to let God come in, use His strength and show Himself off to be great.

May we be afraid of the Lord. May we fear the Lord, and allow that to lead us to worship Him. What will He think? What will He do if I do this? What will He say of me?