Worship with our Hands // How to Get Over Yourself and Live a Life That Counts, Part 10

A Different Perspective Official Podcast

There is one sure fire way of dealing with pride - and that is worshipping God, not just worshipping him with our lips but worshipping him with our lives, worshipping him with our hands.

Yesterday on the program we talked about what was, I guess, part one of a sure fire method for overcoming pride and selfishness and arrogance. And it was simply this, worshipping God. Now it sounds weird I know but here's the thing, worship is the most selfless act that there is. When you and I worship God we're putting Him above ourselves, above everything. And as we saw there are two forms of worship. What we do with our hearts and what we do with our hands. Yesterday we looked at worshipping God with our hearts.

The adoration, the singing of songs at Church, the worship and joy of knowing and believing that God is God, that Jesus is His Son, that He died for us on that cross, you and me, that He rose again to give us a new life. Man, I can't help but sing in my heart when I think about that. But worshipping God in our hearts isn't enough. What's going on, on the inside ultimately has to work it's way out to what we do and what we live on the outside from our hearts to our hands. From what we believe and feel and know to what we say and do when we go. And it's that second part of what we do that we're going to look at and unpack today in this, the last of our programs in this series that I've called, ‘How To Get Over Yourself And Live A Life That Counts’.

I know you've probably heard me say this a few times over the last couple of weeks if you've been with us but the biggest thing that God ever saved me from was me. My selfishness, my own tendency to put myself at the centre of the universe and expect everything to revolve around me. Expect everyone to dance to my tune and meet my desires and see things my way.

Living like that is just downright awful because it's about disappointment after disappointment. Pride, arrogance, touchiness. A lot of people are so touchy, so sensitive, so wrapped up in their own emotions. However this works out in our lives when we put ourselves at the centre of the universe and expect everyone else to pander to us.

Well, there's only one outcome. It's all going to come crashing down because there are 6.75 billion people alive on this planet. And we can't all be at the centre of the universe. Shocking as that may appear, I can't be and you can't be.

And the thing with worshipping God is that we're worshipping the creator of the universe. That's what we're made to do. I simply can't put into words how worshipping Him instead of me has utterly transformed my life.

You know what happened when I decided to put God first in my life? That was a huge decision for me. Given that I used to be my own little god in my own little world. And now I had to give some of these things up to worship God, the God of the universe, you know what happened?

All of a sudden a thousand minor ailments disappeared overnight. There were a few bigger ones that have taken a lot longer but all my grumbling and complaining, it's not that somehow I was clever and overcame these things, it's just that when I had the joy of the Lord alive in my heart, I didn't need to grumble, I didn't need to complain anymore. They just didn't make sense anymore.

Yesterday we looked at what God has to say about worship and how that impacts in our lives. The first two out of the Ten Commandments actually say this. Exodus chapter 20, beginning at verse 2. The first Commandment is:

I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.

And the second Commandment is:

You shall not make for yourself an idol whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above or that is on the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them and worship them for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God.

And we saw that this word 'worship' literally means to serve, to toil, to labour. And when you and I worship our status or our career or our position or our wealth or our house or our car or our clothes, what we're doing is we're bowing down to them through our toil and through our labour.

There are people who work incredibly long hours to pay for an outrageous mortgage on a house that has rooms that (A) they can't afford to furnish and (B) they wouldn't even go into even if they could afford to furnish them.

There are people who sacrifice their marriages and their family life for a high flying career. There are young women who spend all their income on buying a pair of sunglasses or a skimpy dress or a pair of shoes for outrageous sums of money even though each of those items was produced for almost nothing by virtual slave labour in the developing world.

Do you see what I'm saying? It's what we do, what we work for, what we sacrifice for that actually shows us what we're worshipping. And self and reputation and material things, together they're a cocktail that becomes a harsh task master.

That's why Jesus said to us, Matthew chapter 11, verses 28 to 30, He said:

Come to me all you who are weary and carrying heavy burdens for I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me because I'm gentle, I'm humble in heart and you'll find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

This is exactly what He was talking about. We're out there thinking we're living a great life but actually, as we labour for all these impostors, we're under a yoke of slavery and that's why people are exhausted. That's why people have had enough. That's why they wake up some mornings and wonder, 'man, why am I doing this?" That's why.

King Solomon, one of the wisest and wealthiest men in the Bible, in his later years, became carried away with his wealth and at the end of it listen to what he says. Ecclesiastes chapter 2, verse 11:

Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had spent in doing it and again all was vanity and a chasing after the wind and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.

I don't know about you, I don't want to live like that. And in fact, I don't live like that. I used to live like that and I came to exactly the same conclusion as Solomon.

For me there are two parts to getting over myself. Firstly, worshipping God in my heart but then getting on and worshipping Him with who I am and what I do. Using the resources, the abilities that He's placed in my hands because all good things come from Him, taking those things and using them for Him for His glory, for other people, for you.

Can I tell you? That's been hard work and there have been sacrifices and there have been set backs and there have been disappointments along the way and no doubt there are going to be more. But I have never, ever been so content, so fulfilled in my life as I am now. Never.

As we saw yesterday, the most important thing according to Jesus is to:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind and your neighbour as yourself.

In other words, let the complete love that you have for God flow out into what you do for your neighbour. You know how much you used to love yourself and serve yourself? Jesus is saying, "That's how I want you to love and serve your neighbour. Love them as much as that. Serve them as much as that."

Let that flow out of your heart which you've completely given over to me and then and only then will you have gotten over yourself and you'll be living a life that really, really, really counts. I mean really counts. And let me tell you, it just doesn't get any better than that. It just doesn't.