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Before we begin today's episode of Renewing youg Mind, we invite you to stay with us through the end of the program to hear how you can request today's featured teaching series from Ligonier Ministries.
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David's having an experience that I think many of us have had at some time or another. He is standing outside, most likely on a starry night, and the sky is clear, and there are stars populating all, all the heavens. And beyond that, there are more and more galaxies and more and more stars. And you just begin to take in the expansiveness of it and you feel so incredibly small. And then you have this thought. As a Christian, there is one beyond the stars that has hung them all in their place. And he must be greater still and more magnificent still, and more beautiful still. And how great must he be?
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Indeed, how great God must be? Encountering the wonder of creation as David did can help us see why our highest calling is to know our Creator and delight in worshipping Him. This is the Saturday edition of Renewing youg Mind, and I'm glad you've joined us. Like David, the prophet Isaiah tells us that the whole earth is full of God's glory. And as part of creation, we too reflect the glory of God. But how do we do that? Today we're joined by Reverend Jason Holopoulos in his series Created for Worship. He'll help us explore more deeply who we are as human beings, why we've been created, and how our creation points back to the glory of Almighty God. Here's Reverend Holopoulos.
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It's a delight to be with you. I've been looking forward to this, where we can spend some time together. And my hope is, is that we all fall more in love with our Savior as a result of this, that we see the beauty and the gift of worship and everything that our God has given to us in the midst of that. So, hoping that's true for you. I'm hoping that is true for me as we do this little study together here over these next sessions, what I want to do. To begin with, it seems like if we're going to talk about worship, first thing we should do is we should open up the Scriptures together. So I want to open up with you Psalm 8. And this is a wonderful psalm by David. David, of course, writing most of the Psalms. And I just want to read it through with you. It's a short psalm, so let's read through it. And then we're going to. Going to use this to kind of talk about worship. O Lord, our Lord how majestic is your name and all the earth. You've set your glory above the heavens, out of the mouth of babies and infants. You have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger. When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you've set in place, what is man, that you are mindful of him, and the Son of Man, that you care for him. Yet you have made him a little lower than the angels, than the heavenly beings, and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands. You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea. Whatever passes along the paths of the sea, O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. David's having an experience that I think many of us have had at some time or another. He is standing outside, most likely on a starry night, and the sky is clear, and there are stars populating all the heavens as he is looking and as he's looking and looking at these stars. And you've probably done this as a Christian at some point where you're looking out at that night sky and you start looking at all of these stars, especially when you're out in the country and it's just black, there are more than you can count with the naked eye. And you start thinking about the expanse of the heavens and how glorious it is and how beautiful it is. And then your mind begins to go beyond that, doesn't it? You think, ah, not only are all these stars that I can't even count, that I can see, but I know that those stars that as they're sending light, that is, light that existed a thousand years ago or tens of thousands of years ago. We talk about it being the speed of light as it travels to us. That's what that star looked like all of those years ago. And beyond that, there are more and more galaxies and more and more stars. And you just begin to take in the expansiveness of it, and you feel so incredibly small. And then you have this thought, as a Christian is, there is one beyond the stars that has hung them all in their place. And he is. Must be greater still and more magnificent still, and more beautiful still. And how great must he be? And then you return to yourself again and you think how small you are. And yet, as David says here, he says, what is man? That you are mindful of him. Have you had that Thought where you think, God is this great. This is astounding. And he's mindful of man. And then you begin to think, he's mindful of me. He's mindful of me. Now, why would that be? Why is it that he is mindful of men? That he's mindful of you, that he's mindful of me. So think about God. Maybe one of the easiest ways to think about this is how does God reveal himself to you and I? He primarily reveals himself to you and I by his works and by his names. If you think about the great name that God has given to us of himself, and that moment where Moses is before God and God has called him to go down and deliver his people out of Egypt, you're going to be my redeemer, to bring my people out of bondage, out of slavery, to bring them out of Egypt. And Moses, trembling a little bit as he's thinking about this, he says, well, who do I tell them has sent me? When they say, who sent you? What God is this that sent you? Who do I tell them sent me? Remember God's response to Moses? It is that name that is unlike any other name. He just says, I am who I am. It's the name of Yahweh. Also say Jehovah, but as I am who I am. And what is it that he is communicating when he says, I am who I am? It is that he just exists. He is. He just is. He never has been becoming. He's never moving from one thing to another. There was never a time that he didn't exist. He just is. He has always been and he always is, and he always shall be. He just is. He exists. Now, that's not true of anything else. There's nothing else that we can say that about. Whether that is animate objects like you and I, or whether that's like a grasshopper, or whether that's an owl, or whether that's a dolphin, or whether that's a tree, or inanimate objects like rocks and stars and this podium, God alone just exists. Everything else came to be. He just is. The second thing you'll note about that name, where he says, I am who I am, he doesn't. He doesn't use a name of comparison like to other gods. He just is God. He is who he is. He's not a composite being. He's not made up of things. He's just simple. He is very God of very God. He's just God. Now, what does that tell us of God as You and I think of that. What does that tell us about Him? It's this. He needed nothing, as he needs nothing. So you often hear people say, well, why is God mindful of men? Why is it that he cares about men? Why is it that he's mindful of me? It's because he. He needed people. He needs you in some degree. He needed people who often say he needed something to love and so he created man. He didn't need something to love. This is one of the reasons it is so important that we confess and we believe and we teach that God is triune. He didn't need something to love. The Father has always loved the Son, and the Father has always loved the Spirit, and the Son has always loved the Father and always loved the Spirit, and the Spirit has always loved the Father and always loved the Son. He didn't need an object to love. He is simple. He needs nothing. He is, as theologians will say, a say he eternally exists in and of himself. He is completely and wholly and happily content with himself. He is. So why is he mindful of man? Why does he care about man then? Why does he care about you? Me? Think back to Genesis 1 and 2, if you will, with me. When God creates man, he has already created the stars. He has already created all of the beasts of the field. He has already created all the fish of the sea. And then he says there in Genesis 1 and 2, he says, let us, he says, make man in our own image, right? And he takes the dust of the ground and he forms and he shapes Adam out of the dust of the ground. Let us make man in our image. And then you remember what he does with Adam is that he leads before Adam all of these animals. It's a wonderful scene to think about. All of these animals coming by and God leads them by, he says, so that Adam might name them. So here comes that one with a long nose. And Adam says, I think I'll call that one an elephant. And here comes a long necked one. And I think I'll call that one a giraffe. And on they go by. Now why does he do that? He does it for a couple of reasons. One is to show that Adam has dominion over all of these things, right? But the other, I think is what comes after as he leads this parade of animals by Adam in the garden. So that Adam is looking at all of these things. There is that one with the long nose. There is that long necked one. There is this one that goes fast. Here's that one that Roars so incredibly loud. And what goes through his mind is none of these completely complements me. So that when God puts Adam to sleep and then he takes that rib from the side of Adam and he forms woman from his side, that when Adam sees Eve and he says, bone on my bone, flesh of my flesh, she recognizes that you know what? I have need of her help. Now what does he need her help for? We could say a lot of things, but one surely is the mandate that God gives to Adam and Eve. When he puts them together, he says, be fruitful and multiply. Be fruitful and multiply. Now what does it mean for them to be fruitful and multiply? Are they to go through the world like Johnny Appleseed and sow seeds all over the place and see apple trees grow? No, they are to be fruitful and multiply in that they are to reproduce images of God. They are to fill the earth with little images of God. Let us make man in or own image. Why is it that God is mindful of man? It is because man occupies that center place, that high point in all of creation where he alone and she alone are created in the image of God. And he and she are to multiply and fill the earth with all of these images of God.
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Why?
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So that when God looks upon his creation, he sees Himself reflected back to Himself. It's for his glory, it's for his praise. So that when he sees you acting in love, he sees his love reflected back to Him. When he sees you acting just, he sees his justice reflected back to Him. When you are walking in holiness, he sees his holiness reflected back to him. Reading Jonathan Edwards for the first time, where he wrote that wonderful treatise the End, for which God created the world, where he is making this very argument and it changed everything for me, everything exists for his glory. I exist for his glory. You say, well, that seems awfully self centered. That seems awfully egocentric. If I walked into this room here today and I said, I want all of you to revolve your lives around me. I want you all to sing my praise when I walk through the door and sing my praise when you're in the room with me and sing my praise when I walk out, you would say, this guy has a complex. Even if I said of my children, you exist to revolve around my life, you'd say, this guy needs to be committed. He's got a problem. And why is that? Because I'm undeserving. It would be inordinate. But with God there is nothing more beautiful There is nothing more true. There is nothing that is greater. So it is not inordinate for all things to revolve around him, for all things to exist for his glory and praise. For you and I as those created in his image, to give him glory and praise with all of our lives. It's not inordinate. It's just right. It's deserved. It's supposed to be. David in Psalm 29 will have this idea where he says this. In Psalm 29, 1:2 says, Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings. Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name. So what's David doing there? Well, he's recognizing that the angels themselves were created for this reason. Look, why is it that they are? To ascribe glory to God. Angels, you were created to give glory to God. But it's even more than that, I think. I think David's recognizing that. Look, I was formed and I was created to give glory to God, but my voice is insufficient. It's not enough. So he's calling upon the angels to join him in ascribing glory and praise to God. Ascribe him the glory that is due his name. It's a call for unceasing praise because you can't ever give him the glory that is due his name. It is a call that will echo through all of eternity. And you and I, as Christians, we will join our voices with the angels and the archangels and the cherubim and the seraphim and the living creatures and. And all the saints that have preceded us and all the saints that will come after us. Lord willing, all of us will be joining our voices together before his throne, day after day, for all of eternity, ascribing him the glory that is due his name. Because we can't ever do, will be unending all things for his glory and praise. You and I were created. You and I were given breath so he might receive glory. You were given breath that he might receive glory. It's true of everyone. It saddens me, I think watching television or reading articles or meeting people and they're constantly searching for significance. Just a reason for living. Just why is it that I'm still here as you sit with older people who bodies are wasting away? I was with a man yesterday. 92 years old, body just failing in every way. Why am I still here? Or that teenager that is struggling with all the things they're struggling with in their world, with peers and influences and pressures and why am I here, you think as your children, as they're small and they're growing up, what is it that we teach them? Why is it that you exist? Every single person exists for this reason. To give him praise and glory. We were created. Created to be worshipers, created to give him praise, created to reflect back to him who he is. And we will do that for all of eternity. A number of years ago, I was in China. We went to the Great Wall. You have to go to the Great Wall at some point if you go to China. And it's astounding. It just is astounding. You go out into the country, and as you get out there, you just begin to see it on the horizon, and it just snakes all over the mountains and over the hills, and it goes as far as your eye can see. I was there with my wife and two children. My two children are adopted from Taiwan and Chinese. And so this was our cultural trip. And we were there at the Great Wall. And I was astounded by just thinking of this architectural feat, thinking of how much labor went into this and how many lives were cost doing this. And this thing that you can see further than your eyes can see, just keeps going and going and going. And I had my interpreter next to me, our guide. And I was looking on the mountainside there. There was in Chinese characters, clearly a message for everybody that was standing on this portion of the Great Wall. And I remember thinking, they clearly want us to read that and understand that as we're standing on the Great Wall. And so I asked him, I said to this interpreter, I said, what is it that that says? And he says, well, it says, remember to honor Chairman Mao. Now, isn't that fascinating? Something that was built hundreds of years before Chairman Mao even existed. And by the time I'm at the Great Wall, he's been dead for 50 years. And yet what they are saying is, look at this great feat. Look at this thing that has been done, that is larger than you are, that makes you feel so incredibly small. And where do they want you to direct your. To Chairman Mao. Remember to honor him in light of what you see. And it has no connection what you and I see every day in the heavens, in our world, what we see in one another. It is meant to lead you and I to give honor and glory to the one who created all things. All things. You were given breath that you might give him glory. It's the purpose of your creation and mine.
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What a glorious truth. We have been created for worship. You've been listening to the Saturday edition of Renewing youg Mind. And if you'd like to explore the subject of worship further, you can receive the entire series by Jason Holopoulos on DVD, along with Lifetime digital Access and a digital study guide when you give a donation at 800-435-4343 or online at renewingyourmind.org well, next Saturday, Reverend Holopoulos will continue this exploration of our role as worshipers. Together, we'll hear how we're recreated in Christ to worship our loving God. Here's a preview.
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When you encounter Christ, it changes every bit of your life. It doesn't just become a duty to glorify him. It becomes your delight. It's what stirs you. It's what shapes your mind and shapes your heart. It's what shapes your affections. It's what shapes your actions, your living. It shapes everything. Westminster Catechism, of course, is getting at that famous first question answer what is the chief end of man? Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.
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I hope you'll join us next week here on Renewing youg.
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Sam.