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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. Today on Renewing youg Mind.
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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.
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We worship what we love. That's true not just for Christians, but for everyone. We welcome you to this Saturday edition of Renewing youg Mind. I'm glad you're with us today. Although human beings were created to worship God, our sin has caused us to love and therefore worship the wrong things. What's the solution to this problem? Today we continue our study of worship with Reverend Jason Holopoulos. He'll help us consider how our hearts are recreated in Christ so that he becomes our deepest love.
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In our first lesson, we looked at the fact that we were created by God to be worshipers. And we saw that in Genesis 1 and 2. We saw the call upon our lives to be that. You will know, though, that there is a chapter that comes after Genesis 1 and 2, and that is Genesis 3. And though we were created to be worshipers, there is a mess that enters into our created world as a result of Genesis 3. Think about Adam and Eve being created to populate the earth with images of God. They have been given this great mandate by God. They have enjoyed fellowship with God. They are walking with him in the cool of the evening. They are enjoying his presence, communion with him. And then we have that fateful day in Genesis 3 where the serpent comes to Eve and he begins to tempt Eve. And he tempts Eve with questioning. What we talked about in the last lesson, whether God is actually simple. Now let's think through this together. When he comes to Eve and he tempts her, he's saying maybe it is that God is trying to keep something from you is in essence his accusations. That though he has said that this is for your good, that he actually is deceiving Adam and Eve and he's keeping some kind of good from Adam and Eve. As if God is not a simple being, as if he can have two distinct wills, as if he can have this will that he has revealed to Adam and Eve. And he has a secret will that is is Untrue. And that contradicts that first will, as if he is divided in this person. And so the serpent is getting Eve to question whether God is actually good, to question his goodness. As John says that in God, God is light, and in him there is no darkness. So we could say that to be true of every single one of his attributes. He is wise, in him is no foolishness, he is good. In him is no evil, he is kind, and in him is no crassness. We could go on, but here it's questioning, you know what? Maybe God isn't completely good, and maybe it is that he's keeping some measure of goodness from you. But you see, God doesn't keep goodness because He Himself is good. He is good, and in him is no evil. He is simple. There's no complexity here, no composite. Here he is what he is. I think in the midst of that, Eve buys into this lie and she gives in to the temptation in the garden. And because of that, what happens is, as the Westminster Shore Catechism says, in him and with Him. In that first transgression, all mankind fell. It is all those that are descended from Adam by ordinary generation. That is, all of us that have been born into this world. Every single one of us, apart from one, fell in him and with him in that first transgression. And so every single one of us born into this world is now born into this world as a fallen being. We have fallen minds. We have fallen hearts. We have fallen emotions and affections. We have fallen spirits and fallen souls. We are in complete and utter rebellion against our God. As R.C. sproul used to say, we are committers of cosmic rebellion. We're seeking to kick him off of his throne. As John Calvin would say, you and I, we are consistently and constantly as fallen beings. Our hearts are an idol factory, just continually shaping and molding idols of our own making that we will worship and that we will center our lives upon, that we will direct our minds to and our affections towards. This is true of every single person born into this world. But here's what's fascinating to me about Genesis 3 is here you have Adam and Eve, the very center of creation, the very high point of creation, the very object of God's special and direct love. They are the bearers of his image. And they have been given this duty beyond anything else in all of the created order to fill the earth with his images. And they have committed cosmic rebellion against him. And in the midst of it, when he comes into their midst, and you'll Notice there's fragmentation already when he comes into the garden. After they committed this sin, they're hiding from him. Their relationship's been disrupted, they're hiding from one another. It's separated Adam and Eve from each other. And in the midst of when God is cursing them for their disobedience, where he's cursing Adam and he's cursing Eve and he's cursing the serpent, in the midst of that, we have Genesis 3:15, what theologians call the proto evangelion, the first gospel. In the midst of cursing those that have raised their fist in cosmic rebellion against him, he shows his kindness and grace. It's astounding that there would be one born of this woman that would crush the head of the serpent. It's a promise. He created us to be worshippers because of the foal. We don't worship him as we were created to be. And so what does he do? He makes a promise that a savior would come into the world and he would crush this adversary and ultimately he would redeem us. When we look at creation created to be worshippers, the reality is that you and I as Christians, are recreated to be worshipers. That's why we're recreated, good reformed people. You know Ephesians 1. I want you to hear Ephesians 1. You know Ephesians 1 because of predestination. But think about Ephesians 1 here, where he is detailing that verse 4, predestination. I want you to hear this. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love. He predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ. Now listen to this. According to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. And just in case you didn't understand, he echoes it again in verse 12. In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will. Why? So that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to to the praise of his glory. Why were you redeemed? Why were you saved to the praise of his glory? Why were you recreated? For the same reason you were created to the praise of his glory, that you might be a worshiper. Paul will do this. Romans 1:11. Right. He is detailing the intricacies of the Gospel and the good news of Christ. He is leading us through it, the bad news and the good news. And then what does he do when he gets to chapter 12? Now he's going to apply it. What does this mean for you and how does he begin? I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to Him. Your life is now to be a living sacrifice to Him. Him, you and I are recreated to be living, breathing, walking worshippers of God. All of life is to be an act of worship. That's what it was supposed to be in the garden. Created that way because of the fall, we lose it, and then you're recreated that way. As a Christian, Paul will go so far in 1 Corinthians to say, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, what does that exclude Paul? Nothing. Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, you do to the glory of God. He says, created for worship, recreated for worship. It's interesting, isn't it, that when Jesus sends the disciples out in what we have rightfully called the Great Commission, he says that they are to go and to make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. Lo, I'm with you always, even to the very end of the age. What's interesting isn't that it's an echo of that mandate in the garden, be fruitful, multiply. What are you to do? You're to fill the earth with all of these images of God so that when God looks upon creation that he sees his glory reflected back to himself. What is happening in the Great Commission? We are being sent out to make disciples so that where that image has been marred and in some ways it's been obliterated, it's restored so that when God looks upon his creation, he receives glory to his praise. That's why John Piper famously said in a wonderful book on missions, let the nations be glad. He will say, missions exist because worship doesn't. It's exactly right. We're sent into the world to make disciples so that people are recreated to be God glorifiers and God worshipers. It is our duty to worship God. What does it mean to worship God? Well, both in the Old and New Testament, the words that are used for worship, they have the idea of bending down and kissing the bottom of the cloak of someone's garment, where you're giving them honor, you're giving them Their due worship. I think maybe is best to define as our response to what we value the most. It's what you and I have set our minds upon, our hearts, upon what stirs our affections beyond anything else. What is that? For the Christian, it is to be God. We are God worshipers. He is our deepest desire. It's our duty. God himself is passionate for his own glory. He says this in Isaiah 48. For my name's sake, I defer my anger. For the sake of my praise, I restrain it for you, that I may not cut you off. Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver. I have tried you in the furnace of affliction for my own sake. For my own sake I do it for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another. God is jealous for his own glory. He's jealous for it. And the Christian is to be jealous for his glory. It's our duty. It's what we were recreated for. But it's not just our duty, it's our delight. My daughter is a wonderful young lady. She is 16 now, but when she was maybe 7 or 8 years old, she was wowed by astronomy. She loved to read. She always loves to read. She always has something that she is diving into and learning and teaching me about. And at that time it was all about astronomy. And she had heard that there was going to be a blood moon in Michigan like Michigan hadn't experienced for, I don't remember how long, a decade or something. She was so excited. She was doing all kinds of research about it, looking it up, was writing all kinds of notes about it. And for weeks we planned this night. This blood moon was going to be what we were going to do that night. And we had laid out the night before her binoculars. It was going to be a cold morning, so we had laid out all the right clothes. She had a piece of notebook paper and colored pencils there so she could take them outside with her and draw it when she saw it. And we were ready and I was supposed to wake her up about 3 o' clock in the morning and take her out and look at this blood moon when it was at its height. I woke up excitedly that morning and raced upstairs to get her this thing we'd planned for weeks and weeks. And she jumped out of bed and ran downstairs and got all of her stuff and we went outside and we stood on the driveway and we looked up at this blood moon. And I took a glance at it, but then I was just watching her. She looked up and then she looked at me and she looked up and she looked at me and then she looked up and then she looked at me and she said, dad, this has not changed my life one bit. 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. You're living. It shapes everything. Westminster Catechism, of course, is getting at
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that,
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that famous first question answer, what is the chief end of man? Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. Isn't that fascinating how the Westminster divines picked this up, that these two things are together, that God's glory and our delight are together, that he could have required us giving him glory and not attached our delight to it. But that's not what he does. In his exceeding kindness, he says, look, I created you for this reason, and so you find your ultimate delight in glorifying me. There's delight in this. His glory are delight. You can't have delight, true delight apart from his glory. And you're only going to have delight as you give him glory. All of life becomes about this. And notice the Westminster divines, they say man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. It's forever. This is what's unique about the Christian. If we think about all of life being about worship and glorifying God, how is it that you get a mindset that does that? How is it that you think through that and allow that to shape you? I think one of the things has to be is that we just look at the world differently. We just look at it differently. There's an old word that I oh, it's falling on hard times. I'd like to bring it back, but it's that word pilgrim. I like that word pilgrim. Christian understands we're pilgrims, that this world isn't all that there is. We understand that we are going from here to there. Here's what's fascinating, is that we know that everyone in this world is a pilgrim. They just don't understand it. But the Christian must. I'm going from here to there. That changes my perspective on everything. That means that everything that I do here is aimed at there. Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven. I'm seeking Christ and his glory and seeking what I will enjoy for all of eternity. It's living all of life to the glory of God. Does that mean that you and I don't enjoy the things of this world? Absolutely not. He gave us taste buds for a reason. He gave us sunsets for a reason. We're to enjoy our families, we're to enjoy recreation. We're to enjoy rest. We're to enjoy a good steak. But it means I don't chiefly enjoy those things. Things. I chiefly enjoy him and all of my life being aligned to that enjoyment and that seeking. I'm going from here to there, where I will eternally dwell with him who is the lover of my soul. Had someone asked me recently, another pastor, he said, jason, if you could teach anything or form anything within the congregation that you serve, what would that be? I said, oh, that's easy. I don't even have to think about that. I just want them to see more the beauty of Christ. Because the more the beauty of Christ that you see, the more you long for it. And the more the beauty of Christ you see, the more you will long for heaven and see yourself as a pilgrim in this world. The more that you see and appreciate the beauty of Christ, the more you will long to hear his word because you want to hear from Christ. The more you will want to pray because you want to speak to Christ. The more you will want to sing praise because you want to adore Christ. The more you will want to love his people because they are the body of Christ. The more that you will want to live more for Christ in all of life because you want to become more like the one that you love, so that you're even more prepared to be with him in glory. The Christian is ever seeking a more clear and more full picture of the beauty of Christ. And so all of our life lived to his glory. Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do due to the glory of
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God,
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going from here to there, don't rest. I love Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan. You know where it's a time where a Christian will lay down and take a little rest and then that scroll will roll away. He forgot he was a pilgrim. Dem Paul will say, has abandoned me because he's fallen in love with the world. He forgot he was a pilgrim. We keep that always before us, and that makes living today actually worthwhile. That makes what I do today actually meaningful, because it's meaningful for all of eternity, what I do today. People say, ah, you're too heavenly minded to be in your earthly good. No, when you're heavenly minded, then you're actually earthly good because now today matters. Why? Because there is a forever tomorrow that matters. So what I do today matters for eternity. Pilgrim Mindset we are created for worship because of the Fall. God in his exceeding kindness has poured out grace upon us so that we can be recreated for worship and all of our life is to be lived in worship. Now, we're going to look at this in different ways over these next lessons, but this is the overarching, isn't it, for the Christian is that all of my life is to be a living sacrifice to him. I'm recreated for worship. So are you.
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What a wonderful truth to meditate on that. We are recreated for worship, and it's deeply encouraging to know that this recreation is not something we've done for ourselves. It's God's work and he has graciously remade us after the image of His Son to worship Him. This is the Saturday edition of Renewing youg Mind, and if you'd like to continue this study of worship with Reverend Jason Halopol, you can receive Lifetime digital access to the entire video teaching series, along with a DVD and a digital study guide. Request this offer with a donation when you call us at 800-435-4343. You can also make your request and give your gift online@renewingyourmind.org I hope you'll join us again next Saturday as we continue our study, of course, Christian worship here on Renewing youg Mind. J.