Worshipping Jesus in a Me Society

Our society is all about self. 

Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Vine and YouTube is all about promoting ourselves.  We want more followers, frequent re-tweets, lots of web hits and tons of friends to join the conversation.  Our thoughts and phrases and pictures are so important that we put everything out there for everyone to see.  We even created a new word about pictures of ourselves.  Selfies are all the rage.

We are all about ourselves.

We seek good self-images.  We want healthy self-esteem.  We're looking for self-worth.  We engage in self-promotion.  We talk about the need for self-respect.

Are you starting to notice a pattern here?

In all this self-glorification, we sometimes go too far.  Sometimes our desire to please us goes to the need for others to praise us.  We become self-important and self-conscious and we value our worth by what others say about us. We become more about pleasing people than pleasing God.

Make no mistake, though, God is a jealous God.  Going all the way back to Exodus, the Lord tells us to have no other gods before him.  We are not to give anything or anyone the worship God so richly deserves.  If we're not careful, we can worship ourselves.

Look at the story of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5.  They sought adulation so much they lied about what they were giving.  They wanted praise for their pious acts, so they acted "religious" for self-gain.  It didn't work out to well.

After falsely claiming to give all their money (despite keeping some for themselves), God executed judgment.  For lying to God, they both died three hours apart.  God takes worship seriously.

Do you?

In our society today, it's easy to get caught up in self.  What do I want?  What will please me?  What's best for me and my family?  What can I do to help my situation?

Shouldn't our questions be:  What does Jesus want?  What will please the Lord?  What best for the cause of Christ?  What can I do to make Jesus known?

Worship is all about God.  It's not about us.  In order to truly worship Jesus, we must first deny ourselves.  Only then will God get the glory and the worship he alone deserves.

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