Don't Listen to the Depression

Editor's Note:  Thank you to Catherine Shu of the blog "Shu Flies," for her kind permission to use her writing in this post.  While I have encouraged the use and reprinting of my work on this blog as long as it is not used to make a profit for anyone.  (I believe the word of God should remain free.)  I would ask that you respect Catherine's copyright and not use or reprint her work without permission.  Thank you.

*****

According to suicide.org:

Untreated Depression is the Number One Cause of Suicide

www.suicide.org

I struggled with those feelings for a long time.  My parents came to visit me during my first semester of graduate school.  I started crying during lunch and apologized for being a horrible daughter.

My Dad said, “I know what that is.  That’s the depression talking.  It will say things like that, but you just can’t listen to it.”

I remember feeling surprised that I had the option not to listen.  My anxiety was almost a talisman.  If I fretted about doing poorly in school, I would succeed.  If I worried about something bad happening to the people I loved, I could somehow protect them.

          Catherine Shu, Shu Flies, Dealing With Depression and Living Abroad Part 2

It seems as if there is an epidemic of depression throughout the world today.  I talk to people all the time who complain about depression.  I think this passage from Shu Flies illustrates an interesting point about depression:

"My Dad said, 'I know what that is.  That’s the depression talking.  It will say things like that, but you just can’t listen to it.'”

I’ve lived through major depression.  I’m not talking about that feeling of having “the blues” or feeling kind of sad for a day or two.  I’m talking about the type of depression that demobilizes you: a spiral into hopelessness.  I can tell you, Ms. Shu’s father has it exactly right.  It does speak to you. 

It speaks to you about your worthlessness.  It tells you that you can never be happy.  It tells you that people can never care for you or love you.  It speaks. 

But as a Christian I’ve learned a bit about depression.  Depression is a spirit.  If depression can speak, then it’s a spirit.  Depression is spiritual.  It's a form of demonic influence.  There are others:  Schizophrenia, Paranoia, Bi-polar Disorder, and Depression, they all have the common symptom of hearing voices that speak to you. 

 Today I want to write about the root of depression.  I’ve studied this out.  I think the saddest thing in the world is a Christian; a follower of Jesus who struggles with depression and I want to deal with this from a Christian perspective.  There is a root to depression and I believe it can be overcome.

Matthew 18:21-35 (NKJV)
^18:21 Then Peter came to Him and said, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?" ²² Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven. ²³ Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. ²⁴ And when he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. ²⁵ But as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and that payment be made. ²⁶ The servant therefore fell down before him, saying, 'Master, have patience with me, and I will pay you all.' ²⁷ Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt. ²⁸ But that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii; and he laid hands on him and took him by the throat, saying, 'Pay me what you owe!' ²⁹ So his fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him, saying, 'Have patience with me, and I will pay you all.' ³⁰ And he would not, but went and threw him into prison till he should pay the debt. ³¹ So when his fellow servants saw what had been done, they were very grieved, and came and told their master all that had been done. ³² Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, 'You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. ³³ Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?' ³⁴ And his master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him. ³⁵ So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses."

Who Speaks

This scripture mentions “the torturers.”  I think this is an interesting choice of words.  Jesus, in this parable, refers to them as torturers or in the King Kames version, they’re called “the tormentors.”  Look at the definition of torture:

1 : anguish of body or mind
2 : the infliction of severe pain especially to punish or coerce
Mirriam-Webster Dictionary

A torturer is one who inflicts torture on others.  So what does Jesus mean when he refers to the torturers?  Look at the book of Job for a moment.

In the first chapter of the book, Job, a blameless and upright man, loses his wealth, his family and his health all in one day.  He loses everything.  We know the story:

Job 1:6-7 (NKJV)
^1:6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. ⁷ And the Lord said to Satan, "From where do you come?" So Satan answered the Lord and said, "From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it."

So God calls the angels and among them comes Satan.  God points out Job to Satan as a blameless and upright man who worships God.  But Satan tells God that Job worships Him because God has protected and blessed Job.  If things went wrong in Job’s life, Job would curse God.  So God allows Satan to attack Job.   Satan takes all of Job’s possessions, kills his servants and his children and afflicts Job with boils.  Does that accurately depict what we have defined as torture?  I would say it is an exact picture of torture.  In addition, look at this scripture for a moment:

Revelation 12:7-9 (NKJV)
^12:7 And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, ⁸ but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. ⁹ So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

I believe these are the torturers.  It is certainly a strategy of Satan to torment, wear people down and try to turn them away from God.  This is exactly what he was attempting with Job.  He attacked Job in a way that would cause him to turn away from God.

The devil attacks us mainly with lies.  Jesus refers to him as the “father of lies.”  If we look at the Garden of Eden, he deceived Eve through a series of lies.  In those things he lied about God’s character and made Him out to be a liar, “You will not surely die.”  Through that one lie Satan took down the entire human race.  His strategy today is the same.  He continues to attack with lies and attempts to turn us away from God.

He does that by lying to us about our worth and value not only to ourselves, but our worth to God as well.  It is an attempt to turn us away from God by impugning God’s character and desire for relationship with people.  If we know God and his desire for us then we should be joyful.  After all, Joy is the character of salvation.  Our relationship with God should be defined by joy. 

1 Peter 1:7-8 (NKJV)
^1:7 that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, ⁸ whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory,

Joy inexpressible; we should be unable to express how joyful we are in Jesus.  If that's true than why do so many Christians suffer with depression?  Why are so many Christians tormented and beaten down by depression?  I believe the answer to that is found in scripture.

Opening the Door to the Torturers

As Christians, God protects us.  He has built a hedge around us.  This was Satan’s complaint about Job.

Job 1:8-10 (NKJV)
^1:8 Then the Lord said to Satan, "Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?" ⁹ So Satan answered the Lord and said, "Does Job fear God for nothing? ¹⁰ Have You not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.

Satan complains that Job only worships God because God has protected and blessed him.  As Christians, that’s something that God does for us as well. That isn’t to say that we don’t have troubles and afflictions, of course we do.  Life is full of trouble and affliction, but God has built a hedge around us to protect us.

The problem is that we open the door to demonic influence on our own.  Through certain actions we pierce the hedge of protection that’s built around us.

Ecclesiastes 10:8 (KJV)
^10:8 He that digs a pit shall fall into it; and whoever breaks a hedge, a serpent shall bite him.

The phrase, “a serpent will bite him,” is interesting.  Who is the serpent of old?  Satan is referred to as the serpent of old.  If we pierce the hedge then we’re in danger of a serpent’s bite. 

We can do things that open the door to demonic influence.  There are a number of things that pierce the hedge.  Involvement in the occult or the paranormal will open that door to demonic influence.  Certain sins like alcohol or drug use, fornication and pornography are all sins that carry a link to demonic influence.  There is one thing that’s more common.  How we deal with hurt and disappointment, especially with regard to other people can open the door to demonic influence.  According to our text unforgivensss can pierce the hedge of protection around us.

Look at what our text is about.  A man comes to settle accounts with his servants.  He is looking to be repaid for loans that he’s made to them.  There is one man who has borrowed a huge sum of many from the master:  An amount that he can never repay.  When the master asks for that repayment, this man begs for more time and the master forgives the debt. 

This same man who has been forgiven this huge debt comes to a man who owes him a small amount and demands payment.  When the man begs for the same mercy the first man received, the Bible tells us that he is sent to prison until the debt is paid.  The first man shows no mercy and refuses to give him more time or to forgive the debt.  It is at this point, because he, the first man, doesn’t forgive that he is sent to the torturers.

So a lack of forgiveness also pierces the hedge of protection.  And opens us up to demonic assault, “A serpent will bite him.” It’s so sad because I’ve met so many people who can’t forgive.  A woman one time came to our church in Riverside who was suffering.  I preached a sermon on forgiveness; simple forgiveness.  This woman was very angry at me, because she said, “I refuse to forgive my father.” 

The interesting thing about forgiveness is that forgiveness is for us.  Our forgiveness does nothing for the other person.  The chances are, they don’t even know you’re suffering, or if they do, they don’t care.  When we forgive we release ourselves from the bondage and torment of unforgiveness.

Hebrews 12:15 (NKJV)
^12:15 looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled;

Unforgiveness causes a root of bitterness to spring up in us.  Have you met someone who can’t forgive slights or hurts?  They become bitter and angry about everything.  It really ruins their lives in so many ways.  People lose relationships because of their bitterness.  Who wants to be around a bitter, angry person?  Bitterness is an ugly thing.  Some diseases, specifically arthritis has a root in bitterness.  Bitterness comes from unforgiveness.  People can’t forgive others and it begins to torment them. 

Our text warns us about the consequences of not forgiving those who’ve hurt us.

Matthew 18:35 (NKJV)So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses."

What does this say?  If we won’t forgive then we are also in danger of being delivered to the torturers.  Forgiveness is essential to our salvation. 

Matthew 6:14-15 (NKJV)
^6:14 "For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. ¹⁵ But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

If we want to be forgiven of our sin, we must first forgive.  We need to forgive those who have mistreated us.  We also need to forgive ourselves.  Sometimes, the ones who we’re hardest on are us.  We have done things that we don’t think can be forgiven. 

I have always found it very sad when someone is looking for the forgiveness and love of Christ, but can’t find it, because they don’t think what they’ve done can be forgiven by God.  People have told me, “God can’t forgive me.”  And I quote scripture to them:  “If we will confess our sins, God is faithful to forgive.” (1 John 1:9)  They always say, “But you don’t know what I’ve done!”  Do you know what they’re really saying?  How can God forgive me when I can’t forgive myself? 

How much self-inflicted torment do we accept when we think God won’t forgive us because we can’t forgive ourselves?  When we think we're unforgivable, we're saying that the peace of God is out of reach.

Philippians 4:6-7 (NKJV)
^4:6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; ⁷ and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

We need the peace of God.  It’s the peace of God that guards our hearts…and what else?  The peace of God guards our minds.  It surpasses all understanding.  We can’t even understand the peace of God, but it protects us.  Forgiveness is key to the peace of God.

Overcoming Depression

So in order to protect ourselves from depression we need to practice forgiveness.  We need to be forgiving.  That’s not always easy, though, is it?  People have inflicted us with some painful things.  We have beaten ourselves down.  It’s not always easy to let go of hurts and sufferings.  Look at this:

Luke 17:3-5 (NKJV)
^17:3 Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. ⁴ And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, 'I repent,' you shall forgive him." ⁵ And the apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith."

Jesus is telling the disciples they need to forgive.  These are the men who spent three years with him.  These are the men who knew Jesus intimately; they met him in the flesh.  He tells them they need to forgive and what is their prayer?  “Increase our faith.”  A lot of forgiveness is just simply turning it over to God.  God has said, “I will Judge, I will avenge.”  He has said he will avenge our hurts.  But it takes faith to turn those things over to Him, doesn’t it? 

We can see from this that we need to forgive.  Forgiveness keeps us within God’s hedge of protection.  We want to treat these things with medication, but in my mind medication opens us up to even more demonic influence.  Look at this that I saw on Twitter, recently.

“In the 60’s and 70’s people took acid to make the world weird.  Now the world is weird and people take Prozac to make it look normal.”

Prozac doesn’t cure anything; it only changes the way your mind works.  It masks and hides the problem but it doesn’t cure them.  If you want peace, peace comes from God.  What good does it do you to hold onto hurts and all those things that make you bitter.  What is the good thing about bitterness and suffering?  I have never understood why people don’t forgive.  God requires forgiveness from us.  It’s in our best interest to forgive.

Establishing a Pattern of Worship

I am going to say something to you which will sound strange. It even sounds strange to me as I say it, because we are not used to hearing it within our Christian fellowships. We are saved to worship God. All that Christ has done for us in the past and all that He is doing now leads to this one end.

– A.W. Tozer -- Whatever Happened to Worship

He’s speaking about the importance of worship:  How the promise of God comes through worship.  Today, I want to take the time to examine worship:  What it is, what does it mean to our lives?   How many of us realize that worship is necessary to the Christian Walk?  I want to look at worship because I believe there are three key things that demonstrate the importance of worship.

Genesis 12:6-8
6 Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, as far as the terebinth tree of Moreh. And the Canaanites were then in the land.7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” And there he built an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.8 And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; there he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord.

Faith Begins Through Worship

In our text we see Abram.  This takes place after he has heard the call of God to follow God to a place He would show Abram.  He has picked up and left his father’s house and he has traveled to Canaan:  The land of promise.  This is the land that God said that he would give to Abram’s descendents.  He arrives there and God shows him the land.  God tells him, “Look around this is the land I will give to your descendents. Abram sees the promise of God and builds an altar.

He’s seen the promise of God and it has moved him, to do what?  What is an altar for?  The Hebrew word for Altar comes from the Hebrew word for slaughter, so he has built this altar to offer sacrifices to God.  Sacrifice is a form of worship.  He’s worshipping God.  He’s seen the promise; glimpsed what God will do and it has driven him to worship. 

Can you look at your life and see what God is doing there?  Can you see the promise that’s on the horizon for you if you will remain in the will of God?  What does it motivate you to do?  Does it motivate you to worship?  Worship is the natural thing and that’s what Abram did, he worshipped God. 

He sees the promise of God and he builds an altar to worship the one who has given the promise and in that moment something is established in his life.  This isn’t a one-time shot for Abram.  He begins to worship at many points in his journey.  A pattern of worship is established in his life.

How many times do we see Abraham, build an altar?  He builds altars over and over throughout his life.  Worship has become a pattern in his life and we can see from his life that  worship strengthened his faith. 

Look at the Book of geneisis, in Chapter 12 we see that Abram hears from God and even though he is raised in the pagan environment of Ur he recognizes the voice of God and responds to the call that’s there.  God calls him to go to a place that I will show you.  Abram leaves the house of his father, follows God to that place and he worships God there. 

But then he leaves that place where he has worshipped God and travels down to Egypt.  He becomes afraid that the Egyptians will kill him so he tells his wife to say that she is his sister so protect himself.  Where has the faith gone?  What happened to the man who believed God?  He has left the place of worship and his faith has been lost.  Afterward he returns to bethel from Egypt.

Genesis 13:3-4
3 And he went on his journey from the South as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai,4 to the place of the altar which he had made there at first. And there Abram called on the name of the Lord.

He rebuilds the altar that he had built before and in the process his faith is reanimated.  This is the time when Lot’s shepherds and Abram’s shepherds begin to fight, so Abraham tells Lot pick a direction and go that way I’ll go the other way.  Lot looks to toward Sodom.  He sees that in that direction he will have more opportunity to find prosperity so he chooses to go in that direction.  Abram goes in the opposite direction out into the desert; into the place that God had showed him and trusted God for provision.  Lot has chosen the direction through the wisdom of mankind.  He sees a better chance for success so he goes that way.  Abram on the other hand, has chosen to trust God and has chosen his direction in faith.  he stays in the Land God has promised his descendants and worships God.

Finally, we see the powerful faith of Abram, who by now is called Abraham, in the test that God gives him when he asks him to sacrifice his son Isaac.  Issac is the child of Abraham’s old age.  He is the child that God said will be the heir through whom the promise is fulfilled.  So when God asks him to sacrifice Isaac he is really testing whether or not Abraham has the faith to obey God.  Remember, he had a son through Sarah’s handmaiden, Hagar, because they didn’t believe that God could give barren Sarah a child.  So this is a test to see whether Abraham can obey God, knowing what’s at stake. 

Abraham responds to the test by placing Isaac on the altar and preparing to sacrifice him.  This is a great act of faith look at this statement regarding Abraham’s faith:

Hebrews 11:17-19
^11:17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, ¹⁸ of whom it was said, "In Isaac your seed shall be called," ¹⁹ concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense.

He had becomes so full of faith that he knew if necessary for God to keep the promise that he would raise Isaac from the dead.  This is a far cry from the man who doubted that God could deliver him from the Egyptians. 

What’s the key to Abraham’s faith?  I believe it is the act of worshipping God.  Every time God spoke the promise to Abraham he built an altar and worshipped God.  He called on the name of the Lord.

Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.  Abraham’s faith was ignited by the word of God spoken in the form of a promise.  But the building of the altar signifies an openness to hearing from God.  It isn’t automatic that if you speak the word of God that everyone you speak it to will respond I faith.  If it was then everyone you witnessed to would get saved.  We know that doesn’t happen.  But it is an openness to the word of God that allows it to build faith in our lives.  Worship opens us up to the word of God and the will of God and establishes in us the faith that God is a God who will deliver on His promises.  That’s why worship is so important in our church services.  It’s also why we have worhip service before the preaching. 

Here are some interesting statistics:

Nearly two-thirds of regular church attendees have not experienced God’s presence in a church service.  48% of regular church attendees have not experienced God’s presence in the last year. But yet 65% (two-thirds) of church-going adults are very satisfied with the ability to worship God afforded by their church.

The problem here is that there has not been a pattern of real worship that has been built in most churches.  It’s too bad that we don’t have to build altars anymore because people come to church and expect the presence of God to just fall on them:  That it is God’s responsibility to pour Himself out.  Some churches have professional worship groups, the have the perfect mood inducing lighting, all the right high tech effects.  Those things induce a mood but they don’t always bring about heartfelt worship.  There isn’t a formula; worship doesn’t come from singing, clapping, mood lighting and musicianship.  It comes from the heart.   It comes from being inspired by the promise of God.  That’s what motivated Abraham.  We have to ask ourselves are we inspired by what God is doing in our lives?  Is that what motivates us, or are we just going through the motions?  Do you want to feel the presence of God?  If you do then you need to worship from your heart and you ill feel the presence of God, powerfully.  Song service and the preaching will come to life for you because God will show up.

The House of God is Established in Worship

The word Bethel means “House of God.”  This is the place where God dwells, this is the place where Abram built that first altar.  This is also the place where Jacob sees the vision of the ladder of God and names it Bethel. 

Genesis 28:16-19
16 Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.”17 And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!”  18 Then Jacob rose early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put at his head, set it up as a pillar, and poured oil on top of it.19 And he called the name of that place Bethel; but the name of that city had been Luz previously.

When Abraham was there it was called Luz it was built by the Canaanites, who lived there.  It wasn’t called Bethel until Jacob’s time.  He called it that in a time of worship.  That’s what he was doing when he raised up a stone and anointed it.  He was worshipping God.  This is the same place where Abram built that first altar; it is the same place where Abram worshipped God.  The worship of God in that place established it as the House of God.  Jacob says, “this is none other than the House of God,” and what is it?  It’s a place of worship.

Take a moment and look forward in history into the nation of Israel.   Look into a time after the people have received their inheritance; after the four hundred years of captivity in Egypt.  This is centuries after Jacob’s time.

Judges 20:18
18 Then the children of Israel arose and went up to the house of God to inquire of God. They said, “Which of us shall go up first to battle against the children of Benjamin?” The Lord said, “Judah first!”

Judges 20:26-27
26 Then all the children of Israel, that is, all the people, went up and came to the house of God and wept. They sat there before the Lord and fasted that day until evening; and they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord.27 So the children of Israel inquired of the Lord (the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days,

Judges 21:2-4
2 Then the people came to the house of God, and remained there before God till evening. They lifted up their voices and wept bitterly,3 and said, “O Lord God of Israel, why has this come to pass in Israel, that today there should be one tribe missing in Israel?”4 So it was, on the next morning, that the people rose early and built an altar there, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings.

This place is established as the House of God and it was established there all those years ago when Abram first worshipped there.  Worship establishes the place of God.

Our church is in an old building.  There have been a number of businesses in that building.  One of them, a KTV business, where men pay women to entertain them as they drank and sing karaoke, not really the type of business that would establish the place as the House of God.   But now it’s our church, now it’s a House of God where we regularly experience the presence of God.  What establishes it as the House of God?  It’s the worship of God by God’s people. 

But let’s make this personal for a moment.  If you worship God from your heart, will your heart not be established as a House of God.  If your heart is established as a dwelling place of God what fruit would be visible from that? 

Luke 6:45
45 “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.

Worship will build in your heart a [ace where God can dwell and we will see the fruit of a heart given over to God.  What will that fruit look like?

Psalm 45:7
7 You love righteousness and hate wickedness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You With the oil of gladness more than Your companions.

God is not a God of depression.  He’s not a God of suicide.  God is a God of Joy.  Do you want the joy of salvation to be the fruit of your life?  Worship will usher in the oil of gladness.  As we build a habitation for God in our hearts, then out of our hearts will come the abundance of what is there, which is the oil of gladness.  Worship establishes the dwelling of God in our hearts, in other words worship is what will bring about the indwelling of God in our hearts.

Worship is a Refuge

Jeroboam, when he was king of Israel desecrated the place of God through the worship of idols. 

1 Kings 12:32-33
32 Jeroboam ordained a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the feast that was in Judah, and offered sacrifices on the altar. So he did at Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he had made. And at Bethel he installed the priests of the high places which he had made.33 So he made offerings on the altar which he had made at Bethel on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, in the month which he had devised in his own heart. And he ordained a feast for the children of Israel, and offered sacrifices on the altar and burned incense.

He perverted the House of God by setting up an abomination there.  In time the people came to be ashamed of that perversion of God’s house.

Jeremiah 48:13
13 Moab shall be ashamed of Chemosh,
As the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel, their confidence.

The word translated as confidence can be more properly translated as refuge.  So what is this saying?  It’s saying that the people of God came to be ashamed of that that was once their refuge.  Jeroboam, through his worship of golden calves in the house fo God caused God to depart from that place.  We are in danger of the same thing if we allow some form of idolatry to take the place of God in our hearts. 

What do we worship?  We worship the thing that has the greatest priority in our hearts.    It’s that thing we put before God:  That thing that keeps us out of church.  The thing that we worship is the thing that keeps us from worshipping God. 

I spoke to a young man who didn’t want to serve God because he knew that if served God he wouldn’t be able to be sexually immoral.  His conscience wouldn’t allow it.  He knew that. So Sexual Immorality is thing that he worships.

He is in bondage to that thing, there is no place of refuge from that bondage available to him, until he puts God back in the place of worship in his heart. 

What is a place of refuge?  In our times we have appointed places called Wildlife Refuges.  These are places where wildlife can live without fear of being hunted and killed by men.  They are a place of safety and security.

That’s what bethel was for Israel.  It was a place where they could have confidence that God would protect them and provide for them; safety and security.  That place of refuge was destroyed by jeroboam as he worshipped idols there.  This is the last place in the Bible where bethel is referred to as the place of God.  The last mention of Bethel is in the Book of Amos:

Amos 7:11-13
11 “For thus Amos has said: ‘Jeroboam shall die by the sword, And Israel shall surely be led away captive From their own land.’ ”  12 Then Amaziah said to Amos: “Go, you seer! Flee to the land of Judah. There eat bread, And there prophesy.13 But never again prophesy at Bethel, For it is the king’s sanctuary, And it is the royal residence.”

The people have grown ashamed of Bethel.

Worshipping God creates for us a refuge from the bondage of sin, from the assault of the one who seeks to destroy us.  How many times have you gone into church, bogged down, feeling the weight of the day or some assault from the pit of hell.  You walk in, allow yourself to enter into a place of worship, allow God’s presence to be established once again in your heart, and you are buoyed up, leaving glad once more.  That’s the power of refuge.  It’s what makes the worship group such an important part of the service; they are the ones who usher us into worship.  They are the ones who, in a sense, build that altar.  But don’t get me wrong worship is an individual responsibility.  Worship should come from the heart.  It’s the opening of our hearts to God and shouldn’t be taken lightly.  Not giving it all we’re worth profanes it.  

Worship can establish and strengthen our faith.  Worship can build the House of God.  Worship can be a refuge from the assaults of hell.  It depends on you.

One final thought, we think of worship as a personal thing: That we are the only ones affected by the intensity of our worship, but that isn’t true.    Abraham’s worship built his faith, but it also built the faith of Isaac and Jacob.  Have you thought about how much faith it took for Isaac to let his father offer him on the altar?

Isaac was about twenty and Abraham about one hundred twenty.  Isaac could have outrun him certainly.  Could have fought him, but we don’t see that.  Isaac submitted to the sacrifice.  Where did Jacob learn to worship God by standing up a stone and pouring oil on it.?  He learned that from his father and grandfather.  The House of God was established by one man’s worship but it remained the House of God for all of Israel for centuries.  The lack of worship on the part of Jeroboam destroyed that place as a place of refuge.

Do you realize that your faith is dependent on your pastor’s?  His faith is dependent in part on yours.  Together we strengthen each other’s faith, so we owe it to each other to build our faith as much as we can and we do that partly through worship.  Together we establish a refuge from the assaults of the devil as we come into the sanctuary and worship.  We, through worship, make it a refuge.  Let’s establish a pattern of worship in our lives and see the promises of God come true in our lives.