The Struggle of Adoration towards God

The Struggle of Adoring God

Selected Verse

Establish the need: Do you regularly adore God?

Purpose: Today we shall see three points concerning prayers of adoration of God.

• What is adoration?
• Struggles of adoration
• Helps for adoration

 

What is adoration?

Proof

1. The definition of adoration: “Reflect on God Himself. Praise Him for His attributes, His majesty, and His gift of Christ.”[1]
2. In essence we are saying adoration is worship of God.
3. Commanded in the Old Testament: “Come, let us worship and bow down, Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.” (Psalm 95:6)
   1. This Psalm is about worshipping God.
   2. In this verse there are three cohorative verbs telling us what to do:
      1. “let us worship”
      2. “bow down”
      3. “Let us kneel”
   3. All three actions indicate we are lower than God..
   4. All three actions are synonymous terms to describe worshipping God.
4. Commanded in the Old Testament: “Exalt the Lord our God And worship at His footstool; Holy is He.” (Psalm 99:5)
   1. Two action verbs here.
   2. “Exalt”
      1. The verb “Exalt” means to make rise or make high.
      2. The verb “Exalt” is a command.
      3. What are believers to make high? Answer: “the Lord our God”
   3. “worship”
      1. The verb “worship” means to bow down.
      2. The verb “worship” is a command.
      3. What are believers to bow down at? Answer: “at His footstool” implying bow down to God.
5. Commanded in the New Testament: “Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created.”” (Revelation 4:11)
   1. This is a scene in heaven.
   2. Here there is worship being described.
   3. Notice the focus is on God being worthy.
   4. What is God worthy of? Three things: “to receive glory and honor and power”
   5. Why? One reason is God is Creator: “for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created.”

Practice

1. Do you lower yourself and acknowledge God as higher than you?
2. Do you tell God He is worthy?
3. Do you adore God?
4. Do you lift His name High when you talk about Him and talk to Him in prayer?

 

Struggles of adoration

Proof

1. We have idols in our heart: “Little children, guard yourselves from idols.” (1 John 5:21)
   1. This is written by the Apostle John to Christians.
   2. Here we see the command to watch out that believers don’t have idols.
   3. This is astounding since this command is for Christians.
   4. This shows believers can have the temptation of idols, that is, a functional “god” that replaces the living God.
   5. Obviously if one has an idol they aren’t focus on God or adoring God.
2. Pride: “Thus says the Lord, “Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches;” (Jeremiah 9:23)
   1. We see the danger of boasting.
   2. Of course boasting is driven by pride.
   3. What are negatives things to boast about? Three things mentioned:
      1. Wisdom: “Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom”
      2. Strength: “and let not the mighty man boast of his might”
      3. Riches: “let not a rich man boast of his riches”
   4. Obviously if one is too busy bragging about oneself then there’s no time to brag about God.
3. We are too busy: “Again he sent out other slaves saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited, “Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and my fattened livestock are all butchered and everything is ready; come to the wedding feast.”’ 5 But they paid no attention and went their way, one to his own farm, another to his business” (Matthew 22:4-5)
   1. This is a parable of the kingdom of God as compared to a wedding feast (2)
   2. Here God invites people to this celebration but people are too busy with everyday life according to verse 5.
   3. Obviously if one is too busy for God it will be hard to worship God.
4. Struggling with sin: “If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; 7 but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.” (1 John 1:6-7)
   1. If we are in darkness (that is, sin) we are not having fellowship with God.
   2. Obviously if one is in sin and not fellowshipping with God it will be hard to worship God.
5. Suffering: We think of Job in the book of Job.

Practice

1. Which one of these roadblocks do you struggle with presently with worshipping God in your prayer?
2. Work on those area you identified as your weakness.

 

Helps for adoration

1. With the problem of sin and idol, confess to God: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)
2. Focus on Christ to see His glory: “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3:18)
   1. Notice if we focus on Him we will be see His glory.
   2. Yet seeing His glory means we are transformed: changed from the inside out!
   3. Thus we will have more motivation to adore Him in our prayers if we see His glory and we see Him change us!
3. Read the Scriptures to find Christ: “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me;” (John 5:39)= Reading Scripture about Jesus will make you adore Christ!
4. Think about God together with others: “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.” (Philippians 4:8)
   1. Make it a habit to talk to people who love to talk about God.
   2. Yet this is not an individual command; note the plural “brethren.”
   3. Also when you are spiritually dry ask others about what God has taught them and what verses ministered to them!
5. Sometimes it seems we might not be challenged with the preaching of God’s Word in church or with others; that might means we need to go more indepth studying about God in order to adore Him! How?
   1. 1. Read a systematic theology book!
      2. Read deeper writings about God!
      3. Areas of study to make you worship God more include;
         1. Salvation
         2. Attributes of God
         3. Christ

[1] Fundamentals of the Faith (Chicago: Moody Publishers), 62.