Worship

Pastors,

Thanks again for the posts! I found myself a bit behind this week after having to travel a bit.

Earlier this week I spoke at the annual Conference on Addictions put on by Andrews University in Berrien Springs, MI. I did two sessions on Tuesday (May 6), in the first I shared my personal journey out of porn and the second dealt with my professional experience as a pastor and the impact pornography has on the spiritual life of Christians. Both sessions were about an hour and a half long with Q&A.

I spent quite a bit of time in the second session talking about WORSHIP stressing the point that we’re all worshipers the question is WHO or WHAT are we worshipping. In Revelation 12:7-9 John describes a battle scene that takes place in heaven of all places, Satan and his angels fighting against Michael and His angels with Satan and his angels ultimately losing the battle and losing their places in heaven:
“And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.”

Now, based upon Ezekiel 28:17 and Isaiah 14:12-14 I’ve always looked at Satan’s pride, arrogance, and self-centeredness as the real issue behind the conflict and no doubt, that’s clearly a factor. But, let me suggest that the root issue with Satan, and with all of us had to do with WORSHIP. Lucifer determined that he would worship himself instead of the Father which amounts to idolatry, or false worship. Let me also suggest that the fruit of false worship is always pride, arrogance, and selfishness. Jesus had a major problem with the religious elitists during His ministry because they often demonstrated blatant spiritual pride and arrogance, evidence that they either worshiped themselves, as Satan did, or worshiped their religion, in either case it is still idolatry, and false worship.

I would say that SEX is the fastest growing religion today, and it is attracting more worshipers than any mega-church in America. The statistics below indicate that indeed SEX is gaining a bigger following every day:

•    Between 6-8% of Americans are sex addicts. (16 - 21.5 million Americans)
•    20% of people seeking help for sexual addiction are women.

If you haven’t read Pamela Paul’s book PORNIFIED then I hope you will take the time to pick it up soon and read it. The book cover on the hardback version is a bit risqué, so I would recommend throwing it away as soon as you get but the book is really good. Here’s a quote from PORNIFIED:

“We’re only beginning to recognize the implications of the growth in pornography and the pornified society’s impact on individuals who live in it.  We’re only starting to grasp the extent to which the technology revolution of the past two decades had transformed the way in which pornography is produced and consumed. Those who argue that pornography has been with us since cavemen first drew fornicating women on earthen walls ignore the vast discrepancies between a world in which pornography was glimpsed on the sly, where naked girls were glanced at on the faces of nudie poker cards, and today’s culture, in which pornography is omnipresent, accepted, and glorified, and on an incessant advance.”   Pamela Paul - Pornified, page 49 (emphasis mine)

Check out the last part of that quote from Pamela Paul. “Omnipresent”, “glorified”, hmm…now don’t we tend to use that language to describe God? Have you thought lately about what it is that is life-centering for you? What is it that you have allowed to become omnipresent and glorified in your life, in the place of Jesus? The other word that I stood out to me was “advance”. That is battle language. The cosmic battle between Christ and Satan is for worshipers. I contend that the most significant weapon in Satan’s arsenal is SEX.