Isn't Worship Arrogant for God? (Psalm 100)

Morning, we're gonna be in Psalm 100, and we're gonna read this aloud together. So if you would join your voices with mine.

Let the whole earth shout triumphantly to the Lord. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before him with joyful songs. Acknowledge that the Lord is God. He made us, and we are his. His people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and bless his name. For the Lord is good and his faithful love endures forever, His faithfulness through all generations. — Psalm 100

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

That song we just sang comes from this passage. This morning, we're picking up again the series we've been doing all this winter, No Bad Questions. And today's question is one that I think is really common, particularly for those who have grown up in the church. It goes like this: Isn't it arrogant for God to command or to demand our worship?

The Question and Its Origins

Now, in our children, we parent out of them as much as we can egocentricity. We tell our kids not to be show offs. We try to correct them when we see bragging behavior. And yet, is this what God is up to?

This has been a turnoff for a lot of people outside the church. This has been a turnoff for a lot of people inside the church. The actor Brad Pitt grew up in a Southern Baptist church in Missouri, and he walked away from the faith as an adult around this issue. This is what he said in an interview in Parade Magazine several years ago:

I grew up believing in the Christian God, and it worked for me in whatever little personal high school crisis there was, but it didn't last. I didn't understand this idea of a God who says, you have to acknowledge me. You have to say that I'm the best, and then I'll give you eternal happiness. And if you won't, then you don't get it. It seemed to be all about ego. I can't see God operating from ego. It made no sense to me.

There's sort of a story behind that question, behind the way the question's framed. It's like you're imagining you're God, and you're imagining, how would you create the universe? And you imagine, would I want to make beings who have to go around and build churches and spend one morning a week doing this instead of helping each other and doing other good things? Really, this is what God wants? Do you see how this doesn't make sense to many people, maybe some of you?

An egocentric god is neither good nor really worth worshiping. That's the crux of the question. Isn't it arrogant for God to demand our worship?

Understanding the Psalms

There are two types of psalms that we see over and over in the Bible: psalms of praise. Some of them are descriptive, and some are prescriptive—like a prescription. Some are descriptive, like they describe a person's experience of worshiping God. "This poor soul cried out to the Lord, and he answered me. I waited patiently for the Lord, and he heard me. He lifted me out of the pit." Those are descriptive psalms that tell us what it's like, this person's experience of worshiping God.

This morning, for our psalm, I really picked on purpose maybe the worst offender of the other kind of psalms—the prescriptive psalms that say, do this. Worship God. It's a command. Acknowledge God. Worship Him. And I picked this one on purpose. Psalm 100 is maybe the one that's been most put to music. It's called the Jubilate, which has nothing to do with coffee.

Psalm 100 is nicknamed the Jubilate because the first word in Latin is rejoice, praise, sing praises to God. And so it's either the most praiseful psalm or it's the worst offender, depending on how you view this question. Isn't it arrogant for God to command us to do this?

Three Reasons the Answer Is No

Now, I'm going to answer that question no, but I'm gonna give you three reasons why. Here's the outline: One, no, because praise or worship is what humans do. Two, no, because this is worship is what God is due. And three, no, because it's what we can't do without.

Let's look at this together. To answer the question, isn't this egotistical of God? We've got to make sure we're all on the same page about what worship is. When you think of worship, you think about the stuff we're doing this morning—the activities, the singing, the reciting, the praying, the listening. All those things are activities of worship. But those aren't really worship.

Many of you know worship comes from the same root as the word in English: worth.

In old English, those words come from the same root. So to worship is to ascribe worth to something, to say, this is more worthy than this. And worship is what we do, really, all the time. I want you to think about these five ways that we ascribe worth, that we worship all the time.

First Way: Giving Priority

First, we give priority to some things over other things. So time out for an English major rant. I hate the word priorities. Priority means something that goes before. By definition, the word can never be made plural. There should never be priorities. Priority means there's one thing that's most important, and everything else is second or third or fourth. So, rant over.

But giving priority to something is a form of worship. If you give priority to your health, that means it begins to control your schedule. It begins to control what you order at lunchtime. If you give priority to your sleep, you begin to say, well, okay, I'm going turn off my phone, no blue light, before bed. I'm going to make sure I don't eat or drink something right before I go to bed. I make sure I go to bed and get up about the same time. All the things that doctors tell you. Right? You're giving priority to your sleep. If you give priority to your job, it is saying, I'm going to make sure that this gets my focus time. Right? To prioritize something is to say, this is important. Everything else is secondary. It's a form of worship.

When Christians say, we worship God, we're not just talking about what we do in this room. We're saying God is prior in my life. And that's something we do all the time.

Second Way: Making Sacrifices

Second way that we worship, we sacrifice for what we worship. Now, of course, when you read the Bible, we think of sacrifices as killing things or offering up things to the Lord. When you burn something, it's consumed on the altar. And you could travel to many places in the world today and see where people continue to make little sacrifices on little altars. Many of you have traveled to foreign countries where that's a common practice.

But we, in our country, we don't sacrifice in the same way, or maybe we do. We make sacrifices for things that are important for us. You can make sacrifices for your family, which means that you neglect other relationships in order for your family to be first, to be the main thing. You can make sacrifices for an education. Many of you have made sacrifices for an education where you skimp, you go without in order to make sure that you have the money, you've got the time to really focus on your studies, and to make that a priority. We make sacrifices for things all the time. Again, another form of worship.

Third Way: Treasuring Things

Another way we worship, we treasure things. Now, adults don't do this. But when you're a kid, or some of you who are kids, have you ever saved up money for something? Adults don't do this. We have credit cards. We don't save up for anything. We save up to pay off the credit cards.

But when you're a kid, have something and your parents try to instill this in you, we're not going to buy it right away. We don't have the money you don't have the money today. You need to save for this, defer your gratification for a little bit until you have the money when you finally get to go on the day, and you get to go and pay the money and buy what you want, I mean, there's a right? It's your treasure. It's the thing you've been wanting.

And people, adults do this too. We go so far as to build our lives around things that we treasure. So we even use this in the way we talk about people. So and so is a family man. So and so is a health nut. She's a career woman. Right? We say these things because we're saying, that's their treasure. That's how it even defines them.

And some of the question then is, are the things we treasure worth it? Going back to my early example, saving up money. I saved up for this giant robot thing as a kid. I mean, like, two and a half feet tall. I remember saving all summer for this. And I got the thing, and it broke within like a half hour of bringing it home because it was cheap plastic junk. But I paid lots of money, lots of yard work to get this.

In the same way, we have to ask ourselves, even as adults, are the things we treasure worth it? Some of you will remember the MMA fighter, Ronda Rousey. I don't usually quote her much in my sermons, but she was on an interview with Ellen DeGeneres and had lost a really epic fight. And she was in the hospital. She describes this. She said, to be honest, I was in the medical room. I was down in the corner. I was sitting in the corner, and I was like, what am I anymore if I'm not this? I'm nothing. It's like, what do I do anymore? No one cares about me anymore after this. Saying, that's a very honest moment of, like, I'm not sure what I treasured. It's been really worth it.

Fourth Way: Enjoying What We Worship

We enjoy what we worship. Right? Why do we choose what we choose in life? Why do we choose the things we do? Why do we choose what we do? Because we choose what makes us happy.

The mathematician philosopher Blaise Pascal said everybody everywhere is seeking happiness all the time. It's what drives humans. We're all looking for happiness, and we look for things and experiences and people, all kinds of things. Again, it's a type of worship. A close cousin to worship is seeking out our happiness, enjoying what we worship.

Finally, we praise things. We praise what we worship. Think about how we describe an incredible vacation. We describe it to too many people. We go around, we talk about it all the time. Last month, my wife and I went to Las Vegas, and we saw U2 in concert at The Sphere, and we went hiking in some of the parks around Las Vegas. It was amazing. Seeing U2 at the Sphere, singing along, collective moment of joy, 18,000 other fans all singing our hearts out, and then going out into the desert and seeing this incredible geology. We saw bighorn sheep. We saw baby bighorn sheep. It was incredible, and I can't stop talking about it.

And I wonder when I talk about it to people, are they like, is he boasting? I don't think so. I hope not. But I've been like, man, this was incredible. I want you to know how incredible something was. I want to share in that. There's something about the sharing in it that is about increasing the joy.

CS Lewis said this—he could never have imagined Instagram, but he said: the world rings with praise. Lovers praise their lovers. Readers praise their favorite authors. Walkers praise areas they've been to in the countryside. Players praise their favorite game. He said, I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise isn't just an expression of it. It somehow completes it. It somehow compounds the joy.

I mean, have you ever heard a good joke and have nobody to tell it to? Or seen something beautiful and you're like, there's nobody to show it to? There's something about sharing in the experience. Even if you don't get to go to the Sphere and see U2 like I did, something about sharing the praise that's very natural to humans.

Famously, years ago, David Foster Wallace in a commencement speech said: this is what humans do. We worship. There is no such thing as not worshiping. Everybody worships. The only choice we have is what we worship.

Worship Is What God Is Due

The second reason why it's not preposterous for God to demand our worship is this: worship is what God is due. D U E, not D O. D U E.

So to be really precise, the objection to the question—isn't it egotistical, arrogant for God to demand our worship?—it's really not about God demanding our worship. It's about God demanding our worship of him. We're not so upset that God's like, hey, make something priority in your life, or enjoy something. Everybody's like, I'm fine with that. It's God saying, enjoy me. Make me the center, placing himself as important.

Now, what would we prefer? This is a helpful question. What would we prefer that God say we should praise, enjoy, treasure, savor, et cetera? What would we think that God should be focusing our attention on if not himself?

Now, I'm going to be really transparent up here. My answer to that is me. I really wish God's focus in the universe was me. I don't think I'm wrong alone in this either. I think when we have a problem with God saying, worship God, it's really because we want God to say, well, actually, you're more important. You're the most important thing. You know that. And that's what I want to hear from God.

There's another way of getting at that question, which is to say this: What does God get out of worship? What is his gain from worship? It depends really on who you think God is. If you think of God as like Zeus or Jupiter or the Flying Spaghetti Monster—you guys remember the Flying Spaghetti Monster? We have a slide of this. In 2005, this guy comes up with Pastafarianism. It's a made-up religion, a parody of a religion in order to make fun. This is supposed to be the pasta god. But it was meant to be a parody. Like, really, this is what God's like? God's like a flying spaghetti monster.

So back to my question: If the point is, isn't it arrogant for God to command our worship? It assumes that this God is a God who is needy, who is insecure, who really has something to gain from people giving him praise—as emotionally codependent, if you will, or insecure. This is the Zeus, Jupiter, flying spaghetti monster who needs us in some way. That God is somehow filled up or aggrandized through that, like a human would be.

But Psalm 100 tells us a different story about which God it is that is commanding our worship.

This is the God who made us, that we are His, we are the sheep of His pasture, that He is the faithful one. His love endures forever, His faithfulness through all generations. That's shorthand for the Christian God. The immortal, the completely moral, the timeless, the all-powerful, the personal, the infinitely intelligent, the sustainer, the creator, the first cause of everything in our universe.

And if that's true, if that's the God that's being described in this Bible, what does that God get out of our worship? And I hate to break this to you this morning because the answer is nothing. Nothing. He doesn't need it. He's not diminished by not having it. He's not saddened by the world not worshiping him. He's not deflated by this. He is infinite in all his attributes.

Can a god like this be impacted or diminished by anything? No. God is not encouraged or enlarged or needy for us to worship Him. He doesn't really receive a lot of benefits from this, as in none.

Rather, let's think about this. God must treat himself as the highest if he is the highest. If he's, in fact, the highest in the universe, the highest and best and most glorious and grand full of grandeur, then God would be less than God if he said anything else is better than me. He would be less than God if he did this.

The atheist author Ayn Rand said admiration is the rarest and best of pleasures. Praising things is good for me. But what if—I wish she could have seen that God is really the most admirable being in the universe? He's really worth it.

So in a sense, God is not saying, "Hey, praise me. Make me happy." God is really saying, "Praise me. Make me the source of your happiness. Make me the central part of your happiness because I actually can follow through on that. I'm actually good for it. I'll pay those checks."

Let's assume for the moment that God treated something else as greatest. It would mean that he's no longer God. It's not wrong for God to treat himself as our greatest good. So our worship has to be for something other than just for him, for him being like, "Man, I really need this today. I've had a hard day. Come on, guys. The worship was kind of weak this morning."

God must have some other purpose for this.

Worship Is for Us

This is the last reason why it's not arrogant for God to demand our worship—because worship of God is something we can't do without. We absolutely need this if God is really who he says he is, and we are who we are.

Here's the big idea: God seeks our praise not because He won't be complete until we give it to Him, but because He knows we won't be happy until we give it to Him. Worship is not about God's ego. It's the ultimate expression of God's generosity.

Can I show this to you? The greatest moment in the history of the world so far is described to us in John chapter 12. It's a moment where Jesus is talking about glory or worship or praise. He's with his disciples, and he's about to go to the cross. He has these strange kind of teachings, and he says:

Listen, the hour has come where the Son of Man is to be glorified. — John 12:23

Now, Son of Man is a title for Jesus. He is about to be glorified. And you're thinking, like, what is this amazing glorifying event going to be? Is it going to be like the Sphere in Las Vegas, the light show and all the music? Is it gonna be some miraculous display? Is it gonna be some raw display of power or feeding thousands of people? It's the cross. It's the cross.

This is what he says:

Truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains by itself. But if it dies, it produces much fruit. If I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to me. — John 12:24-32

Lifted up like on the cross. I will draw all people to me.

If God wanted to share with us the most glorious moment in history, why did he put in motion his own Son to be sacrificed? Jesus wasn't even sacrificed in front of a bunch of people who were like, "Yeah, Jesus, you're paying for it. You're awesome." He was sacrificed in front of a bunch of people who were like, "Yeah, kill him." They were not pleased with what he was doing. The people didn't even understand what he was doing, and most of them wanted him there.

And yet, this is the moment of the greatest glory because his sacrifice is the vehicle by which you get it. You get to be part of this. He does it so we might actually be able to find our happiness in Him.

That suffering on the cross was the gateway into the very throne room of God, but not just that, the source of all joy. We live in a world where we are radically disconnected and radically disappointed with the source of our joy. Universally, people are disappointed all over the place. And yet, Christians are told that the door's open, the curtain's removed, all access pass. This is what's given to you because of the cross. You get to know the source, not just the downwaters of joy in your life, moments, glimpses of joy. You get to know the source, the very source.

God is the one being in the universe for whom self exaltation is not an expression of some needy ego, but of radical generosity. He's saying, look, I'm giving you myself, and if you put myself in the center of yourself, you will find radical happiness and joy. This is what's being offered to you.

Why should we worship? Listen to Psalm 100. We're his people. It's because of the blood of Christ. We're made the sheep of his pasture, because of his steadfast love, his faithfulness that goes on and on and on. And again, this is given to us. It's not only pictured for us in the cross, it's the doorway. The cross is like a huge doorway into the joy of God that's poured out for you, that's offered to you, that you get to enter into and receive and be a part of and share in. This is why we worship.

A life that prioritizes Jesus, a life that prizes Jesus, a life that praises Jesus and treasures him and enjoys him, this is the full life. This is the gateway to joy. And I know right now, some of you are like, I'm not feeling it today. It doesn't matter. This is one of the great things. Don't you want something that's so reliable that it doesn't matter how you feel about it day in and day out? You and I, we're like yo yos. We're up and down, and we don't even know why some days. I'm like, I'm grumpy. I don't know why. Got out of bed grumpy. I don't know why. I'm happy. I don't know why. We're just up and down.

You have a source that never dries up and never runs out. And it doesn't matter how you feel about it day in, day out. It doesn't matter if you're cheerleader mode, or you're down in the dumps. This is what is offered to you in the cross. This is why we worship.

The Treasure in the Field

In 2013, there was a British IT worker who accidentally threw away a hard drive that was loaded with 7,500 bitcoin on it. At the time, it wasn't worth much, and he didn't think about it for a long time until bitcoin started skyrocketing up in value. He was like, oh, where did I put that hard drive? And then he realized, oh, no. It was in that box that I threw out. So he goes to the township there in England and says, can I go dig up the landfill? And goes over and over and over and offers them more and more and more. The last offer was $70,000,000 that he offered them.

The Newport City Council told CNN that the local government authority had already contacted him a number of times since 2013 and said, no. You can't dig up the landfill because of environmental reasons and because we don't have a permit for that. Don't you love that? They don't have a permit. So bureaucracy.

You know how much that hard drive is worth in today's dollars? I mean, 70,000,000 sounds like so much money. $429,000,000. That's what's in the landfill in Newport in England.

Jesus tells a parable very much like that story. He tells a parable of a person who's like the owner of that hard drive, a person who finds a treasure in the field. When they find it, they're like, I've to pay whatever I can to go get that treasure. It's so valuable to me, even $70,000,000. I need that treasure. Must have it.

The parable works two ways. It works this way first. It tells us the story of God, that God is a treasure hunter, and that God lost something precious to Himself, you. God wants something of invaluable price to himself. And he's like, I'll pay whatever it costs to get that back, even the cross. 70,000,000 is nothing. Pay whatever it costs to get that back. And he did, so that you might have him and that he might have you, so that you might be the sheep of his pasture. You might be his. Jesus goes on the cross to claim his treasure.

The parable works the other way, though. When we find God, the real God who treasures us, we give all we have to prioritize and please and treasure and sacrifice and enjoy and sacrifice for this God because God is the treasure. And those who have really tasted like, wow, you're kidding me about this cross. You're really? This is what you've done for me? This is what Christians all over the world say. Whatever it costs, I'll center my life around this because it's worth it.

We stand on the shoulders of generations and millions of people who've said, he's worth it. He is absolutely worth it.

Won't you come and worship him too? Name of the father and the son and the holy spirit. Amen.

Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for the cross. We thank you that you treasure us and invite us to treasure you. And it kind of blows our gaskets because it doesn't make sense. Lord, we find so many other things disappointing. And we're so used to thinking that things are going to be a disappointment, we wonder if you will be.

Surprise us, Lord. Help us to taste the joy of which you are the fountain, you are the source, you are the heart's desire. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.