Do we worship God, really?
I want to make a case that in this day and age, 99.999% (it’s probably more) of us worship ourselves and others more than we worship God. In fact, I think it is no contest. I believe this not because I am judging others, but because this is my personal experience, and it’s what I can finally see in myself.
It seems that religion especially causes us to feel like we have arrived, and we have millions of like-minded people around us to validate our current position.
We get together and sing songs of praise, but I wonder if it’s more about the rameumptum and feeling good about ourselves than actually worshiping God. Do we actually worship him, or do we worship ourselves?
And what does it mean to worship God? Because I don’t think real worship is really done today at all. (I believe worship is supposed to be life-changing. Not a scheduled event.)
Many born-again Christians believe that they were saved on a particular date at a particular time. And I’ve run into these people, and they could give me the exact date 27 years ago, and there’s nothing more to talk about really.
Because they’ve been saved by grace. A one-time thing, of course. Because “grace.”
And lest we get too proud as Mormons, we also believe that we were saved when we were baptized at 8, when we did all the check boxes, “took out” our endowments, went through the temple, “got sealed” in the temple to our spouse, and are now just waiting around for the highest degree of the Celestial Kingdom. Because we one-upped everyone. It’s not just heaven, it’s the third degree of heaven!
Pretty amazing. Pat yourself on the back. You now have a list of things to present to God at judgement day.
And we have a prophet, right? I mean, there’s no better religious figure than a prophet to show that you belong to the right religion.
We actually worship the prophet more than we worship God. Because we don’t really believe that we can have a connection to God like President Nelson can. Not possible, right? (Otherwise we’d seek our own revelation from God and emphasize that as much (or hopefully more) than his words.) And so all of the focus is on what President Nelson tells us. How wonderful to not have to worry about what God would tell us individually, right?! There is no movie star that is worshiped more deeply than the current prophet. There is no American idol that is idolized more deeply.
And it’s really sad, because the whole reason idolatry is bad is because it points us to someone else besides God. God isn’t really our focus. That’s too hard.
So there’s President Nelson worship.
There’s Pope worship.
There’s priest worship.
And there’s self-worship.
And there are a million other super-powerful arms of the flesh out there that people put their trust in without looking to their God.
I just love the language of D&C 76, describing Telestial-level religion. I talk about powerful arms of the flesh, and D&C 76 provides a list of some of the most powerful guys ever. Here you go:
99 For these are they who are of Paul, and of Apollos, and of Cephas. 100 These are they who say they are some of one and some of another—some of Christ and some of John, and some of Moses, and some of Elias, and some of Esaias, and some of Isaiah, and some of Enoch;
I have a relative that jokingly calls out “Team Jesus!” all of the time. And seriously we love to think that we’re in the inner circle of those who Jesus REALLY approves of.
And maybe we’ll say to him at judgement, Lord, Lord, didn’t I do everything your prophet said to do? Didn’t I go to church and conference and serve as [name-your-calling-1] and [name-your-calling-2] and in the primary and nursery and [name-your-auxiliary]?
Yep, I built up a lot of evidence of my goodness. Do I love that evidence, or do I love God?
Isaiah 64:6-7
6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. 7 And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee: for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities.
Our list of works is nothing. Really. You will hate that list in the next life if you love that list in this life. Because if you saw that list in perspective, you would see that it is nothing compared to a real connection to God. And the real connection to God causes you to do God’s works, not your own. And when you see the truth of it you will see that everything you have and everything that you are belong to God.
More than three years ago God told me, “you don’t know me.” What a thing to hear from God!
None of the evidences that I could have listed at the time could have possibly refuted that.
At that time here were the “good works” I could have used to justify myself. But looking on them now, they indeed look like filthy rags to me:
- But I’m on the high council
- But I served as young men’s president
- But I go to church every week
- But I spend a ton of my free time serving the church
- But I pay my tithing to the church, faithfully
- But I have a temple recommend
- But I got baptized
- But I got all my temple ordinances
- But I preach a good sermon in church
- But I teach great gospel doctrine lessons
- But I pray every day
- But I spend significant time in the scriptures every day
- But I make lunch for my kids
- But I do tons of stuff for my family and friends and employees
- But I give lots of priesthood blessings
Matthew 7:
22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you (JST: ye never knew me): depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
Your works aren’t nothing. They are something. But they don’t mean that you know God.
You can make a casserole and take it to your neighbor, but that doesn’t cause you to know God. You can make 10 casseroles, and that also doesn’t cause you to know God. You can make a thousand casseroles and 200 quilts, and that also doesn’t cause you to know God. You can spend all day every day in the temple, and that also doesn’t cause you to know God.
You’d understand this properly if the New Testament described the Pharisees as “makers of casseroles.” And they obviously did good stuff for their own neighbors. And they also brought offerings for the poor into the temple. They did lots of what we would call good works.
But they didn’t know God.
And no accumulation of good works can get you there by itself. In fact, good works are a false idol.
On the other hand, if your primary objective is to get God’s spirit and hear his voice, then suddenly the equation is turned on its head.
Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
Good works! What?
Any light you have didn’t originate from you. It’s God’s, which he is overly willing to give you. And works you do, though you do them, need to be God’s as well. And the whole sum of the equation is that when we know God and actively follow him, we do his works, not ours. And naturally these works will begin to look more and more like what Jesus did.
- Spirit First – God’s thoughts for us, infused with his Spirit
- Good Works – acting in the Spirit we received
Question: is the voice of the Spirit a voice, or is it actually the vibration of that spirit? Or both? (In other words, once we have God’s spirit, does it change everything about our hearts/thoughts/actions?)
The scriptures tell us that when the Earth is renewed it will be nothing like our current earth.
Isaiah 65:17 ¶ For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.
If you think your view of God and what he requires is something like what goes on here today, you may want to think again. God says his thoughts are higher than ours as the heavens are higher than the Earth.
Isaiah 55:
8 ¶ For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Our main objective needs to be to tune into God’s spirit – his thoughts. And nothing about that comes naturally.
(The absolute HUBRIS of throwing a bunch of casseroles/works at God to show him that we’re worthy of him. Not that there’s anything wrong with casseroles…)
Again, this takes us back to Pharisaical works–which were “sacrifices” to appease an angry God, or something like that.
When introducing the new and everlasting covenant, Jesus directly addressed this attitude and said he had a better way. Maybe we could read this a little differently than usual:
3 Nephi 9:
19 And ye shall offer up unto me no more the shedding of blood; yea, your sacrifices [in other words, your self-appointed “good works” outside of my Spirit] and your burnt offerings shall be done away, for I will accept none of your sacrifices [your works, outside my Spirit] and your burnt offerings.
20 And ye shall offer for a sacrifice unto me a broken heart and a contrite spirit. [Ah! Becoming as a child before God to care about doing HIS works!] And whoso cometh unto me with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, him will I baptize with fire and with the Holy Ghost…
Oh…I need to submit to God’s Spirit first and foremost?
Yes.
And don’t move on to those make-me-feel-good-works too quickly after feeling the stirrings of his Spirit. Because God wants to immerse (baptize) you in his Spirit. He wants to speak to you, much more directly than you know.
2 Nephi 32:
1 And now, behold, my beloved brethren, I suppose that ye ponder somewhat in your hearts concerning that which ye should do after ye have entered in by the way. But, behold, why do ye ponder these things in your hearts?
3 Angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore, they speak the words of Christ. Wherefore, I said unto you, feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do.
Ah, works. Not self-appointed. Spirit/God-appointed.
5 For behold, again (Nephi’s putting quite some emphasis on this, isn’t he?) I say unto you that if ye will enter in by the way, and receive the Holy Ghost, it will show unto you all things what ye should do.
And just in case the first two times weren’t clear enough, Nephi says it again:
8 And now, my beloved brethren, I perceive that ye ponder still in your hearts; and it grieveth me that I must speak concerning this thing. For if ye would hearken unto the Spirit which teacheth a man to pray, ye would know that ye must pray; for the evil spirit teacheth not a man to pray, but teacheth him that he must not pray.
9 But behold, I say unto you that ye must pray always, and not faint; that ye must not perform any thing unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall pray unto the Father in the name of Christ, that he will consecrate thy performance unto thee, that thy performance may be for the welfare of thy soul.
Not too many months back, I wondered what was next on the list of things God wanted me to do. Because I worry about that kind of thing. And as I pondered it, I heard in my heart: “Can you please just sit with me for a while every day?” 😭
What a thing for God to say to me. And how completely contrary to my natural instincts.
There’s more to be said about this. Because it’s life-changing.
But casseroles are celestial, right?