What Do You “Really” Worship

Your fears, your calendar, and your bank account are telling a story about what you truly worship. 

In this episode, Tim Owen walks through one of the most sobering warnings in Scripture and brings it home to a simple, life-changing question: are you organized around what’s temporary — or what lasts forever? 

Because there’s an altar worth building. And it changes everything.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Check out our YouTube Channel “You Finishing Well” and our website: www.youfinishingwell.com 

All you have to do is go to our website and sign up for updates - all free. 

Stay strong, pure, and like Christ - Thanks for taking the journey with me! 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Well, I want to ask you a question today. Do you have a secret altar that you're worshiping on? You know, a lot of people don't think of themselves as worshipers, but we all worship something. So welcome back to You Finishing Well. This is Tim Owen, and I want to talk about what do you worship. So when you talk about worshiping, it kind of deals with another topic that you really don't think about, and I'm going to introduce that topic in a question. What do you most fear losing? And not what you just say when you think people are thinking something about you or the public image, but what actually keeps you up at night or you really find yourself totally immersed in? Because here's what I've come to believe. And I want you to kind of chew on this slowly with me. Your real object of worship is not what we typically say or present to other people, it's what you've organized your life around. It's what you sacrifice time for. And it's really, listen to this closely, I think it's what you fear most of losing. And I think that is our functional altar. So I want to kind of break this down with three diagnostic questions. What do you fear most in losing? And what do you organize your life around? I mean, what's that priority thing? And here's a real deep one. What do you sacrifice your time, your energy, and your money for? Because I think these three questions, taken honestly, they're going to show what you and I actually worship. Not what you claim to worship, but what you actually worship. So here's kind of a different way to look at it. Normally, it's not the things that we say out loud, but it's it's written all over our calendar. It's on our bank statements. And it's the thing that causes that sick knot in your stomach when you think about losing it. And I can tell you, I have had seasons in my life, if someone had watched my behavior, they would have said, Man, who in the world is this guy? I don't even know this guy. Does he even know Jesus? And I honestly, just being honest, have done things where people have looked at me and just wondered who in the heck I was. And looking back, I can really trace it. My behavior was downstream of my belief system. It was. And what I was worshiping at the time produced what I was doing every single time. And it's not just true for me, I think it's a principle. Our behavior, listen, our behavior is downstream of our belief system. What we worship shapes who we become. You know, what brought this up was a passage in Deuteronomy that I want to share with you. And God was speaking to the Israelites right before they entered the promised land. Really, that's what all Deuteronomy is all about. It's the second generation. The first generation had died in the wilderness. The second generation was about to enter the promised land. And Deuteronomy is really meaning second law. So Moses is recapping and telling the second generation what he had told the first generation. And he warns them not to worship him the way this or worship God, the way the surrounding nations in the promised land worship their gods. And here's what he said in Deuteronomy 12, 31. He said, Don't worship the Lord your God that way, because the Lord hates the evil ways they worship their gods. They even burn their sons and daughters as sacrifices to gods. Be sure to do everything I have commanded to you, and do not add anything to it, and do not take anything from it. So wait just a second. If you're listening, burning children. Now, I mean, how did that come about? Back in those days, mothers and fathers would place their children on an altar and burn them alive actually as an act of worship. I mean, how does a human being actually get there? Well, here's the brief answer. The gods of the Canaanites and Moloch and Baal, they were gods of fertility, prosperity, and harvest. The belief system that was the greater sacrifice, if you would, the greater blessing, if you did it, you would have this huge blessing returned. And over and over, generations would worship this, but the belief system escalated. And what started out as grain offerings and animal sacrifices really later grew to parents burning their children because they hoped that this would improve the fertility of their life. Their behavior followed their belief system completely. I mean, it was tragic to place a child on a burning altar alive. So now, before you kind of distance yourself from that, and you're like, man, I would never do that, and you and you never would, but are we sacrificing things on our altars? They're just different kind of altars. But the truth is we all worship something. I mean, is it achievement? Is it status? Is it really I want to be successful and I want to have money and I want to live the good life? Somehow we have burned something precious in our life because we're trying to achieve or worship something else. And so I'm not throwing stones at anybody because, again, I have been here myself, but it does drive the question: what am I worshiping and what has it cost me? So let me name a few functional gods that we all have in our culture. I think some people fear death so deeply that they organize their entire life around the pursuit of more time, more health, more control over their body, and there's nothing wrong with taking care of yourself, but when the fear of dying becomes a god that drives everything, that's a form of worship. Some worship their appearance, the status, and the image that they carry in front of people. They sacrifice enormous amounts of energy, emotional stress, financial, relational, maintaining some kind of version of themselves that other people will approve of. The book of Proverbs says this in Proverbs 3130, charm is deceptive, and beauty, as you well know, is fleeting. But a woman who fears the Lord will be praised. Now I know that sounds a little bit churchy, but some do worship their appearance. Some worship comfort or wealth or the accumulation of things, and Jesus addressed all of these things. In Matthew six, nineteen to twenty-one, he said, Don't store treasures for yourselves here on earth where moths and rust will destroy them, and thieves can break in and steal them. But store your treasures in heaven, where they cannot be destroyed by moths or rust, and where thieves cannot break in and steal them. Listen, this is the this is the the the optimal verse. Your heart will be where your treasure is. Matthew six, nineteen through twenty-one. I mean it's true, right? In other words, follow the money, follow the calendar, follow the fear, and you will find the altar. You just will. Some are in a in the grip of deep addiction, and addiction is probably one of the most honest forms of worship there is. I mean, it just demands everything. It demands your time, your body, your relationships, your future. It takes and it takes and it takes. Addiction, we see it, we counsel it. It's horrible, it's weighty. And some people worship relationship, they worship acceptance. I was one of those people. Some are addicted to certain images. They need people to see them in a particular way, and they will sacrifice nearly anything to protect that image. So the question is not whether you worship something. The question really is what are you worshiping? And here's the reality. I say, and I don't say this to be morbid or honest, we live, we die, and then we are judged. I mean, that really should be our mentality that we wake up with every day. In Hebrews 9.27, it says, everyone must die once, and after that, be judged by God. I mean, that's it. That's the sequence. All of this, the status, the comfort, the relationship, the appearance, the wealth, the achievement, it's all, listen, it's all temporary, every last bit of it. And I'm not telling you to live as if it doesn't matter, because when you think temporary, sometimes you don't even really care. I'm I'm not saying to be irresponsible or careless, but are you living like this is all that there is in in your life? Because it isn't. And you and here's the di the deal. You know it's not. You've watched people die, you've stood at a graveside, and you felt something shift in your chest. I mean your heart moves, and it's something you couldn't explain away. But it is something you know. And here's the thing. And you already know this, but I'm gonna say it anyway, and you've heard it heard it a million times. Nobody takes anything with them. They don't take their money, their status, their comfort, their relationships, nothing. You don't take your spouse, you don't take your kids, you don't take the body that you spent so much time trying to maintain. I mean, the Apostle Paul said it like this in 1 Timothy 6 7 we brought nothing into the world so we can take nothing out. Your body, and you know this, is dying a little bit every single day. And I don't think that's negative or pessimism, it's just biology. I mean, the question isn't whether the day is coming, the question is, are you ready for what's coming after that day? So if death is coming and judgment is coming, what should we be organizing our life around? And yes, it does. Uh you and if you've known me well enough, it does always go back to God. It goes back to Jesus Christ, who entered our story and he lived the life that we cannot, will not. He died a death that we deserved, so that the judgment of fear could come for all of us and it would become a homecoming. And then when he left and went back to heaven, he gave us the helper, the Holy Spirit, the one who actually lives inside of your body. So Jesus isn't just Savior, he is Lord. And there is a difference in both of those. We love the saving part, I say that all the time, but the Lord part of loving him and following him, that is where we struggle. I mean, to love people well, to forgive, which by the way, isn't something you do naturally, it is what breaks the chains off of us. When we follow Christ, all of that burden, the no, well not all of it, but a lot of emotion and a lot of weight that we drag around with us, it just goes away. Now, don't get me wrong, I am not saying that you, once you follow Christ, you will never have any problems because even Christ said in this life there will be troubles. But there is there is a weight that is lifted. It's a new way of thinking. You are thinking temporary. You plan for eternity, but you live in the present knowing that it is temporary. I mean, it kind of shifts you to loving people well and to forgiving. I mean, many of us are still walking around with and saying to ourselves, I'll never talk to that person again. And and forgiving, as you well know, it is what breaks the chains off of you. And then it helps us serve, which I think is one of the most counterintuitive pathways to fullness. If you want to be full, if you want to change your bad day to a good one, be nice to people and serve. Somehow, I don't know how, but the more you give, the more full you feel. It's true. You're just not empty. And then as you take care of your body that God gave you, not because it lasts forever, but because right now it is the residence of the Holy Spirit. So God's word, it's permanent. I mean, how much do you actually invest time and energy in reading and knowing and living his word? People, they're permanent, they're made for eternity. Christ, he's permanent, but everything else, it's temporary. And here's the thing about temporary versus permanent. A wise person organizes their life, listen, around the things that last. Even Jesus said himself in 1 John 2.17, the one who does what God wants will live forever. And that is an altar, or excuse me, an altar worth building on. So I want to close where I started. What are you worshiping today? Not last year, not the version of yourself you used to be. Right now, what are you most afraid of losing? What is your life actually organized around? Where does your sacrifice actually go? And if the answer is convicting you a little bit, that's a good thing. Let it because conviction, it's not really condemnation. Conviction is God, and I'm not trying to be a melancholy here, but it is God knocking on a door that you may have had shut or maybe even locked for a long, long time. So I want to kind of speak directly to someone right now who has never really surrendered their life to Christ, not just intellectually and accept Him as He exists, and not just maybe someone who's grown up in church. I mean really surrendered. What do I mean by that? I mean confess, just come and be honest. This is who I am, this is how I've been living, and these are the things that I have worshiped, and I'm worshiping now. And what I'm saying is give him the keys, hand him the will, make him the Lord, not just your Savior that gets you to heaven, but the Lord of your life. And you may have called him Savior, but the question is, have you called him Lord? Because that is the difference between a transaction. I've just accepted him and now I'm a believer. That's a transaction. But has transformation actually happened? You know, there are a lot of people counting on transaction that never really took place. Why do I say that? Because they've not had transformation. And here's the gospel in just plain language. You and I were born bent toward ourselves. We just were. Toward our own altars. And that bent, the Bible calls it sin. It separates us from God, the holy God. We can't fix it by just being better or changing our behavior. We can't earn our way back. The gap's way too big. So God crossed that gap. He crossed it with Jesus Christ. He was fully God, fully man. He lived the perfect life that God requires that you and I could not live, and then he died the death that your sin and mine deserved. I mean, is that something you can believe in? He took the judgment. He absorbed it. He three days later walked out of the tomb to prove that death doesn't get the last word. He defeated death. And he is offering that to all of us every single day, a completely new life. And it's not a religious life, it's a resurrected life. It's one that has organized around something that simply cannot ever be taken from you. It can't rust, it can't get lost. And at the end, when your heart stops beating, you transition to something beautiful for eternity. And all he asks is that you turn from your altar. Because that's that could be what you're worshiping today. And then simply, I know this sounds so religious, but I'm gonna say it anyway, and turn to him. And that you trust Jesus, you trust him, not just the one who gets you to heaven, but as the one who changes how you run your life today. So if that is you, if you're if there's something in you saying, you know, I just really need to do that, I say don't wait. Don't finish, don't even finish this podcast. Say to yourself right now, I really want to give my life to Jesus Christ. And that is the moment when it's really real, when you really have surrendered, when you really have confessed, that is the moment everything changes. You will begin, I know it doesn't sound like it's it's possible, but your mind actually changes the way you think. You actually become a new creation from the inside out. And if you're one of those kind of people that have really believed and you do trust Christ as your Savior, maybe, maybe this is just a recalibration for you. Maybe it's a moment to honestly look at your altar. What are you building your life around? What's running your life? Is it the schedule? Is it the kids? Is it the sports? Is it is it your appearance? Is it the gym? Is it a relation? I mean, what is it? Is it or is it Christ? Because the truth is we all drift. I drift, I mean, I'm the guy doing the podcast, and I drift. The question isn't have you drifted? The question is, will you come back? I mean, will you? So, as usual, let me pray, and and I hope you always stay for my prayers because this is the most important part of my podcast. It's the part that we visualize God looking down at us. So if you're driving a car, you're working, or whatever it is you're doing while you listen, he's looking down at you right now. And sitting beside him, this prayer, Christ is bringing this prayer to God for you and for me. And the Holy Spirit, even when we don't pray, the Holy Spirit is praying on our behalf. It is the most important part of the podcast. So let's pray. God, we just do come to you with honesty, man, with confession. We worship other things other than you. We just do. So I don't want to stand before you someday and realize that my life was worshiping some other version. So whether it be comfort or relationship or some kind of fear. I want you to look at me and know after I die, I have been worshiping you. I want you to help. Me see the truth. I mean the real truth. I want you to help me redirect my worship and redirect my sacrifice. Help me spend my time and my energy. Well, actually, it's your time and your energy and your money, but you know what I mean. And all of my remaining days, because I'm a cancer guy, leukemia could come back. I don't know how many days I have, but help me worship and appreciate and live with gratitude of Jesus Christ. I mean, it's really simple. And because of my sin and because of my selfishness, those are the things I confess I naturally desire. I'm all about worshiping me in this time on this world that frankly is quite temporary. So I am just asking you to change what I desire. Do what only you can do. I'm asking you to reorder my altar. And I just pray these things because I need them. I want a new life and be a new creature. And Jesus takes my prayers to you, and I pray it in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Okay, my good people, if this has been something that has helped you, pass my podcast along. And until next time, have a beautiful day.