The American Idol Mindset

1 Corinthians 10:23-33

God and the Media - Week 3

The media focuses on creating an _______________ without regard to truth or morality.

Dangers for Worship:

1. FOCUS ON ___________________

Elijah went before the people and said, "How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him." But the people said nothing. 1 Kings 18:21

Baalism reduces the spiritual stature of the worshiper. Its canons are that it [worship] should be interesting, relevant, and exciting – that I should “get something out of it.” Eugene Peterson The Way of Jesus p 110.

A frequently used phrase in North American culture that is symptomatic of Baalistic tendencies in worship is “let’s have a worship experience.”…  It is the difference between cultivating something that makes sense to an individual, and acting in response to what makes sense to God.  In a “worship experience,” a person sees something that excites him or her and goes about putting spiritual wrappings around it…Worship becomes a movement from what I see or experience or hear, to prayer or celebration or discussion in a religious setting.  Individual feelings trump the word of God.  Peterson (p. 111)

Authentic worship means being present to the living God who penetrates the whole of human life…worship in the biblical sources and in liturgical history is not something a person experiences, it is something we do, regardless of how we feel about it, or whether we feel anything at all.  The experience develops out of the worship, not the other way around.  Peterson (p. 110-11).

There is an addictive quality to Baal.  Giving up Baal means that we give up control over God.  Peterson (p. 125)

2. WE BECOME _______________________

Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. …Until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant, until the houses are left deserted and the fields ruined and ravaged, until the LORD has sent everyone far away and the land is utterly forsaken.  Isaiah 6:10-12

The Holy is not a marketable God. Peterson (p. 142)

…God is other, above, majestic…God cannot be explained or interpreted by notions we have acquired by assembling feelings of reverence from sunsets, spiked with a few stories of miracles, and then legitimated with some comments that we pick up from celebrity interviews…Because of who God is, The Holy, we have to let God tell us who he is.  If we insist on using our ideas to from our image of God, we will get it all wrong.  Peterson (p.141)

Consumer-driven worship is _____________ worship

The fact is that men and women have no love or taste for The Holy – they want a God who serves them on their terms, not a God they can serve on his terms. Peterson (p. 143)

3.  WE EMPHASIZE OUR OWN _________________

"Everything is permissible"—but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible"—but not everything is constructive. Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others… 1 Corinthians 10:23-24

Homework:  What can I do this week to prepare myself for worship next weekend?