Acts 17:22-31
People of New Zealand, I see that you are very religious. I have been with you for a while now and I have observed the things you worship. Many of these things you do not acknowledge to be gods, but they are gods because you worship them. These gods are worshipped throughout New Zealand.
You see: worship is giving your life to something, living in submission to some other, being controlled by something, the following of religious rules. The god in each case is whatever is the controlling power.
Money is the god of many New Zealanders today and worship of money can take a number of forms. Some go all out to make as much money as they can. They use people to make money for them, they abuse people with the money they gain. They use money to give them power over others and generally get their lives the way they want them and to get more money.
Some make a lot of money so that they can spend it on things that make them feel good or feel important or significant or better than the next person or so that they can take life easy, or pay for their addiction.
The obsession that many in western society have with shopping is another form of money-worship. Don’t call it ‘retail therapy’ cal1 it ‘consumerism’.
Also in this realm of worship is everything that enslaves people — all those addictions and obsessions. Plenty of these: money, property, alcohol, tobacco, other addictive drugs, sex, pornography, peer pressure, loud music, work, pleasure, etc., etc. Whatever it is that controls you is your god. You can even be your own god. Heard about the self-made man who worshipped his creator?
There is another God whom kiwis have tried to ignore, so that they don’t really know him. So I want to tell you about him.
This God made the world and everything in it.
This God, who made the world, is in charge of it all too – the planet earth and everything on it as well as the rest of the universe in which earth floats.
He doesn’t need help from anyone. He gives life, breath and everything else to all people. From one person God made all nations who live on earth, and he decided when and where every nation would be.
Ever since there were people, they have looked at the world with awe. The complexity of the web of life, the vastness of the universe, the intricacy of creation’s smallest components, the power of natural forces, the range of our human intelligence and capacities and said “That is awesome!” The more we find out the more we cry, “Wow!”
Creation is so wonderful that some even-more-wonderful being must have created it. The Creator of this must be super intelligent and awesomely powerful. As we have thought about creation and our place in it, we have also become aware that we have responsibilities to our Creator.
More recently many people have said, “This world is a mistake, an accident, a chance occurrence. It wasn’t made, it just happened.” A lot of people like this idea, mainly to try to avoid their responsibilities to their Creator – which is something we’ve all probably tried at some stage. By denying his existence, overrating our own intelligence and capacities and worshipping something of our own making we try to keep control of our own lives. We all find out sooner or later, it’s such a total fail.
Over the last couple of decades Intelligent Design Theory has come to the fore and a number of scientists have gone for it. ID Theory states that the complexity and interconnectedness of living organisms and ecosystems are such that they could never have occurred by chance and must have been designed by some being with considerable intelligence. Who that intelligent being is is obvious to those who know God, but Intelligent Design theorists don’t yet go that far, saying they cannot name or identify the intelligence behind creation.
They’ve got it right in respect of what creation shows us though. Creation shows us our Creator God. The existence of God shows undeniably in the things God has made and creation also shows a lot about the kind of God God is. God has done all this, so that we will look for him and reach out and find him. He isn’t far from any of us, and he gives us the power to live, to move, and to be who we are. God isn’t far from any of us yet we often fail to recognise him.
Since God made us a lot like himself, it stands to reason that we know a lot about what God is like. With that knowledge we can rule out the also-ran gods worshipped by so many New Zealanders. God really isn’t like anything that humans have thought up and made.
In the past God forgave people because they didn’t know what they were doing. But now that Jesus has come and shown us so much more of God and God’s ways, God says that everyone everywhere must tum to him. To add emphasis to this he has set a day when he will judge the world’s people with fairness. And he has chosen the man Jesus to do the judging for him. God has given proof of this to all of us by raising Jesus from death.
Judgement? We don’t like the sound of that! What will the judgement be about? Commandment one: Worship the Lord God and only the Lord, no other.
In considering commandment-breaking we usually think of the latter six – about not stealing and not committing murder and stuff – but who has kept number one?
The Lord we are to worship is our creator God. And we worship the way he wants when we ask Jesus to forgive us for going our own way. And he forgives because he got that all sorted when he died on the cross and rose to life. And we worship right when we put God in charge of our lives and go all-out to live the way he wants us to. This includes having a relationship with God through Jesus Christ.
Relationship is what it’s all about – following the Spirit, not following rules. Attempts ‘to live by your own religious plans and projects’ don’t cut it. We come up with all sorts of plans and schemes and say to ourselves, “God will accept me if I do this.” But they’re not God’s ideas. He’s already told us what he wants us to do. If we do anything else we’re only fooling ourselves.
God holds us accountable — for our actions, our attitudes and especially our response to his offer of friendship. He sent Jesus to reconcile us with himself and Jesus will judge everyone according to commandment number one.
God has the right to be in charge of us – a double right in fact. God has the right to control us because he created us; and Jesus won the right to rule us when he died for us. God would be within his rights to compel us but he doesn’t. God gives us the choice to accept or reject Jesus. The choice is not a right, it is a privilege, a gift.
I found it so when I realised the choice I had to make. I looked at what Jesus had done for me – he had saved my life. Would I walk away from such love? I couldn’t. I had to thank him with all of my life, give it to him, put him in charge of me, and accept his life in exchange. Pretty good swap if you ask me.
What are you doing? How are you exercising your choice?
We are called to an everlasting preoccupation with God. So toss those false gods away. Get God to free you from your addictions. Commit yourself like Jesus did when he prayed before his crucifixion, “Not my will, Father, but your will be done.”
If at this time you are deciding whether to accept God’s claim on you, or if you have just decided to do so, or if you want to reaffirm God’s right to rule you, talk with God about it. Then contact a Christian who is close to you and talk with that person about it too, or get in touch with the author by leaving a comment.