The Ratings Game

My husband is a researcher. Anyone else married to one of those? He spends so much time researching something before making a decision about it. It is not a bad thing and has helped us out on many occasions...especially when we have had to make a big purchase, like a car or new laptop. I don’t have the patience for that, unfortunately. I will do a little research, but then I get bored and just pick one. Not him. He will spend hours reading reviews and checking ratings. I love that about him because it has saved us a lot of money and prevented us from making unwise decisions over the years. 

These days it seems like everything has a rating. TV shows, movies, restaurants, games, electronics, schools, stores, clothing, toys, apps…the list goes on and on. Apparently even people have ratings on social media and dating apps. People in the world today are quick to rate and leave a review about anything and everything. It seems like there is a rating app for just about anything that you can think of. There are ratings apps for restaurants, dates, beer, songs, books, movies, etc. There was even an app that allowed you to rate other people a few years ago. It was called Peeple, and it was described as “Yelp for people.” It didn’t last very long apparently. Turns out, it wasn’t necessary since people seem to have no problem posting reviews of others on Twitter and Facebook anyway, right? 

Ratings and reviews are normal to us. We are used to checking Yelp when we are looking for a new restaurant to try. We know that we can go to the Angi app if we need to find someone to do work on our home. We have come to trust Rotten Tomatoes when considering whether or not to pay a small fortune to go see that new movie in theaters or wait to stream it at home for free. Ratings have just become a normal part of life for us, and we are comfortable with them and trust them to help us make informed decisions about things. 

Here, in our human world, we rate things all the time because rating things is perfectly normal to us. But what if God operated the same way that we do here on earth? What if God rated us by our actions? What if God rated us by the words that we use each day? What if God rated us by the way that we treat people? What if God posted reviews of us on Twitter and Facebook every day? What if God treated us the same way that we treat others? Would you want your rating to be posted all over the internet for the whole world to see if God was the one who wrote it and it was based on how well we lived the way that Scripture tells us to? I know I wouldn’t.

Pastor Clay began a new series last Sunday about worship, so let’s start there. If God were to rate you based on how well you worship, how many stars would you get? What would He say in His review? 

God created us for worship. We are wired for it, but it was never meant to be about us. There are so many things vying for our worship. The enemy loves to use the things in our lives that were never meant to be worshipped against us. Things like our job, our spouse, our family, our friends, our passions, our creativity, our health, our education, and our interests. It is incredibly easy to put any of those things ahead of God on our priority list and begin worshipping them. Most of the time we don’t even realize that it is happening. 

So, how do you know when you have begun to worship something other than God? 2 Kings 17:36 says, “But worship only the Lord...Bow down to Him alone, and offer sacrifices only to Him.” (NLT) Ask yourself what you are willing to sacrifice for, and what you are currently sacrificing for in your life? Will you sacrifice time with your family for your job, but not sacrifice time watching Netflix to spend time in God’s word? Are you willing to sacrifice sleep time for the gym, but not willing to sacrifice sleep time for quiet time with God in the mornings? The things that we are willing to sacrifice for are the things that we begin to worship. 

Psalm 95:6 says, “Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.” (NIV) When was the last time that you came into God’s presence in true humility? Approaching God in humility is acknowledging His majesty, wisdom, and might. It is acknowledging that He is greater than we are and recognizing that we are not worthy to be in His presence. I feel like this happens a lot for people with pastors and teachers of scripture. I know that for many years, I relied on certain people and teachers for information about God and His word. I believed that they knew better than I did and approached them in the humility of knowing and acknowledging that fact. I did not realize that these people had become idols in my life until God dethroned one of them quite unexpectedly one day. 

I think many people unintentionally put pastors on the throne of God. They see pastors as having all the answers that they need and approach them in humility with the adoration that only God deserves. They unknowingly hold pastors in a higher regard than they do God. It is a hard pill to swallow when God has to dethrone someone before us to show us that we have exalted that person instead of God and made that person an idol in our lives. Psalm 99:5 tells us to exalt the Lord, not our pastors. 

Revelation 14:7 gives us another way to tell when we have begun to worship something other than God. It says, “...Fear God and give Him glory…worship Him who made the heaven and the earth... ” (NASB) Who or what are you glorifying these days? Do you find yourself taking all the credit for the things that have happened or are happening in your life? Do you believe that you are the reason that you live in the house you live in or drive the car that you drive? Do you make decisions out of respect and reverence for God, or do you let what other people think drive your decision making? The things that we glorify are the things that we worship, and the things that we fear are also the things that we worship. Those things have power over us. We give those things control, and those are the things that begin to determine our steps instead of God. 

The bottom line is that worship is a lifestyle. Worship is not something that just happens once a week on Sundays at church. God cannot be confined to one space or building. God is everywhere. He is all around us all the time. He created everything that we see, hear, taste, smell, and touch. God is the One that deserves our sacrifice. God is the One that deserves to be exalted in our lives. God is the One that we should always approach in humility, wonder, and awe. God is the One that should be glorified. Acknowledging all of these things is worship. Worship isn’t just about singing songs and deciding whether or not to raise your hands. Worship is the way that you live your life. Worship is what you base your decisions on. Worship is what you are willing to sacrifice for.  Worship is what you exalt and glorify in life. Don’t waste it on meaningless idols. Pour it out in the way that you live for the only One that truly deserves it.