This day and age is just way too much about “what’s in it for me?” “My time is too valuable!” I love that one, I’m so important just get the heck out’va my way, because it’s all about me.

Really?

Let’s think about this for a minute, are we so tunnel-visioned, so narrow, so myopic as to think it really is all about me? Absolutely we do what we are moved to do, what the Holy Spirit is leading us to do, but in the end, it’s all about what the Father does in and through us. Much as you’d like to deny it, God could pull the plug on you at any minute, Jesus could return by midnight tonight, where does that leave you? You who was so sure that it was all about you.

I really think the following from Skye Jethani of “Leadership Journal Magazine”, hits it on the head. Worship is for eternity, there might not be any “payback” by the end of the Fiscal Year, but your FY isn’t even a blip in contrast to eternity. Worship is not about payback, it’s, well I will get out of Pastor Jethani’s way: “

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“We [Americans] interpret everything through a lens of pragmatism, through a transactional understanding of the world. Many of us come to church Sunday after Sunday with an expectation of receiving something … But God does not exist to be useful. God exists to be adored, simply because of who he is. True worship is never transactional. True worship expects nothing in return. True worship is, at its core, an act of senseless, wasteful, indulgent beauty.”

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OK, if you really have to, think of worship as a down payment on eternity, but really look to what the Holy Spirit is doing in you. And really, it’s just not going to happen without worship. Worship is that time when we “come home” at least for a moment. We have that little taste of heaven, we are part of the Body of Christ, part of something much bigger then you, your job, your company, your… whatever. This is what you take back into the world on Monday.

Stop with the payback stuff, be a part of something much bigger then you can imagine, stop playing around with your life, your eternal destiny. Does going to worship make you a lock for eternity in the presence of Christ? NOOOO, but if you’re never before Him, if you truly think that it’s all about you, that it’s all about what’s in it for payback, ya well…

Are you in relationship with Jesus? He died for you, He died so that you would be in relationship with the Triune God, so that you could know what His earthly plan is for you and also His eternal plan for you. You have to live it out, if you are going to be in relationship with Him, doesn’t it stand to reason that you, at least once in awhile, pay a visit, be a part of the Body of Christ? Are you in relationship with your spouse? And what, just show up couple of times a year?

God bless, worship at First St Johns 140 W King St, York, Pa.   10:30 Sunday mornings hint, hint, hint.