Holy smokes, this guy's pale. You know why? Because I'm living in the northern Minnesota and it's the middle of winter.

Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz and this is Ascension Presents. You know, we've been doing this Bible in a year thing for however long.

However long you've been going through it, that's all we've been doing it. But one of the things that happens is as we're reading through the Bible, especially those first five books of Moses, like known as the Torah, what we have is we have Exodus, we have Leviticus, we have Deuteronomy, we have numbers, those four particular books that talk about worship and they talk about here's how you are going to worship.

And one of the questions that comes up is why is God so preoccupied with our worshiping him? In fact, a lot of times our perception perspective, the way we see it is, wow, that seems a little bit desperate on the Lord's part, on God's part. Why does he need us to worship him? Great question, camper. Short answer, he doesn't need us to worship him. Actually God needs nothing. So here is the thing. Sometimes we fall into the trap of anthropomorphizing God, right?

So he reveals himself to be a person, in fact a Trinity a person, Father, Son, Holy Spirit. But we anthropomorphize God. And even in scripture there's sometimes the ways in which Scripture depicts God or talks about God is he regretted in his heart, he was grieved to his heart, like some of those things, and the way they're trying to do is they're trying to tell us something deep about God.

But God is not human being, he's not one of us, actually separate Jesus incarnate in the flesh. Here's what we know about God, that God fully sufficient in himself did not need anything, he didn't want anything, God did not create the universe because he was lonely. In fact, what we believe about God is that he's a Trinity of persons, right?

So he is a communion of persons, he lacks for nothing, lacks nothing. So in creating human beings, as I said, it wasn't because he's like, I'm just so lonely, want to make some people who can either I can either speak because I'm lonely and I want something, or I feel lack of attention towards myself.

And here's the thing, God is not someone on Instagram who's starved for likes, that is just massively important that we establish this very clearly. God is not starved for likes, he's not starved for attention, he's not starved for anything. God is fullness itself, he is being itself, he is sufficient unto himself.

So he doesn't need anything. So then, why does he keep saying, here's how you're going to worship me, why does he seem so eager for us, not desperate, but eager for us to worship him? Couple of reasons, here's one reason.

One is because he knows what we're made for.

Here's God, who is the fundamental ground of being, there's literally nothing that exists outside of God. Our hearts are made for ultimate meaning, our hearts are made for ultimate truth, our hearts are made for ultimate beauty, ultimate goodness, which is another way to say, our hearts are made for him.

And so when we put other things ahead of him, our hearts are the things that are wounded. Like when we put other things ahead of God, it's our hearts that become distorted, it's us who lack something.

So when God says, worship me, what he's saying is, I'm inviting you into this relationship because not just the relationship, I'm first thing, I'm inviting you to place me first because that's literally where I belong.

Number two, number one, priority. Number two, God even points out in Scripture, he says, do you think that I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats? Like I don't need those things. Then why do you ask for them? Because you need them.

What do you mean, in worship, we're called the sacrifice. We're called to give God our first fruits. What develops when we give God our first fruits?

So here's the first born calf, the first born lamb, the first fruits of one's field. What happens when we give God the first fruits? What we're saying is, God, I trust you. What we're saying is, God, I give you this thing, which for me represents security, for me represents certainty, for me represents the fact that I'm now safe. I'm now taking care of, I'm giving away my insurance because I trust you.

And there's something that happens to us in our relationship with God when we give him our first fruits, when we give him that worship, that actually means something to us. It actually costs us something. One of the things that costs us is it costs us our security. It costs us our guarantee, it costs us our insurance.

And so when we place those first fruits into God's hands or offer them to him that worship that act of sacrifice is an act of trust.

Number three, gosh, it's so important. See as Lewis talks about this, he talks about worship as an act of joy.

That again, here's not, here's God who's not desperate for us. God is not desperate for our attention. God's not starved for attention. He's not starved for anything. Why does he command us to worship him?

Because he said, Jesus says, I came that they might have life and have it abundantly. I came that you might joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. How is joy made complete in worship? Well, think about anything that's praiseworthy.

Think about anything that you love. Anything that captivates your imagination, captivates your heart, captivates your life, your attention, your time.

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