iPhone4!!!! it came it finally came!!! This past week I finally got the long awaited iPhone4. Anyone who knows me knows that my previous phone (which will remain unnamed, though named after a deliciously tart fruit and “a disturbance of the normal condition of the atmosphere,” courtesy of dictionary.com) was about the most frustrating phone i’ve owned. I’ve been waiting for the iPhone to come to Verizon basically since I became a Verizon user. And now I am finally amongst the elite and the proud.
…Our youth group is going through Paul’s epistle to the Romans right now, and I just preached on Romans 1:18-25 this past Sunday,
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18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
After I got this beautiful man-made creation in the mail, it hit me that this was merely the creature… the created. I started thinking about how excited I was when I got it…
I’ve been having a pretty “emo” week, dreading all the projects I have for school, thinking about how the heck I’m going to get things done when I have youth retreat this weekend, and not to mention that ministry and pastoring souls is starting to become a heavy burden rather than a joy. But once this iPhone showed up, I seemed to forget all those trials and worries for the moment.
I’ve been realizing that I might not be much different from these men who have clearly seen God, who have beheld His glory in His creation, and yet still reject God, and worship the created rather than the Creator. I can go on about how everyone should buy the iPhone, but can I get just as easily excited for my God? Can I go on for hours, convincing people why they should worship the One and True God, the God of the Bible? Or have I just exchanged the Creator for the creature? Worshipping a lie, a perishable material that will only be burnt and dissolved once the true reality comes to be?
According to Paul, true righteousness is proven in how we live our lives (“to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immorality – [the things attributed to God in 1:23] – he will give eternal life.” – Romans 2:7; and if you’re reading, PECYG, this is a much needed application from this past week’s message). And we live our lives in righteousness, seeking the things of God, by worshipping the things OF God, not the things FROM God; the Creator, not the created; so that the only one who deserves our worship is the one from whom all things come.
“they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.”
Fallen but Forgiven 