Why Are We Building Altars?

INTRODUCTION

° A Woman’s Worship

° Walking with a Map

I.  LOOK AROUND & WITHIN (Acts 17:22-23b)
(“Where and what do we worship?”)

° Everyday Athens, Undercover Altars, Unknown Gods

            We confine worship, but Scripture defines it. 

            Worship gives someone/something the "ownership of ultimate worth."

II.  TEST THE VOICES, CHALLENGE OUR BELIEFS (Acts 17:23c-26)
(“What drives our worship?”)

° The Voice of the Consensus 

° The Voice of Scripture  (The Creator-creature Distinction)

           Rom 1:18, 21-25

           Suppressing the Beachball

III.  FOLLOW THE TRAIL TO THE FINISH (Acts 17:27-31)
(“How can we truly worship?”)

° Pagan Pointers

            The Parable of the Blind Men & the Elephant

° Jesus, the King’s Speech

COMMUNITY MEDITATIONS

Growing in knowledge (truth)

° How does the “voice of the consensus” address our symptoms, but not necessarily our basic condition? 

° How does the beachball metaphor relate to the suppressing of the “Creator-creature Distinction” in Rom. 1:18, 21-25?

° Explain how The Parable of the Blind Men & the Elephant undermines its own message.

Feeling life deeply (experience)

 ° Consider what suppression and the resulting worship of created things looks like in your life.  To whom/what have you given the ownership of ultimate worth that belongs to God alone?

° Meditate deeply on how Jesus’s death and resurrection relate to the death of our false worship of created things and the resurrection of true worship of the Creator.

Living  with courage (mission)

° Use “the map” as you journey through life with people.  Encourage them to look around & within (where & what we worship), test the voices and challenge their beliefs (what drives our worship), and follow the trail to the finish (how we can truly worship).