February 7, 2024 -- Hebrews 12:28-29 -- Getting off the Treadmill

Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, 29 for our God is a consuming fire.
Hebrews 12:28-29 ESV

Ever heard of the hedonic treadmill? It is a theory that what makes us happy can only make us happy for a little while and then we go back to our set point of happiness. For example, you might hear your favorite song on your play list. You hit repeat. You might still enjoy it a third time, but what happens if it is played fifty times in a row? You might think “I never, ever, want to hear that song again”. Those who take drugs or alcohol become like hamsters on a wheel. The faster they go, the more exhausted they become, and they never get anywhere. Where once a bit of a chemical made you happy, soon you’ll need more and more and your exhausted brain and body can’t process it but you still crave more in order to get the same high you had before.

Paul is writing to a people who were looking backwards. They were focused on the old ways of Jewish practices. They had hoped what they used to do might now bring greater happiness and peace. They were going in the wrong direction. All the practices of the Old Testament were all pointing forward to Jesus Christ. He is the ultimate fulfilment of God’s plans and promises. In Him, there is joy unspeakable full of glory (I Peter 1:8). 

The worship of God is not like a treadmill, or a hamster wheel, because the more one knows about God, the more there is to explore, to know, to love, to respond to with awe and praise. He is a consuming fire—He is infinite in His wisdom, infinite in His glory, infinite in His being. The more we explore, there more there is to know. So worship is not a treadmill, or a stationary experience, it is a journey that leads us onwards and forwards our whole life through. Knowing Jesus Christ, and His perfect obedience and faithful love is enough to fill a whole life-time of contemplation. The Holy Spirit takes the things of God and the Word of God and sets them ablaze for us so that it is with reverence and awe that we approach the Majestic High King of Heaven offering our praise, ourselves, our contrition, our humble adoration. The more we yield to Him, the greater is our desire to know Him and submit. The greater our submission and love, the greater is the pull to know Him and adore Him. It is proper hedonism—pursuing God with all we have, all we are and with all our mind.

Mighty God, Who brings peace to His people through Jesus Christ—the Great Shepherd of the sheep—equip us by Your Spirit so that we can respond to Your steadfast love. Work in us what is pleasing to You, so that we can offer to You acceptable worship, with reverence and awe that never grows old, or boring, or cold. Amen.

https://youtu.be/u0a1Pq9avbg?si=X3dmj5lOHq0hEMq_ O Worship the King

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