Thesis
True worship begins when we honestly reckon with the vast gap between God's majesty and our smallness, and then marvel that the God who created billions of galaxies would still die to bring us into His presence. Colossians 1 declares that everything was created through Christ and for Christ, meaning worship is not merely an event we attend but a whole-life embrace of the truth that we were made by Jesus, for Jesus, through Jesus. When we reduce that purpose to 'made by God for good,' we make ourselves the judge of what is good, and our walk with God collapses the moment life gets hard.
Key points
- 1
Everyone worships — the only question is what and how, not whether.
- 2
Seeing the gap between God's majesty and our smallness is the starting point of worship.
- 3
Everything was created through Christ and for Christ — we were made by Jesus and for Jesus.
- 4
Replacing 'for God' with 'for good' makes us the arbiter of what is good and turns worship into a performance aimed at earning blessings.
- 5
Jesus holds all creation together, and He reconciled us to God through His blood on the cross, making us holy and blameless before the Father.
- 6
Job's story shows that God answers our most wrecked moments not with explanations but with a revelation of Himself — and that sight is what produces genuine worship.
- 7
Standing firm in the truth that we were made by Jesus, for Jesus, through Jesus is itself an act of worship — expressed in Bible reading, prayer, and gathered community.
Outline
Everyone Worships Something
The pastor opens by asserting that every human being is a worshiper by design — the question is never whether we worship but what we worship. He illustrates this with the spectacle of die-hard sports fans and his own childhood experience of gazing at a meteor-filled night sky, which evoked the same awe David describes in Psalm 8.
The Gap: God's Majesty vs. Our Smallness (Psalm 8)
Drawing on Psalm 8:1-4, the pastor shows that David's question — 'Who are mere mortals that you should think about them?' — is not despair but wonder. He expands the point with modern astronomy (billions of galaxies, the star Antares) to deepen our sense of that gap and argue that the bigger the gap, the more powerful our worship must become.
Made By God AND For God (Colossians 1:15-22)
The pastor introduces the series' big idea from Colossians 1: everything was created through Christ and for Christ. He challenges listeners to move beyond merely believing they were 'made by God' to fully embracing that they were also 'made for God,' warning that substituting 'for good' leads to a self-centered, performance-based faith that collapses under pressure.
The Danger of 'Made for Good'
Using the illustration of a US flag made in China, the pastor exposes the contradiction of knowing we are made by God while living for something other than God — whether a spouse, career, finances, or identity. He argues this misalignment is why many Christians oscillate between spiritual highs and running away from God when life gets difficult.
The Answer Is Who He Is, Not Who We Are
Returning to Colossians 1:19-22, the pastor explains that God reconciled us to Himself through Christ's blood, presenting us holy and blameless before Him — not because of who we are but because of who He is. This truth, he argues, is what uniquely distinguishes Christianity and makes genuine worship possible.
Job: Seeing God in the Wreckage
The pastor walks through Job's story as the ultimate case study: a faithful man whose life was destroyed, who resisted cursing God but demanded answers. God's response was not explanation but self-revelation, leading Job to say, 'I had only heard about you before, but now I have seen you.' The pastor applies this to listeners whose circumstances are most broken, calling it an invitation to see God most clearly.
Call to Worship and Closing
The pastor closes by restating the big idea — worship is minding the gap and embracing with all of life that we were made by Jesus, for Jesus, through Jesus — then invites a moment of reflection through a song drawn from the Job passage and closes in prayer.
Memorable moments
The question is not if, it's what and how
My worship is gonna be as powerful and meaningful as the gap. Because the bigger the gap, the more blown away we are that he would give a rip about you
Paraphrase
Singing doesn't result in worship. Worship results in singing.
I had only heard about you before, but now I've seen you with my own eyes
God wants to answer us, but not with answers, but with the answer, himself
we don't have to run with our shame and our guilt away from God until we clean it up. We run to Him because He died to clean it up
Application
The pastor's challenge is direct and personal: stop asking 'Who am I?' and start asking 'Who is He?' Genuine worship is not a Sunday event you attend or a song you sing — it is the whole-life decision to make Jesus first in everything, especially in the places where trust feels hardest. Whatever you are wrestling with right now — a relationship, a financial pressure, an unanswered question, a season where life feels wrecked — that is the holy ground where worship happens. Rather than demanding answers from God or running from Him in shame, run to Him, because He has already declared you holy and blameless through Jesus. Read your Bible, pray, and gather with other believers not out of obligation but as acts of standing firm in that truth. You were made by Jesus, for Jesus, through Jesus — and living from that reality is what you were created to do.
