First things First // Rev. Matt Kennedy // Jul 19 2026

One of the major shifts that took place in the human mind during the age of enlightenment and the rise of democracy is the idea that religion was simply one "part" of your life among many. It has resulted in the idea that "worship" is simply what we do on Sunday mornings, and is related to the very specific spiritual activities like saying a prayer, singing a song, or attending a service. This was a departure from the pre-modern worldview that had no distinct categories of religious and secular: everything was spiritual! Worship is more than just a set of pious activities. Worship is what your entire life orbits around. One psychologist suggested, "Your 'god' is whatever is at the top of your hierarchy of values." Where you put your focus and what you spend your days pursuing will say more about who your god is than what box you check on a religious questionnaire.The first of the Ten Commandments tells us to worship nothing and no one except, "the God who brought you out of Egypt" (Exodus 20:2-6). The commandments begin with what we worship because worship will direct every other motive and method in our life. Like a ship whose course is off by a mere single degree, when our worship is misdirected it will not take long to become completely lost at sea. This Sunday we'll unpack the meaning of worship and tackle some challenging questions that have an incredible impact on the direction of our lives.