When our worship is displeasing to God

DAILY BIBLE READING:

Ezra 10:1-44 
1 Corinthians 6:1-20 
Psalm 31:9-18 
Proverbs 21:3

BIBLE VERSE(S) FOR TODAY:

Proverbs 21:3 (CSB) "Doing what is righteous and just is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice."

REFLECTIONS ON TODAY'S BIBLE VERSE(S):

The Old Testament is filled with accounts of animal sacrifices. It's appalling and it should rightfully be so. It was never intended to be a thing of beauty. It was always intended to remind the worshiper of how serious their sin was in God's eyes and that their sin required a death sentence. Yet, it also reminded them that a gracious God made it possible for a substitute to die in the place of the sinful worshiper.

When Jesus, the ultimate and final sacrificial Lamb (John 1:29), came and died for sin once for all, "there is no longer a need for sacrifice" (Hebrews 10:18). In fact, God was so determined to end animal sacrifices that He had the Romans destroy the Jewish temple in A.D. 70.

Yet, when Solomon penned Proverbs 21:3, the practice of slaughtering animals was essential to Jewish life.

"Doing what is righteous and just is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice." (Proverbs 21:3)

However, did you notice that the LORD places a higher priority on something other than sacrifices? What did He value more? "Doing what is righteous and just."

Essential, Solomon was saying that God values the act of worship (OT sacrifice). Yet, He values much more the act of pursuing holiness (being set apart for Him by complying with His words).

This wasn't the only time God said this. In 1 Samuel, 15:22, God spoke through His prophet Samuel to a sinful King Saul:

"Then Samuel said: 'Does the LORD take pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the LORD? Look: to obey is better than sacrifice, to pay attention is better than the fat of rams.'" (1 Samuel 15:22)

Again, while God values the act of worship (OT sacrifices), He much more values the actions of obedience and holiness (being set apart for Him).

So, let's end by fast-forwarding to the New Testament in which we live. The principle is the same: God values a life of obedience and holiness much more than our acts of worship.

In fact, if we show up for worship and are going through the motions but realize that there is unconfessed, unresolved sin in our hearts, then we are to immediately stop worshiping, work to resolve the sin situation, and only then can we come back to worship. Otherwise, our worship is utterly distasteful to the Lord.

"So if you are offering your gift on the altar, and there you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled with your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift." (Matthew 5:23-24)

Friend, God wants you and me to worship Him. He desires that people would worship Him (John 4:23). Yet, our worship is utterly abhorrent to Him if we have unresolved sin in our hearts. 

So, determine to make things right with Him today. And then, offer up your worship to the God you serve and love.

Worship is costly

DAILY BIBLE READING:

2 Samuel 23:24–24:25 
Acts 3:1-26 
Psalm 123:1-4 
Proverbs 16:21-23

BIBLE VERSE(S) FOR TODAY:

2 Samuel 24:24 "The king answered Araunah, 'No, I insist on buying it from you for a price, for I will not offer to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.' David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for twenty ounces of silver."

REFLECTIONS ON TODAY'S BIBLE VERSE(S):

The principle spoken in our Verse for today is transferable. That means that it powerfully applies to us today, too.

The story in which these words were uttered involves a sin. The people of Israel and their king had done things that brought God's discipline upon them. At the conclusion, King David wanted to worship his God by offering a sacrifice. The man who owned the property where David wanted to build the alter offered to give everything to David. But, the king didn't want to worship his God with stuff that was given to him. He wanted his worship to be something that "cost (him)" something.

We are an egocentric bunch, aren't we. Our world revolves around ourselves. And our worship isn't immune to this mindset. We want to worship God in our own way and we ultimately want it to satisfy us. Little do we think that our ultimate aim should be the satisfaction of our God.

So, instead of worship costing us something, we actually want it to reward us.

Now, understand this: Worship is intended to be satisfying to the worshiper. It is supposed to be enjoyable. But it's ultimate aim is not self-centered. It is supposed to be God-centered. And the greatest way that we can demonstrate God's worth in worship is not by saying, "What can worship do for me?" but "What can I give to make my worship enjoyable to God?"

It should cost us something.

What should it cost us? What can we give to our God that He doesn't already have?

Ourselves!

Worship that is pleasing to God is worship in which we offer up our lives. We offer up the moments of our days. We offer up everything that we claim as our own. And we do this as we submit to God's authority over our life, giving Him 'permission' to do with us as He pleases.

Are you willing to worship God in a way that costs you something? If not, it's not really biblical worship.

Worshiping the God of all Creation

DAILY BIBLE READING:

Judges 13:1–14:20 
John 1:29-51 
Psalm 102:1-28 
Proverbs 14:15-16

BIBLE VERSE(S) FOR TODAY:

Psalm 102:25 "Of old you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands."

REFLECTIONS ON TODAY'S BIBLE VERSE(S):

I've picked verses like today's Verse for Today before. I love the ones that talk about the sky above us. I love looking especially into a clear night sky with all of its stars, getting caught up in the immensity of the space out there, and being moved to worship my Father who created it all.

Reflecting on how much God loves you

TODAY'S BIBLE READING:

Numbers 4:1–5:31 
Mark 12:18-37 
Psalm 48:1-14 
Proverbs 10:26

BIBLE VERSE(S) FOR TODAY:

Psalm 48:9 "O God, we meditate on your unfailing love as we worship in your Temple."

REFLECTIONS ON TODAY'S BIBLE VERSE(S):

I've said it before and I'll continue to say it again because it is a theme in Scripture - God doesn't want our mindless acts of worship. He wants our heart!

Whether we are worshiping on a Sunday morning with our church family or whether we are worshiping in our car on the way to work, God wants that adoration to flow from our inner being.

Well, if you are like me, you sometimes just don't feel like worshiping. You know you should. You want to. But, you just don't feel like it. 

So, how do you get your heart into a right attitude? Do what the Psalmist said: "Meditate on (His) unfailing love." Simply think deeply about how much God loves you. Think about how He demonstrated that love for you on the cross. Think about how He demonstrates that love for you each day by giving you your next breath of air, provides you with family and friends, and so much more.

When we come to realize how much God loves us, we will find it easy to worship Him from our hearts.

Enjoying God

TODAY'S BIBLE READING:

Exodus 15:19-17:7

Matthew 22:1-33

Psalm 27:1-6

Proverbs 6:20-26

BIBLE VERSE(S) FOR TODAY:

Psalm 27:4 (NLT) "The one thing I ask of the LORD - the thing I seek most - is to live in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, delighting in the LORD’s perfections and meditating in his Temple."

REFLECTIONS ON TODAY'S BIBLE VERSE(S):

The language of the verse for today shows a man who knew and loved his God. Showing up to the Temple wasn't something to check off his 'To Do' list - it was something that he desperately craved. It was the "one thing (he) asked of the LORD." It was "the thing (he) sought most." He realized that the LORD has intended for us to enjoy Him and he was enjoying that truth.

I wonder how many of us are simply trying to live a moral life and to be a "good Christian." And I wonder how many are really, really enjoying the Lord. We say all the time that Christianity is not a religion, it's a relationship - but too often we turn it into a dry, lifeless religion that lacks the joy of knowing God.

So, let's get really practical. How can we develop a relationship with the Lord where we are enjoying Him? Let me give you four points to ponder:

• Spend time listening to Him in His Word. Read your Bible daily. And I'm not talking about 5-10 minutes. Spend at least 30-60 minutes reading and pondering what God is saying. But, don't read it as a lifeless book - instead, read it as God's personal Word to you.

• Spend time speaking with Him in prayer. Don't just rattle off your requests. Share with the Lord exactly what is on your heart. If you feel like you need permission to let it all out in the presence of the Lord, read the book of Psalms. King David and the other psalmists were often incredibly 'real' with God and said things that we might not dare say in our own prayers. But, they were real and that's what relationship is all about. So, be open and honest with the Lord about everything - the good, the bad and the ugly. Rest in His love for you and let Him draw your heart closer to Him.

• Let difficulties cause you to lose your taste for sin. Oftentimes, it takes really painful ordeals in life to bring us to our senses. In the good times, when we aren't keenly aware of our need for God, we may tolerate sin in our life. Yet, when times get tough, God may cause us to see how clearly we need Him and how utterly self-defeating it is to do anything that would keep us from Him. It is in these times that we can learn to despise sin and lose our taste for it.

• Look for God's fingerprints around you. In the crazy, hectic pace of life, we often fail to see God's hands at work in the details. Yet, if we are looking, we will see acts of grace all around us. While we are not so egocentric as to think that God only demonstrates those acts of goodness on our behalf (there are so many other people that He loves, too), we realize that He is mindful enough to include us specifically in the details around us. Thank Him for each of those acts of kindness as you recognize them. (Reread that last sentence until you resolve to do it.) In seeing God at work all around you, you will come to see that He is to be enjoyed in every moment of our days.

There are many other ways that God works to invite us into deeper relationship with Him so that we can enjoy Him. But, from my own experience, these four are the biggies that God has used to help my wife and me enjoy Him more as the years go by.

Antares and Worshiping God

Ok, I love star-gazing. I'm looking to the SW and see the red planet, Mars. To the right of Mars is the bright planet, Saturn. If you look below Saturn, the bright star is Antares. That star is so far away that the light you are seeing began its journey (traveling 186,000 miles per second) before Columbus sailed the ocean blue.

Genesis 1:16 "And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars."

When you read Genesis 1:16, it's almost as if the stars, in their incomprehensible immensity, were an afterthought. "Oh, by the way, He made the stars, too. No big deal." Our God is awesome!

Preparing for Worship

https://flic.kr/p/5ua2ka

In three days, I will gather with my church family of friends for Sunday worship.

As a pastor, I had better be ready. When I stand to preach, there are many people who will expect that I have prepared. They want to hear a fresh word from the Lord from the Bible and they have every reason to expect that I am prepared to deliver it.

But there is another level of preparation that everyone must make, including me, if we are to get the most out of the worship service. If we are to have any expectation at all that God will speak to us and meet us in our deepest need, we must get our hearts ready before the service begins. 

Here are the Big Rock items:

ACKNOWLEDGE OUR SINS AND STOP THEM. If we have held a grudge against someone during the week, we'd better try to work it out before church. If we have hurt someone with our gossiping tongue, we must stop it and make it right. If we have taken something that doesn't belong to us, we had better return it. Etc., etc., etc.

REPENT OF OUR SIN AND RECEIVE FORGIVENESS. No matter what sin(s) we committed and who was affected by them, our sin problem is ultimately against a holy God. So, we have to make it right with Him. We must spend time in repentance (agreeing with God about the offensiveness of our sin and turning our back on it not to do it again). But, it is possible to plead with God for forgiveness and never consciously receive it. We must accept the cleansing that God is willingly offering to us.

SUIT UP IN THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF CHRIST. We must realize that what makes us fully pleasing to God is not our good deeds. It is the righteous garments that Jesus gave us when we were saved. We shouldn't go to church feeling like we've measured up to God's standard (pride) but realizing that Jesus is the One who makes us acceptable to God (humility).

Then, when we have made to spiritual preparations for worship it is quite possible that God will speak to us and meet us in our deepest need as we gather to worship Him together.

Genesis 35:2-3
"So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, 'Put away the foreign gods that are among you and purify yourselves and change your garments. Then let us arise and go up to Bethel, so that I may make there an altar to the God who answers me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone.'"

Don't just whimsically show up for church. Prepare for worship! One is a dry, boring religious practice. The other can satisfy our deepest longings.

Can getting fit be an act of worship?

One of the many joys of being saved is realizing that Jesus didn't just claim the allegiance of our spirit. He claimed our bodies, too!

Romans 12:1 (New Living Translation)

"And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice - the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him."

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (New Living Translation)

"Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body."

How is this a joy?

Because we realize that nothing in our life needs to be outside the realm of worship. When we exercise or eat or try to lose some weight, that can be an act of worship, an act that proceeds out of our heart of love for the Lord.

Because we love the Lord, we want to give Him our best. So, we take care of the body that belongs to Him that He has temporarily entrusted to us.

It's not just a body, though. God dwells inside it as His temple. When we truly come to understand that principle, we will be even more motivated to give Him a place to dwell that is worthy of His presence.

Why is this important? Well, one of the reasons is because our culture is so infatuated with epithelial tissue (a.k.a. 'skin'). Even Christians can succumb to getting their bodies slim and trim so that they can merit the attention of others. They don't mind getting their bodies into shape so that they can impress others with how they appear. Their motive is wrong and they are stepping dangerously close to the line of temptation that has claimed so many lives (and marriages).

Take care of God's temple today. If it needs a 'spring cleaning,' begin today.

But, don't do it because you care what others will think when they see your body. Instead, do it because your body belongs to the Lord. He lives inside your body and you want to provide Him with a temple worthy of His presence.

Distorted 'worship'

In the biblical book of Numbers 21:4-9, the story is told of how the Israelites complained against the Lord's care for them. In response, the Lord sent 'fiery serpents among the people' so that some of them died. Moses was told to build a bronze pole with a bronze serpent upon it and when the people looked on it, they would be healed (our medical culture has kept this picture - ever noticed the snake on a pole icon on the exterior of many ambulances?).

In John 3, as Jesus conversed with a curious Nicodemus, He referred to that bronze pole. He said: 'And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life' (John 3:14-15). Just as the bronze pole was the object that people looked upon for salvation, so now is the object of our salvation Jesus upon the cross.

Yet, that bronze pole is mentioned in another place in Scripture. As I spent time in God's Word this morning, I came across 2 Kings 18:4 where it tells how King Hezekiah '...broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it..." The bronze serpent was never intended to be the object of worship like Jesus. It was simply to be used on that one occasion for people to gaze upon and be healed. Yet, humanity once again distorted the act of worship and worshipped the created things rather than the Creator.

Do you think we aren't plagued with this today? Think again. The reason why so many churches are dying (many of them need to) is because those showing up for 'worship' are more focused upon the created thing than the Creator. I could go into great detail but the root problem is this: God is not moving powerfully in many of our churches these days and not too many folks are bothered by that fact. We read the book of Acts and see how those few Christians turned the world upside down (Acts 17:6) and then look at our present church culture and fail to see the disconnect. Yet, too few believers are actually praying for God to change this. Sunday after Sunday, folks are content to show up and go through the motions (worshipping worship) rather than crave to experience and obey God (worshipping God). As long as the song leader sings our favorite songs and the sermon doesn't make us too uncomfortable and the seats/pews are reasonably comfortable, etc., we'll go away happy that we've 'worshipped.'

I'm thinking that some things need to die (much like Moses destroyed the bronze pole) but then we would really get people ticked. I wonder if the Israelites got ticked when Moses destroyed the bronze pole...