I love to worship with my church
family! There is no place I would rather be this morning. It’s a little chilly
this morning and the white sand beaches of Aruba or Cozumel would be pretty
nice right about now, but I would not want to miss this time with my family and
friends, worshiping our Savior together. Tell me why you are here this morning.
Why did you choose to get up and worship today?
Well, we are all about worship today.
In fact, we are continuing our sermon series entitled “Be Authentic” with a
look at what is authentic worship. We would all say that we are here to worship
this morning so let’s look at what it really means to worship in an authentic
manner by turning in your Koran to
the book of Abraham. The book of Abraham is in between the book of The Kneeling
Down and the book of The Victory so just turn there if you would please.
What? What do mean no Koran? It’s the
one with the pretty cover on it. Talks about Allah. You brought one, didn’t
you? No? I just thought it would be interesting to preach out of that for a
while. I mean, it’s all the same, right? No? You want me to preach out of the
Bible? Ok, ok. Well then, turn in your Mormon
Bible to the book of Proverbs. Sure, some of the verses have been
re-translated by Joseph Smith but
that shouldn’t be a problem should it? God knows the Mormons are sincere in
their worship and in their study of the Bible. They even added another book to
it so you know they are serious. What’s the problem?
It’s not true, is it? It’s not right.
It is incorrect. But the people who use these books are sincere, are they not?
And God looks at our hearts and not just our actions so should it make any
difference? I’ve heard people say that we are all just trying to get to the hub
of the wagon wheel but going on different spokes. Is that true? It sure clashes
with John 14:6 where Jesus says, "I am the way and the truth and
the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
The dictionary says that the definition
of worship is the reverent honor and homage paid to God. “Reverent honor and
homage paid to God.” Are Muslims paying reverent honor and homage? Sure
they are. They face Mecca and pray 3 times a day. Are the Mormons paying
reverent honor and homage? Their worship services are usually 3 hours long with
1 hour devoted just to learning scripture. The Hindus and the Buddhists and the
Scientologists all show reverence and honor but the problem comes with the last
part of the definition.
It says to pay honor and homage “to
God”. That’s God with a capital “g”. And while it may be true that Allah is the
god of the Muslims, he is not The God. He is not Jehovah God, the Great I Am,
the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
And we can look at people of other
faiths and think about how ridiculous it is to worship a god who doesn’t exist.
We can think of people who worship the created instead of the Creator
and think how foolish they are. But how many of us make worship about
ourselves and not so much about the One we say we are here to worship.
That is no more authentic worship than worshiping a golden calf or a Brahma
bull.
So, how can we and why should we
worship authentically? I hope we see the answer to those questions as we
continue our study on what it means to live authentic lives in who we are, how
we worship, how we live, how we trust and how we think. We got kind of an
overall view of how we are to live last week from the book of Galatians
but for the next few weeks we are going to camp out in Proverbs chapter 15.
This week we are going to look at verse
8 and then supporting passages from the Old and New Testaments. But
let’s go right now to the book of Proverbs, chapter 15 and verse 8.
Let’s read.
“The LORD detests the sacrifice of the
wicked, but the prayer of the upright pleases him.”
To answer the questions of how can we
and why should we worship authentically, we first need to ask what worship
really is. Yea, yea, we defined it as paying reverent honor and homage to
God but what is it really? What does it look like? What kind of
building do you need to be in and what kind of music should be played to
worship authentically?
I think most of us know that those
aren’t really good questions. Anything you do can be worship. Anywhere
you are can be where you are worshiping. Martin Luther said a milkmaid
can milk cows to the glory of God.
Let me ask this. Why do we
worship? This verse talks about someone who is not worshiping
correctly. Why worship at all? I mean, if you’re not going to do it
right then why do it at all?
I’ll tell you why. Did you know that
all people worship? Everybody does it. Baptists do it. Methodists do it. Church
of Christ do it. They don’t even use instruments and yet they still do it. But
not only that, even atheists worship. Republicans and Democrats worship.
Truckers, bikers, doctors and morons all worship and do you know why? Because
God instilled it in us. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says, “He has set eternity
in the human heart.”
God has programmed every single one of
us to worship and so we just have to decide who or what we are going to
worship. And if we are not going to worship God then most of the time we
worship ourselves. I want you to see that is the problem with the sacrifice of
the person in the first part of our verse this morning. It says that “The
LORD detests the sacrifice of the wicked.” That word “wicked” just means
morally wrong.
When we think of wicked, we
automatically go to the default setting of one person, don’t we? Who do you think
of when I say “wicked”? No, don’t say your wife. You think of Hitler, right?
Oh, yea, Hitler was wicked. There’s a special, even hotter place in hell for
Hitler, at least that’s what we like to think. But this just says morally
wrong. God detests the sacrifice or the worship of those who are morally not
right or morally incorrect.
That includes the Muslim who prays to
the wrong god or to the ancient Pagan who sacrificed babies to an idol. But did
you know it also applies to the person in the pew or behind the pulpit who
gives a sacrifice of time, talent or treasure for the wrong reason? I want us
to look at another passage this morning. Turn in your Bibles to 1 Samuel
chapter 13.
At this point in Old Testament history
Saul was anointed by God to be king of Israel. And he was a good king for them.
He was a ferocious warrior and a powerful leader and literally and symbolically
head and shoulders above the rest. And he was the man Israel needed at the time
because there were nations surrounding Israel that wanted to see their
destruction. I guess not much has changed in all these years.
But on this particular occasion Israel
was defending themselves against a much more powerful and numerous Philistine
army but all Saul had to do was wait 7 days right where he was and Samuel would
get there and make a sacrifice and God would be on their side and victory would
be theirs. So, let’s pick up in 1 Samuel 13:5-14.
The Philistines assembled to fight
Israel, with three thousand chariots, six thousand charioteers, and soldiers as
numerous as the sand on the seashore. They went up and camped at Mikmash, east
of Beth Aven. 6 When the Israelites saw that their situation was
critical and that their army was hard pressed, they hid in caves and thickets,
among the rocks, and in pits and cisterns. 7 Some Hebrews even
crossed the Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead. Saul remained at Gilgal, and
all the troops with him were quaking with fear. 8 He waited seven
days, the time set by Samuel; but Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and Saul’s men
began to scatter. 9 So he said, “Bring me the burnt offering and the
fellowship offerings.” And Saul offered up the burnt offering. 10 Just
as he finished making the offering, Samuel arrived, and Saul went out to greet
him. 11 “What have you done?” asked Samuel. Saul replied, “When I
saw that the men were scattering, and that you did not come at the set time,
and that the Philistines were assembling at Mikmash, 12 I thought,
‘Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought
the Lord’s favor.’So I felt
compelled to offer the burnt offering.” 13 “You have done a foolish
thing,” Samuel said. “You have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you; if you had, he would have
established your kingdom over Israel for all time. 14 But now your
kingdom will not endure; the Lord
has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him ruler of his people,
because you have not kept the Lord’s
command.”
What was it that Saul did wrong? God
wanted a sacrifice to be made so Saul made a sacrifice. And it was the right
sacrifice done by a good man, trying to do the right thing. So, what went
wrong? I’ll tell you what went wrong or, rather, I will let Saul’s
successor tell you as he writes in Psalm 51: “Open my lips,
Lord, and my mouth will declare your praise. 16 You do not delight
in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
17 My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite
heart you, God, will not despise.”
David knew what God wanted and He
didn’t want the sacrifice. He wanted David. Saul just thought God
wanted a sacrifice. But he didn’t. He wanted Saul. He wanted
him to show faith. He wanted him to be obedient. God wanted Saul to
know that the sacrifice wasn’t about Saul and it wasn’t about the
sacrifice. It was about God. David knew it and Saul didn’t and that
is one reason why David replaced Saul as king of Israel. There was a
price to be paid for Saul’s lack of faith. There were consequences for
his disobedience;
And there still is today for us in our
worship. We offer our sacrifice of time to come on Sunday morning, Sunday
night and Wednesday night or Thursday at the biker church and we think our
showing up is going to impress God. Or we come wanting people to see how
we’re dressed, wanting them to hear our prayer request, or hear our testimony
and to see how well-worn our Bible is.
Do you know what that is? That is
morally wrong and God detests it. It makes Him sick. When you bring your
tithe after using a calculator to figure out to the penny what 10% would be and
your wife pries it out of your hand, all the while you are thinking of what
else you could do with that money, I can just hear God say, “Phooey on your
money, tightwad! I don’t need it. The church doesn’t need it.
You are the one who needs to give it. My laws and my commands are for
your benefit. And when you give with a cheerful heart there will be
blessings to your obedience. Otherwise just keep it and suffer the
consequences.”
Saul learned what David wrote in Psalms
and it was passed on to David’s son, Solomon who wrote in our text that God
detests the sacrifice of the wicked. But he also wrote that “the
prayer of the upright pleases him.” And if we want to have worship
that is genuine then we too will have prayer that pleases Him. And since
we have seen what false worship looks like, let’s see what authentic worship
looks like in the book of Acts, chapter 2, verses 42-47.
Now, if you think that to have
authentic worship you have to have a large choir in choir robes singing to a
grand piano and a pipe organ surrounded by stained glass, you may be
disappointed with this passage. If your idea of authentic worship
requires a great, rocking band led by an energetic young millennial with a soul
patch and a title of “Minister of Music Arts” then you could be disappointed by
this passage. Their worship wasn’t flashy and slick but it was godly and
pure.
They devoted themselves to the
apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43
Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by
the apostles. 44 All the
believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold
property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every
day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in
their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising
God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their
number daily those who were being saved.
What’s different about this worship as
opposed to Saul’s worship? The first church most definitely had
sacrifices to make. They didn’t sacrifice animals or grain. They
sacrificed their time. It says they met every day. They sacrificed
their money, giving to each as had need. They sacrificed their food with
each other and even gave sacrifices of praise and devotion.
The difference in Saul’s sacrificial
worship and the first church’s was that the first church gave everything they
had in their worship. And I hate to break it to you but that’s what God
still wants today. He wants everything you have. Saul gave an item.
The first church gave themselves. Saul was following some rule that he
thought would make God happy and it would wind up being to his benefit. The
first church followed their hearts that were in tune with God and worshiped Him
for the sheer joy and pleasure of doing something for God’s benefit.
Our original verse says, “The LORD
detests the sacrifice of the wicked, but the prayer of the upright pleases him.”
And at this point you may be thinking that I just said that God doesn’t want
your stuff (and He doesn’t. He already owns everything anyhow.) But
I also just said that God wants all of you including your time, talent and
treasure. So, which is it?
Well, again, that’s not a good question
because it’s not about the stuff. Giving of stuff shows no devotion, love
or passion. There is no relationship when you just give stuff. Try
it with your spouse sometime and see how well it works. Give your wife a
gift card to Chili’s and go play golf with your buddies on your anniversary and
see how much fun you have when you get home that night.
In Isaiah chapter one God says
to the wicked, “Hear the word of the Lord,
you rulers of Sodom; listen to the instruction of our God, you people of
Gomorrah! 11 “The multitude of your sacrifices— what are they to me?” says the Lord. “I have more than enough of burnt
offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the
blood of bulls and lambs and goats. 12 When you come to appear
before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts? I cannot bear
your worthless assemblies. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of
bearing them.”
He might as well say, “Hey all you
people living in Wise County, quit giving me lip service and start giving me
your whole selves.”
Our worship; authentic worship of God,
will include every aspect of our lives. Worship is not just something we
do on Sundays in this building. It wasn’t for the first church.
They met every day wherever they happened to be and praised God in devoted
worship, not because they felt they had to but because they couldn’t help
it.
They had life-changing relationships
with God and it spilled over into every part of their lives. Those
relationships meant that they knew God and trusted God to provide for their
every need and that kind of relationship will lead to generous and joyful
giving. And when God sees that generous, joyful giving, He sees that you
can be trusted to give more and more away and He starts to bless you with more
and more and pretty soon it’s a game to see who can give more away, you or God
and you will always lose.
And don’t hear me say God will repay
your gift of stuff with more stuff. Sometimes He may decide to do that
but that’s not the promise. The promise is and what He did with the first
church was there in the last line of that passage in Acts. He
added daily to those who were being saved. He increased His
Kingdom. He furthered His Kingdom and in doing so the first church had
everything that they needed. Just like it says in the first chapter of
James where it says you will be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
Matthew 6:33 says, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and
all these things will be given to you as well.”
Authentic worship includes giving
reverent honor and homage to God but it’s so much more than that. What is
it that God is asking of you today?
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