Meaningless Worship!

Isaiah 1:10-13
“Hear the word of the LORD, you rulers of Sodom listen to the law of our God you people of Gomorah! “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. When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this tramplings of my courts? Stop bringing me meaningless offerings!...”

Context: Isaiah was a prophet God used to speak to his people the Israelites. At this point in history Israel had been divided into the North Kingdom of Israel and the South Kingdom of Judah. Isaiah warned God’s people of Judah to give up their sinful lifestyle. They had turned away from God in so many ways, giving into the pagan culture around them. Little did they know their nation would be taken over by the Babylonians.

Isaiah was addressing the fact that they had turned so far from God that they didn’t know what pleased God anymore. They would prepare burnt offerings out of ritualistic tradition and they would offer sacrifices out of obligation. In the above passage, Isaiah was telling them God thinks that their offerings were meaningless to Him. He even asks them, “who has asked this of you…?” “What do you think you are doing, coming in here on my temple grounds with offerings I haven’t even asked you to bring, who are you trying to please, me or yourself?” [paraphrased]

Many things have changed since the time of Isaiah, however, people’s hearts haven’t changed. I think about the struggles that Gods people went through at that time and what we go through today and it sounds very much the same. There is still a battle between Gods way and the self-serving culture around us. It is so easy to get caught up in the world and what we want and what everyone else wants, that when we try and think of what God wants we draw a blank.

Application:
When it comes to worship there is no fooling God, he can see right through us. Some times we think just because we showed up to church, or just because I served in this area, God is pleased. When really God asks us specifically,

Psalm 51:17, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart O God, you will not despise.”

The word “contrite” means to show sincere remorse or to desire atonement. God wants a pure and broken heart towards him! How can we think our money or our service is enough for him, as if he is dependant on our material things. He doesn’t need that, He wants our heart!

Let us strive to offer worship full of meaning, may our hearts be pure, may our hearts break over our sin. May we worship God with nothing less than our whole heart!

Don't Withhold Your Praise

Many times it is easy to make worship about ourselves.

There are times when things come up that we don’t agree with. There are things that make us angry at God or make us angry at others. These things often times can steal our joy and hinder our worship. To us we may not “feel” like worshipping God and in our head it seems perfectly justified. We think, “God wouldn’t want my worship anyway, my heart isn’t in it” or we think, “God doesn’t need my worship, He is big God he has plenty of other people and all of creation to worship him.” We seem to think that God wouldn’t really miss out if we chose to be quiet just this one time. In this time we allow our anger and our stubbornness to dwell, pushing us further and further from God.

I think we forget how intimate God is with us. I think we often forget that He lives inside us and when we allow things not of him to dwell in us he is directly impacted. He is pushed aside and feels the direct impact and the pain. The child he loves and desires to communicate with gives him the silent treatment. Don’t get me wrong God is not weak physically, emotionally or in any other way. Which is why I think he can handle the billions of people around the world that cause him so much heartbreak and so much joy at the same time.

God desires our worship and is worthy of our worship. There is never a good excuse to keep our worship from him. He has never wronged us. He has never mistreated us. He has never hated us. He has only loved us constantly offering us second chance after second chance after second chance and the least we can do is offer him our worship and our praise no matter how imperfect our worship is. We will always come before him with imperfect praise, but the fact is he loves it when we praise him, when we strive to please him and put our minds on him.

Keep worshipping God no matter how you feel. Keep worshipping God no matter who has wronged you. Keep worshipping God no matter your differences. Keep worshipping God no matter your regrets. He has commanded it, and he desires it!