It is possible if we loved and worshipped

We cannot be content with nor is God interested in half-hearted commitment, partial obedience, and leftovers of time and money. He desires our full devotion, not little bits of life.

Nowhere is this truer than in worship. Worshipping God in spirit and in truth requires all of you. It also requires ACCURACY. What does this mean? It means worshipping the God of the Bible. Unfortunately we have wandered far in our thinking and worshipping the Biblical characterization of God. Today we worship a God of our creation. We have personalized God to our liking and our way of thinking. This God is often very tolerant and politically correct.

Recently I have had several conversations with professing Christians on the topic of same sex marriages. The opinions expressed varied greatly. The one person said, “If they love each other why shouldn’t they be able to get married.”

The second opinion, “It is absolutely wrong and a constitutional amendment should be passed banning same sex marriages.” Yet this same person had a different opinion when I asked about a constitutional amendment banning people of the opposite sex living together outside of marriage, and a constitutional amendment banning adultery, fornication, abortion and pornography.

Why is it that society is focused so intently on issues of homosexuality and same sex marriages instead of focusing on what God really wants, which is sexual purity.

To “worship in truth” means to worship God as God is revealed in the Bible. You have the right to your opinion about God and you have the right to disagree with God. However that does not negate the truth about God revealed in both the Old and New Testament. Only the Bible gives us an accurate description of God.

Our worship needs to be AUTHENTIC.

One of Jesus’ criticisms of the religious of His day was this,

Rick Warren points out in his book, The Purpose Driven Life, “Heartless worship is worthless worship. Heartless worship is an insult to God.”

God doesn’t want showmanship, pretense, attendance, or phoniness in worship. God wants your honest love. Our worship will always be imperfect, but we cannot allow our worshipping to be insincere.

Yesterday Randall and Jennifer stood on this altar and worshipped God through the exchanging of wedding vows. I am sure that neither Randall nor Jennifer would delight this morning if they thought for one second that their spouse wasn’t sincere about what they vowed to each other yesterday. I doubt they would have made it to the altar if they thought the other was not sincere in their love.

If insincere love between people is unacceptable why do we think that insincere love between God and us is acceptable?

If loving God requires all of our heart, all of our soul, all of our mind, all of our strength, then worshipping God requires all of our heart, all of our soul, all of our mind and all of our strength.

Passive worship is an oxymoron. God is not pleased with thoughtless singing of hymns, perfunctory praying of prayers, and careless exclamations of praise. Nor is God pleased when the church sings, Onward Christian Soldiers on Sunday and then goes AWOL on Monday.

The greatest distraction in worship today is self. We put our interests, our wants, our desires, our worries, and our sorrows ahead of our worshipping. You and I cannot exalt God and self at the same time. To worship God in spirit and in truth will cost us our self-centeredness.

The heart of the matter is the matter of the heart. Is God the matter, the subject, the substance of your heart, your love and devotion?