Encountering God – Part 6 - Worthless Worship
Review
What is worship? Encountering/responding to God’s heart toward us.
Why worship? B/c we were created for this purpose.
What do we need? A relationship with God through Jesus Christ. He acted on our behalf when we were still His enemies. His love changes our hearts.
The Problem with Worship
Isaiah 29:13
The Lord says: "These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men”(NIV)
The Lord said, “These people claim to worship me, but their words are meaningless, and their hearts are somewhere else. Their religion is nothing but human rules and traditions, which they have simply memorized.” (GNT)
I believe that this passage tells that there are several things that make worship worthless for God’s people.
A religious spirit instead of the Holy Spirit
Let me talk a moment about a religious spirit. (I could do a series on this subject alone!)
A religious spirit is defined by author Peter Wagner as “an agent of Satan assigned to prevent change and maintain the status quo by using religious devices.”
Its attributes are:
Uses human control and manipulation & organizations to prefer the status quo over a genuine, dynamic and intimate relationship with God.
It is a huge danger for pastors and church leaders who might lead by manipulation instead of by grace.
A religious spirit seeks approval from what they do instead of from grace alone. (explain)
This religious spirit is confronted in the bible:
You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? Have you suffered so much for nothing—if it really was for nothing? Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard? (Gal. 3:1-5)
Religious spirits have been at work in the world since time began. They will do whatever they can to prevent us from enjoying a vibrant, dynamic encounter with God.
The apostle Paul, before his encounter with Christ had a religious spirit.
He practiced the most rigorous form of religion, held to the law to the highest degree, lived according to appearances the most perfected life possible among religious leaders.
Philippians 3:4-6 I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more: circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless.
Yet, he had nothing worth eternity until he met Jesus: Philippians 3:3 “for we are…who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.”
We need to ask God to expose any religious spirit in our church and replace it with true worship led by the Spirit of God.
A Religious spirit will keep you from authentic worship and lead you to think you are really doing well, perhaps that you are better than others.
A religious spirit imitates worship without the encounter with God.
It possesses the form of godliness without the power of God.
Worthless worship occurs when we prefer tradition to God Himself.
Tradition is where a church or group of God’s people have institutionalized a behavior or way of doing things.
Tradition is when we make sacred what is man made.
Like when we treasure buildings as holy places when God tells us that He doesn’t live in buildings made with human hands.
When we place things above people (like refusing to care for someone needy on Sunday because you “have to get to church”)
When we are more concerned about how things look than with how God looks at things. (like saying that testimonies are too disruptive).
Tradition also embodies the last 7 words of the church, “we’ve never done it that way before.”
Time honored traditions can squeeze the life out of worship by demanding that we do things that we don’t even know why we are doing them.
Folks, if there is no LIFE in it, get rid of it!
I asked several pastor friends to share with me real life examples of tradition interfering with worship.
One, who has travelled extensively, shared how he has been in churches that are filled with untrained Christians, who have never heard anything but a salvation message week to week. Their church tradition thinks that an altar call is the equivalent to worship.
1 Corinthians 14 tells what the worship services were like – worship services are for believers.
And it is about encountering God and building up the body, not trying to preach to the lost who aren’t generally among the body of Christ.
You might sing, “give me some of that old time religion” – but I don’t want any more religion, rules and traditions of men. I want more of Jesus.
I had a lady who refused to come back to our church because we required participation in a membership class instead of “a walk the aisle” to join the church. That woman was bound up in a religious spirit.
We all have a religious spirit to some degree. We have what we like and are unhappy or uncomfortable when it changes. You know what though? Give me a church of brand new Christians and we will change the world! They are too excited about Jesus and what He has done for them to care about religious traditions.
Will you make a commitment with me today? Will you choose to only get excited about Jesus and not about the way we do or don’t do things?
Our worship is worthless when we honor God with our lips and not our hearts.
We also bless God with lips but not with our hearts when we memorize our response to God instead of actually responding to Him.
Don’t think that you are immune from this happening to you.
It happens in liturgical services, where people memorize their responses.
They say the Lord’s Prayer but don’t pray it.
Or when we sing “holy holy” but don’t mean it. (If we REALLY did, we’d be on our faces before the altar).
We’ve memorized the song lyrics and forgotten the meaning of the words, or we repeat the words with our lips without singing them to the God of Wonders!
We go through the motions of worship but we don’t actually worship, because our response to Him isn’t in the here and now.
The first person mentioned in the Bible as worshiping God did it wrong. Cain was the first to offer an offering to God, and it was unacceptable. His brother Able offered an acceptable offering. Cain became so upset that he ended up killing his brother. Some have claimed that Cain’s problem was that he didn’t offer the right thing that he was supposed to offer or that something was wrong with the ceremony that he did, but I think the Bible shows us that his problem was a problem of the heart. He didn’t have the heart of a worshiper! First off, the Bible emphasizes that Abel brought the best of what he had, while it says that Cain merely brought part of his harvest. When you look at this approach, you know that that cannot be the heart of someone truly seeking God.
I believe that the devil himself wants more than anything to keep us in our “religion” and away from actual, true and authentic worship encounters with God.
Do you know who was once Heaven’s Worship Leader? His name was Lucifer. He was one of the highest of all angels, a seraphim (as we talked about last week).
Ezekiel 28:12-17 `Thus says the Lord GOD, "You had the seal of perfection, Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. 13 "You were in Eden, the garden of God; Every precious stone was your covering: The ruby, the topaz and the diamond; The beryl, the onyx and the jasper; the lapis lazuli, the turquoise and the emerald; and the gold, the workmanship of your settings and sockets, was in you. on the day that you were created they were prepared. 14 "You were the anointed cherub who covers, and I placed you there. You were on the holy mountain of God; you walked in the midst of the stones of fire. 15 "You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created until unrighteousness was found in you. 16 "By the abundance of your trade you were internally filled with violence, and you sinned; Therefore I have cast you as profane from the mountain of God. and I have destroyed you, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. 17 "Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor.”
Lucifer was one of the highly exalted angel leaders.
His beauty was flawless and breathtaking. His wisdom was perfect. His brightness was awe-inspiring.
Commentators say that Ezekiel 28:13 seems to indicate that his throat was specially prepared to make him an outstanding musician.
Some think he led the angelic choir.
(Verse 14) Lucifer was “THE anointed covering cherub”, or angel.
Likely one of those great beings who covered the throne with his wings, not unlike the picture of the Ark where their wings meet or like the Seraphim who would stand over the very throne of God and whose voices shake the threshold of the temple of heaven when they cry out “Holy, Holy, Holy…”
God Himself had placed him there in that position. It was a position of incredible honor.
On top of the Ark, which symbolizes the presence of Almighty God, it is encircled by special angels called “cherubim” whose purpose it was to worship God and to lead the heavenly host in worship as they magnified God. (Rev.4: 6-11)
However, he (Isa. 14:12-14; Ezek 28:12-19), had tried to usurp God’s glory and become the worshiped instead of the worshiper.
V17:“Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor.”
Isaiah 14:12- 14 "How you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning (Lucifer), son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, You who have weakened the nations! 13 "But you said in your heart, `I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, And I will sit on the mount of assembly In the recesses of the north. 14 `I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’
Being so close to God’s glory night and day, Lucifer made a fateful decision when pride rose in his heart and he chose to disobey God.
Lucifer wanted to be worshiped and he was able to deceive at least one-third of the other angels (Rev.12:4) who also chose to rebel.
Imagine such deception.
He convinced incredibly powerful angelic beings who had been in the presence of God to believe that he was equal to or superior to God Himself.
That is an amazing deceptive power.
Therefore, the other two-thirds of all created angels, led by Michael the archangel, threw Lucifer and his followers out of heaven (Rev.12:9).
Suddenly there were thousands upon thousands of fallen angels now committed to worship Lucifer (or ‘Satan’ because his angelic name was stripped of him) roaming the earth.
Worship is at the center of a great spiritual war.
Satan even tried to get Jesus, the Lord of the Universe, to worship him! (what arrogance!)
Matthew 4:8-11 Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory; 9 and he said to Him, "All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me." 10 Then Jesus said to him, "Go, Satan! For it is written, `YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD, AND SERVE HIM ONLY.’ " 11 Then the devil left Him; and behold, angels came and began to minister to Him.
Why is worship such a big thing?
Worship is the key factor in the ongoing warfare between God and Satan.
Spiritual battles have always been over worship, fought with worship and will be won through worship.
People were created to be happy and fulfilled only when they worship God solely.
In these last days, God is calling upon all people to worship Him (Revelation 14:6,7).
This so infuriates Satan that he will try to force people to worship him or else be killed (Revelation 13:15).
God is calling us to be worship warriors!
For many Christians, this is a new concept.
Just as the Levites went before King Jehosophat’s army, so too, worship must precede our activity.
Worship is a tool of spiritual warfare, because it is core to giving power to Satan.
What you love most is what you worship.
And what you worship you give power over yourself.
Self, job, spouse, kids, car, house, whatever. If it isn’t God then its Satan, the god of this world. It might not be spelled S.a.t.a.n. but it comes out the same.
This is why, as worship leaders, it should come as no surprise what forces are truly at work, whether seen or unseen, when we aim to lead others to worship.
It is imperative that we, of all people, realize how powerful it is when we make the choice to worship God.
It defeats the enemy’s forces in our lives.
Praising God is the act that silences the powers of darkness around us, causing them to bow as we proclaim the truth that Jesus is Lord!
When we worship God it defeats the enemy’s forces in our lives.
Worshiping God will always be a battle until our foe is finally silenced and Jesus returns to rule and reign on earth, as He does in heaven
Satan, the worshipper of old, is against the worship leaders of this hour.
Part of his privileged position is now occupied by worship leaders, singers, and musicians on the earth.
Worship leaders, singers, and musicians are the “point of the arrow” that God has chosen for the assault against the kingdom of darkness.
With this understanding, our seemingly insignificant or small worship gatherings take on much more of a purpose and meaning, and to be a musician or singer at the end of the age carries weight unlike anything we have known.
If you’re a worship leader, singer, or musician, the Lord is calling you for this hour for more than a few good songs on a Sunday morning. Debbie and this praise team and these musicians are at the forefront of the battle.
Praising God is the act that silences the powers of darkness around us, causing them to bow as we proclaim the truth that Jesus is Lord!
Today you have heard how your worship can be worthless, and how the enemy, Satan, wants it to be worthless and powerless. He doesn’t want you to worship God because when you do so, you serve God alone! `YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD, AND SERVE HIM ONLY.’
Will you worship Him today? Will you serve Him alone? Will you give Jesus your heart and soul and put your entire focus upon Him? Will you give up all the things that get you excited and choose today to get excited only over Jesus and not the way we do or don’t do things?
What kind of worship does God want from you? From your heart. This passage may describe you today. You feel broken and hopeless. But God is able to meet your needs. He cares.
Ps. 51:16-17 “For You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; You are not pleased with burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.”
Let’s pray.
