"Worship God Rejects – Worship God Accepts”

Intro: A pastor who took a new church soon learned he had his hands full with two of his members who were twin brothers when they began to second guess every decision he made and disagree with all his sermons. Then he learned from other members that these wicked brothers ran off the last pastor and constantly keep the church in turmoil. So the pastor being a man of integrity began to pray for the brothers and preached his heart out Sunday after Sunday. The pastor would preach the truth of God’s Word calling sin; sin and not sugar coat anything, which made the brothers even more hostile towards him. And as a result of the truth being preached God began to bless the church and it grew so much that it did not have enough space so they started a building program. Soon after one of the brothers died, and the other brother went to the pastor and told him he was turning over a new leaf in his life and wanted to donate a million dollars to the church for a new sanctuary. The only catch was he wanted the pastor to tell everyone at the funeral that his brother was a saint. If the pastor would simply say those words he would donate the million dollars. Now the pastor who was a man of integrity struggled with making such a statement. His greatest fear was misleading people from the pulpit. But he also thought how the million dollars would solve all the church’s space problems and open the door to minister to more people. So on the day of the funeral the pastor stood over the coffin and said; “this man was a rotten, vile, deceptive sinner; but compared to his brother he was a saint.”

We have to ask ourselves a question this morning. What is our whole purpose for coming to church this morning? Are we here to get something from God, or are we here to give something to God?

What kind of worship experience are most people having on any given Sunday morning?

God doesn’t meet with us when our lives are filled with strife.

(v.1-3a) The sin in our lives keeps us from experiencing God to our fullest extent.

Many of us if we are honest with God and ourselves have deep disappointment with God.

He’s not come through like you want Him to. He has not answered prayer they way you think He should. That feeling when you open God’s word and it’s so dry is real. That sense that you have that God is not meeting with you may be real. Sometimes we walk away from church on Sunday morning and we haven’t meet with God. Have you ever got to the door and couldn’t remember what the preacher preached about? You can’t meet with God here in the building and walk out the same way you walked in.

Sometimes God ignores our worship.

Many people who go to church are just going through the motions. Butt in right place, holding right book, signing the right hymns without the right results.

Why God ignores our worship is found in Verse 3b.

People have everything their hearts desire and feel no need for God. We come to church with our life so full of business burdened down with the worry of how we’re going to get everything done. Some people believe the prosperity we experience here in America is a result of the blessings of God, but I disagree. We have so much apathy in the Western world because we have all our needs meet. SELFISHNESS is the problem. Our lives are so loaded down with things to do money to make, fun to have that we don’t have any time for God. All the wheels are turning on Sunday to get all we can out of the world and God. We come to church with our lives full of worldly stuff and expect God to fill us spiritually. It’s like taking a glass full of motor oil and trying to fill it with water. It’s impossible, not only will water and oil not mix but there is no room. In this time of crises we’re praying for God to send revival to America. We have seen a revival of patriotism and Americans praying for God to lead and bless America. But we as Christians need to be praying that fellow Americans will understand that God is more than a national God, He is a personal God. He is a God that longs to have a personal relationship with all people from all nations.

Worship is not for us; it’s for God. Not what we can get out of it, it’s what we can give God.

ARE YOU HERE FOR GOD, OR IS GOD HERE FOR YOU?