Evaluate Your Worship
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· 4 viewsTaken from "Evaluate Your Worship" preached by Pastor Jeff Schwarzentraub, October 18, 2020.
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Introduction
Introduction
Are you growing in your …
Are you growing in your …
I. Religious Practice or Faithful Worship that Gains God’s Attention? (vv. 1-4)
I. Religious Practice or Faithful Worship that Gains God’s Attention? (vv. 1-4)
A. Cain and Able
Adam and Eve began fulfilling God’s command to be fruitful and multiply, and the text tells us of two specific children they have.
The first Eve names Cain, and she acknowledges the Lord’s role in giving her a child
Parents, the moment each of your children was born and you held them in your hands, you knew something outside of you brought that life into this world. God was behind the creation of that life from the very beginning.
Eve’s second child she names Able
Able was a keeper of the sheep
Cain was a tiller of the ground
What does that mean?
Scripture is just telling us their occupations. Able is a shepherd, Cain is a farmer.
B. And in the process of time it came to pass …
One of the questions people have when it comes to Genesis is, “Where did all the people come from?”
Over time, there were plenty of children and grandchildren who came from Adam and Eve and populated the earth.
Now, those of you who know anything about reproduction might think that is a little strange, and we will walk through this deeper next week when we take a look at God’s birth certificate for the entire world.
What you need to know now is that a period of time has passed, and we know that because when we get to the end of the story, we will see Cain pleading with God because he is afraid other people will kill him.
If it is just Adam, Eve, Cain and Able, and Cain killed Able, then who is Cain worried about?
In the course of time, there have been more people who have been born and populated the earth. That is where our story picks up.
C. Two brothers
Both Cain and Able bring offerings to the Lord
Cain brings vegetables
Able brings the firstborn of his flock
The Lord respected or had regard for Able’s offering, but not Cain’s
It means God acknowledged, or gazed upon, or paid attention to Able’s offering
Why?
One brother is going through religious practice. The other brother is engaging in faithful worship.
D. Same motions, two different attitudes. Same motions, two different hearts
What was the offering God required?
We don’t know exactly because the text doesn’t tell us. If you will remember back to the Garden of Eden though, we saw Adam and Eve clothe themselves in fig leaves in an attempt to cover their sin. The problem is that we cannot save ourselves from our sin. So, before God banished Adam and Eve from the garden, He personally clothed them in animal skins. Why? Because without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.
So, it is very possible that God told Cain and Able that any worship they were going to bring had to involve the shedding of blood.
So what does that tell us?
It tells us the problem, at its core, is a heart issue.
27 The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination, How much more when he brings it with evil intent!
Isn’t that a little harsh to call Cain wicked?
11 For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another; 12 not as Cain, who was of the evil one and slew his brother. And for what reason did he slay him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother’s were righteous.
Cain is just going through the motions. Able has a heart to bring God His very best.
And here is the scary part: God can tell the difference!
God gives regard to Able because he was bringing his best to the Lord.
Were they giving God anything that He didn’t already own?
We learned in Genesis that God created everything. There is nothing Cain, or Able, or any of us bring to God that we made.
We are just giving back to Him to show that our hearts are in right relation to Him.
How are you growing?
It is very easy in our culture to grow in your religious practice rather than your faithful worship of the Lord.
When we think about worship, we often think about it as a place, or a routine that we have, or a tradition or ritual that we have.
When we come to church, we often think of singing songs as worship and then worship ends and we have to listen to the pastor preach.
It’s ALL worship!!
Something I go out of my way to say is worship through …
Worship through song
Worship through prayer
Worship through studying God’s Word
Everything in our lives is to be a reflection of the glory that God deserves and how we worship Him.
If you are single, the way you live out your singleness is an act of worship toward God.
If you are married, the way you treat your spouse is an act of worship toward God.
If you have children, the way you parent your children is an act of worship toward God.
If you have a job, the way in which you work is an act of worship toward God.
31 Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
Faithful worship
Faith has two parts:
Intellectual assent — Believing something to be true
Trust — Relying on the fact that it is true
For example, the chairs you are sitting in. You believe that a chair is designed to support you when you sit in it. Trust in when you actually sit in the chair.
What faith looks like
Hebrews 11:1–3 (NASB95)
1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2 For by it the men of old gained approval. 3 By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.
Hebrews 11:4–6 (NASB95)
4 By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous, God testifying about his gifts, and through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks. 5 By faith Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death; and he was not found because God took him up; for he obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God. 6 And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.
E. Examples of faith all throughout Scripture
Woman who touches Jesus’ cloak
48 And He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.”
Bartimaeus, the blind man
52 And Jesus said to him, “Go; your faith has made you well.” Immediately he regained his sight and began following Him on the road.
10 lepers
19 And He said to him, “Stand up and go; your faith has made you well.”
Let me be clear: Just because you have faith does not mean God will always do whatever you want Him to do. There are plenty of faithful, Godly Christians who God chooses not to heal. And all good Christian people ultimately die.
GOD IS MOVED BY PEOPLE WHO FAITHFULLY SEEK HIM.
How is your worship?
16 For You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; You are not pleased with burnt offering. 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.
II. Hatred or Love for God and Those Who Faithfully Worship Him? (vv. 5-8)
II. Hatred or Love for God and Those Who Faithfully Worship Him? (vv. 5-8)
A. Cain’s immediate response to God’s rejection of his worship is anger
God looks at Cain and asks, “Why are you mad at me? If you would just do what is right, you will be completely satisfied!”
God does not need our sacrifices, but He knows that when we genuinely worship Him, that will be the most satisfied we could possibly be.
B. Did you know the same thing still happens with us today?
When someone is faithfully worshipping God, and the Holy Spirit convicts their heart during the sermon, or during their Bible study, or in their conversation with a friend, they are humbled. The faithful recognize God’s standard, and when they fall short of it, they don’t get mad, they lean into Him for help. They recognize to really honor God requires change in their life.
When someone is just going through religious practice, and the Holy Spirit convicts their heart, their first response is anger. They get mad at the church, or the pastor, or the Bible, or anything else that shows them the necessary change they need.
C. Example — Teaching on money
Money is one of the most controversial topics a pastor can preach on. And when you hear that sermon, or study it for yourself, you will come to realize everything is God’s in the first place!
There are three responses I will get when I teach on money though:
Those who will say, the pastor is preaching the truth! I’ve experienced it first hand, it’s changed my life and I when I give generously out of what God has given to me, He lavishes it upon me in return.
Others will say, our financial situation as a family has been a struggle, and its hard to give when the bills are piling up, but I know the Word of God is true and the Holy Spirit is telling me I need to change my worship.
Then there are those who will complain, “Why is the pastor always preaching on money! Church isn’t about money, it’s not about buildings, it’s about the people.”
Why? Because its a religious practice.
D. We can apply this to anything!
Your marriage
Your tongue
Your prayer life
Your worship through song in church
When your heart is faithfully worshipping, you welcome the conviction of the Holy Spirit in any area of your life. It doesn’t mean it is easy. I would argue it’s impossible without the work of God.
But when everything we do is just going through religious motions to appease God, we develop a hatred for the convicting work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
E. Sin’s desire is to overtake you
Cain is upset. Who do you think you are, God, telling me how to worship?
God says, if you do what is right, won’t you be accepted? But if you don’t do what is right, sin is ready to pounce on you.
It’s the same language used in Genesis 3 when we see the relationship between man and woman. A woman’s desire in a sinful state is to dominate her husband, and a man’s desire in a sinful state is to crush her.
We must master temptation
This is such a hopeful statement, because it tells us by the power of God we have the ability to rule over sin in our lives.
We were created to worship, and you will worship something. You just have a choice of what you will worship.
God is the only one capable of handling worship, and God’s desire for each of us is that we worship Him. Because if we don’t, sin will overtake our lives.
F. If we play with sin, sin will dominate us
God tells Cain, watch out, you are treading on dangerous ground.
What happens. Cain ignores God and kills his brother.
37 And He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 “This is the great and foremost commandment. 39 “The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
Our obedience to and worship of God affects not only our relationship with Him, but our relationship with everyone around us.
23 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. 24 “He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.
Obedience is not a list of rules that we are required to follow. Obedience flows out of a deep love for our Father in heaven. It’s not because we have to. It’s because we want to.
III. Hardness or Tenderness of Heart Toward God and Repentance? (vv. 9-14)
III. Hardness or Tenderness of Heart Toward God and Repentance? (vv. 9-14)
A. Cain is indifferent toward God
God knows what Cain did, He just wants to hear it from him.
Cain’s response to God is, “Isn’t that your job to pay attention to my brother?”
B. Every life matters
God cares about and sees every life that is mercilessly slaughtered and murdered.
C. God curses the ground
God curses Cain’s ability to till the soil — because Cain is evil and wants nothing to do with God.
Do you want to know what is so scary about this passage?
We look at this story and think, Able did what was right and died for it. Cain did evil, got away with it, and lived? Did Cain really live?
Ephesians 2:1 tells us we are “dead in our trespasses and sins.”
In his deadness, Cain still looks at God and says, “I want nothing to do with you. I just want to live my life, my way.”
You know what that tells me? It tells me we have a serious problem with sin.
You see, we often think that we can live our life how we want to and turn to God in repentance at the last second. There are a couple problems with that:
First, we don’t know what tomorrow holds. There may not be that opportunity to turn to God that we are depending on.
Second, everything in Scripture tells us that the longer we wait to turn to God, the more we harden our hearts against Him until one day, He will give us over to our hearts desires.
In the book of Revelation, people often think there will be people in the tribulation who turn to God when things get really difficult. Now, I’m not going to limit the power of God, because He can work mighty miracles in the darkest hearts. I’m living proof of that. But Scripture seems to paint a different story.
15 Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; 16 and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; 17 for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”
The tribulation will be a time of suffering and anguish unlike anything the world has ever seen. And how do those who don’t know God respond to Him? Is it repentance? No, out of their hardened hearts they would rather die than turn to God. Why? Because they view Him not as a good Father, but a cruel, evil God.
D. Cain has the same attitude
Cain kills his brother, God says the ground will no longer produce for him, and Cain complains that his punishment is to great to bear.
Not only that, but Cain fears other will kill him! Do you see the irony there?
So God, in His mercy, puts a mark on Cain (we don’t know what this mark is) so that no one would kill him.
How is that merciful?
Because God is using the consequences of Cain’s sin in an attempt to draw Cain back to Himself. But Cain does not have a heart of tenderness toward God. He has hardened his heart against him.
E. Compare Cain’s response to David’s response
When God selects David to be King over Israel, this is what He says:
14 “But now your kingdom shall not endure. The Lord has sought out for Himself a man after His own heart, and the Lord has appointed him as ruler over His people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.”
David is remembered for many things in Scripture. He was king of Israel. He wrote the majority of the Psalms. He was also an adulterer and a murderer.
Why was David a man after God’s own heart then?
After David committed adultery with Bathsheba and murdered her husband, Uriah, he is confronted by the prophet Nathan. I want you to look at David’s response:
11 “Thus says the Lord, ‘Behold, I will raise up evil against you from your own household; I will even take your wives before your eyes and give them to your companion, and he will lie with your wives in broad daylight. 12 ‘Indeed you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, and under the sun.’ ” 13 Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has taken away your sin; you shall not die.
1 Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; According to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity And cleanse me from my sin. 3 For I know my transgressions, And my sin is ever before me. 4 Against You, You only, I have sinned And done what is evil in Your sight, So that You are justified when You speak And blameless when You judge.
God confront’s David in his sin as well, and rather than being angry that he was caught, David repented of his sin. He could have complained that God’s punishment was too much. He could have shifted the blame. Instead he chose to repent? Was there still consequences? Yes, David’s son died! But his heart of worship was right with the Lord.
WHEN IT COMES TO YOUR SIN, GOD IS NOT TRYING TO GET THROUGH TO YOU. HE IS GETTING THROUGH TO YOU, YOU ARE JUST IGNORING HIM.
F. In your worship, how is your heart?
10 For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death.
Repentance is not just turning from our sin. We like to “turn” from our sin, but we still like to look at it and gaze at it. We like to say, I’m a Christian now so I can’t do that anymore, but man I really like doing that. We put a little fence around it and stand close to it. Repentance is not just turning form our sin. It is confessing our sin, turning from it, and fleeing back to Jesus Christ.
How is your repentance?
Are you hardening your heart against God’s convicting presence? Or are you allowing your heart to be malleable, to be changed, by the only One who can “create in you a clean heart”?
IV. Distance From or a Hunger for God’s Presence? (vv. 15-16)
IV. Distance From or a Hunger for God’s Presence? (vv. 15-16)
A. Cain left the Lord’s presence
God punished Cain and Cain said, “God I want nothing to do with You and I’m totally fine with that.”
We read this verse and think it means Cain went somewhere else physically, and he did. More importantly it tells us Cain left the Lord’s presence spiritually for all of eternity.
I have a friend who called me a couple weeks ago and asked me about this verse. He said, “How do you leave the presence of God if God is everywhere? If God left you, wouldn’t you die?”
Yes, if God left, we would all die. Colossians 1:17 tells us in Christ all things hold together. The entire universe would break apart. But it is important to note it is not God who forsakes Cain. It is Cain who forsakes God. In Romans 1 we read a really sobering text:
24 Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them.
God allows each of us to choose, even if that choice is death. In 1 Samuel 16 the text tells us “the Spirit of the Lord left Saul.” Was that because God deemed Saul hopeless and gave up on him? Absolutely not! Instead, it is another example of a choice that was made, a choice to reject God’s will and pursue one’s own.
There is a point, and I don’t know when that is, when a person continually tells God, “I want nothing to do with you. I want to do my own thing. I want to live my own life. I know what’s best for me.” And, at some point God, in His grace, says, “Go.”
B. The heart of God
God receives no pleasure in sending people to hell.
11 “Say to them, ‘As I live!’ declares the Lord God, ‘I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways! Why then will you die, O house of Israel?’
17 “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.
The heart of God is that everyone would be saved through the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ. But there are those who will reject that freely given gift, and God in His holiness will say to them, “Depart from me, you who work iniquity, for I never knew you.”
8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
God’s desire is not to push you away from His presence. It is to deeply convict you in every area of your life so that you will recognize your need for Him. His desire is that you are so overwhelmed by how broken you are that you cry out to Him and say, “Lord! Create in me a clean heart!”
Conclusion
Conclusion
A. How is your worship? How is your heart?
Is your walk with God just checking off boxes in religious motions, or is it faithfully worshipping Him because He is worthy of all that you are?
Is your response to the conviction you hear from the Holy Spirit breeding contempt against God, or a deep love for His faithfulness to you?
Are you allowing your heart to harden against the Lord, or are you seeking that He would break you, humble you, and conform you to the image and likeness of His Son?
Are you distancing yourself from God when you experience His rebuke of the way you are living, or are you running to Him to fall into His arms?