3 Barriers to Worship

God’s love is not a mediocre love, it’s a refining love

The funnel

The 5 pillars

The 4 W’s

Overcoming Mediocre Christianity

God’s word is not a mediocre book, it’s a powerful book

God’s love is not a mediocre love, it’s a refining love

If God’s love is not mediocre, our worship should not be mediocre

Your desire to worship will always face obstacles

12 But you profane it when you say that the Lord’s table is polluted, and its fruit, that is, its food may be despised. 13 But you say, ‘What a weariness this is,’ and you snort at it, says the Lord of hosts. You bring what has been taken by violence or is lame or sick, and this you bring as your offering! Shall I accept that from your hand? says the Lord. 14 Cursed be the cheat who has a male in his flock, and vows it, and yet sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished. For I am a great King, says the Lord of hosts, and my name will be feared among the nations.

ESV12 But you profane it when you say that the Lord’s table is polluted, and its fruit, that is, its food may be despised. 13 But you say, ‘What a weariness this is,’ and you snort at it, says the Lord of hosts. You bring what has been taken by violence or is lame or sick, and this you bring as your offering! Shall I accept that from your hand? says the Lord. 14 Cursed be the cheat who has a male in his flock, and vows it, and yet sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished. For I am a great King, says the Lord of hosts, and my name will be feared among the nations.

The greatness of God’s name - ; ;

When God’s name is no longer great, he calls us to consider our worship

There are times when we need to compare our worship with the worship of others in order to learn what we should strengthen and what we should change

If God did not want us to evaluate our worship against that of others he would not have given us a record of specific instances of worship by his people.He does not want us to make comparisons so that we can judge others but so that we can search deep within ourselves and ask ourselves the hard questions

And so I call this: Pivotal events in the worship of God’s people

In each situation I want you to see that there is a BAD example and a GOOD example of worship

And so the goal of this message is to help you understand that God notices our worship and then to have you evaluate your worship and your heart for worship in comparison to those God considered worthy and unworthy worshipers

3 Essentials to Worship - Faith, Obedience, Repentance

(1) Cain and Abel: Worshiping with Faith - ;

Adam and Eve had several children. The writer Moses chose only to write about Cain and AbelThe are several different kinds of offerings in the bible - wine, grain, oil, incense, animals of different kindsnotice that the Lord “had regard” - God notices our worshipThe greatest commentary on the bible is the bible; and the greatest commentary in the bible is

​ ESVBy faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.

He still speaks - learn from this. It is not just religious duty, it is not just trust God. Faith is trusting in the work of God in your life and the promises of God in his word to do a work in you according to his promises as you trust him and obey them. It is not faith or works. It is faith and works. Doing what is outwardly right while not dealing with what is truly in your heart is never right from God’s perspective because he sees the total picture.

3 Barriers to Worship

​ ESVWe should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous.

(2) David and Uzzah: Worshiping with

Does God prescribe how we should worship? Absolutely! - weekly (the Sabbath, not your day but God’s day), without chaos ()Read 2 Samuel

(3) The Tax Collector and the Pharisee: Worshiping with

Trusted in themselves, a self righteousness, a contempt - a judgmental religion of self worshipI compare myself to others in order to justify my sinfulness and apathyI think that my acts of worship are more important than the act of faith and repentanceEveryone who exalts himself - lifting high the name of Jesus is the opposite. Humble adoration, worship as gratitude for what God has done.

(1) Abraham and Isaac: Worshiping with

(1) Abraham and Isaac: Worshiping with Testing ()

Not worshiping with faith, or worshiping with obedience, or worshiping with sacrifice even though these certainly apply

Will you say yes when God asks for what you love most? When you are going through a deep valley of unanswered prayer, unending difficulty and uncertain circumstances?

When your heart is broken, when you don’t understand? God is there in the victory but is he there when you don’t understand, when you alone have to walk this path, when you feel like God is asking for more than you ever thought would be required of you?

I’m going through incredible difficulty and struggle but Jesus is still on the throne.

tells us that by faith he believed in a resurrection

(2) The Widow and the Rich People: Worshiping with

(2) The Widow and the Rich People: Worshiping with Nothing ()

When you have nothing, is it enough? When you are empty and you find yourself sitting in the worship service, what is God thinking? This passage tells us exactly what Jesus is thinking when we come to him with almost nothing and give him everything we have.This does not condone giving God nothing and thinking just showing up is good enough

This does not condone giving a lot and thinking that’s all you have to do

This is total reliance, total trust, total dependence on God for the next day, the next meal, the next bill payment. This is moment by moment, I’m trusting every second, every hour, every day worship. I have nothing but Jesus is still on the throne.

(3) The Woman and the Disciples: Worshiping in

(3) The Woman and the Disciples: Worshiping in Spirit and Truth ()

Worship with Spirit - you have a body, a soul, and a spirit. Your soul is made of your mind, will and emotions. Your spirit is regenerated at salvation but your soul needs to be transformed, renewed, changed. To do this you need to allow your spirit to be directed by God’s Spirit as he impresses upon you God’s truth. It’s not spirit or truth it’s spirit and truth. To worship in your spirit is to surrender yourself to the promptings of the Holy Spirit and the commands of the Holy Bible and then to have a courageous conversation with yourself where your spirit speaks to your soul.

God is telling me through his word to do this and even if I don’t feel like it that’s what I’m gong to do. I don’t wake up Sunday morning and say, do I feel like going to church, do I feel like being with God’s people, do I feel like being challenged, do I feel like singing God’s praises, do I feel like having people talk to me? God commands it and so that’s the way it is. That’s what I do as an adult, that’s what we do as a family. Yes there should be scheduled times of getting out of the Bay Area and spending time with family and friends. But even then God commands our participation in public worship. Never does God command that we do not invest in the weekly corporate worship of believers gathered in a Spirit filled, Bible teaching, Christ proclaiming church. You see the joy that occurs whenever we have guests from out of town choose to worship with us. Maybe God is calling you to be a blessing to another congregation when you are out of town.

Is the attitude of my mind for worship where God wants it to be? Do I fill my mind with the good things that God’s word provides

Is my will to worship, my desire to worship where God wants it to be? Do you spend time in prayer asking God to show you his face, show you his glory? Do you ask him to make you a worshiper who doesn’t just want to worship, but wants to worship correctly, and wants to worship passionately?

Are my emotions for worship being changed as God’s word through God’s Spirit speaks to your spirit? When I look at the emotions of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness I realize how I have failed so miserably at times and how far I am from what God wants me to feel.

Where is Jesus in this? Where is grace in this? Where is mercy in this? No matter where you are, Jesus wants to come alongside of you. He offers his grace to strengthen and change you. He gives his mercy and allows you to pick up the pieces and move on in repentance without guilt or shame. Jesus wants you to be successful.