"A Cautionary Tale Of Rebellious Worship."
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I. Introduction.
I. Introduction.
Here we are, on a beautiful Sunday Morning!
How blessed are we to be here!
I mean, we could be in hospital.
Could be in prison, could be in pain, could be sleeping under a bridge, with no food to eat!
Could be lost in trespasses and sins!
We could be addicted to the bottle, a needle, a pill.
“But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, · Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ...
And so come Sunday, we don’t wash the car, we don’t catch up on the news or mow the lawn..
We come to the assembly!
To thank Jesus for His Love!
To honor him!
To be fed and encouraged and to encourage others!
To serve!!!
What an awesome time we had here Thursday!
We learned the doctrine of firstfruits and lastfruits and there was revelation in this place!
And today, we come again to hear from the Word of God and align ourselves with it!
So recently, we celebrated Mother’s Day. Then Sis Thea’s Birthday! Pretty soon, we’ll be celebrating our Fathers!
And today, we are celebrating a very special birthday!
Yesterday, Sis Nana accomplished 80 years!
(I didn’t call you Saturday sister, cause I didnt want to let anything slip!)
And of course, we are very happy to have her family with us today! We are going to have a wonderful time!
Now folks, and especially our guests, I’m gonna ask for your patient forbearance today.
I need to do a little pastoring, by the Grace of God.
And it may be that at some point in this service you might think to yourself: “Why ever is he talking this way?”
Folks, I’m not being mean or unkind.
I will not tell you anything unless it comes right out of the Word of God!
So we are all safe today!
I am compelled to speak truth!
Let me remind you...
We are not promised tomorrow.
This may be the last sermon you will ever hear. I do not know.
And so I challenge you to stretch your heart and your will around the Scriptures that we will read together today.
Please know that I am motivated by love!
And that I care for your eternal soul.
I care enough to tell you the truth.
I believe everyone in this room is smart enough and perceptive enough to tell the difference between a sincere pastor and a jerk!
The fact is:
There are many in our world today who do not want to hear anyone teach the Scripture.
Some might extend to tolerate a preacher.
But the ones who will make it to that Holy City one day, are those who have a Pastor.
I believe that! That’s why I too have a pastor!
And a pastor is someone who will be honest enough to tell you something you don’t want to hear.
He or she, does so, because they care for you soul.
Because God holds them accountable.
And so today, a cautionary tale of rebellious worship.
And so today, a cautionary tale of rebellious worship.
“Houston, we have a problem!”
Actually, it’s not a “Houston problem,” it’s a “human problem.”
We tend to think that we know better than everyone else!
And sometimes the “Everyone else” includes God.
In a word, the problem is rebellion.
And this becomes very obvious in the ways that people worship.
If you stand back and observe the people in this Bible book, if you look at their lives and the choices that they make, you will notice a pattern:
When a person allows rebellion in their life, that rebellion will manifest in their manner of worship!
Travel with me to Mt. Sinai,
A desert, a mountain.
Egypt lays behind the people of God.
After 430 years most of which was spent in slavery and abject misery, they have escaped!
And it was God who did it!
Without a doubt, salvation came from God!
It still does!
As we approach Mt Sinai, you see a vast carpet of people and tents, (Numbering in the millions!)
There are wagons, carts and beasts of burden, stretching for miles!
But that’s not what you are looking at!
You are looking at a mountain on fire!
No, it’s not a volcano,
It is indeed a mountain! seven and a half thousand feet high!
But that is not what takes your breath away!
The thing that steals the very breath from you, is the smoke and fire of God’s terrible glory that has descended on Mt Sinai!
The entire Mountain is shaking!
Sinai is engulfed in thunder and lightentings!
A voice as a trumpet calls to Moses to come up and so he does.
This is where God gives Him ten commandments, “The Ten Commandments!”
Can anyone give me one or two of those commandments?
I got a dollar here, for anyone under the age of 81 who can give me at least one commandment!
We would all do well to read those commandments from time to time!
But let me zoom in on Ex 20:1-4 as a basis for our time together today.
II. Rebellious Worship in Exodus
II. Rebellious Worship in Exodus
And God spake all these words, saying, I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
God communicates so well! He gives them further instruction in this area, Verse 23:
Ye shall not make with me gods of silver, neither shall ye make unto you gods of gold.
Okay, God has been very clear about this!
There can be no understanding how He feels on this subject of worship!
And so it is that we cringe, on the very edge of our seats as we read Ex 32.
So near to the commandments given, Isreal rebels against God!
And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him. And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me. And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron. And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, To morrow is a feast to the Lord. And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.
When I was a kid, we came back to the US from Namibia once every four years or so.
My sister and I thought that America was in the sky, cause you had to take an airplane to get there!
It was an awesome experience!
No machine gun emplacements!
No being frisked before entereing any building!
No bombs going off in the Capitol city!
America was awesome!
Burger King! Happy Meals!!
The Soda Fountain! Who ever heard of a soda fountain!! It was heaven!
And most of all, the ball crawl!!!
Surely there must be a burger king ball crawl in heaven!!!
I mean, it was heaven for us kids!
Lots of fun to play in the ball crawl!!
The best part was digging your way to the bottom and lying in wait for other kids who didn’t know you were in there!
All of the sudden, you burst up from the balls like Chuck Norris, rising out of the Mekong Delta with M60 blazing!
Now that folks, is playing!
Not so, Ex 32:6
Ex 32 reveals an entire people worshipping an idol, a golden calf, in utter rebellion, and then notice that immoral acts always accompany rebellious worship!
Vs. 6 says the people rose up to “Play.” Revelry.
The language used there has strong sexual overtones and indicates that these people, were running wild and engaging in drunken orgies.
I want you to notice that Rebellion was the initial sin.
Rebellion manifests itself in worship.
And immorality follows.
Why do you think the prophet told Saul: “Obedience is better than sacrifice!”
Brothers and sister, we can sing and praise and churchify all you like, but if your heart harbours rebellion, all your motions mean nothing!!
God tries the reins of our hearts!
He sees the heart of man!
He knows when one soul on pew two, is truly repenting and making committment to live right!
He knows who in the choir or the sound booth or pew five is just going through the motions.
Came to church because their wife forced them to!
God knows!
If you are here in body, but your mind and heart are a million miles away, God knows that.
If you are here and you are so ready to feel good again, so ready to feel peace again, ready to commit to God, even if nobody else knows, God sees your heart! And he is ready to recieve true worship!!
Worship can be real and it can be fake.
Listen, I’ve known folks who rebelled against God and tried to worship in their own way and not the way God perscribed.
Small changes they say, just a small thing here, a change there, “We are going to worship our way.”
You would be horrified to know how fast rebellious worship turns into immorality.
The scandals surface eventually, but nobody is really surprised.
That is alwas the result of convenient altars!
God help you and me!
May we never seek to change the perscribed method of worship!
And friend, if you ever do find yourself drifting..
If you ever do sense a desire to worship your own way, instead of God’s way, look out!
Sin is at the door!
Don’t let it happen folks!
Kill that thing right then and there!
And really, it’s easy to do! If you’ll just make the choice, God will help you!!!
All you gotta do is pray through to victory!
If you will but bend your will in submission to God, He will hear your prayer!!!!
In moments, you can be renewed, strengthened, empowered!!!!
No matter how cold you may be, you’re only one pray though away!!!
One surrender away!!!
Why are you talking this way pastor? We have guests, we are celebrating today!
Yes, I know!
Folks, I could preach some fluffy sermon to you, something everyone could agree with, something that doesn’t cut too close, but I’m not brave enough to cross the mind of God for this service!
What good is the pulpit if it only tells you soft things, smooth things and in the end, you land in hell?
How many people will go there someday, and remember the Bible studies they once listend to?
How many will suffer there, apart from God’s love and grace and wish they could just go back to a Sunday morning service.
“If I could only go back and submit my life to God!”
It’s not fun to tell the truth!
There is no enjoyment in speaking of hell!
And yet every day, people leave this life and find themselves lost and hopeless!
Lost forever, because of stubbornness!
Unwilling to bow before the Glory of God!
The truth is painful at times, I get it.
But if you can’t get the truth in church, where are you gonna hear it?
III. Rebellious Worship in 1 Kings
III. Rebellious Worship in 1 Kings
Well, it was bad enough for an entire people to rebel against God at Mt. Sinai,
But as the years passed, it happened again and again!
King Saul had ruled for 40 years.
David had ruled another 40 after that.
Solomon his son, ruled his 40 and his time on the throne did not end well.
He brought idolotry into the public domain once again!
Only now, it was state sponsored!
It was at this point that the Kingdom was ripped in two!
After Solomon’s death, his son Rehoboam took the throne.
And like many an unwise prince, he chose to follow the counsel of his “yes men,” rather than those counsellors who had served well over many years.
This brash approach resulted in a division of the kingdom!
Ten tribes, all but Judah and Benjamin, split from his monarchy to form their own with Jereboam as king.
Jereboam was a working man, an able man who had been given a chance!
And just like you and me, God gave Jereboam a chance and a choice:
“Lead the people in righteousness, serve me, and I will bless you.”
Well, he did become king. He set up his capitol in Shechem.
He did take the other ten tribes, but he made a fatal decision!
See, Jereboam knew that the people would return to Jerusalem in order to worship at the temple.
The people wanted to worship the one true God as perscribed!
But Jereboam did not want them in Jerusalem, Reheboam’s capital!
“If they go there, they will fall under Reheboam’s influence once more!
And so, Jereboam did a terrible thing.
And Jeroboam said in his heart, Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David: If this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their lord, even unto Rehoboam king of Judah, and they shall kill me, and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah. Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And he set the one in Beth-el, and the other put he in Dan. And this thing became a sin: for the people went to worship before the one, even unto Dan. And he made an house of high places, and made priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of Levi. And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like unto the feast that is in Judah, and he offered upon the altar. So did he in Beth-el, sacrificing unto the calves that he had made: and he placed in Beth-el the priests of the high places which he had made. So he offered upon the altar which he had made in Beth-el the fifteenth day of the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised of his own heart; and ordained a feast unto the children of Israel: and he offered upon the altar, and burnt incense.
Jereboam sowed the seeds of his own destruction when he built altars of convenience.
Happens all the time...
“It’s not convenient for me to be at church this week...”
“I’ll just stay at home and catch up around here...”
“I’ve got other things to do!”
“Maybe I’ll watch a service online somewhere.”
“I have things to do.”
My neighbor golfs every other morning. “Golf is my church” he says.
Worked with a fella for years. “The beach is my church” He would say.
But that is not the perscribed Method of worship!
The Word of God tells us in Hebrews 10:24-25
And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
Don’t set unhealthy precedents in your life!
If you skip service one week, next week is so easy to skip also!
On and on it goes until your spirit man is weak and aneamic and barely breathing!
People get sloppy in their relationship with God.
It can happen so fast!
Good people! just busy. Too busy.
Then, you might seem them in church once in a while, but you notice some changes...
They cannot worship freely.
All of the sudden, there’s more skin showing.
Hear me: I don’t care what society says!
There is a corellation between the amount of skin you show the world and the shame in your life!
People who have shame in their life, show more than they should.
Often, they have no idea, But I’m telling you the truth!
I don’t care if it is summer!
God said: “Be ye holy as I am holy!!!!
Maybe you don’t like what I’m telling you today.
Folks, it’s not your approval I’m after!
I want to see you saved!
We need the approval of a Holy God who loves us enough to save us from a burning hell!
It grieves my heart when I see people building altars of convenience!
Pretty soon, you don’t even see them at church.
They don’t come and they don’t hang out after.
That’s when the prayer warriors start putting in the overtime, praying for you!
Praying for you soul and you don’t even know it!
Because, they see the Changes...
I know how dangerous it is, because I was there!
Changes in the music they listen to.
Changes in the stuff they watch,
Changes of opinion.
Barriers and boundaries are moved, to the point, you barely resemble the man or woman of God that you used to be!
Changes
“Sister, brother, is that gold you’re wearing? You’re not planning to build a calf are ya?”
Pause...
Pause...
“No pastor, everything’s fine. I’ve just been busy.”
Okay,
Maybe as Jereboam, some changes make sense in your own heart.
But our hearts are decietfully wicked!
Your emotions will lie to you!
Beware altars of convenience.
They are not in the will of God!
They will always lead you to trouble!
Why do men keep building Golden calves?
Altars of convenience and rebellion!
They do it, because since the fall of man, rebellion has been a part of our nature!
That’s why Paul tells us, we’ve gotta walk after the spirit and not the flesh!!!
Don’t let rebellion work it’s way into your heart!
Reject altars of convenience!
They will lead you to immorality and pollution of the soul!
Deny your flesh!
Do what’s right!!!!
Be the man, be the woman God made you to be!!!
Stand up for right and Holy!
Listen, this problem is a human problem.
It is an issue for us all!
Rebellious worship is not a new problem!
IV. Rebellious Worship in Genesis
IV. Rebellious Worship in Genesis
With innocence shattered and gone, Adam and Eve tried to cover their shame with leaves.
But leaves never work.
The only thing that covers sin is blood.
Let’s prove that;
And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them.
When Adam and Eve fell in the garden, there was a curse and an effect of that curse.
The earth that had yielded it’s strength to Adam was now cursed.
“No more freebees Adam, you are gonna have to work for it now!”
And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
What all did Adam and Eve tell Cain and Abel about their expulsion from the garden?
I couldn’t say exactly.
But I would bet the farm, Cain had this ground curse very fresh in his memory when the time came for him to make his own offering of worship unto God.
And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering: But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.
Why did God not respect his offering you ask?
Because God had already shown them that an offering had to be an offering of life!
The shed blood that foreshadowed his sacrifice for all mankind!
Cain knew that!
But he chose to worship God in rebellion!
“Maybe you did curse the ground in my father’s day, but look what I have done with it! Accept my rebellious worship!”
It goes father back than that even, to an angel, the worship leader of heaven, who chose to do things his own way!
And A full third of heaven’s angels followed him in rebellion against Almighty God!
They fell from heaven as lightning!
Cast away from the presence of God!
And that’s why they want you so bad!
They are hopeless! And Misery loves company.
There is not redemption for them, and so they want to take you with them!
What is the answer Pastor Louw?
I’ll tell you:
Submit yourself unto God, resist the devil and he will flee!
Submit yourself unto God!
“Whatever you say God, I’ll do it! I will obey your Word!”
“I will deny my flesh! I will submit myself and be accountable to leadership and the body.”
I’m not going to build any golden calves any more!
No altars of convenience any more!
And here’s the secret folks:
If you live for God easy, your way willl be hard.
But if you live for God hard, your way will be easy!
David had to make a sacrifice one day.
It had to be done right away!
The man who owned the place and the oxen was willing to donate it all!
David wouldn’t have had to pay a single penny!
But he purposed in his heart: “I will not make a sacrifice to God, that costs me nothing!”
And maybe you are thinking about the cost of true committment, deeper committment to God.
And maybe you are thinking about the relationships that you might lose, or other costs to true committment.
And you know that if you submit to God, it will cost you.
Brother, sister, true sacrifice will cost you!
That’s why it’s called a sacrifice!
The rich young ruler was so close to being saved!
So close! He could have followed Jesus!
He came so close!!!!!
But that fine young man eventually lost out with God because at the very end, the cost was too great!
Why don’t you just go all in for Jesus?
I promise, you will be glad did!
Rahab made her choice in a moment! And her entire family was saved!
Ruth made her decision to go all in, and God blessed her life!!!
Peter left his boats and his fish for a higher calling!
Mathew walked away from his tax booth!
Know what you oughtta do?
You oughtta make yourself a living sacrifice unto God!
You oughtta make yourself a living sacrifice unto God!
When people go through a spiritual drought, it’s common to hear them blame others for their condition.
“Someone hurt me, there are hypocrites in church” ETC.
And sometimes that is true!
But the real reason for your drought is you’ve been worshipping at altars of convenience!
If you would just make a forward choice to serve God with all of your heart, I’m telling you the rain will come!!!
1 Kings 18:21 (KJV 1900)
And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the Lord be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him...
At the showdown on Mt. Carmel, the people finally decided to let their idols go and worship God!
And what happened?
The rain came down!!
And right now, there are spiritual blessings of untold impact to your family, your life and your world, and they are hanging above you, ready to fall and wash all over you!
When are you going to have your Mt/ Carmel moment?
Friend, there is no time to waste!!!!
This world is hemorraging!
Surely we are living in the end times!!!
Why would you wait to commit to God?
How often have I heard it: “One day, I’ll get serious with God...”
Why wait?
Jesus is not just your ticket off this world, your escape from hell!
He is your best friend!
He died for you!
He loves you!
He has a plan for you!
Life can be soooo much better!
You can love your life!
You can have confidence towards God!
There is a future and a hope!
The family of God needs you!
This world needs you full of joy and Holy Ghost power!
Why don’t you submit to Him today?
Why don’t you invite the flood once more!
Let the love of God flow into your heart, into your speech, into your relationships, and into your peace!
I’ll tell you what..
Let’s make a sacrifice right now...
“God I give you my heart!!!