Oh, how I want to tell you! How I wish I could impress upon all your hearts how sad the Lord of Lords is right now.
His people have never sent more, “praise offerings” toward heaven. Never, since the early church, has there been such an emphasis on praise. Never have there been so many “praise albums,” “praise songbooks,” praise gatherings.” But my friends, praise without worship is dead.
What is true Worship?
“What is worship?” you ask. The New International Version states in Romans 12:1, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer yourselves as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – which is your spiritual worship.” That means that God wants our physical lives to emulate what we believe. People should be able to see Christ in us, not only by our words, but by what we do.
“Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” (Luke 6:46) our Lord asks! You see, praise is a wonderful thing! Nothing warms the heart of our Father in heaven more than to hear the praises of His Holy people… but, that’s just it! Are we holy? Holy means set apart… sanctified. It means that we live up (by God’s grace) to the name “Christian” which means, “little Christ” or “Christ-like.”
Do You Reflect Jesus?
Can people see Jesus when they look at our lives?? If they can’t, then we’d better stop singing praises and start singing psalms of repentance. As James puts it:
“Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn, and wail!! Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up.” (James 4:8-10)
What Jesus Said
Today I hear so much about sacrifice! But so little about obedience. I hear many sermons on tithing (giving a tenth of your income to God) but many don’t realize that this is an old covenant (testament) principle. Because of the hardness of the people’s hearts, God had to legislate giving. He had to write laws that told them how much to give!! The law says you must give ten percent… but Jesus said to give it all!!!
Now with people’s hearts growing harder and harder they must be told again to give their “little tenth.” But if they were walking in the light of God, they would hear His voice calling them and saying, “If any man has two coats give to him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same” (Luke 3:11).
In other words, “Don’t live beyond your needs… as I bless you, give everything you don’t need to the needy.” A friend of mine puts it another way…
Don’t raise your Standard of Living
Raise your Standard of Giving!
The emphasis today is on the sacrifice, not on obedience to God. Even in our praise services I hear so many times… “Let’s give to God a ‘sacrifice of praise.’” As I said before, praise is beautiful when accompanied by holiness (obedience).
For Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven: but he who does the will of My Father who is in Heaven” (Matt. 7:21)…
And if you need more scripture, God says point blank, “Has the Lord as much delight in offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold! To obey is better than sacrifice..”
(1 Sam. 15:22)
And now I can hear some of you saying, “But the scripture you quoted from Romans talked about ‘offering ourselves as living sacrifices…’ What about that???" Ah! That’s just it!! The only sacrifice God really wants is us!! Our whole lives submitted to Him in total obedience.
Then, and only then, can offerings become “...a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God.” (Phil. 4:18). All of a sudden our “praise gatherings” become well-pleasing to God, for we then are truly “lifting up holy hands” (1 Tim. 2:8).
Before we can truly praise the Lord with our songs and words, we must look and see if we are praising Him with our lives and deeds, or else He might say to us as He said to Israel,
“I hate, I reject your festivals, nor do I delight in your solemn assemblies… Take away from Me the noise of your songs; I will not even listen to the sound of your instruments!” (Amos 5:21, 23)
Or even worse… “I never knew you, Depart from Me, you evildoers!” (Matt. 7:23)
I know these are heavy words, but the Lord has impressed it on my heart to share His grief over “empty praises.” Nothing pains a husband more than the monotone, automatic “I love you” of a wife whose love has grown cold.
Let us not grieve our bridegroom! Let us thrill His heart with holy deeds and passionate love!! For the love-story between Jesus and His bride should be the most romantic, exciting one is all history!
But alas! The world is not stirred by us… For the church has grown bored... and the Lord sits weeping, having lost the affection of the one He died to save/marry.
Stir your hearts to action!!!! Don’t just sit shaking your head, thinking I’m just being dramatic!! You are bringing the living God to grief!! He purchased a bride for His Son, who loves Him in word only, but obviously does not care enough to change the way she lives to prove her love for Him!
There’s not much left to say… The Lord did give me one more scripture… Read it and weep … (Please!!)
“… This people draw near with their words and honor Me with their lip service, but they remove their hearts far from Me, and their reverence of Me consists of tradition learned by rote…” (Isaiah 29:13)
Bring romance back into His church.
Do what He says!!!