We discovered last time we met, the key is less of me..
We also established, God is looking for worshipers.
We're all here to worship, so what's the problem?
One of the greatest battles in Christianity today, is not worshiping, the target of worship.
The problem is not our worship; the problem is the object of worship!
If your object is wrong, your outcome is wrong...
Can I get a witness on that?
Let's get one thing clear...God will not share His glory with another!
Lucifer was kicked out because he diverted praising, adoring and magnifying from God to himself. Thus, he became a god unto himself.
So, Lucifer was kicked out of heaven, and then God starts a human race on this planet. God only has one person down here and he himself, is a worshiper. Worship is no more or less than adoration and love towards deity. It is a love that you express in a multitude of ways. But if it is true love and adoration, it cannot stay unexpressed.
If a husband, for example, tells his wife he loves her, but he never hugs or kisses her, never provides for her, expresses that or makes loving gestures, then that wife is not very likely to believe that her husband loves her?
Am I right ladies?
The facts is, love must be expressed! And if love is not expressed, it stagnates, it withers and dies, it becomes corrupted, and it becomes less than pure love.
"Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you righteous;
And shout for joy, all you upright in heart!"
Psalms 32:11
So, the question becomes, what do you love? Who do you worship?
Are You Worshiping a Feeling or a Fact?
Knowledge is power! So that we can become more comfortable, we need to have deeper comprehension of this subject.
When we come to church to worship, we teach, we learn, we sing, we praise..
Is it only because of a feeling? God is trying to take us beyond the feeling to the fact. Have you ever been in a praise service and the singing starts, and the feeling gets to you, and you just don’t want it to leave? Do you know what you are doing? You’re enjoying what’s happening, but if you’re not careful, you’ll start worshiping your act of worshiping. You’ll start praising your praise. You’ll substitute a nice feeling for a true focus on God.
Not every effort of worship is acceptable to God!
Remember, in Genesis 4, that Cain was rejected by God, because He would not accept his bloodless worship!
God was rejecting Cain's attitude.
What did Jesus mean when he said, “salvation is of the Jews,”?
He was saying that the Samaritans were a rival religion, with a mixture of truth, feelings and human ideas. They had, in the eyes of God, a man-made religion that was unacceptable. The Jews had a religion that originated in God, exalting and magnifying the holiness of God. It showed the necessity of a substitute blood sacrifice that the Samaritans couldn’t fathom.
It is the sacrifice of a substitute that leads to forgiveness, atonement and restoration. Salvation has always been by divine grace, not by human merit. And grace is offered to the sinner on the grounds of sacrificial atonement. So, it was through the Jews, God established once and for all His divine right to show the method of approaching Him.
God gave them sacrifices, rituals, temple rites, and circumcision, and He said, “salvation is of the Jews.”
Here's a few reasons why:
1) They know the object, the one true living God.
2) They have the approach to God that He will accept. BUT, everything else is rejected.
Remember when Ruth kept following Naomi and wouldn’t leave her? “And Ruth said, Entreat me not to leave thee or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go: and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people and thy God my God.” Ruth left behind heathen Moabite worship for true worship. Salvation is of the Jews because acceptable worship only has God as the target.
Ruth 1
A New Priesthood for Salvation
God didn’t nullify or go back on the promises He made to Israel.
He fulfilled them in Jesus Christ. The veil was opened for all to approach.
The final sacrifice was offered, and the old priesthood ended as a new priesthood began.
According to the Book of Hebrews, chapter 13, the new priesthood is to offer spiritual sacrifice even with the fruit of our lips. “By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name” Hebrews 13:15
According to the New Testament every believer is now a spiritual priest.
And the duty of every priest is to offer sacrifices unto God.
Hebrews 13:15 says that the sacrifices we offer are spiritual expressions, even the sacrifice of our lips, praising God by Christ Jesus. The temples of our bodies now supersede the tabernacle of Israel.
For God, incarnate in the man Christ Jesus, said unto the Samaritan woman: the time is coming and now is when it will not be a location. You will neither worship in this mountain, nor in the temple at Jerusalem. You will now worship in spirit and in truth!
And now may the the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
Brian Monzon Ministries