Your worship is dishonest. I know what you are thinking... "But you don't even know me! You don't know my heart!" Actually, I do. And I know that your heart is pretty much lying when you worship. I think I just mad someone mad. Keep reading.
Your heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick (Jeremiah 17:9). From within your heart comes evil thoughts... thoughts of lust and theft and murder (Mark 7:21, Matthew 5:21). I could go on. But I won't. Because this is not meant to be an obstacle to your worship. This is meant to remove the obstacle many of us already have. The obstacle of dishonesty.
You, me, and the guy singing next to us in worship are all dishonest at times in our worship. Over the years worship team members have told me how they feel hypocritical sometimes singing songs about "surrendering all" when there many be things in their lives which they are having difficulty surrendering. The scenarios could go on and on, but at the core of it is this fact: We ALL worship God under his mighty grace.
Not one of us can sing all the songs we use in our worship and mean every word. Not gonna happen. That's the honest truth. How can I say that? Because of what the Bible says about our flesh. On this earth we will all still struggle and sin and fail. Many people believe that their worship is dishonest worship if they can't mean everything they sing. Well, get in line. Because every single one of us can't possibly mean everything we sing in our worship. Yet God STILL desires our worship. We TRY to mean everything we sing, of course. As we should. But we will not accomplish that until heaven! So dishonest worship is not someone trying to sing praise to God and still at work in their lives living out what they are singing. That's not dishonest at all.
I'll tell you what dishonest worship is. Dishonest worship is when we come before God, next to others, and put on the "everything is alright" mask. For Pete's sake drop the mask. (Who is Pete anyway?) God doesn't want a show. He doesn't want a fake offering with no heart. That is dishonest worship. What he wants is a heart for him... struggles and sin and failure. The whole shebang.
God says in Hosea 6:6, "I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgement of God rather than burnt offerings." Give mercy! To who? Well, God certainly doesn't need it. How about you give yourself some mercy? After all, God gave you mercy! When you feel a little hypocrital, realize that's the Holy Spirit challenging you in a particular area of your life. Accept the challenge and remember that you are under the mercy of the blood of Christ Jesus.
Don't just bring a show of "sacrifice" to your worship. Bring YOU. ALL of you. Consider how David questions God in frustration and anger in many of his psalms (Psalm 22:1; 42:9; 44:23-24; 74:11, etc). Do you consider David disrespectful to God in these passages? If you do, my guess is that you may not be bringing your whole self into worship. David was called the man after God's own heart. David gives honest worship. An authentic spirit before God. Struggles, sin, failures and all.
Forget the show and acknowledge that God already knows all the struggle, all the sin, and all the failure. I guarantee that when you drop the facade in worship and bring the real you, the "honest you" with all the baggage, before God's throne amazing things can happen.
worship Him 24/7...
Scott
Your heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick (Jeremiah 17:9). From within your heart comes evil thoughts... thoughts of lust and theft and murder (Mark 7:21, Matthew 5:21). I could go on. But I won't. Because this is not meant to be an obstacle to your worship. This is meant to remove the obstacle many of us already have. The obstacle of dishonesty.
You, me, and the guy singing next to us in worship are all dishonest at times in our worship. Over the years worship team members have told me how they feel hypocritical sometimes singing songs about "surrendering all" when there many be things in their lives which they are having difficulty surrendering. The scenarios could go on and on, but at the core of it is this fact: We ALL worship God under his mighty grace.
Not one of us can sing all the songs we use in our worship and mean every word. Not gonna happen. That's the honest truth. How can I say that? Because of what the Bible says about our flesh. On this earth we will all still struggle and sin and fail. Many people believe that their worship is dishonest worship if they can't mean everything they sing. Well, get in line. Because every single one of us can't possibly mean everything we sing in our worship. Yet God STILL desires our worship. We TRY to mean everything we sing, of course. As we should. But we will not accomplish that until heaven! So dishonest worship is not someone trying to sing praise to God and still at work in their lives living out what they are singing. That's not dishonest at all.
I'll tell you what dishonest worship is. Dishonest worship is when we come before God, next to others, and put on the "everything is alright" mask. For Pete's sake drop the mask. (Who is Pete anyway?) God doesn't want a show. He doesn't want a fake offering with no heart. That is dishonest worship. What he wants is a heart for him... struggles and sin and failure. The whole shebang.
God says in Hosea 6:6, "I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgement of God rather than burnt offerings." Give mercy! To who? Well, God certainly doesn't need it. How about you give yourself some mercy? After all, God gave you mercy! When you feel a little hypocrital, realize that's the Holy Spirit challenging you in a particular area of your life. Accept the challenge and remember that you are under the mercy of the blood of Christ Jesus.
Don't just bring a show of "sacrifice" to your worship. Bring YOU. ALL of you. Consider how David questions God in frustration and anger in many of his psalms (Psalm 22:1; 42:9; 44:23-24; 74:11, etc). Do you consider David disrespectful to God in these passages? If you do, my guess is that you may not be bringing your whole self into worship. David was called the man after God's own heart. David gives honest worship. An authentic spirit before God. Struggles, sin, failures and all.
Forget the show and acknowledge that God already knows all the struggle, all the sin, and all the failure. I guarantee that when you drop the facade in worship and bring the real you, the "honest you" with all the baggage, before God's throne amazing things can happen.
worship Him 24/7...
Scott