Pleasure Worthy Worship

Transcript

Pleasure Worthy Worship.

Greetings in Jesus name. Welcome to this beautiful new day.
I pray that today your worship, your offering, your giving, the expression of your love and your praise for the Lord will become radical. It will become very expressing that there will be nothing that you will hold back from giving to the lord and there will be nothing that will dampen your worship and your giving.
The Lords speaks to the Nation of Israel in the book of
Hosea 9:4 – “You won’t be able to offer sacrifices of wine to the Lord. None of your sacrifices will please him— they will be unclean like food offered to the dead. Your food will only be used to satisfy your hunger; none of it will be brought to the Lord’s temple.”
This is Gods instruction to the nation of Israel. They were completely disobedient to the voice of god. They where idol worshipers. They had adulterated their love for the Lord,and that is why God tells them I am not going to accept your worship.
I don’t think so, there is a greater punishment than this. It is not the sickness we are afraid of, it is not the poverty we are afraid of, it is not the judgement or the punishments that we are afraid of.
The worst discipline, the worst way of being distant from God is, God saying- I am not going to receive your offerings. I am not going to receive your worship. Your worship, your singing and your dancing it is like stenge in my nostrils. That is what the lord is saying about the nation of Israel. God says- I am not going to be pleased with your sacrificial giving. I am not going to enjoy what you bring to me. Your offerings are going to be defiled. It is going to be like the food that is offered to the dead, like the food of the mourners those that have unclean hands and unclean hearts.
That is what God is speaking about a generation of adulters, a generation of idolators, a generation of rebellious disobedient people in Israel.
Today if you have to bring your worship unto to the Lord, your worship has to be pleasing to the lord. Your worship has to be welcomed in heaven. For it, then your lifestyles need to be evaluated first. How do you live from yesterday till today? . Was you living a life of intentional surrender and obedience, humbling yourself before God’s throne during the last 24 hours- if yes, then you are qualified to bring worship unto the Lord. Worship that will please Him. Worship that will bring great joy and honor to Him here on earth.
Amen
Otherwise it is necessary that you first repent of your ways and get your hearts in the right place. You need to fix your attitude. If there is any issue in your relationship, then there is a need to solve those before you bring the worship unto the Lord.
You may think that, Pastor you are talking to us from the Old Testament.
In the Old Testament God is not so judgemental about worship.
If you are thinking like that, then let me remind you what Jesus taught us during the Sermon on the Mount. He said, if you are at the altar with a gift and you are about to worship the Lord, and you are about to give unto the Lord. And suddenly you remember that there is somebody who has a grudge against you. Jesus said- you need to leave the gift at the altar. Go and get reconciled with that person and come back to offer that gift that you brought to give to the Lord .
It is not just an Old Testament principle. If your worship, your sacrifices, your giving to the Lord has to mean something, then you have to intentionally realign your life, realign your attitude, realign the posture of your mind. You need to get back into a place and a position of obedience. And a place of surrender and then come back to worship God and to give to the Lord.
The warning that God gave to Israel through Prophet Hosea in
Hosea 9:4-
“You won’t be able to offer sacrifices of wine to the Lord. None of your sacrifices will please him— they will be unclean like food offered to the dead. Your food will only be used to satisfy your hunger; none of it will be brought to the Lord’s temple.”
Can you see what God is saying!
God is saying-Yes, you may be earning a lot. Yes, you may be blessed and you may have prosperity and abundance. But it will not be used to bring worship to me. God is saying I don’t have any part to do with your blessing, your prosperity and your abundance. You can enjoy it. You can be satisfied in it. You can have a great life. But You can’t bring it to the temple of the Lord. That is why, Cain he was so upset that his offering, his worship it was rejected by God. Because he knew it doesn’t matter how satisfied he was with his produce, if God is not satisfied with what he has brought to Him then all his personal satisfaction it is not worth it. All that he can eat, and all that he can earn, and all that he can wear, and all that he can buy none of it is worth it.
Your greatest honour and blessing and privilege of life is to be able to give to the Lord and to be able to sacrifice unto the Lord, and is to be able to worship. And if God has to accept your worship, it has to be of a certain standard. There has to be a lifestyle. There has to be a character that has to go behind that offering that you bring unto the Lord.
So can you pray today and ask the Lord to give you the grace to bring Him pure and beautiful and fragrant offerings and living sacrifices that will be acceptable and pleasing in his sight.

Prayer:
Father we thank you for this morning word. We thank you for this warning. We believe that you are causing this word to purify us. We want to evaluate ourselves and set every area of our heart mind and soul right in order so that we might be able to worship you. There is no greater privilege, there is no greater honour and blessing then to be able to worship you and to be able to bring our physical financial offerings and givings to you Lord. And we pray that when we do bring that offering this week. When we do bring that altar today, it will be pleasing to you because we have already repented and reconciled. We have already restored the areas of our hearts and minds where we need to fix ourselves. We humble ourselves before you Lord,
In Jesus Name we pray.
Amen.