Sermon Transcript
The multitude of your sacrifices— what are they to me? says the Lord. I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams, and the fat of fattened animals. I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats. When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts?
Stop bringing meaningless offerings. Your incense is detestable to me. New moons, Sabbaths, and convocations— I cannot bear your evil assemblies. Your new moon festivals and your appointed feasts my soul hates. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them.
When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you. Even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood. The Lord says, These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.
Has not my hand made all these things, and so they came into being? declares the Lord. This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word. But whoever sacrifices a bull is like one who kills a man, and whoever offers a lamb like one who breaks a dog’s neck. Whoever makes a grain offering is like one who presents pig’s blood, and whoever burns memorial incense like one who worships an idol.
They have chosen their own ways, and their souls delight in their abominations. So I also will choose harsh treatment for them and will bring upon them what they dread. For when I called, no one answered; when I spoke, no one listened. They did evil in my sight, and chose what displeases me. Hi everyone, Pastor Dave here.
It is a privilege to be with you today. We are here on the flower farm. We’re sitting in the barn. Upstairs is my daughter and her 2 young children. So I just say that right up front to say, you know what, there might be some noise at some point.
Just ignore it. It’s just a part of life. We’re used to it. I hope you can be used to it for a couple of minutes. But it’s great to be together this way again today.
We’re looking forward on Sunday to actually being in person at Bridges Community Church. We’re hearing about so many good things that God is doing there, and so it’s an excitement to be a part of this time with you today. You know, I’ve reached the stage in life finally when I can do things without knowing that I did them. You know what I’m talking about? It’s my guess that a lot of you, or a few of you at least, know what I’m talking about.
I call this the life stage of unconscious ignorance. If I don’t consciously think about what I’m doing, there’s a good chance I won’t remember what I did. And that’s kind of funny and sad at the same time. But for instance, I could be going through my weight ritual. My weight— not this weight but my weightlifting ritual.
And I can do that without thinking about lifting the weights. You know, my mind’s on other things like a podcast or a problem that I’m working through when I’m working with a particular church— not your church, a church out there somewhere— my plans for the day. I could be thinking about a lot of things, and then I finish a set of bicep curls, and you know what? I can’t remember if that was the first set or the second set because my mind was on other things, which really is no big deal except, you know, I probably got to do another set just to be sure. I can do the same kind of thing when I close the garage door as I’m backing out of the driveway, and I’m mindlessly pushing you know, the remote control to close the garage door.
And since I didn’t consciously think about what I did, I get about halfway down the street and I think, did I close the garage door? And my answer is usually, I can’t remember. Do you ever do that? Does your body automatically do something that you’ve done over and over again? You push the button on the remote control but your mind was out to lunch.
And so, you don’t remember. I hate to say this, but this kind of thing has happened a couple of times in my relationship with Bernice. She can walk into my office while I’m doing something, you know, profound, and she can say something about something that she would like me to do or know, and I’ve been known to mindlessly say, uh-huh, yes, or even better, you know, the 2 most important words that a husband can say, yes, dear. Well, I confess I can say those words and not even know that I said them. So that in a half hour later or a half day later or 2 and a half days later when Bernice might come back in and say, okay, today is the day that I’d like us to get started after breakfast on that work that we talked about, the work in the garden.
And her words can come as a complete surprise because I just don’t remember us ever having the conversation. And so, I proceed to explain to her, you know, I’ve got a bunch of other things on my calendar which didn’t include gardening. And you know what happens? She gives me that look. You know the look?
And I immediately know that we must have talked about this at some point. But I was just going through the motions of listening and agreeing. I was on autopilot and it didn’t sink in. And when that kind of thing happens, It doesn’t make Bernice very happy. And it’s not so much because, you know, now I got to put the gardening off, though that bothers her.
But it’s more along the lines of how I acted like I was connecting with her when my mind was really somewhere else. Now, that same kind of thing can happen in our relationship with God, maybe more often than we even realize, when we say we’re listening to God but we’re not. You know, when our relationship with God is like mindless rituals where our bodies do something spiritual, something, you know, religious like go to church, read the Bible, pray, listen to others, share prayer requests, those kinds of things. But the fact is even though our body may be present, our heart, our soul, our mind, they’re somewhere else. Now, do you know what I’m talking about?
The thing is God is not impressed by mindless religious rituals. When that kind of thing happens, we can put the best spiritual practices out there, but if they’re on cruise control, those religious things are going to mean nothing to God. Now, if you can relate to what I just said, which is to say you actually heard what I said— I know, I know, you could be here but not actually hear right now. But if you can relate to this, that’s good because today’s scripture passage could bring some helpful focus to our worship gatherings, whether we’re worship gathering in person or online. In fact, in light of the past year or so when we’ve gathered almost exclusively online, it’s possible that our worship may have become something we did without much thought, without much attention.
And that may be in part just simply due to the myriad of home distractions that could have pulled our focus off of God and onto other things, a lot of other things. And that being the case, this really could be a good time for all of us to give some thought to the state of the religious activities that are a part of our lives. Because what we might see, maybe it needs to be addressed in similar ways that And the Israelites needed to do some rethinking about their mindless religious activities. In fact, we’re turning again to Isaiah, a series that was started a couple of weeks ago. I’m so excited to just be able to share in this series with you, but it’s focused on the Israelites and their religion, as we’re going to see, had become empty, mindless.
Quite frankly, it had become godless. Now, hopefully that’s not the case with our spiritual lives or our religious practices, but one way for us to know is just simply by reflecting on our present state of affairs in light of the present state of affairs that’s described in Isaiah. And so in light of that, we’re going to take a look at the condition of Israel’s religion, their quite frankly godless religion that’s described and condemned and therefore it needed to be reformed. So if you have your Bible, turn with me to Isaiah, Isaiah 1. We’re going to look at Isaiah 1:10-15, then we’re going to jump over also back and forth a little bit to chapter 66 and look at a couple verses there.
But what we see at the beginning as we begin to look at God’s Word is we see how Judah’s faith is described. Judas’ faith, quite frankly, it was a wreck. If you want to know what godless or man-centered religion looks like, it’s described in the first and the last chapters of Isaiah and then throughout Isaiah. And at the outset, in Isaiah 1:10, Isaiah likens their godless faith to Sodom and Gomorrah. Now, you’ve heard of Sodom and Gomorrah before, but this is what it says in Isaiah 1:10, hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom, Listen to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah.
I mean, to speak about Sodom and Gomorrah is to talk about evil and wickedness and ungodly living. And in this case, not only ungodly living, but also ungodly leading while at the same time continuing to practice countless religious activities. And so Isaiah writes, Isaiah 1:11, the multitude of your sacrifices, what are they to me? Says the Lord. And God’s going to tell them what he thinks about their religious practices.
It says, I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams, and the fat of fattened animals. I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats. Now, that sounds a little bit to me like that hilarious Bob Newhart, Stop It! You know, that video that’s out there on YouTube, the Just Stop It video. Which, you know, was a spoof on a popular show.
But what God writes here is not a spoof. He is serious. He is dead serious in saying, I’ve had it. I’ve had it with your religious activity. I’m done with all the religious offerings and sacrifices.
They mean nothing to me. Stop it. Now, let me remind you, the one who said that is the one who invented offerings and sacrifices. You can track them All the way back to the days of Cain and Abel, the first 2 kids of the first 2 people on planet Earth. Their religious sacrifices and offerings were a part of their life even back then.
They’re 2 of the things that God asked them to do in order to connect with Him and to worship Him. Those things were meant to remind them of God’s holiness and their sin and their need for salvation. Offerings and sacrifices and other religious practices then had a significant place in God’s plan. And God says that. In fact, if you go over to chapter 66 here, Isaiah 66:2, it says, has not My hand made all these things?
And so they came into being, declares the Lord. Among the things that God made were these various sacrifices that the Israelites, as we’re reading here, corrupted. So what did God say to His rebellious children about their practices? Well, Isaiah 66:3, but whoever sacrifices a bull is like one who kills a man. I mean, what’s that?
That’s murder. And whoever offers a lamb, like one who breaks a dog’s neck. What’s that? I mean, that’s cruelty, an act of cruelty. But at that time, it was also a ritual that was practiced by the pagans.
And then he says, and whoever makes a grain offering is like one who presents pig’s blood. What’s that? That’s an intentional act of desecration of the altar. It basically is a disdain for God’s holiness. And then he says, and whoever burns memorial incense, like one who worships an idol.
I mean, what’s that? That’s a waste of valuable commodity. It’s expensive. It’s not to be wasted. It’s not something worthless to, you know, give to an idol, a non-God.
And He says, but they have chosen their own ways, speaking of the Israelites, and their souls delight in their abominations. Now, what’s God saying? He’s saying, what you’re doing is all wrong. Do you think I can’t see past your rituals, your attempts to hide your sin with religious activity? Do you think I can’t see that you delight more in sin and doing life your way than a delighting in me and walking in my ways.
Can’t you see that? I don’t have to tell you this. But when we look at this account, this kind of sinful man-centered religiosity still plagues religious activity in our day. And I’m talking about even in Christianity, religious activity often can be used as a cover-up. I think of a conversation I had with a retired AA pilot.
By the way, AA is not Alcoholics Anonymous pilot, it’s American Airlines. And this pilot retired at 60. He didn’t retire by choice at 60, it was just part of the deal in American Airlines at the time that he was asked to retire. And so we were having a conversation about that. I was working out at the gym with him.
At the time, I was a young 30-something, and here I am working out next to this old man. At least I used to think somebody who was 60 was an old man. I don’t think that way anymore. I was kind of concerned as I was watching this old man work out about, you know, the amount of weights and if it was going to hurt him or whatever. Anyway, but I checked in with him.
I kind of got to know him and talk to him quite frequently, but I checked in on with him on this one particular day and I asked him, you know, what’s going on with his spiritual beliefs, how important were they to him. And he said, you know, Dave, actually they’re very important to me. I try to never miss church on Saturday nights. I try to get to the worship service because I need to undo all the bad stuff that I’ve done all week long. In other words, and as the more he talked about it, he was using his religious activity as an absolution for a week of hell-raising, partying, womanizing, cussing up a storm, and, you know, all the rest.
And then once a week he would do the worship thing as a way of getting forgiveness and pardon for his sinful behavior. Now let me ask you, is that the kind of relationship that God wants with us? Where we choose a life of sin all week long without any thought of God, and then on the weekend we check in with God for, you know, an hour? Do you think that God is pleased with that kind of behavior, that God delights in people who delight in a life of sin? Oh, we don’t have to guess.
Isaiah reveals He’s not delighting in that at all. Godless, self-centered religion is not only described here, but it’s condemned. Isaiah 1:11-15, go back there if you’re in chapter 66. We’ll jump back and forth here a little bit. But it’s condemned.
God detested Judah’s empty religious practices. He had enough of it. So here in Isaiah 1:11-15, it says, the multitude of your sacrifices, what are they to Me? says the Lord. I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened calves, or animals.
I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats. When you come to appear before Me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of My courts? Stop bringing meaningless offerings. Your incense is detestable to me. New moons, that would be like monthly festivals, monthly gatherings.
Sabbaths, that would be a weekly gathering, or it could have been an annual gathering, you know, with the Day of Atonement or Feast of Tabernacles. And convocations, those would be special occasion kind of gatherings. God says, I cannot bear your evil assemblies. Verse 14, Your new moon festivals and your appointed feasts my soul hates. Think of that.
God is saying about their celebrating Passover, He hated it. And their Feast of Weeks, He hated it. And the Day of Atonement, the way they celebrated it, He hated it. They have— He says, they have become a burden to me. I am weary of bearing them.
Verse 15, when you spread out your hands in prayer, So to ask for help? I will hide my eyes from you. Even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood. Now, do you get the point?
I mean, these guys are into sacrifice in such a large way that their hands are bloody. And God says, all you’re doing is going through the motions of religion. And at the same time, you’re living in sinful ways. Your religion, your worship, let me tell you what it is. It’s godless.
I’m not there. I hate it. I want nothing to do with it. It is an abomination to me. I can’t stand it.
I’ve had enough of it. It weighs me down. It wears me out. I’m done listening to it. Stop it.
It’s detestable. And that detestable word just stands out to me. It’s detestable to me. Can you imagine? Can you imagine as the priest responsible for worship, getting a response card with those kinds of remarks on it.
I mean, Nate, can you imagine getting response cards with those kinds of responses? Oh, it was detestable. I hated it. It put me in a funk. It went on and on and on.
I thought it would never end. It did not bring me pleasure. I mean, this is basically God’s response to His children’s worship. Now, if you’re the priest, you get a response card like that, what are you going to say? Well, you know, we did our best.
It was intentional. We piled the prayers on. We planned a multitude of sacrifices. It was our way of ensuring that we connected with You. We put the time in, especially on the religious holidays.
And we always have incense, a lot of incense, very expensive incense. You know, that makes me think of a worship service I went to in Grants Pass, Oregon a few years ago. It was just down the street from my stepmom’s home, and it’s called The Gathering Place. I don’t know that it’s still there, but I like that name and it caught my attention. The Gathering Place is a place where they have worship on Sunday mornings, and during the week the building is a coffee place that’s run by a church.
Well, we thought it would be really cool to go visit and worship with them. So Bernice and I and And my stepmom, we went there one Sunday morning and we knew something was off when the keyboardist started using some kind of hookah pipe thing. I don’t know what it was while he was leading worship. I didn’t ask what he was smoking, but I thought it was something stronger than nicotine, quite frankly. And I don’t know if that was like standard religious practice or ritual for this church or not.
All I know is that my stepmom never came back. But what I saw was enough to make me stop and wonder, do these people really think about what they’re doing? Is this mindless or is this mindful worship activity, religious practice? Whatever it was, it would have been good for this church to stop and think about it, think it over like for the Jewish worshipers that Isaiah wrote to needed to stop and to take into account what God thought. Is our worship bringing God pleasure?
Is God delighted? Is God happy with our religious practices? Or are we just mindlessly going through the motions, maybe even adding, you know, more prayers and more songs and more offerings and more candle lighting and more solemn assemblies and more incantations and more readings and more, you name it. Is that going to make it good? Is that going to make it right?
Will that fix What’s not right? Will God be happy? What’s it going to take to bring pleasure to God through our religious practices? That’s the point, isn’t it, of religious activity? It’s a thumbs up from God.
After all, His thumbs up is what matters most. Francis Chan tells the story of someone who complained to him after a morning worship service. The guy came up to Francis and said, Francis, the worship this morning it wasn’t very good. And you know what Francis said to him? He said, that’s okay.
We weren’t worshiping you. In actuality, that shift in our viewpoint on worship could be the most important shift we can make when it comes to religious activity. If anything could, you know, reform our worship, that shift could. So Isaiah, having described and condemned godless religion, said this in Isaiah 29:13, and it’s a statement from the Lord. And the Lord said, speaking again in the context of their worship, in the context of the relationship that they had with God, and the Lord said, because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips while their hearts are far from me and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men.
Now, what’s this? This is an indictment against Israel’s religious practices. What they did, he’s saying, was nothing more than lip service. That’s it. They were just going through the motions.
They didn’t mean what they said. They just did what they did out of ritual because that’s what you do. You bring an offering like everybody else. You say prayers. Like everybody else.
You celebrate various feasts and festivals like everybody else. It’s just what you do. You keep the Passover. Why? I don’t know.
It’s just what we do. Or the Feast of Booths. Why would we do Booths? Are you kidding? What’s that all about?
Or the new moon. Just take the new moon, for example. Why? Actually, it had a wonderful reason for being practiced by God’s people. It was on the first day of the month.
It was an opportunity for God’s people to refocus on God, to reconsecrate their hearts and their lives to God. Now, if that had actually continued and was done mindfully, it would have been a wonderful thing, this regular time to just sit back and say, God, how we doing? There are various reasons why God set in place all these offerings and sacrifices and the feasts for the children of Israel. And one of the core reasons was this, as you can see here in Isaiah 29:13. It was because He wanted His children to draw close to Him so that they might draw near to God.
You see it there? With more than their mouth. With more than, you know, statements that aren’t supported in any way. But he wanted them to draw close to him with their hearts. Do you see it?
Because their love for God had taken a hike. God wanted them to draw close in such a way that they were going to intentionally, by what they were doing, saying, Lord, we want to walk with you day after day. And that being the case, then they would see the feasts and the offerings and the sacrifices as wonderful, as regular opportunities to connect with God, to be reminded of who God is and who we are and what it means to walk with our great God, our holy God. They were not meant— these offerings and sacrifices, they were not meant to be empty rituals, to, you know, be treated like an unmotivated student who hates having to do homework and therefore Or, you know, does it half-heartedly, as quickly as possible without much thought so he or she can just get it done and get on to the fun stuff, you know, playing video games. Well, that’s the kind of thing that was going on with God’s children, God’s chosen children, privileged and intentionally selected to be the first ones to share a relationship with God, and in so doing, point the way to the promised Messiah through their love for God as they demonstrated that before a watching world.
And they were to demonstrate that through various religious activities that were meant to be filled with meaning and life-changing purpose and a true expression of their love for God. So what did they need at this point when God is speaking to them here through Isaiah? They needed a faith reformation. They needed to be reformed. So we could say Judah needed to genuinely draw near to God with all of their heart.
But what was it going to take for that to happen? Same thing it’s going to take for anyone whose faith is lip service or empty godless religious ritual practices. What is it going to take? What does a person need? Well, Isaiah told them.
Isaiah 66:2, the last part. But this is the one to whom I will look: He who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word. Their faith, their religious practices needed to be reformed. But for it to be reformed, it was going to require at least 3 things. One, humility.
They were going to acknowledge, need to acknowledge to God that their arrogance was showing up. They needed to again say to God, God, you are God. We’re not God. We got to stop placing our will above your will and your desires. We need to submit to you.
An act of humility on their part and a continuing act of humility on our part as well. And contrition. Lord, be merciful to us. I messed up. We messed up.
Lord, we admit we’re sinners. I’m a sinner. I need you. We need you. Give us a new life.
Forgive us. Forgive me. Contrition. And reverence. They needed reverence for who God is and what God has done.
They needed to be willing to live under his authority, to not just say it but mean it. Lord, I want to do your will. I love your word. I revere your word. I want to obey your word.
I tremble at the possibility of not doing what you want me to do, Lord. I want to do what’s right in your eyes. I want to live with godly fear, with the kind of fear that keeps me from doing that which would ultimately ultimately displease you. Now, can’t you see in the text here in Isaiah that Isaiah is pleading with Judah to move in that direction toward a God-centered authentic life, authentic worship, toward authentic religion that comes from the heart that longs to know God’s Word and truly live in God’s ways? Now, is that a better way to live?
I think so. If they wanted to have that kind of heart, and if we want to have that kind of heart to walk with God, to draw near to God with all of our heart, we may need to do the same kind of serious thinking they needed to do about their faith and about their religious practices because we also can fall into a religious rut and let religious rituals rule the day. I mean, think about it. Have you ever mindlessly participated in a religious activity where you just mouthed the words and you went through the motions without giving it much thought, without actually connecting with God in a moment or a season of time? Did you ever say as a kid, God is great.
God is good. Let us thank Him for our food? If you said that, do you remember meaning that? As you said it? And then at some point, did you graduate to the Lord’s Prayer?
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us for evil. I got that wrong.
Well, you know what I mean. Deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen. Now, were you actually praying that?
Can you remember that every time you prayed that, were you just reciting it, you know, without thinking, reciting it along with everybody else that was around you because the worship leader told you to do so? Could it have been an act where you were mouthing the words but didn’t really mean it? Has there been a time when you took communion knowing full well that there was an Is there an area of sin ongoing in your life that you weren’t willing to do something about, to give up? Maybe something that you have rationalized as not actually being sin, and yet you took communion anyway because everybody else around you was. Have you been baptized?
And if you were baptized, when you were asked that question, do you believe in Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, did you say yes? And if you said yes, did you mean it? Or were you just mouthing the words? It could be so easy to mouth the words, to perform religious activities on autopilot, and it can happen more often than we think. In fact, every time we sing a Christian song, we can do that mindlessly instead of mindfully.
Take for instance the words to one of the most popular worship songs right now. It’s the song Waymaker. It was written by Michael W. Smith and a couple other people. Well, when you sing this song, when I sing this song, are we just mouthing the words or are we actually singing the song from the depths of our heart and our love for God as a declaration of our worship to the God that we love? The words in part say, you are here, speaking to God, you are here moving in our midst.
I worship you. I worship you. You are here working in this place. I worship you. I worship you.
Waymaker, miracle worker, promise keeper, light in the darkness. My God, that’s who you are. You are here touching every heart. You are here healing every heart. You are here turning lives around.
I worship you. I worship you. Even when I don’t see it, you’re working. Even when I can’t feel it, you’re working. You never stop.
You never stop working. My God, that is who you are. Waymaker, miracle worker, promise keeper, light in the darkness. My God, that is who you are. Do you believe that?
When you sing this song, which is something I’ve done a bunch of times, is your mind engaged when you sing? Are you consciously singing it to God? Are your words a proclamation to him of your love for who he is and what he is doing? Is your heart and your mind connected with God, or are you just going through the motions? Have you heard of the song The Heart of Worship?
It’s a song that’s been around now for almost 30 years, and it’s still sung, and you may be familiar with the song, but are you familiar with the backstory on the song? The song was written by popular worship leader Matt Redman, and he wrote the song during a difficult season of ministry where he was a worship pastor at this church located just outside of London, England. And the lead pastor of that church at that time sensed that the band and the church, they had lost their way in worship and something was missing. So, they decided to strip worship down to the bare essentials which meant going without drums, no guitars, no microphones. In fact, no sound system.
The musical sets that they would usually do 4 to 6 songs, those weren’t planned. And they even went without a worship leader for a bit. And during that time, you know what happened? People began to reflect. On the whys and the what of worship.
Redmond said it was an incredible time of reflection that helped him and the entire congregation, and people then began to offer up to God in new ways— songs, a cappella songs, heartfelt prayers— and they saw God work in fresh, brand-new ways in people’s lives and in the life of the church. The church actually found a whole new excitement and perspective on worship. And it was then that Matt ended up writing The Heart of Worship that simply described what the church experienced. These are some of the words: When the music fades, all is stripped away, and I simply come, longing just to bring something that’s of worth, that will bless your heart. I’ll bring you more than a song.
For a song in itself is not what you’ve required. I’m coming back to the heart of worship, and it’s all about you, Jesus. It’s all about, about you. Now, if there is anyone who should know that and appropriately respond to that fact, guess what? It’s us.
It’s people who have lived in the aftermath of Isaiah’s day. If hindsight is 20/20, then we have all the hindsight we need. What God’s chosen people didn’t know back then, we know it now. That all of those lambs that they were sacrificing, they were pointing to the Messiah. The Messiah, Jesus Christ.
That Jesus came as our Passover Lamb to take away our sins. And that when Jesus died on the cross, he did so that we could have a relationship with God now and forever. He made it possible for us to come into a personal intimate relationship with God. Even now we could go straight to God’s throne through Jesus Christ when we pray. And that Jesus was our scapegoat.
A relationship with Jesus takes away our sins, our enormous sin debt, which we could have never paid. And yet Jesus paid that debt. He canceled our sins. Our sins have been forgiven in Christ. Now, maybe Judah’s worship would have been much better, more mindful, more passionate had they known all of that.
That each one of them, what they were being— what God asked them to be involved in had a purpose. And ultimately it pointed to the promised Savior. His name was Jesus Christ. Now, when you think about their religious journey and what they went through, it actually should give us a lot more grace for God’s rebellious children, but it also should give us a ton more incentive to make the most of whatever religious practices are a part of our lives because we know they only please God if our heart is in what we do. And we know that’s the case if we will humbly submit to God and regularly own up to our shortcomings and ask for his mercy and ask for his help in carrying out his will because we revere him most.
Isn’t that enough to say, I’m not going to go through the motions. I’m not just going to simply go through the motions. I want to genuinely put my heart into this relationship with God, to do better than Judah did in her relationship with God through the work that God is doing in us right now as we walk with him, as we hear the word, and we pray, and we worship, and we are involved in community. May all of that help us grow in genuine, authentic ways in loving God more and serving him more and being the people that he wants us to be day after day after day. Well, let’s thank the Lord.
Lord, thank you that we can together look at a passage like this and even in the 21st century be changed, be encouraged, be helped, be exhorted, There’s so much here for us. We pray, Father, that our worship would not be mindless, that our spiritual practices would not be empty and void of meaning, but that we, like you’ve wanted for your children all along, would connect with you from our hearts. And God, we would in this connection see you be worshiped from an authentic heart. It would honor you. It would please you.
It would delight you. May that be the greatest delight of our lives, to live for you above ourselves. And Father, may you work in the lives of each one of us even this day so that we hear whatever it is you want us to hear and to do. If there is anybody here today that has not yet come to the Savior, the one that all these sacrifices and offerings pointed to, we pray that today might be the day of salvation for them. In fact, if that’s true, that today you have not yet come to the Savior, today could be the day of salvation for you.
Ask God to save you, to forgive you of your sins. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. And you will be saved. Father, work in us and change us. Help us become the people that you want us to be.
Thank you for the joy of sharing this time together today. In Jesus’ name, amen.
