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The position of human beings as subordinate to God makes it imperative to offer Him worship. Not just any worship but a true worship. A worship in obedience; worship in God's way. This is the kind of worship God demands from His creatures. Many offer a kind of worship that is not acceptable to God. He has given us the guidelines for a spiritual worship and we have chosen to offer a kind of worship that seems right in our own eyes. What shall we do then? I think we have to go back to the scriptures and see what God has said about a worship that He desires and accepts from His creatures from psalm 26:1-8
1 Vindicate me, O LORD, for I have walked in my integrity, and I have trusted in the LORD without wavering. 2 Prove me, O LORD, and try me; test my heart and my mind. 3 For your steadfast love is before my eyes, and I walk in your faithfulness. 4 I do not sit with men of falsehood, nor do I consort with hypocrites. 5 I hate the assembly of evildoers, and I will not sit with the wicked. 6 I wash my hands in innocence and go around your altar, O LORD, 7 proclaiming thanksgiving aloud, and telling all your wondrous deeds. 8 O LORD, I love the habitation of your house and the place where your glory dwells. (Psalm 26:1-8, ESV)
Here in this passage we see a couple things that worship is made of. 'But how does this passage speak about worship?'someone may ask. This is how ; If you check the original language, the title gives a clue that it's about worship, a worship rendered by David to God. We should know that the scriptures weren't officially written in chapters and verses. They used titles to refer to portions of it. So here, the ESV titles it 'I WILL BLESS THE LORD' which I think is a clear statement which shows that this text is about worship. Also verse 6 and 7 give another clue that it's about worship for He said 'I wash my hands in innocence and go around your altar, O LORD, 7 proclaiming thanksgiving aloud, and telling all your wondrous deeds'. With that said, Let's take the verses and see what God has for us concerning true worship. It's unfortunate that time won't permit me to go through the whole text quoted above therefore I will expand the verses 1 and 2 for today.
1 Vindicate me, O LORD, for I have walked in my integrity, and I have trusted in the LORD without wavering.
This is our first point and it's taken from verse 1. From this verse we can learn that prior to worship, we must be people who delight in the justification of the Lord. We must be people who believe that we've being given a new standing before God. We must be sure of what Jesus did for us when He died and rose again. We must have a clear conscience (Romans 8:1) that when we approach Him with our offering, He will accept it. Those who still live in condemnation, though would offer their worship to God, He is not going to accept it because they are still stained with their sins. They've not gone through the washing of the blood of the Lamb. Let's see this from Isaiah. 11 "What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the LORD; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats. 12 "When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts? 13 Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations- I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. 14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. 15 When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood. (Isaiah 1:11-15, ESV). He later said; 16 Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, 17 learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause. (Isaiah 1:16-17, ESV) . We can also see that trust is a key. We must come to Him trusting that He will accept our worship. Trusting that because of our right standing with Him, He will receive our offering. This is very important. For there are some people still in the church who offer worship just because they see others do it. And there are others too who think that organ music,drums , guitars and other instruments when played in unison in the church service is synonymous to worship. No. They can be used in the church worship but they are not the worshipers. It's the one playing these instruments who make it a worship. The Psalmist said that 'he has trusted in the Lord without wavering' . He knew that trust is a key and no one can trust without being vindicated.'2 Prove me, O LORD, and try me; test my heart and my mind.' This is the second point. Here too we see David asking the Lord to test his heart and mind to prove him. In effect He is saying check me to see if I'm worthy to offer you my worship . From this verse we see that those who want to worship the Lord should have their hearts and minds cleaned. This verse is linked to Deuteronomy 6:5 and other couple of New Testament verses where it says that 'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. (Deuteronomy 6:5, ESV)' . From this we see that in order to offer any kind of worship, whether showing our love or praise or Thanksgiving to him, it must be propelled by a clean heart and mind. And not just clean mind and heart but also with all our heart and all our mind . This is very important. We can not give a chamber of our heart to God, who is the owner of all things, and expect Him to accept it. He's a jealous God (Exodus 20:5) . Our mind should also be totally dedicated to Him.
In case you are wondering how you can receive this vindication from the Lord in order to worship Him, then this is how. Repent and believe in the work of Jesus Christ. The One who died on the cross with your sins, rose again in victory so that if you believe in him, you will not perish for your sins but have a right standing before God that will give you eternal life. And when you have a right standing before God, your worship will rise up to Him like an incense and He is going to inhabit your praise.
God bless you beloved for following today's message.