False Worship

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So let's read the Word of God together, Malachi, and I will read the first chapter.
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Malachi chapter 1.
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The word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi.
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I have loved you, says the Lord, yet you say, in what way have you loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother, says the Lord? Yet Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated, and laid waste his mountains and his heritage for the jackals of the wilderness.
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And even though Edom has said, we have been impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places, thus sayeth the Lord of hosts, they may build, but I will throw down.
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And they shall be called the territory of wickedness, and the people against whom the Lord will have indignation forever.
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Your eyes shall see, and you shall say, the Lord is magnified beyond the border of Israel.
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A son honors his father, and a servant his master, if then I am the father, where is my honor? If I am a master, where is my reverence, says the Lord of hosts? To you priests who despise my name, yet you say, in what way have we despised your name? You offer defiled food on my altar, but you say, in what way have we defiled you? By saying the table of the Lord is contemptible, and when you offer the blind as a sacrifice, is it not evil? And when you offer the lame and the sick, is it not evil? Offer then to your governor, would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you favorably, says the Lord of hosts? But now entreat God's favor that he may be gracious to us.
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While this is being done by your hands, will he accept you favorably, says the Lord of hosts? Who is there even among you who would shut the doors so that you would not kindle fire on my altar in vain? I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord of hosts, nor will I accept an offering from your hands.
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From the rising of the sun, even to its going down, my name shall be great among the Gentiles.
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In every place, incense shall be offered to my name, and a pure offering for my name shall be great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts.
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But you have profaned it, in that you say the table of the Lord is defiled, and its food is contemptible.
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And you also say, oh, what a weariness, and you sneer at it, says the Lord of hosts, and you bring the stolen, and the lame, and the sick, and thus you bring an offering.
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Should I accept this from your hands, says the Lord? But cursed be the deceiver who has a flock, in his flock, a male, and makes a vow, but sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished, for I am a great king, says the Lord of hosts, and my name is to be feared among the nations.
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Amen.
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May God bless his word, and again, before we go to his word, let us just ask God's blessing.
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Our Father in God, now we come to that point in our worship to consider your word.
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No, God, your word is forever settled in the heavens.
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Your word is unchangeable, because you're unchangeable.
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And so we pray, Lord, this morning, that as we come, and as your word is spoken, Lord, that you would be pleased, Holy Spirit, to do a great work.
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That you would take frail creatures like us, and pour into us your great truth.
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That you would help me, Lord, to speak the truth, that you would help me to speak it clearly, and that you would bless, Lord Jesus, that you would come down from on high, and open our hearts that we might love you according to your word.
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So be with us now, and may even this enable us to grow in the grace and the knowledge of the Son of God, who so loved us, that he gave himself for us, amen.
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If you remember the opening that Brother Mike read, he read of the account in John chapter four of the Lord Jesus Christ, as he traveled through Samaria, and he met a woman, and he held a conversation with her, and in that conversation and discussion, he told her that the day was coming, and now is, when those who worship God will worship God in spirit and in truth.
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And my friends, that's today.
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That is the reason why I asked Brother Mike to read that in the opening, is I want to speak this morning about worship.
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If you have the bulletin, it was titled False Worship.
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But I want to address this this morning as in whatever state you're in, my friends, whether you're here as a child of God, or you're here as an unbeliever, in all of that, God is to be worshiped, regardless of your state.
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That's right.
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And so I asked us to think about this, but let me begin this way.
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God, the true God, has no needs, friends.
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God would be infinitely complete if he had never created a single being.
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That's right.
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That includes angels, principalities, powers, in whatever way we can understand it.
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God is infinitely complete, has no needs.
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And yet, and yet, God desires that you and I, his creatures, would worship him.
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That you and I would add to his manifested glory.
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And the reason it's manifested is because God, in his essential glory, is not increased or decreased.
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God is absolute in totality at all times, eternity past, present, future.
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God is in need of none.
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God is unique.
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And yet, God desires to manifest his glory in the worship of his creatures, particularly as we see it drawn out in this first chapter of Malachi.
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And so I ask you to think about this this morning, and I want to address it from, hopefully, the angle of your heart.
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I want to address worship this morning, whether it be true worship or false worship.
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Not just the worship that is seen by men, rather the worship that proceeds from the heart and is offered to God.
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As you read this first chapter in Malachi, even just reading it once, if you have not read it before, or if you have not read it in a while, there's an issue, isn't there? There's an issue, and the issue is, God has an issue with the priests and those who are offering to him sacrifices in the realm of worship.
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God takes issue with their form and their manner of worship.
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Not only the manner of their own worship, but the example that they are setting for others in the way in which they seek to offer sacrifices and worship God.
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What's amazing is I read through this, and I want to stay focused on worship, but what's amazing to this, God has an issue with the priests and the worshipers in that day of how they offered sacrifices and how they would worship him.
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And amazingly, it seems as if the priests have an issue with God.
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If you read through it, you could see it.
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God says something and they say, wait a minute, they have an issue with the Lord God themselves that God should be satisfied with the form of worship that they are offering.
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Imagine that.
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God's creatures having an issue with the creator.
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As we consider worship this morning, I want to ask you a question a number of times this morning.
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And let me start by saying it.
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Why are you here today? Why are you here today, folks? Every one of you, each one of you, why are you here today? Let me address the kids.
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Kids, why are you here today? Is it because you had no choice? Is it because you were forced to come? If you had your choice, would you have stayed home? Did you come here to worship God this morning? Or did you come because if you didn't come, you would have got in trouble? Let me ask the older folks today.
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You figure out who's old.
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Why are you here today? Are you here because it's the thing you always do on Sunday? Are you here today because it's a habit? It's because of the way I was brought up.
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It's because I want other people to know I went to church today.
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It's because of this and because of that.
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What I'm asking us to think about in the form of worship and by the form of the question, why are you here today? Did you come here in worship to worship God? That's a pretty straightforward question.
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And God demands a straightforward answer.
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Are you here today because you desire to praise him? Are you here today because you desire to please him? Are you here today because Christ is the savior of sinners? You see, why we are here today is a very important question to answer.
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You see, because this person, this son of God, this Lord Jesus Christ, this one who's pictured in the sacrifices of the Old Testament, this one, this Jesus of the Bible, this living son of God, he is worthy of worship.
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He is worthy and none other is.
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He alone is worthy.
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And so I ask you that question that you and I might examine our motives, that you and I would, if you will plow up our hearts a bit, that you and I would be honest.
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You see, because the truth is you can't fool God anyway.
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God knows why we're here today, every one of us.
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He knows if we came to worship him or if we came because we were coerced, forced, it was profitable, it was this, it was that, it was the other thing.
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And I want to show you from this first chapter of Malachi and then one other short section in the book of Isaiah, what God thought of their worship to help us to answer that question, why am I here today? Am I here to worship the living and true God? The reason why God is dissatisfied with their worship is answered in this chapter, I believe, in several different ways.
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Look at verse six of chapter one.
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A son honors his father, a servant is master.
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If then I am the father, where is my honor? If I am a master, where is my reverence? Says the Lord of hosts to you priests who despise my name.
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One of the reasons why God alone is worthy of our worship, one of the reasons why we have to examine our own hearts and do we truly worship God out of a debt of gratitude, out of debt of Him being alone, the high and lifted one, is because He is the creator.
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If I'm a father, where's my honor? If I'm a master, where's my reverence? Says the Lord.
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Friends, just to remind us over and over again, we were not brought here by some evolutionary process.
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We are not here because, as I have heard, some cosmic alignment of the moon and the stars and lights and all these other things, that's not why we are here this morning.
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And guess what? We are not here because some alien race decided to seed the earth with us as an experiment.
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You and I will smile at that and say, how silly, how ridiculous.
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But here's the truth.
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Why are we here today? Are we here to worship God because He has made us? The one who created out of nothing, the one who gives life and breath and being to all.
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You know why worship is so important? Heart worship, real worship, true worship, worship in the spirit.
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It's because the God in the Bible is not some two-bit God of men's imaginations, friends.
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He's not just a myth.
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He's not a fable.
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He's not the result of what men have conjured up over time.
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Listen, my friends, whether you believe it or not, He is the Lord of glory.
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This Jesus is the Lord of glory, my friends.
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He's not just some religious leader.
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He's not just some figurehead to look to.
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He's the Son of God.
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You think it's important that our worship is true? To this one who lives, knows our very being because He created us.
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I so love that Psalm that says, shall not he who created the eyes see? Shall not the one who created the ear hear? Did we come here to play some game with God? Did we come here because in love He's given us new hearts, new minds and a new desire.
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We want to be here.
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We want to worship Him.
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We want to praise Him.
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We want to adore Him.
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We want to, in gratitude, be thankful to Him because He created us.
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There's a second reason why God has a contention with the worship that takes place in this first chapter.
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And it's in verse 14.
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This is why it's so important to ask the question of why you're here today.
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And again, it's because God is worthy.
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And you might say, you keep saying the same thing.
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Well, friends, because it's true.
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You want to make something up.
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The truth is God is worthy.
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Look at verse 14.
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But curse be the deceiver who has in his flock a male and makes a vow, but sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished.
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For I am a great King, says the Lord of hosts.
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And my name is to be feared among the nations.
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The reason why worship is so important is because God is the great.
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In the Psalms, it says God is great and greatly to be praised.
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His greatness is unsearchable.
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Again, it's not some God that was cut out of wood or stone or some way in which men began to think.
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My friends, listen to the Psalm.
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He says, praise the Lord, praise God in His sanctuary.
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Praise Him in His mighty firmament.
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Praise Him for His mighty acts.
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Praise Him according to His excellent greatness.
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Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet.
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Praise Him with the lute and the harp.
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Praise Him with the timbrel and dance.
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Praise Him with string instruments and flutes.
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Praise Him with loud cymbals.
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Praise Him with clashing cymbals.
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You know how the book of Psalms ends? Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
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He alone is worthy.
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He is alone worthy.
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And here's the reality behind that.
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Not only is God worthy of our worship, but God is the one who dictates the way in which He will be worshiped.
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And because He's the great King, He holds accountable those that He calls to worship Him.
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You know, there's so many deceptions in the heart of men, but I'm going to give you things that have always struck me.
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Just summarize them in two.
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Two quick things.
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One of the reasons why men will worship God is because they don't believe that God sees them.
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That they can live their life, whether it be outwardly or inwardly, they can think whatever thoughts they want, they can act whatever way they want, and God doesn't see them.
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Maybe God's too busy.
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Maybe God's off creating another universe somewhere, another galaxy.
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Men don't believe that God see them, and you want to know the second? Because they don't believe that God can see them, and they don't believe God can do anything about it.
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So if they offer God false worship, God can't do anything about it.
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Well, I'm here to tell you, this God, the God in the Bible, is great! And He can, and He will.
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That's right.
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Hold men accountable.
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I've been told I'm too serious about Christ.
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I don't care.
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This is the truth, is it not? He is worthy.
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He's a great King.
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And so when God says that to them, that He is to be feared among the nations, I ask us to ask ourselves, and you kids, again, I'm not forgetting you.
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Do you love God? Will you worship God? And you teenagers, oh, you're getting old now.
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Do you worship the true God? Or are you just here today for the ride? Well, maybe you're gonna get some dinner.
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Or maybe it'll just go better for you.
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Are you here to worship the Lord this morning? Are you here to worship the Savior of sinners? And there's a third reason in this chapter why God contends with their manner of worship, both outwardly and inwardly.
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And it's in verse two.
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Just look at verse two quickly.
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And God says this, I have loved you, says the Lord.
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Yet you say, in what way have you loved us? The answer is, was not Esau Jacob's brother, says the Lord? Yet, yet, Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated, and laid waste the mountains and his heritage for the jackals of the wilderness.
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One of the reasons why worship is so important and why worship needs to be from the heart is because of the greatness and the goodness of God.
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In context, he's addressing the children of Israel through the priests that are offering the sacrifices.
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And I want to ask you, I don't care where you are today.
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I don't care if you're young or old.
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And in that sense, it doesn't matter whether you're a believer or an unbeliever right now.
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Oh, it does matter.
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But let me make this, God is worthy of worship because he's so good.
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If you are a child of God this morning, and I trust you, God is worthy because God has so loved you.
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He has rescued you.
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He saved you.
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He didn't just make you, he redeemed you.
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He bought you.
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He died on the cross that you and I would have life, abundant life, real life, true life.
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The reason why worship is so important and it is important to God is because God spared not his own son to gather us to him that we might worship him.
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That we worship God because he's brought us back from the slave market of sin.
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He said, you are mine.
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And he'll never leave us nor forsake us.
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What about any God we serve? He's loved us.
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So if you're a child of God this morning, you ought to worship him in thanksgiving and gratefulness.
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It ought to break our hearts.
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The problem with us is our hearts so often are cold.
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We get caught up in everything else.
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Well, let me address you this morning if you're not a believer, if you're not a true child of God.
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One of the reasons why worship, worship of God is so essential and so important is because God has been so good to you.
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You could sit here this morning and not be a child of God and God has been so good to you.
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And if you're here today and you're not a believer, you ought to get down on your knees and praise God that he hasn't cut you off.
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Oh, how we live in a day when worship is nothing more than just a hand clap or praise the Lord.
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And if you're here today and you're not a child of God, you've been breathing God's air.
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You've been eating God's food.
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You've been enjoying the warmth of God's son.
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Maybe we're not enjoying the heat index.
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He's allowed you to be here this morning because here's the truth.
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If you die today without Christ, you're lost.
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I read a quote this week, it said that heaven was not a place for men to be prepared, but heaven was a place to receive those that were already prepared.
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So if you're here this morning and you don't have a new heart and you're not a child of God and your worship is dead, I'm here to tell you God is worthy because he's been so good to you.
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God owes us nothing.
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Wow, you make God sound so far off.
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I mean, how could you say that? God owes us nothing.
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We owe God everything.
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And God is worthy.
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You see this question of why we're here today, I hope grows larger and larger.
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There's a second point I want to make.
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And it's not only that the reason why worship is so essential and that's particularly how offensive false worship is as I show you as we close.
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But the reason why worship is so essential and it's gotta be worship in spirit of truth.
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It's gotta be the worship that God has established, not the worship that we have established for God.
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That was the issue.
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God says, bring me this sacrifice and they brought God that sacrifice.
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And then they said to God, you should be satisfied.
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Just like some people might be thinking right now, why am I here today? Why are you asking such a question? I'm here, right? Get on with it.
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I'm here.
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There's a second issue and the issue is this.
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Not only did God have issues with their hearts as concerning what they were bringing, but he also had an issue with the quality of the sacrifice.
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In other words, God's not interested solely in quantity.
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I've heard people say, well, if I go to church a hundred times a week, I gotta go to church a hundred times a week.
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What if you were a devil and you sat in church a hundred times a week? Would that be worthy worship? No.
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God is interested in the quality of it.
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He wants it to be from our hearts.
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And notice the issue here with the quality of the sacrifices.
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Look in verse six through eight again, staying in this chapter, but just the quality of the worship that they were offering and God's response to it.
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Look at it.
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A son honors his father.
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A servant is master.
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If then I am the father, where is my honor? If I am a master, where is my reverence? Says the Lord opposed to you priests who despise my name.
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And yet you say, in what way have we despised your name? You offer defiled food on my altar.
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But you say, in what way have we defiled you? By saying the table of the Lord is contemptible.
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And when you offer the blind as a sacrifice, is it not evil? And when you offer the lame and the sick, is it not evil? Offer them to your governor.
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Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you favorably? Says the Lord.
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What have they done? I'll tell you what they've done.
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They've offered the Lord seconds.
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And they've kept back for themselves the first.
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You know, God is not hungry for me.
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I just want to make, I want to clear that.
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God is not just someone who desires nothing else but barbecue.
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God is forever completely satisfied with himself.
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God doesn't need a protein bar.
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God doesn't need an energy drink.
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God's not like us.
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And so when they offer these sacrifices, it's the point of worship.
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It's their whole attitude towards worship.
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See what they offer? Well, they offer the lame, the sick, the blind, the halt.
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Interesting how it's turned around and how he poses that question to them.
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And he says, offer it then to your governor.
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See what he thinks of it.
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You know, I kept thinking, I'm so fleshy.
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I know you guys are all so spiritual, but I'm fleshy.
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I was thinking, and I thought of it this way.
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God doesn't like rewraps.
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You like rewraps? I don't.
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I don't want to receive a gift that somebody, they didn't want, so they gave it to me.
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Keep it for yourself.
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I don't want that.
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Anybody thrilled over it? I might be thrilled over leftovers.
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I'll eat leftovers every day of the week, but folks, God doesn't desire rewraps.
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Consider it from the cross.
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God didn't have to create us.
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God desired to create us.
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We sin against God.
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That's right.
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We deserve punishment.
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We deserve to be separated from God, for he is holy and we are not.
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What a predicament.
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God provides a sacrifice, a propitiation, an appeasement, an atonement, a way for us to come out from under the judgment of God and back into a right state with him that we might enjoy him and praise him forever.
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What does God do? Does God offer the lame or the sick? He sent the son of his love.
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This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.
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Did God spare anything? God didn't just send a man, friends.
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He didn't just send a good man.
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He didn't send an angel.
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He didn't send a legion of angels.
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He sent his son, the eternal son, to die on Golgotha's cross that you and I would know him and worship him.
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God spared nothing.
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And yet they're gonna offer God the lame and the sick and the halt, whatever comes into their mind.
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And that's something the way people are today too.
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People say to God, I'll worship you the way I feel I will worship you.
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And you should be satisfied with that God.
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If I decide that I'm gonna worship you in this way, then you should be content that I at least worship you.
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No! Our worship is to be out of a debt of gratitude and we ought to offer God the best.
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Why are we here today? Who did we come to worship? Who do you worship when you're in your own closet, friends? Who do you praise? Is it the God of your own imagination or is it the living true God? Who do you fall down before? The savior of sinners? Or the savior that you create? And I suppose that would be all fine and well if there wasn't a true living God, but there is.
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If you could just create your own God, then might as well just live like the apostle Paul as he drink and be married for tomorrow we die.
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We'll carry our God upon our shoulders.
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He could be a genie in a bottle.
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He'll come when I call him when I don't need him.
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I stick him back in the bottle.
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I put the cork on and I tell him to be quiet till I need him again.
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Oh, that's, I think that's pretty good example of what many people do.
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When they need God, they call upon God.
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When they don't need God, God go over there.
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God is to be feared among nations.
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It does ask you to think about this, brothers and sisters, even as we, who's the God of America? Oh, that's what we talk about in so many different ways is God will accept this and God will accept that and it doesn't matter what you are or who you are, how you live.
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It don't matter who you marry or who you don't marry.
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It don't matter if you abort babies or you don't abort babies.
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None of that matters.
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It's just God.
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It's lame worship.
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It's sick worship.
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It's halted worship.
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Again, I say to so many of us, worship is nothing more than, well, we sing a few songs and you know, and if we really move, we'll even say an amen.
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That's right.
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You remember the Lord Jesus, how he despised the worship of the Pharisees? He said to them, you draw near to me with your lips, but your hearts are wide.
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He said, in vain do you worship me, teaching for commandments, the doctrines of men.
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If you remember Matthew 23, where Jesus pronounces those woes on the religious class, those that thought that they were the best, those that thought that they had it all together, those that thought that everyone ought to look to them for worship.
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You remember the Pharisees? They would walk through the streets and they would blow the trumpet and they would say, Pharisee Joe.
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I don't know if they're Pharisee Joe, but I call everybody Joe.
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I even call my daughter-in-law Joe.
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Pharisee Joe would blow the trumpet.
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They would blow the trumpet and he'd say, gather around, I'm about to pray.
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And you remember in Matthew 23, what Jesus said? He said, you make the outside of the cup clean, but inside it is nothing but uncleanness.
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You make the outside of the graves, the sepulchers clean and you whitewash them and inside they're full of dead men's bones.
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You see, God's not necessarily only concerned with the quantity.
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He's concerned with the quantity.
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Was not the widow who cast into two mites so much greater justified by the Savior than the Pharisees? And what did they do? Remember, they gave out of their abundance.
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She gave out of her poverty, had a lot to do with quality.
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Listen, if God just merely wants outward worship, God can create, God, it says the stones cry out for goodness sake.
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It says the trees clap their hands at God.
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It says this whole creation praises the Lord.
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I have no doubts that when the birds are flying in the air and they're making all those weird noises that they're praising God.
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Or when the whales communicate or all that, I believe everything in some way was praised God.
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And I'm not talking about in a pantheistic kind of way, but God has created us that we would, our minds and our hearts would rational thinking, realize where we were, what he's done, how he's brought us out of darkness into his marvelous light and then we would adore him.
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You know, they had an issue with God and they kept saying, if you read it, they kept saying, God says, yeah, you say, in what way have we despised your name in verse six? In verse seven, in what way have we defiled you? And it goes on and on.
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If you read the whole book of Malachi, it just goes back and forth, right? Goes back and forth.
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The prophet is speaking for God.
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The people have their side of it, if you will.
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And God takes them and takes their reasoning and whittles it down to nothing.
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They considered, if you will, that the worship of God was something to be despised.
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It was a weariness to them.
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They even say it.
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They even come to that point where they say it is a weariness to them.
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Look at it.
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There it is in verse 12.
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But you profaned it in that you say, the table of the Lord is defiled and its fruit and its food is contemptible.
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And you also say, oh, what a weariness.
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Oh, what a weariness.
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Oh, what a weariness.
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And you sneering, says the Lord of hosts.
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And you bring the stone and the lame and the sick.
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And thus you bring an offering.
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Should I accept this from your hands, says the Lord? You want to know why so many don't worship in spirit of truth? I'll tell you why.
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You can tell me.
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I'm not telling you the truth, but the word of God tells the truth, doesn't it? You want to know why so many don't worship the Lord? Because they find no pleasure in the Lord.
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That's right.
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That's exactly the truth.
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They don't love God.
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I'll tell you a thousand times, they love God and they believe in God.
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And listen, if you love someone, you will be with them.
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You will seek to please them.
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You will seek to honor them.
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To them, this whole thing was a burden.
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This whole thing to them was more of a burden and a chore than an act of worship.
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Was it a chore for you to come here this morning? Was it something that you really didn't want to do, but you did it anyway? Or you're here this morning because he is worried, because he's kind, because he hasn't cut shit.
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You might be thinking, you know what? When are you going to end this? Don't you ever run out of breath, pal? And I assure you, I will run out of breath.
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But here's the reality.
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And I trust and I hope that this is all decided.
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As long as we have breath, we'll praise the Lord.
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How's that? We'll give him our hearts.
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It won't be out of compulsion.
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It'll be out of desire.
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You know what, friends? It's not just an Old Testament truth.
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It's a New Testament truth.
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You're not going to get out of it by saying, well, you know, God is love.
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In the New Testament, God wasn't, God was a God of war, a God of blood in the Old Testament.
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Listen, God doesn't change.
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The angels were worshiping God.
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If they were created before us, they were worshiping God long before we were here.
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And you, if you're a child of God, get ready because you have an eternity to worship him.
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Amen.
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Get out of my way, I'm going to worship the Lord.
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That's what it says in Isaiah two.
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It says, get out of my way, let's go up to the mountain of the Lord.
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Let's worship.
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Oh, worship the King, you saints of the Lord.
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He's worthy.
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We need to really examine ourselves, friends.
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You see, that's why that question to the Samaritan, that discussion with the Samaritan woman was so essential.
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She thought, well, we worship in this mountain or maybe we worship in that mountain.
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And the Pharisees, they thought, well, we worship this way.
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And we follow this one, we follow Rabbi so-and-so and you follow Rabbi so-and-so and maybe I'm a Sadducee and maybe I'm a scribe and maybe I'm a Herodian and maybe I'm, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe.
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And there are so many people, even in our own land this morning, that are offering God worship.
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But is it true worship? Is it from a redeemed heart? Is it from a debt of gratitude? Is it because He is worthy? Listen, my friends, don't worship God and try to bargain with God.
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God, I'll do this if you do that.
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Be careful.
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Be careful trying to bargain with your way to heaven.
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Be careful trying to bargain with God.
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God, I, you know, I'll give you my worship but first you gotta do this, this, this, this for me.
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Listen, God does what God pleases to do.
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And if you can't live with that, you'll die.
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It's as simple as that.
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You can't argue with me, this is not my word, it's His word.
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That's right.
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I'm hiding behind the cross.
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I wanna ask you to turn to one other section before we close.
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Why are you here today? Go to Isaiah, the very first chapter.
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The book of Isaiah, chapter one, and we'll close in this section.
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Isaiah chapter one.
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And again, I'm gonna read a longer portion because I want you to see it.
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I want you to see it in its context.
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Isaiah chapter one.
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The vision of Isaiah, the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
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Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken.
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I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.
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The ox knows its owner.
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The donkey is master's crib, but Israel does not know.
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My people do not consider.
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Alas, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a brood of evildoers, children who are corrupters, they have forsaken the Lord.
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They have provoked the anger of the Holy One of Israel.
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They have turned away backwards.
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Now watch what it says.
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Why should you be stricken again? You will revolt more and more.
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The whole head is sick.
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The whole heart faints from the sole of your foot, even to the head.
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There's no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores.
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They have not been closed or bound up or soothed with ointment.
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Your country is desolate.
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Your cities are burned with fire.
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Strange is the valley you land in your presence, and it is desolate as overthrown by strangers, and the daughter of Zion is left as a booth in a vineyard, as a hut in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.
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Unless the Lord of hosts had left us a very small remnant, we would have become like Sodom, would have been made like Gomorrah.
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Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom.
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Give ear to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah.
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To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to me, says the Lord? I've had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed cattle.
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I don't delight in the blood of bulls or of lambs or goats.
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When you come to appear before me, who has required this from your hand to trample my courts? Bring me no more futile sacrifices, incenses and abomination to me.
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The new moons, the Sabbaths, the calling of the assemblies, I cannot endure iniquity in the sacred meeting, the new moons, your appointed feasts my soul hates.
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They are a trouble to me.
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I am weary of bearing them.
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When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you.
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Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear, your hands are full of blood.
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Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean, put away the evil of your doing from before my eyes.
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Cease to do evil, learn to do good, seek justice.
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Reprove the oppressive, defend the fatherless, plead for the widow.
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Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord.
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Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow.
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Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
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If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land.
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But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the Lord from the mouth of the Lord, I've spoken.
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That'll take a breath away.
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That'll stop a man dead in his tracks.
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That'll cause us to really examine who we worship, why we worship, and how we worship.
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So many people say, well, it doesn't matter what name your God is.
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As long as we worship God, we're all good.
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God is jealous.
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Isn't that a sin? God is jealous.
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He has a holy jealousy for his name.
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God's name will not be run through the mud, my friends.
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God desires that we offer him not the lame and the halt, not the rewraps, not what's left over.
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God spared not his own son.
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We ought not to spare it all in worship.
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In gratitude, not to.
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We could never repay the debt, could we? He, Jesus, he paid a debt.
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He paid a debt he did not owe.
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He was sinless.
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He always did the things that pleased the Father.
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He never offered God tainted worship.
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He even had to cross.
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Lord, if it be possible that this cup would pass, if not, Lord, let your will be done and not mine.
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He didn't even open his mouth at the false accusations.
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And when they dragged him to the doctor's cross, and when they nailed him, he never said a word other than, Father, I commend my spirit to you.
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And by the way, friends, don't feel sorry for Jesus.
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That's right.
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He's on a throne, man.
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He's high, he's exalted.
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And one day he's gonna gather at his feet all the true worshipers of God.
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Brothers and sisters, we're not gonna need the screens.
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And we ain't gonna need all these fancy machines and everything else.
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Praise will be so loud, it'll shatter heaven.
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We see here what they do.
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God says, I hate it.
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Friends, do you and I know this, God hates things and it's a holy hatred.
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God says he hates the workers of iniquity.
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How could you say that? God is love.
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Yes, my friends, God is holy love.
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God hates all the workers of iniquity.
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And God hates false worship.
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The greatness of it all is right there, brothers and sisters, friends.
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Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean.
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Put away the evil from doing before you.
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I cease to do evil, learn to do good, seek justice, reprove the oppressors, defend the fathers, plead the widow.
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Come now, how can God be so gracious? How could he be so kind to those who have offered him nothing but false worship? How could he be so gracious that he invites, he desires that we would come and receive forgiveness? He wants to make us whole.
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And all we've given him is what we felt we should give him and he should be happy.
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And yet for all of that, God says, hey, you know what's the hardest thing for people to do? It's to come, it's to receive freely what Christ accomplished.
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We'd rather offer something.
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God, you pay most of it, but I got a couple bucks.
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Let me throw something in there.
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Let me be part of this.
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Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe.
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Sin had left a what? A crimson stain, he washed it white as snow.
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I don't care why you're here this morning.
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I do care how you leave here from.
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My friends, don't go out with false worship.
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Come, you shall be white as snow.
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Though your sins are like crimson, they shall be as wool.
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If you're willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land.
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But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword.
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For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
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Matthew Henry once said that there are millions of people in hell today, waiting for millions more to come tomorrow.
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Think of that.
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Jesus said, come unto me all you that are heavy laden.
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Take my yoke upon you.
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Learn of me for my yoke is easy and my burden is light and you will find rest for your souls.
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Brothers and sisters, let us heed the warnings, the exhortations, the encouragements of the word of God.
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Let us come and worship.
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Let us give God our very best.
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And our very best is to acknowledge and not just acknowledge him, to worship him in the beauty of holiness.
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I pray, my friends, that God will help us.
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That God will help us to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice.
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And let me end it to you by quoting again that very last phrase in the book of Psalms.
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Let everything that has breath, praise the Lord.
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Amen.