Truly Worshiping God

I decided to do the next few weeks on worship. I began to pray and God brought me down a path that I would not have suspected.  I, like many people, thought of worship as something we do during certain times of the day, and on Sunday mornings.  As I began this study I looked up the meaning of worship Merriam-Webster tells us that worship is, “the act of showing respect and love for a god especially by praying with other people who believe in the same god.”  I hope you took note of the first part of the definition it tells us that worship starts by showing “respect and love.”  We cannot worship God if we do not love God or respect God.  God tells the people of Israel this in Deuteronomy 6:14-19; “You must not worship any of the gods of neighboring nations, for the Lord your God, who lives among you, is a jealous God. His anger will flare up against you and wipe you from the face of the earth. Do not test the Lord your God as you did when you complained at Massah. You must diligently obey the commands of the Lord your God—all the stipulations and laws he has given you.  Do what is right and good in the Lord’s sight, so all will go well with you. Then you will enter and occupy the good land that the Lord solemnly promised to give your ancestors.  You will drive out all the enemies living in your land, just as the Lord said you would.”

 Do you see what God is telling His people? You cannot go after other gods, or things, you must love me first, follow the commandments I have given you.  How many times do we put other things before God, how many times do we say I love the things of this world more than I do God.  We want to come to church and say I’m going to worship God today and honor God today, but in our hearts we really do not.  We decide  that during the other six days of the week we are not going to show respect to God, in how we speak, in what we think, or what we watch.  Instead of bringing Glory to God we decide to bring glory to ourselves.  What if I told you that the life you live is not about you at all?  What if I told you that the life we live is to be all about God?  Does that scare you a little bit, are you worried about what you might miss out on?  It shouldn’t scare us at all.  God is a loving God, He sent His Son to earth to die on a cross for our sins, so we may be saved from our sins.  We must Allow God’s Holy Spirit to enter into us and begin to change the way we think, the way act and respond to the things of the world.  We must allow God to circumcise our hearts. It is through the process of circumcision of the heart that our hearts are cleansed and we begin to truly focus on God.  We read in the old the new testament of this:

Deuteronomy 30:6  “Moreover, the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, in order that you may live”

Romans 2:28-28 “For you are not a true Jew just because you were born of Jewish parents or because you have gone through the Jewish ceremony of circumcision. No, a true Jew is one whose heart is right with God. And true circumcision is not a cutting of the body but a change of heart produced by God’s Spirit. Whoever has that kind of change seeks praise from God, not from people.”

Philippines 3:3 “For we who worship God in the Spirit^* are the only ones who are truly circumcised. We put no confidence in human effort. Instead, we boast about what Christ Jesus has done for us.”