A Song To Make God Grieve
Psalms 81
September 6, 2020
Tonight we come across a song of the saddest sort.
In fact, it is a song that actually ends with the grieving of God.
And as you start out reading the Psalm that sounds a little peculiar
Because it seems to start with such joy and excitement.
“Sing for joy to God our strength; Shout joyfully to the God of Jacob. Raise a song, strike the timbrel, The sweet sounding lyre with the harp. Blow the trumpet at the new moon, on our feast day.”
It sounds quite exciting.
It sounds quite enormous.
And yet, by the time we get to the end of the Psalm
We see God is not rejoicing, He is grieving.
(13) “Oh that My people would listen to Me, That Israel would walk in My ways!”
And then the Psalm ends with all the realities that could be true for Israel
If they were only willing to listen to God, BUT THEY WON’T.
In fact, verse 11 says, “But My people did not listen to My voice, And Israel did not obey Me.”
What that teaches us is that whatever the singing of the first 3 verses was,
It was a far cry short of what God was actually looking for.
And some might say, “Well if the song causes God to grieve, we should never sing it!”
And yet the reality is that Israel sang it all the time,
And we can only hope that the church never does.
NOW LET ME GIVE YOU THE BACKDROP.
The setting of this Psalm is most likely “The Feast of Trumpets”.
The feast of trumpets was exactly what it sounds like.
On the first day of the 7th month – Tishri (September/October)
Trumpets were blown as a sort of gathering together of God’s people.
Leviticus 23:23-25 “Again the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘In the seventh month on the first of the month you shall have a rest, a reminder by blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. ‘You shall not do any laborious work, but you shall present an offering by fire to the LORD.'”
Trumpets were typically symbolic of the moving of God,
And here they were to gather the people in preparation of that.
Then on the 10th day of that same month was “The Day of Atonement”
• You remember the ordinance of the two goats, one a scapegoat which was sent away and the other the sacrifice which was carried into the Holy of Holies.
It was the day in which all your sins committed in ignorance
Were atoned for before God.
And then on the 15th day of the same month the children of Israel were to celebrate “The Feast of Booths”.
• They were to live in brush arbors for a week remembering God’s great deliverance and provision for their ancestors who were brought out of Egypt and who lived in booths in the wilderness.
What you ultimately had was 3 full weeks of worship.
• Worship which was KICKED OFF by the blasting of trumpets.
• Worship which INCLUDED the great atonement of all sin.
• Worship which CULMINATED in a week long remembrance of God’s great
provision.
It was to be a tremendous time of worship in Israel.
THAT IS THE SETTING BEHIND THIS PSALM.
That is what Asaph is actually talking about in the first 3 verses when he is calling the children of Israel to singing and shouting and blasting of trumpets.
It was to be a grand worship service.
• The problem is that by the end of the Psalm, God is clearly not pleased;
• In fact He is grieving the entire scene.
You know that this is NOT AN ISOLATED REALITY in the Old Testament.
In fact, we see this response from God often.
Very frequently we find God announcing that
He is not pleased with the traditional and ceremonial worship of Israel,
But rather that He is put off by it.
Isaiah 1:10-15 “Hear the word of the LORD, You rulers of Sodom; Give ear to the instruction of our God, You people of Gomorrah. “What are your multiplied sacrifices to Me?” Says the LORD. “I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams And the fat of fed cattle; And I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls, lambs or goats. “When you come to appear before Me, Who requires of you this trampling of My courts? “Bring your worthless offerings no longer, Incense is an abomination to Me. New moon and sabbath, the calling of assemblies — I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn assembly. “I hate your new moon festivals and your appointed feasts, They have become a burden to Me; I am weary of bearing them. “So when you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; Yes, even though you multiply prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood.”
Amos 5:21-24 “I hate, I reject your festivals, Nor do I delight in your solemn assemblies. “Even though you offer up to Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them; And I will not even look at the peace offerings of your fatlings. “Take away from Me the noise of your songs; I will not even listen to the sound of your harps. “But let justice roll down like waters And righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”
Isaiah 29:13 “Then the Lord said, “Because this people draw near with their words And honor Me with their lip service, But they remove their hearts far from Me, And their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote,”
And certainly we’ve figured this out by now.
God is not looking for a people
Who will simply go through a prescribed order of service
So as to “get Him off their back”.
HE FINDS NO JOY IN THAT AT ALL.
And this is what we are confronted with here in Psalms 81.
• It is a response of God to the worship of His people,
• It is a sad announcement to those people of what they are actually missing
• Because their worship is only routine and not from the heart.
Instead of being delighted with this 3 weeks of worship,
God is actually frustrated.
And what a terrible thing to occur.
God forbid that our relationship with God ever become simply routine.
And yet, we know it can happen.
We all remember the infamous church at Ephesus.
Revelation 2:2-5 “I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false; and you have perseverance and have endured for My name’s sake, and have not grown weary. ‘But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. ‘Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place — unless you repent.”
It is a sad reality,
But one that we must always remember as a potential reality
So that our worship does not grow routine
And our love does not grow cold.
Let’s work our way through this Psalm
And listen as God responds to this superficial worship.
4 points tonight.
#1 GOD’S REQUIREMENT
Psalms 81:1-5a
As we pointed out, the Psalm seems to begin with a bang!
• It is a big celebration.
• The orchestra is firing on all cylinders.
• It’s a grand time of singing and song.
(1-3) “Sing for joy to God our strength; Shout joyfully to the God of Jacob. Raise a song, strike the timbrel, The sweet sounding lyre with the harp. Blow the trumpet at the new moon, At the full moon, on our feast day.”
Perhaps you’ve even been in services or conferences like this.
Where a large crowd was gathered and the music was powerful and the singing was loud.
• Certainly there is no problem there.
• Worship of God should be joyful…
• Singing should be loud…
• Music should be sweet and beautiful…
• Trumpets should be blown…
Psalms 150 “Praise the LORD! Praise God in His sanctuary; Praise Him in His mighty expanse. Praise Him for His mighty deeds; Praise Him according to His excellent greatness. Praise Him with trumpet sound; Praise Him with harp and lyre. Praise Him with timbrel and dancing; Praise Him with stringed instruments and pipe. Praise Him with loud cymbals; Praise Him with resounding cymbals. Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD!”
We certainly understand that a great King deserves great praise.
But when we come to verse 4
Perhaps for the first time we begin to pick up on the problem.
For in verse 4 THE MOTIVATION for this great time of singing is given.
(4-5a) “For it is a statute for Israel, An ordinance of the God of Jacob. He established it for a testimony in Joseph When he went throughout the land of Egypt.”
Were it not for the rest of the Psalm,
We might not pick up on a problem here.
But the coming grief of God certainly confirms this to be a problem.
The worship of God here is NOT in response to His great intervention
(as trumpets would suggest)
The worship of God here is NOT in response to His great pardon
(as the coming Day of Atonement would warrant)
The worship of God here is NOT in response to His great provision
(as the Feast of Booths would commemorate)
The worship of God here is only because He told them to do it.
It “is a statute for Israel, An ordinance of the God of Jacob.”
When Israel was being delivered from Egypt, and God was leading them out of their bondage, He prescribed these feasts and told them to do it.
And that is why they are here.
• It is social pressure…
• It is to keep God off their back…
• They are doing it because they dare not do it…
It is not prompted out of love or gratitude,
But out of requirement and fear of the repercussions if they don’t.
It is the sort of attitude God addressed through David in Psalms 50
Psalms 50:7-15 “Hear, O My people, and I will speak; O Israel, I will testify against you; I am God, your God. “I do not reprove you for your sacrifices, And your burnt offerings are continually before Me. “I shall take no young bull out of your house Nor male goats out of your folds. “For every beast of the forest is Mine, The cattle on a thousand hills. “I know every bird of the mountains, And everything that moves in the field is Mine. “If I were hungry I would not tell you, For the world is Mine, and all it contains. “Shall I eat the flesh of bulls Or drink the blood of male goats? “Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving And pay your vows to the Most High; Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I shall rescue you, and you will honor Me.”
God’s issue was not with their failure to bring animals for slaughter.
Indeed they were good at that.
God’s issue was that in all their sacrifices there was not GRATITUDE,
There was no DEVOTION, there was no TRUST, and there was no HONOR.
• What an empty worship service
When people only attend because they know they are required to come.
• What empty singing
When people only regurgitate a song they have learned from memory.
• What empty music
When it is nothing more than people performing because they are under some social obligation.
This is what God perceived.
• They were singing…
• They were shouting…
• They were striking the timbrel…
• They were playing the harp…
• They were blowing the trumpets…
But they were only doing it because God had commanded them to do it,
Not out of love and gratitude toward Him.
Jesus taught us a great truth about worship, when He said:
John 4:23-24 “But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
To worship in spirit is to worship with the heart and with the emotions, with love and passion and gratitude toward God.
To worship in truth is to worship in the way in which God has prescribed worship to occur, and to accurately worship the truth of who God is.
To worship in spirit but not in truth is emotionally worship God for what He is not or in a way which He has not desired.
To worship in truth but not in spirit is to go through all the right motions, but to be empty of love and true devotion.
The latter was the problem here.
• They knew when to sit…
• They knew when to stand…
• They knew what to say and when to say it…
• But their hearts were far from Him.
That is the scene.
Now God is going to begin to address it.
God’s Requirement
#2 GOD’S REVELATION
Psalms 81:5b-7
The beginning of verse 5 references God bringing Israel out of Egypt.
• Certainly in the Old Testament that is the big deliverance.
• The Exodus was in effect “the cross” of the Old Testament.
And after referencing it in the beginning of verse 5
God begins to recount that event from His perspective.
(5c-7a) “I heard a language I did not know: I relieved his shoulder of the burden, His hands were freed from the basket. You called in trouble and I rescued you; I answered you in the hiding place of thunder;”
It is a reference to God’s deliverance of the slaves in bondage.
“I heard a language I did not know:”
• That certainly doesn’t mean that God didn’t understand Egyptian,
• Rather He is simply referring to the fact that His people were slaves in a foreign land.
• His children were in bondage.
• They were afflicted.
• They were under a heavy burden.
“I relieved his shoulder of the burden, His hands were freed from the basket”
• You picture God taking that bar off their neck with which they were carrying water.
• You picture God letting them set that bucket full of mud down.
• God told them they were finished being slaves.
• He totally liberated them.
To sum it up, He says, “You called in trouble and I rescued you;”
• You were a slave in bondage in a foreign land, but I intervened.
• I showed up and led you out with a mighty hand.
And we remember the story of the plagues and the plunder
And how God led His people out of Egypt and through the Red Sea.
HE SAVED THEM.
And then He revealed Himself to them.
“I answered you in the hiding place of thunder;”
• This was at Sinai where God made His will known.
• Here God revealed Himself.
• Here God gave His Law.
• Here God entered into covenant and agreement with His people.
He promised that so long as they were faithful to Him,
That He also would be faithful to them.
It was a joyful marriage ceremony following the great deliverance.
And all should have been well.
But look at the last line of verse 7.
“I proved you at the waters of Meribah. Selah”
• God doesn’t say, “I proved Myself to you at Meribah”
• God says, “I proved you at the waters of Meribah”
That is to say, that after all the deliverance,
I caused you to show your true colors to Me at Meribah.
What happened there?
It was when the children of Israel put God to the test and grumbled at their lack of water.
What did God prove on that day?
• That these people were really not devoted to Him at all.
• They didn’t really love Him.
• They didn’t really desire Him.
• They only sought to use Him.
Psalms 95:8-11 “Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, As in the day of Massah in the wilderness, “When your fathers tested Me, They tried Me, though they had seen My work. “For forty years I loathed that generation, And said they are a people who err in their heart, And they do not know My ways. “Therefore I swore in My anger, Truly they shall not enter into My rest.”
Incidentally the writer of Hebrews warns the church to not be like those people.
But hopefully you get the point of what God is saying here.
• He is observing this celebration of trumpets…
• He is witnessing this time of feasting…
• And He sees the people going through the rituals surely enough…
But He says, “I know who you are.”
Your singing doesn’t fool Me.
Your musical abilities haven’t fooled Me.
You have already shown Me your true colors, I know what is in you heart.
It is reminiscent of Jesus.
John 2:23-25 “Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, observing His signs which He was doing. But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men, and because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man.”
Literally John says the people were believing in Jesus,
But Jesus wasn’t believing in them.
He knew them.
It is what Jesus actually confronted the Pharisees with:
Matthew 15:1-9 “Then some Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, “Why do Your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.” And He answered and said to them, “Why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? “For God said, ‘HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER,’ and, ‘HE WHO SPEAKS EVIL OF FATHER OR MOTHER IS TO BE PUT TO DEATH.’ “But you say, ‘Whoever says to his father or mother, “Whatever I have that would help you has been given to God,” he is not to honor his father or his mother.’ And by this you invalidated the word of God for the sake of your tradition. “You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you: ‘THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME. ‘BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN.'”
Jesus knew the heart.
He knew that it was nothing more than empty ceremony.
It was nothing more than a shallow display of tradition.
And God here is saying the same thing as He is observing this feast of trumpets.
• He hears the singing, He knows the songs.
• But He also knows what is in their heart.
• They are a people, who despite His great deliverance, have never truly loved Him.
And at the end of verse 7 we get that famous “Selah”
Which is a call to just stop and ponder that a moment.
• After bringing up “Meribah” God simply calls for a pause in the festivities for all to sit and ponder their true motivation.
We must take advantage here and do the same.
• Why am I here?
• Why do I sing?
• God knows my heart, what does He see when I attend a worship service?
It must be examined.
Well, after exposing this crowd to their very core
God now begins to give the expectation and explanation
Of what He really wants.
And we find this to be so important to our understanding of worship.
God’s Requirement, God’s Revelation
#3 GOD’S REPROACH
Psalms 81:8-10
If they are willing, God will set them straight.
If they would desire their worship to be pleasing, God will oblige them.
If they want to know, God will show them what they are missing.
“Hear, O My people, and I will admonish you; O Israel, if you would listen to Me!”
You can feel the heart of God in that passage.
• As though He has now for generations sought to gain the attention of these empty worshipers.
• As though He has at feast after feast begged them to do it differently.
And finally, having gained their attention,
GOD NOW REVEALS WHAT HE DESIRES.
(9-10) “Let there be no strange god among you; Nor shall you worship any foreign god. “I, the LORD, am your God, Who brought you up from the land of Egypt; Open your mouth wide and I will fill it.”
• Here they are at a great feast singing and blasting trumpets…
• Here they are about to celebrate the atoning sacrifice…
• Here they are about to live in booths commemorating God’s deliverance…
And all the while God is not pleased with their worship.
And when He finally gains their attention,
And they finally give Him an ear,
HIS REQUEST IS ACTUALLY HEARTBREAKING.
God says, “Stop worshiping foreign gods”
Put away your idols.
It is a dissatisfied husband who is grieved with his wife,
• And she finally asks, “What do you want from me?”
• To which he answers, “I want you to end your affair.”
And we now understand why this worship was so empty to God.
And we now understand why this celebration was so grievous.
They showed up in God’s city to sing God’s praises and all the while,
God knows their heart and that it is full of idols.
Could there be any wonder why God is not blessed by this feasting?
He actually calls their idols “strange” and “foreign”
AND THOSE ARE FITTING WORDS.
For idolatry is STRANGE and it is FOREIGN.
In fact it is stupid.
TURN TO: ISAIAH 44
In the first 5 verses God is laying out for Israel what great blessing and benefit He would greatly pour upon them.
• I chose you
• I created you
• I will bless you
In verses 6-8 God asks if they know of any other god who can do those things?
• And of course the answer is no.
(9-19) God gives a great description of the stupidity of idolatry.
• How stupid idolatry is.
• How foolish to trust in a strange god who cannot save and who has never saved.
(21-22) And then God calls them back to Himself again.
Do you see how strange idolatry is?
Do you see how foreign it is to just pick some other god
who has never saved to be the one you worship?
TURN TO: JEREMIAH 10:6-16
It is the same message: how stupid is idolatry!
Why would you abandon the God who actually created you and saved you for some strange foreign god who’s never done a single thing for you?
Jeremiah 2:11-13 “Has a nation changed gods When they were not gods? But My people have changed their glory For that which does not profit. “Be appalled, O heavens, at this, And shudder, be very desolate,” declares the LORD. “For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, The fountain of living waters, To hew for themselves cisterns, Broken cisterns That can hold no water.”
It’s just foolish.
But we certainly understand where God is coming from here.
• You attend these feasts…
• You go through the motions…
• You sing the songs…
• You play the instruments…
But in your heart you love and serve and worship other gods.
If you want your worship to be pleasing to Me
(9) “Let there be no strange god among you; Nor shall you worship any foreign god.”
If you want to please Me then worship only Me.
And look, we may not worship specific foreign gods,
But you have to understand that all idolatry fits here.
• It could be our money…
• It could be our government…
• It could be our time…
• It could be our family…
• It could be our possessions…
• It could be our doctor…
Anything that we trust in for our happiness or safety or future…
Anything else that owns a piece of our heart that we will not give up…
Jesus described idols as weeds in the heart.
Luke 8:14 “The seed which fell among the thorns, these are the ones who have heard, and as they go on their way they are choked with worries and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to maturity.”
And are we really to suppose that we can spend 6 days loving our idols
And then show up here for a scheduled worship service
And think that God will be pleased?
Jeremiah 7:9-11 “Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery and swear falsely, and offer sacrifices to Baal and walk after other gods that you have not known, then come and stand before Me in this house, which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’ — that you may do all these abominations? “Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of robbers in your sight? Behold, I, even I, have seen it,” declares the LORD.”
GOD DESIRES DEVOTION.
He says, (10) “I, the LORD, am your God”
Leave all the others alone.
“I, the LORD, am your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt; open your mouth wide and I will fill it.”
Trust in Me!
• I’m the One who saved you!
• I’m the One who cares for you!
• Leave those others behind and worship and serve Me only.
And shouldn’t Israel have grasped that?
At Sinai:
Exodus 20:1-6 “Then God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before Me. “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. “You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.”
At Kadesh-barnea:
Deuteronomy 6:4-6 “Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. “These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart.”
If they got nothing else, they were supposed to get this one thing.
• I am your God.
• You will have no others.
• You will love Me with all your heart.
Israel never did.
• They went through the motions, but they didn’t love God.
• And thus He was not pleased with their empty celebrations.
But now God has once again appealed to His people.
Put away your foreign gods and come to Me.
We’ll look at their answer.
God’s Requirement, God’s Revelation, God’s Reproach
#4 GOD’S REMORSE
Psalms 81:11-16
And there is the tragic answer.
“But My people did not listen to My voice, And Israel did not obey Me.”
God said, “I don’t want your singing, I want your heart.”
And Israel said, “No”.
• They would go through the religious services…
• They would sing the songs…
• They would celebrate the feasts…
• They would check off the boxes…
• But they WOULD NOT give God sole possession of their heart.
(12) “So I gave them over to the stubbornness of their heart, to walk in their own devices.”
And you certainly you know the tragic results of that.
(It’s the Romans 1 effect)
• When God allowed them to worship gods that couldn’t save,
• They faced peril and were not saved.
• They ended up destroyed by Assyria and Babylon.
If you trust in that which cannot save,
Then in the day of peril you will not be saved; that’s the reality.
And notice the grief of God.
Notice all the “WOULD HAVE” statements here.
It is God lamenting what could have been
If Israel had only determined to love and trust Him alone.
(13-16) “Oh that My people would listen to Me, That Israel would walk in My ways! “I would quickly subdue their enemies And turn My hand against their adversaries. “Those who hate the LORD would pretend obedience to Him, And their time of punishment would be forever. “But I would feed you with the finest of the wheat, And with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”
Look at what they could’ve had.
• I would’ve destroyed their enemies if they had only loved Me…
• I would’ve made their enemies bow down to Me, if they had loved Me…
• I would have fed them and blessed them immensely, if they had only loved Me…
It is the grief of God that Israel chose suffering
Because they were unwilling to give up their idols
And worship and serve Him only.
Incidentally you see this grief carry all the way into the New Testament.
Matthew 23:37-39 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. “Behold, your house is being left to you desolate! “For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, ‘BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!'”
Luke 19:41-44 “When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. “For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.”
It was the same grief of Christ
For a people who were only interested in surface religion
But who refused to give their total love and devotion to Him.
And this grief also became the apostle’s grief.
Peter preached in Jerusalem.
Acts 3:17-26 “And now, brethren, I know that you acted in ignorance, just as your rulers did also. “But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. “Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you, whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time. “Moses said, ‘THE LORD GOD WILL RAISE UP FOR YOU A PROPHET LIKE ME FROM YOUR BRETHREN; TO HIM YOU SHALL GIVE HEED to everything He says to you. ‘And it will be that every soul that does not heed that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.’ “And likewise, all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and his successors onward, also announced these days. “It is you who are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘AND IN YOUR SEED ALL THE FAMILIES OF THE EARTH SHALL BE BLESSED.’ “For you first, God raised up His Servant and sent Him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways.”
“If you’d just repent and return to God and trust in Jesus
God would send the time of restoration and His refreshing presence.”
But Israel has remained stubborn and obstinate,
Choosing rather to suffer than give up their idols.
And while we are not Israel we certainly must learn from such realities.
• OUR WORSHIP CANNOT JUST BE some traditional empty response to a schedule.
• OUR WORSHIP CANNOT JUST BE some form of empty attendance,
• Where we expect that God is pleased because we stood when were supposed to stand
• And we sang when were supposed to sing
• And we sat quietly through the service.
All things must be done with a genuine love for Him.
He saved us! He rescued us!
And all He has asked in return is that we love Him and no other.
That we love Him with all our heart and soul and mind and strength.
God’s call is that we desire Him more than anything else.
And God promises that those who love and worship Him
Will not be disappointed.
And perhaps this is why
• So many today attend church and yet find no fulfillment in God.
• Perhaps it is because their worship has not been worship at all.
• Perhaps they are merely going through the motions and therefore have never received the true blessing of knowing God.
We’ll close tonight with one last passage.
TURN TO: ISAIAH 58
Here again is that famous cry of God
To put away the empty routine of religion
And give your heart to seeking God
And then finding the true blessing of knowing Him.
We desire to sing a song that delights the heart of God,
Not one which only grieves Him.
