Worthless Worship

 "But the king said to Araunah, 'No, I insist on buying it from you! I will not offer to the Lord my God burnt sacrifices that cost me nothing." 2 Samuel 24:24

Back in the early 2000's, the financial situation of our church was such that I had to take an outside job to lessen the pressures. Since I had a long background in retail sales, I took a job with a major department store. Upon hiring me, they understood that I would not be able to work Sunday's, and they were agreeable. However, they did stipulate that once a quarter they opened for special hours on a Sunday evening for their preferred customers, offering a large variety of special sales. On one Monday after one of these, I had an encounter with a woman, a professing believer, that I'll never forget.

This lady walked up to me and questioned me about the special sale of the Sunday evening before. She told me that she was a Christian, and that she didn't go shopping on a Sunday. I respected that, but not what she said next. She demanded that she be given, on Monday, the same sale prices as were offered the night before. I remember telling her that I too was a believer but that I'd been present and working the night before. She then told me that I should have taken a stand and refused to work (or like her, shop) on a Sunday. I'll never forget her complete arrogance and self-righteousness in all of it. The Father enabled me to be gracious towards her despite the insult, but I've contemplated that encounter many times, and I think it paints an accurate picture of much of the church.

First off, I saw in this woman what I've seen in so many who call themselves His followers. Outwardly, she honored Him by refraining from doing business on a Sunday, but inwardly she demanded that this "sacrifice" would not cost her anything. Her heart coveted the deal offered on Sunday to be now given her on Monday. She offered a costless sacrifice coupled with a spirit of entitlement. 

Secondly, I wondered if this woman had ever won anyone to Him with the spirit she walked in. Her putdown of me was likely accompanied by many similar putdowns to others for this or some other reason. In her was no compassion or understanding for life situations that may have had working on a Sunday as the only option. Arrogant self-righteousness, a spirit of entitlement, and a strong desire that her faith, her "worship" if you will, be noticed by all but cost her nothing to exercise. We can be offended by her, but where in our lives are we guilty of the same? She was the classic "Pharisee" but where might we be as well?

I titled this writing "Worthless Worship," and I wonder just how much of what we think of as our worship of Him really is worthless in His eyes? What real cost to us is there in what we call worship? What, if any, real sacrifice is involved in it? We have become a culture dependent upon our "conveniences" and it's extended into our relationship with Him. Most of us have already set the boundaries of how far we'll go with Him and how much we'll give. When it becomes painful to follow and to give, we're more likely to drop out instead of press on, and though we may not be blatantly self-righteous as this lady was, we certainly can be just as prone to a spirit of entitlement. Entitlement marks the spirit of the age we live in and it's found its way into the church. Where has it found its way into your heart and mine?

In the OT, both people and priests had hearts that had drifted far from Him. They still went through all the sacrificial rituals, but what they offered for sacrifice was impure, crippled, worthless. The Father judged it and took them into a spiritual wilderness to refine them. I believe we are entering such a time as well. Someone said that in the wilderness we learn that it is Christ who is our nourishment. Whether new or for the first time, we too need to learn this. Our sacrificial worship is meant to be a sweet fragrance to Him. Is it? May it be so. May we offer Him the true worship that comes from the sacrifice of praise and honor to Him, a sweet fragrance in the nostrils of the Father.

Blessings,
Pastor O