Worshipping the Worship

One of the most powerful revelations that God gave me this year as I began to really do a study on what worship really is, is that God did not design worship unto him to be an industry, a business, or to be a form of entertainment, because it is purely set aside to bring glory, praise, and honor, and reverence, and fear to him. And so anytime we take something that is designed to glorify God and we industrialize it, we get into trouble. And I understand that that is how culture has really reflected worship to God. They've made it seem really cool and hip, and you dress like this, look a certain way, sound a certain way, but that's not what worship is. Worship is presenting your body as a living sacrifice according to Romans 12:1. That is our true worship, to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable and pleasing to the Lord. Now, there were 2 people in the Old Testament who decided that they were going to offer up the sacrifice that they wanted to offer up to God. And what happened to them? The fire consumed them. So I don't think that there are a lot of people in the body of Christ who are worship leaders, or you have declared yourself as a minister of worship, really understand how serious your position is in the body of Christ. I don't think we really do, because for the past couple years there's been an increase in Here's God's standard, and I'm going to bring it down here where I want it to be, at a level of holiness that is comfortable for me. But there is no levels to holiness. You are holy or you're not. You have the fear of the Lord or you don't. You have reverence for God or you don't. You are a child of God or your father is the devil. according to the scriptures. That's what it says. God is very black and white on this issue concerning worship and how he wants to be worshiped. He already decided it according to John 4:24. God is a spirit, and they that worship him must— keyword is must, not, um, this is my solicited opinion, or Not this is what you could do and it might work. He said you must. And they that worship God must worship him in spirit and in truth, not in the flesh and culture, not in what the people will like, because it's not for them. Worship is for God. Worship is for the living true God. Worship is for the one who Who delivered you. Worship is for the one who saved you, and he is holy. And he said to be holy as he is holy. That's what he said. God already decided. So don't let people walk you into a place of believing that you can offer up to God whatever you want to give him. There is an acceptable sacrifice to the Lord of worship, and there is an unacceptable sacrifice. And you can find that from Genesis to Revelation. God does care about how we worship him. God does care about the posture of our hearts and our motives and why we're doing what we're doing. He cares. You can see that from Genesis to Revelation. And if you for some reason think that I'm making this up, go and read in Genesis when God specifically said to Cain— what did he say to him? Be careful, be watchful, because sin is crouching at the door. Your anger is crouching at the door. And because Cain did not grab hold of that anger and subdue it, It subdued him, and as a result, when he went to offer up his sacrifice, God did not accept it. God didn't accept it. That's the first time that we see in scripture where God made a distinction between an acceptable sacrifice and an unacceptable Sacrifice. So people can say what they want, that God just accepts anything and just come to God however you want to come to him. That's not scriptural. That's not biblical. It's nowhere in the Bible. God said there's a specific way that you must worship me, and that's in spirit and in truth, not in spirit and lies. Not in telling lies and being a child of darkness and trying to worship God. Not in gaining influence through unjust gain. Not you pretending to be a Christian and then when you finally get some influence and some money, you chuck up the deuces. God is not playing about this. And my prayer has been for worship leaders, people who lead people through song to God, that you would understand the importance and the severity and the, the requirement of holiness and what it really means to live a holy life, what it means to be discipled. By the Holy Ghost, what it means to have the gift of discerning of spirits, what it means to have pure partnership with the Holy Ghost, with God, to have fellowship with Christ. Because in the mix of trying to be cool and cultural and hip and looking the part, we are missing the mark. Which is that God is holy and we are to be holy as he is holy. It's not about singing. It's not about being cute. It's not about your outfit and what you wear. It's not about any of that. What it's about is your heart. Is it an altar for the Lord? Are you— is your life an altar to the Lord? Because Romans 12:1 says we present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable and pleasing to the Lord? Is your life an altar raised to God, or is it an altar raised to the devil through compromise? And this is a hill that I am willing to be crucified on, and I'm not coming down off of it, because one thing about it What God said is true, and how he said he want to be worshipped according to these scriptures is how I'm gonna worship him. And lately more than ever, I've been growing deeper in the fear of the Lord. I no longer care anymore about trying to look the part, sound the part, be the part. I no longer care. Like I just. There's just things I don't care about no more. I'm not trying to be in the industry. I'm not trying to be the next best worship leader. I'm not trying to be the best sounding thing. I really just care about God being worshiped in spirit and in truth. And it's so sickening to me how the body of Christ, you guys make excuses for stuff, when it's your idol, when you worship these people and you ask yourself, how did this happen? How did this come to be? How did these people do this? And it's your fault. It is the church fault because we sponsor things that God doesn't back. We encourage things that God doesn't agree with, and we wonder why we're in the positions that we're in in life. We wonder why. We sponsored a move that God did not back, and we didn't consult with God before we agreed with it. And the wickedness on every level is being exposed, and I'm so glad about it. I'm so glad that it's finally coming out and that there is a true separation that is happening in the body of Christ for people to really see That a lot of the people that you have followed for years, that you thought were following Christ, they have become a disappointment to you because you worshiped them. If some of you are being honest, you worship the worship instead of worshiping God, and we really need to make sure that we repent for that. Don't become a person who's worshiping the worship because it's very easy to lose sight of who Jesus is when you begin to worship the worship. Here's what worshiping the worship means: that when you hear your favorite artist, you're more in love with the person who's singing, who's prophesying through song, than you are marveling at the presence of God. That's what you're more in love with. And God didn't intend for worship to become you praising and becoming a fan. Worship is for God. It is not for us. It's not for us to bring glory to ourselves. It is for God and God alone. And until we get to the place where the only thing we see in our perception when we worship God is Jesus, who is our great high priest sitting at the right hand of the Father making intercession for us, until that is the only thing that we worship, we're going to constantly be in this place where we experience roller coasters in God because the objective of our worship isn't Jesus as it should be. Isn't Jesus. I really am praying that the body of Christ It would just— Repent and get back to Jesus being the one that we focus on. And it has been proven time and time again, when we lose sight of Jesus, our life becomes chaotic, and we bring other people into that chaos, and we lead other people astray. Yeah, that's all I got to say tonight.