Preached in Markham Baptist Church, February 22, 2004.

Genesis 4

CONNECTING WITH GOD IN WORSHIP

There is an old hymn that begins, “Happy the home when God is there.” At the start, Adam and Eve’s home was a very happy place because God was present. The two of them, even though they had fallen short of all that God desired for them even though they had chosen to live independently of God and his Word the two of them had experienced God’s grace. They had been cared for by God, clothed by God and loved by God. They had come to realize the depth and height and breadth of God’s love even the midst of their rebellion.

Theirs was a happy home, for a time. Eve gives birth to two sons. The oldest is Cain. Eve is very proud of him and presents him to the world with a heart full of gratitude saying, “I have produced a man, with the help of the Lord”. She presents him to the world with a great flourish believing God’s promise that her offspring would crush the head of Satan.

Soon after she gives birth to another son and names him Abel. The two of them grow up and surely their childhood is a happy one. To be sure there is work to be done but there are also times for family picnics – perhaps family trips to the gates of Eden to see the cherubim and the flaming sword guarding the tree of life. In the evening there would be bonfires under a clear night sky and always their dad filling their minds with the great truths of God. Adam would tell his sons of God’s great love and mercy, His hatred of sin and His wonderful promise that one day Satan’s head would be crushed. And Adam must have taught the boys that even though they had been banished from the Garden of Eden, they had not been banished from God. God had not turned his back on them.

“In fact,” Adam might say, “we can still know Him, we can still hear His voice. We can still communicate with Him and experience His love.” And the boys would say, “How?”

“Through worship,” Adam would reply.

“Through worship? What do you mean?”

“Yes,” says Adam, “through worship.” And he would continue, “Worship means to proclaim God’s worth. It is the exact opposite of what your mother and I did in the garden when we ate the fruit. We turned our backs on Him and said in effect to God that he wasn’t worth living for. We said that He wasn’t worth trusting or obeying or knowing. In worship we do the exact opposite – we turn our face to God and proclaim His love, His worthiness, our trust in Him, our obedience to Him and say to Him that He is worth knowing.”

And as the boys snuggle down into their beds that night, Adam probably taught them that worship was more than what they did for an hour on a given day, but was an attitude that permeates all of life. It is an attitude that says, “God, You are in control, You are the boss, the King, the Master, and Your desire is all I want to see accomplished in my life.”

Adam must have been a good teacher because the boys, when they get older, bring offerings to God. Sure they know that worship is a lifestyle, they also know that it is expressed through an event. Cain being a gardener brings an offering of the fruit of the ground. And Abel being a shepherd brings some of the firstlings of his flock, the fat portions. (Genesis 4:3,4)

The two boys had listened to their father. It was still possible to have a relationship with God through worship and they obey. They both bring offerings – "When the music fades, All is stripped away, And I simply come. longing to bring something that’s of worth that will bless the heart of God."¹

But something is wrong. Verse 4 - “The Lord had regard for Abel and his offering but for Cain and his offering he had no regard.” What’s wrong? Is Abel God’s favorite? No, that doesn’t fit with who we know God to be.

Well, was there something wrong with Cain’s offering? I have to think that Cain’s offering was just fine. I mean, we worship a God who came to earth in the person of Jesus Christ and when He was in the temple courts one day He saw a poor widow give an offering of two very small copper coins and He praised that woman for her offering (Luke 21:1-4). His offering was probably fine, the fruit was probably polished, the vegetables ripe and crisp.

But I wonder if the offering really isn’t the problem. The problem isn’t necessarily with Cain’s offering - the problem is with Cain’s heart. And because Cain’s heart isn’t right, his offering isn’t right. It doesn’t matter how polished and how good Cain’s fruit and vegetables are – if his heart is wrong then the offering isn’t acceptable.

Jesus once told a parable about two men who went to the temple to pray. (Luke 18:10) They did good things. They went to the temple, that’s a good thing. And they went to pray. That’s good too. But when they got there the one man, a religious leader, got up and prayed about himself saying, “God I thank you that I am not like other men, robbers, evil doers, adulterers, or even like this other man who is a tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.” Fasting and giving a tenth are all good things, we all need to practice them – but do you know that when he left worship he did not go home as one who had been touched by the grace of God, the love of God or the presence of God. He did not experience God in worship at all – even though he had done all the right things. Why? Because his heart was wrong.

Our relationship with God – is just that. It is a relationship – so it is a matter of the heart. Our connecting with God is a matter of the heart. Our worship of God is a matter of the heart.

Cain’s heart is selfish, proud, self-reliant – you need only to look at his actions to see what his heart is like. He is unrepentant, he murders, lies, and ultimately in verse 16 turns his back on God.

But someone might say, that Cain is like that because God does not accept his offering. If God had accepted his offering then Cain would be all right.

Well, no. It’s interesting that while God does not accept his offering he does give Cain a second chance. He corrects Cain in verse 7 saying in effect, "you know what needs to be done, you know what the right way is now do it.” But Cain is stubborn and refuses to be corrected. He has what we call a hard heart. O how awful it is to have a hard heart.

I have known several men and women who have a hard heart – they hate it when they are corrected, they hate it when they are brought low, they hate it when they are shown to be second best. And when someone gives them correction instead of hearing it, instead of listening, their heart gets only harder, and hatred wells up within them, and they go on to destroy relationships, they go on to destroy homes, and churches and everything good.

Do you want a prayer that you can memorize that I guarantee will help you in your marriage relationship, in your work and in your relationship with God – do you want a prayer that will invigorate your worship and connect you with God – It’s very simple. "O God, make me a softy!"

But let’s not dwell on the negative, let’s look at the positive and learn from Abel. Do you know that we have a commentary on this passage in Hebrews 11:4 – it says there that “By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man when God spoke well of his offerings.”

“By faith” - That speaks of Abel’s heart. What was Abel’s heart like? Look at his actions. As an offering he brings with him some of the firstlings of his flock, the fat portions. Abel’s heart was first sacrificial.

Abel kills some of his firstborn lambs and he offers them to God. The truth is that you and I cannot connect with God, we cannot hope to come into God’s presence without the shedding of blood. Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness (Hebrews 9:22). Why? Because sin is that serious, it demands death as payment. Thankfully Jesus Christ shed His blood for us and now through faith in Him we have peace with God.

But Abel’s offering speaks also of personal sacrifice. He gave to God from the firstborn of his sheep. He gave the best, the strongest, the first sheep of his flock. And he brought the best portions of the sheep, the fatty portions. He doesn’t keep that for himself. He doesn’t hold anything back.

And this is the model of worship for us even today. True worship is offering

"I’ll bring you more than a song. For a song in itself is not what you have required. You search much deeper within, Through the way things appear; you’re looking into my heart." ¹

You have probably heard the story behind this song called "The Heart of Worship". It was written by a man whose church had it all together. They had a brand new building, up-to-date music, a great worship band, a worship that focused on the cross, great preaching – they had it all. But they noticed that something was wrong, worship had lost its spark. I quote from an account of the event, “We seemed to be going through the motions but I noticed that although we were singing the songs, our hearts were far from Him.” It wasn’t that the songs had changed, it wasn’t that their ability had changed – it was that their hearts had changed.

We had become connoisseurs of worship instead of participants of it. In our hearts we were giving the worship marks out of ten: “Not that song again.” “I can’t hear the bass,” “I like the way she sings” (Sound familiar? I do it all the time!) We had made the band the performers of worship and ourselves the audience. We had forgotten that we are all the performers of worship and that God is the audience. And this line – "We had forgotten that sacrifice is central to biblical worship."

We read the Old Testament that when the people of God got together to worship they offered sacrifices – a lamb or a goat or some other animal. David would say that he would have nothing to do with a religion that cost him nothing (2 Samuel 24:24). And when Solomon dedicated the temple in the presence of all the people they sacrificed 22,000 cattle, and 120,000 sheep and goats.

We give thanks that because Christ has offered the perfect sacrifice on our behalf, we don’t need to offer sheep and goats and cows anymore. But it remains true that if we wish to connect with God in worship we need to bring a sacrificial heart. We need to be willing to die to self.

So how can we practice sacrifice in worship. Maybe some of us need to sacrifice internally – we could sacrifice our sin – that habit that we cherish, that thing which we just will not give up. God is calling you to connect with Him in worship and He is calling you to sacrifice.

Maybe some of us could sacrifice externally - our need to appear to have it all together. You know what I mean - we are only here for an hour and we can put up those walls so well. So that whenever anyone asks us how we are we’ve got our answer down pat. And when we ask for prayers in the service it’s never for ourselves, or for a personal need, but for an aunt twice-removed. But we really don’t sacrifice anything, do we – and so we don’t end up with any meaningful relationships in the community of faith.

Or maybe God is calling us to sacrifice visually. We hear Him call us to baptism. But we won’t do it. We won’t die to self there – it’s okay for some others, but not for me, I’m not getting all wet and professing my faith to a bunch of people. I’ve got my dignity to think about it. Maybe you need to sacrifice your dignity.

Or maybe some could sacrifice your shyness. I know for some of you it’s hard to share your personal needs in the prayer time – it’s not your nature, but I wonder if you could sacrifice that and say to God – Lord in worship I even offer you my shyness and I sacrifice it.

Or maybe sacrifice your need for control in worship. Allow God to speak to move you during the praise time, allow His Spirit to move you to praise and adoration. And if He calls you to put your hands up then do it – if He moves you to clap then do it!

Or maybe some of us could sacrifice our need to put our hands up and to leave them at our side and say God I will demonstrate my worship of you in my heart.

Or maybe some of us could sacrifice our pride and actually forgive a brother or a sister who has offended us.

Listen – God does not require the material offering by itself, He does not require the song in itself; He looks much deeper, He looks at the heart. And this is the core of worship – this the key to connecting with God in worship – that we bring to Him a sacrifice of self. We have to ask ourselves, “When I come through that door what am I bringing as my contribution to the worship. What sacrifice is He calling me to give today?" Worship is not about getting, it’s about giving – giving to another – giving to God.

It’s hard to do – Cain won’t do it. He’s given chances but he won’t do it. And because of his hardheartedness, he ends up being the father of a whole society that battles against God and who eventually becomes the reason for the flood.

My friends, we can do it. It is our ability to sacrifice, it is our ability to give – why? Because we have Christ who has given Himself for us, we have experienced the life-giving sacrifice of Christ for each one of us. So we can actually sing and mean it from the heart:

“King of endless worth No one could express how much you deserve. Though I am weak and poor All I have is yours, every single breath." ¹

Copyright MBC and Tom Cullen - February 2004

Endnotes:

1.   Song by Matt Redman, Heart of Worship, © 1997 Kingsway's Thankyou Music (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing)