Worship --- Genesis 4

This past Sunday we attended Christ Covenant Church, a PCA church, in Matthews, NC. It’s a church we’ve thought about attending for a while and this weekend seemed to be a good time since Dr. Ross was starting a new series on Worship.

I think it’s always good when God directs my mind toward worship, especially now when we are trying to find a place to call “home”. Worship is important in Christian's walk with God, in fact, it’s of primary importance. I can get by without many things, but worship is not one of them. Yes, I know it’s an intensely personal thing, but it is also a very corporate experience.

Worship to me is not about being entertained or jerked around emotionally, it’s not about encountering God – but rather being encountered by God. It’s not about coming into His presence, but realizing that HE is in our midst. It’s not about feeling as if I need to confess, but being compelled to confess because of the overwhelming conviction of God’s Holy Spirit. Worship is not about me, it’s about God. All I bring to worship is the “I”. I bring me. God doesn’t want my fatted calf, my incense, my money, He wants me.

When I read Genesis 4, I am not sure what prompted Cain and Abel to bring their offerings to God, the text really doesn’t tell us, it just says “In the course of time…” (v.3) And I am really not one hundred percent certain what made the difference between the two experiences, but I’m fairly certain it was not so much what was offered, but the condition of the heart of the one offering it. It may be true that God prefers lamb chops over broccoli but that doesn’t seem to be the emphasis. The motive of the heart is what captures God’s attention and gathers His response.

When I open myself to God’s presence, seek to bless Him and praise Him, to seek His mercy and grace, to worship Him-- it’s my heart that will determine the genuineness of it all. Not my lips, not my posture, not whether I’m in church or in my “prayer closet”, it’s my heart. Now having said that, let me say this, one of the best places to enjoy that experience the most is within a body of believers, a.k.a. a local church.

O come, let us worship and bow down,
Let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!
For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture,
And the sheep of his hand.
(Psalm 95:6-7)