Real Fake

In a sermon I recently preached I defined worship simply as the honor and adoration of God. When we honor and adore God we rightly exalt him above all else in our life. And to rightly exalt God above all else in our life is authentic worship.

Worship is both external (what we say and do) and internal (what we believe and think). We can fake worship (saying and doing things) without believing what we say and do. The Bible is full of prophets and preachers calling out false worship whereby people said and did all the right things but their hearts were miles away from God. We can fake it, but the Lord sees our heart. And the Holy Spirit isn’t afraid of calling us out when our walk doesn’t match our talk.

The fact is, we are really good at fake. We live in a culture that values fake. We cover up ever blemish, work out every wrinkle, dye every grey hair and work at perfecting every imperfection with fake. We are an image driven culture…but what’s underneath all of that? Certainly nothing of substance. Underneath all of the fake, made up, covered up image is just a rotten pile of insecurity.

We think we can find security in removing imperfections and blemishes. We think if we present a perfect image we’ll be accepted by others. But our insecure lives are houses of cards built on sand.

And, if we’re being honest, that insecurity bleeds over into our worship. We’d rather pretend to have it all together than be broken before God and our brothers and sisters. We’d rather put forward an image of perfection than admit a flaw of sin. We’d rather honor God with our lips while our hearts are made of stone.

God rejects this worship.

He doesn’t want our empty, image driven words. He’s not after our vain, trite religious prayers of repetition.

He’s after your heart of stone. He wants to take that heart of stone, mold it like a lump of clay into a heart that honors him and adores him and worships him. In short, the Lord wants to trade your insecurity for security that can only be found in him.

Make the trade. It’s deal of a lifetime.

To God be the glory.