Responsibilities to God, Part 3

Driving home: Do you think I'm so stupid as to take this as the worship that I've commanded? Do you think I'm a fool, God says? May I be borderline coarse and say, God says to his people, do you think I'm a jackass?

The example from Malachi 1 of offering torn, lame, or sick animals illustrates God's rejection of worship that is contemptuous, weary, and merely going through the motions, rather than offering the best.

Do you see the picture? He says, a time is coming when my name will be great among the Gentiles. And a pure offering, albeit a spiritual offering, by a spiritual priesthood, in a spiritual temple, will be offered unto me. But by contrast, he says to these Jews, what do you do? Well, he says, first of all, you come with an attitude in which you despise your holy privileges in worship. You say, these things are contemptible. Furthermore, you come with an attitude, ah, this is weariness, boredom. And if boredom is anything, it is the absence of whole soul engagement of all of a man's faculties in...

15:17 - 16:15 Read in full sermon

Driving home: One of the horrible and dominant elements of vain, empty worship is worship that does not engage the whole humanity of the worshipper.

The analogy of a slave emptying a slop bucket with all his might, as unto the Lord, is used to emphasize that if even mundane tasks require such dedication, how much more should worship be performed with total engagement.

He complains through the person of His Son about the generation of that day. And we could move on into the epistles of the New Testament and simply take a text like this, whatever your hand finds to do, do with all your might, as unto the Lord and not as unto men. If that's true, when a slave is emptying the slop bucket of his master, that he's to do it with the endangering of his heart, that he's to do it with the endangering of his heart, that he's to do it with the endangering of his heart, that he's to do it with the endangering of his heart, that he's to do it with the endangering of his ...

22:52 - 24:04 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He challenges the congregation with personal examples, asking if God should receive less than a football game or a beloved spouse, and urges them to actively fight distractions…

Martin recounts his past intensity in playing football, using it to challenge the congregation: if he gave his all for a 'dumb piece of pig skin,' should God receive less?

People ask me sometimes and some people actually suspect that because I preach with some degree of energy and intensity that that's contrived. That's no more contrived than a sneeze is. Before I was converted when I was out on the ball field I didn't play 80%, 90%, 98% if I had a football under my arm and there was that much of a hole in the line and a couple of linebackers there was one thing I was determined to do it's me at all and trying to make that extra yard or two. That's what I did for a dumb piece of pig skin.

32:10 - 32:56 Read in full sermon

The point: Actively engage in hymns by throwing back your shoulders, filling your lungs, planting your feet, shaking cobwebs out of your head, and throwing yourself into the praises of God.

He shares how he courted his wife with his 'whole heart,' asking if God should receive less devotion than his beloved wife.

I courted my wife. I didn't court her with half my heart.

33:07 - 33:10 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He concludes with a story of an elderly saint who physically stood during sermons to combat drowsiness and profit from God's Word, using this as an example of whole-souled…

The story of an elderly gentleman who would stand during sermons to combat drowsiness and ensure he profited from every word illustrates a profound determination to engage fully with God's Word, serving as an example of whole-souled worship.

I close with a little story. I don't often do that, but I read this to the men in the academy the other day. A short way from here, there was a man who was mightily used of God in another generation. And when he first came to his pastoral charge, a strange thing happened.

54:41 - 55:00 Read in full sermon