Teaching

The second dispute between God and his people focuses on worship at the temple. The people are bringing offerings that are blemished or defiled in the temple, going against the Levitical Law and demonstrating that they don’t truly honour God. Their half-hearted, duty-bound devotion even prompts God to wish the Temple doors would be shut so they’d stop bringing these offerings. To make things worse the priests are complicit in this, participating in the shameful worship instead of pointing the people towards true, obedient worship. The very people chosen to uphold the high standards or worship are the ones defiling it.

How can we, as Christians, be guilty of similar? When do we bring our half-hearted offerings to God and think that’s enough? How can we ‘offer [y]our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship (Romans 12:1)?

George Eapen speaks from Matthew 26: 6 – 13 on the importance of worship; even more important than serving the poor is our worship of Jesus. Mary pours extravagant perfume over Jesus and washes His head. In this act of worship, we are challenged to ask the question: how much do we prioritise our worship of Jesus over and above all else? How can we lavish our love on Jesus?

George Eapen speaks from Matthew 22: 34 – 40 on how we are to love God, in the ways we serve Him, worship Him and think about Him. We are also to love our neighbours. How do we show our love for God each day? What are the ways in which we are tangibly loving our neighbours?

George Eapen speaks from Micah 6: 6 – 8 and Luke 19: 37 – 44 on how we are called to walk humbly, overflow with mercy and act justly in all our various contexts, so that we can truly worship Jesus and walk in His light.

George Eapen speaks from 2 Corinthians 12: 1 – 10 on how the challenges we face are an opportunity for us to lean into God and be transformed more and more into the likeness of Christ.

George Eapen continues our series on rebuilding after a time of exile. We are journeying through the book of Nehemiah. Today we are called to boldly proclaim the good news. George speaks from Nehemiah 2: 1-20.