Worshipping God but not obeying him?

• Jeremiah 26:2 (NLT)
• Jeremiah 26:3 (NLT)
• Hosea 6:6 (NLT)
• 1 John 5:3 (NLT)

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God wants Jeremiah to preach right in front of God's temple: You expect that is the place where the remaining godly people go. But the message Jeremiah has to preach is a challenge to repent! The people go "evil ways", yet they still want to worship God in His house. Why that?

Maybe because they still want to please "the old God", just in case... They follow old traditions to make sure that none of their Gods is unhappy. Out of a sense of duty they worship, although their life is a big mess.

Sadly this is quite often the case with many youths in western churches. They go evil ways, they are disobedient to God, but because they are frightened of hurting Him or parents or other people they go to church and sing all the nice worship songs. No wonder many backslide after becoming independent in Uni-years.

God makes it clear very often in scripture that obedience is more important to him than a mere performance of your duties:

"For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings." (Hosea 6:6)

"For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments" (1 John 5)

Let's worship God with our lifes, being faithful and obedient in every area of life. Then the worship on Sunday will be more than a duty, it will come more and more from the heart. I experienced that: The more I lived for God in the week, the more I desired to go to church (generally spoken).

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