Worship -multi part-part 1

I don't know exactly how many parts this study of worship will be broken into, but I want it to be in smaller, bite size pieces in an effort to go deep, but at the same time not overwhelming.  

Tonight's 1st principle is that worship is not about the action, but the heart of the worshiper.  

In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.” (Genesis 4:3-7 ESV)

God knew Cain's heart, He knew that Cain was "going through the motions".  God even tells Cain that he is playing on dangerous ground with "sin crouching at the door.  It's desire is for you, but you must rule over it."  Cain's worship was not accepted because it was not sincere.  When we worship, we are saying "God, You are the most important thing in my life" and anything less than that is not worship...it's going through the motions, and that is not acceptable to God.

Principle #2 sin is always at the door, but we must rule over it.

In the post fall world, this is the perfect description of the battle of sin we face everyday.  Temptation and sin are a daily part of life, and part of our worship is ruling over sin by choosing God instead of sin (without the Holy Spirit, none of us are capable of doing this perfectly).

Principle #3 God knows our heart and chooses to accept our worship or not.

God tells Cain that if he would do well, then his offering would be acceptable.  God knows the heart, nothing short of true worship is acceptable.

Stay tuned...more to come.