My goal for the message this morning is to see you worship God this day and place your future on the altar of sacrifice before God because, “Worship in it’s highest form is “giving your future to God in radical obedience”.
There are steps you take to get to the place where you offer your life in radical worship. To really….really…really….really worship you must take some steps. Let us take these steps together.
1. Worship is “Your expression of thanks to God for what He has done.
Do you remember the story about the 10 lepers? Leprosy was the absolute worst disease to have; it slowly destroys your sense of touch which disables your body’s natural reflexes to protect your self. A person with leprosy might have an open sore and never know about it unless they saw it with there eyes.
The disease was so severe that if you were a leper you had to ring a bell and shout “Unclean” whenever you were around people. In short, if you were a leper your life was stolen from you by disease and survival was your biggest challenge. The only way that you could be made clean was by presented yourself to the priest for inspection. He was the only one who could pronounce you as healed and you could then enter back into society.
One day as Jesus entered a village on the border of Galilee and Samaria a group of 10 lepers called out to him, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.”
Jesus called back to them, “Go show yourselves to the priest.”
And in the faith the men began their journey for inspection. As they were walking they began to realize that a miracle was taking place in their bodies. The power of God was working on them and each and every one of those 10 lepers were healed.
9 of them started running for the priest, 1 of them started running towards Jesus shouting, “PRAISE GOD.” He fell down at Jesus feet, thanking him for what he had done.
And what Jesus can’t figure out is where the other 9 are that were healed. Wasn’t it the same miracle, were not there lives restored, Jesus said WHERE ARE THE OTHER 9,
Jesus expected that when he did something great for someone that they would say “Thank you”
When you remember all the amazing things that God has done for you, YOU WORSHIP!
2. Worship is expressing your adoration for who God is.
Every time that you discover God, you adore Him.
Ill Peter met Jesus….He gave him an incredible fishing experience….the boats were filled….Peter fell down and worshipped and said, “I am a sinful man….Disciples….when He calmed the sea….”they worshipped”….He calmed the storm and walked into their boat…. He rescued them…….and showed them how powerful He really was. They said, “even the wind and waves are subject to Him”. Every time they discovered a “wow about Jesus” they worshipped.
Worship is saying, “God I adore you for who you are.”
2007 has been an amazing year for me because Ethan was born. Every time that he does something new, or smiles or laughs I just am in awe of how awesome God is. It’s a whole new side of God that I never knew before, and there isn’t really any other response than to worship God.
When you discover who God is, you worship. Until then your hands are in your pockets and you think too much about song order and musical phrasing. When you discover God, all that you can do is worship.
3. Worship is often times, “Your Posture Before God.”
I remember about a year and half when Debbie Cook was speaking at our Church and she told the story of how she was at a prayer meeting in Jamaica and she was just lying on the ground and God was speaking to her.
And so Debbie got us all to lie down on the ground in the middle of Church and try to hear from God. I’m not sure about the rest of you, but I wasn’t able to here from God that morning. It was pretty funny though.
Body language counts for a lot. A majority of the things that people think about you don’t come from the words you say, but from your body language.
For example, when you talk to someone and your arms are crossed that might think that you are bored, uninterested or defensive.
Your Posture before God says a lot to. He can see you, you know. He’s reading your body language and it means something to him.
But not only does your body language send messages to God, it also sends messages to you.
For example, prayer is very different when you are on your knees than when you are sitting down.
Here are some postures that you can take when you are worshiping if you want to send yourself and God a message.
Lift your hands to receive from God
Dance or jump to rejoice
Bow your knee/kneel down to surrender
Sing to release
4. Worship is your Respect for God
In Genesis 4 we read about the brothers Cain and Abel. It came time for them to worship God and Abel prepared a sacrifice from his flocks and Cain prepared one from his produce.
And God accepted Abel’s offering but he did not accept Cain’s. Was Cain’s offering good, Yes. But it was not acceptable to God. And so it showed God disrespect. It was a good offering but it was not the right offering.
If you do not respect God you will give Him 5% rather than a 10th. You will tip God rather than give Him what is rightfully His and still expect the blessing and then be angry that God did not receive your offering.
The offering you must give to God is the offering of your total life.
Romans 12:1-2 (NRSV)
1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God--what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Spiritiual worship is to present your body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. The Roman culture that Paul was writing to understood what he meant when he said, ‘Living Sacrifice.’
Here is what is means for us today. Worship in it’s highest form is: “Your future sacrificed to God on the altar of worship”.
Let’s get to our story, found in Genesis 22.
Abraham is about 115 years of Age. He has walked with God since he met God. An idol worshipper meets God and God tells him to leave Ur of the Chaldees for a land He will give him. He will bless him and make his name great and he will be a blessing. Abraham leaves….. Through his pilgrimage with God He meets God many different times. He meets God as
- Possessor of Heaven and Earth and the one who helps him fight his battles.
- God his protector and rewarder.
- El – Shaddai – The Almighty God…. The God who can do anything.
- The great judge of the earth.
- At 99 years of age God meets Abraham again…. And tells him he will have a son, about this time next year. He watches as his wife Sarai is suddenly renewed and he is married to a new woman again. She becomes young in body and appearance again.
The Baby is born and they enjoy him. They call him, Isaac. Laughter……They laugh and are happy.
The child begins to grow up and is about 15 years of age and God tests
Gen 22:1-2 (NLT)
1 Later on God tested Abraham’s faith and obedience. "Abraham!" God called.
"Yes," he replied. "Here I am."
2 "Take your son, your only son—yes, Isaac, whom you love so much—and go to the land of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will point out to you."
Isaac was the fulfillment of the promise. He was the firstborn. He was the one who was supposed to carry on the family name, the one that God was going to bless. And God said to Abraham, put your son, your future, everything that you have waited for these 65 years on that altar and sacrifice it to me.
You have only worshipped in part until you have given your future to God.
Worship in it’s highest form is “giving your future to God in radical obedience to God”.
If you cannot do this….all other worship forms are cancelled.
Abraham’s worship was.
#1. Immediate Obedience.
Gen 22:3 (NLT)
3 The next morning Abraham got up early. He saddled his donkey and took two of his servants with him, along with his son Isaac. Then he chopped wood to build a fire for a burnt offering and set out for the place where God had told him to go.
He did not say, God I will make this decision in a month. Could I not have time with my child. It was early the very next morning that Abraham went to obey God.
It was at the very first opportunity. When God asks you to do something are you the kind of person who waits till the last second or are you the one who runs to obey?
#2. In Faith.
Gen 22:4-5 (NLT)
On the third day of the journey, Abraham saw the place in the distance. 5 "Stay here with the donkey," Abraham told the young men. "The boy and I will travel a little farther. We will worship there, and then we will come right back."
Those are words of FAITH. Then we will come back. Abraham trusted that even though God was asking him to put his future on the altar, his son, that somehow, some way, God was going to make everything work out right.
Abraham acted in Faith. He had spent enough time trusting God and living according to the promises of God that he could rely on God.
And in faith he says, We will worship there, and then we will come right back.
Are you scared that God is going to take everything you love away from you? Are you worried that you won’t be able to do the things that you’ve always wanted to do. God says, TRUST ME.
If you want to worship God with everything you’ve got then you have got to trust God with everything that you have Got. Faith says that you believe God will take care of you, and so you will live acting on his word, obeying his voice in Faith.
#3. Death to Self - Wood
Gen 22:6-8 (NLT)
6 Abraham placed the wood for the burnt offering on Isaac’s shoulders, while he himself carried the knife and the fire. As the two of them went on together, 7 Isaac said, "Father?"
"Yes, my son," Abraham replied.
"We have the wood and the fire," said the boy, "but where is the lamb for the sacrifice?"
8 "God will provide a lamb, my son," Abraham answered. And they both went on together.
You see, without wood there is no fire. Something’s got to fuel the fire. So Abraham and Issac were prepared because they had the wood.
When we worship God, the wood is the part of ourselves that needs to go. It’s the dead weight in our life, the stuff that we carry around with us that is just weighing us down.
The wood represents the parts of your life that the Apostle Paul referse to as “the inner man.”
22 For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, 23 but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.
Romans 7:22-25 (NASB)
In worship your inner man is burned up. Because the closer that you get to God the more you recognize what is good and what is right. And to get closer to God you’ve got to burn off those things that are dead to you, holding you back, dead weight.
And in the middle of your song when the Holy Spirit begins to speak to you about this dead weight or that dead weight you let it go. You cry out to God for forgiveness and you let that part of you be consumed in worship.
Abraham and Isaac brought the wood up the mountain to be consumed in the sacrifice.
#4. Fire – Passionate.
It would be impossible for Abraham to make the sacrifice before God without Fire. Fire is what consumed the sacrifice. Fire is what burned away the wood. Without Fire, no sacrifice could be complete.
In your worship Fire is Passion. Your worship is with zeal, fire, free from neutrality and apathy. This is why we sing, rejoice, dance, clap and jump. We have passion in our worship.
Unpassionate, distant, thoughtless worship is incomplete. There is something that’s missing. You worship but nothing changes. Your heart stays the same, your sin remains hidden inside of you and you are disengaged.
But when you get passionate about God, your worship becomes passionate is well. Worship void of passion is simply incomplete.
#5 Isaac – the Future
Isaac represented Abraham’s future. When God told Abraham to sacrifice his son, he was saying, “Put it all on the altar Abraham. Your dreams, Your plans, your everything. Put your future on that altar and sacrifice it to me.”
It was a call to radical obedience. Abraham obeyed God. Will you. Will you put your dreams and hopes and your very future on the altar of worship.
Will you put your life in the hands of God almighty. If so, that is the highest form of worship that you can offer to God.
#6. Complete Follow-thru – knife.
Abraham take the knife and is about to strike his son. As he is holding the knife ready to follow thru an angel appears and there is a lamb caught in the bush and God says, “Now I know that you will fully obey me”.
When God sees your obedience in worship, “Giving your future to God in radical obedience to God” He then can follow thru with His promises to you for your life.
15 Then the angel of the LORD called again to Abraham from heaven, 16 "This is what the LORD says: Because you have obeyed me and have not withheld even your beloved son, I swear by my own self that 17 I will bless you richly. I will multiply your descendants into countless millions, like the stars of the sky and the sand on the seashore. They will conquer their enemies, 18 and through your descendants, all the nations of the earth will be blessed—all because you have obeyed me."
Gen 22:15-18 (NLT)
Worship in it’s highest form is “giving your future to God in radical obedience”.
Question: How do I give my future to God?
#1. Give your life to God.
In John 10:18 Jesus said No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again. For this is what my Father has commanded.”
God’s not going to take your life from you, you’ve got to volunteer it to him. With your own persusassion you repent of your sins, receive the forgiveness of God and make him your God.
#2. Give your Body to God.
Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 2 And do not be conformed to this world , but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
Romans 12:1-2 (NASB)
#4. Give your future to God.
This is worship in its highest form. It’s complete surrender. Give your future to God today.
PRAYER - "Lord, today, I dedicate my future to you in Jesus name,
Amen".
