Dad was driving his family home from church one Sunday when he heard his 16-year-old son saying, “The sermon was boring today.”
His sister chimed in. “Yea, could you believe how the pastor stumbled over the reading of the Scripture?” she said.
Mother replied, “I’ve got to admit it was an uninspiring day. The choir was terrible.”
That’s when dad jumped in and said, “Hush, you guys. Quit complaining. What did you expect for a dollar?”
I’m afraid that’s the way some people look at worship. They put their dollar into the offering plate and hope to be entertained. Only we in evangelical circles call it “getting blessed.” But is that what worship is all about? Getting blessed, because we show up on Sunday morning? My friends, worship is so much more than that.
Gordon Dahl writes, “Worship is the full commitment of one's life to God. But we have made our work the primary dimension of our lives, so it is little wonder that we experience worship as little more than an occasional pious exercise...” In fact, Gordon Dahl says, “Most middle class Americans tend to worship their work, work at their play, and play at their worship. As a result, their meanings and values are distorted, their relationships disintegrate faster than they can keep them in repair and their lifestyles resemble a cast of characters in search of a plot.” (Gordon Dahl, Work, Play and Worship in a Leisure-Oriented Society, Augsberg Press, 1972)
Wow! Doesn’t that describe our culture today even though he wrote that more than 40 years ago? My dear friends, we don’t have a political problem in our country today. We don’t have an economic problem. We don’t even have a security problem. We have a spiritual problem; and unless we learn how to truly worship God, we will continue our downward spiral into absolute and total chaos no matter who wins the election this fall.
So how do we do truly worship God? How do we respond to Him in a way that demonstrates He is worth more than anything else to us? How do we make that full commitment of our lives to Him? Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Genesis 22, Genesis 22, where Abraham shows us how.
Genesis 22:1-2 After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” (ESV)
God had already told Abraham to send his other son away. Now, God tells Abraham to sacrifice the only son he has left. In fact, God says, “Offer him as a burnt offering”; and according to Leviticus 1, a burnt offering is wholly consumed by the fire. There is nothing left except the ashes, which are blown away by the wind.
Do you know what God is asking Abraham to do? God is asking Abraham to give up the dearest thing in all the world to him, and to give him up so totally that there is absolutely nothing left even to remember him by. Don’t read this as a disinterested Bible student 4,000 years later. Read this is a father, whose heart bleeds for his son. God is asking Abraham to give up his only son forever!
Genesis 22:3 So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. (ESV)
Can you believe it? Abraham does exactly what God tells him to do. Abraham obeys God without question AND without delay. He gets up “early in the morning” to carry out God’s instructions. I don’t know about you, but I would have waited a day or two, at least. Not Abraham. He obeys God right away, not when it’s convenient, not when he feels like it, but as soon as he possibly can.
Genesis 22:4 On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. (ESV)
The place where he is to sacrifice his son. How can he do it? How can he obey such an unthinkable command?
Genesis 22:5 Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.” (ESV)
Did you notice Abraham said, “I and the boy… will come again to you”? Somehow, Abraham fully expects to return with his son, after they had both worshipped the Lord.
Hebrews 11 says, “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, ‘Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.’ He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead…” (Hebrews 11:17-19)
God had promised Abraham many descendants through his son, Isaac, and Abraham believed that promise; so he got ready to sacrifice his son, fully expecting God to raise that boy from the dead. Abraham obeyed God, because he believed in God’s promise, and Abraham obeyed God, because he believed in God’s provision, as well.
Genesis 22:6-7 And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together. And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” (ESV)
Oh, how that question must have cut him right to the heart! If you were Isaac’s father, how would you answer that question?
Genesis 22:8 Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together. (ESV)
“God will provide for Himself the lamb.” Abraham obeyed God, because he believed that God Himself would provide everything he needed. To be sure, Abraham thought that Isaac was that lamb, but he was confident in God’s provision nevertheless.
Abraham obeyed God without question and without delay, because he believed God. And that’s what we must do if we want to truly worship God. By faith, we must…
OBEY WITHOUT DELAY.
We must believe God enough to obey him immediately. We must trust God enough to do what he says right now, today!
Whatever God is asking you to do, don’t put it off to a more convenient time, because convenience obedience is no obedience at all. We’re not really obeying the Lord when we tell Him, “I’ll do it when it suits me.” No. True obedience says, “I’ll do it right now, even if it’s not convenient and even if I don’t fully understand why.”
Jill Briscoe tells the story about the time when Stuart, her husband, told their son, David, “Don't go to school on Monday. You're going to go for an x-ray.”
“All right,” said David. That was a Friday. Monday came. David gets in the car. His face is as white as a sheet. His eyes are out like stalks.
Stuart said, “David, you're not frightened, are you?”
“Of course I'm frightened, Dad.”
“Why?”
“I know what an execution is.”
He'd been thinking about that from Friday till Monday. The amazing thing is he turned up. But only because he trusted his dad – his father. (Jill Briscoe, “In the Father's Arms,” Preaching Today, Tape No. 141)
That’s what true worship is all about. It is trusting our Heavenly Father enough to obey Him even when we don’t understand Him.
You see, God only wants what’s best for us. Satan tempts us to bring out the worst in us, but God tests us to bring out the best in us. So trust and obey Him right now, even if it doesn’t make sense. That’s how you truly worship the Lord. First, obey without delay. Then second…
GIVE WITHOUT LIMITS.
Sacrifice even what is most precious to you. Hold nothing back from God. That’s what Abraham does when he gets ready to sacrifice Isaac.
Genesis 22:9-12 When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” (ESV)
Abraham holds nothing back from God, so God holds nothing back from Abraham.
Genesis 22:13-14 And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called the name of that place, “The LORD will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided.” (ESV)
In the place of worship, God provides. Here, God provides a ram who dies in Isaac’s place. God saved Isaac through a substitute sacrifice.
However, 2,000 years later, God would not spare His own Son. He allowed Jesus to die on a cross for our sins, becoming our substitute sacrifice, dying in our place. Now, all we have to do is trust Him with our lives. Then like Isaac, we too find life, eternal life, and become children of the promise forever.
When we hold nothing back from God, He holds nothing back from us. In the place of real worship, God truly provides, so give Him your very best. Like Abraham, don’t hold anything back from the Lord. As it is, some people just give God the leftovers.
Around Thanksgiving several years ago, Paul Harvey shared a true story on the radio of a woman and her frozen Thanksgiving turkey.
The Butterball Turkey Company set up a telephone hotline to answer consumer questions about preparing holiday turkeys. One woman called to inquire about cooking a turkey that had been in the bottom of her freezer for 23 years. That's right—23 years. The Butterball representative told her the turkey would probably be safe to eat if the freezer had been kept below zero for the entire 23 years. But the Butterball representative warned her that even if the turkey was safe to eat, the flavor would probably have deteriorated to such a degree that she would not recommend eating it.
The caller replied, “That's what I thought. We'll give the turkey to our church.” (Paul Harvey daily radio broadcast, 11-22-95; www.PreachingToday.com)
Sad to say, that’s the attitude that some people have. They are willing to give God the leftovers, the things they don’t really want anyway. But true worshippers give God their very best. They give God the very best of their time, the very best of their treasures, the very best of themselves.
Benjamin Kwashi, a Christian leader from Jos, Nigeria, tells the following story of how the gospel came to his part of the country:
Missionaries came to my home area of Nigeria in 1907. One of them was a man named Reverend Fox. Reverend Fox was a professor at Cambridge University, and when he arrived his walk with Christ was so deep that he led many people to Christ. He founded a church and moved about 10 kilometers away to Amper, my own hometown, and founded the church there too.
How a first-class person from the University of Cambridge was communicating to illiterates, I don't know, Kwashi says, but God suddenly gave him favor and people were turning to Jesus Christ. So many people came to Christ that he wrote to his younger brother, who was a physician also in Cambridge, and asked him to come and help him because a medical practice was needed. As his brother started the journey from England, Reverend Fox fell ill and died. Soon after his brother arrived, he also fell ill and died.
The Church Mission Society wrote to their father, who was also a pastor. When they told him he had lost two sons, he and his wife cried, but then they did something astounding. They sold their land and property, took the proceeds to the mission society, and said, “As much as we grieve the death of our two sons, we will only be consoled if the purpose for which they died continues.” They gave that money and walked away.
Recently, Kawashi says, I looked through the profile of those two missionaries who came to my hometown. They both had first-class educations and degrees from the best schools. They died as young men – the oldest was only 32. They gave up everything to serve Jesus and bring the gospel to my country. Were they crazy? No, they had heard what Jesus had said, they believed it, and they were willing to stake their whole lives on the truth of Jesus' words. These men wanted to end their lives well. No matter how long or short their life, it wasn't going to be wasted, but they would invest it for eternity. (Benjamin Kwashi, "Where Do You Want to Finish Your Life?" www.PreachingToday.com)
My dear friends, that’s what true worship is all about! It is investing your life for eternity. It is giving the very best of yourself to the Lord, not the leftovers.
Corrie Ten Boom once said, “I’ve learned that we must hold everything loosely, because when I grip it tightly, it hurts when the Father pries my fingers loose and takes it from me!” (Swindoll, Mediocrity, p.114).
What are you hanging on to so tightly this morning? A relationship, your children, your home, your money, your time? Let it go. Offer it up to God, like Abraham offered his Isaac, and remember. When we hold nothing back from God, He holds nothing back from us. In the place of real worship, God truly provides, so obey without delay. Give without limits. Then…
RECEIVE WITHOUT FAIL.
Let God give back more than you could ever give to Him. That’s what happened to Abraham.
Genesis 22:15-18 And the angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said, “By myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.” (ESV)
God gives to Abraham so much more than Abraham ever gave to God. Abraham receives his son back, as well as many more sons. On top of that, God gives him the cities of his enemies, as well as world-wide fame.
And God will do the same for us. When we give to Him, He always gives us so much more in return. When we shovel out, he always shovels back, and He has a much bigger shovel than we do!
One day, one of Jesus’ followers complained, “We have left everything and followed you!” (Mark 10:28). And Jesus replied, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.” (Mark 10:29-30)
On another occasion, Jesus said, “Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap” (Luke 6:38).
The point is: We cannot out give the Lord! Whatever we have to offer God doesn’t compare with what God is ready to offer us when we give our all to Him.
Sam Allberry, an Anglican minister from Great Britain, recently shared about his struggle with same-sex attraction. Allberry wrote:
Homosexuality is an issue I have grappled with my entire Christian life… There have been all sorts of ups and downs. But this battle is not devoid of blessings, as Paul discovered with his own unyielding thorn in the flesh. Struggling with sexuality has been an opportunity to experience more of God's grace, rather than less.
But over the last couple of years I have felt increasingly concerned that, when it comes to our gay friends and family members, many of us Bible-believing Christians are losing confidence in the gospel. We are not always convinced it really is good news for gay people. We are not always sure we can really expect them to live by what the Bible says. It is simply not possible to argue for gay relationships from the Bible… God's Word is, in fact, clear. The Bible consistently prohibits any sexual activity outside of marriage [gay or straight].
As someone who experiences homosexual feelings this is not always an easy word to hear… There have been times of acute temptation and longing – times when I have been “in love”… [But I have learned that] what we give up for Jesus does not compare to what he gives back… For me these include a wonderful depth of friendship God has given me with many brothers and sisters; the opportunities of singleness; the privilege of a wide-ranging ministry; and the community of a wonderful church family. But greater than any of these things is the opportunity… to learn the all-sufficiency of Christ.
My main point is this: the moment you think following Jesus will be a poor deal for someone, you call Jesus a liar. Discipleship is not always easy. Leaving anything cherished behind is profoundly hard. But Jesus is always worth it. (Sam Allberry, "How Can the Gospel Be Good News to Gays," The Gospel Coalition blog, 1-10-13; www.PreachingToday.com)
Did you hear it? “Jesus is always worth it!” “What we give up for Jesus does not compare to what He gives back.”
So go ahead! Truly worship God today. Obey without delay. Give without limits. Then, get ready to receive without fail.
Some time ago, an express package from England arrived at a South African town, but the man to whom the package was addressed refused to pay the delivery charges. So for about 14 years, the box was used as a footstool in the express mail office. Eventually, the man died, and later, the box was put up at auction with other unclaimed articles.
Out of curiosity, someone bid on it at a very low price. When he won the bid, he opened the box and was greatly surprised to find several thousand pounds of sterling in English banknotes.
Some people are foolish. They refuse to give so little to get so much. Don’t let that be you. Remember what Jim Elliot said: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”
