SURRENDER IN WORSHIP
Key scripture for series: Romans 12:1-2 (NKJV)
1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Everyone of us was created to worship and we are worshipping something or someone all the time. God, as our heavenly Father is seeking worship and our ultimate goal in life is to bring Him glory.
What is the first thing that comes to mind when we speak about worship or when we think about worship? Normally, people think about worship in terms of songs that we sing like Hillsong: Hosanna, Eagle’s wings, Unfailing Love or most recently The Passion. There is nothing wrong with these answers as these are songs that draw us into the presence of God and sing about His love for us. However when we examine it from a Biblical perspective, it is so much more than just the songs that we sing on Sunday and if your home cell does it, whenever you have meeting. So what does it mean to say that we are to surrender to God in worship? As a matter of fact, your life is to be a lifestyle of worship and that is why God created you. He wanted someone to talk to. Dogs bark, cats purr, and people worship. We are the only creatures that God has created with the ability to worship. Worship is a combination of two words: worth and ship. It means basically that you are esteeming worth on something or someone greater than you and the proof of your love for something is the price you are willing to pay for it.
1. Worship is an act of surrender
There are reasons that people are resilient to surrender. For example you never know where God is going to ask you to go. He might ask you to become a missionary to a foreign country such as Zimbabwe or another country that is not one of our neighbouring countries. However, God is not asking you for much, but He is in fact asking you for everything
Genesis 22:5, 11-12 (NLT)
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.”
11 At that moment the angel of the Lord shouted to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Yes,” he answered. “I’m listening.”
12 “Lay down the knife,” the angel said. “Do not hurt the boy in any way, for now I know that you truly fear God. You have not withheld even your beloved son from me.”
After Isaac was born, God told Abraham to sacrifice him so that God could deepen his capacity to obey Him and to develop his character. Fire is used to refine or extract precious metal and so God refines us through difficult circumstances. When we see God is testing us, we can either complain or we can try and see how God stretches us so that our character can be developed. God never wanted Isaac to die, but Abraham was to sacrifice and surrender the one thing he loved so that God could see that he loved Him more than his son and so that his character could be strengthened and he could learn about God’s ability to provide. Moriah means the land that God chose and this mountain is where God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac.
When Jesus was led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit, Satan tried to tempt Him in various areas and one of the areas he tried to tempt Jesus in was the area of worship, He said if Jesus would worship him, he would give Him the kingdoms of the world. Every time He answered him with Scripture and when it came to worship, He said: “You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.” (Deuteronomy 6:13,Matthew 4:10)
Joshua 5:13-14 (NKJV)
13 And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, a Man stood opposite him with His sword drawn in His hand. And Joshua went to Him and said to Him, “Are You for us or for our adversaries?”
14 So He said, “No, but as Commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped, and said to Him, “What does my Lord say to His servant?”
Notice that the stranger did not respond either with an affirmation or negative answer when Joshua asked him to identify himself. There may be times in our lives where God does not answer us either, but He wants our lives to be surrendered to Him in worship regardless of what storms or circumstances you may be facing. Every setback is an opportunity for a comeback and your comeback will be greater, because in the midst of the storm, you are worshipping God.
2. Worship is love expressed
Luke 17:11-19 (NKJV)
11 Now it happened as He went to Jerusalem that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.
12 Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off.
13 And they lifted up their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”
14 So when He saw them, He said to them, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed.
15 And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God,
16 and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan.
17 So Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine?
18 Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?”
19 And He said to him, “Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well.”
How strange it is when we read about the ten lepers that were healed by Jesus, that only one leper returned to give God thanks. How else would you express your love for Him if you don’t surrender to Him in worship? God is worthy to be worshipped and when you worship Him, you surrender your entire being to Him. Worship also means that I am grateful for what God has done in my life and what He is going to do in the future. I may not know the future, but I know the God who holds the future and because of that I want my love to be expressed in worship and adoration to God by Jesus Christ being the centre of my worship, so that I die to self and God lives in me through the person of the Holy Spirit.
3. Worship draws us into the presence of God.
Examples of people that have been in the presence of God in worship
1. Elijah. When challenged by the prophets of Baal as to who is God, Elijah calls down fire from heaven and the fire consumed the sacrifice, and not only that, it also licked up the water that was on the altar. (1 King 18:36-38)
2. Moses. God’s glory settled on Mount Sinai and the cloud covered the mountain for six days. The seventh day was when God called to Moses from the cloud. Moses was in the presence of God for forty days and forty nights. (Exo 24:15-18)
Matthew 27:51 (NKJV)
51 Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split,
Hebrews 4:16 (NKJV)
16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
When we have a look at the Old Testament, the Tabernacle in particular and later on the Temple, there were three places. The outer court, the holy place and the Most Holy Place. In the Most Holy place there was a veil that separated the Holy place from the Most Holy Place and only the priests could enter into the Most Holy Place and offer sacrifices to God and this was to be done once a year. When Jesus died, the veil that separated us was torn away so that anyone can have access to God by Jesus through the Holy Spirit. Because Jesus surrendered His life on the cross, we also need to be willing to surrender to Him in sacrifice, change and worship. Worship should not be a once off event, but it needs to flow from the heart and should be a daily occurrence not just with a homecell or when we meet in Church. Something of interest. In the holy place there was the lampstand, the table of bread and the altar of incense and the priests had to maintain the operation of the Holy Place. Jesus is the fulfilment of all these types: He is the light of the world, the bread of heaven and the One who lives to make intercession for and on behalf of us so we need to worship Him.
