The Heart of Worship

Take worship for example. They are missing the best part!

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Because it is about God and not about us. Worship is not about us hearing great music, it is about lifting up our voices together in community to celebrate and praise our God and Father. I think of worship as an opportunity to let go of all our concerns, troubles, and distractions in our lives and just focus on God and His greatness.

Pastor Mike spoke of a time where he felt the congregation and the worship band had lost their way. He did something drastic, he eliminated the band and sound system.

It was just the worship leader, Matt Redman singing a capella. It was a challenge from the pastor for the congregation to engage with God during the time of worship and to do so with their hearts instead of their eyes. This experience was not just for the congregation.

Surrender evokes the unpleasant images of admitting defeat in battle, forfeiting a game, or yielding to a stronger opponent. The word is almost always used in a negative context. Captured criminals surrender to the authorities. In our competitive world were taught to never quit trying, never give up, and never give in - so we dont hear much about surrendering.

If winning is everything, surrendering is unthinkable. Even Christians would rather talk about winning, succeeding, overcoming, and conquering than yielding, submitting, obeying, and surrendering. But surrendering to God is the heart of worship. Offer yourselves as a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to his service and pleasing to him. This is the true worship that you should offer.

True worship - bringing God pleasure - happens when you give yourself completely to God. Notice the first and last word of that verse are the same: This act of personal surrender is called many things: What matters is that you do it, not what you call it. God wants your life. There are three barriers that block our total surrender to God: Trust is an essential ingredient to surrender. You wont surrender to God unless you trust Him, but you cant trust Him until you know Him better. Fear keeps us from surrendering, but love casts out all fear.

The more you realize how much God loves you, the easier surrender becomes. How do I know God loves me? He gives us many evidences: God says he loves you Psalm God loves you infinitely more than you can imagine. If you want to know how much you matter to God, look at Christ with his arms outstretched on the cross saying, "I love you this much! Id rather die than live without you.

God is not a cruel slave driver, or a bully who uses brute force to coerce us into submission. He doesnt try to break our will, but woos us to himself, so that we might offer it freely to him. God is a Lover and a Liberator, and surrendering brings freedom, not bondage. When we completely surrender ourselves to Jesus, we discover that he is not a tyrant but a savior; not a boss, but a brother; not a dictator, but a friend. A second barrier to total surrender is our pride.

We dont want to admit that were just creatures, and not in charge of everything. Its the oldest temptation: Life is a struggle, but what most people dont realize is that our struggle, like Jacobs, is really with God!

We want to be God, and theres no way you are going to win that struggle. Tozer said, "The reason why many are still troubled, still seeking, still making little forward progress is because they havent yet come to the end of themselves. Were still trying to give orders, and interfering with God's work within us. We arent God, and never will be. It is when we try to be God that we end up most like Satan, who tried the same thing. We accept our humanity intellectually, but not emotionally. We give mental assent to the idea, but when faced with our own limitations, we react with irritation, anger, and resentment.

We want to be taller or shorter , smarter, stronger, more talented, beautiful, and wealthy.

We want to have it all and do it all, and become upset when it doesnt happen. Then, when we notice God gave others characteristics we dont have, we respond with envy, jealousy, and self-pity. Surrendering to God is not passive resignation, fatalism, or an excuse for laziness.

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It is not accepting the status quo. It may mean the exact opposite: God often calls surrendered people to do battle on his behalf. It is not for cowards or doormats.