October 5, 2004

Reading through the Bible in one Year: Jonah

Weekly Memory Verse: Mark 12:30

Good Evening Brothers and Sisters,

Romans 6:13 (NASB95)
¹³ and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.

Romans 12:1 (NASB95)
¹ 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.

1 John 4:9-10 (NASB95)
⁹ By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. ¹⁰ In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

1 John 4:19 (NASB95)
¹⁹ We love, because He first loved us. ^[1]

The study today is enlightening when you consider the new attitude of Christian churches regarding worship.  There is songs out reflecting returning to the heart of worship, yet the words are sung, and worship is still waiting.  The reason I say this is because the Christians are not putting into practice the word that they have heard from the pulpit.  Rick states that the heart of worship includes the idea of surrender.  We must be surrendered to God in order to truly enter into worship of God.  That means that we have to be 100 percent surrendered, not 75 percent or even 95 percent. 

What would happen if Christians were to completely surrender to God?  One problem with surrender is that we must trust the one that we surrender to, Rick states “you can’t trust him until you know him better.”  This is true, but if you don’t make the effort to get to know Him, you never will.  God desires to have a relationship with man, but will not force the relationship with man. To quote from today’s study, page 78, “How do you know God loves you?  He gives you many evidences: God says he loves you; you’re never out of his sight; he cares about every detail of your life; he gave you the capacity to enjoy all kinds of pleasure; he has good plans for your life; he forgives you; and he is patient with you.  God loves you intimately more than you can imagine.”  Here are the scripture references that he used to support this statement:

Psalm 145:9 (NIV)
⁹ The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made.

Psalm 139:3 (NIV)
³ You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.

Matthew 10:30 (NIV)
³⁰ And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.

1 Timothy 6:17 (NIV)
¹⁷ Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.

Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)
¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Psalm 86:5 (NIV)
⁵ You are forgiving and good, O Lord, abounding in love to all who call to you.

Psalm 145:8 (NIV)
⁸ The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love.

^[2]

Another block to knowing God is that of “pride”.  One of the problems that has risen in human hearts is the desire to become like God, or to become a god.  The cults major on this human desire and draw many people astray through the use of it.  It is as old as sin itself, remember what Satan said to Eve at the garden, by eating the fruit she will become like God.  This desire has not gone away through the ages, we are still clinging desperately to our rights and to our personal autonomy claiming that we are sufficient in ourselves.  We are winners, we live our lives as those who are in control of our own destinies.  Have you ever considered that Satan stated the same thing when he was kicked out of heaven? 

As I think of this, isn’t it interesting that we spend our money to buy our happiness.  We will charge everything possible in order to attain things that will theoretically make us happy.  We slave at our jobs and plan extravagant vacations which we brag about all year long.  Our homes are shrines dedicated to the maximum that we qualify for, paying out payments for the rest of our lives.   Then we have our bodies surgically altered in order to attain the current standard of beauty, knowing that we will later suffer from scar tissue and possible infections.  On a deeper level, and a more secret one, babies are murdered daily as they are slaughtered while they are still in the protection of their mother’s wombs, because our respect for life has diminished to consider life as a thing.  Our quest to become like God does not have limits, now the scientist are considering how to clone humans, tampering with God’s ultimate design for life itself.   In our quest to become like God we are consumed with achieving more, being better, and rising to the top of our world. 

To the shame of all of us, we will never achieve god-ship, it is simply impossible.  We will never reach the point where we are happy with things, or contented because of our achievements.  The only way that we will ever be satisfied is to finally figure out that we can’t do it.  We have to realize in ourselves is no good thing, we are pathetic sinners. 

(I have to wrap up quickly, time is against me today.)  The heart of worship is a surrendered life.  It means that we have to give our lives to Christ, 100 percent, all the time.  The wonderful thing about this is that He is not a hard taskmaster.  When you read the scriptures, it is obvious that He wishes to be like a brother to us, coming along beside us and helping us every step of the way.  His desire is that we abide in His love, not in our pride.  When we surrender our lives to Him, we are worshipping God in the purest way.  Yet in order to do that, we have to make it a point to lay aside the selfish life that we currently have. 

Rick makes an interesting comparison as he considers Romans 12:1, the problem with living sacrifices is that they have a tendency to crawl off of the altar.  Rick goes into detailed discussion on this, please refer to his book with the current chapter in order to find out more on this.  The key word in this is trust.  Think about the way that Abraham trusted God when he traveled to a foreign land.  The way that Noah trusted God when he built a huge ship, which made no sense.  Jesus trusted the Father with His life on the cross for the redemption of man.  As living sacrifices, we purposefully place ourselves into the hands of God. 

I have to close, pick up the book and read the chapter for today.

Father as we consider the tremendous truths concerning worship, open our eyes and enable us to understand how to worship with our entire lives.

In Him,

Joe Turner.