I’ll be the first to admit, worship is easy.
Many of us don’t fear losing our lives for gathering with the church to worship. While that is a tremendous blessing, it can also be our greatest curse.
The truth is, worship doesn’t cost us much of anything.
Our lives aren’t at stake.
We don’t even have to break a sweat like the crazy charismatics on the front row.
We attend. We sing. We observe. We leave.
Church worship is more like visiting a coffee shop where we can pick and choose what we like and only show up when we feel like it.
The Problem With Ease
I’m concerned that the ease of it all is destroying our passion.
We add corporate worship onto our already busy lives rather than making it a priority.
We have no expectation.
The cross is no longer in our view.
It’s more about getting blessed than it is about blessing God and blessing others.
If we’re honest, our lives can be more about pursuing ease and safety than it is about sacrificial worship and following the Savior to the darkest places.
When your life becomes an exercise in safety management, your soul shrivels up.
You were made for adventure. You were made for risk. You were made to go into all the world.
I’m not pointing the finger, I’m merely observing my own selfish tendencies.
An Inspiring Life
I’m almost finished reading Eric Metaxas’ fantastic biography, Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy
The landscape of the day was rampant socialism and submission to the lunacy of Hitler’s leadership.
It would have been much easier for Bonhoeffer to keep quiet, to make excuses that there was nothing He could do. But He stood strong, fighting till the end.
Of course, we don’t live in the same circumstances. But throughout Scripture we see that worship is a sacrifice.
It’s a choice to esteem God in His glory and not succumb to the selfishness of the day.
How Is Worship A Sacrifice To You?
I’d love to discuss this.
Obviously, sacrifice isn’t about stirring up trouble on purpose or hurting yourself to prove allegiance to Christ.
But what is it to you? What makes your worship sacrificial?
Question: Though we live in an era of ease, how do we live as sacrificial worshipers, esteeming the glory of God above our own comfort and safety? You can leave a comment by clicking here.
Sacrificial worship means humility; it means dying to self daily so God can be glorified in you. Dying to self requires putting off* old self and letting God make us more like him each day*. As a worshiper this means letting go COMPLETELY of your will and surrendering to his; the focus being on the cross. In this regard it will not be about what songs “I” like or what what style “I” like but about what gives Glory to God; that is what worshiping is about, giving Glory to God. It means spending hours in the presence of the Lord during the week* for the few minutes we spend in front of the church. It means recognizing that worshiping is not a display of your gifts to make YOU feel good about yourself but about being used as a vessel to bring Glory to God. Sacrificial worship is worship that is God centered and Christ focused; all about him and less of us!
There were typos in the first post. Pardon the typos.
Abena, what a great description. Keeping our hearts focused on the glory of God makes all the difference.
I’m generally pretty reserved in life and in worship, and though it’s a small step, sometimes worshipping sacrificially means to take on a posture of worship that is out of my comfort zone.
That’s a great practical step, Sharayah. What posture is out of your comfort zone?
Kneeling almost always is, but sometimes just lifting my hands is more than feels comfortable.
Man, can I quote you on this ?
“When your life becomes an exercise in safety management, your soul shrivels up.” Killer.
OK, a couple thoughts re: “how do we live as sacrificial worshipers”:
1) Embrace, teach inconvenience as a spiritual discipline, in fact, practice it more often. This can be worked out in a number of ways in corporate worship such as: extended, even awkward silence, an extended time of prayer or scripture reading.
Basically, things that get folks ought of their comfort zones and help us experience worship that really isn’t about making the consumer happy.
2) Promote and bless others in ministry above yourself, especially in those times you’ve been demoted or overlooked or have fallen out of favor. I blogged about that here http://www.robstill.com/how-worship-leaders-players-can-overcome-rejection/
3) Go on a missions trip. Missions trips in general are about being inconvenienced, both financially and creature comforts. They can be great for making “attitude adjustments.”
BTW prayer request … I have an opportunity this year to teach on worship in a closed country where it really could be dangerous, but the impact tremendous. Some of my family isn’t too keen on this, but if the Lord provides, I’d like to go.
Rob, I love your first point, which I believe is so important to our lives in general. Usually what’s “inconvenient” is exactly what is best. Sharing the Gospel can be inconvenient. Going on a missions trip, like you mentioned, is inconvenient. Learning a new skill is inconvenient. So good.
I will be praying for your trip! What country?
Sacrifice: the surrender or destruction of something prized or desirable for the sake of something considered as having a higher or more pressing claim.
Sacrificial worship is a very personal place. It’s intimacy with our Creator who knows our heart. In each of the stories in the scriptures where a sacrifice of worship is demonstrated it was preceded by an intimate connection with the Lord which provoked the heartfelt gratitude, contrition and brokenness.
“…a broken spirit and a contrite heart, You will not despise…”
You are right when you say that we “have no expectation”. But then, did Mary Magdalena? Her heart became broken in the very moment when our Lord wrote in the sand. Did she expect it? Her gratitude of heart prompted her to sacrifice in a beautiful abandon of worship to our Lord in fragrance and tears. Or how about Paul? When Paul was on his self-appointed deathly mission for God – persecuting the early church – the Lord invaded his life and his heart became broken and contrite prompting a lifetime of sacrifice in worship to our Lord.
It is the Lord who brings us out of our ease…when we least expect it.
I think you’re right, Shelly. God has a beautiful way of disrupting our lives in a good way to keep us from getting too comfortable. If we’re NOT being disciplined, we have something to fear.
I love seeing the connection between what God asked of us and how practical those commands are.
God summed up all commandments and stated the greatest commandment by saying, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength,” while the second greatest is to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt. 22). To love God in that way is to give literally every piece of yourself in all it’s might for the glory of God. If our heart, mind, and strength were devoted completely to God, the amount of sacrifice required of us to give is also complete.
Is sacrifice uncomfortable? Yes, because sacrifice always means giving up something we hold as important. And sacrifice will always be harder the more we try to hold on to things even if we know we need to give them up for God and others. So it really becomes a question of what we really believes is important.
And that reminds us of Romans 12, where God is urging us (through Paul) to be living sacrifices (holy and pleasing) for Him which is our worship. To no longer conform to this world and their importances, but be transformed by the renewing of our minds, that as we test what is truly important or not, we can learn what God sees as good, acceptable, and perfect.
In this passage, we see the imagery of being a “living sacrifice”. As understood by those hearing this when the letter we called “Romans” was written, sacrifices of worship are offered to God and let go of, killed, consumed by fire and given completely over to Him. There is no reservation, but complete sacrifice for God’s gain (and technically our gain through God in obedience). So if we are to give our lives as living sacrifices, they really are to be offered to God with no take backs. And the difference being instead of being a “dead sacrifice” we live as if completely offered to God and no longer our own lives. That is sacrificial worship.
Thank God for His grace though! I can never look at these truths without remembering God’s sacrifice for us, and His continual forgiveness for me as I don’t make this living life all for Him. But as Paul would say, “What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid!” (Rom. 6:14-15)