Worshipping with All I Have

As I was continuing my study in the life of Abraham this week, I was struck by a verse that made me step back and take a hard look at the nature of worship.  The verse happens when Abraham has been told to offer Isaac as a burnt sacrifice.  Abraham and Isaac have just arrived at the mountain where God directed them to make this offering, and are about to start climbing up.   Genesis 22:5 says about Abraham, “He said to his servants, ‘Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there.  We will worship and then we will come back to you.’”  I don’t know about you but to me, the use of the word “worship” here felt so strange and out of place at that moment that I stopped reading in stunned silence.  Why would Abraham say he was going to go worship as he is headed off to kill his only son?  Isn’t worship supposed to be about joyfully praising God?  I had to sit with this verse and put some extra study into it.  And as I did, I realized that there is a big difference between those two words I just used: “praise” and “worship”.  I believe that in our time and culture, we have given both words the same meaning, but God’s Word in the Bible never intended for them to be the same. 

Praise is a form of worship, but it is not the totality of worship

Let’s stop and think for a minute about what worship has come to mean today.  We talk about having a “worship” service at church, and visions of standing and singing hymns with our arms raised come to mind.  I think fondly of singing with deep reverence and joy as I sway gently and hold my hands out with my palms up to heaven.  I think of deep and meaningful moments of communal prayer that lift my spirit.  I think of sermons that instruct me from the Word of God.  All of these are good and pure and important.  All of these are praise and thanksgiving to God.  And all of these are a form of worship, but they are not the totality of worship.  They would not have been considered true and full worship to the Old Testament people, nor to the early New Testament church.

To Old Testament people, worship was sacrifice.

Gathering to praise is beautiful and meaningful.  But worship is so much deeper and all-encompassing than that.  To explain what I mean, let’s start with how the Old Testament people worshipped.  To them, worship was sacrifice.  The two were so closely related that they virtually meant the same thing.  That is why Abraham would have said, “I am going to worship” instead of “I am going to sacrifice”.  The sacrifice of animals was a command from God and to sacrifice was to act in obedience.  Abraham was acting in obedience by offering Isaac as a sacrifice, even though it was happening at great cost to himself.  I am certain Abraham had no desire to sing, sway, and lift his hands to heaven in praise at that moment.  In that moment, his worship went even deeper than that.  Abraham was offering all he had – his most precious gift – in total denial of his own wishes and in total obedience to God.  And you can bet it broke his heart, even as he had the faith to say at the end of Genesis 22:5, “we will come back,” showing he believed God would somehow restore Isaac to him.

Worship and sacrifice are about our hearts and our obedience.

As New Testament people, we no longer sacrifice animals.  We no longer need to because Jesus offered Himself as the ultimate blood sacrifice on our behalf.  So if worship has an element of sacrifice in it, and we no longer need to kill anything to sacrifice, what does that look like to us?  Let’s start by looking at some verses.  The Old Testament has several verses that talk about sacrifices that are even more pleasing to God than burnt offerings.  Psalm 51:17 tells us, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.”  And 1 Samuel 15:22 says, “’Samuel said, ‘Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord?  Behold to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams.’”  These verses, and many others, make it clear that worship and sacrifice have more to do with our hearts and our obedience than with killing something, even in Old Testament times.  We see that with Abraham.  He was willing to sacrifice his son because he was willing to give up everything to obey God.  And in the end, obedience and putting God first was all God wanted.  Isaac didn’t get killed – God provided a ram in his place. 

Sacrifice is about what is going on inside of us instead of what is going on at an altar.

The New Testament also talks about sacrifice being a heart condition.  In Mark 12:33, Jesus tells us, “And to love Him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as himself, is much more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”  Hebrews 13:16 says, “And do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.”  Clearly, this has more to do with what is going on inside of us than in what is happening in front of us at some altar.  Certainly, love and giving of ourselves has a role in this, too.

Worship means sacrificing everything that I am at the altar of obedience to God.

So then what is worship?  I believe worship has always been and still is about killing something, but it has nothing to do with killing animals.  It has to do with accepting the One who was killed in our place.  It also has to do with killing our old, wicked, worldly selves to take on the new heart and life that Jesus gave us.  And that involves so much more than standing and singing joyfully.  It means sacrificing everything that I am at the altar of obedience to God.  Romans 12:1 puts it this way: “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship.”  We don’t give a sacrifice – we are the sacrifice! Just like Isaac, we willingly climb on that altar to offer our lives over to God because Jesus first gave His life for us. 

We sacrifice our doubt and lean into the faith that God hears us and sees us and loves us.

Knowing that, I have to ask what that looks like in my life.  How do I do that over time?  I mean, I know I already earnestly prayed and offered control of my life to Jesus.  That was the moment that I became a permanent living sacrifice to God.  But in the day to day, how do I stay faithful to that?  I don’t know that I have all the answers, but I can share what I have found God leading me through.  The biggest indicator to me of whether my heart is in the right condition or not is if I am willing to sacrifice my pride and my will and my plan to God first.  I want it my way.  That is the old sin condition still poking its head in.  God knows that.  He knows the desires of my heart and how I wish everything would turn out.  He knows the plan that I am holding so tightly.  What I struggle with is that I feel like if I let it go and let God have control, He will automatically say ‘no’ and want me to do something I don’t want to do.  Do you ever have that feeling?  I want to call it the “Jonah” syndrome – the “I just know You are going to ask me to do something hard” syndrome.  The difficult truth is that sometimes God does that.  He does ask hard things from us.  How hard was it on Abraham to walk Isaac up the mountain?  That’s where the faith and obedience have to kick in.  But in God’s love and grace, the hard things always become the most blessed things, even if we can’t see it.  We sacrifice our doubt and lean into the faith that God hears us and sees us and loves us. 

We offer our desires to God first before we act on them.

We also have to remember that God often says “yes” to our desires and plans, as long as they don’t go against His will.  Psalm 37:4 says, “Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.”  Jesus said God is a good father who knows what we want and desires to give it to us.  The sacrifice is that we offer our desires to Him first before we act on them.  We wait to get a Godly green light before we drive on.  And if God gives us a red light, we sacrifice it to Him and let it go.

The nature of sacrifice is being willing to give up what is most dear.

That is what I am striving to do – offer it all up to Him first.  I am definitely not perfect at it.  This life is a walk to develop more and more faith and trust as I go along.  But I try.  I make sure that I include time in my prayers to ask God for His guidance and will on my life.  I pray about specific desires and plans.  Sometimes I don’t get an immediate answer and I need to take a step, so I do.  But I do it knowing that if God corrects the step I am taking, I will be willing to change course.  I take moments of silence to sit and listen for His guidance.  I work on letting go of the things He says “no” to, even if it is a painful struggle that takes hours of pouring my heart out in prayer to Him.  I have found that my deepest dreams and my strongest fears are the things I clench the tightest.  And that is exactly the nature of sacrifice – giving up what is most dear.

When we go to worship, let us offer our whole bodies, minds, hearts, and souls.

Next time we go to worship service to praise, maybe we can remember what true worship is all about.  As we sing and pray and learn and rejoice, let’s do it while remembering both what God has given and what He has taken away.  Let’s do it with all that we have – good, bad, happy, and broken.  Let’s offer our whole bodies, minds, hearts, and souls as a living sacrifice to our loving Creator.

I hope today’s message touched your heart, increased your understanding, and encouraged you.  Praying the peace and comfort of Christ Jesus on your life.