15-5

Worship with a Price

When we see Christ for who He is, it demands a response from us. This response is so much more than just, 'hey that guys is pretty great!' It demands sacrifice on our part. When we see Christ, we gladly give Him all we have. We see this picture in Genesis when Abraham goes to sacrifice Isaac on the alter. Most of us have thought about how hard it must have been and how much faith it took for Abraham to take his only son, his son that God promised him, and sacrifice him. But when was the last time you took a look at Isaac's question when they got to the top of the mountain? He says, "The fire and the wood are here...but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?" "In other words, 'Everything seems like it's in place, but where's the sacrifice?' That is always a key question when it comes to real and meaningful worship."

Worship always comes with a price. It requires us to give up ourselves and give all we have to God, otherwise we aren't really worshipping. Now that doesn't necessarily mean that we should be miserable during worship, in fact giving glory to God should be a joyous time! But I am saying that "there must be times in our worship services when we cease to say, 'Please give me more' and we start to say, 'It's time I gave You more.'"

Worship should propel us to action. We have a mission to accomplish! "The call on all of our lives is to journey beyond melodies and harmonies, beyond lyrics and poetry." While these are great tools of worship, we can't let our worship stop there. Worship is much more than the strumming of a guitar, the playing of an organ, or the singing of a choir. In 2 Samuel 24:24 David says that he will not sacrifice that which costs him nothing, and neither should we!

Christ's call on our lives is to "live a radical life of love and service-a life that leads to many costly acts of devotion, a life of intimacy with guts, passion with perseverance." William Barclay writes of the brothers James and John: "So then, both of the brothers drank the cup of Christ. Let us see what that cup was. John went to Ephesus; he lived for almost a hundred years; and died in peace full of years and honor. James's life was short, and came to an end swiftly and suddenly through martyrdom by the sword-and yet both drank the cup of Christ. There is a Roman coin, which has as its inscription the picture of an ox facing an altar and a plough, with the words: 'Ready for either.' The ox must be ready for the dramatic sacrifice of the altar or the long routine of the plough. The Christian who dies in one heroic moment, and the Christian who lives a long life of fidelity to Christ both drink the cup of Christ. The Christian...must be ready for either."

My question for you is are you ready for either? What is your worship costing you? Are you living a radical life of love and service? Abi and I just got back from Honduras where the Christians there live a radical life of love and service. They don't even have running water because the Catholic Church shut it off because they don't like the mission of the church in Honduras! You want to talk about what worship costs? It may cost you running water! It may put you in the path of people dealing with death, and it may put you in the lives of your neighbors that you don't really like. Our mission is to spread the love of Christ in every arena, and we can't do that without it costing us something.

"The most meaningful and powerful worship always comes at a price-the whole of our lives placed on His altar." What does worship cost? Everything.

Enjoy the Journey