"Are you ready to worship?”
And the people with excitement say and scream, “yeah!”
And everyone claps their hands and lifts up His name with praise and together we sing.
This is typically how we start our worship on Sundays. But we know that worship is more than just singing. It's a surrender of ourselves to a God that is greater and mightier than we are.
Imagine if instead, I ask this question before we start singing, “Are you ready to surrender?” I don’t think the response will be the same. Yet true worship is surrender. Romans 12:1 says “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 can sing the most beautiful and powerful praise and worship songs ever written, but if there’s no surrender on our part then it’s not true worship. And we know it’s true worship because change happens - our attitude, our thinking, our priorities and our life changes! It’s no longer about us but Jesus!
It’s so easy to worship God when things are good, convenient and there’s no “sacrifice” or surrender involved right? Before the worship team came out of the green room this past Sunday, we prayed: “Lord, stretch us today and help us to worship you outside of our comfort zone like never before. We want to worship you in spirit and truth.”
The Countdown started with no sound on my guitar. Don’t panic, I told myself it’s the battery. So I changed the batteries quickly as the announcements were happening. New batteries are in but still no sound. Oh no! Announcements were done, the worship team is on. Still no sound! The band and sound team tried to help me figure out what was going on. Nothing. I knew I just had to pray and surrender everything to the Lord.
Even in the back of my head, I was thinking this is going to be bad. It’s going to sound horrible. But in my heart, I was praying “Lord you’re in control, lead us. It doesn’t matter how we sound or if we have no sound at all.” At some point I got my other guitar, thank you, Lord.
I can go on and tell you the rest of the story, if you were there you’d agree with me that it should have been a disaster. But God turned it into something beautiful and probably one of the most powerful worships we’ve had in a while. It was wild, it was great, filled with and led by Spirit just because we surrendered to him. Praise God! If you weren’t there, sorry you missed out but you sure can watch it on our website.
When we encounter Jesus just like the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4 who realizes that he is the Living Water and that whoever drinks from him will never thirst again and that Jesus is the Messiah that they’ve been waiting for to save them. Her life changed!
In John 4:28-31 The woman left her water jar beside the well and ran back to the village, telling everyone, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” So the people came streaming from the village to see him.
When we worship God in his presence, the Holy Spirit shows us and helps us understand and see more than we can imagine - his love , forgiveness, grace, mercy and goodness for us. And we can’t help but to worship him more by giving him more of ourselves - our time , talent and treasure because we know that Jesus is worthy of it all. here’s a natural and strong part of us alive in the Spirit that wants to share Jesus. That's our mission.
True worship compels us like this woman who told everyone about the Lord. She didn’t waste time, she didn’t hesitate nor was afraid or concerned about what people would say and think about her. No, her life drastically changed when she met Jesus and she knew that she would never be the same again because she found everything she needed in the Lord.
I wrote a song beginning this year called Your Church for our church family at GCC. When I was writing this song I asked the Lord, “what do you want me to write and what do you want to hear your church sing to you?” The Lord simply told me, “just write your prayer. Write what you see my church will look like in the near future.” So I did. Here are the lyrics of the song. My worship and prayer. May it be yours too.
We come before you now with expectation
We bow our hearts to you in full surrender
We need your presence Lord in our lives
With hands lifted high Lord we cry out have your way
Fill your church with songs of praise
Fill your church with shouts of joy
Let us sing forevermore
Our God is good
Our God is great
Fill your church with selfless love
Fill your church with holy fire
Send us out to testify
God you are good
God you are great
You shed your precious blood to wash us clean
Once dead now we’re alive you breathe in us
You promised you will come again one day
But until that day Lord we proclaim you’re the only Way
We fix our eyes on you
Let your kingdom come
Let your will be done
We turn our hearts to you
Holy Spirit come
Let revival come
What is God changing in you when you worship him? What is he calling you to do as an act of worship to him? Are you ready to worship?
Listen to other originals by Richie and local artists on our music page.