What is He Worthy to receive from You? Surrender

From II Chronicles 28 and 29. King Ahaz was an evil king of Judah. It says He did not do what was pleasing in the sight of the Lord and all of Judah suffered for his actions. Defeat after defeat in battle, he kept turning his heart away from God and continued to offer sacrifices to other gods. It says in verse 22, “And when trouble came to King Ahaz, he became even more unfaithful to the Lord.” Finally, he broke the utensils from the temple and shut the doors of the temple of God so that no one could go and worship there. He then built shrines to every pagan god. He was such an evil king that when he died, he was not even buried in the royal cemetery. Hezekiah grew up watching his father make a mess of things. I imagine his mother must have been a godly woman who instructed him in the ways of the Lord because he recognized that his father was evil in the sight of God and obviously God worked on his heart and prepared him to be a great king. It says that the first thing, the very first month of the first year of his reign, Hezekiah said to them, “Listen to me, you Levites! Purify yourselves, and purify the Temple of the Lord, the God of your ancestors. Remove all the defiled things from the sanctuary. Our ancestors were unfaithful and did what was evil in the sight of the Lord our God. They abandoned the Lord and his dwelling place; they turned their backs on him. 7 They also shut the doors to the Temple's entry room, and they snuffed out the lamps. They stopped burning incense and presenting burnt offerings at the sanctuary of the God of Israel. 8 “That is why the Lord's anger has fallen upon Judah and Jerusalem. He has made them an object of dread, horror, and ridicule, as you can see with your own eyes. 9 Because of this, our fathers have been killed in battle, and our sons and daughters and wives have been captured. Our temples have not been closed in the physical sense, but what about our personal temples? Do we daily present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God? Do we bring defiled things into the sanctuary? Do we find ourselves unfaithful in what God has called us to do, loaded down with our own agendas and plans for our lives? Do we bring our incense of a sweet aroma of surrender to God? What about our offerings, both monetary and the offering of our lives? Are we in captivity to our own lustful desires because we refuse to give control to God? Are our families in captivity because we are not willing to surrender to God? I am reading a new book by Kay Warren called Dangerous Surrender where she quotes a French Priest, Francois Fenelon. He says, “To want to serve God in some conditions, but not others, is to serve Him in your own way. But to put no limits on your submission to God is truly dying to yourself. This is how to worship God. Open yourself to God without measure. Let His life flow through you like a torrent. Fear nothing on the road you are walking. God will lead you by the hand. Let your love for Him cast out the fear you feel for yourself.” Surrender, the definition is to yield (something) to the possession or power of another. Are you surrendered to the possession and power of God, fully completely? I have recognized in my life that not being surrendered is like looking at God and boldly saying to His face, “I don't really believe You. I don't believe You can have control of my life and make it what I want it to be. I don’t really believe you are a good God, and all powerful God, and a loving God.” Why? Why don’t we trust Him? Has He really ever really failed us? No. Its because we fail to know Him. If we know Him because we meet with Him everyday, we spend time in His Presence and in His Word, Surrender becomes easier because we recognize His great power and His Great Love for us. Kay writes, “God wins us, not by shouting, beating us up, or starving us into submission, but by asking for an invitation to enter. We are loved into surrender. The more we accept that he operates out of love for us, the more we will trust ourselves to him. Fenelon expresses this truth beautifully. “God is not a spy looking to surprise you. He is not an enemy lurking in the shadows to hurt you. God is your Father who loves you, and wants to help you if you will but trust in his goodness.” Surrender - THIS IS HOW TO WORSHIP GOD. To the Worship Leaders: Hezekiah continues, My sons, do not neglect your duties any longer! The Lord has chosen you to stand in his presence, to minister to him, and to lead the people in worship and present offerings to him. God has chosen us as worship leaders to not neglect our duties any longer. We must purify ourselves first. We need to come into the sanctuary undefiled, with the only agenda on our hearts to worship the Lord and lead others to worship Him. When we come in with a pure heart and offer ourselves in full surrender to God, others cannot help but respond. Jesus says, If I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto me.” I have seen it happen in our own worship services. When the worship leaders begin to respond with their hearts to God during the worship music, the body of the church begins to respond. Know and feel every word you are singing to God. After the purification of themselves and after the temple was purified, a great worship service happened. The New Living translation lists it as one of the great revivals in the Bible. As Hezekiah and the Levites presented the burnt offering, they began to sing praise to God accompanied by all the instruments. After they sang, they bowed in worship and continued to sing praise to God. Then the people brought their offerings to God. There were so many offerings that there were not enough priests to receive all the offerings. Wouldn’t every pastor like to have a offering time like that in their church? The truth is they gave out of the abundance of love in their hearts for God. They were led to worship. Kerri