Sunday Notes: October 20th, 2024: The Cost Of My Worship

The Cost Of My Worship

Text: Genesis 22:5-6 KJV And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you. 6 And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together.

Introduction: Worship is the total expression of our love and devotion to God, it is our response to the knowledge and awareness of God’s presence and person and who we are in relation to Him. Worship begins with gratitude and thanksgiving but is never complete without submission and surrender. Thanksgiving and gratitude are courtesy but worship is a commitment.

We identify four costs in the life of every believer who cultivates a life of worship and total surrender.

Cost of attention

Exodus 3:2-4 And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. 3 And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. 4 And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I.

Psalm 27:4 One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple.

Psalm 34:5 They looked unto him, and were lightened: and their faces were not ashamed.

Proverbs 4:20-21 My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. 21 Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart.

Cost of affection

Colossians 3:1-3 If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. 2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. 3 For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.

Matthew 24:12 NLT Sin will be rampant everywhere, and the love of many will grow cold.

Cost of comfort

2 Timothy 2:3-4 Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. 4 No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.

John 16:33 NLT I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”

Cost of devotion

Galatians 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Conclusion: The life of worship is a life of faith

Hebrews 11:17-19 By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, 18 Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: 19 Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.

The prayer from a worshipper’s heart is not full of requests but desires to receive all of God’s will and purpose.

Change occurs at the place of our last sacrifice.