Worship Costs

Sarah Benibo | October 20, 2024

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Thank you. Elijah. Worship is more than a song. It is more than the 30 minutes that we spend at the top of the service. Contrary to popular belief, worship is so much more than a genre of music, even though that's what we've made it. Worship is so much more than that. The term itself comes from an old English word that means the state of being worthy over time. That same word worship has come to mean how we respond to what we deem to be worthy or to who we deem to be valuable. Biblically speaking, worship is appropriately responding to God, according to God's preeminence or according to God's superiority. I like to look at it like an iceberg. Let's get an iceberg. Biblical worship is very similar to an iceberg because it is twofold. On the surface of the water, you'll see the top of an iceberg and what I call this is acts of worship.

These are acts, these are things that we can see with our eyes and hear with our ears. It's an outward expression of adoration and ain't nothing wrong with it. It's the singing. It's the dancing, it's the giving. It's the serving. Nothing wrong with it. The only tricky thing is that anybody can do that. You got the time, you got the talent. You got the energy. You can sing a song. You can give a hundred thousand dollars if you got it in the bank. You can serve on every ministry that we have in this church, and those would just be the acts of worship. But what actually makes an iceberg, an iceberg is this. There's something underneath. If there's nothing underneath, then that's not an iceberg that's just called a sea of ice. There is something underneath it which makes it an iceberg and just like an iceberg when it's a real worshiper.

When we're talking about biblical worship, what's underneath is what I would call the heart of worship. This is the inner commitment that you have to not just perform adoration, but to personify adoration. It's the inner commitment that you have to value God more than anything else that has ever been, it's the inner commitment that you have to honor the one that is most holy to you. Jesus, in the book of Matthew said, these people, they honor me with my lips, acts of worship, but their hearts are far from me. Heart of worship. It was Jesus that determined that there are two layers to this thing, and oftentimes what we can see with our eyes does not indicate what's actually there. Yeah, they have a great voice. Yeah, they gave so much money and they tithe every week, but do they have a heart that truly wants to honor God?

Do they have a heart that is truly broken? When God's heart is broken, do they have a heart that would give what God tells them to give that will say what God tells them to say that what God tells them to do, having a heart of worship says this, God, there's nothing you can ask me for that I wouldn't give. Having a heart of worship says, God, there's nothing that you could tell me to do that I wouldn't do. A heart of worship says, God, there's nothing that you would tell me to let go of that I wouldn't let go of.

I know they thought I went too far. I know because I saw the expression on their faces. I called my friends. I said, we got to go out to eat. We got to go out to eat. I was 26 years old. We went out to eat and I told them, I'm not kissing another man until my wedding day. I said, no, no, no. I'm serious. The next time I put my lips on anybody else's lips, I'm going to be at the altar and I'm dead serious. Now, before you congratulate me, are you criticize me for being holier than thou, I need to make it very clear. I did not make this decision because I was holy. Quite the contrary, I made this decision because I could not trust myself any longer. I had already let myself down time and time and time again. I violated my own boundaries.

Forget the boundaries that God set for me. Even what I decided I wasn't going to do, I was still doing. I said, okay, something's got to change. I was tired of singing and leading worship as a hypocrite. I was tired of singing and leading worship with a burden on my back because I know what just happened the night before. I was tired and even more than that, I was scared. I was scared because it was getting easy. I was scared because I was able to just shake it off and move on with my life. After shaking my head about it, I was able to move on quicker and quicker each time. I can move on quicker, and I want to warn some of you in this building and online that when you are broken about your sin and broken about your failures, that's all right sis. That's okay, bro. But when you're sleeping like a baby at night, knowing that you're doing exactly what God told you not to do, you ought to be worried.

You ought to be afraid because what that means is that your conscience is being seared. What that means is that the Holy Spirit is becoming desensitized. You got to be careful, and so I said I ain't going to do it. I've got to set some boundaries for myself that I can't even mess up, so I'm going to make this strict as strict can be. I'm not kissing another man until my wedding day and it was easy. Nobody trying to kiss me. It's real easy to make a vow or ain't nobody checking for you. It's easy to not do this when you ain't got an opportunity to do it, but then when you meet the man that's better than the man of your dreams. Houston, we got a problem. We got a big problem because on one side, I really, really, really Lord really want to keep my commitment, and I've been going strong without any suitors, but I also want to keep my man.

I really, really, really want to do what I said I was going to do, but also have you seen him second date we're at the park. It was giving all the movie vibes that you could give. It was the perfect weather. It was the perfect breeze. The stars were starring, and I know that I heard Anita in the back saying, I heard her. I heard her and I said, oh God, oh God, oh God, oh God. What am I going to do if I don't do something right now? It's going to be too late. There comes a point that I have to make a decision, and I think that point is literally right now or maybe even a minute ago because the atmosphere is shifting and so I just decided to blur it out. I said, I made a commitment, said I'm not kissing until my wedding day and be o being who Bo is, said, oh no, I ain't got that conviction.

I said, Lord, why have you first came back? I'll be single for the rest of my life and maybe that's okay, and then I didn't say anything. I just let it. I just let it, and then he said three words that changed the course of our lives. He said, but I'll try. I said, say less. All I need is for you to try. Let's just try to do this thing this way for me. Here's the thing. My conviction wasn't his conviction. I need to say this loud and clear. My conviction may not be your conviction, but whatever your conviction is, God is going to hold you accountable to that.

This is not me telling you how to live. Absolutely not. This is me saying that if you have the Holy Spirit, listen and do whatever it is calling you to do because that is what's going to differentiate you from just being an act, a performance and the real thing. I knew at that moment that God was calling me higher and I knew that it was going to require something of me. I knew that it was going to cost, and so the title of this message today is Worship Costs. Go with me to Genesis four, one through 11. In this passage, we find two brothers, both brothers are participating in what I call an act of worship, but only one brother is actually worshiping because only one has the heart of worship. Genesis four, one through 11. If you have your Bibles read along or you can simply look at the screens. Thank you, tech team.

Now, Adam had sexual relations with his wife Eve and she became pregnant when she gave birth to Cain. She said, with the Lord's help I have produced a man. Later, she gave birth to his brother and named him Abel. When they grew up, Abel became a shepherd. While Cain cultivated the ground, when it was time for the harvest, Cain presented some of his crops as a gift to the Lord. Abel also brought a gift, the best portions of the firstborn, lambs from his flock. The Lord accepted Abel and his gift, but he did not accept Cain and his gift. This made Cain very angry and he looked dejected. Why are you so angry? The Lord asked came, why do you look so dejected? You will be accepted if you do what is right, but if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out.

Sin is crouching at the door eager to control you, but you must subdue it and be its master. One day Cain suggested to his brother, let's go out into the fields, and while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. Afterwards, the Lord asked Cain, where's your brother? Where's Abel? I don't know. Can't responded. Am I my brother's guardian? But the Lord said, what have you done? Listen, your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. Now you are cursed and banished from the ground which has swallowed your brother's blood. This is a very familiar story I know, but I want to take a few minutes to highlight some details that might be overlooked. These two brothers, they bring their gifts to God and in response, God doesn't just accept or reject their gift. God accepts or rejects them.

It says it in verse four and five. It says, the Lord accepted Abel and his gift, but he did not accept Cain and his gift. What this implies is that God inspects the person behind the offering just as much as he inspects the offering itself. This encourages me, y'all and encourages me because it means that God is just not trying to get stuff from us. He's not just concerned about what's in your hand. He's concerned about what's in your heart. It encourages me because it means that he cares not just about what I can do for him. He doesn't just care about how I can perform for him, how great I can sing, how great I can work, how hard I can labor. He cares about my heart. He cares about my soul. Your gifting does not impress God. Your heart is what he wants.

God. He gives Cain a second opportunity. He says, Cain, if you do what's right, then you'll be accepted, but Cain refuses. This proves to me that God is no respecter of persons. God is an equal opportunist. I preached last time that God is a God of grace. It wasn't that Abel was just favored. There are some stories in the Bible where just one of the children, one of the sons, they just have favor for no reason at all. This ain't that. There is no evidence in the biblical passage that Abel was favored over Cain. They both had the opportunity, and I want to just say I love Lisa Nichols. She's a motivational speaker and she says, don't call me extraordinary to get yourself off the hook. Don't you call me special because you refuse to do the work that's required. You have the potential, you have the gifting.

You have everything that I have, and God is saying, why won't you do the right thing? Worship is a choice, and Cain made a choice that day. I will not. So God warns Cain. He says, if you refuse to do the right thing, I love God. God said, watch out. Sin is crouching at the door. Cain, he goes from offering an unacceptable gift to harboring anger in his heart to murdering his brother and cold blood. This reminds me of that expression. If you give them an inch, they'll take a mile. You give the enemy a little bit of a foothold and he going to take over. God is trying to say, Hey, I know this might seem like a little bitty thing. I know this might seem like no big deal. You just offered me something that I did not require, but I'm telling you, if you don't get this right, you're going to get everything else wrong. I'm telling you, whatever, it's, I don't care what that conviction is. In your heart, you may say, oh, it's just a television show. What's the big deal? Oh, it's just this particular artist. What's the big deal? Oh, it's just a little bit of money off the top. What's the big deal? It's a big deal because it starts to slow fade. It starts a slow fade. It starts the searing of your heart. You got to make a choice.

I love this saying. It says, sin will take you farther than you want to go. It'll keep you longer than you want to stay. It'll cost you more than you want to pay. So Cain is punished. It's the worst punishment. Honestly, I'd rather die because the scripture says he was kicked out of the presence of the Lord, and I don't think we know the gravity of what that actually means. He was kicked out of the presence of the Lord. In verse 14, later on in that same passage, Cain complains. He says, this is too much. He Cain knew. He knew what the weight of that was. He said, it's too much for me to bear.

But what he didn't realize is when he decided not to pay the cost of worship, he inadvertently chose to pay the cost of sin for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. I want to let you know this morning that there are costs on both sides. See, some people, they say, that's too much. I just want to live. It's a cost over there too. It's a cost over there too. You're going to pay no matter what, but only one of these options, actually's worth the cost. Only one of these options is actually worth the price. Only one of these options is actually worth the work I'm telling you now to choose, right?

So let's talk about it then. What actually is the cost of worship? I have four points today. Point number one is worship costs your will. We do not know the specifics of what God required of Cain and Abel. The Bible is not clear about specifically what they were supposed to give, but based on the detailed instruction that God later gives the children of Israel regarding their offerings, God likely required their first fruit. First fruit is your first and the best of your harvest. Whatever you take in, if that's money, if that's time, if that's energy, whatever you're taking in, the first fruit is the first of it and the best of it, and so we can assume that Abel did that. Even the terminology that they used, the words that they used, they say able, he gave the best portions of the firstborn lambs from his flock, so we can assume that Abel gave what God required, but it says Cain gave some of his crops.

Cain gave what Cain wanted to give, and we don't have that option, y'all. We don't have that liberty. We don't have that freedom to decide what am I going to give the Lord today? The Holy Spirit leads us and guides us and convicts us and shields us and guides us and tells us exactly what God is asking for, and our responsibility is to give just that. Nothing more, nothing less. Cain can call whatever he gave God a free will offering. He can call it philanthropy. He could call it charity if he wants to, but what he cannot call it is worship, because worship requires your will. Consider Abraham, it's my favorite Abraham. He's promised a son and it takes 20 plus years for it to come to pass. That's a long time to wait. Finally, the day comes Sarah, she's pregnant. They have Isaac. Isaac is here and he's amazing.

He's healthy. He's on the trajectory of exactly what God had promised, and then God says, sacrificed your son. What? Let's just say Abraham. Abraham didn't know that worship costs your a will, and he says, Uhuh, I can't do that. I can sacrifice these servants, Sarah's old. Anyway, you might as well just get rid of her now. I mean, she did her job. That's kind of how they treated women anyway, but Abraham knew that his will had to be subjected under the will of God, and so he goes up Mount Mariah with Isaac in tow, fully, fully intending on doing exactly what God said. He ties him up, he gets ready to sacrifice him, and then God comes through. God provides a ram in the bush, and for those that don't know the end of the story, Isaac is not sacrificed, but you know what was accomplished?

Abraham's faith was tested and he succeeded. If nothing else happened that day, Abraham proved that he values God more than anybody else, even more than the gift that God gave him. Do you value God more than the gifts that you've gotten? Do you value God more than the treasures that he pours down on you? Do you value him more than your own will? That is what worship costs. Ask Jesus. Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane and his friends asleep and he says to his Father, if it be your will, please let this cup pass by me. I said, if it be your will, please let this cup pass by me. Please let this cup pass by me, and God Father says Absolutely nothing. Some of us will use it as an excuse. Well, I'm still waiting to hear from God. I would. I'm just holding out until God give me an updated word. Sometimes God don't give you no updates. You got to do what he said initially, and Jesus knew that. So Jesus says, not my will, but your will be done, and he goes to the cross for us because of the will of the Father. Point number two, worship costs your pride.

Cain refused to do what was right because doing what is right after you've done what was wrong requires humility, and Cain had not cultivated that in his heart. He was the older brother. He was older, likely he was bigger, likely he was smarter, and he could not process his younger brother showing him up, but that's why Proverbs says, pride goes before destruction and halt this before fall, Cain had to be struggling with pride. You know why? Because pride is best friends with envy. There's a difference between jealousy and envy. Jealousy says what I have, I don't want to give up, and so there can be some righteousness in that. There can be a righteous jealousy. Envy says What you have, I want. There's no righteousness in that, and he looks at the acceptance that Abel gets and he says, I want that for myself. So instead of killing his pride, he killed his brother.

Don't kill your brother with your words. Don't kill your sister with your words. Don't kill the pastor with your words when what really needs to be killed is your pride. Choose ye this day who you're going to serve. The great theologian, CS Lewis says this for pride is a spiritual cancer. It eats up the very possibility of love or contentment or even common sense. He says, if I am a proud man, then as long as there is one man in the whole world more powerful or richer or cleverer than I, he is my rival and my enemy. Consider King Saul, the first king of Israel. He was chosen by God. Listen, I know people say he wasn't, but he was. It literally says it in the scripture. He was chosen. He was chosen by God, but he had a malady. He was insecure, and the root of insecurity is pride because you're leaning on yourself when you shouldn't be leaning on God.

He offers an unlawful sacrifice because of the pressure he felt to appease people. Samuel the prophet reprimands him and says, God has chosen someone better than you because of the profane offering that you gave because of the act of worship. Without the heart of worship, God is going to replace you this day. You will no longer be the king of Israel. We got somebody better. We got somebody with a heart of worship. We got somebody who chases after God. Is he perfect? No, but is his heart right? Yes, and Saul doesn't know how to take this, and just as CS Lewis said it, David becomes his rival. Immediately, he becomes his enemy immediately, and Saul spends the rest of his days trying to kill somebody that can't be killed because he was chosen by God because he was appointed by God because he was anointed by God.

So Saul, you can try all you can, but David's going to be the next king. Whether you believe it or not, that's what pride would do to you. It will have you exercising fertility. It'll have you doing things that don't even make sense because you can't see past your own nose. You've got to kill the pride. Consider Jesus. Jesus put pride to shame by embodying humility. We see it in Philippians two, five through seven. It says, you must have the same attitude that Jesus Christ had, though he was God. He did not think of equality with God as something to clinging till. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges. He took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. Listen, if Jesus can, why can't you? You're not too good to do anything. If Jesus came down from his throne and did not take being equal to God as something to clinging to, but let it go for the sake of us, then why can't we have that conversation with that person that hurt our feelings? Why can't we give the person something that we really wanted for ourselves? Why can't we forgive the person that did something against us and they knew better, but why can't we come down from our thrones? If Jesus did it, then why can't you 0.3?

Worship costs your life. I want you to notice how each one of these points gets more and more intense for most people giving over your will and saying, I'll trust God. It kind of makes sense because God is supreme. God knows the end before the beginning. He knows all things in between, so it actually behooves me to give my will over. Cool, but wait a minute, my pride, the way in which I assess myself, I got to give that over too. That too, and you must give over your life the whole thing. Abel was murdered by his brother because he did the right thing. See, some of us think when we do the right thing that somehow going to protect us or inoculate us from any harm or danger. This is in Genesis four from the very beginning of the book, it is totally dismantling that idea that if I do the right thing, then certainly no, no, no, no.

Sometimes doing the right things puts you on the front line, but the beautiful part about it is that you are not alone. You've got a companion who is fighting with you, fighting for you, and then once we get to 0.4, you'll understand why it's worth it. But Abel's worship essentially cost him his life. Had he not done what God had told him to do, he likely wouldn't have died the way he died, but he did it anyway. We see later on in the New Testament that Abel is referred to as a righteous man. So I am assuming that even if Abel knew what his brother was going to do, I believe in my heart that he still would've gave what God wanted. I believe he still would've worshiped the way God intended him to worship because he was a righteous man. Abel knew something that Cain didn't know.

He knew that this world was not his home. He knew it. Why? Because it was prophesied after Adam and Eve did what Adam and Eve did. God tells them there's going to be a day when your seed will bruise and step on the head of the serpent. So Abel was aware that some days somebody's coming to make all this wrong, right? And he knew that this was not his home and that losing his life here would not be the end, but it will be the beginning of an eternity with the Lord. Let's ask Steven. Steven. He's the first Christian martyr. He's described as a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit. He preached a sermon about Jesus Christ that agitated the religious leaders at the time. You can read all about it. In Acts number seven, they pulled him out of the city and the Bible says they stoned him to death, and Steven said, come on, go ahead and do it.

Why Steven did it, and it wasn't just Steven, he was the first, but there were many that came after. If you read the entire chapter of Hebrews 11, go home and do it. Read the whole chapter. You will see that there are unnamed people that do exactly what Stephen do. They are martyrs. They die for the sake of Christ. Why? Because Christ took the sting out of death. He took the victory out of the grave, and so they said, sign me up. Sign me up to die for the one that died for me because this is not the end. This is only the beginning. I'll die today. I will die today. Jesus did. Philippians two, eight says, when he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal's death on a cross, and now we are called to die with Christ.

Wow, by picking up our cross and yes, and following him. This could be literal, but likely it we live in America. Likely this is figurative and we have to pick up our cross and we have to follow him and be willing to die to sin, be willing to die to our will, be willing to die to our pride, be willing to die to whatever besets us. We got to be willing to die so that we might live. Which leads me to my final point, point number four. Oh, they already ruined it. It's up there. Oh no, it's not up there. Great, so I just spent 20, maybe almost 30 minutes talking about everything that worship costs, but I think it would be unfair and unfinished, and this is not a series to tell you everything that worship costs without telling you that worship pays, it pays.

That's all the redemption I need. It pays so it's not just no, it pays Abel's worship granted him acceptance in the presence of the Lord. That's why I said that I'd rather die than vanish from the presence of the Lord because Cain's refusal to do what God caught to do took him out, literally took him out of the presence of the Lord. But when we worship rightly, we get what Abel got. We get acceptance in God's presence through faith in Jesus Christ. We get acceptance in God's presence and you say, what's so good about the presence? The Bible says in the presence of the Lord, there's the fullness of joy. There's pleasures at his right hand. Anybody need joy? You got to get into the presence. There's pleasures at his right hand. What kind of pleasures? I'm talking about love that is unconditional. I'm talking about peace that surpasses understanding.

When people can't understand, how do you have this much peace and your family member has just been diagnosed with cancer? I tell them it's the presence of the Lord. When they ask you, how do you have this much peace and your husband's dealing with this and your child is dealing with that, it's because the presence of the Lord, it's invaluable. It's invaluable. I can't put a number to it. Whatever you to pay for, I'll you say, I do much. I say, I'm not doing enough. I'm not doing enough to not kiss before you're married. Are you crazy? I've given up in a heartbeat to ensure the of the Lord accessible to me without baggage.

You cannot be God given. That's what my mother tells me all the time. Sarah, whatever you God lit, take them little $2, give you 10% sis because you cannot beat God giving. Give what you got girl and go get some more to give because the way in which God shows up, he tells us to try him and see if he wouldn't open up windows of heaven. Pour out, try him and see, have you tried it yet? You're so scared to let it go and see how God would give you peace. See how God would give you comfort? See how God would give you joy and strength?

There's nothing he can ask me to give that I wouldn't give. There's nothing he can ask me to do that I wouldn't do. Hebrews 11, four. It was by faith that Abel brought a more acceptable offering to God than Cain did. Abel's offering gave evidence that he was a righteous man and God showed his approval of his gifts. Now, this is the part that really makes me want to shout. Although Abel is long dead, he still speaks to us by his example of faith. You can die but you can't kill me. You can kill me, but you can't kill me. Abel died, but the testimony of his faith is alive. It's alive and it's well, he did not die in vain. We don't know what happened to Cain, but I know what happened to Abel because he's still speaking to me. His life made a difference and his faith is credited to him as righteousness.

That's why Paul says to live his Christ and to die is gain. When we worship God rightly, it pays us in the currency of heaven, which is eternal. It pays us with the presence of God, which is eternal. What we have to understand is the presence of God is what led the children of Israel out of slavery. There are some of us, we are in bondage right now. Some of us don't even know. We don't even know, but I'm telling you, if you think real hard and try to figure out how am I going to get over this issue, how am I going to get over this habit and you can't figure out your way out of it. That is called bondage and there are ways in which you can get out and it is through the presence of the Lord. We see it with the children of Israel.

When they put the blood over their doorposts, it was the Holy Spirit that led them out of bondage, not just that the Holy Spirit led them in the wilderness, fire by night, cloud by day. Some of us we need guidance and we sat through seven weeks of a series asking God to speak to us and God is saying, can you speak to me? Can you me guide you, you so that I can tell you not left? Go right so I can tell you not down, go up. Can you worship me? It was the presence of the Lord that fought the battles for the children of Israel. You wonder why David dance to his clothes fell off. I'm not going to demonstrate that, but he danced until his clothes fell off because he was able to get the presence of the Lord back into his possession.

He knew the value. We dunno the value because we can do so much on our own, but if you only knew what actually brings you over, if you only knew what actually brought you out, if you only knew what actually gave you peace, if you only knew what actually pulled you through, it was the presence of the Lord. That's what's going to help you fight your battles. That's what's going to help you get over that habit. That's what's going to help you get over that thing. It's going to have to come through the presence. You say it costs too much. I say it don't cost enough. God is giving us so much more than what he's given.

He is giving us so much more than what it costs. It was the Holy Spirit in that upper room in the Book of Acts that filled the cups. It filled the cupboards. The Bible said it filled everything. It filled the 120 or so people that were in that room, and it's the Holy Spirit that we ask to fill us again. Again, it's not just a one time event. God fill me again. When I am in the presence of the Lord, I get filled with his power. When I'm in the presence of the Lord, I get filled with his strength, with his wisdom, revelation, and enlightenment comes through the presence of the Lord, and so that's what we pay for. So whatever we lose, whether that be our will, whether it be our pride, whether it be our entire lives, we will be rewarded with two things.

The first one is the privilege of living a life of Jesus. I really want to see that as a reward. How privileged am I to be a child of God? How privileged am I to walk this walk like Jesus walked? How privileged am I to suffer the way Jesus suffered for righteousness sake and we get and inheritance in heaven if we're lucky? My grandmother is 95 years old. If we're lucky we get to where she's at, but at some point she going to transition maybe when she's a hundred, maybe 102, but there's an eternity after that. So yes, I suffered maybe a hundred something years, but I got an eternity after that. Yes, that and when I consider that it don't take a mathematician, it don't take a doctorate to figure out this is a better deal.

I'm going to pay and it's going to benefit me, not just them, but also now, if I change my perspective and take on the lens of Christ, then I will actually see how it benefits me, not just then, but benefits me now, and so I want to ask you a question. I want to ask you where you fit because I believe there are four people in this room. The first person is someone that has a heart of worship and out of it flows, acts of worship. You're an iceberg through and through right now. I need you to pray. Can everybody stand? If you're that person, you say, I sis, I get it. I'm your amen corner. I know exactly what you're talking about. Then I need you to pray preferably out loud because there are other people here. There are other people here that I'm talking to that is not an iceberg through and through the second person that may be here. You have the acts of worship on lock. You can sing better than me. You can make me cry, but there's nothing underneath. It's due to your will. It's due to your pride. It may be due to issues in your life. You're not an iceberg. You are what they call sea ice. That's when there's just a mass of ice floating on top of the sea.

You're going through the motions. You lift your hands. When we ask you to lift your hands, you sing out loud. When we say we can't hear you, you give when the pastor says, here's the QR code, you come and you serve in small groups and in the kids' ministry, but you don't got nothing underneath and you know it. God knows it. I don't know it, but you know it. There's a third person here. You do have a heart of worship. You have a desire in there somewhere, but due to your will or your pride or something going on in your life, you don't express it outwardly and you desperately want it to overflow. You're wanting to intensify your adoration. You're wanting to intensify the veneration and the honor that you have towards God, but something is holding you back. You don't know what it is.

You're not an iceberg because you are fully submerged underwater. You are what they call an ice keel, KEEL, because it is fully underwater due to its density, so you're way down. Reminds me of the soils. You're weighed down by the issues of life and there's one last person in this room. You fit somewhere in here. I know it. I know it. I know it. You neither have a heart of worship or express. You're just now beginning to understand the importance of worship. You're just now seen it as the weapon that it is. It's a weapon that strengthens and you say, oh, is that why I feel so weak? It's a weapon that sustains and you say, oh, is that why I'm sold? Come and go. Come and go. Come and go. At some point you've got to make a decision, the one that Cain could have made but didn't make to become an actual worshiper. I'm not talking about salvation. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about that step after salvation. That creates a hunger for more than just salvation. It creates a hunger for more than just being in the number. I don't want to just be in the number. I want to be yours through and through permeate.

I need you to come. If you fit specifically in category two, three, and four, prayer team, can you come? If you are in one of those three categories and you're feeling the conviction in your heart, remember what I said about conviction, you got to move when it hits, you got to move when it hits or it won't hit no more, and I want to challenge you to tell the Lord, yes. Come on sister. I want to challenge you to say yes, Lord to your will. Yes Lord, to your way. I'll give my pride away. My identity belongs to you anyway.

I will give you my life. God, just like Jesus, I will put pride to shape just like Jesus. I will put my will under the will of the Father. My hands, my ears, my eyes, my voice, everything belongs to you and I'm ready to surrender. Now. I want to open up the altar right now. You know who you are. Come on, come now. Come now. Jesus is calling you. Jesus is calling, calling you. Come on, come on, come on. He's calling you just like he called came. He says, if you do what's right, you'll be accepted. Come on. Si. He's calling you. He says, if you don't do what's right, watch out. Sin is crouching at your door, and so when you have an opportunity, come, come now. Come now. Come down. Just tell the Lord yes to your will. Just tell the Lord yes your way. I want to not just be a performer. I want my heart to overflow. That's where my soul was come from. That's where my giving comes from. That's where my serving comes from. I'm done with performance only. I want to say yes.