Living With Your Hands Up - Kai Steinman

Good morning, greetings to each of you. In the precious

name of Jesus. I consider it a privilege to be

here and worship God with you all. I've enjoyed this

youth conference, and I want to say to you, youth,

that you've been a joy and an inspiration to me.

And so many times I go to a youth things

and somehow we tend to talk down about the youth.

You know, the youth are not where they should be

and doing like they should be, and they're so immature

and all those things. And I have felt this weekend

that you'll get older, you'll get more mature. But with

youth like you all, there's hope for the church, and

there's hope for the future. I want to bless you

for that. It has been a privilege to be here

and very briefly and in a small way, be a

part of your lives. I'm thankful this morning that we

serve a God who knows what it's like to be

a man who came and who came to earth from

all the glories of heaven. He came to earth knowing

that he would not only suffer, not only he would

suffer pain, he knew he would he knew he would

suffer pain and sorrow and temptation. He came knowing that,

but he knew that he also would die a criminal's death.

But he still came. And the message this morning is

on worship and if and that is certainly caused to

worship God, that he came, became a man, and died

for us. I'm thankful that he didn't only come as

a baby, but that he showed us by his life

how we should live our lives. And I'm especially thankful

that the grave is empty and that he rose again,

and he is a first fruit of the resurrection. I'm

thankful to serve a risen savior, and that gives me

and it should give you tremendous confidence for your lives.

The message this morning is on worship. We are created

to worship, and I want to let you know that

you go through your life, we go through our lives

in a constant posture of worship. Years ago, and I

don't know, it's probably fifteen or twenty years ago, there

was an article in the Heartbeat of the Remnant by

a man named Paul Lloyd, and he made the point

in that article that men are worshipers and He used

the comparison that just as fish are swimmers, so therefore

they don't go swimming. He said that men are worshipers,

and therefore we don't go worship. We are worshiping, and

the idea of a fish going swimming is silly. And

in the same way, the idea of men and women

going to worship is foolish. Throughout your life, throughout every

moment of every day, you are worshiping. You're worshiping because

God has created you to be a worshiper. If this

is true, and I believe it is, the question then

for all of us is what are you worshiping? What

are you worshiping? What are you worshiping? I've titled the message,

and I took some liberties. I took the program as

a subject to talk about, not as the title for

the message. I hope that was okay. So this morning

I have titled the message simply living with your hands up,

Living with your hands up in one Timothy two to eight.

If you want a text for the message, that will

be our text, and I'll just read it very briefly

and then we'll move on. I will therefore that men

pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting.

I believe that in this verse there are two necessary

elements for prayer. There is the element of surrender that

is here, and there is the element of worship, And

those are vitally important. If we're going to pray and

find the will of God and worship him, that the

element of surrender is there, and also the element of worship.

I will therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy

hands without wrath and doubting. And in our conservative Mennonite churches,

we're not much for hand raisers. We struggle with that.

We're we just don't. I think it would probably be

good if we took this a little more seriously and

that became more of a practice of our worship. But

when you think of a person with their hands in

there in the air, what do you think of? What

do you think of? When you think of just you

think of a man with his hands in the air.

And there may be several things. I don't know what

pops into your mind, but one of the pictures that

pops into my mind is the picture of a man

who is surrendering. You know, there's a person who's been

running from the law maybe he was. He's hold up

in his house and they've been negotiating. The negotiators are

there and they're negotiating and talking to him, and they

and so they've caught up with him, and he's there

and they're calling to him, and the call is come

out with your hands up, you know, come out with

your hands up. And if he comes out with his

hands up, he's surrendering. So the posture of surrender, the

posture of surrender. The other picture that should come into

our mind when we picture a man with his hands

up is a picture of worship. That's the other picture

that should come into our minds. A picture of worship.

A person or a congregation that is so filled with

thankfulness and so filled with wonder and so filled with

the presence of God. That is, that is his desire

for God, his love for God, and he can't keep

his hands down. I think it should be a picture

of worship. And I have a question for all of

you today, and I'm not going to ask you to

answer it out loud, but I would like you to

answer it in your heart. Have you ever have you

ever raised your hands in either surrender or worship? Have

you ever raised your hands literally in surrender or worship.

And I wonder if it's possible that these two things,

surrender and worship are very closely related to each other.

Is it possible that we do not worship because we

have not surrendered? And is it possible that we have

not surrendered because we have not really worshiped. I want

you to think about that, that possibly we don't worship

well because our lives are not really surrendered to God.

And I was so blessed by the Sunday School this

morning because you were talking about surrender. How do you

know God's will and how do you walk in that?

But I believe it's if we have failed to surrender,

we will fail to worship, and if we fail to worship,

we will fail to surrender. I'm not sure which one

comes first and which one follows the other one. The

word surrender is not found in the Bible, but the

concept is certainly there, I believe. And I want to

look at a couple examples of men and women who

surrendered their lives to God and how a worship flowed

immediately from that. The first one I would like to

look at is Mary, Mary, the mother of Jesus in Luke,

Chapter one, verse thirty eight. The Angel has just come

to Mary, and he's told her that she's going to

conceive and bring forth a son and call his name Jesus.

And you know, And she said, you know, how shall

I how shall this be? Seeing I know not a man?

And and and God says, you know? Or the Angel says,

the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power

of the Highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore, also that holy

thing which shall be born of thee shall be called

the Son of God. And he goes on there, and

he says, for with God, nothing is impossible. And Mary's

response is what I want to point out to you,

and the and and her surrender, that is there, behold

the handmaid of the Lord. Be it unto me according

to Thy word. And then the angel left, and I

want you to think briefly about what Mary is surrendering. Here.

Mary surrendered her life, and she realized that for the

rest of her lifetime, her reputation was going to be marred.

History has looked back and called her blessing, but the

people in her lifetime her reputation was marred. Mary knew

that people would always remember that she was the girl

that had a child too soon after the wedding. Mary

surrender knowing that before she experienced the joys of marriage,

she would experience the travail of childbirth. I don't know

if Mary struggled to surrender. It doesn't say that she did.

And I believe if she didn't struggle to surrender, it

was because she was already living in a position of surrender.

And I want you to notice that in this picture

of surrender, in this account of surrender, I want you

to notice the words of God that come through, and

there's a life of surrender, and over and over we'll

see this idea that when there's a life of surrender

with God, nothing is impossible. And that comes up over

and over again that with God, nothing is impossible when

the heart of man and woman is surrendered to Him.

And so it's very quickly after this that Mary's surrender

is turned into worship. And we don't know exactly how

long it was, couldn't have been more than a few months.

We find Mary going to visit Elizabeth, and you see

her song of worship that comes out from this life

of surrender. We have what is known as the magnifica

which is an utterance of praise. Just a few verses later,

in Luke one forty six through fifty five, Mary said,

my soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath

rejoiced in God, my Savior, for he hath regarded the

lowest state of his handmaid. And for behold, from henceforth

all generations shall call me blessed. For he that is

mighty hath done to me great things. And holy is

his name. And his mercy is on them that fear him,

from generation to generation. He has showed strength with his arm.

He has scattered the proud in the imagine nation of

their hearts. He hath put down the mighty from their

seats and exalted them of low degree. He hath filled

the hungry with good things, and the rich he has

sent empty away. He hath hope in his servant Israel,

in remembrance of his mercy, as he spake to our fathers,

to Abraham and to his seed forever. In her position

of surrender, and I believe Mary certainly surrendered her life.

She's in a place of surrender. But in her position

of surrender, Mary found God to be worthy of praise,

and it seems that that as she worshiped there, the

worship was inevitable, and the worship was unstoppable. And you

notice that she realizes that God is her savior. I've

rejoiced in God, my savior. He's mighty, he's done great things,

he's holy. She was experiencing his might and his holiness.

She was experiencing his mercy. She realized that he had

filled the hungry with good things, and and and oh,

and there's just this overflowing of worship that comes from

a place of surrender. And Mary was probably like you young

ladies here, and there were things she desired, and there

were you know, she pictured the wedding and she pictured,

you know, everything like it should be. But surrender took her.

Surrender took her hands off the wheel of her life.

That's what it does for us. When we surrender, we

say God, you're in control, it's it's yours. Surrender renders

us incapable of directing our lives. Surrender renders us incapable

of helping ourselves. And you you picture again the man

who is who is under arrest, and you know he's

not in control. He's the others are going to do

to him what they will all. And this is why

surrender is so important, because as we surrender is why

it's so powerful. As we surrender, we are giving the

direction of our lives to God. We're saying, God, whatever

you choose, whatever you plan, whatever is your will, I

am willing to do it. And as we surrender, God

is able to work out his plan both in us

and through us. God wants to work in you, but

he also wants to work through you. And God as

he sees our surrender, he's able to change us and

to work in us. And Mary's surrender, while it certainly

affected her, while there was certainly an overflowing of worship

that came out of her surrender, it didn't only affect her,

and rather, the blessing of her surrender reaches all the

way down to us today. As we surrender, it's a

wreck cognition that someone more powerful than me is in

control of my life. That's what it's happening. When we surrender,

we're saying, God, you're more powerful, you're more knowledgeable, you're

all knowing, and we recognize that we surrender our lives

to him. And you know the one difference that I

want to just in passing reminds you of is that again,

God will allow you to choose to surrender. You know,

if you're about to be arrested, the police are going

to force that issue. God will not do that. God

will not do that. He calls you to willingly surrender,

to willingly give your life. And if you choose not

to surrender, you don't have to. You don't have to.

But if you choose not to surrender, there will never

be the fullness of worship that is possible there. It

will never happen. God waits for that moment. God waits

for that moment, and I believe that it is a

recurring time in our life. Surrender is not a one

time thing. But God waits for that moment when we

put our hands in the air and we say, be

it unto me according to thy will, whatever you want, God,

be it unto me according to Thy will. And God

waits for that moment. But when we surrender as Mary did.

When when we surrender as Mary did, we quickly find

out that not only is God more powerful than we are,

but we also find out that God is a good God.

We find out that He's a kind, merciful father, that

he's a wise leader that he knows. We find those

things out about God from the place of surrender. And

in her song, Mary speaks of her of God being

her savior, of his holiness, of his strength, and over

and over his mercy comes up. And I believe that Mary,

as she lifted her hands as it were, as she

lifted her hands in surrender, that it brought her to

the place where she was lifting her hands in praise.

But she would have never experienced she would have never

experienced his power and his goodness. She would have never

realized his strength and his mercy if she had not

first surrendered her life to him. And so many times

we wonder about the goodness of God. We wonder why

we're not seeing that. We wonder why His power isn't

working in our life. And all the time we're carefully

guiding our car the way that it needs to go,

we're guiding our lives the way we want it to go,

instead of saying, God, it's yours, it's yours. And we

will never worship until we surrender. I believe that we

rarely raise our hands in worship because we rarely raised

them in surrender. Our hands and one of the reasons

we don't lift our hands in surrender or worship is

because our hands are too full of things that we love.

They're too full of things that we love. They're too

full of things that we're protecting. They're too full of

things that we're taking care of. And I believe that

that our hands are too many times so full of

unsurrendered things that we are unable to worship. Our lack

of surrender keeps us from worship. And so there's Mary,

but there's others as well, And there's the next one

I would like to look at. The next man I

would like to look at is Moses. And when we

think of Moses, we think of Moses the meekest man.

And I don't know that I'd ever really thought of

Moses as a man of worship. But Moses, Moses was

such a man of worship that when we, by the

grace of God, get to heaven, we're gonna sing a

song that was written by Moses. I like that Moses,

and I'm guessing he's the only man that has a

song in heaven that we're gonna sing in heaven. In revelation,

John the Revelator is writing there in Revelation fifteen, verses

two three four. I saw as it were a sea

of glass mingled with fire, and them that had gotten

the victory over the beast, and over his image, and

over his mark, and over the number of his names,

stand on the sea of glass, having the hearts of God.

And they sing the Song of Moses, the Servant of God,

and the Song of the Lamb, saying, great and marvelous

are thy works, Lord, God Almighty. Just in true are

thy ways, Thou king of saints, who shall not fear THEE,

O Lord, and glorify thy name, for Thou only art holy.

For all nations shall come and worship before THEE, for

Thy judgments are made manifest. And I just really find

that something that there's a song written by a man

that is such an expression of worship that God has

chosen it as one of the songs that will be

used to praise him in eternity. I just love that

that God took a song written by a man and

he says, this is how I want to be worshiped

in eternity. They sing the Song of Moses and the Lamb,

and the Old Testament tells us of two songs that

Moses sang one was at the very end of his life,

and the other was it the miraculous Red Sea crossing.

And I think the song that we'll be singing in

heaven is a likely candidate. The song written at the

Red Sea crossing is a likely candidate for the one

that will be singing in heaven. Turn with me, And

I don't think will take time to read it all.

But in Exodus chapter fifteen, is this song that Moses

has written, and I think it's I like to think

it's the one will be singing in eternity. But the

song goes all the way Exodus fifteen, verses one through nineteen.

But it seems to me that the climax of the song,

the high point of the song, is when Moses burst

out in verse eleven. He says, who is like unto

the o Lord among the gods, who is like the

glorious and holiness, fearful in praises doing wonder? And as

I think of this, they're singing this the day after

the Red Sea crossing, and God is just miraculously delivering them.

And I can hardly imagine that they stood there with

their hands in their pockets, singing this song. I can

hardly imagine that their hands were en up. You know

who is like the O God, glorious and majesty, glorious

in power. And I think their hands were up when

they sang song. In fact, it tells us that Miriam

and all the women saying it with timbrels and dances,

So I don't think their hands were down. I think

that this expression of worship was holding their hands up.

But this exalting rejoicing, this exalting worship, was immediately preceded

by a time of absolute surrender. Exodus fourteen is a

story of absolute surrender. It's a story of God. Only

the day before. It seems that God directed the Israelites

into a trap. He said to He said to Moses,

he said that that well, back up a little bit.

But they were let into a place where there were

mountains on each side, and the Red Sea was in

front of them. So their order by mountains, the Red

seas in front of them, and the Egyptian army is

behind them. And God told Moses, he said, I'm going

to lead you into a place where Pharaoh will say

they are entangled in the land the wilderness. Hath shut

them in Moses went into that trap, knowing that it

was a trap. He went into that knowing that it

was a trap. And I can't help but think that

he wondered at the wisdom of going. And as they

went in, this great multitude of people going in, and

the mountains are getting closer and closer and higher and higher,

and they begin to hear the noise of the Red Sea,

and they hear the Egyptian army behind them. And I

think Moses had to be thinking, you know, God, what

are you thinking? But he surrendered his life to God.

He surrendered, He surrendered to God. And they get in there,

They get in there, and it's I don't know if

Moses has stopped, but he's It seems that maybe he

began to talk to God. And God said to Moses, said,

wherefore Christ, go on to me, speak to the people.

You already know what I've told you to do. He said,

wherefore Christ on to me, speak to the people. And

I want you to notice in Exodus fourteen, back up

one page from where you are, maybe Exodus fourteen, verse sixteen,

notice what God told Moses to doft but lift thou

up thy rod and stretch out thine hand over the

sea and divide it. And God told Moses in his

place of surrender, he said, you turn your back to

the enemy. Don't even look at the enemy. You know,

I'm sure that Moses was a man like us, and

he wanted to get his sword out, and he wanted

to face the enemy and fight the enemy. But God

said no, He said, you turn your back to the

enemy and lift up your hand. Lift up your hand,

lift up your hand with that rod in it, stretch

it over the sea, and the people of Israel will

go through on dry land. And they did. When the

enemy is behind us, we want to face it and

fight it. But Moses, knowing that God was in front,

that God went before him, lifted up his hand and surrender,

and God made a way out for his people. But

it's from that place of surrender that Moses' song comes.

And again I remind you that surrender precedes worship. If

you want to worship God, if you want to worship God,

you are going to have to surrender your life to him.

Perhaps the most literal example of someone living with their

hands up is again Moses. There's another account in Exodus

chapter seventeen, verses nine through thirteen. Moses said, unto Joshua,

choose us out, men, and go out fight with Amelek tomorrow.

I will stand on the top of the hill with

the rod of God in mine hand. So Joshua did

as Moses had said to him and fought with Amelek.

And Moses, Aaron and her went up to the top

of the hill. And it came to pass when Moses

held up his hand, that is were prevailed. And when

he let down his hand, Amelek prevailed. But Moses' hands

were heavy. They took a stone put it under him,

and he sat there on and Aerin in her stayed

up his hands, the one on the one side and

the other on the other side, and his hands were

steady until the going down of the sun. And Joshua

discomfited Amelek and his people with the edge of the sword.

And again, I want you to get this picture of

a man that is surrendered, you know, as a leader

of the people, I can't. He had to have wanted

to be down there in the action. He had to

have wanted to be down there directing the fight, the fight,

But instead he went up on a hill, on the

hill there, and he made himself powerless. And have you

ever thought about how did he discover that keda strength?

You know, how did he discover that keid to strength?

You know, if you're out there watching a battle, you know,

what are you doing with your hands? What do you?

I mean, how many of you are up there? You know,

you know, watching the battle with your hand? Hut? You

know what was Moses? What was he doing with his

hand up that he realized that that was the key

to victory? And what is the chance that Moses was

on the top of the hill. God, you are in control,

You're a good God, You're merciful, you're mighty, You're powerful,

and he was worshiping, and he realized, maybe not so

much that when he put his hands down, but when

the flow of worship stopped, the flow of surrenders stopped,

that the battle changed. I believe that's what he was doing.

How he realized that that key to victory of having

his hands up was that that he was already in

a position of surrender. He was already in a place

of worship. And you know, I don't know what all

God saw there, but I believe that he saw Moses surrender,

He saw his worship and God was able to work

through that. But moses helplessness was so complete, and so

Moses was so surrendered. He had rendered himself so powerless

that Aaron and her had to come and help him

remain powerless. He enlisted help to remain powerless. But from

that day of complete, unconditional surrender, there was a great victory.

One in surrender precedes worship. But you know, not only

did the people worship God that day, but for thousands

of years since then, people have worshiped God when they

remembered Moses' surrender there on that hilltop. This meekness was

certainly remarkable, it was certainly beautiful. But I believe it

was his surrender that made him a worshiper of God.

I believe it was his surrender that rendered him a

songwriter whose song will be sung throughout eternity. You know,

I think of Gideon and and we're not going to

take time to turn there, but he's he's confronted with

an army that's that says the grasshoppers, and is the

sand of the sea. And if I was going to

fight in that, you know, I'd want some good weapons.

I'd want to you know, maybe some air, you know,

some jets or a nuclear bomb or you know something

like that. You know, I would want really good weapons.

And God said no, he said you have you have

too many people. And he sent a lot of them home.

And he said, you still have too many people, and

he sent them all home, but three hundred men. And

if I was going with three hundred men to fight

that kind of an army, an army without number, you know,

I'd I'd want power, and I'd want defense. And they

went with pictures and lamps and trumpets. And how do

you fight a battle with that? How do you fight

a battle with pictures and lambs and trumpets. But from

that place of surrender that Gideon realized that God knew

more than he did. From that place of surrender, there

was a tremendous victory one and a tremendous worship that happened.

I would like to look at one more example of

a man who lived with his hands up in the

worship that proceeded from that. I want you to think

with me of Abraham, of Abraham. And this may be

I'm not sure, but I think it may be the

first time that the word worship is used in the

scripture Abraham in Exodus thirty five twenty two. I'm sorry,

I'm not sure I got thirty five Exodus twenty two.

In Exodus twenty two, God has come to Abraham and

he has instructed him to go and take his son, Isaac,

his only son, Isaac, and offer him. And Abraham knew

that God had promised a seed from Isaac, that this

was the son that had been prayed for for years

and years and years, maybe one hundred years. This son

had been prayed for. Abraham was around one hundred years

old when Isaac was born, and you know, maybe from

the time he was a young man, he'd prayed for

this son. And now Isaac is a young man. So

he's prayed for this son, and he's longed for and

he's loved this young man, and he has tremendous hope

that from him God is going to raise up this seed.

And now God has come through him, and he's asked

Abraham to surrender him back to God. And Abraham needed

to surrender his will and his desires back to God.

And so Abraham has journeyed three days. He and the

men in Isaac and the mules have traveled for three

days and and they come into God has told him,

you take you go to the land of Mariah, and

I'll show you the mount where you are to offer

your son. And so they've traveled and and it and

Abraham lifted up his eyes and I don't know how

God marked out the spot, but they're traveling, and Abraham

lifted up his eyes and he saw the place afar off.

And I want you to think about what this place was.

This wasn't a place where a normal sacrifice was going

to happen. This was the place, however God marked it out.

This was the place where Abraham was going to surrender

his son. This was the place where Abraham was not

going to surrender just any son, but this was the

son in whom the promises were. And God said to him,

there's the place where you're going to surrender your son.

And Abraham stops the men, and he says in verse

five Genesis twenty two, Verse five, Abraham said, unto his

young men, bide you here with the ass and I

and the lad will go yonder and worship and come

again to you. I can hardly imagine, and I think

you fathers can identify with what I'm saying. I can

hardly imagine the helplessness and the overwhelming emotion that Abraham

must have felt as he saw the wood on his

son's back. He saw the wood there, he saw in

his hand, he saw the fire, and he saw the knife.

That's what he had in his hand. And he saw

the wood on his son's back, and every fiber in

his body must have resisted the call to surrender. It

must have. It must have resisted that call to surrender.

But Abraham lifted up his eyes and he said, the

lad and I will go worship. And somehow Abraham knew

that in that place of surrender that worship would come forth.

And so they ascended Mount Mariah. They went up there,

and Abraham lifted his hand. Abraham lifted his hand with

a knife in it. And he could not have lifted

his hand with that knife in it with anything other

than surrender to God. As he lifted his hand, it

had to be a lifting of his hands in surrender.

But somewhere in that moment that surrender changed to worship.

That surrender changed to worship somewhere in that moment as

he lifted his hand in surrender. But Abraham had said before,

Abraham had said before he lifted his hand in surrender,

that he said they were going to worship. And I

wonder if rather than it's switching from a lift of

surrender to a hand lifting of worship. I wonder if

it's really not the same thing. That when we surrender

we worship, that as we surrender, we worship. And in

so many times, so many times, we want to worship,

but we're not willing to surrender. I believe that that

hand that was lifted in surrender remained lifted in worship.

That Abraham worshiped God with his hands lifted up. But

could he have worshiped? Could Abraham have truly worshiped if

he had failed to surrender? I don't think he could have.

I don't think that Moses could have worshiped if he

had not surrendered. And I ask you this morning, can

you truly worship? Can you truly worship if you have

not completely surrendered? And the question this morning, the question

that was in your program, you young people's program, was

what are you worshiping? And I told you in the

beginning of the message that you're worshiping something that were

worshipers that were going through life in a posture of worship.

You are worshiping. You worshiping whatever you have surrendered your

life to, That's what you're worshiping. Whatever is in your

hands is what you're worshiping. Whatever you're holding on to

is what you're worshiping. Whatever you are not willing to

surrender to the control of God is what you are worshiping.

God calls us to lift our hands away from our desires.

He calls us to lift our hands away from our longings,

away from our loves, away from our wisdom. He calls

us to lift our hand away from that and allow

God to be in control of him. You know, is

God in control of your family? Is God? Are you

willing to allow God to be in control of your reputation,

of your finances? Are you willing? As older man? Are

we willing to allow God to be in control of

our churches, the churches that we're a part of, the

churches that we love and we've given our lives to.

Are we willing to surrender that to God? To lift

our hands off of it and say, God, I give

it to you and I'll worship whatever whatever you do

with it. I will worship you there. I would like

you to turn with me to Matthew, I'm sorry. Mark

chapter ten. And there's a story of a young man

who did not surrender. Story of a young man who

did not surrender, Mark Chapter ten, Verses seventeen through twenty two.

And So when Jesus, when he had gone forth into

the way, there came one running and kneeled to him

and asked him, good Master, what shall I do that

I may inherit eternal life? And Jesus said, unto him,

why callst thou me good? There is none good but

one that is God. Thou knowest the commandments. Do not

commit adultree, do not kill, do not steal, do not

bear false witness, defraud not honor thy father and mother.

And he answered it said, unto him, Master, all these

have I observed from my youth. This was a young

man who had surrendered a lot to God. He had

surrendered a lot of things to God. He said, you know, God,

you can have my morality. You can you know I

won't kill, I will not steal. He had surrendered all

that to God. And I want you to notice verse

twenty one that Jesus wasn't against this young man. Jesus

didn't hate him, He didn't dislike him. He wasn't out

to destroy him. Says that Jesus beholding him loved him,

He loved him, but he saw that there was something

keeping his hands down. He saw that there was something

that was keeping him from being a true worshiper. He

had things in his hands that he wasn't willing to

surrender to God. He said, one thing thou lackest, go

thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give it to

the or thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come

take up the cross and follow me. And so we've

seen Mary and Moses, in Abraham and Gideon give up

tremendous things to God, and from that surrender, joy and

worship and praise comes forth. But now we have a

young man that Jesus loves. It has done so many

right things, and Jesus loves him. And he saw the

one thing that he failed to surrender, the one thing

that he lacked, and he said, you know, you're gonna

have to give that up. You're gonna have to let

go of that. You're gonna have to give that up.

And he wasn't willing to do that, and he went

away sad. He went away sorrowful. One of the other

gospels tells Us he went away sad and grieve, for

he had great possessions. Jesus loved him, but Jesus knew

that those possessions were keeping his hands down. That was

the problem with him. Those possessions were keeping his hands down.

That young man was not willing to raise his hands

in surrender, and he could not raise them in worship

because his hands were too full of things that he

was protecting. So what are you worshiping? What are you worshiping?

The question that you have to answer when you think

about what are you worshiping? You have to think about

what is keeping your hands down? What is it that's

keeping your hands down? What is the thing that you

are unwilling to surrender? Things you've prayed for, things you've

worked for, things you love, things you know? Is Abraham

knew that God had given him? You know, have you

ever thought of that that God had given Abraham that

son and he still asked him to surrender? And there

are things in your life that God has given you

and he's asking you to surrender them back to him.

What is God asking of you? What is it that

you need to surrender? What is it that you need

to give back to God? Whatever is in your hands,

whatever you're holding, is the thing you're worshiping. I think

we can be that honest and that simple with it

that the thing that we're holding onto is what I

love and what I worship. This week, we've been been

speaking some about the kingdom of God and the kingdom

of this world. I believe our surrender to God, our

surrender to the will of God, will directly impact our

level of surrender, our lack of surrender to the things

of this world. I believe as we're surrendered to God,

is our level of surrender to God, is goes up

our level of desire to control and to hold on

to the things of this world. I believe it will

diminish if God is allowed to be in control of

your life, if you truly surrender your life to Him.

If God is truly allowed to be in control of

your life, I promise you that He will do such

a good job with your life that you will worship him.

I want you to get that if you will truly

surrender your life to God, he will do a good

enough job with your life that you'll worship him. I

can promise you that if your life is surrendered to God,

you will worship him because He will do a good

job with him. But worship worshiping your life. As you

go through your life, worship will proceed, it will be

preceded by surrender. We want to see God work. We

want to worship God, but so many times we surrender

so little control to Him that we are never able

to see him work. So what are you worshiping? What

are you worshiping The thing that you have surrendered your

life to. That is what you are worshiping. May God

bless you as you surrender your life to Him.