Higher Worship - Sermon Wrap-up (2)

By Yeo Su-Min and Alston Ng

To “present ourselves as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God” (Rm 12:1), in light of what God has done for us in spite of ourselves, is only logical [logikos]. This is our act of “spiritual [logikos] worship”. What does mean in the concrete particularities of our lives? In Ps. Byron’s words,

“God doesn’t want what we can give him as much as He wants us… Higher worship means giving our everyday physical lives to God…: your sleeping, your eating, your going to work and going about life - all these, place it before God as an offering.” 

In other words, a higher worship means giving God our all, for all that ‘all’ means and could mean. To clarify how we may know if we are in the right path towards a “spiritual worship” in which He delights, we met with Ps Byron with the following questions: 

Higher worship is giving ourselves fully to God. How do we know if we’re worshipping something other than God?

I think the very act of asking this question is a good place to be in when it arises from a desire to truly want to worship God. Spiritual humility entails never taking our faith for granted. As long as we are in the current age, the temptation to worship something other than God is always there. And we are to be spiritually alert to temptations from the evil one as well as our own fallen nature. I have asked myself this question before, and I distinctly recall being led to consider these deeper questions: How much do I want to pursue God? How much do I delight in and treasure the Lord Jesus? I realised that reflecting on these questions will address the question of whether we are really worshipping God.

I think all of us want to give ourselves fully to God, but at the back of our minds there are always ‘practical constraints’, like planning for the future or saving for emergencies. How can we give ourselves fully to God in spite of these ‘constraints’?

I don't believe giving ourselves fully to God necessarily entails forsaking all the practicalities of life. When Jesus calls us to love our neighbour, He uses our love for ourselves as a basis for measuring the extent of our love for neighbour. This assumes that we do love ourselves, and there is a healthy level of self-love that involves planning to take care of our own needs, as well as providing for the needs of our family (1 Tim 5:8). 

That said, a key issue (which I say to myself) is whether we can trust the Lord even when our own human plans are disrupted. As such, Wesley's Covenant Prayer, while a difficult prayer to sincerely pray, encapsulates what it means to give ourselves fully to God, and would include situations when we have (planned for) all things, and when we may have nothing. I hope we gain spiritual insight into the fullness of God as we devote our hearts and minds to this prayer. Here’s an excerpt: 

I am no longer my own but yours.
Put me to what you will,
place me with whom you will;
put me to doing,
put me to suffering.
Let me be put to work for you
or set aside for you,
praised for you,
or criticised for you;
let me be full,
let me be empty,
let me have all things,
let me have nothing:
I freely and fully surrender all things
to your glory and service.

What concrete steps can we take to give ourselves fully to God?

I believe Romans 12:1-2 can guide us here. Immediately after stating that we are to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, Paul exhorts us to not be conformed to the world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. This suggests that any steps we can take to give ourselves fully to God should start with our minds. Spend some time in self-reflection. Think about what we think about. Think about what we feed our minds with, our reading and viewing lists. What are our thought processes and considerations when we make life decisions - whether to take on a particular job, how much to spend on a home, how to spend our time outside work or school? We may not always have a clear answer for these questions, but they still mark an important starting point for us in achieving a higher worship.

Missed Ps. Byron’s sermon on Higher Worship? Sermon recordings are now available on Soundcloud and Spotify for streaming!