What Shall I render

I pray that everyone had a great experience in the Lord Sunday worshipping at your church. God blessed us Sunday at Macedonia as we kicked off our emphasis for January on "Giving Back to God" using Psalms 116 as our launching pad and verse 12 as our fuel to ask the question, What shall I render, What do I owe God, What should I be giving to God for all He gives and has given to me?

This Psalm, arguably, is one of the greatest Psalms in Scripture. It is a love song born out of thanksgiving because of the deliverance of God. It is a simple outline that naturally rests within the confines of the text: God Hears vs 1-5, God Helps vs 6-13, God is Holy, vs 14-19 and because of all that he has done it begs the question, How can I Honor Him, vs 12.

We live in a very selfish age. We owe God so much but yet we walk around as if God is just supposed to give, but when do we give? Our songs for worship, our sermons, our religious language is all about us, my time, my moment, my breakthrough, my miracle, my healing,etc. We brag about how I come to church to get my word and then I leave, well I must ask, when is it ever enough?

In this text God gave His Ear, vs 2, His Escape, vs 3, His Emancipation, vs 16, so surely after all of this, I ought to give him something. What do you give someone who owns everything? What can we give God? However therein lies the rub. We don't talk much about giving back to God. Review the text messages, twitter posts, Facebook messages that you received and the majority of them was from someone "encouraging you" to let you know 2010 will be your year, your year of prosperity, health, to be revived, restored, to recover and to "take back everything..etc, but when is it God's time. When do we stop walking into church with our hands out and start lifting our hands up?

How much better would our churches be if we stop walking into them thinking we are entitled to something, but rather had an attitude of what can I give to God because He has done so much for me! The writer of this Psalm left some good breadcrumbs to follow so that we can leave the wilderness of selfishness and dwell in the land of selfless living.

We should love Him, vs 1, We should Speak for Him, vs 8-10, We should Offer to Him, 13-17, We should Praise him, vs 18-19. I want to give God more of me, not just the pieces I gave Him in 09 but I want to give Him all of me.

I had an interesting event happen Sunday while preaching, still meditating on but will share this week for clarity and Pastoral counsel.

Owens