Acts 20: Here I Am, Lord, the True Worship That Changes You

Introduction

This message was given on October 4, 2026 at the worship service of Tokyo Grace Gospel Church. The text is short: Acts 20:36-38, Paul's farewell to the elders of Ephesus. Paul kneels down, prays with them, and everyone weeps because they will never see his face again.

The preacher sees in this passage a kind of testament from Paul. He titles his message: "Yes, Lord, here I am." Few people, he says, can lift their heads before the Word of God without hiding and say those words. Yet that is where everything begins: "Everything new begins with sincere worship."

To show this, he walks through Isaiah, Jonah, Gideon, Peter, Hagar and Hannah. All of them were confronted with God's call. Several ran away. Those who answered honestly experienced a new beginning.

Outline of the Message

1. Paul's Farewell: A Testament Not to Be Missed

Paul tells the leaders of the church in Ephesus that they will never see his face again. Their hearts are broken, but Paul wants to hand down something essential. A testament, the preacher reminds us, is made of the words that cannot go unsaid. They must be received seriously, "face to face."
He uses the picture of school: when the teacher asks a hard question and wants to know who has the answer, anyone who is unsure looks down. The person who can say "Lord, here I am" shows the opposite attitude, an attitude of faith: "Lord, I am listening to your Word right now, without hiding."
This is what it means to offer sincere worship. You can listen without really listening, put on a nice appearance, keep your head down. The preacher asks: am I truly showing the Lord who I am?

2. Everything New Begins with Sincere Worship

In Genesis 1:1, God creates the heavens and the earth: he brings something out of nothing. The rest of creation, the preacher explains, assembles what is already given. Newness in the strong sense comes from the Creator.
In sincere worship, that same God gives, by grace, a strength and a life that do not come from our calculations or our plans. "Something completely different begins."
By contrast, a person who takes worship lightly can come hundreds or thousands of times without anything new starting. "People who have come to church for decades and have not changed at all, sadly, are not rare."
True rest does not come from solving a problem either, which is only a matter of cause and effect. It comes from the cross: our sins are atoned for, and we are God's children by grace.
Without sincere worship, your salary may rise, you may get married, you may find a new home. But one day disappointment comes: "Is that all?" Why? Because things have changed around you, but you have not changed.
Age makes no difference. A young person of ten or twenty can say that nothing new ever happens to them. The one who says in worship "Lord, here I am" is renewed every day, even at 80 or 90. Sincere worship is the starting point of the whole way we build our lives.

3. Build on the Word, Not Just Hear It

People often talk about the tithe, but they also say we should give our time. The preacher tells of a man who answered: "I will earn a lot of money and give it." A pastor said to him: "We do not need that money, take it back." The preacher thinks God does not want that kind of money either.
Jesus teaches about the house that does not fall in the storm (Matthew 7:24-27). It is not an insurance policy or an outside protection. It is a house built on his Word.
Building on sand is easy: the pillars go up quickly, whereas on rock you hurt your hands. It is building according to your own convenience. Those who hear without putting it into practice see their lives collapse at the first storm.
The preacher mentions, without details, people who used to come faithfully and then stopped coming: they only listened, and they followed their own convenience.
He also questions our praise: do the songs you have just sung come out of your faith, or are you simply repeating words someone wrote ten, twenty or several hundred years ago? "Here you can see the difference between worship that is pure form and sincere worship."

4. Isaiah: “Woe Is Me,” Then “Here I Am”

When the glory of God fills the temple, Isaiah does not cry out: "At last, the church I was looking for!" He says: "Woe is me! For I am undone" (Isaiah 6:5). "That is true worship": God drew near and Isaiah saw his own uncleanness.
God is not looking for an elegant answer but a true one. The burning coal taken from the altar touches Isaiah's lips: his iniquity is taken away, his sin is atoned for (Isaiah 6:6-7). The preacher sees in this the cross of Jesus, about 700 years before it happened.
A church you leave every week thinking "that was nice" will not change you, even in ten years. Without repentance, nothing moves. And repentance is a change of direction.
Think of the doctor: you have a stomachache, and the doctor tells you "it's nothing, carry on like this." Would you choose that doctor? No. You want the one who gives a clear diagnosis and advises you to eat slowly, drink less alcohol, quit smoking. With humor, the preacher admits: "I am not the best person to say this."
It is the same with the church. Being convicted of sin is not enough: you also need to hear clearly that the cross of Jesus forgives, that is, heals. That is how you take one more step.
Then God asks: "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" (Isaiah 6:8). There is probably no one else, and God asks anyway. Like a mother who asks her only child, "Who wants ice cream?" She is happy to hear: "Me!" Isaiah raises his hand: "Here I am. Send me!"
Sincere worship always comes with a response: "Amen, Lord, it is true." Someone who sleeps during worship cannot respond. A sister in the church confided that she used to sleep during the services at her previous church, that she found it normal, and that she had never changed.
If listening soothes you, tell God: "Lord, how your Word and these songs calm my troubled heart. You said this for the suffering I am going through." Everyone can respond. "Those who do not respond are the dead."
A spirit that is born again thirsts for fellowship, just as a living person longs to spend time with family. Your attitude during worship shows whether a person is alive.
For the one who offers sincere worship, every week is a new beginning. It is not the people around you who change, it is you. If only your surroundings change, everything stops when you move, when you grow old, when circumstances shift. If you change, you keep the Lord's peace and joy wherever you go.

5. Those Who Ran Away, and How They Came Back

Jonah. Sent to Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, Israel's enemy, he fled toward Tarshish, at the western end of the Mediterranean (Jonah 1:3). The storm, the sailors, the sea, then the great fish. Running away often leads to that dark, uncomfortable place. But in the belly of the fish, Jonah remembers the Lord and lifts a cry of thanksgiving: "Salvation belongs to Yahweh" (Jonah 2:9). Thrown back onto land, he goes to Nineveh, where he did not want to go. He no longer runs, because he has changed. "A true new beginning is born only from true repentance."
Gideon. Called to deliver Israel from the Midianites, he answers: "My family is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house" (Judges 6:14-15). An honest answer, not a glorious one. He does not hide his weakness, and he moves forward because the Lord is with him.
Peter. He had promised to die with Jesus, then he ran, hid, and denied him three times. By the Sea of Galilee, Jesus asks him: "Do you love me?" The preacher dwells on the two Greek words: Jesus speaks of agape, unconditional love, and Peter answers with phileo, brotherly, human love. Grieved, Peter humbles himself: "Lord, you know everything" (John 21:15-17). To this honest answer, Jesus entrusts him: "Feed my sheep," and then "Follow me."
Hagar. Mistreated by Sarai, she fled into the wilderness. The angel of Yahweh asks her where she has come from and where she is going. She answers frankly: "I am fleeing from the face of my mistress Sarai." He tells her: "Return to your mistress, and submit yourself under her hands" (Genesis 16:7-9). She receives that word. The preacher speaks to anyone who is running away right now: do not worry, come before the Lord today and open your heart.

6. Kneeling Down: Hannah's Good Refuge

This is why that detail in Acts 20:36 stopped the preacher: "He kneeled down." To worship, he explains, is to bend the knees before God instead of standing stiff in our pride. "Worship is bending the knees of your own self."
Hannah, in 1 Samuel 1, had no child and was humiliated again and again. She too ran. But Peter went to the Sea of Galilee, Hagar to the wilderness, whereas Hannah went to the temple, where God is present. There she poured out her soul before Yahweh (1 Samuel 1:15), hiding nothing.
"There is a good refuge," and we have it every week. It would be a waste to come with a closed heart.
After a short conversation at the temple, Hannah goes home, and the Bible says her face was no longer the same (1 Samuel 1:18). She goes back to the same household, the very place where she was mistreated. It was not her circumstances that changed, it was she. "That is a new beginning in the true sense of the word."

7. Happiness Will Chase You

Change may look like a small rung on a ladder. But climb every week, and one day you will see from far above where you started: "I came from there? Thank you, Lord." This ladder, he says, reaches up to heaven.
As long as you run after happiness, you only get a predictable happiness, and the more you chase it, the more it runs away. Pursue Jesus, and happiness will come and catch you. At the end of the service, he connects this to Psalm 23: goodness and grace will accompany you.
The preacher shares his own story. His father had several mistresses; he did not follow that path and did not divorce. Without Jesus, he says with a laugh, he would probably have divorced two or three times, and his wife would have sent him packing. "Jesus changed me, far beyond what I imagined."
He wants his children to surpass him: to be happier than he is because they do not repeat their father's mistakes. Even if it stings him a little, it is a parent's true desire.
His conclusion: "The best time to set out is now."

Key Takeaways

Everything that is truly new begins with sincere worship, before the God who creates from nothing.
Listening without responding changes nothing, even after decades in church. True worship comes with a response: "Here I am."
God does not ask for a brilliant answer but an honest one, like those of Isaiah, Gideon, Peter and Hagar.
To worship is to bend the knees of your self. The good refuge, as for Hannah, is the presence of God.
A new beginning does not come from your circumstances changing, but from the change God works in you.

Personal Reflection

During worship, do you lift your head before the Word, or do you listen with half an ear, thinking of something else?
Are the songs you sing on Sunday your own confession of faith, or words you simply repeat?
Is there an area where you are running away, like Jonah or Hagar? What is the Lord saying to you today?
What weakness can you honestly admit before God this week, instead of hiding it?
Are you waiting for the people around you to change, or are you asking the Lord to change you?

Verses Quoted

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is sincere worship the starting point of everything new?

Because newness comes from the God who created the heavens and the earth out of nothing (Genesis 1:1). When you stand before him without hiding, he gives you by grace a life and a strength that your calculations and plans could not produce. Without this sincere worship, you can come to church for decades without changing.

What does it mean to answer "Here I am" in worship?

It means standing before God with nothing hidden and telling him: "Know me, show me what you expect of me." Isaiah said it after crying "Woe is me" and receiving forgiveness (Isaiah 6:5-8). The preacher stresses that God is not looking for a brilliant answer but an honest one.

What is the link between Acts 20:36 and worship?

The text says that Paul kneeled down and prayed with them all. For the preacher, to worship is to bend the knees before God instead of standing stiff in our pride. Worship means bending the knees of your own self.