OPEN: A Sunday School teacher was teaching her children the benefits of unselfishness. She concluded by saying’ "The reason you are in this world, children, is to help others."
After a moment’s silence, a little girl piped up
"Well, then, what are the OTHERS here for?"
As I studied Romans 12 this week, it occurred to me that this chapter tells us how to worship. Verse 1 says: “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God— this is your spiritual ACT OF WORSHIP.”
APPLY: Over the past three weeks, we’ve talked about the roles of
· Preachers
· Elders
· And Deacons
These are the primary leaders in worship
They are the pace setters.
· The Preachers preach/teach/protect
· The Elders - pastor/guard/protect
· The Deacons – serve in various ministries for the church
So a person might be excused for asking “If these men do all that in church (pause) what are the rest of us here for?" When leaders like these do their job right, others in the congregation might think to themselves
“I’m not sure I can do things as well as they can. So, maybe I’ll just sit here and worship quietly. I’ll just ‘stay out of the way.’”
That kind of thinking betrays a worldly mindset about worship.
You notice what Paul says in verse 2
“Do not conform any longer to the PATTERN OF THIS WORLD, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is— his good, pleasing and perfect will.” Romans 12:2
If you worship like worldly people do…you’ll have a hard time understanding God’s Will for your life.
So, how does worship become patterned after the World?
The worldly way of worship often uses terms like “Clergy and Laity” and the thinking goes along this pattern:
· There’s a clergy - who do all the ministry in the church
· And then there’s the laity - who come to be “ministried” to.
Have you ever heard those terms: clergy/ laity?
Does anybody know how many times those words show up in scripture?
Never!
The idea of clergy/laity reflects worldly thinking… not Christian thinking
Why? Because, when people use those terms, they imply that clergy DO ministry… and the everyone else (the laity) doesn’t.
That’s the way things were at the first church I served.
I did ALL the ministry… and everyone else showed up to be ministried to.
* I did the preaching
* I gave the communion meditation every Sunday
* I led singing
* I did visitation of the sick and shut-ins
* I ran the Youth Group, and I was the part time secretary, etc. etc.
And I truly liked it that way. It was fun. It was enjoyable.
Then, I hired on at another church - and they had people in the church who DID most of those things. And I thought to myself “what’s left for me to do?”
I had gotten caught up the clergy/ laity mindset.
And a lot of church people get caught up in that thinking.
They figure… these clergy guys do the ministry and we “laity” folks show up to get minstried to.
But Romans 12 tells us – that’s NOT how it works.
Do you really want to worship God? Then you better get used to getting out of your seat, because you can not do REAL worship do that sitting down.
ILLUS: One preacher I knew complained that in the congregation he served he couldn’t get any of the members to staff the nursery. Now, this was an older congregation and the minister was working hard at bringing in young couples.
Of course, lots of these young couples had babies… and these babies needed a nursery.
But none of the regular members wanted to give up their comfortable pews to work.
At least one member told him:
“I’ve been a member of this church for 20 years and already put in my time. I don’t want to work in the nursery… I want to sit down and worship”
What was she saying: “I want to be ’Ministried’ to… I don’t want to minister."
Paul tells us that is a worldly way to think.
And it’s worldly because it says “Worship is all about ME!”
By contrast Paul tells us: “…in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” (vs 5)
Worship is NOT about you
Worship is NOT about me
Worship is about what you and I can DO for each other because we ALL belong to each other.
And so Paul continues:
“We have different gifts, according to the grace given us.
If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith.
If it is serving, let him serve;
If it is teaching, let him teach;
If it is encouraging, let him encourage;
If it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously;
If it is leadership, let him govern diligently;
If it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully”.(Romans 12:6-8)
Worship is about using the abilities you have TO SERVE each other.
And - for the most part - you can’t do that sitting down
But wait a minute! - I thought what we did here every Sunday Morning is Worship.
Well, it is.. kinda
It’s worship in much the same way a “Football Camp” and mid-week football practices are football for football teams.
ILLUS: When the Colts have their pre-season football camp in the summer - do they play football at that camp? Of course they do.
But the real game takes place weeks later.
The camp and the mid-week practices prepare the football team for the games.
If all the Colts did was show up for practice but they never played any games… nobody’d go to see them! Because the games are REAL football.
That’s pretty much what Paul is telling the Christians at Rome.
He’s saying the theology stuff we do (preaching/singing/communion/praying) on Sunday Mornings - these things are all pre-game practice. And they are highly critical parts of preparing us for TRUE worship.
The theology of what we do on Sunday mornings prepares us for the worship of serving.
That’s why Paul starts out Romans 12 by saying this:
”Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God— this is your spiritual act of worship.” Romans 12:1
What’s the first word in verse 1? (“Therefore”)
One scholar said “Whenever you see a ‘therefore’ in the Bible, you want to ask, ‘What is the therefore, there for?’”
Whenever you see a therefore in a Bible verse, it indicates that everything that has been written before is the basis for everything we’re going to read afterwards.
So – what is the THEREFORE there for?
Well, Paul has spent the previous 11 chapters of Romans explaining “the mercy of God.”
He’s spent 11 chapters telling the Christians at Rome that they don’t deserve God’s love.
God doesn’t owe them anything
Jew or Gentile, the only way they have a prayer is because God so loved them that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believed in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
Thus Paul says “therefore… in view of God’s mercy” let’s get down to the real spiritual worship God wants from you. And that real Spiritual worship is in serving those around you.
And that worship doesn’t stop with using your gifts to serve others.
Paul continues by saying:
“Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves…
Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.
Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.
Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position…” Ro 12:10, 13-16
We often refer to the time we spend together on Sunday morning as being the “Worship Service”, but in reality, the true Worship takes places later as we do service for others.
In fact, this is one the principal reasons we should be in church every Sunday.
Hebrews says:
“Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another— and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” Hebrews 10:23-25
The major purpose of Church Worship is to prepare us for our true Spiritual worship in serving each other:
· To spur each other on to love and good works
· To encourage one another & all the more as we see Day of Christ’s 2nd Coming approach
Sunday Morning church creates the framework for God’s kind of theology. And God’s theology basically tells us – you don’t deserve this. You have no right to come into God’s presence. But because Jesus died for our sins… you and I can boldly come into His throne room. (Hebrews 10:19 KJV)
Based on that central truth (that we don’t deserve what God’s given us) God wants us to realize we only worship Him properly when we show our gratitude to Him by serving others.
In other words: worship is NOT about you
Worship is NOT about what makes YOU comfortable
Worship is NOT about what makes YOU feel good
ILLUS: Paul Hurd was telling about a church he & Juanita attended in Florida. When they first started going it was a very cold atmosphere. Nobody talked to them or shook their hand when they came in the door. Most people just walked into the sanctuary and went to their usual pew and sat down – almost as if they wanted make sure nobody took their seat away from them.
So he and Juanita decided to practice a little of their own hospitality. They’d come in early and shake hands with people and talk to them as they walked in. And after a few weeks, everyone started doing it on their own. It became a very friendly and warm place to attend Church.
But then the preacher moved on, and one of the men of the congregation took over leadership. Unfortunately, this man saw Church as being all about HIM. He felt it was HIS church and he wanted it run HIS way. He made it clear that he didn’t want any new people to come and worship with them, and he created such a harsh atmosphere, eventually the church lost ½ members (and it wasn’t a very big church to begin with)
Everything God asks us to do in our corporate worship reinforces this idea that worship is not about you/me… we don’t deserve what God has done for us and so we don’t have the right to expect others to minister to us… we should feel obliged to God to serve others.
We don’t deserve, and so we serve.
ILLUS: For example, let’s take Communion.
What does God teach us in the Lord’s Supper?
On the night Jesus was betrayed He broke the bread and He said
"This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me." Luke 22:19
Then He took the cup and said
This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. Matthew 26:28
What does communion say to us?
It says – Worship isn’t about you… you didn’t deserve what Jesus did for you.
ILLUS: Not long ago I talked with someone who was praising a large denomination up north.
He said one of the things he was impressed by was their Wednesday Night Communion Service.
And I asked “why would they have a Wednesday night communion service?”
And this man responded: “Oh, if they had it on Sunday Morning it would interfere with the flow of worship.”
Really?
The most important ritual Jesus ever gave us… and it interferes with worship?
(pause) I don’t think so!
What that denominational church was declaring to its people was this: “Worship is about you! If communion interferes with YOUR worship experience why we’ll just move it to a different time so we don’t inconvenience you.”
BUT communion is a vital, critical part of God’s message to us.
It reinforces the reality that: Worship isn’t about YOU
That’s the way the world approaches worship.
That’s not what God’s people should do.
God’s people are the ones who realize how much they owe God for our salvation and then they serve others because that’s the spiritual worship God expects.
We don’t deserve, and so we serve.
And that’s the pattern the preacher, the Elders and the Deacons should set for the rest of us. By serving the church and keeping it’s message of God’s mercy central to our worship, they set up the framework where all of us learn to really worship the way we should.
And when we worship the way we should, lives are changed. (which is ultimately what God wants)
CLOSE: I read the true story of a church who had a food pantry – just like ours, but their church was much larger and they had at least a couple of deacons overseeing that ministry.
One of the ladies asked if the deacons of that church would deliver food to her aunt. Well, ordinarily that was no problem. They delivered food to lots of people in the community. But this errand had a small glitch.
Her aunt was fortune teller, a clairvoyant, a psychic. She talked to the dead.
They had a long discussion about whether they should take God’s food to a psychic… but after praying about it, they decided to go ahead and do so.
They took the food to the fortune tellers house/place of business and as they were about to leave they prayed with the psychic and with several of her customers.
And because of they were willing to deliver 2 bags of groceries to a fortune teller… they eventually led eight of her customers to Christ.
Because they were willing to serve others in the name of Jesus, they changed the lives of 8 people.
