A Test of our Worship?
Romans 12:1
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Good Morning.
If I asked the question of you, “Did you enjoy worshiping this morning?” what would you think I was talking about?
Would you be thinking of the musical worship time?
Would anyone be thinking of the time during which we took up the offering? We have it listed in our bulletin as “Worship through Giving” and I always talk about it as part of our offering, but sometimes I am not sure we even hear those words.
Would any of you be thinking, “Enjoyed worship yet? I haven’t even heard the sermon and had a chance to respond. How have I worshiped, yet?
Well, all of those can be expressions of worship or they can be just acts without much significance at all.
You see worship isn’t just what happens on the outside, but for it to be worship, what is happening on the outside has to be tied to what is on the inside.
Now, when I ask the question, “Who do you worship,” I am fairly certain that nearly everyone here would say, “we worship the Lord, God Almighty” or some variation of the one true God.
Now the fact of the matter is that we all worship something, and what we worship will reveal itself on the outside, but I think for some of people, what and who they worship, is not always what we think it is, because we fail to really examine ourselves and our life.
So this morning, we are going to be taking a test. It is a self-administered and graded test, although ultimately, God will be doing the grading. We are going to examine some
Scripture and ask some questions about ourselves to see what is motivating our worship and to whom that worship is directed.
We are going to take a look at Romans 12 and look at verse 1.
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Now this is probably a familiar verse to many of you, but I want to look at it with fresh eyes and see if we can get a glimpse of our own worship.
Romans 12:1 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. “
Pray.
Ok, in this one verse Paul tells us that if we are doing this in this way, that it is an act of worship. So this is something that is going to really help us to be true worshipers.
Now, I want to go to the beginning of the verse. Paul begins this passage of Scripture with “Therefore” which is a reference back to what he was just talking about in chapter 11. He was talking about how God had shown the Gentiles mercy and how He would eventually show the Jews mercy, “For,” it says in Romans 11:32, “God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.”
Then Paul gives a benediction and says in our verse we just looked at, “Therefore…in view of God’s mercy.”
So what Paul tells us in this verse that
Worship is a Response motivated by the Mercy of God
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Now, I don’t think that it is only because of God’s mercy that we worship Him. I believe He is worthy of worship for all of his attributes. He is good, he is holy, he is righteous, he is sovereign, etc. He is worthy of worship because of who He is.
But I think that one of the major things that will truly enable us to worship the Lord is an understanding of His mercy, and Paul is not just talking about a one-time act of mercy toward us. The Greek word translated mercy is plural, meaning mercies.
It could read, “in view of God’s many mercies toward us”
Or in view of God’s mercy toward us over and over again”
I think one of the reasons that we do not worship the Lord fully in truth and in spirit is because we fail to grasp the depth and riches of his mercy.
In Lamentations 3:22-23,
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Jeremiah tells us “22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; 23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” ESV
His mercies (plural) never end. He is always showing us mercy.
Let me ask you this. Who is in need of mercy? Now, I am asking this generally, not if you need mercy.
What is required of a person for them to be the recipient of mercy?
They need to have done something wrong for which they are facing some consequence.
A person who hasn’t done anything wrong does not need mercy.
When we have done wrong and we recognize the depth of that wrong and the rightful consequence of that wrong, then we are better able to understand the magnitude of the mercy of God toward us, and that is when we are truly able to worship.
If you are sitting here today thinking you are pretty good or that you don’t really have much to be forgiven in life, you will have a difficult time being a true worshiper of the Lord because you fail to recognize the magnitude of the mercy of God that has been extended to you.
Listen to this story Jesus told
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Luke 18:10-12
10 "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men — robbers, evildoers, adulterers — or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.'
Now we may hear this and think, “I am not like this Pharisee,” and I might agree that we are at least not as blatant as this Pharisee, but every one of us here have sin issues that we deal with in our life.
Do we look down on other people’s sins as we explain and justify our own?
So, I have a few beers every night. It is not like I am drunk all the time, maybe just on the weekend.
So what if I watch a little porn, it’s not like I am really cheating on my wife!
So, I cheated on my husband. It is not like he has never done anything wrong, and besides, I am here for our kids!
So, I cheated on my wife, I like women! At least I am not a homosexual.
Do we think our sins are not as bad when we put them next to someone else’s sin or try to cover them up with something we think is good, so that makes it ok?
Then we are acting just like the Pharisee because that is what he did.
I am not a robber or adulterer or like this tax collector. And look at the good I do. I fast and tithe like I am supposed to!
Once we start to rationalize or make our sin look not so bad to us, we don’t see our need for God’s mercy toward us and we fail to truly worship Him like we should.
In contrast to the Pharisee was the tax collector.
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Luke 18:13
13 "But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'
The tax collector focused on his own sin and recognized his need for the mercy of God. And Jesus said that this man, rather than the Pharisee, went home justified. He was the recipient of God’s mercy and was able to truly worship God.
Isaiah
I think this is what happened to Isaiah.
Isaiah, a prophet of God that was being used powerfully by the Lord, would be someone that we would look at and say, there is a man of God.
But listen to what happens when Isaiah comes into the presence of the Lord and realizes what I believe is the full depravity of his sin and life.
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Isaiah 6:1, 5
1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple…5 "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty."
Isaiah came into the presence of the Lord and he realized how extensive his sin was and how utterly merciful God was in not having struck him down, and what does he do? He cries out “Woe to me!”
While it doesn’t tell us this here, I can see Isaiah falling to his knees in utter humility, recognizing how truly merciful God is in light of him recognizing the breadth and depth of his own sinfulness.
If we are going to truly worship the Lord, we have got to recognize His incredible mercy, and to recognize His mercy, requires that we recognize that we are sinful and completely unworthy of the Lord! That is when we can truly worship Him in spirit and truth.
Transition
But Paul goes on to tell us more about this spiritual act of worship. Not only should it be motivated by our recognition of God’s mercy, but this verse also tells us that
Worship is a sacrifice Motivated by a Desire to Please God
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Romans 12:1 - 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.
Worship is not just what we feel inside any more than it is just outward actions.
Real worship, worship in truth and in spirit, starts on the inside with our motivations, and those motivations will produce actions on the outside.
It is the combination of motivations and actions that is worship.
For instance, if I go and serve the homeless, that is a good thing. But if my motivation is so others will see how good I am, you are not worshiping God in your action, but only yourself.
But if I go and serve the homeless because I have been reading God’s word and see that this is something that God would want me to do and I want to please Him, then I am worshiping.
But we need to always be testing our motives. We might want to go and serve the homeless because we have been reading God’s word and know that this would please Him and we want God to owe us, so we will do this for Him so He will have to do something for us. That is not worship.
Actions that are worship are not done to EARN God’s favor.
God owes us nothing and will never owe us anything.
Listen to what Paul says right before Romans 12.
Romans 11:35 - "Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?"
Nobody! God owes us nothing.
If our motivation in worship is to earn God’s mercy or grace, then we are not really worshiping the Lord.
Worship should be motivated out of a desire to please God BECAUSE He has extended us mercy and grace.
It is as a result of receiving God’s mercy and grace that we can worship Him fully inside and outside!
And it is those acts of worship that flow from a heart of worship that are sacrifices of worship!
When Paul says that you should present your bodies as living sacrifices, it means that we sacrifice what we would want to do in our own, sinful nature, to do instead, what God would want us to do for the purpose of pleasing Him who is worthy, who has extended us undeserved grace and mercy. That is worship.
It is what is on the inside that is motivating and directing what actions we take that is worship in spirit and truth.
There is another good example of worship found in Luke 7:36-47 that gives us a glimpse of worship motivated by God’s mercy and forgiveness that produces a true living sacrifice.
Luke 7:36-47
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Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table. 37 When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, 38 and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.
39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, "If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is — that she is a sinner."
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40 Jesus answered him, "Simon, I have something to tell you."
"Tell me, teacher," he said.
41 "Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?"
43 Simon replied, "I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled."
"You have judged correctly," Jesus said.
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44 Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. 46 You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. 47 Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven — for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little."
Simon, another Pharisee, someone who, from a human standpoint, was not all that bad, doesn’t recognize how merciful God has been toward him and how sinful he really was.
The woman, on the other hand, recognizes the great mercy that has been shown to her and what does she do?
She worships the Lord, motivated by her recognition of God’s mercy and forgiveness to her, bowed down at the feet of Jesus, crying tears of joy and remorse (remorse over her many sins and joy over the mercy she has received), and wiping Jesus’ feet with her tears and her hair, and sacrificing expensive perfume for the glory of the Lord.
That is a great demonstration of a living sacrifice. She withholds nothing from the Lord.
That is worship.
Who are you worshiping? Are you worshiping the Lord?
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In his book, “The Air I Breathe – Worship as a Way of Life,” Louie Giglio tells us that everyone worships something. He says
“everybody has an altar. And every altar has a throne.
So how do you know where and what you worship?
It’s easy: You simply follow the trail of your time, your affection , your energy, your money, and your allegiance. At the end of that trail you’ll find a throne; and whatever, or whoever, is on that throne is what’s of highest value to you. On that throne is what you worship.
Sure, not too many of us walk around saying; "I worship my stuff. I worship my job. I worship this pleasure. I worship her. I worship my body. I worship me!"
But the trail never lies.
—Louie Giglio, THE AIR I BREATHE: WORSHIP AS A WAY OF LIFE. (Sisters, Oregon: Moltnomah, 2003), p. 10. ISBN 1-59052-153-6.
If someone who did not know you where to look at your life, to examine where you spent your money, how you spent your time, the priorities you have in your life, would they say, this is a worshiper of the Lord, or would they be led to a different conclusion?
Would they say this person worships his job, or this woman worships her kids, or this person worships pleasure, or something else?
Now granted, they will not be able to see our motivation, but for some of our actions, our motivations are apparent.
If I can find money to enjoy all the things I want, but can’t give but only $5 or $10 to the Lord, what am I worshiping?
If I can find time to relax and to get off work early to be at my kids games, but can’t find time to do Bible study, do I really worship the Lord?
We all need to be looking at our lives and asking what is it that is motivating my actions, my choices, my lifestyle?
Sign up for a Discipleship Opportunity
To properly see our lives from the right perspective requires that we are looking through the lens of God’s word.
If you didn’t have an opportunity to do so last week, make sure you sign up for one of our small groups and discipleship opportunities today. Most of these groups and studies start this week. Being part of one of these will be instrumental in you knowing and being strengthened to act on God’s will for you and for you to be able to worship the Lord in spirit and in truth. You need to make this a priority in your life.
Worship series continues
Also, make sure you come back over the rest of this month. We are going to be continuing to talk about worship and some more practical and specific ways in which we express our worship to the Lord.
Receive Christ
And finally, to truly be able to worship the Lord, requires that we have faith in Him and faith in the way He has provided for a restored relationship with Him and for our salvation.
Hebrews tells us that “without faith it is impossible to please God.” (Hebrews 11:6)
The Scripture tells us that Jesus, the One and Only Son of God, God in the flesh, is the One who has made atonement for your sins, extending His grace and mercy to you by dying on the cross in payment for you sins.
The Bible tells us we receive this grace and mercy by believing in who Jesus is (God in the flesh) and what He did (died for our sins and rose from dead).
Romans 10:9 says “if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
If you don’t ever remember a time when you have confessed a true belief in Jesus as God in the flesh and the one who died for your sins and rose from the dead proving that He is God and is able to forgive you and save you, then won’t you do that this morning?
I will lead in a prayer and if you have never received Christ as your Savior, then confess your belief to God along with me and receive His mercy and grace and salvation, and begin a life that can truly be lived to worship Him.
Let’s pray.
