OPEN: I love to collect stories, jokes and all kinds of odd information. As I was going through my files, I happened on the following oddities about how did we ended up with the measurements we now use as a society.
• Inch – was based upon a King by the name of Edgar… and an inch was the distance on his thumb from knuckle to tip. Of course, once he died, they had to come up with another way to make that measurement and so they began using barleycorns instead.
• Our present day Foot – was based upon the length of King Charlemagne’s foot.
• King Henry gave us the Yard – measured from his nose to the tip of his fingers
• Our mile is presently 5280 feet. But originally it was a Roman measurement which was based upon the distance a Roman soldier could cover in 1000 paces - about 5000 feet.
But British farmers measured their fields in "furlongs", which were 660 feet long and they didn’t want to change. So when the mile was introduced to England, it was changed to 5280 feet - or exactly 8 furlongs.
• Does anybody know the distance from a baseball pitcher’s mound to home plate? 60 feet, 6 inches. The pitching distance was 50 feet until 1893 - when some baseball executives changed it to 60 feet. But the surveyor they hired to remap their infield misread their instruction - he saw 60 feet 0 inches and tho’t it was 60 feet 6 inches. The extra 6 inches have been there ever since.
• And lastly, the length of a marathon is how far? 26 miles 385 yards. The distance of a marathon was first standardized at 25 miles in 1896. During the 1908 London Olympics, however, Queen Alexandra wanted her grandchildren to see the start of the race. So, the starting line was moved back 1 mile and 385 yards - onto the front lawn of Windsor Castle. Marathons are still that length today.
APPLY: And that is how we got many of the measurements that we now have.
As I reflected on this information, a question occurred to me: How do we measure worship?
How do we know “when” we have worshipped?
(I allowed audience to respond. They most often spoke of what THEY got out of the worship service).
You know, until I began to prepare this sermon… that’s how I thought about worship as well. If the music was uplifting and the sermon was inspiring and there was a spirit of awe and reverence… then I regarded the church service as worshipful.
I. But then, I began to realize that the Bible looked at worship differently.
The Greek word for “Worship” literally means to “kiss” or “embrace.” In other words, when we worship, we are kissing God… or showing how much we love and adore Him.
Psalms 95:6 “Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker”
Heb. 12:24 - “…let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe”
Revelation 4:10 “…the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne, and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne”
These were actions of worshippers who wanted to show God how much they loved Him.
And so worship exists, not so much so that we feel “worshipful” but so that we can properly show God how much WE love Him.
There are many tools that God has given His people to use in worship. For example, in the Old Testament, worshippers would show their love to God by their sacrifices and offerings. When Abraham took his son up on the mountain TO SACRIFICE, he told his servants: “We will WORSHIP and then we will come back to you.” Genesis 22:5
Throughout the Law, God detailed what kinds of sheep and goats and bulls He desire in worship. And if you wanted to show adoration for God those types of sacrifices you would expect to use.
However, in the Church we don’t offer up those kinds of sacrifices anymore. Instead, when we think of worship we think of some very basic activities: Singing, praying, taking communion, listening to a sermon and having fellowship.
And at our best - when we’re REALLY worshipping the way that we should - all of those activities should be our attempt to focus our minds on God. We should strive to make all of that to be an expression of our love FOR God.
ILLUS: In the first church I served in, someone had put a sign on the pulpit: “Sir, we would see Jesus!” And since that day, every Sunday I get into this pulpit, that image has been in my mind/ goal - I want to help you see Jesus. I want to help you to love Jesus more and more and more because of what you hear. I see that as my part in worship.
II. But… is my preaching worship?
No, what you and I do with what I preach is our worship. Preaching is merely a tool to help us learn about God’s will for our lives. But to know His will and do nothing about it… that isn’t worshipping God. If we hear a 1000 sermons but we do nothing with what we’ve learned, we HAVE NOT worshipped, we have merely sat thru 1000 church services.
Communion: Every week, we have a special time of worship where we take a piece of bread and a cup of grape juice and remember what Jesus did for us on the cross. Is taking communion worship? No… it is merely a tool that we can use to show our love for God.
The church at Corinth took communion every week… and yet Paul wrote to them:
“…whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord.
A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself.” I Corinthians 11:26-29
The problem in Corinth was that they were mistreating each other in terrible ways and then coming to the communion table believing God would be pleased with this worship.
Communion should be the tool that we use to show God how much we love Him. And so, when we take communion, we should examine ourselves to see if we have behaved in ways that glorify Him or if we need to do some mending of our fences.
Is singing worship
No, singing is a tool that we use to worship.
Psalms 63:5 “… with singing lips my mouth will praise you.”
Psalms 98:1 Sing to the LORD a new song, for he has done marvelous things; his right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him.
And of course from Acts we read about Paul & Silas
“… they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully…. About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.” Acts 16:23
ILLUS: I love to sing. I was raised in church and I know all kinds of hymns and choruses. But I came to notice there was a slight problem with all those beautiful songs… I would often sing them by rote. In other words, I’d sing the songs without giving any thought whatsoever about the meaning of the words.
Thus, I wasn’t really worshipping in the singing of those songs because I wasn’t using them to show God how much I loved Him. I hardly gave any thought at all about what was coming out of my mouth. It was like a boy mouthing sweet nothings to his girlfriend without really meaning what he was saying. So I would often work at knowing the meaning of what I was singing so that my worship would be more meaningful.
That’s why I enjoy like the repetition of choruses. I like the repetition because I’m a slow learner. Sometimes it takes a couple of times through a set of verses before I really begin to experience what their meaning really is.
III. So, whether we sing a song or listen to a sermon, or take communion… These are tools we can use to worship with.
ILLUS: Imagine if you went to a Craftsman that worked with wood and asked him to build you a dinner table. He would haul out his tools and begin to work. But were the tools he used the finished product? Oh no. They were merely the tools he used to accomplish the finished product.
So also, communion, and singing and the rest, are tools we use to worship with. BUT they cannot take the place of TRUE worship
So… what is “true worship?” Look again with me to 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… (pause to allow audience to finish the verse)… worship.”
Worship is something you can do every day of the week. But to truly worship you and I need to consider how we can offer our bodies as a living sacrifices. But what does that mean? What does it mean to “offer our bodies as a living sacrifice?
Paul goes on to tell us 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.”
So worship is when we “change” how we think. When our minds become transformed and renewed. Becoming a “living sacrifice” means that:
We change from thinking about ourselves and what WE WANT out of life… to thinking about what God’s will is… what HE WANTS.
In other words we “sacrifice” our will and find a way to know His will.
Sunday mornings are a great time for us to do that
Praying is a tool we can use to help us discover God’s will
Singing hymns and choruses can help us discover God’s will
When we take Communion, that experience can help us discover God’s will
Listening to the sermon is specifically designed help us discover God’s will
Just being together and fellowshipping w/ each other can help us discover God’s will
… these tools can do that if we approach them with that expectation.
Our whole Sunday Morning experience should be geared to looking for God to change us. When we come expecting to be changed… then we can truly worship.
ILLUS: Bernard A. Weisberger wrote a fascinating account of the great revivalists of the past and of their influence on American religious life. He described the crowds of people that came to the old-time camp meetings:
“A mixture of motives brought the Kentuckians from far and near to the log church at Gaspar River. They were looking for a rare chance to hobnob with neighbors unseen for a year at a stretch. They hoped for entertainment in the form of rousing sermons, and a chance to let out feelings which were cramped up by a hog and hominy existence. But it is important to remember that fundamentally they were expecting to be converted by divine influence. Put simply, they came expecting a miracle.
Did you come, this morning, expecting a miracle? Did you come, this morning, looking for Jesus to change how you think? Then… you came this morning prepared to worship.
IV. One last thing… there was one major difference between the sacrifices in the OT, and the sacrifice Paul tells us about here in Romans 12.
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.”
What was ONE MAJOR difference between this sacrifice and the OT sacrifices?
That’s right… Paul talks about us as a living sacrifice, but the Old Testament sacrifices were dead.
Why would Paul speak of us as a “living sacrifice” as opposed to dead one?
Well… can you milk a dead cow?
Can you get wool off a dead sheep – one time, but that’s about it.
The usefulness of the Old Testament sacrifices pretty much ended at the time of their sacrifice.
By contrast, when we offer ourselves as a “living” sacrifice, our usefulness is just beginning.
That’s why Paul goes on to say that:
“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
Our worship of God includes making ourselves available to God. If we can preach… or teach… or lead in ministry… or you have a special desire to pray… or encourage others… or you have the resources to help the poor… use those gifts to serve Christ’s church
You see, worship means finding SOMETHING to do for God. That’s part of what it means to be a “living sacrifice.” It means offering up our time/ talents/ treasures for God.
A dead animal was useful for sacrifice only ONCE
A living sacrifice should be useful to God throughout his/her life.
Sitting in church on a Sunday morning is great… but if that’s all you and I end up doing for Jesus… if our lives are not changed so that we involve ourselves in making then our ability to worship is diminished.
CLOSE: Remember, what we do on Sunday mornings is only worship if it changes how we think … and it’s only worship if that change helps us to see ourselves as a living sacrifice for God.
During World War II, a church building in Strasbourg was destroyed. After the bombing, the members surveyed the area to see what damage was done. They were pleased that a statue of Christ with outstretched hands was still standing. It had been sculpted centuries before by a great artist.
Taking a closer look, the people discovered both hands of Christ had been sheared off by a falling beam. Later, a sculptor in the town offered to replace the broken hands as a gift to
the church. The church leaders met to consider the offer and decided not to accept it. They felt the statue without hands would be a great illustration that God’s work is done through his people.
The others sermons in this series are:
1. Irreplaceable - Genesis 1:24-31
2. Shaped to be a Servant - Ephesians 2:3-10
3. Making God Smile - Psalm 51:15-19
4. Formed to be Friends of God - John 15:9-16
5. Adopted for a Purpose - Ephesians 1:3-14
6. A Purpose Filled Love - 1 Corinthians 13:1-13
7. Purpose Driven Worship - Romans 12:1-8
8. Purpose Driven Strength - 2 Corinthians 12:1-10
