Worship That Costs

6/27/2021

Troy First Assembly of God

Worship That Costs

Romans 12:1-2

Let’s begin this morning with 2 Samuel 24. This is a story about the end of David’s life and how, after sinning against the Lord by counting all the fighting men, the LORD brought judgment on Israel. When the Lord put an end to the plague He then told David to go to the threshing floor that belonged to Araunah and to build an altar there. This is the place where Solomon would eventually build the temple.

Araunah was willing to give the threshing floor to David, but David made a comment that resonates to believers today. 24 But the king replied to Araunah, "No, I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing."

That is where I want to get us to this morning – to the place where we don’t just worship as just something we do – but worship as something that costs.

Romans 12:1-2,

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.

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.

Let’s look at this scripture and see what the LORD wants to say to us about worship that Costs.

(Prayer)

1. Remember God’s Mercy.

I like when Paul starts out a section with the word “Therefore”. It automatically connects what he is about to say with what he just said… it is normally the culmination of a discourse that he had laid out. In this case he was contrasting the Gentile believers with the Jews, saying that Gentiles had been grafted onto the vine… but they aren’t any better than the Jews. If God could save them, then He also will save the Jews.

So, in view of God's mercy…

Let me explain mercy this way… When I played golf in Palmyra at the local course, hole #1 was straight. 339 yards downhill to about half way then uphill slightly. On the left was an out of bounds line. To the right, at the halfway mark a cluster of trees. I always played to not hit out of bounds. If I could get it past the midway point or a little further then it was about a 7 iron to the green.

So I lined up my shot, positioned my feet to hit it right down the middle… and I rarely did. Most of the time I ended up hitting the trees. Despite my best efforts, it didn’t turn out good. I got what I deserved… normally a bounce straight back at me or into the nest fairway… which would then require extra shots.

But! There was that one time I lined up swung through and headed straight for the trees. Only this time it hit off the top of a limb changed directions a little to the left and ended up right where I needed to be… I didn’t get what in spite of my best efforts, I deserved.

That’s mercy. The Lord gives us His mercy like that. When our best efforts still are not even close to what God expects from us and for us His mercies are new every morning. Lamentations 3:22-23…

With that in mind how should we respond?

2. Living Sacrifices Keep on Living … offer your bodies as living sacrifices…I heard someone say once that the worst thing about “living sacrifices” is that they tend to crawl down off the altar after a while. I look at this a little differently. I think the worst thing about “Living Sacrifices” is that they never live up to the potential that God has granted them – by His mercy and grace. This is what I’m talking about. We put the old man to death. Galatians 2:20, I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. If we want to place an emphasis on dying to self – and it is important – then we would stop with I have been crucified with Christ… But, if we realize that there are more scriptures about the kind of life that God desires for us right here and right now, we read the rest of the verse … The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

…offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship.

What pleases God? Living a sacrificed life – with the emphasis on living. For a long time after I was saved I focused on holiness as being what I can’t do… Paul says that I put to death the misdeeds of the body. Important stuff right? But what happens when your mindset changes from “what I have to do to” to “what I get to do”?