A Worthy Gift

1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

Genesis 4:1–7 (ESV)

1 Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.” 2 And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground. 3 In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, 4 and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, 5 but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. 6 The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”

1) Worship is All That We Do!

From the Text...

Romans 12:1

Why does Paul appeal to believers to be living sacrifices?

Romans 11:33–36 “33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! 34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” 35 “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” 36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.”

All that we are and all that do are to be in worship to God because God is worthy, sovereign, and supreme!

This isn’t new with Paul in Romans; it has always been the case from the dawn of creation.

We are to honor and worship the Creator. We are to bear and reflect His image.

We are to praise His holy name and walk in relationship with Him but not in relationship to Him.

We are to walk with God, not try to be God.

Cain and Abel show us that all of life is to be lived all for God.

Their skill sets were used to provide for their families, but more importantly their skillsets we dependent upon God and His creative order.

As such they were way of honoring God.

It should be no surprise then that these men would seek and desire to bring an offering to God out of recognition of His grace.

Their work was worship. Their offering was a natural by product of that worship.

…To Our Context

Christ gave His life for us so that we might live all of life for Him.

Like Cain and Abel, all that we do today is dependent upon God and His creative order.

Just because we have refined parts of God’s creation and utilized it in more capacities than Cain and Abel doesn’t diminish the truth that this is God’s world and we are still utilizing His resources!

As we live out each and every day, we need to draw our hearts and our minds to the reality that every moment we have is a worshipping moment.

The question is, who or what are we then worshipping with our lives?

While everything we do is worship, worship is not necessarily about what we do, but rather the heart with which we do it.

2) Worship is About the Heart!

From the Text...

In Romans 12:1 Paul urges believers to be a “...living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God...”

This means that our lives are to be defined by God’s standards and not our own.

The One Who is Worthy, determines the worthiness of our worship.

In Genesis 4 we see that God establishes worship that is acceptable and worship that is unacceptable.

God tells us that He “...had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard...”

Notice that primary focus of God’s regard and disregard is not the offering itself but rather the one who gives the offering.

The acceptance of the offerings as an expression of the worship was based on the giver, not the gift.

1 Samuel 16:7 “7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.””

…To Our Context

Being a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God is a matter of the heart much more than the actions we display.

If our hearts are in the right place, then our actions will follow. But too our actions can be right and if our hearts are in the wrong place then the actions are unacceptable.

ILLUSTRATION: As a Dad, I love it when my kids do what I tell them to do the first time, without whining or complaining. I hate it when my kids only do what I tell them to do only because I’ve reminded them that disobedience brings discipline, or I’ve had to discipline them to get them to do what was right. But as much as I love it when they obey the first time, I love it even more when they do what their supposed to do without having to be told. I love it when our relationship has embedded into their hearts what the right ways to live in our house are so that it just comes to them naturally.

Our heavenly Father expresses this same reality in His relationship with us!

As we live all of life all for Jesus, we need to keep the focus on Jesus and not on what we are doing or not doing.

Don’t just get caught up in the daily grind.

Make sure that your heart is in the right place. Make sure that your focus is a living proclamation that “from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” (Romans 11:36)

Once our hearts are in the right place, then we look for God to show us what gives Him glory and honor. We let God define our worship, and therefore we let God define and direct our lives.

3) Stewardship is a Part of Worship!

From the Text...

In Romans, Paul urges believers to “present your bodies as a living sacrifice”.

We need to remember that God has made us as individual souls who have a body, not a body that contains a soul. You and I will live eternally as souls. At some point when God decides to create a new heaven and a new earth, our souls will get a new glorified body, but until then we are to use the body that God has given us in this life to bring honor to Him.

Everything we have is the Lord’s, even this body. Everything we have is to be used for His glory. It all belongs to Him! We are to be His Stewards in which He has entrusted His possessions to our care, but for His purposes!

Cain and Abel were stewards of God’s Creation and therefore brought an offering to the Lord.

Abel was regarded as worthy because he understood that the owner of it all get the best of it all!

Abel brought the first born parts of his flock and the fat portions. Abel took from the whole and brought the best.

Cain was disregarded and his offering was rejected by God, because he brought what he could scrape up.

Cain didn’t respect what God had deemed acceptable, he came to God on his own terms and if affected his worship, his service, and his entire outlook.

God gives Cain a serious warning: “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”

Having a stewardship mindset is necessary for worship to be genuine and acceptable.

…To Our Context

Our worship is not about sincerity based in our own terms, it’s about sincerely presenting our lives to God based on His terms.

Part of living our lives in sincerity to God’s standards is to set our minds on the reality that everything is His and we are stewards of His possessions for His glory.

We need to walk in close relationship with Jesus daily so that we can see all of life through his lens.

Furthermore, our daily worship and living as good stewards should produce within us a desire to bring our offerings to God.

As we give to the local church, which God has established in His economy as the primary means through which we honor Him in our giving, we need to make sure that we do so with a pure heart that honors Him.

We need to look to Abel as an example who gave to God out of pure worship and genuine heart rather than Cain who gave out of what he could scrape up.

Our offerings are not about trying to meet some kind of obligation, it’s about joyfully and generously acknowledging the One who has entrusted us with what we have so that we can glorify Him with it!

1)Worship is all that we do!

2) Worship is about the heart!

3)Stewardship is a part of worship!

Reflection and Response

How much of my life do I realize is comprised of worship? If all of my life is worship, what is the primary focus of my worship?

When I worship God, how much of it is genuinely focused on sincerely honoring Him based on His terms and not my own? Are there areas of my own mindset that I need to reconsider for my worship to be acceptable to God?

Do I have a stewardship viewpoint when it comes to my life? Am I living in such a way that recognizes that all that I am and all that I have really belongs to God and what He had given me is an opportunity to worship Him?

What is one step of faith God is wanting me to take today considering this message?

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