Loving into the Body Part 4: Gentle Invitation to Faithful Worship

Every 2 or 3 Generations, the Church all across the world goes through a kind of purging process with their woship… a spring cleaning or a room cleaning in attempt to start a new season in its life. Our generations have noticed this primarily with music selections and the use of videos in church, but our grandparents noticed it in other ways such as heating and air conditioning.

Don Watson, who attends here occasionally is currently serving a church with no heat or air. I know some of you wish we didn’t have air because you stay cold all the time. I know we have others that can only make it here occasionally and without air they start to suffocate. If we lived back in the good old days, many of us would not make it to church at all. We are blessed to have those comforts.

If we go back just a few years more, we find churches who thought it was absolutely unnecessary to have running water and, of all things, bathrooms, in the church. The idea of using those kinds of facilities in a house of worship was unheard of and not to be tolerated. No kitchens, no coffee, no food… they would tell you to do that business at home because we are not coming here to take care of our bodies, we are here to exercise our souls. Worship for them, was not about being comfortable - hence the invention of the pews you sit in, although they would not have had cushions or padding back then.

They didn’t have clocks back then either. You didn’t have anything else to do on Sunday morning other than church so they took up as much time as they could and were thankful for a time to rest from the hard work they were used to farming and caring for homes without electricity (and sometimes without running water there either).

Times have changed a lot, and a few months ago I talked with Dorothy Barnett, one of our oldest members, as she was reflecting on the good old days of St. Mark, and she decided that sometimes they weren’t always as good as she would have liked to remember them. There were certainly good times and good friends who we miss today, but there were times of struggle and trouble as well.

So how did we get bathrooms in church? Why do we use microphones and speakers? Or perhaps the bigger question is, why were those ideas ever challenged?

We:

It comes down to

It all really boils down to, who is church supposed to be comfortable for?

Churches that focus inward more than outward, cater to the preferences of those in the congregation who have been members the longest or who give the most - because we often assume that they are also the most mature Christians in our community.

Churches that focus outward more than inward cater to the preferences (as best they can figure) of those who have not visited the church yet, in hopes of attracting them in.

Every church has both an inward and outward focus, and if they get too extreme they run into problems rather quickly. Every person has an opinion on how things should be done. But we know our mission as a church is not to make people comfortable - it is to make disciples.

Comfort has a place in that, but what place is that exactly?

We could debate that all day long.

I would love to go through the last 50 years of praise music with you and see how it has changed and how it has changed us.

But none of that is going to raise up the disciples our church and our world needs today.

So instead, let’s take our question of comfort and preference to the Bible and see what it has to say.

We:

God:

Gentle invitation to worship and call to faithfulness in one verse.

Romans 12:1 NRSV

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

The New Life in Christ

Worship in spirit and in truth.

Jesus and the woman of Samaria

By God's mercies

By our presentation of our bodies

Sacrifice as

Living

Holy

Acceptable

This is worship

Romans 12:2 NRSV

2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Conformed = formed with (the world) - like cooking a stew into paste - where you cannot tell the meat from the vegetables.

2 Do not be conformed to this world,c but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.d

Conformed = formed with

Transformed = formed across and through - changing into something completely different. Not like your surroundings.

God wants us to transform into heavenly people, while we still live on earth.

Minds over bodies and feelings

Discerning God's will not being deceived by passions

Good - Good stuff (from same word as Goodness as a fruit of the Spirit)

Acceptable (maybe a better translation is “pleasing” to God - what makes God happy?)

Perfect (meaning mature - acts done from fully grown wisdom)

This is what we are called to dedicate our minds, our thoughts, our conversations and discussions to… and our physical bodies will follow with actions that will bring these deeds to life.

Romans 12:3–8 NRSV

3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. 4 For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, 5 so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. 6 We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; 7 ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; 8 the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.

We do not worship alone

Faith in Christ is a team sport not a solo one

Everyone has a role to play

Our gifts are not just for us, they are to help those around us

Not just general help

Help in connecting people to God through Christ

Worship is not weekly, it is a daily act

Deuteronomy 6:4–9 NRSV

4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. 6 Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. 7 Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. 8 Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, 9 and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

1 Thessalonians 5:17 NLT

17 Never stop praying.

Pray continually

Gifts to help the body worship

Prophecy does little good for yourself - it benefits the community

Faith - encourages and strengthens those who doubt

Ministry??? - made specifically for others

Teaching - what is a teacher without students

Exporter - persuasive speaker, the cheerleaders of the team

Giving - You cannot give to yourself

Leader - a leader without anyone following is not a leader, nor can a leader lead well without following someone themselves

Compassionate - again requires someone to care for

You:

Which of these things describes you?

You can try to do them on your own, but you will not be as strong as if you have the Holy Spirit of God giving you the power to truly serve

We:

And if you are trying to serve God, as opposed to just being a popular person yourself, you cannot use these gifts alone.

They are designed to work together.

Every community of faith needs to have people with each of these gifts… preferably more than one.

Sometimes our gifts change.

Sometimes our roles change.

These gifts do not belong to us… we are just borrowing them from God and using them for His purposes.

That is what true worship is… All God’s people coming together and sharing their gifts to help everyone get closer to God.

Are you a true worshipper of God?

What gifts are you borrowing from God and how are you using them to honor Him?

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