After the Music Stops
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Intro - Video(Tim Hawkins)
Intro - Video(Tim Hawkins)
As a worship guy you are supposed to preach on worship
What is worship?
Worship is a response to all that God is with all that I am
How to do it, what and when to worship and so on and so forth
There are ways to worship
Carman - 7 Ways to Praise
Maybe I could preach on how hymns are better than choruses or vice versa
Believe it or not there are sermons out there about that!
But what about when the music is done?
What about when we leave the building on Sunday morning?
What about when it is the Mondayest of all Mondays? Or the Mondayest of all Tuesdays, Wednesdays or whenever?
Do you remember the song , “The Heart of Worship?”
When the music fades
And all is stripped away
And all is stripped away
And I simply come
And I simply come
Longing just to bring
Longing just to bring
Something that's of worth
Something that's of worth
That will bless your heart
That will bless your heart
I'll bring You more than a song
I'll bring You more than a song
For a song in itself
For a song in itself
Is not what You have required
Is not what You have required
No I am not saying that this is a bible verse, but let me ask you this question:
You search much deeper within
Through the ways things appear
Through the ways things appear
What is required after the song is over?
Well I am glad you asked!
You're looking into my heart
You're looking into my heart
gives us a clue on what our
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.
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
I love that line - You see much deeper within than the way things appear
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.
Our “spiritual worship”
The Greek word for spiritual is logikos - lah - gee - kas which translated means reason or logic or agreeable to reason or logic
Paul spends the first 11 chapters presenting a way for the romans to understand the gospel,
Jesus has done all of these things for us so what do we do with them?
The LOGICAL next step is lay down our lives to him
λατρεία
Our service to God through worship is to present ourselves as a living sacrifice before God.
Our act of worship to God is to present ourselves completely to him
No strings attached, nothing holding us back, completely and unrelentingly His
But the problem with living sacrifices is that they keep climbing off of the altar.
I said earlier that worship is a response to all that God is with all that we are
If we are to respond to all that God is by only giving part of us to him then we do a disservice to all that he is.
So what does it look like to be a living sacrifice?
If this is our spiritual act of worship then how do we do it?
Become a Transformer -
Become a Transformer -
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
No I’m not talking about Optimus Prime or Bumble Bee
I mean we must work to Transform who we are as people
Contrary to popular belief this isn’t a one time thing that you do
You don’t change your mind one day and then all of this God stuff just flows in
I grew up in a world where once you accepted Jesus then you just “lived Right” from there.
If that was the case then why did I keep getting in trouble?
That is where we lose people
We teach that once you accept Jesus this magical thing happens and then all the bad stuff you ever thought, dd or say goes away, but that isn’t even close to the way it is!
The greek word for transform here is μεταμορφόω mĕtamŏrphŏō (met - am - ar - fah - oh)
μεταμορφόω mĕtamŏrphŏō
μεταμορφόω mĕtamŏrphŏō
which means to change, transfigure or transform
Strong, J. (2009). A Concise Dictionary of the Words in the Greek Testament and The Hebrew Bible (Vol. 1, p. 47). Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.
Strong, J. (2009). A Concise Dictionary of the Words in the Greek Testament and The Hebrew Bible (Vol. 1, p. 47). Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.
We see a word like this in English - metamorphosis - a change of the form or nature of a thing or person into a completely different one, by natural or supernatural means.
The thing about metamorphosis is that it does not happen over night
You go from child to teenager to adult over years
You go from out of shape to fit over time
Just like that our metamorphosis into who God wants us to be takes time
And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
It takes a true revelation of God to see who he has created us to be
Being willing to be a living sacrifice means that we lay down the old and allow God, through testing to change us into who he wants us to be
As we grow into who he is we see what God has gifted us with
Use What God Gave You -
Use What God Gave You -
For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.
For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function,
so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.
Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith;
if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching;
the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.
Everyone was created with a specific purpose
You were not just made
Now let’s
We were each given a gift to use for the kingdom
You were made to be significant
We as Christians have been given gifts, talents and abilities that we can us to impact the kingdom
Notice I didn’t say church
It isn’t about impacting the building we are in
Yes we want to grow, yes we want to be the hub of the city, but more importantly we want to make a greater impact on the amount of people who hear about Jesus
We have to use those gifts or we waste them
What has God given you that you can use for Him
You know what I love about this passage?
It doesn’t say, if you sing sing well, if you play an instrument play it well, if you preach preach well, blah blah blah
People get so lost in what is seen
You don’t have to be on stage to make an impact!
So what gifts does Paul list here?
prophecy
service
teaching
exhortation
giver
leading
mercy
most of these that he lists are the most under appreciated!
Being a living sacrifice means that we lay down our excuses and thoughts of why we don’t have any gifts that are useful
You may not have gifts and talents that you think are important, but God gifted you with the gifts that He thought were the most impacting gifts you could have
How we use them is up to us!
Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.
Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.
Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.
Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.
Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.
Imitation is the Highest Form of Flattery -
Imitation is the Highest Form of Flattery -
Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.
Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.
Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.
Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.
Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.
Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.
Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight.
Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.
If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.
Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”
To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.”
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.
Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.
Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight.
Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.
If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.
Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”
To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.”
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
I was going to make this into 2 points but I decided that you guys would like to get out of here before 1 so I made it one
As I studied through this I wanted to talk about serving and being kind and then being imitators of Jesus
But the more I think of it, part of being an imitator of Jesus is to serve
But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.
It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant,
and whoever would be first among you must be your slave,
even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Paul here essentially wraps up the gospel in 13 verses
We are called to love God and love others
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”
And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
This is the great and first commandment.
And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
I could go in and break down each one of these verses but if we look at them closely they will come down to this
To be a living sacrifice we must be imitators of Jesus
Paul in tells the corinthians to imitate him as he imitates Christ
Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.
Would we be that bold?
Would we be willing to tell someone to copy the way we live our lives?
It takes a great deal of sacrifice to be willing to be that trasparent
To say, look at my life closely and follow it as I follow Christ
Can you say that? If not then we should evaluate where we are and go back to the mĕtamŏrphŏō part and allow God to continue to change us and shape us into who he wants us to be.
So why is this important?
So why is this important?
I know that this is not your typical sermon on worship
But part of our worship is being willing to lay down on the altar before God and say, “Whatever you need to do in me to move through me, then do it!”
Our lives as Christians go beyond our Sunday morning
We aren’t called to be great church goers, we are called to spread the gospel
We do that by how we live our lives
Where do we go from here?
Where do we go from here?
Where are you on you today?
Have you just become stale and complacent or are you
Have you willingly laid down EVERYTHING on the altar before God
Are you stuck in the same cycle and feel like you aren’t moving forward?
Do you think you have gifts that can be used but you aren’t using them?
Pray -
Full surrender
What gifts have you given me
Am I a true imitator of Jesus?