Life of Worship

Me: I love nights like tonight, where we come together to worship and pray to draw near to Jesus.

You: It can kind of feel like a mountaintop experience, where we get perspective and intimacy with Jesus in a soul refreshing way but then we leave here and go back to our real life where real things happen.

But you see this starts with an assumption, that this is our spiritual life, and out there is our real life… but what if our lives were never meant to be compartmentalized? What if we are holistic creatures, where everything our souls, our emotions, our jobs, our relationships were all interconnected? How would and should that transform the way we approach how we define worship?

This is exactly where the Apostle Paul went when he was writing the church in . From , Paul had dove deep into what he referred to as the “mercies of God.” The incredible ways God has stepped into the story of humanity to bring rescue and redemption. The radical love He has displayed. The new life we have been called to.

God: Then Paul wrote it this way, “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.”

He is bringing an appeal forward. He is strongly and consistently urging them to do something… but before he gets to the what he first gets to the why… “by the mercies of God.” In other words, in light of what God has done, is doing, and will do follow on my appeal.

We can often think of following Jesus as a bunch of “shoulds”… I should be more generous, more caring, more selfless, less arrogant, less gossip. But what we quickly forget… the mercies of God. All we offer is a response to HIS MERCIES. We aren’t earning, we are receiving then giving. We aren’t starting the conversation, we are replying. We aren’t trying to get God to owe us a thank you, instead our very lives become a thank you for what He has done!

Which is exactly what Paul’s appeal is for them to do. “To present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”

Here Paul makes a connection between our bodies and our worship. When he used the word bodies he doesn’t just mean the “the physical structure of a person.” He meant the holistic person herself or himself. Every part of our lives. What we do, what we say, what we believe, where we go, our souls, our finances, our physical bodies, everything.

Jesus doesn’t just want us for an hour on Sunday, and then the other 167 hours of the week we live our “real lives.” Instead we are called to Discover Jesus in the all 168 hours of our every weeks! We are to present our lives as a living sacrifice to the one who bought us by His blood.

It may seem odd that Paul brings sacrifice and worship into the same thought, because I don’t know about for you but when I think of worship I think of good and emotional music with rich lyrics and as I sing them I feel better. In other words, my worship can easily just be about me, my preferences and what make me feel good.

While it is definitely a good thing to be moved during a time of worship, that was never meant to be the point of what worship is.

Worship, like praying, studying scripture, and fasting is a Spiritual Discipline. An intentional rhythm meant to regularly draw us near to Jesus.

Worship: The discipline through which the Spirit helps us to surrender our focus off of ourselves and onto God.

As Paul wrote here, worship is literally meant to be surrender. As we engage in worship we surrender focus off of self and put it onto Jesus. As we surrender focus off of self and put it onto Jesus we are transformed in worship!

You: This is good news because this means we can experience true worship whether we are in a peaceful gathering like this or in the chaotic spaces of our lives at work or at home as we remember the beauty of the Gospel and continually surrender focus off of self and onto Jesus.

Us: And whether we “feel better” or not we can trust as Paul says that this surrender is holy and acceptable to God.

Now that we have unpacked this passage a bit, would you stand and read it with me?

“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.”

Would you pray this prayer out loud with me?

“Lord, take and receive all my freedom and rights,

My past, my current life, my future and my entire will,

Everything that I have and call my own.

You have given all to me.

To you, Lord, I return it.

Everything is yours; do with it what you will.

Please grant me the immense gift of Your love and Your grace.

And make my heart realize You are enough for me.

Amen.”