Worship - Our Duty
INTRODUCTION:
I’ve always liked hearing oxymorons, or self-contradicting phrases. The word itself comes from “oxus” which means sharp and “moros” which means dull. Here are some of my favorites.
Jumbo shrimp
Freezer burn
White chocolate
Plastic silverware
Airline food
Sanitary landfill
Truthful tabloids
Professional wrestling
And, here’s another self-contradictory phrase: boring worship. That reminds me of the little boy who asked his mother if she could remember the highest number she ever counted to. The mother didn’t know so she asked him about his highest number. He answered, “5,372.” The mother was puzzled and asked him why he stopped at that particular one. The boy responded, “Well…church was over.”
In various surveys, when people are asked why they don’t go to church, they often reply that church is just too boring. While I recognize that sometimes a church service can seem dull, especially to a non-Christian, I want to suggest this morning that true worship is anything but boring. The very essence of what worship is does not allow us to be bored. When we come before the majestic God of the universe, who has created everything and has done amazing things in our lives, we can’t help but break out into adoration. My personal background as Song Leader, Music Director
Today Worship is: Worship Leader + Band and Singing = Worship
"Confessions of a Worship Leader"
Most Americans tend to worship at their work, work at their play, and play at their worship!
Jamestown, VA. It is one of the earliest English-speaking settlements in the new world, & it has been carefully restored so that we can see what life was like 350 years ago. At Jamestown, you’ll discover many interesting things about our country. You’ll learn that when this settlement was first established, most of the people built rather humble huts for their families. But right in the middle of Jamestown they erected an imposing church building as a testimony to all who came, that the people of Jamestown put God first. They had 2-hour worship services every day of the week, & attendance was mandatory. If you didn’t show up for the daily service, your day’s ration of food would not be given you. Their reasoning was, if you were too sick to go to church, you were too sick to eat. They had a 5-hour service on Sunday, & you were expected to be there all 5 hours. If you missed church for 3 weeks, they would put you in stocks for 6 weeks out on the church lawn. The stocks are still there for all to see. Maybe they went a bit too far. But it seems to me the lesson which comes through loud & clear is that in this original settlement, the people wanted to communicate clearly that God came first.
\\ I do believe that worship is the church’s—and the individual Christian’s—highest priority. True worship comprises and fulfills all these other characteristics of the church Christ builds. The church that sets its focus on God will find that all other things fall naturally into place.
Here is precisely the problem with the market-oriented, user-friendly, pragmatic approach to ministry: it is man-centered, not God-centered. Its concern is what people desire, not what God demands. It sees the church as existing for people’s sake rather than for God’s sake. It works from a faulty blueprint rather than fulfilling the plan of the Master Builder.
User-friendly, entertainment-oriented, market-driven, pragmatic churches will probably continue to flourish for a while. Unfortunately, however, the whole movement is based on current fashion and therefore cannot last long. When the fickle winds finally change, one of three things may happen. These churches will fall out of vogue and wane; or they will opt to change with the spirit of the age and very likely abandon any semblance of biblical Christianity; or they will see the need to rebuild on a more sure foundation. My prayer, of course, is that they will take the third course of action and not wait until worldliness and compromise have so permeated their fellowships that it becomes impossible to change.
Charles Spurgeon wrote, “It is hard to get leaven out of dough, and easy to put it in.… Oh that those who are spiritually alive in the churches may look to this thing, and may the Lord himself baffle the adversary!”
I. WORSHIP - GOD SEEKS IT - John 4:23
But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.
A. Everyone is a worshipper - Rom. 1:25 "who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen." But because of sin, many are blind and put their trust in worthless objects.
B. When Jesus spoke of true worship, He described it as worship “in spirit and truth” (John 4:23–24). What He meant was that emotion and truth in combination constitute true worship. Our worship of God must be based on truth, yet should also involve the emotions. It should be our goal to encourage the proper components in worship. The hymns and special music, as well as the pastoral prayer and sermon, must articulate truth. Yet they should also stir the emotions and activate the will.
C. It is not the location or the external forms of worship that really matter, but the attitude of the worshiper’s heart toward God. Deepening our worship is not accomplished by more formal liturgy; indeed, that may actually be counterproductive. A deepening of true worship occurs when the heart of the worshiper becomes more earnest and when the truth consumes the mind of the worshiper. All worship not offered in spirit and in truth is utterly unacceptable to God—no matter how beautiful the external forms.
II. WRONGFUL WORSHIP - FALSE GODS
A. Approximately half of everything the Bible says about worship condemns false worship. The first two of the Ten Commandments are prohibitions against false worship.
Ex. 20:2-5 And God spoke all these words, saying:
2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
3 “You shall have no other gods before Me.
4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; 5 you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
B. Consider how much of the Old Testament describes the evil consequences of false worship. Cain and Abel, the Israelites and golden calf at Sinai, Nadab and Abihu’s offering of strange fire, King Saul’s intrusion into the priest’s office, Eli’s wicked sons who pilfered what was offered to God, Elijah’s confrontations with Jezebel and the priests of Baal, and Nebuchadnezzar’s golden image are all variations on this same theme: God does not accept worship not offered in spirit and in truth.
C. Many people foolishly believe God will accept anything offered by well-meaning worshipers. It is clear, however, that sincerity is not the test of true worship. All self-styled or aberrant worship is utterly unacceptable to God.
D. Scripture outlines at least four categories of unacceptable worship: worship of false gods, worship of the true God in a wrong form, worship of the true God in a self-styled manner, and worship of the true God with a wrong attitude. The God of the Bible is the only God, and He is a jealous God who will not tolerate the worship of another. In Isa. 48:11, God says, “My glory will I not give to another.” Exodus 34:14 says, “You shall not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.”
E. Everyone worships—even atheists. Atheists worship themselves. When people reject God, they always worship false gods of their own choice. Those gods are not necessarily personalities. People may worship money, material things, popularity, or power. All those things are as idolatrous as worshiping a stone god—idolatry which is precisely what God forbade in the first and second commandments.
Most people who worship material things do so without the consciousness that they are worshiping deities. Is that still idolatry? Absolutely.
F. Even today, people formulate supernatural gods, supposed deities. The rise of the New Age movement has produced a revival of pagan religions. People today are worshiping earth goddesses, animals, spirit beings, and even mythological deities on a scale unknown since before the Middle Ages. That is nothing more than demon worship. First Corinthians 10:20 says that things sacrificed to idols are really sacrificed to demons. "Rather , that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons." Therefore, if people worship false beings, they are actually worshiping the demons that impersonate those false gods.
III. WRONGFUL WORSHIP - WORSHIPPING THE TRUE GOD IN A WRONG FORM
A. Exodus 32:7–9 records God’s response when the Israelites made a golden calf to worship: 7 And the Lord said to Moses, “Go, get down! For your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. 8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molded calf, and worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, ‘This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!’ ” 9 And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and indeed it is a stiff-necked people! /
B. When the Israelites constructed the golden calf, they thought they were worshiping the true God, but by reducing Him to an image, they corrupted both their worship and their concept of God. This is why God forbids such idolatry. It is impossible to reduce God to a form represented by a statue or a painting. Those who worship such things may believe they worship the true God, but their worship denigrates God and is therefore unacceptable.
C. Only the living Person of Christ can reveal God in any visible or tangible form. To attempt to express God in any lesser image is to commit idolatry.
IV. WRONGFUL WORSHIP - WORSHIPPING GOD IN A SELF-STYLED MANNER
The Pharisees imposed their self-styled manner on the people and passed it off as worship toward God. Everyone followed them and were afraid of getting kicked out of the Temple at the expense of not following them.
Jesus told them, “Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?” (Matt. 15:3). Their worship was an abomination. It was false worship just as surely as worshiping a stone idol is false worship. God does not accept it.
V. WRONGFUL WORSHIP - WORSHIP OF THE TRUE GOD WITH A WRONG ATTITUDE
A. By far the most subtle kind of false worship—more difficult to measure from outward appearances than any of the first three already mentioned—is the worship of the true God in the right way, with a wrong attitude. Even with the elimination of all false gods, all images of the true God, and all self-styled modes of worship, worship will still be unacceptable if the heart attitude is not right.
B. In Malachi 1 God denounced the people of Israel for the inadequacy of their worship. “You are presenting defiled food upon my altar,” He said (v. 7). They were treating worship with disdain, with flippancy. By offering blind, lame, and sick animals (v. 8) instead of bringing the best they had, they were demonstrating contempt for the seriousness of worship. In v. 10, God says, “I am not pleased with you … nor will I accept an offering from you.” He declined to accept their worship, because their attitude was not right.
C. Perhaps the greatest need in all of the church is for a clear understanding of the biblical teaching about worship. When the church fails to worship properly, it fails in every other area.
D. A fresh understanding of worship is a necessity. God has commanded it. It is crucial to a personal relationship with Him and a testimony in this world. No one can afford to ignore it; too much is at stake.
VI. WORSHIP AS GOD DESIGNED IT
A. Here is a simple definition of worship: worship is honor and adoration directed to God. A study of the concept of worship in the Word of God will fill that definition with richness.
B. The New Testament uses several words for worship. Two of them are particularly noteworthy. The first is proskuneō, a commonly used term whose literal meaning is “to kiss toward,” “to kiss the hand,” or “to bow down.” It is the word for worship used to signify humble adoration. The second word is latreuō, which suggests rendering honor or paying homage. Latreuō speaks of the kind of reverent veneration reserved solely for God.
C. Both terms carry the idea of giving, because worship is giving something to God. The Anglo-Saxon source of the English word is weorthscipe, which relates to the concept of worthiness. Worship is ascribing to God His worth, or stating and affirming His supreme value.
D. So to talk about worship is to talk about something we give to God. Modern Christianity seems committed, instead, to the idea that God should be giving to us. God does give to us abundantly, but we need to understand the balance of that truth—we are to render ceaseless honor and adoration to God. That consuming, selfless desire to give to God is the essence and the heart of worship. It begins with the giving first of ourselves, and then of our attitudes, and then of our possessions—until worship is a way of life.
A number of years ago I read a newspaper account of a christening party in a wealthy Boston suburb. The parents had opened their palatial home to friends and relatives, who had come to celebrate the wonderful event. As the party was progressing and the people were having a wonderful time eating, drinking, celebrating, and enjoying one another, someone said, “By the way, where is the baby?”
The heart of that mother jumped, and she instantly left the room and rushed into the master bedroom, where she had left the baby asleep in the middle of the massive bed. The baby was dead, smothered by the coats of the guests.
I have often thought about that in reference to the treatment the Lord Jesus Christ receives from His own church. We are busy supposedly celebrating Him, while He is smothering under the coats of the guests.
2nd Sermon:
Bulletin Bloopers are a funny thing. They happen quite frequently. Maybe you have read some of these before:
Ushers will eat latecomers.
Miss Charlene Mason sang “I Will Not Pass This Way Again,” giving obvious pleasure to the congregation.
Ladies, don’t forget the rummage sale. It’s a good chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Bring your husbands.
The peacemaking meeting scheduled for today has been canceled due to a conflict.
Next Thursday there will be tryouts for the choir. They need all the help they can get.
Barbara remains in the hospital and needs blood donors for more transfusions. She is also having trouble sleeping and requests tapes of Pastor Jack’s sermons.
Don’t let worry kill you. Let the Church help.
Remember in prayer the many who are sick of our church and community.
A missionary from Africa named Bertha Belch is speaking at Calvary Memorial in Racine. Come tonight and hear Bertha Belch all the way from Africa.
These “bulletin bloopers” are funny and they show the importance of words. Language is so powerful, isn’t it? A misplaced letter or word can make us laugh or make us cry. Words can communicate humor or holiness, sorrow or singing.
Review from last week:
1. Contradictory phrase - Boring Worship
2. Worship is the church's and the individual Christian's highest priority
3. User friendly churches see the church existing for what the people want rather than what God wants.
4. Worship - God seeks it - John 4:23 "but the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him."
5. Everyone is a worshiper - whether himself or things or the true God.
6. We worship in "spirit and truth." This involves the truth of God with our emotions
7. Wrongful Worship
a. False gods
b. Worshiping the true God in a wrong form - golden calf
c. Worshiping God in a self-styled manner - the Pharisees
d. Worshiping the true God with a wrong attitude - heart attitude is not right (sin)
8. Worship as God designed it
a. definition: worship is honor and adoration directed to God.
b. proskuneo - to kiss toward, kiss the hand, to bow down
c. latreuo - reverent honor reserved solely for God
9. Worship is what we give to God not what He gives to us.
E. Hebrews 11 contains a list of Old Testament heroes of faith. The first is Abel. His life echoes one word: worship. The single dominant issue in Abel’s story is that he was a true worshiper; he worshiped according to God’s will, and God accepted his offering. That is really all we know about his life.
The second person in Hebrews 11 is Enoch, whose single word of identification is walk. Enoch walked with God; he lived a godly, faithful, dedicated life. One day he walked from earth to heaven!
Third on the list is Noah. The word suggested by Noah is work. He spent 120 years building the ark. That is work—the work of faith.
F. Our worship, our walk, and our work! Moses established specific age requirements for different ministries. According to Num. 1:3, a young Israelite could serve as a soldier when he was twenty. Numbers 8:24 says that a Levite could begin to work in the tabernacle when he was twenty-five. But Num. 4:3 says that to be a priest and lead the people in worship, a man had to be thirty. The reason is simple: Leading in worship demands the highest level of maturity, because as the first priority in the divine order, worship holds the greatest significance.
G. Tragically, the element of worship is largely absent from the church amid all its activity! We have many activities and little worship. We are big on ministry and small on adoration. We are disastrously pragmatic. All we want to know about is what works. We want formulas and gimmicks, and somehow in the process, we leave out that to which God has called us.
The church is a redeemed community of sinners set apart to worship God in Christ. I am a worshiper of God. I must worship and then assist the church in the worship. What is worship? “Worship is the honor and adoration directed to God,” The New Testament shows the clear distinction between worship patterns of Israel and those of the church. A dramatic change transpires between the delineated pattern of worship in Israel and that in the new order in which God is worshiped “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). The church has no prescribed format, no temple or holy place, no sacrificial system, and no priesthood. Any attempt to institute any of these old features into the church faces the danger of trying to turn the church back into Israel. The absence of a prescribed order introduces some unique and particular ways in which the church offers worship to God. These spiritual sacrifices become the Christian’s ministry to the Lord. The New Testament speaks of these sacrifices, often employing sacrificial terminology, but with an obvious distinction from the Old Testament system implied.
The New Testament presents but a sketchy picture of any particular type of the actual corporate worship experience in the early church. Here and there, we have a brief glimpse at the meetings of New Testament believers. We know they were “continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer” (Acts 2:42). They came together for seasons of prayer (Acts 4:31; 12:5). The best glimpse of a church service is in Paul’s correction of the Corinthian catastrophe over the use of tongues (1 Cor. 12–14). Believers obviously met to exalt God both in prayers and prophecies, as well as in singing (see 1 Cor. 14:26). The intent of all was the worship of God (14:16, 25) and with the purpose that all be edified (14:26).
A key adjective, used often in the New Testament to describe proper acts of worship, is the word acceptable. Every worshiper seeks to offer what is acceptable.
Worship in Three Dimensions Scripture specifies at least three categories of acceptable worship.
The outward dimension.
1. Service Toward Others
First, how we behave toward others can reflect worship. Romans 14:18 says, “For he who in this way serves [latreuō] Christ is acceptable to God.” What is this acceptable offering given to God?
The loving and selfless Christian who in this way serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. Dokimos (approved) refers to acceptance after careful examination, as when a jeweler carefully inspects a gem under a magnifying glass to determine its genuineness and value. When we serve Christ selflessly, we prove ourselves “to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world” (Phil. 2:15).
Heb. 12:28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. Notice in this verse that our service needs to be acceptable to God which is worship.
God has prepared “a new heaven and a new earth,” which will include “the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband” (Rev. 21:1–2). This is the kingdom we receive. It is a kingdom which cannot be shaken. It is eternal, unchangeable, immovable. We will never be taken from it, and it will never be taken from us. For this amazing blessing in Christ, we should show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe. The right response, then, is a worshiping life offering holy service to our worthy and awesome God.
2. Evangelism
Romans 15:16 implies that evangelism is a form of acceptable worship. Paul writes that he received special grace “to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, ministering as a priest the gospel of God, that my offering of the Gentiles might become acceptable.” The Gentiles won to Jesus Christ by his ministry became an offering of worship to God. In addition, those who were won became worshipers themselves.
In this verse, the apostle Paul's offering to God is a multitude of Gentile converts
Leitourgos (minister) was a general Greek term used of public officials. Earlier in this letter, Paul used it of government officials in general, who are, whether they realize it or not, “servants [leitourgos] of God” (13:6). But in the New Testament, the word is used most often of those who serve God in some form of public worship. It is used of the levitical priest Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, and is translated “priestly service” in Luke 1:23. It is used in the same sense of worship ministry in Philippians 2:17 (cf. Heb. 9:21; 10:11). It is used of ministering angels (Heb. 1:7, 14), and even of Christ’s heavenly ministry as our eternal High Priest (Heb. 8:1–2, 6).
As Paul ministered figuratively as a priest the gospel of God to the Gentiles, he did so in order that his offering of believing Gentiles to God, as it were, might become acceptable to Him, being sanctified by the Holy Spirit. In faithful fulfillment of his unique apostolic calling, Paul’s supreme offering to God was a multitude of Gentiles, who by virtue of the Holy Spirit’s power had been sanctified and thus made acceptable for fellowship with the Father.
Like Paul, every believer who is instrumental in winning a soul to Jesus Christ presents that convert, whether Jew or Gentile, as a priestly offering to the Lord.
3. Giving
In Phil. 4:18, Paul thanks the Philippians for their monetary gift to help him in his ministry: “I have received everything in full, and have an abundance; I am amply supplied, having received from Epaphroditus what you have sent, a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God.” Here, acceptable worship consists of giving.
Paul saw the Philippians’ gift as a sacrificial act of worship to God. Such spiritual sacrifices are required of New Covenant believers instead of the animal sacrifices of the Old Covenant.
Paul knew that the Philippians would not only receive spiritual blessings in heaven for their generosity, but also that God would supply all their physical needs in this life. The Philippians had sacrificially (cf. 2 Cor. 8:1–3) given of their earthly possessions to support God’s servant, Paul. In return, God would amply supply their needs; He would not be in their debt. Having sown bountifully, they would reap bountifully (2 Cor. 9:6); having “honor[ed] the Lord from [their] wealth and from the first of all [their] produce … [their] barns will be filled with plenty and [their] vats will overflow with new wine” (Prov. 3:9–10). They would discover that it is impossible to outgive God.
Acceptable sacrifice meant that their very gifts were acts of worship, and God was the true recipient. The Philippians’ gift had not only helped Paul and added to their heavenly “account” (4:17), it was, perhaps most importantly, an act of worship, pleasing to God. They had given in faith, not so much to Paul as to God. That should be the ultimate goal of every act of love, care, concern, and charity—to help, but also to please God (see 2 Corinthians 5:9; Hebrews 13:16).
Read the next vs. Phil. 4:19 "And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus."
So it is possible to express worship by service, sharing the gospel with unbelievers, and giving. A single word sums it up: acceptable worship is giving.
3rd Sermon:
Review the last two weeks:
1. Contradictory phrase: boring worship
2. Worship is the church's and the individual Christian's highest priority.
3. User friendly churches see the church existing for what the people want rather than what God wants.
4. Worship - God seeks it! John 4:23 "but the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him."
5. Everyone is a worshiper - whether himself or someone else or things or the true God.
6. We worship in "spirit and in truth." This involves the truth of God with our emotions and intellect.
7. Wrongful worship:
a. False gods
b. Worshiping the true God in a wrong form - the golden calf
c. Worshiping God in a self-styled manner - the Pharisees
d. Worshiping the true God with a wrong attitude - heart is not right (sin).
8. Worship as God designed it:
a. definition: worship is honor and adoration directed to God.
b. "proskuneo" - to kiss toward, kiss the hand, to bow down.
c. "latreuo" - reverent honor reserved solely for God.
9. Worship is what we give to God not what He gives to us.
10. A dramatic change takes place between the worship of Israel in the O.T. and that of the church in the N.T. Israel had a temple, holy place and holy of holies, a sacrificial system, and a priesthood. In the N.T. we have none of these. So how do we know what worship is in the N.T.?
11. A key adjective often used in the N.T. to describe proper acts of worship is the word "acceptable."
12. In the O.T. when Abel worshiped God, he brought an acceptable offering to God. Cain did not.
13. In Malachi 1, God denounced Israel's worship. vv. 7-10. He would not accept it. 2nd rate offerings.
14. Worship in three Diminsions: Outward
1. Service toward others - Rom. 14:18 serving Christ - acceptable to God. They were to be serving the weaker Christians in the church
2. Evangelism - Rom. 15:16 - the Gentiles won to Jesus by Paul's ministry became an offering of worship to God.
3. Giving - Phil. 4:18 The Philippian church helped support Paul financially with a gift. Paul thanked them and called it an acceptable sacrifice to God. It was a sacrificial act of worship to God.
The inward dimension. A second category of worship involves personal behavior. Ephesians 5:8–10 says, "8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), 10 finding out what is acceptable to the Lord.” As we walk in the Light and imitate our Heavenly Father, we offer worship to the Lord that is acceptable.
1. The ministry of holy living - Inward Diminsion
Rom. 12:1–2 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Under the Old Covenant, a sacrificial animal was to be without spot or blemish. That physical purity symbolized the spiritual and moral purity that God required of the offerer himself. Like that worshiper who was to come to God with “clean hands and a pure heart” (Ps. 24:4), the offering of a Christian’s body not only should be a living but also a holy sacrifice.
Through Malachi, the Lord rebuked those who sacrificed animals that were blind and otherwise impaired. “When you present the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? And when you present the lame and sick, is it not evil? Why not offer it to your governor? Would he be pleased with you? Or would he receive you kindly?” (Mal. 1:8). Those people were willing to give a second-rate offering to the Lord that they would not think of presenting as a gift or tax payment to a government official. They feared men more than God.
Sadly, like those in Malachi’s day, many people today are perfectly willing to give God second best, the leftovers that mean little to them—and mean even less to Him.
Only a living and holy sacrifice, the giving of ourselves and the giving of our best, is acceptable to God. Only in that way can we give Him our spiritual service of worship.Our living sacrifice also is to be holy. Hagios (holy) has the literal sense of being set apart for a special purpose. Logikos (spiritual) is the term from which we get logic and logical. Our offerings to God are certainly to be spiritual, but that is not what Paul is speaking about at this point. Logikos also can be translated reasonable, as in the King James Version. The apostle is saying that, in light of “the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God” and of His “unsearchable… judgments and unfathomable…ways”; and because “from Him and through Him and to Him are all things” (Rom. 11:33, 36), including His immeasurable “mercies” that we already have received (12:1a), our only reasonable—and by implication, spiritual—service of worship is to present God with all that we are and all that we have.
David Livingstone, the renowned and noble missionary to Africa, wrote in his journal, People talk of the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of my life in Africa. Can that be called sacrifice which is simply paid back as a small part of the great debt owing to our God, which we can never repay? Is that a sacrifice which brings its own reward of healthful activity, the consciousness of doing good, peace of mind, and bright hope of a glorious destiny hereafter?
… Away with such a word, such a view, and such a thought! It is emphatically no sacrifice. Say rather it is a privilege. Anxiety, sickness, suffering or danger now and then, with a foregoing of the common conveniences and charities of this life, may make us pause and cause the spirit to waver and sink; but let this only be for a moment. All these are nothing when compared with the glory which shall hereafter be revealed in and for us. I never made a sacrifice. Of this we ought not talk when we remember the great sacrifice which He made who left His Father’s throne on high to give Himself for us. (Livingstone’s Private Journal: 1851–53, ed.. I. Schapera [London: Chatto & Windus, 1960], pp. 108, 132)
The ministry of serving others Rom. 12:1–8 The rest of the passage in Romans 12:3-8 deal with spiritual gifts in the church and the need for using those gifts as a sacrificial gift in the church. This is worship - when we use our gifts in serving others in the church.
True worship does not consist of elaborate and impressive prayers, intricate liturgy, stained-glass windows, lighted candles, flowing robes, incense, and classical sacred music. It does not require great talent, skill, or leadership ability. Many of those things can be a part of the outward forms of genuine worship, but they are acceptable to God only if the heart and mind of the worshiper is focused on Him. The only spiritual service of worship that honors and pleases God is the sincere, loving, thoughtful, and heartfelt devotion and praise of His children.
2. Prayer - Inward Diminsion
In 1 Timothy 2:1-3 "Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, 2 for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. 3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior." Note carefully that the final words in verse 2 are “godliness and dignity.” Verse 3 goes on to say, “This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior.”
God defines prayer for the lost as the noble and spiritually proper thing to do. The lost suffer the agony of sin, shame, and meaninglessness in this life, and the eternal hell of unrelenting agony in the life to come. Knowing that, it is the most excellent task to pray for their salvation. When we pray for the salvation of the lost - this is acceptable to God and worship.
The upward dimension.
1. The ministry of praise and gratitude
Hebrews 13:15–16 Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. 16 But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.
Sacrifice was extremely important to the Jew. It was God’s provision for cleansing of sin under the Old Covenant. Many Christian Jews were no doubt wondering if God required any kind of sacrifice under the New Covenant. They knew Christ offered the one and only sacrifice for sin. But they were used to many kinds of sacrifice, and perhaps God still demanded some offering, some sacrifice, even of Christians.
Yes, He does, they are told. He demands the sacrifice of our praise and of our good works in His name. He demands sacrifice not in the form of a ritual or ceremony, but in word and in deed—in our praise of Him and in our service to others.
God no longer wants sacrifices of grain or animals. He wants only the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.
All of the last five psalms begin with “Praise the Lord,” which in Hebrew is hallelujah. The sacrifice God desires is the cry of our lips in praise to Him.
The Christian’s sacrifice of praise is to be offered continually. It is not to be a fair-weather offering, but an offering in every circumstance. “In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thess. 5:18).
Praise of God in word and deed are inseparable. Lip service must be accompanied by life service "Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. (James 1:27). The only acceptable sacrifice we can offer to God with our hands is to do good to one another, to share, to minister in whatever ways we can to the needs of others in His name.
Praising God, doing good, and sharing with others—all are legitimate, scriptural acts of worship. The believer should dedicate himself to the activity of worship, consumed with a desire to use every moment of his life to devote himself to doing good, sharing, and praising God.
We have too many activities and little worship. We are big on ministry and small on adoration. All we want to know about is what works. We want formulas and gimmicks, and somehow in the process, we leave out that to which God has called us. We are so deeply entrenched in the doing that we miss the being. We are programmed and informed and planned and busy - and we slight worship! We have our functions, our promotions, our objectives, our success driven, numbers-conscience, even faddish efforts. But too often acceptable true worship eludes us.
Years ago AW Tozer called worship "the missing jewel of the church." If he were still with us, I am sure he would reiterate that statement. In America 350,000 churches own 80 billion dollars worth of facilities dedicated to worshiping God. But how much true worship takes place?
God seeks people who will submit themselves to worship him in spirit and in truth. That kind of worship is impossible for those sheltering sin in their lives. Those who confess and forsake their sin, on the other hand, will find a Savior eager to receive them, forgive them, and liberate them from their sin. Like the woman at the well, they will find a source of living water that will quench forever even the strongest spiritual thirst. The final chapter of the Bible closes with this invitation, which evokes a picture of the Samaritan woman: And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely. (Rev. 22:17). While it is free, it is not cheap; the Savior himself paid the ultimate price so that thirsty, repentant seekers can drink as deeply as they like.