Worshipping Wholly (2)

Introduction

Wrong Worship

Video: Wrong Worship | 3:00

Worship = giving ourselves back to God in response to his love/goodness/greatness. / Not all about turning up to meetings, though part of it. / Are we guilty of reducing it to that sometimes? / Live in a global market empire that = powerful/persuasive/cunning. / It has uncanny way of persuading us to make it our idol/demand sacrifice/demand devotion.

How do we avoid its claims and ensure we offer God true worship? / P wrote to Christians living in centre of imperial Rome:

God

True Worship

Romans 12:1 The Message

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.

P uses metaphor of sacrifice deliberately. In the ancient world, religion = sacrifice. OT full of commands and examples of killing and offering of animals to G. / System open to abuse: also see examples of people offering sacrifices without considering attitude/sincerity. In other words, people were guilty of worshipping G unthinkingly.

In face of the idols around us that demand devotion/sacrifice, our true worship can be nothing else than giving all of ourselves to G as a living sacrifice. / Must offer: everyday life/ordinary life/sleeping/eating/going-to-work/walking-around life. All of it. / Offering all of ourselves is the only holy/acceptable worship.

As we understand G’s grace in our lives, our only reasonable response is to give ourselves to him as a sacrifice.

Non-Conformity

Romans 12:2 The Message

Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

What does Worshipping Wholly look like? / It looks like the opposite to the world. / We are non-conformists, not only in church terms, but in worldly terms. / We are counter-cultural. / We must live differently to other people. / Way we act, habits, attitudes, even the way we think, must be different. / We find pleasure in the things of G rather than in the things of the world. / We discover the thrill of being filled by the HS rather than rushing along with the world. / We grow in the humility of being a child of God rather than being crippled by pride/negative self-image. / We embrace a life of service rather than one of entitlement. / We become servants rather than pursue and use power. / We are generous rather than accumulating wealth for purely selfish reasons. / We use our gifts, skills, talents to serve others rather than for self-advancement. / In other words: we follow God’s pattern, not the world’s pattern.

You

The Way You Live

Have you given all of your life to G? Are you up for the challenge? / Not enough to give part of your life to G, but keep other parts for yourself. / Not “All that I am” but not this relationship, this work, this pleasure … / Worshipping apart from full commitment to G = wrong worship. / Must Worship Wholly. / G needs Worship Warriors:

Becoming a worshipper means becoming a warrior... And by toning that down...we have sent men and women away from the church in droves. It's time to call them back as worshipping warriors ... [That is as] warriors who are surrendered to God, warriors who know that their authority comes because they are under authority, warriors willing to wait even when everyone else is rushing ahead, or [warriors willing to] act decisively...in obedience ... to their commanding officer, Jesus Christ, even when everybody else is lagging behind in disobedience. (Brian Doerksen, worship leader).

Take opportunity to: Gladly give your whole self to G this morning./Renew your mind so that you can think straight with mind of Christ instead of the twisted thinking of the world./Become a Worship Warrior who is Worshipping Wholly.

Next Steps

SB 635 - When the music fades

When the music fades, all is stripped away, And I simply come; Longing just to bring something that?s of worth, That will bless your heart. I?ll bring you more than a song, For a song in itself is not what you have required. You search much deeper within Through the way things appear; You?re looking into my heart. I?m coming back to the heart of worship, And it?s all about you, all about you, Jesus. I?m sorry, Lord, for the thing I?ve made it, When it?s all about you, all about you, Jesus. 2 King of endless worth, no one could express How much you deserve. Though I?m weak and poor, all I have is yours, Every single breath. I?ll bring you more than a song, For a song in itself is not what you have required. You search much deeper within Through the way things appear; You?re looking into my heart. Matt Redman © 1997 Thankyou Music/Adm. by Capitol CMG Publishing excl. UK & Europe, adm. by Integritymusic.com, a division of David C. Cook, [e-mail] Used by permission.  Used By Permission. CCL Licence No. 30158 Copied from The Song Book of The Salvation Army Song Number 635