Sermon Tone Analysis

Message

One of my favorite singer and songwriters, Jon Foreman, wrote a lyric in his song “The Blues that reads: ***“Is this a new year or just another desperation?”

After the year that all of us just endured, this question seems fitting for the first Sunday of 2021: The term desperate describes 2020 well, doesn’t it?

2020 was hard, and I’m glad it’s over, but let me ask you a really honest question: how will 2021 be any different for you?

If the pandemic ends this year and some semblance of pre-COVID normalcy resumes in our lives, will that wipe the slate clean on your anxiety?

As we begin a new year with all of the hope and potential that every new year pledges to bring, we must ask ourselves: will this be a new year where truly a new thing takes place in life, or will this year be more of the same old desperations?

Today begins a new series… for a new year… about new life… discovered through the most unlikely way…  through sacrifice.

In fact, what I’m going to talk about today completely contradicts our way of life.

I think for most, sacrifice corresponds to loss, pain, and even death.

In religious terms, sacrifice means old and irrelevant.

My hunch tells me that whenever many of us hear the word ‘sacrifice’, our defenses for self-preservation immediately spring into action.

Sacrifice and happiness typically don’t make good dance partners.

Yet, I’m standing before you right now because my mom, a single parent, chose to sacrifice her time, finances, and comfort for the sake of a better life for her two sons.

We are safely gathered here without the threat of death looming over us for being in this room because tens of thousands of men and women over the centuries saw fit to give their last full measure to honor our freedom of religion.

You are sitting here today because someone else - a parent, family member, mentor, friend, pastor - gave a sacrifice of their time, talents, and/or their treasure in order to help you soar higher than you would have otherwise done on your own.

What if those people who had chosen to make a a different decision.

And you know what, if they had to do it all over again, I bet they would.

Here, I am reminded of a passage in Ephesians that reads, ***“God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ.

How did Jesus bring us into God’s family?

By sacrificing his life!

And do you know the crazy part?

***This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure” Ephesians 1:5.

While sacrifice on the one hand always means loss.

Sacrifice always leads to a new beginning.

In Jesus, new life was made possible for us because his life came to an end.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” 2 Corinthians 5:17

Jesus opened a new way for all of us to live by modeling a life marked by sacrifice.

The Apostle Paul instructed Jesus’ followers to follow Jesus’ way, saying:

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

Romans 12:1-2

In view of God’s mercy, Jesus washed the scorecard permanently and forever clean.

That’s what mercy means: no condemnation.

Grace and mercy are two sides of the same coin.

Grace is the act of receiving an undeserved gift.

It’s getting what you don’t deserve.

Whereas mercy is not receiving what you do deserve.

What Jesus accomplished on the cross was like unlocking infinite lives on Mario.

I always felt envious of my friends who unlocked the code by clicking up down up down a-b-a-b-a-b-a up up up up down down on the controller in order to unlock infinite lives.

On the cross, Jesus unlocked the mercy code for everyone, and then still desires to give us all things through the fruits of his Spirit: love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Galatians 5:22-23

What fruit do you need?

Then ask for it and it shall be given to you.

There is no limit!

God showed us unending mercy—forever withholding what we deserve—by enduring the loss of his own son.

Our mercy cost God everything, but he willingly chose it for love.

Because God loves you enough to suffer for our mercy!

This reminds me of what Paul wrote elsewhere: “For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ.

And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.” 2 Corinthians 1:20

In Christ, God said yes to every promise to us, even when we said no, because…

The faithful love of the Lord never ends!

[[[wrote the Prophet, Jeremiah ]]]

His mercies never cease.

Great is his faithfulness;

his mercies begin afresh each morning.

Lamentations 3:22-23

Thus it is In view of God’s mercy, that followers of Christ offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.

Romans 12:1

In the days when Paul wrote this letter, Jewish law mandated several kinds of animal and plant sacrifices.

Here in this passage, Paul picks up on this motif, but turns it completely upside down.

Since Jesus fulfilled the purpose for why those sacrifices once existed, the only kind of sacrifice that now pleases God is the living of your life for God’s glory!

In fact, following Jesus’ death, historical evidence shows that from the time that Jesus died around AD 30 until the time of the destruction of the Jerusalem temple in AD 70, Jewish followers of Jesus stopped the practice of temple sacrifices altogether because they believed that Jesus’ death on the cross served as the final, ultimate sacrifice of sin for all people.

In turn, Acts chapters 2 and 4 describe how the first followers of Jesus offered life-giving sacrifices, such as providing food for the hungry, orphaned, and widowed, praying for the needs of others, and even willingly offering their own lives for the sake of Christ amidst persecution.

Jesus calls us his followers to offer their lives in life to the God of life.

This Paul writes is your true and proper worship.

Romans 12:2

So how might your life be a living sacrifice - set apart and generous to God? Perhaps it begins outside of these 4 walls?

True worship, the kind that delights God and lifts our eyes above see level into faith level, becomes fully expressed when we live our lives in such a way that every part of our life is a YES and AMEN to God’s merciful sacrifice for us.

What if you viewed everything you do as an act of worship?

What a strange question!

What does this even mean?

Like be churchy at work? Sing songs and pray?

I don’t think that’s what Paul envisioned as our response to Christ’s sacrifice.

Rather, the Greek word Paul used for our English word for worship offers insight into this question.

The Greek word is called ‘latreia.’

It used to mean ‘to work for hire or pay.’

It was the word used of the laborers who gave their strength to an employer in return for pay.

It denotes the voluntary undertaking of work.

Over time, the term came to mean quite generally ‘to serve;’ and then evolved to mean ‘that to which one gives one’s whole life.’

In the Bible, whenever this word appears, it always refers to a person’s dedication to God.

All of a sudden, this definition of worship takes on a dramatically different and radically wider context than simply to mean church on Sundays.

What we do on Sundays matters for the upbuilding of the community and connection with one another.

“Let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.”

Hebrews 10:25

Our time together holds great significance for the being and purpose of Jesus’ followers.

Yet, our true act of worship - or what could be called our latreia, our dedication to God - well, that’s everything.

That’s our life.

“You are not your own; you were bought at a price.

Therefore honor God with your bodies.” 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Our lives no longer belong to us.

On the cross Christ bought you back and now you belong to God.

Now, where sin used to hold us, Mercy reigns, so let everything you do - your thoughts, acts, words, and deeds - be considered an act of worship devotion.

I want to address two areas of our lives that I believe hold significant influence in how we offer our lives to God: Work and Thoughts - what you do with your hands and what you do with your mind.

Obviously, relationships, recreation, family - each one of these areas require our devotion to God, but for guys, in particular, WORK and THOUGHTS consume much of our daily hard drive, so:

How might your WORK be an act of worship?

How might every collegial interaction, supervisory session, profit and loss report, inventory count, board meeting, department meeting, team huddle, customer service response, every conflict, tension, celebration, and trash pick-up,  - all be done as acts of devotion to God?

I can’t see your expression through the mask, but I know many of you are thinking: you’re crazy.

How can any of those things be done as acts of worship?

Let me share a story about a friend of mine who experienced his work as an act of worship.