Big Idea: Our Sacrifice of service is central to worship.
I. BACKGROUND ABOUT WORSHIP
BIG IDEA
What I want you to leave with tonight, and for some of you this is going to rock your world. For others of you, its gonna be a good review. That our sacrifice of service, our sacrifice of service, is central. You might even say the core, is central, to worship. Our sacrifice of service is central to worship. And that’s key. And I hope that, you have that thought and some, some supporting material firmly in your mind, as we leave tonight.
PRAYER
Let’s begin in prayer, and ask God that He would enlighten us, to understand His Word, and work in us to change our hearts as we look to Him.
“Father! I thank you for your Word. I thank you that it is a light to our feet, and a lamp, and to our path. And I thank you God, that here in this country, we are blessed with open and easy access to your Word. And I pray that we would be good stewards of that opportunity tonight. And I ask your Holy Spirit would help us to understand, in a spiritual way your scripture. And that He would change our hearts.
And that we would have a resulting change of actions and words. In Jesus name. Amen!”
REVIEW
1. Read Philosophy of Worship Quotes.
Worship can be a very, a high and lofty concept for us. Let’s review some of the things that have been said in this series.
1. “Worship results from seeing and savoring Jesus Christ as Lord: who He is and what He has done.”
Worship results from seeing, and savoring Jesus Christ as Lord: Who He is, and what He has done. There is an aspect of worship that involves seeing. We add the idea of savoring to distinguish us from the demons who see it, and have a different result.
Worship results from seeing, and savoring Jesus Christ as Lord: Who He is, and what He has done. There is an aspect of worship that involves seeing. We add the idea of savoring to distinguish us from the demons who see it, and have a different result.
2. “Worship is ascribing honor and glory to God our Creator because honor and glory are due His name.”
Another aspect of worship is ascribing. It is attributing honor and glory to God. Worship is ascribing honor and glory to God. As we sang tonight and as we give heed to God’s Word, we are ascribing honor, and glory to God. Make no mistake. He already has it whether we ascribe it to Him or not. It is our privilege, to join in the process, and recognize who He is.
3. “A believer who treasures Jesus Christ loves His Word, presents himself as an obedient living sacrifice...”
The last slide has our last aspect. A believer who treasures Jesus Christ, loves His Word, and presents himself as an obedient, living sacrifice.
2. Review Worship Definition Words SEE - ASCRIBE - SERVICE
Our sacrifice of service is central to worship. We can summarize worship in three words. The first one is, to see. Think of that as savoring. The next one is, to ascribe to God, the honor and the glory that is due Him. The last one, I like to summarize with the word, to serve.
All three of those, are central and key to worship: to see and savor, to ascribe or attribute to God, and the sacrifice of service.
3. OT and NT words for Worship
The Old Testament word for worship, “shachah”- literally means, “to bow down, to prostrate yourself before.” That’s the physical action it refers to. The figurative meaning, is the concept that we think of, with “reverence” or “worship.”
The New Testament word, that is commonly translated worship, “proskuneo”…means basically the same thing. So we have really a pretty good parallel in the Old Testament, and the New Testament.
4. The first record of Jesus talking about worship. Mathew 4.9
I would like to start tonight with when the Lord Jesus is first recorded, talking about worship. Turn with me to Matthew 4:9. The first time we find the Lord Jesus, talking about worship, actually comes in a rather unexpected situation. In Mathew chapter 4 most of you remember as, the temptation of Christ. What a fascinating thing it is to me to think that the first time Jesus talked about worship, was with Satan. That in itself is something to think about.
Iin Mathew 4:9 Satan says to Christ, “All these things, (and he is showing Him the kingdoms of the world) I will give to you, if you will fall down, and worship me.” The word ‘fall down’ is ‘Pipto’ in the Greek. And the word for worship, is pros-ku-ney-o.
What was it that Satan wanted Jesus to do? How did Jesus respond to him? Look at the next verse. What did He say in response? Isn’t that interesting? It is written, ”You shall worship The Lord your God, and Him only, you shall serve.” This illusion comes from Deuteronomy chapter 6. I want you to turn back there in your Bible to Deuteronomy chapter 6. (Every time I see this passage, and see the Lord Jesus quoting from Deuteronomy, the first thing that comes to my mind is, how long has it been, since I’ve read Deuteronomy? There is more back there, than it first meets the eye.)
In verse 4, we have “Hear O Israel, The Lord our God, The Lord is one. You shall love the God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength...” The next several verses talk about how it should pervade your entire life, and how you should spread it to your children, and your grandchildren. “And so it shall be,” in verse 10, “when The Lord your God brings you into the land of which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you large and beautiful cities which you did not build, houses full of good things which you did not fill, hewn out wells which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant. When you have eaten and you are full, then beware, lest you forget The Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, you shall…” What does it say in your version? He said, “You shall fear The Lord your God, and serve Him.” What Jesus doesn’t quote, but could have is, “and take oaths in His name.”
Exactly, what was it that Christ understood, Satan wanted Him to do? Satan was wanting more than Jesus to take a certain physical posture. It wasn’t, “Just take a certain physical posture and I’ll give this to you,” because Lord Jesus responded when he said, fall down and worship me. Of course Jesus says, “No, I am to worship.” The Old Testament words were fear and serve God. Jesus could have added, “When I do something important like taking oath, it’s going to be in His name, not yours.” This is much larger in scope than liturgy or and act or observance done as worship.
II. EXPOSITION OF ROMANS 11.33-12.2
Take your Bibles if you will, and turn with me to Romans 11:33. Whenever I think of Romans, I think about Martin Lloyd Jones spending sixteen years preaching through this book. Think about how far we’ve come when we get to the end of chapter eleven in Romans.
Verse 33. “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! "For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His counselor?" Paul is quoting from Isaiah. “Or who has first given to Him, and it shall be repaid to him.” He quotes from Job. “For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.”
Chapter 12. “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. 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. For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.”
1. THEREFORE
What is the “therefore,” therefore? Paul has spent eleven deep, intricate chapters, laying doctrinal foundations, for what he is saying in these verses.
I’d like to read you something from Warren Wiersbe.
He says, the Christian life is not based on ignorance, but knowledge, and the better we understand Bible doctrine (Romans 1 through 11), the easier it is to obey Bible duties (Romans 12 through16). When people say, don’t talk to me about doctrine, just let me live my Christian life, they are revealing their ignorance of the way the Holy Spirit works, in the life of the believer. It makes no difference what you believe, as long as you live right, is a similar confession of ignorance. It does make a difference, what you believe. Because what you believe, not necessarily professed, but what you believe, determines how you behave.
-- Wiersbe, W: Bible Exposition Commentary. 1989. Victor
He says, therefore, by or through the agency of God’s mercies, I’m making this appeal. God’s mercy on us reminds us of two things.
One, is that we are pitiful and to be pitied. In our sin, and unregenerant state, we are a mess. When you go by and look at someone who is so hooked on drugs, that they are living a filthy life or some horrible sinner you feel sorry for them. That’s what mercy means. That describes how God feels towards us. It’s easy for us to sit in a church pew, and feel pretty good about ourselves. But, the reason we need God’s mercies, is because we are pitiful.
The second thing that that word ‘mercies’ reminds us of is that God, has made, a provision, for you, and I, to be in a right relationship with Him. Each one of us have a God filled vacuum in our heart. Many of us don’t have enough sense to realize what it takes to fill the gap. We have sinned against God, and we are to be pitied. Christ has provided us a great salvation. The work has been done. It requires us taking verse three to heart. To not think more of ourselves than we ought, and to throw ourselves humbly at Christ’s mercy. If you haven’t come to that point in your life yet, the rest of what we are talking about, and what we’ve talked about, really is not going to make sense. If you are here tonight, and you do not have peace with your God, a right relationship with God, that is where you need to start. And you are in a great place, to be in that position. Because you have lots of people sitting around you, who can take you to God’s word and show you how you can know, that you have eternal life.
This is not a outline that Paul had in mind, but it illustrates something important.
Look here at verse 33. He says, “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! "For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His counselor? Or who has first given to Him, and it shall be repaid to him.”
We see Paul, seeing who God is and ascribing to Him, honor and glory. And, coming at it the other way, look at verse 3. By shining the light back on us, he does the same thing, doesn’t he?
What does verse 3 say?
“For I say through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think more highly of himself, than he ought to think”. And even thought it’s not speaking directly of God, by promoting humility, he is ascribing glory, and honor, to God.
Romans 12: 1-2 are sandwiched right here in between these.
2. PRESENT
This work is used of the priest, as they would bring the offering, or present the offering to God. He says, “I speak to you that you should present…” what? “your bodies.” And the word there is the word for a physical body. It’s the same word that we have in 1st Corinthians 9:19 when he says, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you? And you have from God, and you are not your own, you were bought with the price. Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit.” God is interested in your physical body. When ask someone if they can be somewhere, and they have another engagement, they sometimes say, “I will be with you in spirit.” It is a nice gesture that says. God doesn’t want us to be with Him just in spirit. He wants your body. He says, present your body, to me. That’s something tangible.
3. REASONABLE (spiritual--nasb, esv, niv) logikos logical, thoughtful, spiritual not physical
And He says, this is your reasonable, some of your versions say spiritual.
If you have a version that says “reasonable,” take your pencil and write “spiritual” out in the margin. If yours is one of the versions that say “spiritual,” take your pencil and write “reasonable” out in the margin. The translators tried to grab this Greek word and they can’t really communicate it all with one English word, so they had to choose which one they preferred. This is a word that takes its roots in the word ‘logos’. And so, it definitely has a sense of the rational, or the thinking. It’s used here contrast to doing some physical act of worship or some procedure. This is something that is spiritual. When we present our bodies, it is our reasonable, spiritual service.
4. SERVICE not proskuneo, but latreia: service rendered for hire / to perform sacred services in worship of God
It is interesting to note that this is not the word “proskuneo” for worship. This is a word that means, to serve. It’s used of a hired servant. If you hired someone, you would say he is doing you some kind of service. It’s also used in the temple of the priests as they went through their service of offering sacrifices and doing other things. We get this big picture what it means here to worship. It is your reasoned, spiritual service. It’s a “doing” thing. It’s the physical body that you are presenting.
5. Verse 2: What does that service look like?
Look at the next verse. It’s interesting that there is no conjunction. It is just kind of slammed in there together. The sense of the Greek here is, “What does the service look like?” It says stop confirming. Stop being molded to this ‘world’. Another word for world is ‘age’. “Age is the word in the Greek. It says conformed to this age. It refers to the attitudes, and the morays of the times we live in. Don’t be swept off your feet by the way everybody else is living, by the world and the way it thinks. And that might be a little different for us than it is in another country, but you know the prince of the power of the air has his system, in place. And He says, stop being. Requires a little humility. You guys say, yeah that’s me. I look at people in history, and how they were confirmed, to their world to some extent. Even godly men were. With the perspective of years we can see that very easily and very clearly now, that serves as a warning to us that we need to be careful that we are not being conformed to the morays and the values of our time. But be “transfigured.” or transformed. This is the same word that it used to explain what happened to Jesus on the mount of transfiguration. And I think what that highlights to us, is how big of a change, how far outside the box we are thinking, when we are transformed by the renewing of our mind.
Your service, that your living body, that has been presented to God as a living sacrifice, does is the core of worship. Now, I don’t care how good your buns are on a hamburger. It’s the stuff inside that makes the hamburger. Amen! And, the best gourmet buns in the world, doesn’t make up for rotten meat in the middle. And our service, as we present ourselves to God, as we go through our daily lives, as an act of worship to Him, that is core and central, to what worship is.
III. APPLICATION
1. What does it look like when we are worshipping God in our daily lives? Look with me at Colossians, chapter 3. Let’s see what this service looks like. Now some might be think, “If this is the core of worship, I don’t need to come to church anymore.”
Chapter 3, verse 16. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom. Teaching and admonishing what? One another. We have a responsibility to each other. To teach each other, to admonish each other. And that happens on Sunday morning, on Sunday evening, during the weekday Bible studies, Wednesdays, where we come together in teaching and admonishing one another. In songs, and hymns and spiritual song singing, with grace in our hearts, to The Lord. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do all in the name of The Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God, The Father, through Him.
The picture I have of that verse is, the service trucks that you see driving around town. Joe Blow’s plumbing and stuff. And those guys got to watch what they do. They have that company name all over the van they’re driving and in big letters on their shirt. They are not acting for themselves. They are doing it for someone else. When I did air-conditioning service, I didn’t necessarily do it the way I thought was best. I do it the way the company wants it done because they got the check, they got the complaints, etc. And we need to have that same attitude.
Look on. What does it say?
Wives ... As it is fitting in The Lord.
Husbands ... In Ephesians 5, it says, as Christ loved the church.
Children… as well pleasing to The Lord.
Fathers … (in Ephesians 6, it says in the, raising your children, in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
Bond servants… Do it heartily as to The Lord.
You masters… Keep it in mind, you have a master in heaven.
So what does this worship look like? Everything I do and every relationship that I have is centered around who Christ is. I am fearing God, and serving Him in whatever do. We swear, whenever we do, in His name.
2. Service has a central location in our text like it does in worship.
In Romans 11: 33-35 we see, and we savor who God is. “The depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God. And how unsearchable are His judgments. His ways past finding out. Who has known the mind of The Lord? Or who has first given to Him?” And then the glory ascribed, for of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things to whom be glory forever. And then in verse 3 on the other side, with our attitude, of humility, not thinking more highly of ourselves, as we ought. In between in the heart of worship, our daily service for the Lord.
3. Church Marquee illustration
I’m not a big fan of cute little, quippy, church marquee things on my church, but I enjoy reading them on other churches. I saw one that really struck to the heart of what we’re talking about tonight. It says God does not want weekend visitation rights. He wants full custody. God does not want weekend visitation rights with you. He doesn’t want ten percent of your money. He doesn’t want ten percent of your time. He says that, all belongs to me. Present it to me. And, it’s used to served, and to fear me.
Our sacrifice of service is central to worship.
4. Hot Check Illustration
Proverbs 21:27 – “The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination.” Or your version might say, is detestable.
And I like to put that in the context of writing a check. When we come Sunday morning, Chuck and the worship leaders provide us a wonderful opportunity to write this check of praise to God about how much we love Him. However, f you haven’t been putting money in the bank during the week, that’s going to be a hot check. When you go to a merchant, and you write him a promise to give him money, and don’t have the resources back in the bank, to back it up, it is an abomination, and detestable to him. And it’s the same with our worship to God. Our sacrifice of service is central to what it means, to worship Him.
5. Hamburger Illustration
Gourmet bread on Sunday doesn’t make up for rotten meat during the week. And I hope to sear this picture in your mind, and I hope you never look at a hamburger the same again. Or when you see that hamburger or sandwich and that nice piece of meat, or chicken or whatever it is you like middle, remind yourself that my service, my fear of the Lord, my doing everything important in His name, is central, to what worship is. Now, very few of us like to eat a hamburger without buns. It is just a mess, so the buns are important. But if you went to Wendy’s, and you asked for a hamburger, and they just gave you two buns put together, you’d be right back up to the counter complaining that the most important part had been left out. Our service is the most important part of worship
Closing Prayer
Father. Take my life. And let it be consecrated to thee. My moments, my days, my hands, feet, voice, lips, my silver and, my gold, my mind, will, heart, and love. Oh God! Make me true to you, in all that I do. May I be ever only and all for you. Amen!
Closing Prayer:
Take my life and let it be concentrated to Thee
My moments and my days
My hands, feet, voice, lips
My silver and my gold
My mind, will, heart, and love
May I be ever, only all for Thee. Amen.
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