Worship

Transcript (Auto-generated)

Good morning church. It's great to gather together welcome if you're joining us online as well such a privilege to be gathered together as God's people this morning now I want to start a little bit differently it could be hit it could be Miss I'm really counting on some extroverts being in the room this is your open invitation to join me okay please don't leave me standing here in an awkward silence answer the question shout it out you don't have to put your hand up okay we're going to start a little bit differently we're going to play a game I like games I'm still a kid at heart okay what we're going to do is in a moment there's going to be some photo come up on the projector and what I want you guys to do is shout out when you think you've got it tell me what the commonality is between all of the photos Okay what what's the common thread what's the common link Z can you put the first one up all right so we got plumber some tradies some people working in retail study or business work thank you there we go we're warming up we're warming up so first one's work this one we've got a movie cinema we've got some gardening some fishing my personal favorite um and some soccer or football pleasure Recreation Hobbies right okay we're going good I like this third one friends family right good you guys are nailing this all right this one what's this worship okay got one more one more one final one Z what's This Life Worship we we've got a couple different ones I want to suggest this morning what we're going to be looking at this morning is this topic of worship I want to suggest this morning that every single photo up there every single aspect of life that is represented there can be an act of worship and so if you've got your Bibles here with you this morning I'd encourage you to open up to Romans 12 not necessarily A Passage that comes to mind when you think of worship but it's where God led me as I Was preparing this week verses 1 and two Paul the writer of this letter to the Christians in Rome he says I appeal to you therefore 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 be conformed 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 we know that God always blesses the reading of his word and as we come now to dive into this passage would you just join me as we pray Heavenly Father we thank you for the gift of worship Lord God we thank you for the gift of your word and we pray now that as we explore this topic explore this idea as we delve deep into what it is that you have revealed to us through Paul and his letter to the Romans Lord God we just ask that you would be softening our hearts working in Us by your Holy Spirit to speak to us to reveal to us what it is that you want to say this morning we pray this in the name of Jesus Christ amen so as a good student good sermon preparer I did the typical thing and I googled worship and cdge dictionary is usually pretty good when you're looking for definitions and it defines worship as to have or show a strong feeling of respect and AD ad admiration for God or a God I don't know about you but I sort of read that and I was like eh they've kind of got it I mean it's it's not wrong but it's also not really right it doesn't quite hit the nail on the head it's not in my opinion a very good definition of what worship is and so I scrolled through some of the other different dictionaries and they were all along these same sort of lines and I was reminded in that of an exercise that I did going through college a definition that we came to looking at a biblical definition of the word worship and I want to share that definition with you this morning this definition which in my opinion is a much better definition of what we mean as Christians when we say worship is that worship is our intentional Spirit empowered response to God's revelation centered in Jesus worship is our intentional Spirit owered response to God's revelation centered in Jesus and so if we bow that that down make it really simple worship is a response right that means that we can't just out of the blue go okay I'm going to worship now we need something to respond to and so we have to ask ourselves if Paul here is saying I urge you to give your bodies as a Living Sacrifice because this is your true and proper worship what are we responding to what has come before this moment if you're ever reading through your Bible and you see the word therefore that's a good indication that what's about to come is directly related to everything that has been said just before it and so we see that this statement of Pauls doesn't come out of context it doesn't come as a surprise but in fact he's laid the foundations for it in the first 11 chapters of Romans now if I preached through all of that we'd be here for a very very very very long time so what I've done is I've boiled it down to a very basic distilled recap of some of the things that Paul's discussed already in his letter to the Christians in Rome Paul makes point to say hey Sinners have been justified by God's grace as a gift through the Redemption that is Christ G Jesus he says Sinners we we were in Rebellion against God but he's Justified us he says as Believers we're adopted as children of God and co-s with Christ no longer are we Rebels and sinners who are completely against God but because God has made a way through Jesus to justify us he then also when we choose to accept that when we choose to believe that he adopts us into his family he makes us his sons and daughters and by doing so coars with Christ this is exciting stuff church this is some of the gems of our Salvation right number three says Believers are placed under God's grace rather than his law praise God because the whole Old Testament shows that we couldn't live up to God's law our own lives testify that we can't live up to God's law how good that we're placed under his grace rather than his law Paul reveals that Believers receive the gift of the Holy Spirit we've seen that recorded in Acts that the Holy Spirit came it indwelt in those who believed in Jesus he tells them that this holy spirit is their helper through times of trial and tribulation God is with them and he says Hey Believers have confidence have confidence knowing that you will see the coming Glory Jesus's second coming when he said hey I'm coming again have confidence that's not just going to disappear have confidence be assured that you cannot be separated from God's love if you are a Believer these are some of the things that Paul has said in his letter up until now they're Revelations of God right they're things that God has revealed to his people over the last time bit bit of time and Paul's counting this to the Romans he's giving them all this information but then we get to chapter 12 and crudely it's almost like Paul goes this information is good you need to know this but it requires a response if you know it and do nothing with it then it's not really going to do anything it requires a response and so we get his words I urge you brothers and sisters in view of God's mercy in view of everything that I have laid out for you in the beginning of this letter offer your bodies as a Living Sacrifice holy and pleasing to God for this is your true and proper worship now that's only the part in Romans for us here this morning we've all come to church we've worshiped together right and we have so much we don't have to reach far for Revelation knowledge of God we're sitting here and no one's going to be surprised when I say that God is the Creator and the sustainer of everything right Genesis God is the Creator and sustainer he's revealed that to us he's revealed that even while we were rebelling against him even in our sin that he loved us wow God loved us even when we were unlovely so much so that he sent Jesus to die in our place to pay the penalty of our sin if that doesn't get you excited church I don't know what will right that that is the core of our belief and worship is our intentional Spirit empowered response to God's Revelation centered in Jesus one of The Temptations one of the trappings I'm guilty of it is we can narrow this word worship into one Outlet right I'm guilty of it I've misused the word worship when I should have used music right so often when we hear worship we think ah the band no they're a music team who are worshiping we worship ship in so many different ways every aspect of this service from our meeting together our giving of our ties our prayer all of it is worship if it's in response if it's Spirit empowered if it's intentional and if it's responding to what God has revealed to us if it's our response to who he is and what he has done then it is worship I I don't know about you but a Living Sacrifice sort of makes me a bit uncomfortable bit foreign Concept in some ways but a Living Sacrifice means your whole self right Paul isn't beating around the bushes he's not saying Hey give your Sundays to God he's give your whole self as a Living Sacrifice I had a lecture once tell me in reference to this passage words I'll never forget he said the problem with a Living Sacrifice is it has a tendency to wle off The Altar and I don't know about you but that Rings true for me right because I can go God I'm holy and solely devoted to you do lead me I'll be obedient and then things get a little bit uncomfortable it's like oh I didn't mean send me there oh no God I think I'm just going to take a couple steps this way Paul's saying your whole selves he the other thing is he doesn't say get yourselves Prim and perfect and then off yourselves he says as you are I appeal to you brothers and sisters as you are right now in response to everything God has done present yourselves as a Living Sacrifice this is your true and proper worship see this side of Eternity we're all broken right we still wrestle with sin but the other thing is if we narrow our definition of worship to music or to prayer or to this or to that I can guarantee that there's no two people in this room that are the same okay God made us uniquely God gifted Us in different ways and we see Paul acknowledges this as we continue on verse three says for the grace given to me I say to everyone among you do not think of himself more highly than he ought but to think with sober judgment each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned for in one body we have many members and the members do not all have the same function so we though many are one body in Christ and individually members one of another having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us let us use them if prophecy in proportion to our faith if service in our serving if one who teaches in his teaching the one who exalts in his exal ation the one who contributes in generosity the one who leads with Zeal and the one who does acts of Mercy with cheerfulness Paul focuses in on the gifts of the Spirit there but I want to suggest that it goes beyond that God's gifted us all differently physically as well right I can play the guitar and so one of the ways I can worship is through music but if we narrowed our definition of worship to music then if you can't play instrument that's kind of sucky isn't it mean it means that you don't really get this opportunity that doesn't seem right God's bigger than that and so what I I want to suggest is based on those photos right just like we've been given different spiritual gifts our day-to-day lives are different and unique and suited to us as well some of us in the room are traes we can build things with our hands and make things happen in that way that's no accident God built you God Made You unique he knows that some of us have creative minds some of us have this amazing ability that I'm kind of jealous of you can sit down and work out really big theoretical problems without actually physically seeing or touching it and just know that it's going to work some of us are able to raise children into amazing adults right each of us have been gifted in different ways and God knows that he's made us unique and he says use it to worship me respond to what I've revealed about myself to you with all that you are in every aspect respond to me as we move on on from there the latter part of chapter 12 it mirrors it echoes Jesus's teaching at The Sermon on the Mount right Paul's using this to teach the Romans but I also want to suggest that everything in here can be an act of worship remember our definition worship is our intentional Spirit empowered response to God's revelation centered in Jesus and Paul says let love be genuine abhor what is evil and hold fast to what is good let love be genuine where's that come from well God is love right we wouldn't know love unless God had first loved us lust maybe but love p pure love Let It Be genuine it's only having had that revealed from God that we can then love others properly that can be an act of worship abhor what is evil hold fast what a good well if God is the source of all goodness and he hates all evil then surely that's a response surely that is worship if we're going well God is good I can see that that is evil and I'm going to choose to hold fast to what is good you're choose to hold fast to God and upour what is evil surely that's a response surely that is worship love one another with brotherly affection outdo one another showing honor do not be slothful in Zeal be fervent in spirit serve the Lord why why should we serve the Lord I mean we could just do it because mechanically like I like playing guitar in this like church service lets me play guitar cool but that's not worship if that's the reason I'm doing it but if I go God's given me these gifts he's made me unique he's given me the ability to do this thing and that thing and that thing I know that I can't do that but that's okay because God's made me in this way this is what I have and I'm going to serve God a because he is the one who made me and gave me this gift but also he came down from heaven and served us by giving His Life For Me He Paid a Debt that I could not pay surely that's worship Church rejoice in hope well that's easy because without Christ there is no hope right life's pretty sucky if we don't have salvation so rejoice in Hope be patient in Tribulation sucky times come but how can that be worship what I'm suggesting here is not that every worship is going to be songs of Praises okay I'm not saying that in the middle of tribulation we should be going oh God you are so good yeah I'm just really hyped that I'm going through this really sucky thing no let's be real Church we're probably going to go this really really sucks we might even start like David did and say my God my God why have you forsaken me and yet if we take the time to stop to observe our situation and remember Christ will remember he's revealed to us he says I will never leave you nor forsake you I will Journey with you if you believe in me you have the Holy Spirit I'm not going anywhere anywhere and that might not mean that everything right here right now is going to get better but I promise you there's coming a day when Jesus will return and everything will be made right surely when we do that that is an act of worship patience in Tribulation be constant in prayer prayer by its very nature is a gift from God right who are we as rebellious Sinners to have a dire line of communication with God it's only by his grace how amazing worship God When you pray contribute to the needs of the Saints and seek to show Hospitality God provides for all our needs right how good bless those who persecute you bless and do not curse imagine if God cursed us when we rebelled against against him Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep live in harmony with one another do not be Hoy but associate with the lowly how's that an act of worship just looking out for them didn't the god of the universe come to Earth as a baby associated with his lowly creation to give us hope and salvation isn't that a reason to worship repay no on evil for evil but give thought to what is Honorable in the sight of all and if possible so far as it depends on you live peacefully with all never avenge yourselves but leave it to the wrath of God for it is written vengeance is mine I will repay says the Lord to the contrary if your enemy is hungry feed him if he is thirsty give him something to drink drink if God provides for all our needs then it means that our food and water came from him even while we didn't acknowledge Him as God right if he created everything then he's been providing for us even before we knew him even while we've been sinning isn't that something to respond to do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good Jesus did not Jesus Come into the world and overcome evil with good praise God and so how does this apply very very simply Church there's one warning and one point that I want you to take away from this morning that's it one point sermon the warning is not to limit our worship of God As I said I'm guilty I've used the word Worship in place of music I should have just used music it's one Avenue but worship is so much bigger and when we narrow in the word worship we start to go ah I don't need to bring that word into my work or into when I go and do the groceries or into my interactions with anyone else because that's this one aspect that's this one area where that word applies don't limit it to a Sunday morning we call this our Sunday morning worship service but don't limit it to just an hour and a bit this morning God's bigger than that he's revealed so much more to us than we can contain into a couple hours on a Sunday morning don't limit worship to your devotional time or your prayer time or that spiritual stuff that you do for 5 minutes in the morning God Is Bigger than that he Journeys with us each and every step of the day see when we start to look at worship through this new lens we go worship truly is at the core of our Christian identity when God created us he created us to be in relationship with him and to worship him it's his design from the very beginning and so if worship is our intentional Spirit empowered response to God's revelation centered in Jesus then that means it's all well and good for us to know what God's done to know the work of Jesus to know who God is and and some of the stories in the Bible but it's kind of meaningless if we don't respond to it right we can know that Jesus died for our sins but it means nothing until we truly believe it and accept him as our Lord and savior that in itself is worship it's a response to God and His Revelation and so I want to bring back this slide and say worship is more than the bottom right hand corner worship can be every single thing that is depicted there if you're a Trad in the room you're going to work tomorrow maybe not if it's raining don't know but when you go back to work right how are you worshiping take some time think about it quite simply if if you're working with your hands if you're building something anything remember God created everything you're just creating with his creation praise God isn't he good worship Him if you're got lucky enough to have tomorrow off if you're resting if you're going and enjoying some Hobbies or whatever if you're a gardener didn't God create all of creation didn't God tell us to rest in him didn't God give us dominion over the Earth and responsibility to take care of it isn't God good that we can gather together and play soccer or football and be in fellowship with one another worship God if you're raising children worship God they are a gift they truly are they are a gift worship God if you spending time with family and friends no matter whether you're going out and doing something phenomenal or whether you're just hang hanging about worship God he designed us to be in relationship with one another it's part of his design he said it's not good for man to be alone see church when we stop and think about it worship is so much bigger it's our response to God and so as long as we have a revelation of God as long as we have an understanding of who he is what he's done how he's created things we can worship in whatever we do and if you wake up tomorrow and life's pretty sucky if you wake up tomorrow everything's gone wrong and you're G there's absolutely no way that I can worship in the midst of this I'm not going to say sing songs of praise it's probably not right but you look in the Book of Psalms and most of them start with lament right as I said David said my God my God why have you forsaken me and yet by the end of the laments they turn back to praise in the midst of the struggle take time challenge yourself to stop and to reflect on the last day the last week the last month the last year pray just say God would you reveal to me where you are in the midst of all of this mess because I can't see you and when you reveal that to me would you help me by your Holy Spirit to respond in worship worships at the cores us as Christians right we can't hear the good news of Jesus we can't hear about the revelation of God and not respond and so I want to encourage you I'm going to invite the band up going to encourage you whether it be now whether it be during the last song we've sung lots of songs this morning declaring that we'll stand in awe that we'll praise and worship God because he's worthy of it but whether it be now whether you challenge yourself to do it each and every morning whether you just do it once this week can I encourage you to take some time out to reflect on the last day week month year say God where have you been in this what have you been showing me what have you been revealing to me and how does that impact how do I respond to you in worship Would You Lead Me by your Holy Spirit Worship is our intentional spirit and powered response to God's revelation centered in Jesus would you pray with me Heavenly Father we thank you for who you are Lord we thank you that we really don't have to strain our memories that hard we don't have to look that long within your holy word to find some of the ways in which you have revealed yourself to us Heavenly Father we thank you that you have created us to be worshippers Lord God that you've created created us to respond to you with our whole beings Lord God we thank you that you created each and every one of us different that you've gifted us differently both physically and [Music] spiritually father God we thank you that you are good Lord God we pray that as we take take time to more intentionally reflect on the things that you've told us about [Music] yourself father God would you Empower Us by your Holy Spirit to respond to you in worship with our whole beings we pray these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.