Episode 150: Worship: Part 4 (Worship matters which matter to God)

Hi, my name is Argyle Dixon

and I'm a pastor or teaching elder

for Living Water Community Church.

You are tuned in to the Living Water Community Church podcast.

We want to thank you for joining us.

Our prayer is that you will grow to know Christ better

as we seek Him together.

Join us now as we explore another section of God's Word.

Well, good morning.

Good morning.

Turn in your Bibles to Romans 12.

We're going to be looking at verses 1 and 2.

Romans chapter 12.

And our key text for today will be verses 1 and 2.

While you're turning there,

I just want to recap briefly for you

some of the things that we studied last time.

We're in this segment on worship.

And we are studying all the different ways

in which we see different aspects of worship

talked about and portrayed in the scriptures.

We talked last time about developing lives

which personally and continually

are offering worship to God.

And it's actually the second in what is three parts

on this idea of the importance of lives

reflecting and offering worship to God.

And this is such an important thing

because this should really be the core

and the heartbeat of our walk with the Lord as Christians.

As we interact with others,

we are limiting our freedom.

Are we asking ourselves questions like this?

Are we...

Are we going to limit our freedom

for the sake of the gospel?

In other words, do we care more

about our brother or our sister

than our freedom?

And so are we willing to limit

what we have freedom to do

for the sake of the gospel?

Are we engaging in evangelism

when we have the opportunity put before us?

Are we helping the poor

and those in need to the glory of God?

As we examine our hearts,

are we doing what is good and right and true?

Or do we feel like we're failing on that front?

Are we interceding for others,

especially those in leadership

and those even who stand against us?

As we consider our God-focused actions,

are we bearing the name of Jesus into the world?

Do we continue to do good

and share what God has given us?

And these are really questions

that are designed

to cause us to focus on,

to force us to focus on

and consider how we're doing

at living out our declaration

that Jesus is Lord.

We say Jesus is Lord,

but do our lives actually reflect

that declaration?

Are we seeing our lives

become more and more shaped

by the personal work of Jesus?

Or to put it another way,

if we said nothing at all in our culture,

would people wonder if we're Christians

because of how they see us

live our day-to-day lives?

Today, we're going to continue

to explore this concept

of how our whole life

is to be lived in the glory of God.

And we're going to look at

Romans 12, verses 1 and 2.

And I will read this for you.

If you could stand,

since this is our only passage this morning.

Actually, if anyone would just read

these two verses, that would be great.

I appeal to you, therefore,

brothers, by the mercies of God,

to present your bodies

as a living sacrifice,

holy and acceptable to God,

which is your spiritual worship.

Do not be conformed to this world,

but be transformed

by the renewal of your mind,

that by testing you may discern

what is the will of God

and what is good and acceptable

and perfect.

All right.

You may be seated.

So, to begin with,

the book of Romans,

really get a grasp on it.

It's all about salvation.

It has four parts.

It tells us why we need salvation.

It tells us how salvation is accomplished

and what its extent is.

It talks to us about

how it affects us as individuals.

He has several chapters

on how it affects us as individuals.

And then he wraps up

with how it affects us in community.

So, Romans 12 is in the section

about how salvation affects us

as individuals.

And what we have here

is Paul appealing to us how?

How is he appealing to us?

By the mercies of God.

Romans 12, 1 and 2.

He says, by the mercies of God.

In the context of Romans

being all about salvation,

what do you think the mercies of God

is referring to?

What is he referring to?

Pretty simple.

Salvation.

And what Paul is saying here

is because you have been given

the gift of salvation.

In other words,

because of the mercies of God,

you've been given

this gift of salvation.

He's urging us to present our bodies

as a living sacrifice.

Holy and acceptable to God.

And the point we need to consider here

is the verb present.

Present.

This is a Greek usage

that indicates that we're taking action

right now.

And in Paul's mind,

he's not calling on his readers

to think about doing this in the future.

He's not telling us

to get ready

to take the next step.

He is basically saying

because we have experienced salvation,

we are prepared

to take the next step.

We are prepared to take the next step.

In God's eyes,

to do this.

To present our bodies

as a living sacrifice.

And God has made this possible.

So Paul now calls on his readers,

that's us,

to take this step.

And you say,

well, what is this?

Well, I think too often

we consider this

as simply part of accepting Jesus

as our Lord.

But the structure of Paul's sentence here

indicates that we should be

taking this step

after we've come

to the next step.

After the point of salvation.

Basically,

Paul is appealing to us

to present our bodies to God

with all our heart

as a sacrifice of worship to Him.

Now,

it's easy to think about this

and go, well, what is this?

Is this like a dedication?

What is this?

Well, if you've committed yourself

to Jesus as Lord,

you've committed yourself

to follow Him.

But it's not just a matter

of following Him.

It's like going to Him

as a master

and saying,

please take my life.

Make my life

a sacrifice for you.

Help my life

to live out

what you want

in this world.

To be intentional

about presenting yourself

to God

and asking God

to make your life

a living sacrifice.

You know,

I don't think that

Abraham

was unsaved

before he offered up Isaac

on Mount Moriah.

I think he was,

he was a man of faith

prior to that.

And yet,

at that point in time,

he was really sacrificing

everything

to God.

It wasn't like he got saved.

It was an issue of

deeper relationship with God.

He was moving into

a more intense

commitment

to the Lord

when he offered up

his son Isaac.

And I think that there's a sense

in which

we become comfortable

in just kind of bearing

on a certain level.

But God's really calling us

to go all in with him.

He wants us to understand

that's what he wants.

He wants us to be all in

with him.

And for us to do this,

he says,

here in Romans 12,

is your spiritual worship.

So this is worship.

You want to encourage yourself.

You want to increase

your worship of God.

This is one of the things

you need to do.

And the first question

which probably comes to mind

is how do we do this?

Well, Paul expects this question.

In verse 2,

he outlines what this looks like.

To present your bodies

as a living sacrifice means

don't be conformed to this world,

but be transformed

by the renewal of your mind.

Now, we don't get a description here

of what Paul has,

is thinking as he calls

for us to be renewed

in our minds.

But there's a passage

in Ephesians 4, 23-32,

which talks at length

about what being renewed

in your mind looks like.

He describes it in detail.

So we're going to look

at Ephesians 4, 23-32.

And to be renewed

in the spirit of your mind.

There it is.

He's calling us to be renewed

in the spirit of our minds.

To put on the new self

created after the life,

the likeness of God,

in true righteousness

and holiness.

Therefore,

having put away falsehood,

let each one of you

speak the truth

with his neighbor,

for we are members

one of another.

Be angry and do not sin.

Do not let the sun

go down on your anger.

And give no opportunity

to the devil.

Let the thief no longer steal,

but rather let him labor,

doing honest work

with his own hands

so that he may have something

to share with anyone in need.

Let no corrupting mind

or corrupting talk

come out of your mouths,

but only such as is good

for building up

as it fits the occasion,

that it may give grace

to those who hear.

And do not grieve

the Holy Spirit of God

by whom you were sealed

for the day of redemption.

Let all bitterness and wrath

and anger and clamor

and slander

be put away from you

along with all malice.

Be kind to one another,

tenderhearted,

forgiving one another

as God in Christ forgave you.

So the column, verse 23,

verse 23,

is to be renewed in our minds.

He follows this call

for renewed minds

with a call to put on

the new self,

created after the likeness of God

in true righteousness

and holiness.

The verses which follow

describe what actions

a renewed mind will produce.

And this is the way

that we present our bodies

as a living sacrifice.

In other words,

this is the idea

of progressive sanctification.

It's the idea of what we would see

in our lives

as we are growing

in sanctification in Christ.

First on the list

is put away falsehood.

All falsehood.

When he says,

speak the truth with your neighbor,

the context really suggests

the community of Christians,

the community of believers.

This would be your brothers and sisters.

This doesn't mean

that you go out into the world

and that you lie,

but it means that especially

when you're with your brothers and sisters,

you always speak the truth with them.

Be angry,

but do not let the anger lead to sin.

And do not go to bed angry.

Anger,

which is dwelled on,

really provides

a place where Satan

can come into our lives.

He can tempt us to become bitter.

He can induce us to sin

based on the anger

that we're harboring in our hearts.

He can use our anger

to accuse us of not being worthy

because he is the accuser of the saints.

So he does anything he can.

He'll say,

your anger,

you have no control over your anger.

It makes you unworthy to God.

And while we're truly not worthy,

I mean,

let's face the facts,

we're not worthy.

But there is no sin that we can do

which could somehow overcome

the atoning work of Jesus

which has brought us

into the presence of God.

Nothing can separate us

from the love of God.

There's nothing you can do

that can separate you

from the love of God.

Once you are in his love,

you can't be separated from his love.

So the idea is,

it's fine,

get angry,

but don't let your anger linger.

Don't dwell on your anger.

Don't allow your anger to fester.

But put it away,

get rid of it,

and move on.

Don't steal.

The idea behind this is work hard

and share what you have with others.

Instead of stealing,

be someone who's known for being generous.

Do not grieve the Holy Spirit

by whom you were sealed

for the day of redemption.

In other words,

turn away from sin

in every way you can.

Don't grieve the Spirit.

Don't take the Holy Spirit

which dwells in you

into intentional sin.

Don't grieve the Spirit.

Let go of bitterness.

Boy, that's one that can just

hang on, man.

Bitterness.

Let go of wrath.

Let go of anger.

I already talked about that at length.

Let go of clamor.

This is one people,

people shout at each other

or have a verbal fight.

Don't do that.

Don't do it.

It takes two people

to do that kind of thing.

If someone's doing that to you,

don't respond.

Don't cause them,

don't cause this to escalate.

Do not clamor.

Let go of clamor.

Don't engage in slander of anyone.

Slander is a negative way

of feeding our pride.

That's all it is.

I mean, if you think about it,

it's putting someone else down

or pointing out someone else's flaws

to someone else

who really

has nothing to do with the situation.

And so you're putting this other person down

and making it look like

you're so much better than them.

That's all slander is.

It is an attempt to bolster your pride.

This makes you look superior,

but it doesn't accomplish anything.

It doesn't accomplish any good.

If you really care about the person

who you have noticed has a problem,

if you really do care about them,

if this really concerns you,

then as a brother or sister in Christ,

you should be approaching that person

in humility,

talking to them about

how you have noticed this

and you may have noticed it

because you had something similar

in your life in the past

and you just want to know,

want them to know you're praying for them

and you're praying for them.

And if they want to walk down this road,

you want to walk down the road with them.

But you are doing this

out of care and concern for them.

That's the way that you avoid slander.

And so this turns into something where

it would be you encouraging them

and really helping them

rather than slandering them.

Put away all malice.

Malice is a meanness

or a mean spirit

or vicious disposition.

Paul is calling on his readers here

to get rid of all malice.

Don't be mean spirited.

Don't be vicious.

Don't have a bad attitude or disposition.

Get rid of it.

And on the contrary,

be kind to one another.

So the idea here is to move beyond that

and be kind, be tender hearted,

forgive each other

like you've been forgiven by God

through the work of Jesus.

And if you ever think,

forgive others as you have been forgiven by God

through the work of Jesus.

And the point Paul is making here

is to really recall how God has forgiven you.

Now, if you think about it,

is God holding anything you've ever done

or ever will do against you?

No, he's not.

Therefore, if you're holding something

against a brother or sister in Christ,

you are actually holding

on to something that God doesn't hold on to

as a barrier between you and them in relationship.

And the idea here is to really move beyond that

to recognize how much you've been forgiven

and embrace that and say,

because I have been forgiven by God wholeheartedly

in every part of my life,

I'm going to forgive.

I'm going to forgive and seek reconciliation

with that brother or sister.

They may have wronged me,

they may have done things that we don't like,

but at the end of the day,

it matters more to God that we are one

than it does that we hold on to things

that have offended us.

And so, learn to forgive,

hold things lightly,

don't hang on to them,

and forgive like you've been forgiven, really.

Forgive the way that God has forgiven you

is the way you should think about it.

Now, all of these things are going to drive unity,

they're going to drive fellowship in the body of Christ.

These things are connected to being renewed in our minds.

And it starts in our head and heart

and it moves into our actions.

And this is what presenting our bodies

as a living sacrifice will start to look like.

As our minds are renewed,

we'll be able to test and discern

what the will of God is,

what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Let's look at another passage,

which addresses this same kind of idea.

This is actually one of those passages

I'd like to go to,

especially because of what we see here

in verse 2 and verse 3.

This is 1 Peter 1, verses 2 through 5.

According to the foreknowledge of God the Father,

in the sanctification of the Spirit,

for obedience to Jesus Christ

and for sprinkling with His blood,

may grace and peace be multiplied,

to you.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

According to His great mercy,

He has caused us to be born again to a living hope

through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

to an inheritance that is imperishable,

undefiled, and unfading,

kept in heaven for you,

who by God's power are being guarded through faith

for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Now Peter lays out what God has done for us

in his opening.

In his opening verses to 1 Peter.

His work was done according to the foreknowledge of God.

This goes back to Romans,

that whole idea that God predestined

those whom He foreknew,

He predestined to become sons of God.

And so, according to the foreknowledge of God,

God has done His work.

And it was accomplished in the sanctifying work

of the Holy Spirit.

So it was the foreknowledge of God

combined with the work of the Holy Spirit

and this was all done for us

so that we could become obedient to Jesus

by the sprinkling of His blood.

So this is talking about salvation.

This is all pointing to the work of salvation.

Salvation comes to us through grace

and it brings us peace.

Then Peter jumps into how this grace of salvation

has been brought to us.

And I love this part of it.

God by His mercy, what did He do?

He caused us to be born again.

Do you see that?

God caused us to be born again

through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

Now very clearly, this amazing work of God

by all the members of the Godhead

has been done to cause us to be saved.

This is the great work that God has done for us

to bring the cause of salvation

to be born again.

To be produced in us.

That's what God did.

He produced salvation in us.

And it's all a work of God.

If anyone ever thinks that they did it themselves,

ask them if they caused themselves to be born.

Because that's the analogy.

You didn't cause yourself to be born

and you don't cause yourself to be born again.

This is something the Spirit does.

It's not something that God does.

It's not something that you do.

It's a work of God so that no man can boast.

No man can say,

well, at least I had good enough sense to choose God.

Now what would that be feeding if I could say that?

It would be feeding my pride.

God loves me too much

to give me something that could feed my pride.

I am a created being

in need of the greatest being that's ever been.

I am a created being that's ever existed

to rescue me, save me,

pull me into relationship

and give me the freedom to worship Him.

That's what I need.

That's what we all need.

And so salvation comes to us through grace.

It brings us peace.

And it's really this amazing work

that has caused us to be born again

through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

Now very clearly this amazing,

amazing work of God

by all the members of the Godhead

is being worked in us

at the point at which we come to salvation.

This is the work that God has done

to bring us salvation.

It's an incredible gift.

And Peter goes on to lay out our response to this

in chapters 2 to 5.

So this is not in 1 Peter 2, verse 5.

This is not talking about salvation at this point.

This is talking about after salvation.

Look at this.

You yourselves, like living stones,

are being built up as a spiritual house

to be a holy priesthood,

to offer spiritual sacrifices

acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

So we are being made into a spiritual house,

a holy priesthood.

The goal is offering spiritual sacrifices

acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Acceptable to God.

Through Jesus.

And so we see here echoed

the same type of response

to the amazing work of salvation.

Our lives are to become

a living sacrifice.

Hebrews 12, 28 to 29.

Turn there.

Hebrews 12, 28 to 29.

Therefore, let us be grateful

for receiving a kingdom

that cannot be shaken.

And thus, let us offer to God

acceptable worship

with reverence and awe.

For our God is a consuming fire.

Again, we see here the idea of gratitude

for the work of God

which has saved us

to His everlasting kingdom.

Our response of gratitude to God

is to offer worship.

And we could say

worship has already been defined for us

as offering our bodies

as living sacrifice

which is not a work of worship.

which is spiritual worship.

So the idea of offering ourselves

as living sacrifices

is something each of us

must come to grips with.

This isn't just a work of the Holy Spirit

or a move of God.

It's an active decision.

We present ourselves to God

as a living sacrifice.

And we need to get in the mentality

of doing that.

This is that whole idea

that Jesus even promoted to the disciples.

Take up your cross daily

and follow the cross.

Follow me.

So this is kind of an ongoing recommitment.

This idea of really kind of renewing

or reassessing

or reevaluating our commitment

and moving intentionally

in a direction towards God.

Towards Christ.

In our hearts and our minds.

And so we're driven by gratitude

to intentionally present ourselves to God

as living sacrifice.

To be renewed.

To be renewed in our minds

which drives transformation in our actions.

Now let's take a look at Hebrews 11

the hall of faith

where we see these things worked out for us again.

Hebrews 11 verses 4 through 7.

By faith Abel offered to God

a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain

through which he was commended as righteous.

God commending him by accepting his gifts.

And through his faith

though he died he still speaks.

By faith he still speaks.

By faith Enoch was taken up

so that he should not see death.

And he was not found

because God had taken him.

Now before he was taken

he was commended as having pleased God.

And without faith

it is impossible to please him.

For whoever would draw near to God

must believe that he exists

and that he rewards those who seek him.

By faith Noah being warned by God

concerning events as yet unseen

in reverent fear constructed an ark

for the saving of his household.

By this he condemned the world

and became an heir of the righteousness

that comes by faith.

Now we begin by considering Abel.

What did Abel offer to God?

A more acceptable sacrifice.

There are two things

which make his sacrifice stand apart from Cain's

because that's what it's compared to.

Abel's sacrifice and Cain's sacrifice

Abel's sacrifice was more acceptable to God.

And in this passage

we see these two things

that made his sacrifice stand out.

It was offered, first of all, by faith.

So the thing that stands out

about Abel's sacrifice

is he made his sacrifice by faith.

Now what does that tell you?

Think about that for a moment.

If he's offering the sacrifice by faith

that means that Abel didn't come to God

thinking he was worthy of coming to God.

He came to God trusting

that God would forgive him

and that his faith in God would be sufficient

for this to be an acceptable sacrifice.

He was trusting God

to look down upon him

and accept him

not because of what he was

but because of the mercy

that he was hoping to find in God.

And so

we see

that this is the first thing.

And Cain

clearly expected blessing.

His anger at his sacrifice not being accepted

means that he felt slighted.

Second, it was through his sacrifice

that Abel was commended as righteous.

In other words,

it wasn't that Abel was righteous

but because he came by faith

and he brought this sacrifice

by faith

God looked at Abel and said

Abel, I see you as righteous.

Was Abel a righteous man?

No, he was a sinner.

But he walked by faith

and God counted his faith as righteousness.

So Abel was righteous

not because of what he did

but because of God's forgiving mercy

for the sacrifice he offered by faith.

So Abel came

to worship God

and God made him righteous.

Abel came wanting the sacrifice

to make him right with God

for the sake of worship.

And Cain came expecting God

to accept him and bless him

because he was good.

Cain was self-righteous.

Cain depended on his actions

to be enough.

Abel depended on God's actions

to be enough.

It's through his faith in God

that Abel was made righteous

and to this day continues to speak.

And I think this is the message

that gets missed about Abel a lot of times

that his actions

weren't what made the difference.

It was his faith in God

that made all the difference

for him to be able to worship.

And the primary difference

between Cain and Abel

is really the heart of worship.

That's what makes all the difference

in the world.

The first person in the hall of faith

really emphasizes

the need to worship.

The need for worship.

And it's interesting

because the second person

is my personal hero in the Bible.

It's Enoch.

And I love Enoch

because of what we don't know about him.

Let's start by talking about

what we do know about him.

What do we know about Enoch?

Well, he was taken up

so you could not see death.

God took him

and he was commended

as pleasing God.

Clearly Enoch walked with God.

Clearly Enoch worshipped God.

But it's incredibly curious

how we really don't know

much more about him than this.

Every single person I know

or have known in my life

that is a godly person

who walks with God

has dramatic impact

on the world around them.

They do lots of things

that are amazing things.

And you look at them and go,

wow, God is really doing

an amazing work

in and through this person.

And Enoch was so close with God

that God took him

and he didn't die.

And I mean,

I can't imagine Enoch

having that kind of relationship

with God

and not having a huge impact

on the world around him.

He had to.

And yet God didn't see

any of the accomplishments of Enoch

as being important to record.

We don't know anything really about Enoch

other than he walked with God.

So the most important thing

about Enoch was not what he did,

but who he was

in relationship to God.

That's the most vital

piece of information about him.

He walked with God.

So, Hall of Faith,

Abel worshiped God,

Enoch walked with God.

The next guy in the series is Noah.

And Noah worked on the Ark Project.

How?

He did it by faith.

By faith he built an ark.

He was driven by reverent fear of God

and his warning of coming judgment.

His faith in God

produced the work of building the ark.

Now, did Noah worship God?

Absolutely.

Did Noah walk with God?

Certainly.

But Noah produced work for God

by faith.

The biggest single characteristic of his life

was that he worked by faith in God.

He believed God

and built the ark.

So, Abel worshiped God,

Enoch walked with God,

and Noah worked for God.

And I don't really think this order is an accident.

I think the order of these people

in the Hall of Faith

is actually telling us something

about the order of how these things happen in our lives.

Primarily, first and foremost,

the most important thing is to worship God.

Secondly, because we worship God,

we should walk with God.

And that walk with God

and that worship of God

is going to produce work for God in our lives.

I think those things are vitally important

to be seen in that order.

And we see this kind of really reiterated

in the story of Mary and Martha.

Luke 10, verses 38 to 42.

Now, as they went on their way,

Jesus entered a village

and a woman named Martha

welcomed him into her house.

And she had a sister called Mary

who sat at the Lord's feet

and listened to his teaching.

But Martha was distracted with much serving

and she went up to him and said,

Lord, do you not care that my sister

has left me to serve alone?

Tell her then to help me.

But the Lord answered her,

Martha, Martha, you are anxious

and troubled about many things.

But one thing is necessary.

Mary has chosen the good portion

which will not be taken away from her.

So to begin with here,

Martha is the one who welcomes Jesus

into their home.

So clearly, she's welcoming

and she wants him there.

It's not that she doesn't want Jesus around.

She wants him to be at her house.

She welcomes him.

Mary sees Jesus has come

and joins everyone in the main room

to hear what he has to say.

And Martha, in the meantime,

is busy getting everything together

for everyone.

I imagine she's probably doing something

like making hummus

or some other dip

that they would have

in the Middle East,

something out of olives or whatever.

And that typically is served

to people with flatbread,

which is very common over there.

She may have gone and gathered figs

or dates to serve everyone.

But whatever was going on,

she was busy serving.

That's what she was doing.

And she was serving Jesus

and those who were with him.

Is that a bad thing to serve Jesus?

No, absolutely not.

It's not a bad thing to serve Jesus.

It's a good thing.

But I visualize Martha

entering the main room

with a tray filled with water

or wine cups

and Mary asks for one.

And this frustrates Martha.

She accuses Jesus

of not caring that she's serving alone.

She actually accuses Jesus

of not caring about the fact

that she's serving alone.

And so Jesus doesn't condemn Martha

for serving alone.

And so he tells her

and she asks Jesus

to tell Mary to come and help her.

And Jesus looks at her

and he points out

how Mary has chosen

a better thing.

Martha, I know you're serving alone.

I understand.

But Mary has chosen

something far better.

And this better thing

is not going to be taken away from her.

What was Mary doing?

She was worshiping.

She was setting at Jesus' feet

to know him,

to worship him.

And God said,

through Jesus,

it's more important.

We see this again emphasized

by Jesus at a dinner

also at Mary Martha's house

in John 12, verses 2-8.

Turn to John 12, 2-8.

And so they gave

a dinner for him there.

Martha served.

And Lazarus was one of those

reclining with him at the table.

Mary took a pound

of expensive ointment

made from pure nard

and anointed the feet of Jesus

and wiped his feet with her hair.

The house was filled

with the fragrance of the perfume.

But Judas Iscariot,

one of the disciples,

he was about to betray him,

said,

Why was this ointment

not sold for 300 denarii

and given to the poor?

He said this not because

he cared about the poor,

but because he was a thief.

And having charge of the money bag,

he used to help himself

to what was put into it.

Jesus said,

Leave her alone

so that she may keep it

for the day of my burial.

For the poor you always have with you,

but you do not always have me.

Now we all know about the passage

where the woman's hair

is called her glory.

So here Mary uses her hair

to cleanse his feet.

She takes that which is glorious about her

and uses that with the expensive oil

and rubs that into his feet.

Now Jesus' feet were most likely dirty

from the journey to their house.

And to Judas,

seeing this happen,

it seemed like such a waste of money.

Mary was being driven

to serve Jesus

in a way which was pure worship.

She adored him.

She served him

out of adoration and worship.

And Jesus' rebuke of Judas

is in a very real backhanded way

a commendation of Mary

for her worship.

This reflects the pattern

we saw in Hebrews.

Worship is the first priority.

Walking with God,

working for God,

follow worship,

and flow from worship.

Unfortunately,

too often the church,

especially the Western church,

is preoccupied with activity

and productivity.

There was a newspaper account

of a christening party

in a Boston suburb.

The parents had opened their home

to friends and relatives

who had come to celebrate

the wonderful event.

And as the party was moving along

and the people were having

a great time eating and drinking

and celebrating

and enjoying one another,

until someone said,

by the way, where's the baby?

The heart of the mother jumped.

She instantly left the room,

rushed into the master bedroom

where she had left the baby asleep

in the middle of the massive bed,

the same bed

where the guest coats

had been placed as they arrived.

She cleared the coats

and the baby was dead,

smothered by the coats

of the guest.

Tragic story.

And yet,

this is too often

how we treat Jesus.

Our gatherings are supposed

to be about Him.

But it's His presence

being lost

as too much attention

is being given

to all the guests that arrive

rather than to Him.

Our meeting,

our meetings

are not primarily about us.

Our meetings

are about our Lord and Savior,

Jesus Christ.

He is the reason that we gather.

And this should be the primary focus

of every church

and every meeting

that's going on this morning

in the United States.

We are too easily

too easily

drawn away.

We are too often

preoccupied

with what appeals

to the culture

rather than encouraging

each other

to appeal to God.

We are too much

like Martha.

And we need to be

more like Mary.

We are too easily

drawn to doing

over being.

C.H. Spurgeon

once said,

talking about worship,

I like sometimes

to leave off praying

and to sit still

and just gaze upwards

till my inmost soul

has seen my Lord.

Be still

and know

that I am God.

The Burge Report

states that there are

356,000 churches

in America

as of March of this year.

It's reasonable

to expect

that all these properties

are worth more

than a hundred billion dollars

given average property

cost for churches.

That is an incredible

amount of money

and an incredible

number of churches

properties and money

dedicated to the purpose

of worshiping God.

Yeah, I have to wonder

how much true worship

of God is actually happening.

If that many churches

with that much money

in property

were doing that much worship,

we should have a dramatically

different culture.

And yet,

we don't.

Our culture doesn't indicate

that that number of churches

and that amount of money

is influencing it

in any way, shape, or form.

How much true worship

is actually happening?

Worship, as it's presented

in the Bible,

starts in the heart.

It's driven by love

and gratitude

and it works its way out

into everyday life.

And maybe this is really

the heart of the problem.

John Murray said,

what or whom we worship

determines our behavior.

Maybe the problem

with the behavior

of Christians today

is they're not truly

worshiping God.

Maybe we're too enamored

with exalting the ideas of men

rather than the personal work

of Jesus

and our actions show

that our worship

is focused on the wrong things.

Brothers and sisters,

the calling on each of our lives

is to offer ourselves to God

as a living sacrifice.

To be driven by gratitude.

To worship and adore God

through Jesus Christ.

That should be the driving thing

in our lives.

To find our hearts

drawn like Mary.

To be content

with sitting at His feet

and learning of Him.

May God grant us the grace

to be a people intent

on knowing and worshiping Jesus more

to our souls rejoicing

for eternity.

Let's pray.

Let's begin our time

of prayerful reflection

by asking God to help us

give our lives to God

as a living sacrifice.

To begin to seriously

take these passages to heart

and to really commit

ourselves to God.

Take up our cross daily

and follow Him.

May that be our heartbeat.

May that be our cry.

May that be our prayer.

Second,

ask God to grant us hearts

like Mary's.

Hearts that are content

with worshiping and adoring Him.

Knowing that if we worship

and adore Him

all the other things will follow.

And finally,

ask God to bring us people

who are in need of a true object

for their worship

and give us the wisdom and words

to point them to Jesus.

Dear Heavenly Father,

we ask you to please help us

give our lives to you

as a living sacrifice.

To really renew every day

that commitment to follow you

with all our hearts.

To take up our cross daily

and follow you.

To not just take it for granted

but to be in touch with you.

To be intentional

about pursue of you.

Of commitment to you.

And of seeking after you.

Lord, please grant us hearts

like Mary's.

Content with worshiping

and adoring you.

And Lord, bring us people

who are confused about worship.

Who are worshiping

all the wrong things

that need a true object

for their worship.

They need Jesus

to be the object of their worship.

And so Lord,

bring them to us

and give us the wisdom

and the words

to point them to our Lord

and Savior Jesus Christ

that they too may worship

and adore him.

And we pray that you would help us

to do this

so that we can be found faithful

to your word when it says,

All authority in heaven and on earth

has been given to me.

Go therefore and make disciples

of all nations,

baptizing them in the name

of the Father and of the Son

and of the Holy Spirit,

teaching them to observe

all that I have commanded you.

And behold,

I am with you always

to the end of the age.

All right.

Anybody have an opportunity

to share your faith

or a passage of scripture

that jumped out at you

this week?

Or maybe you have a prayer request

you'd like us to be praying about.

All right.

No one?

No verses this week?

This was a really hard verse this week.

It was so hard.

I mean, if you know

what our fighter verses are like,

you'll know.

This was really tough.

You guys want to learn a fighter verse?

It's a hard fighter verse this week.

Let's turn it together.

Jeremiah 1.12 Can you say it with me?

Jeremiah 1.12.

Okay.

I am watching over my word to perform it.

Jeremiah 1.12.

That's so hard.

I'm watching over my word to perform it.

I am watching over my word to perform it.

Jeremiah 1.12.

Now you can get the fighter verse app

and you can check that off

as I have it memorized.

All right.

Any birthdays this week?

We have an anniversary coming.

You have an anniversary?

It's not 35.

We are celebrating our 30th anniversary this week.

Yeah.

Tuesday.

How many years have you been married?

15.

Wow.

15 years.

I remember 15.

What?

I remember 15.

We were on a cruise.

That's right.

So, wow.

Congratulations.

Thanks.

Thank you.

well if you wanted to go have dinner today and

have a have a nice dinner out with each other you can feel free to drop your kids by our house

so all right or even tomorrow

all right um

well we have uh our meal today so we'll be sharing in that afterwards

let's close it up then praise god from whom all blessed

well god be with you till we meet again by his counsel's guide uphold you

with his sheep securely fold you god be with you till we meet again

you

when life's perils thick confound you put his arms unfailing round you

god be with you till we meet again go in peace