In the “Story of Our Faith” as we’ve put it together in the SOF, we have focused mostly on God – who he is and what he’s done.  We did think about ourselves as human beings – but mostly in relationship to God – and we’ve seen both our glory (made in God’s image) and our dishonor now sinners in need of God).   And we’ve thought about the love and grace of God – coming for us, giving his Spirit to us and giving his family to us all for our rescue and remaking.  This week, we come to the application of all that – “therefore” (as Paul puts it in Romans 12:1), based on all that God is and does and has done for us, how are our lives to change?  Things surely cannot be the same after the eternal and infinite God has entered our lives. 

            But… changed in what way?  My simple answer is that you and I are to become “true worshipers”.

Bottom line, according to the Bible, we become people who worship God.  That sounds good perhaps – but what does it mean?  Do you know any true worshipers?  Are you one?  I think that many – maybe most – people have no idea what I’m talking about when I say God says he will turn us into true worshipers.

            Let’s see if we can find a way to envision it.  Both Pastor Scott White and Ken Hilton told me about their recent opportunities to serve on a jury in LA.  They told me that, instead of using the old line-up of suspects to see if a witness can identify a criminal, the courts now use a “six-pack”.  This is referring to a set of 6 pictures of potential suspects – intentionally made up of people who fit a particular description.  I know this idea may seem a bit negative at first but do you remember the old quip from the 70s?  If you were arrested for being a follower of Jesus, would there be enough evidence to convict you?  What would be the evidence for a true worshiper? So, I’m going to show you 6 pictures. See if you can finger the true one:

1:  One who listens to good teaching – takes notes – understands theology?

2:  One who feels deep emotion during the church service?

3:  One who hasn’t missed a service or Sunday School class for many years?

4:  One who is leading the music in the service?

5:  One who preaches the sermons or teaches the class?

6:  Let’s leave one blank -- one to be pictured later.

            One of the biggest problems we have with understanding what worship is that most American church people have thought that worship equals the music part of a church service.  Some add the preaching and others the sacraments.  But, for most, worship is what happens when we go to church.  But, I want you to see today that true worship is much, much bigger than that.  In fact, I hope I can show you that worship involves every part of our lives.  When we encounter the God who made the universe – and who came to earth to save us – no part of our lives can stay the same.  Here’s how we put it in Article 8 of our SOF:

We believe that God’s justifying grace must not be separated from His sanctifying power and purpose. God commands us to love Him supremely and others sacrificially, and to live out our faith with care for one another, compassion toward the poor, and justice for the oppressed. With God’s Word, the Spirit’s power, and fervent prayer in Christ’s name, we are to combat the spiritual forces of evil. In obedience to Christ’s commission, we are to make disciples among all people, always bearing witness to the gospel in word and deed.

TRUE WORSHIPERS:

#1:  Live not for ourselves but “for him who died and rose again” (2 Cor. 5:14).

            Let me try a definition here: Worship is the proper response of the whole of our lives to our Triune God.  When we worship, we ascribe all honor, praise, and worth to God precisely because he is worthy.  True worship results in God being at the center of both our adoration and our action; both in our personal lives and in our corporate gatherings.  Worship is living all of life with God in his rightful place – as the God of your life.  A life of worship is one that seeks what God wants rather than what the world wants – and certainly more than I want. 

Romans 12:1-2 is very helpful for us.  The directive in v. 1b is essential:  “Offer your bodies as living sacrifices – this is your reasonable worship.”  Now, I'm sure you don't think that Paul is suggesting that we should offer our physical limbs to God instead of our minds or our affections or any other part of our human nature. 

            So what he means by "offer your bodies" is "present everything you are."  If you realize how great God's mercy is and you know you need to respond, then do it this way – real worship happens when we present everything we are to God.

            But there is surely a reason why Paul chooses to use that word "body" here.  You see, he could have easily written, "Present yourselves to God," or "present your lives to God."  But he chooses to say "present your body."  Why?

            I'm sure that at least a part of it is that he wanted to be sure that everyone would know that what we do with these physical bodies is a big part of our commitment to God.  Believe it or not, there have always been people who have denied that.  It has long been a tendency of sectarian groups to think that what we do with our bodies isn't so important.  They have said it's only the spirit that really matters.  The Greeks in Paul's day had heard that from Plato and many still think like that now.

            I ran into a young man at a college gathering who actually tried to defend that God doesn't care whether a person is involved sexually outside of marriage.  Many would not be so bold as to tell the pastor that – but I imagine many of us think we can indulge all sorts of physical desires or do all sorts of things to and with our bodies without it having any spiritual implications.  I think he uses this word to let us know that the body too must be committed to God.

            I'm sure you know that this has many implications for us.  It means that every part of our lives must be committed to God‑‑our sexual habits, our eating habits, our exercise patterns, etc.  You see, the scope of true worship is every part of us ‑‑ not just some isolated spiritual bit of us.  Not just Sunday morning but every part of us every day of our lives.

            Paul tells us why this sort of "whole‑bodied", "whole‑hearted" "whole‑lived" commitment to God is the way we are to worship.  I think Paul is saying that instead of mere rules and rituals, e.g., the old rituals that his people had done before Jesus had come of bringing animals in to be offered, we worship when we ourselves to God.  Our church services are supposed to contribute to our understanding of God – so that we can go out and live according to his will.  We gather to worship so that we can go live lives of worship.

            "Offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God which is your spiritual worship.”  When you think about the Bible’s words here, you see that most people's whole idea of what worship is has to be expanded.  What is worship?  It's not just attending church, or singing worship choruses or going through certain liturgies.  Worship, for one who has met Jesus, is a seven day a week matter. 

            Worshiping God embraces the whole of our lives.  We work as unto the Lord.  When we play, we want to do it in such a way that it brings glory to God.  "Therefore, in view of God's mercy, offer your bodies to God.”  True worshipers live all of life not for ourselves but for him who died and rose again.

#2:  Remember when we were not worshipers

There is one word and one phrase that are very important in Rom. 12:1:  

The word is "therefore."  It's the first word in a whole new section of Romans.  Standing where it does, it looks back over the whole 11 chapters that preceded it.  They are perhaps the most theological and doctrinal chapters in the whole Bible.  Paul has talked about the enormity and pervasiveness of human sin and about how much greater the grace of God is than our sin.  It’s not unlike the first 7 articles of our proposed Statement of Faith.  It’s all about what God is like – and what we human beings are supposed to be but are not – and how God loves us anyway – and what he’s done out of love, etc. etc.  None of it is light bedtime reading.

            The section ends with a song of praise exalting in the mind-boggling dimensions of God's intelligence.  Vv.33‑34.  So we're left gasping with intellectual exhaustion.  Paul is saying, "Look back at all God has done ‑‑ He's done it for you!”  Knowing that, remembering that should motivate and direct your entire life.

            “Therefore” -- we are to remember what our lives were and still would be apart of Christ.  This should change our lives.  And that brings us to the phrase I want us to see:

            The phrase is "in view of God's mercy."  This “view” sets our faith in Jesus apart from other religions.  I've been told that the way w live as Jesus-followers living does not always differ so much from other kinds of ethical living.  For example, in Jesus' day, the Pharisee often did good but he did it in order to establish his own moral reputation in the eyes of God and men.   Or, if you watch those who follow Hinduism, you sometimes see people doing good things.  But why? ‑‑ because they believe there's a law of Karma in the universe that will pay them back if they don't. 

            I could go on and on about the different reasons people try to live a good life.  Take the average man in Pasadena who may not be religious at all.  Yet, sometimes that person does good things.    Why?  If you watch the wonderful show on Sunday evenings, “The Secret Millionaire”, you’ll find that repeatedly people do good things saying it makes them feel better about themselves.

            The real difference in why we make a commitment to live differently when we follow Jesus is that we are motivated at our deepest personal level by something very different from the world.  You've heard me say it before but see it clearly in God's Word.  We change our lives allowing God to direct us because we know that a good God loves us, forgives us and gives himself to us – and we know full well that we don’t deserve his love.  That's why.  We live in view of God’s mercy to us.

            Our life of worship – with God’s will directing us -- is a response to the love and mercy of God.  That's what's different about us.  We're not motivated primarily by finding a way to feel better about ourselves, by fear or shame or guilt or duty…  Those things don’t last.  We're motivated primarily by gratitude for the love and grace of God.  We live in view of God’s mercy.

            Jeremy Rose asked me last Tuesday why it is that many people who go to church (like us) often don’t seem to get this – don’t have the motivation to enthusiastically obey God.  We hear a sermon like this and just say “ho-hum” and then go out living as we always have.  And I think the Bible says that this happens because we refuse to let the truth sink in that we have no hope apart for God’s mercy.  We will not own up to how bad we have the potential of being.  We look at a Mubarak or Khadafy or Hitler or Pol Pot and say, “There am I but for the grace of God.”  We remember Jesus’ parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector in the temple.  We know we cannot pray, “I’m glad I’m not a sinner like he is.”  We know we are!  We are recipients of the love and mercy of God by his grace.

            Do you remember my example of reclamation art last week from the Nine Mile Run initiative in Pittsburg?  The artists took a 230-acre site others called a brownfield because it appeared to be absolutely dead and useless.  It seemed to be irreparably polluted due to the “slag” from the steel plants’ waste that has been poured there for years.  But, the artists saw potential beauty in what was slag.  They saw it for what it could be.  And, I pointed out that this is similar to what God sees in us.  We have all done wrong.  We deserve God’s wrath – not his mercy.  We are sinners.  But, I think most of us find this hard to accept.  We are, in effect, slag!  But, our self-absorbed society doesn’t like admitting this.  Well… Paul’s didn’t either.  He spent 3 chapters trying to get it through their heads that they have no hope without God.  We’ll come back to this topic in Article 10 (because our world cannot acknowledge that people are so messed up that we deserve punishment for sin).

            Right now, let me say just this:  If you're overwhelmed that God has loved you so much that he came and gave his life in your place – for your sin, then you'll be motivated to seek His will.  Our response is proportional to our perception of the grace of God toward us.  The Christian faith is one of response to what God has done; it's not one of personal achievement.  "In view of God's mercy…”

            It's like David prayed: "He lifted me out of the miry pit.  He set my feet on a rock.  He gave me a new song to sing."  The deeper we feel that, the more we'll be ready to seek His will.

#3:  Live lives of worship – everywhere, every way possible, every moment

            The rest of the book of Romans applies what a life of worship was to look like in the Roman world.  Paul said a life of worship starts with seeking God’s will for everything.  Then, in response to God, we change the way we live life with other believers – we are to love and serve one another.  And then, Paul talks about how true worship changes the way we view the people of the world – how we handle adversity, how we live in the midst of difficult governments like the Roman one was, how we relate to other religions, etc.  So let’s think about that life for a moment.

1) Loving God

            In our SOF Article 8, we follow the Bible’s pattern.  We are to start where worship must start, i.e., with loving God.  What happens here is not the whole of worship but it essential to living lives of worship.  It is central to learning to love God.  What is to happen when we worship together?  We should come to church and remember who God is – we sing praise to him, bring our offerings to him, open his Word and hear his voice teaching us, remember the cross, etc. – then we go from the service to live in the light of the greatness and grace of the God who goes with us.  But, when we go, we face everything the world, the devil and our own flesh throws at us.  Other things crowd into the center of our lives – finances, fear, fractured relationships, failure…  Then, we go back to church and begin praising God.  What happens – or what I pray will happen – is that we stop to fix our eyes of Jesus again.  We remember what he is like and what he has done.  We say, “I believe this.  I am a believer.”  And, we recommit ourselves to living a life of worship.  We turn away from sin and self and back to him.  We offer our bodies as living sacrifices to him.  That’s what is supposed to happen each time we gather together.

            A life of worship all starts with loving God.  So, let me ask you – Do you love God?  Have you fixed your eyes again upon him in this place?  Do you love him more than you did last week – last year?  “In view of God’s mercy, offer yourself to him.  That’s worship.

2) Loving God’s Family

            In Romans 12, immediately after talking about true worship, Paul moved to talking about living life with other believers.  This is how it usually works:  After living a challenging week, we all should be deeply grateful to be able to gather with others who love Jesus.  When you come to church or go to your class or small group, do you look around and see other mercy-needing people who have found mercy in Jesus – others who are where you are, i.e., wanting to be true worshipers but acknowledge that God has a lot of work still to be done on us?  Paul says, that when we do, we will serve one another.  We will honor our brothers and sisters more highly than ourselves.  We will look to the interests of others in our church family as being greater than your own?

            Love for God must flow into a love for his family.  So:  Do you love us more than you used to?  Is there anything that needs to be made right today with a brother or sister in Christ?

3) Loving the People of the World as God Does

            Romans 12-16 talks a great deal about this.  And our own Article 8 highlights just three ways we believe we are to do this:  care for the poor, seeking justice for those experiencing oppression, and calling people to know Jesus. 

            Will you pray that God will give you his eyes for the people of the world – and open your heart to love as he loves?  Is there any hurting person God is putting on your heart?  Anyone you should reach out to?  Anyone you know who needs Jesus?

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

With those verses before us, we will now do in a very practical way the things this message calls us to do.  We will remember the mercy of God shown on the cross as we receive communion together.  And then we will think about showing the love of God together to our world – an obedience, a ministry, led so well by the Lake Avenue Community Foundation.