Love One Another : Love to Worship
preached on August 19, 2018
If you missed last week, that’s fine I’ll catch you up: We are in the second part of a series called “Love One Another”. We established awhile back that Jesus is the Most Important thing for us as individuals. Our relationship to Him is more important than anything else in this world. Last week, we asked, “If Jesus is the most important thing for our church, what does that look like?” I submit that the answer is best summed up by the command “Love one another”. Because Jesus loved us and gave His life up for us, we can follow His example and give our lives up to Love one another. We love like Jesus loved.
This week, we are going to look at Love as an Act of Worship or the shortened title, “Love to Worship”.
Though ‘love’ and ‘worship’ are related in many places in the New Testament, Paul gives a direct discourse in Romans 12. So let’s turn there and see what we find.
We are all called to worship
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies bas 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, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Your life is an act of worship
Paul says, “by the mercies of God”. What mercies? If we were to go back to the beginning of Romans and work our way through, we’d find that chapter is a major shift in Romans. Chapters 1-11 detail Paul’s soteriology. (That’s the big word for “How do people get saved”) Paul explains how being saved is a transformation from death to life. It’s not just a change in thinking, it’s a change in substance—a Christian is a different kind of human. God has given mercy by not allowing us to stay dead. He has given us life. “Therefore…by the mercies of God”—because God has done this great thing to you, “I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice”.
In the Old Testament days, the sacrifice was a killed animal to offer as a partial atonement. Now that Christ has conquered death and given us life, we don’t kill ourselves again, we offer up the life we live as our worship. That word ‘worship’ is latreio in the Greek. It is a ritual worship. It carries over from how the Jews would describe going to the temple, or how pagans would describe their acts of worship. It is a ritual worship—singing, reading, offering sacrifices. These things were done in the past by spiritually dead people. Now, Paul says, we are to offer our very lives as ritual worship. That is why verse two says to not be conformed to this age—do not be like the dead people around you—, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Why? So we can discern the good that God wants from us and for us. My 7th century friend, Bede, said it like this:
If we display our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, he will with heavenly condescension deign to see to it that we are rewarded with the same glory as those who have given their bodies up to death for the Lord’s sake.
- Bede
Did you catch that? Bede lived in a time without Christian persecution, or at least without the rampant martyrdoms of the first few centuries. But even if we are not put to death because of our faith in Christ, we still can show that same devotion in how we live. When we offer up our lives to Christ, whether that is in the face of lions or in the face of an annoying boss, that is our spiritual act of worship. True worship is saying, “God I will go where you send me…whether I face lions, tigers, and bears…or I face deadlines, cranky kids, and that guy that refuses to shower regularly. Lord lead the way.”
Though our calling is the same, our actions will be different
For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as 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.
Romans 12:3-5
Each life is different, but they are all to the glory of God
Each of us has been given gifts and talents by God. Verses 6-8 is one list, there are a few in the New Testament. These gifts are not in order of importance, though I find it interesting that service and prophecy are next to each other. Many Christians like to applaud prophecy, but how many ovations are given to the heroes in the kitchen, nursery or making sure everyone has what they need? Not enough. But these are skill-sets that are just different, not necessarily better or worse, just different. We are parts in One Body who perform different functions like in the body. The eye cannot hear anything, but it sees very well. Likewise, the ear can’t only receive sounds, it needs the mouth to reply. Even the little pinky toe may not seem important in light of the whole body, but it gets real important when you stub it on a table.
How should we use these gifts? According to the grace given to us. In other words, however good God has made you at these gifts, use them. Like any skill, you’ll get better as you use them, and then you can do more for God. If you look at this list, and think, “I’m not good at this”, then just start small.
Since we are looking at Love One Another and what that means for the local church, let’s read this list and see where we would find it in the church.
Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith;
Romans 12:6
If you want to take a stab at prophecy, the first step is to open your Bible and start reading. When you’re done, read it again. As you have questions, find someone who can help you wrestle with those questions. Read good books on the Good Book. Eventually, one day someone will say “What’s going with this?”, and you’ll think “Hey, I know that answer!”
Now, don’t get confused on ‘prophecy’. Many times we focus on prophecy as ‘foretelling’. We think of a fortune-teller when really the Bible means someone who speaks for God. It could be foretelling, but most of the time it’s forth telling. If you took all the passages in the Bible that were prophetic and divided them between the two words, you’d find that forth telling is actually the longer list. God does provide answers for the future, but He is more concerned with us living rightly today than whether we have all the answers for tomorrow. The only thing we need to know about the future is that Jesus is coming back, God wins, the devil loses, that’s it. Everything else God has given in His Word concerning the future is lagniappe.
So where is this in the church? Well, first there’s my job. The pastor is called to proclaim God’s Word. If you ever catch me proclaiming anything else, should be shown the door. But in order to hold me accountable, you have to do your job which if you’ll recall from a second ago is: read your Bible. Read it, study it, and then you can use prophecy “according to the standard of [your] faith” by proclaiming God’s mercies in your workplace and your home. What God has shown you, so you show others. Tell the Good News!
if service, in our serving;
Romans 12:7
What does it mean to serve? Well, it’s filling a need. What need? Any need. If you look around the church or the town and think “Somebody ought to do something about that”, ‘serving’ is you doing something about it. In the church that might mean taking a Sunday in the nursery rotation or sitting in the choir or something else that you see needs done. In the town, that could mean helping your neighbor with their yard, or helping with a town event. I hear a fair is coming.
the one who teaches, in his teaching;
Romans 12:7
If you feel uncomfortable teaching a group, but you can’t seem to get that out of your head, start small. Find someone who has been teaching awhile and ask to help them out. Teaching is similar to prophecy, you can only speak what God has told you, and you can only teach what God has taught you. So if you want to teach, then the first step is to learn. Learn what? Anything and everything. Just keep learning. Take a class. Sunday School is a great time to learn. Did you know we had Sunday School? 10am every Sunday. Plug into a class.
the one who exhorts, in his exhortation
Romans 12:8
This is actually a fairly easy one. Some people just have to practice not complaining first. Think of a coach. A good coach won’t tell his player “Oh, man, you’re awful”. He says, “We’ll work on that”. Barnabas is the famous exhorter in the New Testament. He coached Paul and the other apostles to be great. Coach others to be great. When you see someone doing well, tell them. We had a phrase in our school, “Catch the Good”. Teachers have a bad rep for only being negative to students…mainly because some teachers are really negative. But when you’re working with students who are always getting into trouble, the best way to help them do better is to praise when they actually do better. The theory is that people respond better to positive praise than negative punishment. And it works. Remember what you’re grandma used to tell you? “You catch more flies with honey”. Or what about the great philosopher, Thumper’s mother? “If you don’t have anything nice to say, then…”
Where is this in the church? Hopefully everywhere. But one way that I don’t think we do enough in church is in testimonies. Did anyone attend a church where testimonies were a regular part of worship? I’ve visited churches that had it, but I can only recall one where we tried to make it a regular activity. I would love to hear testimonies each week here. So if you want to share what God is doing, either through you or someone else, let me know or let Mike know so we can get you up here sharing how God is still working.
the one who contributes, in generosity
Romans 12:8
Uh oh! It’s the money one. Hey, it’s only the second week, so I’m not even going to use the “t word”…at least not today.
But, if you hold your wallet tightly when people start asking for something, just start small—find loose change that you don’t mind giving. If you practice that, then on the day you run out of change, giving that dollar bill won’t seem so bad.
Now, I know all the excuses. I’ve used them myself. The problem with giving is it never seems like enough.
I don’t have all the answers regarding poverty. I know two things for sure:
Jesus says we will always have the poor around us
He says that He loves a cheerful giver
So, no, we can’t end poverty completely, but we can provide for those we have the resources to provide for. So give what you can and let God deal with the rest. What you give and how much you give is between you and God. But I will say that an attitude of generosity is more in line with the fruit of the Spirit than a stingy one.
the one who leads, with zeal;
Romans 12:8
Awhile back someone coined the term ‘sphere of influence’. Each of us have people that we influence in our lives. It could be our children, a spouse, coworkers, church members, or anyone else we come into contact with. Some of that sphere are people whom we lead. Again, as the parents you lead your family, hopefully the father is taking an active role in that. If you are around younger people, then by virtue of your age, you help lead them. The question is, what are you leading them to?
Lead others to Christ. Whatever motley group you find yourself leading, lead them with diligence. Lead them well and consistently, and lead them to Christ.
the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.
If you lack mercy, practice with me now: - put your tongue between your teeth and bite…not too hard though…then smile
that’s the first step in showing mercy…just don’t say a word
But notice, it says “showing mercy, with cheerfulness”. Merciful people do not just tolerate people’s failures, though that can be a feat in itself, they help them do better. This is part of that “bearing with one another” Paul talks about elsewhere. It’s a difficult practice for many of us…and I do mean ‘us’…this is not naturally one of my strengths. But remember these are spiritual gifts. If you lack mercy, pray that the Holy Spirit will grow it in you. But be warned! Whenever you pray for a character trait, God will give you opportunities to practice. It’s like praying for patience. If you have to learn patience, they you will find yourself in situations where you have to be patient. If you pray for mercy, prepare for someone to do you wrong. But be merciful when they do, and you will reap the spiritual rewards.
Also though
But I’d also like to point out that this is not an exhaustive list. The three big passages concerning spiritual gifts are: Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4. Feel free to look those up later. For now, I’d like to point out how general these words are. For instance, serving can be a lot of things. So be in prayer and be on the lookout for ways to exercise your gifts. Don’t worry, if you need help, I’m sure we can find you something to do.
And if you think, “I don’t know my gift”, that’s fine. Just Do Something. One of my new favorite books is Just Do Something by Kevin DeYoung. All high school students should be forced to read this. The gist of the book is “Quit worrying about what to do and just do something.” He talks about how previous generations didn’t worry about ‘finding themselves’ or ‘seeking what God really wants from them’. They were too busy working to have an existential crisis. And here’s the thing about spiritual gifts, these are all things that all Christians should be doing anyway. Some of us are just better at one than others. So if you practice them all, you’ll find some to be easier, that’s where you are gifted, and the ones that are more difficult, let other Christians help you do those.
Just remember, whatever you do…Just do something and “do it for the glory of God”. That is your spiritual act of worship.
And Also
Remember why we exercise our gifts. It is not because someone is forcing us. It’s not because if we work really hard God will love us. God already loves you. The Father demonstrated His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. When we put our faith in the work of Christ, the Holy Spirit turns our dead, stony hearts into a new heart of flesh. The dead soul comes alive. Salvation is a miracle that God performs. Father, Son, and Spirit sees our dead state and creates new life. If you have not experienced this miracle, today is the day.