How is Daily Life an Act of Worship?
Sermon Notes
Today we’re continuing our teaching series on a book of the bible called Romans. It’s a series about renewing your mind for the transformation of your life, and what we’re talking about specifically today is worship. We’re talking about how daily life, is an act of worship...Like I said last week the reality is everybody worships something. We either worship God, or we worship something else as god, but everybody worships something... Both skeptics and believers sometimes take good things God created, and we turn them into god things giving them a glory seat in our lives only God deserves. For example some people take alcohol, which is a good thing God gave us to heal cuts, even to enjoy at parties like a wedding. The first miracle Jesus ever performed was turning water into wine at a wedding. So alcohol isn’t a bad thing, but it becomes a bad thing if we turn it into a god thing, a self-medicating savior for our problems, leading to drunkenness and addiction. Another example is some people will serve others, which is a good thing God wants so we can care for others. But it becomes a bad thing if we turn into a god thing, an attention seeking savior, wanting praise and glory for serving others.
The point is both skeptics and believers take good things God created, and we turn them into god things giving them a glory seat in our lives only God deserves. So everybody worships something, but we’ll also make sacrifices for whatever we worship. For example if we worship money, we’ll sacrifice spending time with family and friends to make more money. We’ll sacrifice doing a job we love, to do a job we hate that pays more, so we can make more money. We’ll make sacrifices using our head, heart, and hands every day to satisfy our money god. We’ll use our head to think of ways to obtain money, our heart will drive us to pursue money, our hands will work overtime to make more money. We’ll make sacrifices using our head, heart, and hands every day to satisfy whatever we worship, and this is what we’re talking about today. We’re talking about how daily life, is an act of worship. Let’s turn to Romans 12 and get into it. You’ll find Romans in the last quarter of the bible, and we’ll be in Romans 12:1-8. Title of the message is How is daily life, an act of worship? The big idea is worship entails using your head, heart, and hands to honor God...Worship entails using your head, heart, and hands to honor God.
Here’s your context. Romans was written by the Apostle Paul who was a skeptic and enemy of Christianity, until 35 A.D. when he has an interaction with Jesus that changes his life, and he becomes a Christian. He writes this letter to teach others about Jesus and the very gospel that transformed his life. Now the first 11 chapters of Romans is primarily about the gospel, it’s about our vertical relationship with God, and how God loves us, saves us, forgives us, never fails to keep his promises to us. But the last five chapters are about how God wants us to live in our horizontal relationship with each other, by loving others like Jesus loved us. Ch 12 is where Paul starts transitioning into teaching us to worship God by the way we live our lives in the world. He teaches us to worship God by the way we use our heads, hearts, and hands. So let’s check it out.
Romans 12:1-8 states, “Therefore brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship.” Notice what drives Paul’s heart to worship God is the view of God’s mercies. It’s the view of how much Jesus has forgiven us of, when he died for our sins on the cross. I mean you’ll have some awe and gratitude over a friend paying for your dinner at a restaurant, but you’ll have far greater awe and gratitude over them paying the entire mortgage of your home. The greater the bill, the greater the awe and gratitude over it being paid for. So in view of God’s mercies, in view of the itemized sin bill Jesus paid for on the cross, does your singing match the amount of awe and gratitude Jesus deserves?...When we gather here to worship Jesus, does your signing match the amount of awe and gratitude Jesus deserves, for the infinite mercies he’s shown you?...
When I first became a Christian I thought my whisper worship, my refusal to sing loud and raise my hands in adoration of Jesus was an introvert issue. Until one day I realized it wasn’t an introvert issue, it was a heart issue. I realized if my heart for the NY Giants drives me to sing loud chants and raise my hands in celebration of them, then my heart for Jesus should drive me to sing loud and raise my hands in celebration of him. It wasn’t an introvert issue it was a heart issue. I was singing louder and raising my hands higher for the Giants than I was for my Savior. My point isn’t that we always need to sing loud and raise our hands in worship. It’s that we should be in much greater awe over how much Jesus has forgiven us of, than we are over a game winning shot in the NBA finals. We should be in much greater awe over the mercies of Jesus, than we are over our favorite band or a T Swift concert. We should be filled with so much awe and gratitude over the mercies of Jesus, that it drives our hearts to worship Jesus over anything else.
Again vs. 1, “Therefore brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship.” What Paul’s teaching us here is worship entails more than just singing, it entails our daily living. It entails offering our lives as a living sacrifice, meaning we’re to view daily life as an act of worship to Jesus. He’s saying Jesus sacrificed his life for us, so we should be willing to sacrifice our lives for him. We should be willing to view daily life as an act of worship to Jesus. Now back then people in various cultures were familiar with offering animal sacrifices to their gods. But what they weren’t familiar with is this concept of a living sacrifice, because when they killed an animal the sacrifice was over, it was dead. Paul’s saying Christianity’s different because what we offer is a living sacrifice, we offer our entire lives to Jesus every day. If you’re a skeptic you might be like, “No thanks. I don’t want to wake up every morning offering my life to anything. I want to be my own person, do my own thing, instead of offering my life to anyone or anything.” The problem with this thinking is you already offer your life to numerous things every day. See the question isn’t are you offering your life to something, it’s are the things you’re offering your life to worth the sacrifice?...Are the things you’re pursuing in life worth offering your entire life to every day?...Paul’s saying Jesus is worth offering our entire lives to every day! In the words of C.T. Studd, “If Jesus Christ is our God who died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for him.” If Jesus sacrificed his life for us, then we should be willing to sacrifice our entire lives for him. We should be willing to view daily life as an act of worship to him, and Paul’s about to teach us the way we can do that is with our head, heart, and hands.
Vs. 2, “Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind...” This is the verse where we got our series theme from. It’s a series about “renewing your mind, for the transformation of your life.” What Paul’s teaching us here is that worship entails our heads, it entails our minds...Worship entails the daily renewal of our minds...In vs 1 when Paul says this is our true worship, the original Greek word for true is logikos. It’s where we get the word logical from. So Paul’s saying if Jesus is really God incarnate, if he really sacrificed his life for us on the cross, then the only logical response is for us to worship him and sacrifice our lives for him. It’s to view daily life as an act of worship to Jesus, which entails the daily renewal of our minds. It entails being daily transformed by the teachings of Jesus. In the words of John Piper, “I feel like I have to get saved every morning. I wake up, and the devil’s sitting on my face.” Spending time with Jesus in the morning is critical for renewing our minds and facing the struggles in our day. We can scroll through Instagram, but we can’t scroll through our spiritual life. When we wake up we need to ask, “Do I want to conform to the teachings of the world this morning, or be transformed by the teachings of Jesus? Do I want social media, news media, peer pressure to be my teacher this morning, or read my bible so Jesus can be my teacher this morning?” It’s critical we guard our minds and our children’s minds every day, because we’re being flooded every day with cultural agendas trying to conform our minds. The average American gets flooded with roughly 5,000 ads per day, and we’re also being flooded with cultural agendas censoring information with algorithms. Not every teaching in the world is sinful, but we need to guard our minds from every sinful teaching in the world. You can’t do that if you aren’t studying the teachings of Jesus. Paul says we need to daily renew our minds, from any sinful teachings of the world that are polluting our minds. We need to daily renew our minds, by daily studying the teachings of Jesus for the transformation of our minds. Is your mind being conformed to some of the sinful teachings of the world, or is your mind being transformed by the teachings of Jesus?... Where in your life are you conforming to sinful teachings of the world, instead of the teachings of Jesus?...Worship entails the daily renewal of our heads, the daily renewal of our minds.
Again vs. 2, “Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God. 3 For by the grace given to me, I tell everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he should think. Instead, think sensibly, as God has distributed a measure of faith to each one.” This is where Paul’s transitioning from focusing on our vertical relationship with God, to how God wants us to live in our horizontal relationship with others. He’s teaching us worship entails our heads, but it also entails our hearts. It entails having humble hearts like Jesus. Paul says don’t think more highly of ourselves than we should, which means we also shouldn’t think too lowly of ourselves either. C.S. Lewis states, “Humility isn’t thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.” Humility isn’t thinking less of yourself, it isn’t thinking you’re worthless. You can’t be worthless since Jesus sacrificed his life for you, which makes you eternally priceless to him. So having a humble heart isn’t thinking less of yourself as if you’re worthless, it’s thinking of yourself less because you’re now thinking of Jesus more. You’re now thinking more about what Jesus wants for your life, instead of what you want for your life. Paul’s saying what Jesus wants is for us to worship Jesus with humble hearts, and live with humble hearts toward others.
But the reality is we have prideful hearts, and having a prideful heart will always hurt our relationships with others. Holding grudges, finger pointing, failing to remember we need Jesus just as much everyone else, will always hurt not help our relationships. I’ve been a pastor for 18 yrs and I’m yet to have a counseling session with two people fighting over humble hearts...“I’ll humbly serve you.” No I’ll humbly serve you. “Well I’ll just humbly serve you more.” Well I’ll just humbly serve you like Jesus served us! Okay you two break it up! Stop being so humble!... I’m yet to have a counseling session over two humble hearts, but I’ve had plenty of sessions over two prideful hearts. Prideful hearts hurt our relationships, but humble hearts help our relationships. We need humble hearts like Jesus. Jesus humbly left the comforts of heaven, to humbly live in the discomforts of this world. He humbly lived a poor carpenter life, humbly washed his disciples feet, humbly sacrificed his life for our life, so we can enjoy eternal life with him. The more we worship Jesus with our minds, the more we think about his humble heart, the more our prideful hearts will turn into humble hearts like him. Do you have a prideful heart like the world, or a humble heart like Jesus?...What areas of your life are you struggling with pride?...Worship entails the daily renewal of your head, and daily striving to have a humble heart like Jesus.
Vs. 4, “Now as we have many parts in one body, and all the parts do not have the same function, 5 in the same way we who are many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another. 6 According to the grace given to us, we have different gifts: If prophecy, use it according to the proportion of one’s faith; 7 if service, use it in service; if teaching, in teaching; 8 if exhorting, in exhortation; giving, with generosity; leading, with diligence; showing mercy, with cheerfulness.” What we’re learning here is worship entails our head, our hearts, and our hands. It entails having serving hands like Jesus. Paul says we have different gifts, meaning Jesus has given each of us different gifts to be used in ways that edifies others within the church, and helps lead others to Jesus outside the church. The gifts Paul mentions aren’t a complete list, they’re just a few examples of ways we can serve Jesus. He’s saying Jesus has given each of us personally, unique gifts to do unique things, that nobody else can do the way he’s gifted you to do it. He’s given you different gifts, and different people to reach in unique ways nobody else is gifted to reach. There are people in your school, workplace, city and neighborhood, Jesus wants you to reach with serving hands like him. Not every serving opportunity that comes your way has your name on it, but something does. If you’re a believer then something has your name on it, because Jesus has given you different gifts, so you can worship him with serving hands.
Now I can’t tell you exactly what your gifting is, but I can tell you it isn’t sitting on your hands. Some of you are gifted at sitting on your hands, but sitting on your hands isn’t a spiritual gift. We don’t sit on our hands, we serve with our hands, and Jesus wants us to serve both in and outside the church. We have many ways you can serve in the church. Last week I mentioned we need 8 people to serve in children’s ministry, and we ended up getting 6 adults and 2 teenagers, so we got our 8. But we can always use more in children’s ministry and other areas of ministry. There might even be some ministries we haven’t started yet, but Jesus wants you to start it. The point is if you don’t know what Jesus wants you to do, just start doing something, because you at least know he doesn’t want you sitting around doing nothing...Are you sitting on your hands, or worshiping Jesus with serving hands?...What are some things you love to do, and how can you do those things in a strategic way to help others, and to worship Jesus with your serving hands?
The big idea of the message is worship entails using your head, heart, and hands every day to honor God...We make sacrifices using our head, heart, and hands every day to satisfy the things we worship. But nothing is worthy of our worship like Jesus, and nothing will ever satisfy the joy void in our hearts like Jesus. Some of you think getting married and having kids will be a better savior for the joy void in your heart, but those who are married and have kids can tell you our struggles don’t end, they get magnified by now having to worry about our family’s struggles too...Some of you think being wealthy and successful will be a better savior to fill the joy void in your heart, but there’s plenty of wealthy and successful people who are still miserable like Tom Brady. Several years ago Tom Brady said, “Why do I have all these Super Bowl rings, and still think there's something greater out there for me?...Maybe a lot of people would say this is it. I reached my goal, my dream, my life. But I think, there’s gotta be more than this!” He then went on to win another Super Bowl in Tampa, but lost his marriage and still isn’t satisfied with life... Some of you think being popular or having a lot of followers on YouTube and social media will be a better savior to fill the joy void in your heart, but in 2019 Katy Perry posted on Instagram, “100 million digital singles, and still insecure.” A huge question some of you are asking right now, is why is Pastor Louis following Katy Perry on Instagram?...I’m not. I happen to see her post in an article...“100 million digital singles, and still insecure.” It’s because nothing in this world is worthy of worship like Jesus, and nothing will ever satisfy the joy void in our hearts like Jesus. Every morning you’re faced with a worship war, but only Jesus is worthy of worship. Lamentations 3:22-23 states, “The Lord’s mercies never come to an end; 23 they are new every morning.” Every morning when you wake up the devil’s trying to sit on your face and tempt you, but every morning Jesus is offering his new mercies and grace to you. Every morning when you wake up Jesus is offering his new mercies to face the devil and face the day. So when you wake up offer your life as an act of worship to him, and seek to find your greatest joys in him. When you wake up offer to use your head, heart, and hands, as an act of worship to him.