SERIES: “THE CHALLENGE TO THE CHURCH IN 2005”
TEXT: ROMANS 12:1-2
TITLE: “MAKING WORSHIP A LIFESTYLE AND NOT AN EVENT”
INTRODUCTION: A. There was a story that ran in a small Midwestern town’s weekly paper a few years ago
that said, “We are pleased to announce that the cyclone which blew away the
Methodist church last Friday did no real damage to the town.”
1. Kind of scary isn’t it?
2. What would happen if First Christian Church ceased to exist?
a. What if something happened in the near future that caused us to no longer be a
church?
b. Would it be no real loss? Would our presence as salt and light in this
community be missed?
B. Have you ever had microwave popcorn? If so, you probably have noticed
something I have. Some kernels don’t pop. They experience the same
radiation in the same bag at the same time, but some kernels don’t pop.
1. Some Christians read the same Bible passages, but some Christians don’t
pop.
2. They hear the same spiritual songs, but some Christians don’t pop.
3. They hear the same sermon, but some Christian’s don’t pop.
4. They are issued the same challenge to witness, but some Christians don’t
pop.
5. They know the same teaching to tithe, but some Christians don’t pop.
6. They hear the same call to service, but some Christians don’t pop.
C. Charles Stanley, Confronting Casual Christianity asks, “Why do you suppose that
there are close to 100 million church members in America yet they are not making
more of a moral and spiritual impact? Why is it that on Sunday morning thousands of
church have more empty pews than full? Why is it that the average Sunday school in
America has less that 66 in attendance and that the average worship service has 84?
Why is it that only 50% of the number on any church membership roll can be
expected to attend? If Christians really believe in a real heaven and a real hell, how
can we be so silent?”
1. He says, “The answer to all of these questions is tragically simple! God’s people
have made a decision about Jesus … but have never made a commitment to Him.”
2. When a pilot speeds his plane down the runway, there is a certain point where
staying on the ground is no longer an option.
a. When he crosses that line, he is committed to the air
--He’ll either leave the ground or a disastrous crash is going to happen
b. At that point, the pilot can no longer change his mind
--He’s committed!
3. Unfortunately, churches are filled with members who’ve never gotten off the
ground
a. They’ve been sitting there gunning their engines, making noise but getting
nowhere
b. They’ve been planning on it, meaning to, wanting to, trying to, going to, aiming
to, hoping to.
--The tragedy is that they’ve never gotten off the ground.
D. I think the reason why Christians don’t pop, the reason they never get off the ground,
is because there has been a misconception concerning worship
1. Worship is seen as something that happens on a Sunday morning with a group of
other people
--Worship has erroneously been seen as an event that takes place at a given time
2. Worship is also seen as being something that comes about as a five-part exercise:
singing, praying, giving, communion, and preaching
. a. Those five things are not worship in themselves collectively or separately.
b. They are only extensions of a lifestyle of worship.
3. The biblical teaching about worship is that it is a lifestyle and not an event
--Rom. 12:1-2 – “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer
your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God–this is your spiritual act
of worship. Do not conform any longer 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.”
4. How do we move from seeing worship as an event and adopting it as a lifestyle?
--The scripture gives us three clear things that will change our view and transform
our lives
I. REGARD YOURSELF AS A LIVING SACRIFICE
A. The most important thing you have to understand is that God wants all of you
1. Most of you have probably heard about the pig and the hen that were out walking one day when
they passed a church. The sermon topic on the sign board was, “How can we help the poor?” After a
moment’s reflection the hen said, “I know what we can do. We can offer a ham and egg breakfast.”
It took several moments before the suggestion sunk in, but when it did, the pig protested: “That
breakfast would be only a contribution for you, but for me it would mean total commitment.”
2. The problem with a large number of those who claim to be Christians is that most of them are willing
to make a contribution to the cause of Christ but very few are willing to give their total commitment.
a. Someone described the typical church this way: It is "Church-Lite" or "Christianity-Lite" in its
approach. It is the home of the 5% tithe, the thirty-minute service with sermonettes for
Christianettes. It is the place where the hymn of commitment is "I Surrender Some." Instead of
"Standing on the Promises" we are merely sitting on the premises. But this isn’t what God has in
mind at all.
b. In our church, we’ve got all kinds of people: Church-members, pew-fillers, hymn-singers, sermon-
tasters, Bible-readers, and simple-believers.
--But we have very few who are walking, talking, breathing, living sacrifices.
3. How many of you woke up this morning, stretched, and then said to yourself, “Today, I’m going to
die”?
--Most of us probably spent more time thinking about how we were going to live instead of how we
were going to die
B. One of the key elements to worship in the Old Testament was the sacrifice.
--It was crucial because it gave the people the understanding that worship costs something
1. The language of Romans 12:1 is the language of the Old Testament temple.
2. In the original language, the verb "to offer" is the same word used of the priests’ work of offering
sacrifices in the sanctuary.
--It literally means “to place at one’s disposal.”
C. But there’s a startling contrast between the priestly act called for here in Rom. 12 and the one which is so
common in the OT.
--The difference is that God is now calling for living sacrifices not dead ones.
1. Do you wonder why God asks that we present our bodies, rather than our souls, our spirits, our wills,
our hearts?
a. I wonder if it’s not because we so readily make a false distinction between the material part of us
and the spiritual part of ourselves
b. We’re glad to give God our hearts as long as our eyes, hands, feet, and tongues are allowed to do
what they please.
2. William Barclay: True worship is the offering to God of one’s body and all that one does every day
with it. Real worship is not the offering to God of a liturgy, however noble, nor a ritual, however
magnificent. Real worship is the offering of everyday life to Him. Take your body; take all the tasks
that you have to do everyday; take the ordinary work of the shop, the factory, (the office, the home);
and offer that all as an act of worship to God.
D. Two important ideas:
1. “Holy” – “set apart; dedicated”
a. Not for any other purpose
b. Col. 3:17 – “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus,
giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
2. “Pleasing” – not what pleases us but what pleases God
a. 1 Cor. 10:31 – “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”
b. More of this idea in just a few minutes
E. Spiritual act of worship
1. KJV – “reasonable”
a. Original language uses the term from which we get our word “logical”
b. It denotes “rational” as opposed to “unreasonable
2. Paul is saying, “If you weigh all that God has done in mercy in the light of who you were as a sinful
hopeless enemy of His righteousness, the only reasonable response is to lay your life on the altar for
Him.”
II. REVISE YOUR MINDSET
A. Our natural instinct is to do what we want.
--1 Corinthians 2:14 (NASB), "But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they
are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised."
B. The scripture gives us a two-part method of revising our mindset:
1. Don’t be conformed
a. J.B. Phillips paraphrase: “Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold…”
b. We’re shaped by the influences in our lives.
c. 1 Peter 1:13-16 – “Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be selfcontrolled; set your hope fully
on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. As obedient children, do not conform
to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so
be holy in all you do; for it is written: ‘Be holy, because I am holy.’”
2. Be transformed
a. What does it mean to be transformed?
1). Metamorphosis – we use the term to refer to the transformation of a caterpillar into a butterfly
2). The same term was used to describe what happened to Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration
3). Also used in 2 Cor. 5:17 – “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has
gone, the new has come!”
4). Means to be changed into something completely different
b. What is it that motivates us to undergo transformation?
1). The mercy of God is the motivation for being transformed.
2). Paul uses an interesting word to start this particular passage: “therefore”
a). I’ll never forget the words of one of the elders in my home church. He always said that
when you see the word “therefore” in the Bible, you’d better go back and read what it’s
there for. It will always point back to something that was said earlier.”
b). Paul is pointing back to everything he said in Rom. 1-11
--How God created and designed us for relationship with him but we rebelled against His
purposes. All of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Because of rebellion
and sin we don’t deserve relationship with God but “while we were still sinners, Christ
died for us.” God has promised that He would provide the means for relationship and
God has faithfully kept His promises from the beginning of time.
3). The mercy of God is that He offers us something we don’t deserve (relationship with Him and
eternal life) instead of what we do deserve (eternal separation from Him and eternal
punishment)
4). The reason we should be living sacrifices is that the whole point of Christianity is to glorify the
mercy of God through His Son Jesus Christ.
--We exist to put the glory of God’s mercy in Jesus Christ on display
c. How do we experience this transformation to a living sacrifice?
--Scripture says we do it through the “renewing of the mind”
1). Renewing of the mind involves changing the way we think
--Phil. 2 says that we need to have the mind of Christ: a mind of obedience and humility
2). Renewing of the mind involves changing what we put into our minds
a). Computer programmers are very familiar with an acronym called GIGO – “Garbage in,
garbage out.”
b). If you’re an average American, you’ll spend 1,000 hours this year watching television. Over
a 65 year period, that means, you would have spent 15 years of that 65 year period watching
the tube.
c). In contrast, if you go to church every Sunday of your life for 65 years, you’ll have spent a
total of 8 months receiving spiritual training.
d). 8 months compared to 15 years. That’s a big difference, isn’t it?
3). One important thing about the renewing of your mind
a). The original language indicates that it’s not a one-time renewal but an on-going renewal –
something we do every day
b). Sam Shoemaker used to say that to be a Christian means to “give as much of myself as I can
to as much of Jesus Christ as I know.”
--And if we’ll grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, we’ll recognize it as an
ongoing process.
III. RELINQUISH YOUR WILL TO GOD’S WILL
A. What’s so great about God’s will?
1. The will of God is good.
a. God only asks us to do that which is good for us.
--He will not hurt us by His will.
b. He wants our best.
--He loves us and Jesus died for us. How could God want anything but the best for us?
2. The will of God is pleasing.
a. It pleases God and will ultimately please us.
b. The reason is because it will result in a right relationship with God and will secure His blessing
for us.
3. The will of God is perfect.
a. Not only does God want good for us, He wants the best for us.
b. He does not want us to settle for second place in His kingdom.
c. His will is perfectly what we need for where we are in our Christian walk.
d. We can submit to His will gladly as believers, knowing we are in the hands of a God we can trust
with our lives.
B. One of the most important concepts is that when you become a Christian, you no longer live the way
you want to live but the way God wants you to live
--We don’t live to please ourselves but to please God
1. William Borden was a millionaire, a graduate of Yale, a handsome and privileged young man.
God called him to the cause of world missions, and he said, “Yes.”
His friends thought he was crazy. One of them wrote to him, “You’re throwing yourself away.”
It didn’t stop him.
But at age 25, in 1913, on his way to China, Borden contracted meningitis and died. He left a
note as he lay dying, which simply said, “No reserve, no retreat, no regrets.” His whole life made
that statement.
2. A friend wrote of Borden, “No one would have known from [his] life and talk that he was a
millionaire, but no one could have helped knowing that he was a Christian.”
3. In Borden’s favorite book, this sentence was underlined: “The supreme human condition of the
fullness of the Spirit is a life wholly surrendered to God to do his will.”
4. Borden trusted the promise of 1 Jn. 2:17 – “The world and its desires pass away, but the man who
does the will of God lives forever.”
CONCLUSION: A. William Temple: “For worship is the submission of all our nature to God. It is the
quickening of conscience by His holiness; the nourishment of mind with His truth; the
purifying of imagination by His beauty; the opening of the heart to His love; the
surrender of will to His purpose—and all of this gathered up in adoration, the most
selfless emotion of which our nature is capable and therefore the chief remedy for that
self-centeredness which is our original sin and the source of all actual sin.”
B. John and Betty Stam were missionaries to China. On December 8, 1934, they calmly
and bravely laid down their lives for Christ – martyred by the Chinese communists.
--Nine years earlier Betty had dedicated her life to Christ with these words: “Lord, I give
up my own purposes and plans, all my own desires, hopes and ambitions, and I accept
Thy will for my life. I give myself, my life, my all, utterly to Thee, to be Thine forever.
I hand over to Thy keeping all my friendships. All the people whom I love are to take
second place in my heart. Fill me and seal me with Thy Holy Spirit. Work out Thy
whole will in my life, at any cost, now and forever. To me to live is Christ. Amen!”
1. That is total commitment!
2. But we say to ourselves, “That’s something for great saints and martyrs and unique
servants of God.”
a. I beg to differ
b. Rom. 12:1-2 tells us that this is what God wants from each of us who claims to be
a Christian.
C. The Christian life is all about being worshipful to God in everything that we do, say,
think, and feel.
--It’s about presenting our bodies on a daily basis as living sacrifices
1. Some of you might be thinking, “Why is God interested in my body? It’s overweight
or underweight, it’s too old or too young, it’s wrinkled, blotchy, achy, diseased,
nervous, unattractive, disabled, near-sighted or far-sighted, hard-of-hearing, stiff and
brittle. What kind of sacrifice is that?”
2. God doesn’t want your capability, He just wants your availability. Through His
mercies He provides the capability.
3. Again, the understanding of it all is God’s mercy through Jesus Christ
a. Our bodies aren’t good enough but Jesus’ was
b. He was the perfect lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world
c. Peter tells us in 1 Pet. 2:5 – ““Offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through
Jesus Christ.”
--It’s only because of Jesus that our sacrifices to God are acceptable
