Spiritual Worship & Service

Sermon
Spiritual Worship & Service
March 2, 2003
Pastor Leighton Sheley

I'm going to invite you to take your Bibles and open to Romans chapter 12. 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.

For by the grace given me I say to everyone of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. Just as each of us has one body and many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.

In the chapters that precede is, Paul provides profound teaching concerning what God has provided or given to believers through Christ Jesus. And now Paul turns his attention to concerning that which believers should give back to God. Now there is a very popular philosophy among some Christians who believe that their spiritual experience is somehow not complete. They attend extraordinary and spectacular services in search of some missing ingredient to their spiritual appetite that they're convinced will bring the satisfaction they are missing. And yet, the Scriptures tell us time and time again the key to spiritual satisfaction is not trying to get more from God, but rather giving of all that we are and all that we have to God. In fact, trying to get more from God may contradict some very clear scriptural teaching.

The apostle Paul writes in Ephesians 1:3, Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has (that's past tense, already) blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. That's the writings of Paul.

Peter writes in 2 Peter 1:2 and following, Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has given us (past tense) everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.

Colossians 2:8, See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given (past tense) fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority.

The apostle John writes in 1 John chapter 2, As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit--just as it has taught you, remain in him.

You see, the key to a satisfying and productive Christian life is not getting more, but giving all. God provided the Commandments as guidelines for a fulfilling and satisfying life. And when he was asked which was the greatest commandment, Jesus said, love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, and with all of your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. Love with all your heart, soul, and mind.

Here in Romans chapter 12 believers are challenged to present ourselves as living sacrifices, offering our bodies, souls, and minds to God. Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy. Urge is from parakaleo, which has the basic meaning of calling for alongside in order to give help or aid. It also can mean exhorting or admonishing or encouraging. And Paul's encouragement was intended for Christian brothers only because as he has written previous, in this book in chapter 8 verse 8, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. An unbeliever might try to bring a sacrifice, but that effort will not be acceptable to God.

Therefore by the mercies of God, refers to all of the wonders of God's love, mercy and graciousness towards all who believe. You see, in the chapters preceding Paul has written about the power of salvation, God's great kindness towards those he saves, forgiveness and propitiation for sins, freedom from sin's dominion and destination, reconciliation with God, glorification and eternal life. He's also written about the resurrection of our bodies and our adoption as sons or children of God.

For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

And there are many more blessings that are ours due to the mercies of God, such as the intercession of His Holy Spirit on our behalf, faith, peace, hope, righteousness and shared glory. And what Paul is saying, in light of all that God has given to us, His many mercies, we ought to be with grateful hearts giving all back to Him. So this is an appeal to give all of our hearts. The soul is a given because we wouldn't be brethren were it not for the fact that we were saved and our soul is safely in the hands of God.

Offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This is your spiritual act of worship. That word offer was used in the Septuagint as a technical term for a priest placing a sacrifice on the altar. And here Paul uses the imperative form of the verb which carried the weight of a command. Because our souls belong to God through salvation God already has the inner man, but God wants the outer man, these shells our soul reside in, and the body is where our old unredeemed humanness flesh and sinfulness reside.

In Romans chapter 7 Paul writes, For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. And in verses 5 and 6; 5 of the same chapter, For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death.

Now God created the body for good, and one day the body will be redeemed and sanctified. Until that time there will continue to be a contention in the lives of believers between the inner man and the outer flesh. Paul describes this contention in Romans chapter 8. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

Paul exhorts believers in Romans 6, Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.

Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? Present your bodies--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. It is in the mind that the battle between our flesh and spirit takes place. It is in our mind that we make our decisions as to which inclination we will endorse by our actions. It is in our mind that we choose to be spiritual or carnal. The power and the processes of the mind continue to be a source of intense study for scientists. In our minds we can decide that we want to be sick, and the body, often times will do what it's told. There is some validity in the old saying, mind over matter.

The word 'be conformed', in the original language, is the word from which we get scheme; and it describes an outward expression that does not reflect what's within. It carries the idea of something that is unstable and temporary. The verb is in the passive tense indicating something that we allow to happen to us, and it's in the imperative tense meaning that we are commanded to not let conformity happen to us.

J. B. Phillips translates the passage: do not let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold. The word 'world' is eon instead of cosmos and it refers to this present sinful age and the worldly system now dominated by Satan, the god of this world, as he is identified in 2 Corinthians 4:4. You see, the world wants to make things which are not acceptable to God acceptable to you. Entertainment, fashion, vocabulary, thought, all of this in the worldly system is designed to make it appealing and acceptable to you; things which are very often not acceptable to God. Very often believers find themselves compromising or conforming

1 John says, We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true--even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.

This world wants to make things acceptable to you that are not acceptable to God. Instead of conforming to this world we should instead be transformed. Transformed is the root of metamorphosis, and it describes an outward manifestation of that which resides within.

I can remember as a child my Sunday school teacher talking about this and saying that the butterfly is the transformation of the caterpillar in the cocoon. It doesn't change. That butterfly resides within that caterpillar and is exposed, or brought to light, or manifested; and that word is transformed--metamorphosis. The word is also used in the Scriptures of Jesus when He was transfigured, same word, before the apostles in Matthew 17. After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There he was transfigured, or transformed, before them. His face showed like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.

You see, it wasn't that Jesus had changed; it was that the glory of God within Him was revealed. Again, be transformed is in the passive imperative tense telling us that we should let our inward natures be revealed. Jesus said, you are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

The renewing of the mind is a recurrent biblical theme. Colossians 3 says, Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.

King David wrote in Psalm 119, I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word. And this passage begins with David asking, how can a young man keep his way pure? And then answering immediately, by living according to your word. And the passage ends with the declaration, I will not neglect your word.

The transformed mind is one that has been saturated with the word of God. And if I may point out, that cannot happen in only 30 minutes on a Sunday morning, no matter how fast the preacher talks. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is -- his good, pleasing and perfect will. Now the sentence construction indicates that this is a purpose results phrase. It means that after or as a person's mind is saturated with the word of God, his or her thinking ability, moral reasoning, and spiritual understanding are properly able to assess what is acceptable to God. A transformed mind also results in a transformed will.

Now these verses are in logical continuation of our spiritual worship. You see, how we treat others affects and is affected by our relationship with God. Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was, and His response was, loving the Lord your God. And the second one, He said, is like it, or related to it: love your neighbor as yourself. Now Jesus was only asked for one commandment, the greatest, but He had to respond with two because the two were inseparable.

How we treat our neighbor affects and is affected by our relationship with God. Devotion to the Lord and active faithful ministry for Him are inseparable. This passage utterly destroys any notion that a Christian can be both committed to Christ and inactive in service. We cannot be living sacrifices to Him and inactive in His work.

The word 'worship' is from latreia which can be and is translated worship and service. As a noun it's translated worship; as a verb it's translated service. Worship in action is service.

'By the grace given me' is a gentle reference to Paul's calling and authority as an apostle, which he points out elsewhere where he writes was not earned by any personal merit, for he declared himself to be the chiefest of sinners. It was carefully chosen so the audience to whom Paul wrote wouldn't hear something like: hey, listen to me, the big apostle, do what I say! Be humble. That's why he said, by the grace given me, the gifts that I was given wasn't because of any personal merit. It was an appropriate salutation.

The Bible says much about how God views pride. Psalm 138, Though the Lord is on high, he looks upon the lowly, but the proud he knows from afar. Proverbs 16, The Lord detests all the proud of heart. James 4, God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Since from the very beginning of the church some have struggled with pride over the spiritual gifts they have been given. And yet, the apostle Peter's declared of a truth, I perceive that God is no respecter of persons. In his letter to the Galatians the author writes, you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ. Before God it doesn't matter if we're man or woman, rich or poor, strong or weak. Before God none of us is exalted above another.

God gives spiritual gifts to each not based upon personal merit, but based upon God's purpose and God's plan. 1 Corinthians 12 says, There are different kinds as gifts, but the same Spirit. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines. Each and every believer has been given some spiritual gift. There's not one believer here this morning who can claim that God ran out of spiritual gifts before he got them. Every believer has a spiritual gift, and there are no unimportant gifts.

Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit, or gift of the Spirit, is given for the common good, 1 Corinthians 12:7. It's for the common good that spiritual gifts are given. It's not intended for the good or the benefit of the gift's recipient or bearer, but rather the exercise of the gift is for the good of all, the common good. And is a believer's responsibility to exercise his or her spiritual God-given gift. Withholding the exercise of that gift is refusing to present your bodies a living sacrifice. So the bottom line is that all spiritual gifts are from God, are given to individuals by God's determinations for God's purposes, and to God's glory.

Just as each of us has one body and many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. Paul often describes the church as the body of Christ, and though we are one body which represents our unity, we are made up of many members which represents our diversity. Each part of the body contributes to the life and the health of the whole. The function of the liver is distinct from the function of the heart, and yet both require each other. And there are no useless parts in the body that God has designed. Every part has a purpose and contributes to the whole.

So we are united as to be mutually dependent. The feet, for example, could not performed their functions if it were not for the aid of an eye. And what good would an eye be if there were no feet or hands to guide. Thus in the church every individual is not only necessary at his or her place as an individual, but also needful for the proper symmetry and action of the whole, the body of Christ. And yet in the brilliant engineering of God, there's enough adaptability designed into the body that it can continue functioning, albeit with limitations, when certain parts are nonfunctional or dysfunctional. We refer to this condition as being crippled or handicapped. And when certain parts of the body of Christ are not participating their function and contributing to the whole, the body of Christ is crippled and handicapped in accomplishing the purpose for which it was created.

In his book, Fearfully and Wonderfully Made, Dr. Paul Brand writes of the amazing diversity and the inter-relationship of the parts of the human body. Concerning the body cells he writes this: I am at first struck by their variety. Chemically my cells are almost alike but visually and functionally they are as different as animals in a zoo. Red blood cells, disks resembling lifesavers candies, they voyage through my blood loaded with oxygen to feed the other cells. Muscle cells which absorb so much of the nourishment are sleek and supple full of coiled energy. Cartilage cells with shiny black nuclei looks like bunches of black-eyed peas glued together for strength. Fat cells seem lazy and leaden like bulging white plastic garbage bags jammed together. Bone cells live in rigid structures that exude strength. Cut in cross-section bones resemble tree rings overlapping strength with strength, offering impliablity and sturdiness. And in contrast, skin cells form undulating patterns of softness and texture that rise up and dip, giving shape and beauty to our bodies. They curve and jut at unpredictable angles so that every person's fingerprint, not to mention his or her face, is unique.

The king of cells, the one that I have devoted much of my life to studying, is the nerve cell. It has an aura of wisdom and complexity about it. Spider-like it branches out and unites the body with a computer network of dazzling sophistication. It's axons, or wires, carrying distant messages to and from the human brain can reach a yard in length. I never tire of viewing these varied specimens or thumbing through books which render cells. Individually, they seem puny and oddly designed, but I know these invisible parts cooperate to lavish me with the phenomenon of life.

My body employees a bewildering zoo of cells, none of which individually resembles the larger body. And just so Christ's body comprises an unlikely assortment of humans. Unlikely is precisely the right word for we are decidedly unlike each other and the one we follow. From whose design come these comical human shapes which so faintly reflect the ideals of the body as a whole? The body of Christ, like our own body, is comprised of individual unlike cells that are knit together to form one body. He is the whole thing and the joy of the body increases as individual cells realize they can be diverse without becoming isolated outposts.

There are rebellious and selfish cells in the human body, as there are rebellious and selfish believers in the body of Christ. There are cells that gorge themselves at the expense of other cells. They continually take, but they rarely give. And there are also cells that are rebellious or mutinous. Even though they are a part of the body they join the enemy and wreak havoc. They cause division and turn the body against itself. Cancerous cells kill or pervert other cells and can devastate the human frame.

Proverbs 6 reads, There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detectable to him: haughty or proud eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devices wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and, finally, a man who stirs up dissension among brothers. A man who turns brother against brother. The Lord hates cancer in his body-the church.

Dr. Brand also describes the unity of the seemingly endless diversity of cells. He says, what moves cells to work together? What ushers in the higher specialized function of movement, sight, consciousness, or the coordination of a hundred trillion cells? The secret to membership lies locked away inside each cells nucleus chemically coiled in a strand of DNA. Once the egg and sperm share their inheritance the DNA chemical ladder splits down the center and every gene, much like the teeth of a zipper, pull apart. DNA reforms itself each time the cell divides: 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 cells each with identical DNA. Along the way cells specialize, but each carries the entire instruction book of 100,000 genes.

DNA is estimated to contain instructions that if written out would fill a thousand 600 page books. A nerve cell may operate according to instructions from volume 4, and a kidney cell from volume 25, but both carry the whole compendium--the whole encyclopedia. It provides each cell's sealed credential of membership in the body. Every cell possesses a genetic code so complete that the entire body could be reassembled from the information in any one of the body's cells.

Just as a complete identity code of my body adheres in each individual cell, so also the reality of God permeates every cell in Christ's body linking us members with a true organic bond. It's wonderfully insightful how God has through His word shown us the mysteries of that which we cannot see through that which we can.

Let us pray.

Truly Lord Your word is rich and gives wisdom, and gives knowledge, and gives guidance, and gives strength, and encourages, and challenges. Thank you Lord for adopting us into Your family. Thank you Lord for making us parts of Your body. Thank you Lord for not neglecting any one of us, but gifting each and every one of us for Your purpose. Thank you Lord for the privilege we have to present our bodies a living sacrifice to bring honor and glory to You.

Lord we are so thankful that this can happen even though we are so far from perfect. Lord thank you for Your patience in working with us in transforming us and renewing us each and every day by the work of Your Holy Spirit in our lives. Thank you for Your patience with us. Thank you for Your faithfulness to us. Truly Lord You are great and greatly to be praised. And we go forth from this place this day worshiping and praising You in the name of Jesus, Your only begotten Son, our Lord and Savior. Amen. God bless you.