Romans 12:1-8
1Therefore, 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. 2 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.
3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. 4 For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; 7 if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; 8 if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.
Romans 12:1-8 HOW DO WE OFFER OURSELVES TO GOD IN WORSHIP?
Springford Baptist Church: August 15, 2021.
Please consider the beginning of this same Scripture from Romans 12:1-3 in The Message translation to help us in answering the question, “HOW DO WE OFFER OURSELVES TO GOD IN WORSHIP”?
1-2 So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for Him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what He wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
3 I’m speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you. Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it’s important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what He does for us, not by what we are and what we do for Him.
HOW DO WE OFFER OURSELVES TO GOD IN WORSHIP?
What should we expect our lives as Christians to be like if we do offer ourselves to God as an act of worship??
The reality is that faith expresses itself in obedience!
When our faith in God is real and committed then we are willing to make changes in order to please God. We want to offer all of ourselves to God.
Our whole way of thinking, being, and doing is affected. This really is worship.
The way the Christian life is described here is as a “transformed life” (vs. 2)
This can only happen as we, in view of God’s mercy for us, lay everything of who and what we are and have before God, holding nothing back.
This is offering ourselves to God as living sacrifices, ready to do His will.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart.” (Prov. 3:5) “With all” is the hard part. Putting some things in God’s hands most of us can manage, but then there are things that we insist on holding on to…
Does this sound familiar?
Remember back to when many of us were in Sunday School. Our parents would give us a few coins to put in the offering. The expectation was that we would put it all in, not hold some back for ourselves.
It is pleasing to God when we are willing to give over to Him everything that we are and have.
We do not need to be afraid or reluctant to offer everything over to God. What happens when we do this is that we are transformed and His will is accomplished.
Notice that there is a specific direction here:
When we are offering ourselves to God in worship we, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world.” (vs. 2a)
If this is what we are to avoid-the pattern of this world-how do we recognize and discern the pattern of this world?
The pattern of this world is to focus on self rather than others.
The pattern of this world is not to be concerned about what God wants, but rather to think in terms of what I will find most enjoyable and beneficial for me.
This is not offering myself to God in worship.
We can only be transformed (made new) by the renewing of our minds.
When God is leading, we will develop a different way of thinking, a different way of seeing things.
This is the way God works. It begins with God transforming us as individuals. Each of us has the potential to influence other Christians and that impacts our church and then ultimately our communities.
This is what God wants to happen. God wants us to be willing to offer ourselves to Him and for Him to be in the driver’s seat!
We all know about back seat drivers don’t we?
They can’t seem to just let the driver drive, but keep making suggestions or providing corrections.
Isn’t it absurd to say that God is in the driver’s seat, but to continue to be a back seat driver with God?
When we offer ourselves to God in worship and God is leading, we should expect to change and to bring about change!
When, through worship, we are transformed by the renewing of our minds, we are ready to let God lead and we are also ready to test and approve what God’s will is-to have an accurate understanding of what God wants us to be and do and where God wants us to go.
When we offer ourselves to God in worship and God is leading, we can recognize our gifts, our abilities, what we have to offer.
(vs. 5) In Christ we who are many form one body-different parts, different functions…
When we offer ourselves to God and God is leading, we can work together using our different gifts to complete God’s will.
This working together in harmony really is evidence of God leading because without God’s leading the natural tendency of human beings is not to get along or to complain or criticize what someone else is doing or not doing.
When we offer ourselves to God and God is leading, it is possible for different people to come together and to work alongside each other for God:
What happens? (vss. 7,8)
-people proclaim God’s Word
-people serve
-people teach
-people encourage
-people contribute to the needs of others generously
-people lead (remembering that God is in charge)
-people show mercy cheerfully
As we have been realizing, worshipping God is so much more than what happens when we come for church on Sunday. We can literally think about stepping into the offering plate or basket every day and choosing to make ourselves an offering to God.
Placing ourselves before God as an offering is true worship!