the Church @ the Cross

Introduction: We cannot just look the part. This was the great conflict of Jesus' earthly ministry, with the religious leaders, namely the Pharisees. Their religion was strictly external, it was a false religious system, nothing flowed from the heart. Jesus' called them white washed walls, full of death. They looked the part, but there was nothing there.

And that is the basic concept of religion, it is us dealing with God on our terms not His. We can fit God into our box, our schedule, our passions, our desires, we can do our external service and then go on about our day.
I do not want to be overly critical this morning. I want everything I say this morning to be for your benefit and edification, but much of what we call worship today is not worship at all. The way we express our worship has become the definition of worship, and it is just not so. Our text tells us this morning that as believers, all of our lives are worship.

It is not something we do for twenty minutes on Sunday, not tapping our foot to a steady beat in our car while driving. I am not saying you cannot worship doing either of those, but that is not the definition of worship.

Jesus in John 4, to the woman at the well, said the day is coming, talking about the church age, when those that worship God will worship Him in Spirit and Truth. In Spirit, not a place, not a pilgrimage, but commune with God directly, based upon Spiritual realities... And in Truth, according to who God has revealed Himself to be in His Word, based on revelation, they would know Him, and also truth, not in pretense or mere outward display of spirituality, but humility and sincerity.

It may well be said of this generation, as Jesus said to His, and Isaiah said to His, Matthew 15:8-9 “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; 9 in vain do they worship me,”

So as our text says, there is reasonable, acceptable, spiritual worship offered to God that is acceptable to Him, that pleases Him, and if that is true, than the opposite is true as well, that there is unreasonable, unacceptable, carnal worship that is not worship at all.

This cannot be about us, we cannot be the focus. We have not been called to live a shallow life where the sermon is about me, the songs are about me, that is what we were saved from.

All of the letters of the NT are trying to get you to grow up and grow into maturity, spiritually, the work of the Spirit, Spiritual maturity is this, to get our eyes off of ourselves and place them on Christ. That worship not be a part of our life, but that worship be our life. To not give God a part of me that is convenient, that I do not mind losing or giving, but to give God all of me, no matter what the cost.

The truth is this, your Christian life, your walk with the Lord, from the moment you were saved until you are in His presence, it is not dependent on what you get from God, that has already been given, we will expound upon this in just a minute, it is not dependent, not defined by what you get from God, but instead what you are willing to give to Him.

We are worshipers of the Lord Jesus Christ, worshipers of God. So our text says that presenting your bodies to God as a living and holy sacrifice is spiritual worship. It is acceptable to God.

1. Worship is an act of Love
(1) An act, a verb, something we do. Want you to look quickly at this first word here, “I appeal” The Spirit here is appealing to our will. To our want to. Can't never could, won't never will.

It is God's work that saves us, no human effort could ever accomplish our redemption, but the Christian life, once we are saved, our maturity, our growth, does consist of effort and will.

There will always be those in the body at different places in their walk, some just saved, some saved a long time, that is the beauty of the church. But there is a problem, when some have been in the faith for a while, and have not grown, they are still more carnal than spiritual, it is not a matter of God being a respecter of persons, that so and so is closer to God because God likes them more, no it is a matter of the will.

Love is a verb, love is a choice, the Spirit here is appealing to the body, love God! Love God, Love Christ, love him with all your will, all your might, everything you have!

(2) Therefore: Some of you are saying Oh boy, if he is going to preach this word for word we are going to be here all day!
Chapters 1-11, Doctrine before duty. Before the call to spiritual worship, before the call for sacrificial love, the Spirit reveals to our hearts why we should worship God. God wants you to know about Him, He is self revealing.

Romans 1-11 walks us through all of the wonderful truth's of salvation, the wages of sin, the gift of God, justification by faith, freedom from condemnation, the victorious life of freedom in the Spirit, the overcoming aspects of God's love, nothing can separate me from His love!
So here Paul tells the Romans, on the basis of all I have told you, offer to God spiritual worship! On the basis of all God has done for you in Christ Jesus our Lord there must be a right response from your heart! Offer to God Spiritual Worship.

(3) Brothers:
This is a call to Spiritual Worship to the church!
This is not law but love, not done out of have too but want too.
“Freely you have received, freely give”

Redeemed How I love to proclaim it, When we've been there ten thousand years,

Psalms 118:15 “ Glad songs of salvation are in the tents of the righteous:”
If all of our life is to be worship, than for certain our gatherings should be centered on worship of our Lord.

(4) By the Mercies of God
A call to worship God, a call to offer our all to God because God has been merciful to me, I have received of His mercy.

What mercies, what have your received of God?

Love, God's love is shed abroad in the heart, it says in Romans 5. Nothing can separate us from the love of God it says in Romans 8. Grace: Romans 1, Romans 3, Romans 5, Romans 6, all the way through, grace, grace, grace, another of the mercies of God. The Holy Spirit, chapter 5 tells us that the Holy Spirit has shed abroad in our hearts. Chapter 8 tells us we have received the Holy Spirit to dwell within us. It says it in chapter 8 verse 2, verse 4, verse 9, verse 11, verse 14, verse 16 and verse 26. The Holy Spirit is a mercy given to us by God, an undeserved blessing. How about peace? Chapter 1 verse 7, chapter 2 verse 10, chapter 5 verse 1, chapter 8 verse 6 and elsewhere it says we've received peace. That's a mercy of God. And faith, over 20 times, and comfort, chapter 1 verse 12, and power, chapter 1 verse 16, and hope, chapter 5 verse 2 and chapter 8 verse 20 and 34...and 24, rather. And we've received patience, chapters 9 and 11. And kindness, chapter 2 verse 4. And we have received glory and honor and righteousness and forgiveness and reconciliation and justification, all of those are the mercies of God. And in chapter 5, verse 10, we have received security, and eternal life in 5:21, and freedom in chapter 6 and chapter 7, and resurrection in chapter 8, and sonship in chapter 8, and intercession in chapter 8.

These are the mercies of God. God's mercy demands a response from your heart! You are still living your life for you, go back to the cross; still bound by sin, go back to the cross, this is the Christian life, a life lived in worship, a life giving to God, a life lived in response to God's mercies.

Transition: So worship is an act of love.

2. There is not greater love than to lay down one's life
If the call then is to offer God Spiritual worship, to love Him fully, completely in truth, based upon all He has done for us, than we must love Him in the highest form.
Greater love hath no man than this, than to lay down His life for His friends.

“to present your bodies as a living sacrifice”
(1) to present: to surrender, to yield up, to offer up, to hold nothing back, to give to Him. How many Christians are not givers. Those who have received so much, give so little.

(2) What are we asked to give to Him? Our bodies?
What does this mean? Let's start off with what it does not mean, it does not mean we are to offer out bodies for our sins? One it would never suffice, and it has already been done, Jesus offered Himself one time, no more sacrifice need be made for sins.

It is not external, not looking a certain way, not punishing ourselves in some monastical punishment..

So what is it? It is the offering of our bodily behavior, the Biblical significance of the body is not in how it looks, but in how it acts.
“It is my eager expectation and hope that . . . Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death” (Philippians 1:20). Second, his exhortation to us from 1 Corinthians 6:19–20: “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”

A new life, a changed life, new behavior, all of life is worshiped, worship is an act of love, no greater love than to lay my life down for Him, this is not speaking of martyrdom, but how is God is honored in my life, in my behavior, in my obedience.

3. Characteristic of this Sacrifice
So on the basis of all Christ has done, we are appealed to, from our will, to offer ourselves to God, this is Spiritual worship. The text gives us a few characteristics of this offering.
a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God

(1) Living: living act of worship, a lifestyle.
The system of offering dead sacrifices to God is done away with, gone, but God now DEMANDS a sacrifice, a living sacrifice, we place ourselves on the altar, we offer ourselves to God, this is the highest form of worship, not singing a son, but sacrifice.

We want to give God our ten minutes, a little here a little there, He demands all! On the basis of all I have done, give your life to me. You say you would die for me, just live for me!!!


(2) Holy
Set ourselves apart, once again, the body equals behavior

1 Thessalonians 4:3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification:[b] that you abstain from sexual immorality; 4 that each one of you know how to control his own body[c] in holiness and honor, 5 not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God;

Romans 6:12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

How we live matters, walk in holiness. You have been declared holy, through the offering, forgiven, cleansed, no walk in holiness.

(3) Acceptable to God
Now we have already stated this with the therefore, the only way we could ever be acceptable is because of Christ, but this is talking about our sacrifice, our sacrifice, the life we live, our highest form of spiritual worship, it must be acceptable to God.

You are not going to answer to me, or to your spouse, you are accountable to God.

I'm accountable to God for you, James 3:1 “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. “

You can fool everyone, but you can never fool God.

Conclusion: This is Spiritual Worship, with this offering God is pleased!
Real worship is not elaborate prayers, it is not liturgy, it is not ritual, it is not candles, robes, stained glass, music. Real worship is not feeling spiritual goosebumps in a church service. Real worship is right here, the intelligent, spiritual act of the will of giving to God my body in all of its expressions, holy, set apart unto Him. That's what God wants.

1 Corinthians 3: But I, brothers,[a] could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, 3 for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?

What a shame to look back on our lives and see a life lived only for ourselves. One day we will know true worth, we will know true wishes, and I know the Bible says there will be no tears in heaven, but I can't help but think we might not have regrets, I could have done more, giving more, sacrificed more, for Him.

A little poem I came across this week, give some perspective as we close.

I counted dollars while God counted crosses
I counted my gains, God counted losses
I counted by worth, my worth by the things gained in store
He sized me up by the scars I bore
I coveted honors and sought for degrees, He wept as He counted the hours I spent on my knees
I never knew, until one day by the grave, How vain are the things we spend our lives to save.