Value 1: Worship

All that I am

Our first value is worship, which we have described as ‘living life with Jesus at the centre’. Another definition I have heard is,

Worship is all that I am responding to all that God is

Think about that for a moment. All that I am. That’s my whole life, waking, sleeping, walking around, my heart, my soul, body, all that I am. My relationships, my money, my decision making.

All that God is

All that I am responding to all that God is. That’s a lot to respond to isn’t it! All that God is – if we could truly see all that God is we would not survive the experience. It would be literally mind blowing. So if we are to respond to God in his entirety with our entirety, we need to see God for who he is.

Romans 11
³³ Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!
³⁴ “Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counsellor?”
³⁵ “Who has ever given to God, that God should repay them?”
³⁶ For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.

We really cannot fathom God out. Remember that definition of worship, all that I am responding to all that God is? Here’s some more insight into how awesome God is. His judgements are unsearchable. His paths can’t be traced. His wisdom and knowledge are deep and rich. There is nothing we can give to him that he could not have obtained on his own, yet he treasures our humble offerings as a loving father or grandparent receives a gift from a child. We can’t really give anything new to God because everything came from him and through him and they are his anyway. That’s how awesome God is, so let the glory be his!

And then we turn to Romans 12 and get practical. Very practical. You could read the full chapter to find out how to put our response to God’s mercy into practice but today we’ll just look at the opener.

Romans 12

¹ Therefore, 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.

Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice. That’s all of you responding to all that God is. This is your true and proper worship.

How was the worship on Sunday?

I wonder what definition most people would come up with when asked what worship is. Or what you first think of when you hear the word worship. For most I imagine it has something to do with singing. What does someone mean when they say the worship was good this morning? Do they mean that people offered their bodies as a living sacrifice really well? It probably means the band played well and there was a good atmosphere in the music, which, by the way, can be experienced in secular music to quite a significant depth. So, to say the worship was good based on what it sounded and felt like might need a re-think.

How is the worship on Tuesday?

To put it another way, rather than ask, ‘how was the worship on Sunday morning?’, perhaps we need to be asking ourselves, how is my worship on Monday morning, or Wednesday afternoon? How am I offering all that I am to Jesus as a response to all that God is? Perhaps we’ve been guilty of conforming to the pattern of this world (v2) when it comes to understanding what worship is all about. Singing together is an important part of what we do as a church when we come together to offer our adoration, praise and thanksgiving to God. But if that’s the only time we offer anything to God he’s probably not that impressed. He desires mercy not just sacrifice.

You are worshipping when…

You are worshipping when you let someone off a debt because you felt led by the Spirit to do so. You are worshipping when you forgive someone who offended you. You are worshipping when you ask Jesus to guide you in your decision making. You are worshipping when you review your budget and reduce unnecessary spending so that you can contribute to the spread of the gospel. You are worshipping when you do not think of yourself higher than you ought and respect other people for who they are, however different from you they are. It all counts because it makes God happy to see you do those things. And in doing so we are being transformed by the renewing of our minds. Our thinking is shifting, our priorities changing.

But before we run off into good works as an act of worship, let’s take a look at the difference between discipline and devotion.

Devotion and discipline

Devotion is an overriding commitment to someone, showing love, loyalty, or enthusiasm for a person or activity. It’s a heart commitment rather than a forced action. Devotion must be the driving force behind our faith if we’re to keep going. If we’re not devoted, all our worship and good works are out of duty and the enthusiasm soon wears off.

Discipline, on the other hand, is the ability to stay focused on the task at hand. It’s controlled behaviour as a result of training. It finishes the assignment or completes the course. A disciplined person trains to improve their strength and self-control. They are religious at carrying out routines, fulfilling checklists, and getting things done. Discipline is designed to grow your faith with regular readings from God’s Word and engaging prayers of praise, thanksgiving, confession, and repentance.

Two points: 1) both are necessary and 2) devotion comes first.

Both are necessary

Imagine a marriage or any relationship where those involved were fully devoted to one another but neither had any discipline. They could not keep appointments, failed to even make the effort to work together, meet together, share life. However devoted they might feel in their hearts, without discipline the relationship would not likely last through the ups and downs of life. Where it did continue, it would not be nearly as deep or meaningful, even though there was some heart-felt devotion. Discipline is needed too.

Now flip the scenario and imagine a disciplined relationship with no devotion. Believe me it happens! In fact you might have experienced this in a working relationship where everything is highly professional but the people working together have no interest in one another. But I like to use the marriage relationship as a better metaphor because it replicates more closely what Jesus wants from his bride. Can you imagine being married to someone who was not devoted to you but religiously showed up for dates, spent time with you, all out of duty? Devotion and discipline are both needed in a marriage.

When we are devoted in the Christian life with no discipline we might throw our hands in the air during church, worship exuberantly when meeting with other Christians, but walk out the door and forget all about it – no discipline, no bible reading Monday-Saturday, no routines that remind us in a non-Christian world that we are Christ’s ambassadors, that we need him and that he is worthy of our every breath!

Conversely, when we are disciplined in the Christian life with no passion and devotion for Jesus, it’s actually quite easy to become judgmental and insensitive. You judge others by their discipline and lose sight of your first love. You become rigid in rule keeping and frustrated when others don’t comply, especially those hypocrites who are full of expressed devotion but have no discipline!

So we need both. We need to be disciplined in our worship, in our daily living life with Jesus at the centre. But it has to be driven by devotion.

Devotion comes first

The people who truly followed Jesus were the ones who had met him, loved him, made a heart connection with him. They were devoted, and this led to discipline. In our relationship with Jesus, we meet him first, see his kindness, his love, his magnetism and we want to devote our lives to him. It’s that devotion that drives the discipline that we work at afterwards. Without devotion coming first we would not stick at the discipline. We’d lose heart. Or more accurately, we’d recognise that our heart was never in it at all.

The chapter of Romans we’ve been looking at begins by telling us, in view of God’s mercy, to offer our bodies as living sacrifices. How could we possibly do that without both devotion to Jesus and discipline?

Devotion and discipline in our meetings

Although I’ve argued the case that our worship is far more than what happens when we meet together, it’s worth saying that there is something very special when God’s people come together with a pure, expectant hearts, ready to both hear from him and offer what he gives them through songs, words and spiritual gifts.

And in this context there has to be room in our public meetings for expressions of both devotion to God as well as publicly praising him. Some people I have spoken to in the past would prefer to keep our worship times focused on how great God is – worship in the second person (‘you’). But I believe it not just healthy but essential for our growth as children together in God’s family for us to be free to worship in the first person. (‘I’)

In fact it is possible to be disciplined in our worship with no sense of devotion by just acknowledging his lordship and greatness. I have never met the queen. But if I did, I’d follow whatever protocol was necessary and show respect and honour to her position. But I’d have no relationship with her, and I am not devoted to her in any way. I could even say that she was our sovereign queen out loud without having any attachment to her. It is also quite possible for someone to acknowledge that God is the creator of the universe, and that Jesus is the coming king without any real commitment to what that means for them, how devoted they are to Jesus our king of kings. If we are to worship God in spirit and in truth, with both discipline and devotion, there has to room for some first-person praying and singing.

How can I be more devoted?

You may be listening to this thinking you’re actually not that devoted. Where does devotion come from then? How can I get it?

Mercy

The first clue is in the first line – in view of God’s mercy. If we can get a clearer picture of who God is, how holy and perfect he is, and how wonderful heaven is, we will at some point come to notice something about ourselves. We are nothing like that. In fact, in the natural, we don’t fit in. We don’t belong in a perfect place with a perfect God. His mercy, removal of punishment that we all deserve, is incredible. If you want to be more devoted to God, ask him to show you his mercy. What he has rescued you from. Then you might find it easier to receive his grace, too. And in view of his mercy, you’ll find the motivation to discipline yourself from a place of devotion.

So our devotion and discipline in living lives with Jesus at the centre is to keep God’s mercy in clear view. After that Paul gives us two helpful instructions:

Don’t conform

Don’t conform to the pattern of this world. Don’t let it squeeze you into its mould. It’s our bodies we’re thinking about here, offering them to God as a sacrifice. Don’t take your cue from the world.

Be transformed

Do be transformed by the renewing of your mind. That’s how we avoid the pattern of the world around us. We do everything we can to renew our minds, daily. My mind needs feeding nutritious food just like my body does. When I put junk in it, junk comes out.

What does that transformation look like?

The verses go on to say, ‘Then…’ So there is an outcome!

Then you will be able to test and approve God’s perfect will! The more we devote ourselves to God, and discipline ourselves to draw near to him, the easier it is to hear and desire his will. Test and approve.

Worship as a value

The verses we’ve read today started with an expression of devotion to God – he’s amazing! Then they went on to say that in view of God’s amazing mercy in bringing us close to him, we are to offer our bodies, which will require some discipline! From there we get a few pointers as to how we can make this happen in our lives.

In view of God’s mercy, let us live our lives for Jesus, first out of devotion to him. Let’s ask him to show us his mercy if we struggle with that. Let’s understand that worship is more than a church or prayer time activity. It’s offering our whole selves to Jesus.

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