Our Dedicated Spiritual Service

Good morning. Good morning. I forget the sound system here. We’re awake. Well, thanks for having me, guys,
here. It’s always a blessing for the
speaker to preach Scott’s word. And so it’s a privilege to be
here. And thank you for the invitation. Ron, we met one of the alumni.
that’s how we know each other and also he knows the elders
of Southside Bible Church and that’s how I ended up over here. Open up your Bibles please to
Romans chapter 12 And in your bulletin, it says,
Part 1, there’s going to be a slight change. I didn’t know the pastor
was preaching from Romans, and so I didn’t want to kind of steal
his thunder. And it came down to Romans chapter
12. So I figured, I’ll just do two
verses, verse 1 and 2 this morning, and next time we’ll be in the
Psalms. And he agreed with that. So we’re good at that. It is our title this morning,
and it’s our dedicated spiritual service. From Romans chapter
12, we’ll be looking at verse 1 and 2. Now, some of you are
familiar with this text, and I’m hoping that we’ll all bring
some even more insight into this text. All of us are familiar,
and some of us have memorized this text. So, I pray that you’ll
benefit this morning from God’s Word. One thing to mention, this
is a very important text. This two verses here, it functions
almost as a linking point between chapter 1 all the way to chapter
11. And then it prepares you also
for what’s coming ahead. So it’s very important here,
because Paul then makes his case of what our worship should look
like. Now, when I ask you, if anybody
asks you, what do you think, what’s worship? Right? What’s worship? And the first
thing I know comes to your mind, what is it? The time you come
and gather together. The time that you come to church.
If I ask you, what time do you worship? You say, well, we worship
at 9am. Right? But then I want to suggest to
you that worship extends beyond the walls of the churches. Worship
not only happens here as we gather together, but also worship happens
in our personal walk with the Lord. And that’s what Paul is
driving here, not only as a group of believers, but also as individual
people here, individuals when you are one-on-one with the Lord.
So, verse 1 and 2 really serves as an introduction to the rest
of the book, but it also looks back at chapters 1 to 11. And so, as you study, as you
guys work through Romans, keep these verses in mind, and that
will help you keep kind of the flow of thought, Paul’s flow
of thought here in Romans chapter 12. Now, after spending 11 chapters
speaking about salvation, election, justification, law, sin, all
those good words, Paul then begins to apply this to our lives. And Paul says, OK, now that I
have spoken regarding election, and now I have spoken regarding
Israel, and justification, sin, and all of that, now let’s put
this into a more practical matter, Paul says. And so, we start in
chapter, here, chapter 12 verse 1 says, I’ll be reading from
the New American Standard, it says, Therefore, I urge you,
brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living
and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual
service, the spiritual service of worship. Do not be conformed
to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind,
so that you may prove what the will of God is. That which is
good and acceptable and perfect. So that is what Paul then needs. So these two verses, that prepares
us for what is coming ahead. And we will be looking at verses
1 and 2 here. Now, I want us to, I’ll be looking
at five elements with respect to worship. About five elements
of worship. Something that we need to keep
in mind as we see these two verses here. We’re going to be looking
at the mandate of worship, the motivation of worship, its demands
of worship, the manner of worship, and the results of worship. The
results of worship, or the effects of worship. We’re going to be
looking at five elements of worship here in these two verses here. The first one, the mandate of
worship. The mandate of worship. Verse
one, it says, Therefore I urge you, The New American Standard
says, I urge you. The ESV says, I appeal to you. I appeal to you by the mercies
of God. The first one is the mandate
of worship. I appeal to you, I urge you, brethren. It is an
admonition with the intention to instruct someone to teach. It is done with love. It is done
with love. Paul is not interested in and
insulting people. Paul is not interested in punishing
someone verbally for the sake of making someone feel bad. That
is not Paul’s intention here. This is a nomination. The goal here is to instruct,
to teach someone. At the same time, it is not optional,
because he carries the Apostle’s authority. Do we find this somewhere
else? Yes we do, in Philemon chapter
1 verse 8 says, Therefore, though I have enough confidence in Christ
to order you, he says, to do what is proper, yet for love’s
sake I rather appeal to you, he tells Philemon. And so, it
is kind of the same idea here. Paul says, I appeal to you, brethren,
I appeal to you. This is demanding. The recipients
know that in love he is making this appeal, but they also realize
that any violation of this command is also a violation of God’s
instruction. So, it is the mandate here that
we see from Paul, I appeal to you. Now, remember, chapters
1-11 must be in view here as we see this dimension. Another thing we must keep in
mind when we read this is the word brethren. It is addressed
to the church. It says we have brethren here,
therefore I urge you brethren, by the mercies of God, brethren,
here he is speaking with the church. Why is this so important? We have the brethren receiving
this command. We have these people who have
been saved by grace. It is an admonition given to
the redeemed, not to a group of unbelievers in the church.
Those who don’t know God, because really, this admonition makes
sense. If you give this to someone who
is not a believer in the Lord, it’s going to reject this command.
So it doesn’t make sense that Paul would say he’s addressing
unbelievers. But yeah, I’m sure there are
some there, but he’s addressing the church in general. Brethren,
it’s an admonition given to the church. Those who don’t know
God cannot give themselves to God, cannot adhere to this command. They don’t want to. These folks
don’t want to give themselves to the Lordship of Christ. So,
a saving relationship does not exist for those who don’t know
Christ. Therefore, brethren, it makes
sense in this when we address in the church. Brethren, I appeal
to you by the mercies of God. I appeal to you. It is a nomination
given to the brethren. 1 Corinthians says, but a natural
man does not accept the things of the Spirit, the things of
the Spirit of God, for they are, what? Foolishness to him. So see, Paul is addressing brethren
here. The natural man, the unsaved,
cannot understand them because they are spiritually appraised. Also, by referring to them as
brethren, Paul is reminded or of their relationship to each
other. To each other. You are a family.
You are a family. Now this is important. I bring
this up because as you read further, it gives instructions as to how
you ought to conduct in the family of God. And not only in the family
of God, but also conduct yourself with the unbelieving world. That’s
why he is preparing himself. He is setting his audience up
for instruction. Not by saying, Brethren, by the
mercies of God. Brethren. He is referring to
the church. So this is important because
it comes to play from verse 3 to 13. So it is impossible from
a human standpoint to give someone instruction, admonition, who
is dead in their sin. It is impossible to do that,
unless God opens the heart. Right? From the human standpoint,
I cannot open your heart. It is God who opens the heart.
And so, this command, this admonition is given to the church. The Lordship of Christ, remember,
the Lordship of Christ is here, comes into play, and that’s a
big part here. This command can only be given
to the people of God. Therefore, submission to this
to this mandate, it is extremely important. There is no option
in Paul’s mind. There is no option and submission
to this command is crucial. It must be taken seriously. It is our obligation to think
about what Christ has done and to make our commitment accordingly. So, the first one is the mandate.
We see here, I urge you, brethren, the mandate. The next thing we
want to see is the motivation or the basis of worship. What
is our basis of worship? Or what is our motivation of
worship? Here, verse 1, I urge you, brethren,
by the mercies of God. By the mercies of God. That is
your motivation. That is the basis for your worship. Not only do you have the mandate,
Right? I appeal to you, says Paul, but
you also have the motivation. The motivation to buy the mercies
of God. This is the basis of our true
worship. The mercies of God. What is Paul
talking about? What are the mercies of God?
What are the mercies of God? The mercies are the many gracious
blessings that he has discussed in the previous chapters. So
it makes sense, when he appeals to the brethren, he says, fight
on mercies of God, the people then had in their mind, okay,
the mercies of God. Now since you have written to
us, Paul, now we understand what you’re talking about. And what
are these mercies that he just mentioned in the last few chapters? For example, we talked about
justification, the removal of sins from us. We are righteous
in God’s eyes because of what Christ has done for us. Christ’s
righteousness has been imputed in us. So this is one of the
mercies of God. The next thing we see in Romans
chapter 8, election. We have been set apart from God.
Life in the Spirit, chapter 8. The grace of God, chapter 1. And then obviously we see salvation
in chapter 1 and 2. All of this, when Paul says,
by the mercies of God, the audience already has something in mind. In everything that is previous
to chapter 12. So when Paul addresses us, I
appeal to you brethren, by the mercies of God. By the mercies
of God. And they understand what Paul
is talking about. They understand. And then in
chapter 8, we also have divine sonship. Imagine that, we have
been a sinner, we have been brought in the family of God, given all
kinds of benefits, of blessings, and that’s what Paul is saying.
These are your mercies. By the mercies of God, I appeal
to you. This should be your motivation
for true worship. Paul wants the believers to see
what the Lord has done for us, on our behalf. Having this in
mind serves this as a motivation. This is what the audience had
in mind. When Paul said, by the mercies
of God, their audience did not have what we have today. Today, we are constantly being
bombarded to be ready with this message. The purpose of God in
your life. The purpose of God in your life. Well, this purpose in life for
you is true. God has a purpose for you. But
see, when we, when our television and our radio use that message,
the first thing that comes from them is what God can do for you. What God can do for you. How
you can manipulate God. And how you can use Him as a,
you know, as a good luck charm, or as a, you know, put some coins
there, pull the handle, all these things come out from God. That’s
the message given to us, unfortunately. But here, Paul says, no, what
is really the essence of your worship? And that is our motivation. That is the essence here. I know
what the Lord has done for me. I appeal to you, brethren, he
says, by the mercies of God, and then he says, to present
your bodies, to present your bodies as a living, holy sacrifice. This is when we have our third
element here of worship, the manner of worship. Here’s what
we have, the manner of worship. We have the mandate of worship.
I urge you, I appeal to you, the motivation of worship is
by the mercies of God, by the mercies of God. Now we have the
manner of worship. The manner of worship here, to
present your bodies as living and holy Now, the ESV says, to
present your body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable. The New American Standard says,
to present your body as a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable
to God. In other translations, or in
the original language says, to present your body as a living
holy and acceptable sacrifice to God. So there is an emphasis
here upon Paul. There is an emphasis. The reason
I mention this is because Paul wants to emphasize the totality
of our being. All of our being is given to
God as a sacrifice. As a sacrifice, all of our being.
Now we know that as a Christian, obviously we don’t offer animal
sacrifices, right? That’s understandable. And when
the audience saw this, they realized, well, of course, I don’t have
to sacrifice any chickens or anything else there. It’s Christ that’s giving to
us. Thank you. It’s a good thing that it’s
also Pulpix, the right side, that means it’s invited work.
The pulpit is over here. So I imagine me picking up a
cup. Yeah, last time I preached in
our church, Pastor Kim saw. Last time I preached in our church,
I had to ask, can you guys see me? I was reading something there. So again, we have the mandate,
we have the motivation, and we have the manner of worship. And
this manner is like this, I want to present my body, a living,
holy, and acceptable sacrifice to the Lord. Now, we know again,
as I mentioned to you, we don’t offer animal sacrifices, right? We don’t do that. So the imagery
here, it was familiar to the Christians in those days. It
was just familiar. They understood that a complete
surrender of our lives was imbued here. For the original audience,
that’s what’s imbued. A complete surrender of our lives
is imbued. So Paul is saying, in your total
being, give yourself up to God as a living sacrifice. The whole
being is giving to God. A lot of times we like to be
one person here in church and be another one in another part
in our employment. Be someone else with our family
and so this is all you need to be. Your whole being needs to
be giving to God. a spiritual sacrifice. So we
read in the Old Testament that the priest will bring or present
an animal. In the Old Testament, the priest
will come before the Lord, offer sacrifices. But the Lord also
said, do not bring just any animal to my presence. It has to be without defect.
Perfect. Right? So obviously the priest
will come and present it. So the idea of the sacrifice
is brought back in 1 Peter chapter 2, but it’s applied to the church.
It’s applied to the church. Look with me in 1 Peter chapter
2 verse 5. It says, “…you also, as living
stones, are being milled up at the spiritual house for that
holy Christmas, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God
through Jesus Christ.” OK? So you’re thinking, OK, I need
to offer spiritual sacrifices. What does that mean? What is
that from my perspective? If I want to offer spiritual
sacrifices, what is that? What does that look like? Well,
Hebrews gives us a good insight into this. Hebrews chapter 13
verse 15 says, Through him then, let us continually offer up a
sacrifice of praise to God. That is the fruit of our lips
that give thanks to his name. So when we pray, When we pray,
and when we praise God, that is offering of ourselves, that
is offering a spiritual sacrifice. So when you pray by yourself
or with your brethren, that is offering also a spiritual sacrifice
to God. When you conduct in a manner
that is pleasing to the Lord, that is also offering a sacrifice
to the Lord. When you behave honestly, conduct
yourself honestly in your dealings, whether you have a business or
you are employed by someone, if you behave honestly in your
dealings, that is offering a sacrifice to the Lord. It is the giving
of yourself, a whole being to our Savior. When you give thanks, that is
also offering a sacrifice of praise, says Hebrews 5. Not only
are we seen as a holy priesthood, but also as the sacrifice itself. We are not just any sacrifice,
we are a living sacrifice. The idea behind this term is
that we continue living our lives. with the capacity for producing
the right results until we die. In other words, in basic terms,
I’m going to behave like a Christian, you know, like the God called
me to be a Christian, a believer, a true believer. I’m going to
behave like that one, a real one. And so, we are effective
Christians, living for God. It is a living sacrifice given
to the Lord. The moment we get up, who is
in our mind? Have you ever thought about that?
The first thing in your mind, when we get up, what’s your mind? Breakfast? Worries of the day? Your business? Is that in your
mind the first thing? Or is it God? That is when our
minds need to be moving, shifting, and that’s what Paul is going
to command us here in verse 2. So the next thing we need to
see is holy. Our living bodies, not only are
we living for God, but also they need to be separated, holy. And
this set apart, this holy needs to set apart for God’s service. So every day, even when we are
not, let’s say, in a formal position in the church, we’re still serving
God. We’re still serving God. We need to be separated from
the common, from the profane. And so we need to be separated
from the world, which is something that comes in place in verse
2. Also set apart from what was
profane, right? In the Old Testament, the Lord
says, this is holy, this is not holy. That the things that belong
to me need to be separated from the profane, from the common.
Right? And so the Lord then brings on
a people for himself, separated from what is common, from the
unholy. Imagine that. Not only you are
a holy priesthood offering living sacrifices. Think not only that,
but imagine the privileges that come with that. Picture this,
God is separating for Himself, apart from the common, a people
for His glory. And you are there, you’re the
ones that are there. So, Paul says, I urge you, brethren,
by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice. God has saved you. Separate yourself. Give yourself
to the Lord. Give yourself to the Lord as
a living, holy, acceptable sacrifice. Get yourself, pull yourself from
the filthiness of the world. Pull yourself away from the common,
from what is not holy. And that’s what God, what’s holy,
is commanding us to do. You want to present yourself,
to be acceptable. And remember, in the Old Testament,
the animal was brought in before the Lord, It was without defect. It was accepted before the Lord.
It was what? A soothing aroma. It was perfect. But when the animal was brought
lame or with defect, what was God’s reaction? What was God’s reaction? It was
a complete rejection. And think of it also, not only
that, a lot of times the priest will bring a sacrifice, will
bring a perfect sacrifice before the Lord, but yet, their hearts
were far from them, or were far from Him. So that was also unacceptable
before God. You know, as I was talking with
the Lord, I said, get those animals away from me, because your heart
is not right for me. See, your heart, not only were
The priest needed to bring the animal before the Lord, but their
heart needed to be committed to the Lord, rather than playing
as the Lord said, playing the harlot with other gods in Israel. And that’s why Israel came down,
was brought down, was expelled from the land. So it needs to
be acceptable. And that’s what it is that’s
here. Your bodies, your whole being needs to be living holy,
acceptable sacrifice before the Lord. It needs to be acceptable
before the Lord. So your heart needs to be in
it. We go through the motions at times. We go to the Lord’s
checkpoint. I’ve done this. I’ve done this.
I’ve done this. I’ve gone to church. Now I’m going to go back
home and do my own thing. Your worship doesn’t stop here.
Your worship continues. in your personal, in your at
home, in your work, in your own personal, I guess in your own
personal space, the worship continues there. That is your acceptable
worship. The next phrase here, it says,
this is your reasonable service. Okay, this phrase really means
an intelligent religious service, an intelligent service. Again,
we have the motivation by the mercies of God. And then we have
the manner to pursue your bodies, a living and holy sacrifice acceptable
to God, which is what? Your spiritual service of worship. Here, though in the original
reading means an intelligent worship, it is a rational worship. Think that for a moment. A rational
worship. What is that? What is a rational
worship? intelligent worship. Well, if
you turn your television on, you will see some of the churches
that is irrational, because it is purely experience. And then
Paul says, it needs to be an intelligent, rational service. And Paul, how can I be rational? And Paul is saying, take everything
that I have said in chapter 1 through 11, take that, make that your
basis for a rational service. This is your rational service.
Take that and make it your rational service. Your worship is full
of the knowledge of God. Your service is full of the knowledge
of God. So then, when we worship God,
and when people say, I worship God, and you ask a very simple
question, who is God? Tell me, who is God? The first
thing they will say is, God is love. Okay, let’s move past that. We know that God is love. What
else is God? And they’ll fumble, because that’s
all they know about God. worship God. For some reason,
that’s strange, right? That’s very strange. But who
is God? Now, take that, and that’s why
Paul develops this theology in Romans to give you good doctrine,
to give you a good knowledge of God. So by the time he wants
to apply, so by the time he says, I appeal to you, it makes sense
to the audience, it makes sense to the readers. Because now we
have this knowledge of God. And because now we have this
knowledge of God, then their worship is true worship and rational
worship. It is intelligent worship. And that’s what Paul says, present
your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God. This, Paul says, this is your
true and rational worship. Your true and rational worship.
So, a lot of times we worship God, don’t we? We worship God,
yet our lives are filled with filthiness. We’re not holy, we’re
not separated. So therefore, this is not a spiritual
relationship. But Paul says, if you’re holy,
if you’re separated, if you’re leaving sacrifices, guess what? You are offering to God a spiritual
service, spiritual, intelligent service towards God. It is not
an emotional expression, but I understand our emotions, such
as weeping, can be prompted by our intelligent and rational
service, doesn’t it? I think our emotions should be
prompted by true knowledge of God, rather than nothingness. rather than nothing. A lot of
times that’s what we have. We just have an emotional high
and it’s over by the time you get out of the church. Right?
And if you ask somebody, where did you learn this? I don’t know. What did they talk about? I don’t
know. All that I remember is that we
were jumping. Right? So, when I first started,
when I was a teenager, I was invited to one of those very
interesting, lively, I’m not going to name certain things,
but very lively worship experience. And I didn’t know anything about
it, so I just, it was in the mountains. So my cousin and I, we ended up going over there. And I couldn’t wait to be over,
right, so I said, oh man, I just wish, why didn’t I say yes, I’ve
got to be here the whole weekend. So I get up there, and at night,
they started moving, they started moving, they started praying.
And all of a sudden, I started hearing different languages,
which I know was not Spanish, right? It was different languages. And I can pick out, right? Some of us can pick out even
French, or German, or French, etc. So what if, at some strange
night. So I said, I was just going to
bow my head and pray. Well, I wasn’t praying. I just
bowed my head. And then all of a sudden, somebody
hit me so hard that I turned around and I realized, when I
opened my eyes, I realized everybody was jumping. And I was scared. I was scared. I didn’t know what to do. Should
I jump or not? What should I do? Should I do
it? So anyways, I didn’t know anything,
and the only thing I know is that I was scared, the whole
thing ended, and I’m questioning in my mind, what is true? What
prompts you to do that? Obviously as you grow older,
then after I became a Christian, then as you learn, as you grow
in the knowledge of God, there are certain things that the knowledge
of God really prompts you to do certain things. But it doesn’t
prompt you to behave in irrational manner. Thus, you know, I learned
that there are certain things that, you know, one of the emotions
here, it was a true knowledge of God. Now, granted, Israel
had their own way of expressing themselves in their own culture,
you know, the true knowledge of God, of worship. They had their own styles of
worship. But, a lot of times for us, is
this weeping that we have at times, is because of the knowledge
of a true, knowledge, rational God. Because when we ask you,
or when people ask you or ask us, we have an answer. Why are
you crying? Guess why? Why are you crying? Well, I took my sins away. Why
are you crying? Well, Christ’s righteousness
has been imputed. Imputed? What does that mean? Why are you crying? Well, because I belong in that
cross, but Christ was there, right? So, this emotional thing
is because of what Christ has done. There is a true knowledge,
true worship of God, and it is not prompted by just emotional
acts. It’s really what I call irrational.
That is on the side of worship as a people, right? But then
what about your dedication as an individual? Will half-commitment
be considered irrational? Will half-commitment towards
God be considered irrational? And it is. We cannot just say,
dedicate our lives to the Lord. That would be irrational. all
of our beings. That’s what Paul says. All of
your beings need to be acceptable. Everything of you needs to be
presented before God. It’s a living, true sacrifice. So what is a rational, intelligent
worship? Corporally and also personally,
it’s a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable. That is your sacrifice
for God. That is your sacrifice for God. The next element is the demands
of worship. the demands of worship. Look
with me in verse 2. And do not be conformed to this
world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Do
not be conformed. It says, do not be conformed
by this world, but be transformed. So now, let’s connect these two
verses. Let’s do the connection here
between 1 and 2. And this is what it’s saying.
We can present our bodies holy and acceptable to God, but only
when we are not being conformed to this world. Right? It makes
sense. But rather, we are being transformed
by the renewing of your mind. See? So, the only way we can
offer true, holy, acceptable living sacrifices to the Lord,
That can only happen when we are being transformed by the
renewing of our mind. We can’t be in both places. We
cannot be molded by the world and yet thinking that we are
offering true living sacrifices to God. So it makes sense. That’s
the connection. That’s the demands of worship.
You need to be transformed. You need to not be conformed
to this world. We cannot allow this the world
to mold us into its image. I used to work in a place where
it was half molding, half, you know, what do you call it, a
press. When the press comes down, we
used to build this huge, we’ll call it tool and die. The die,
we designed it so that when a strip of material will come one way,
apart will come out the other way. So you have different stations.
So the first station will mold something, or will form it, and
then the next station will form it even further. Eventually,
it comes out apart, right? And that’s what we saw. And I
was thinking about this, and that is a lot of times, the world
doesn’t mold us instantly. It takes steps, and steps, and
steps, and steps. And the one operating, who’s
the one operating that press? The devil. Operating that press. You know, shipping you, in a
lot of times, he has to, he will take more stations, so that when
you are in the first station, you don’t feel it. Or the second
one, or the third one. But by the time you end up on
the last station, thus, you know, you get a part that is molded,
your life will be molded in the world if you’re not perfect.
See? We go from one station to another,
and then end up in a nice shape from the world. That’s what it’s
saying. You cannot allow the world to mold us into its image. That’s what Paul says. Do not
be conformed to this world. That’s the word behind conform,
that is this molding that’s happening And so that eventually becomes
the image. The image. The way I can explain
this also is we look at Galatians chapter 5, the fruit of the spirit. Right? The fruit of the spirit.
What does that look like? I mean, or the fruit of the flesh. Well, it says Galatians chapter
5 verse 19 says, Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which
are what? Immorality, impurities, sensuality,
idolatry, sorcery, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes,
dissensions, factions. The list can go on and on, right?
I did not really want to put everything there, but the idea
is like, this is the beef of a place. And so when you’re being
mulled into the world, that’s what comes out. That’s what comes
out. But on the other hand, the contrast
is also given in Galatians, in verse 22. But the fruit of the
Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is
no law. In other words, when God molds
you, that’s what comes out. When God puts you in His mold,
that’s what comes out. Love, peace, patience, kindness.
So we see in the nation the results of one whose mind has not been
transformed by the Word of God, by the deeds of the flesh. And then we have one whose mind
has been transformed by God. This transformation of the mind
is true, it is our responsibility, but we can’t accomplish anything
without the Spirit’s help. We can’t accomplish that. Paul
says here, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed
by the renewing of your mind. Be transformed by the renewing
of your mind. The last element of worship is
the results of worship or the effects of worship. So that you may prove what the
will of God is. That which is good and acceptable
and perfect. So that you may prove, it says
the Word of God here, so that you may prove what the Will of
God is. That which is good, acceptable
and perfect. So when our minds are transformed
by the Word of God, right, when our minds are transformed by
the Word of God, our thinking ability our moral reasoning,
our spiritual understanding, are able to assess everything.
Right? One of my favorite books regarding
the conscience is John MacArthur’s book on that, because it treats
the issue of the conscience, the issue of how it deals with
the person’s mind. It’s a good book because it really
There is another study that he does regarding discerning, discerning
from right and wrong. It’s really a good book, but
it tells you, really gives you an insight of what goes on in
the mind of an individual. It tells you, if the Word of
God is not molding you, you really have nothing to fight with in
this world. You really have nothing. You
have yourself, which, you know, there you have it. There’s nothing.
But when we have the mind of Christ, we are able to test every
spirit, right? We test every spirit that is
not from God. We are able to test spirits even
if they are from God. We become wiser as we grow in
knowledge. Doing a study in Ecclesiastes,
and I read in chapter 10, Ecclesiastes chapter 10 chapter 10 really
tells you emphasis on folly, foolishness as opposed to being
wise and it says in Ecclesiastes chapter 10 verse 1 it says a
little folly outweighs wisdom and honor so it only takes a
little foolishness to mess things up We are to adjust our way of
thinking about everything that is in accordance to our new life
in the Spirit. Right? Our new life in the Spirit.
Paul just finished talking about the new life in the Spirit, the
Romance. So now that’s what he says he meant here. If you’re being transformed by
the renewal of your mind, if the Word of God is transforming
you, you’re able to assess things from a spiritual aspect. Right? The opposite is true. When our
minds are not being transformed, then our old sinful patterns
begin to infiltrate slowly, and sometimes without even realizing
it. They begin to infiltrate. We start showing the deeds of
the flesh. So part of our being transforming the ability to accept
that which is from God. His perfect will. God will be
able to do that. In our flesh, we are not going
to know what the will of God is. In our flesh, we are not
going to know what that is. So, we have here the different
elements of worship. We saw, it’s mandate, right? So, mandate. Therefore I urge you brethren,
by the mercies of God, to send your bodies a living and holy
We see the mandate. We also see the manner of worship.
The manner of worship. We see the motivation of worship,
by the mercies of God. And then we saw here the demands
of worship and finally we saw the effects of worship. That
we are able to prove that which is God’s perfect will. So we
have seen the five different elements of worship. Worship
in our days has become very external. In fact, many writers now have
said that we have lost the sense of awe in our church service. We have lost that sense of awe
that belonged to the Puritanism, that belonged to the Reformed. We have lost that. There’s a
pastor here in England that says, perhaps the greatest disservice
done to the Christian religion in the past hundred years by
churches in the Western world has been to trivialize it, to
make it unimportant. He explains regarding a deeper
attitude of reverence and worship, he says that according to Acts
2 and 5, the early church attitude to God was characterized by fear. So that in their worship, it
would lead the unbeliever to fall on his face and repent. And you remember what happened
in the book of Acts, right? Those miracles, what happened with
Naniath and Sapphira. And fear grabbed them, and many
came. to Christ, because of that. Right now, our services are full of
entertainment, who entertains them the best, the most. So, that’s now what Paul hears
coming. We need to present ourselves.
We are the true worshippers. We’re the true worshippers. Everything else that happens
outside, A lot of times it’s just fluff, there’s nothing there.
And so, we need to take Paul’s words seriously. And then he
further, obviously further, my time is up, but further he discusses
in verse 3 all the way to verse 21 and so on, how that applies
in the Christian life. So, I’m going to give you some
insights regarding our worship, our true worship. And that starts
in your heart. towards God. Let’s pray. Father
God, we are, we’re thankful. First of all, we’re thankful
for our salvation. We’re thankful because you have
brought us near to you. We’re thankful because you have
given us a life and spirit. You took away our sinful, unrighteous deeds and whole being for the
soul of unrighteousness and for Christ’s righteousness in us. And for that we are grateful. We’re thankful now that we are
able to live lives pleasing to you. Though it is hard, we fail
and we stumble in many ways, but you are faithful. You’re
faithful that you will always be. Therefore, help us to leave
a life honoring to you, a giving of ourselves to you, of everything,
of our mind, our hearts, the way we worship here in church
to continue in our own personal walk with you. For our worship
will always be of peace and soothing aroma before you go. Help us to live a life of pleasing
and honouring to You. Amen.