The Country Church Bourbon Indiana

Notes to Self: Indescribable now in the church library, Ask interest in Men’s Breakfast

Sermon Topic = Everyday Worship

Introduction:

Review: “Worship is the believers’ adoring and spiritual response of all that they are – mind, emotions, will, and body – to who God is and what He says and does.”

In spirit and in truth From the heart
Involving the whole person (i.e., not just an intellectual exercise, or a thoughtless action)

Definitions important so that our worship is not in error – worship the Lord in truth.

But as I said. Worship is more than truth and correct thought. So this week I want to get into the nitty gritty of it. That’s the definition of worship, but how do we do it? What does it look like? What kinds of things can we do to worship?

Link: Let’s start with two verses which are very practical in understanding how we can worship God.

Text 1: 1 Corinthians 10:31-32

The context of these verses is a question of worship and idolatry. Believers wanted to know: what kinds of foods can we eat? What kinds of things can we drink? What about if the food has been sacrificed to an idol, should we eat it?

Paul’s solution was: “It depends.” Whether you should eat or drink food sacrificed to an idol depends on the circumstances. Would doing so encourage others to practice idolatry? Then you shouldn’t. Would it hurt your witness? Then you shouldn’t. If you know that something was sacrificed to an idol, and the people around you know, and you eat it anyway, then you become a participant in and encourager of idolatry.

Yes, God has made all things clean for us. It is lawful for us to eat the food. But not all things are profitable. And we should not use our freedom to be selfish. You’re free to eat steak and pork – but it’s selfish of you to use that freedom to participate in and encourage idolatry. If your friends think that eating pork means worshipping an idol, and they see you do it, then they now think “oh, then it must be OK for me to worship an idol.” You’ve just used your freedom to eat pork to encourage a bad thing.

In verses 31 and 32 he sums all that conversation up into some simple principles.

First, whatever it is that you do, whether you eat or drink or whatever, do it all to the glory of God. And that is what worship is – when you are doing something because of God’s worth and declaring God’s worth.

Therefore, Paul is saying – whatever you do; let it be an act of worship. Whatever activity you are engaged in, do it because God is glorious and let people know that God is glorious and let God know that you think He is glorious.

Whatever. Including eating and drinking.

When you take a bite of a delicious burger, fresh beef, nice and salty and cheesy – hungry yet? – or fries. Or broccoli. Or salad. Whatever, do it because God is glorious. And let people know that God is glorious. And let God know that you think He is glorious.

And there’s plenty of reason to do that when enjoying food and drink! God made these things for us to eat and drink, after all. And God invented sweet flavors and savory and umami. Broccoli, oranges, meat, all declare the glory of God.

And I’d better move on from that point now before everyone starts to get up to go get some food.

But the greater point I’d like to make is that if things as mundane as eating and drinking can be opportunities to worship God, then we can worship God in practically everything that we do.

Last week I spoke a lot about different church ministries as an opportunity to worship God. Choir, pantry, Kid’s Hope, Kid’s Club, church maintenance and repair, encouragement, too many to mention them all.

But work is also an opportunity to worship God, and perhaps your single biggest opportunity to worship God. Unless you are retired – bless you snow birds, welcome back – you’re probably putting in 40 or more hours of work in each week. Retired people put in plenty too and did a lot to get there. But if you hold a job now, that’s a significant chunk of your waking hours, and it’s an opportunity to worship God. And the harder the work is, the greater the opportunity to worship God.

I know a lot of you have bad work conditions. You are overworked, tired, coworkers complain and make a toxic environment, you aren’t treated well. On the one hand, that makes it harder to worship God. You have a lot of pain and distractions. But on the other hand, it makes it a greater opportunity to worship God. It is a tremendous declaration of God’s glory to put up with a bad work situation and glorify and honor God while you are doing it. Some Christians – many of the earliest ones – actually lived out their Christianity in the context of slavery. What a testimony they had that they would love and sacrifice, how difficult their worship must have been, but oh how powerful.

Life is more than eating and working, though. When we aren’t eating and working, we are probably paying bills and taxes! At least this time of year! Here you can worship God by practicing honesty and integrity.

Recreational activities can be an easy and rewarding way to worship God. A refreshing walk through a park while admiring God’s handiwork. Enjoying some music. Laughing with friends while you play a board game. Live your life and as you do so, give glory to God.

Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. That’s his first point.

The second, do not be selfish with what you do. If your activities are causing others to sin, that’s not a good way to worship God. “Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God.”

Consider: going on a walk through nature and worshipping God’s creation is a great way to worship God. But if your friend worships nature, is it good for you to go on a walk with them and talk with them about how awesome nature is? Not unless it is to tell them that the creator is glorious! Otherwise they might get the idea from you that it is OK to worship nature, and may that never be.

And if you are hanging out with a friend of yours, and you know that a certain kind of music somehow encourages sin in their life – maybe because of their past, or whatever – then you should consider playing that music on your own time. The nice thing is that there are 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and there is plenty of time we can enjoy our freedom in Christ in such a way that we don’t offend others.

There is balance to this principle, though, and there is a reason that doing all to the glory of God is listed first. This gets tricky when you try to apply it in a group context.

Consider this situation, very common in churches today: some people do not like traditional Christian music. And some people do not like modern Christian music. And some people might be worshipping the music more than they do the creator. What is a church to do? Should we stop playing traditional music because some prefer the new? Or forbid new music because some prefer the old? Should we remove music entirely because some might find offense? Whatever a church might choose, they are bound to offend someone.

When you have a lot of people together trying to worship God corporately – well, you can’t please everyone at all times. The beauty of corporate worship is seeing and hearing many believers joining together and praising their awesome God. The hard part of corporate worship is that we all come from a big variety of backgrounds, preferences, and ideas. It is nearly impossible not to offend.

And this is not a new problem. The early church was composed of a variety of groups and cultures, and you can bet they had difficulty at times in their corporate worship.

So what we must do, as we have always done, is put glorifying God first. This must come first. God always comes first. If this comes first, I believe it helps reduce the likelihood that we will be offended and that we will offend others. And, ultimately, while we want to be considerate, worship is first and foremost about using our lives to tell God that we love Him and that He is awesome – not about how others feel about us.

I have to say though that I am glad to be a part of a church that has a blend of music. I think that’s good and it shows consideration for different people. I say this note about music not because I disapprove of anything, but to help protect and grow what we have. I love our special music, choir, and praise team – all of you keep praising God, and thank you for your work. No complaints. But I know too how musical preferences go, and it’s inevitable that things won’t be what we want all the time. Just try to keep in mind that you and they and we all do this to worship God – and it’ll be OK.

And so, our first motivation simply needs to be to glorify God with our worship. And we try to love and serve others as we do.

So, looking at 1 Corinthians 10:31-31 we see that the circumstances in which we are able to worship God are tremendous in scope. If something as mundane as eating and drinking can be an opportunity to declare the glory of God, then virtually anything you do is an opportunity to worship God.

Link: I think that answers the question of “When and in what circumstances can I worship God?” But it doesn’t quite fully answer the question of how. Let’s look now at Romans 12:1 for some help on how worship is to be done.

Text: Romans 12:1

This is a very important verse for understanding worship. We looked at it a bit last week. We’re looking at it a bit this week. I know at least one other week in the future where it will come up. And that’s because it is pretty direct in telling us as believers how we are to worship God.

1 Corinthians 10:31-32 lets us know it’s in practically every circumstance.

And Romans 12:1 lets us know that worship is – wait for it, because this is weighty – worship is a devotion of your entire life to God as a sacrifice. How do you worship God? In any and every circumstance it is a decision to say “my life belongs to you God; do with it as you will.”

A sacrifice is something that you lose. Paul calls it a living sacrifice because you don’t physically die – you live on – but effectively you have given over your life to God because you believe God is worth it. Though you live, your life is no longer your own.

God is worth worshipping so much, and God is so great, that you don’t just give him Sunday morning, you don’t just give Him devos in the morning, you don’t just give Him a little money here and there, or a song every now and then, but you give Him the hardest thing of all to give – something way more valuable than money and songs. The thing that is most important to the majority of us and preciously valuable. You give Him yourself.

And so, while you might get the idea from 1 Corinthians 10:31-32 alone that we get to do whatever we want and as we are doing so, let’s incidentally worship God. Romans 12:1 lets us know that true worship of God is deciding that your life is no longer about you but about God.

Don’t misunderstand me though. We are living beings and God has created us to be needy and dependent. God specifically made us to rest and to need rest. Offering your life to God as a sacrifice does not mean abandoning sleep, or food, or enjoyment of things. Otherwise your life will soon become a wreck and you will have no further ability to give anything at all to God. Sadly, some have – in their good intentions – abandoned all their God designed needs like rest and in doing so have permanently damaged their capacity to worship God. We aren’t superheroes and we certainly aren’t God. Part of worshipping God is recognizing that He is God, we are not, and so we just need to read a book for a little bit and then go to sleep.

But it does mean abandoning selfishness. It means seeking to constantly ask: “God, what is it that you want me to do? Do you want me to eat right now or to spend some time with someone else? Do you want me to keep working on this thing I am doing or do you want me to go and take a rest and enjoy your gracious gifts?” And then doing it. That’s the simplicity of worshipping God. It’s giving your life to God and thereby living in a holy and acceptable way before Him.