Sermon Tone Analysis
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*Worship at Every Moment \\ Romans 12:1-2 \\ 11~/9~/2008*
*INTRODUCTION*
In any given day I probably have around 30 items clamoring for my attention.
I always have schoolwork to complete, phone calls to make, repairs that have to be done in the home, time I’d like to spend with my wife, and acrobatic tricks my daughter wants me to watch.
Between e-mails, faxes, and voicemails I often find myself overwhelmed.
For a long time I have struggled to become sufficiently organized to handle all the demands on my time.
I’m naturally disorganized and very poor at determining priority.
Now maybe you’re the kind of person who can keep things in order without a problem.
You’re one of those people who has your entire task list for the day prioritized and scheduled in your mind and you’ll work through the list efficiently and speedily.
Or else maybe you’re like me, waking up in the morning in a daze trying to figure out who’s on first and what’s on second.
I got so frustrated at one point I started trying to find a system I could use successfully to keep my life organized.
I found this system called “Getting Things Done.”
Have you heard of it?
It started as a book by David Allen.
This is an organizational system that is supposed to be natural and most efficient in an electronic age.
I read the book and then discovered an entire cult following of this guy.
There are people who follow David Allen as a sort of guru, a messiah, whose gospel is happiness through organization and check-boxes.
You can get GTD plugins for your e-mail, phone, handheld device, whatever.
There are entire websites and clubs devoted to this system of completing daily tasks.
Now don’t get me wrong, the system is good.
But is it the answer to life’s questions?
I mean, have you ever felt so stressed about all the stuff you have to accomplish?
It would seem that if we could just get the list done at the end of the day, we would probably end the day happy rather than tired and grumpy.
I think the issue of priorities and organization is only the tip of the iceberg.
I think really, we’re dealing with a much deeper issue than when to make phone calls and when to check e-mails.
The question of priority, for the believer, is answered in the question of worship.
I think God cares a great deal about what we choose to do.
He is intimately involved in our lives.
God is in the details.
And God cares about our motivations—why we choose to do what we do.
So what does God have to say about our daily decisions?
Turn to the book of Romans.
Chapter 12.
Verses 1 and 2. I’ll read it:
" I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect."
(Romans 12:1-2, ESV) [6]
Now then.
At first glance these verses are not about our daily schedules.
And really, the focus of the verses are not on our daily decisions.
But as we work through these verses, I hope you see that by obeying these verses every single decision you make throughout the day will be affected.
*Proposition*
*Worship at every moment.*
*I. **Present yourself like a slave*
I think the central command in this text is in that phrase, “…present your bodies as a living sacrifice…” Paul says he “appeals to you ….
To present your bodies as a living sacrifice.”
There are times when scripture gives a command.
There are other times when scripture seems to go beyond commanding to begging, entreaty, appealing.
It’s more urgent, more emotional, like a mother urging her soldier-son to be careful as she sees him off at his unit’s deployment to war.
It’s as if Paul is saying, “Please!
For your own sake and for the sake of God, present your bodies as a living sacrifice.”
Now then, that word “present” is an interesting word.
It means “to bring, offer, make available, wait on, assist, or be on hand” in the way that a bride is presented to the groom or in the way a slave is available to his master.
One commentator wrote:
The verb “present” in this verse means “present once and for all.”
It commands a definite commitment of the body to the Lord, just as a bride and groom in their wedding service commit themselves to each other.
*It is this once-for-all commitment that determines what they do with their bodies.***[7]***
*
Did you get that last part?
Let me read it again.
“It is this once-for-all commitment that determines what they do with their bodies.”
So at the center of these verses, Paul is begging us to present our bodies, that is, our entire beings, to God so that God determines what we do with ourselves.
He calls us living sacrifices.
He reminds the Roman church of the sacrifices that were offered in the Jewish temple and the sacrifices that were offered in the pagan temples.
If you read through chapters 1-11, you’ll find that Paul has been going back and forth in his letter.
At one time he will speak to Jews, at another time he will speak to gentiles.
He is trying to bring them to the understanding that they have peace with God through the same Gospel.
His letter so far has emphasized the commonality between all believers regardless of ancestry: Jesus Christ.
Jesus is the one thing that all believers have in common, no matter where you’re from or the color of your skin or the religion of your parents.
The other thing that Jews and Gentiles had in common, at least in Rome, is an experience of religious sacrifices, either made to the Lord God of Israel or to Roman gods.
Both were familiar with sacrificial systems.
Paul uses the image of sacrifice to drive home his point that we are to not only let God direct our every decision, but have our entire being.
We are to be fully and completely His to use however He pleases.
(REPEAT)
In the last verses of Hebrews 12, the writer of Hebrews says something similar to our text tonight.
He says, John the Baptist said that Jesus would baptize believers with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
That happened in Acts when the Apostles received the Holy Spirit and licks of fire descended on them.
In the sacrificial system of Israel, offerings were sacrificed and then burned on an altar with fire.
Paul is bringing all that into our text this evening.
God is a consuming fire.
The acceptable worship to a consuming God is an entire being to be consumed.
This means our every single decision, including our schedules and our task lists.
The emphasis of the word “sacrifice” is that we hold nothing in reserve.
In other passages Paul describes believers as “slaves.”
Here Paul is making an emphasis beyond the position of slave.
You see, a slave always holds one thing in reserve: a desire to be free.
A desire to escape.
A dream of one day being able to make his own decisions and not at the beck and call of his master.
A sacrifice does not even have that one desire remaining.
A sacrifice is wholly, completely, and entirely given over to the fire that consumes it.
For us, that is our God.
*a.
**Acceptable to God*
Such a living sacrifice is “Holy and Acceptable to God.”
Paul tells us plainly that God doesn’t want us to make offerings.
Do you know what an offering is? It’s not just the basket on Sunday morning.
If you walk into a Chinese restaurant that is actually owned by Chinese Buddhists, you’ll find somewhere an altar to an ancestor.
On that altar will probably be an orange or a can of fruit or a cup of tea, and some incense.
The altar is an offering to the ancestor’s spirit in the event that he or she comes to visit and needs some refreshment from the voyage.
It seems strange to us as believers.
My first thought is “why would a spirit-being eat an orange?”
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