Living to Worship

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. Romans 12:1 (ESV)

Yesterday I was reminded again that true worship is not a collection of songs or simply giving praise with our lips. These are good things but by themselves they don’t amount to much and can even be offensive to God if we are not backing them up by how we live our lives each day. 

Jesus quoted this scripture to the religious folks of His day:

"'This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’” 

Matthew 15:8-9

In other words worship songs, Bible study, Sunday School lessons and sermons without a connected relationship with God are meaningless. It’s simply playing church by finding the best way to “entertain” those in attendance. Serving God is so much more than a song or a sermon.

When we look at Romans 12:1 we see the word “therefore” at the beginning of the verse before the directive. If you have spent any time at all under a good Bible teacher you have been taught you need to know what the “therefore” is there for. We look at the verses preceding it and in this case the last verse of chapter 11 gives us a great reason for living out a life of worship.

For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen.

Romans 11:36 (ESV)

Very simply put, we were created from Him, through Him and to Him. We are His. 

We were made to glorify Him. 

Ours should be a life of continual gratitude if for no other reason than the fact that we owe our very existence to Him. If He never did another thing for us that would be enough to shout, but praise God He gave us so much more through Jesus! 

May our worship be more than the words of a song this week.

Psalm 34:1
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The picture, above, is of the Coliseum in Rome, where believers literally presented their bodies as living sacrifices, all for the entertainment of the masses.
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Jon Ginn, worship leader at Hope Church in Tupelo, MS, is our guest blogger today. He's blogged for us before. In case you missed it, here's the link: Golden, Medicinal Words

Mary Evans Ervin wrote the story of her all to missions for our guest blog yesterday. Here's the link: Just a Regular Person
#worship #disciple #JonGinn