Good morning, Watermark. Let us turn our Bible, or you may refer to your bulletins.
The passage for today is Romans chapter 12, verse 1 to 8. We will read about our bodies and worship.
Starting in verse 1,
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.
For by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think,
but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith God has assigned.
For as in one body, we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function.
So we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of one another.
Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them,
if prophecy in proportion to our faith,
if service in our serving,
the one who teaches in his teaching,
the one who exhorts in his exhortation,
the one who contributes in generosity,
the one who leads with zeal,
the one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness.
This is the word of God.
Great. Thank you, CK.
Good morning, everybody.
Great to see you.
Eric and Dora, great to see you guys.
Welcome back from L.A.
And if you are new to Watermark, my name is Kevin.
Great to have you with us this morning.
We've been away for the last two weeks,
so it's really great to be back with the Watermark family.
I don't know about you,
but I wonder, how good are you at handyman stuff?
My description of handyman stuff should give away that I'm not very good at it.
I'm what you could describe a handyman hack,
which means I don't really know what I'm doing,
but if something is wrong at home or something is broken,
rather than calling somebody,
trying to find the right person,
trying to find someone that speaks English,
and then waiting for them,
and then paying for them,
I'd rather just attempt it myself.
And so I have about four tools at home.
Most of them came with IKEA furniture.
And those four tools solve most of the problems in our home,
whether it's fixing a shower,
or stripping paint,
or painting something,
or fixing a hole in the door,
or sorting out the buzz in some appliance.
Those four tools will be hacked one way or another
to fix the problem, right?
And if those four tools don't do it,
a good just whack to the side will sort out whatever is wrong in the house.
Now you may say,
well, why don't you just go to a hardware store?
You know, one of those five element stores?
They have all the tools you need.
Well, the problem is,
if I went there,
I wouldn't even know what to do with those tools.
You could show me all the tools in the world,
and I wouldn't know what they are for,
or what their purpose is.
They all just look the same to me.
Knowing what something's purpose is
really helps to know what you should do with it, right?
If you are presented something,
and you have no idea what its purpose is,
chances are you're going to misuse it.
I wonder how many husbands,
and maybe a few ladies,
have caused far more problems than they needed,
not to mention far more injuries themselves,
by using some tool incorrectly.
using a spanner to try and fix something
that needs a hammer, right?
Just whack it and jam it,
and then you end up damaging yourself.
Mike and Greta,
why are you looking at yourselves like this?
It sounds like a familiar story in your household.
Well, here's the question.
What about our bodies?
What are our bodies used for?
What is the purpose of your body?
Why didn't God just make you a soul
in a box?
Why didn't God just make you
a brain or a mind in a laboratory?
God has made us embodied beings.
What is the purpose,
the goal,
His design for our bodies?
That's the question we're going to be
looking at a little bit this morning.
Why is it that we are physical beings
in physical bodies?
If you are new to church this morning,
I wonder if you've ever considered that.
What is the spiritual significance
of your physical body?
We live in a time
where we are very confused
about how to think about our bodies.
On the one hand,
we are enamored with our bodies.
We love to think about how we look.
On the other hand,
we're very confused.
But God is not confused.
God has lots to say
about our physical bodies.
And so,
today we're looking at the question,
what is the purpose of our bodies?
And we're going to be looking at
Romans chapter 12,
this passage that CK read for us.
If you have your bulletin,
keep it open in front of you.
We're going to be looking at this passage.
And in this passage,
the Apostle Paul writes to these Christians,
and he gives us two purposes
for our physical bodies.
Two functions that God intends
should inform how we view our physicality.
And the two purposes of this,
our bodies and God,
and our bodies and others.
Okay, very simple.
Our bodies and God,
our bodies and one another.
So, let's dive in
and take a look at it.
Firstly,
our bodies and God.
Look at this verse with me again.
Look at verse one.
Paul writes this.
He says,
I appeal to you therefore,
brothers and sisters,
by the mercies of God,
to present your bodies,
your physical bodies,
as a living sacrifice,
holy and acceptable to God,
for this is your spiritual worship.
Okay, the Apostle Paul here
clearly wants,
spells out for us
how God wants us to think
and understand about His purpose,
His design for our physical bodies.
What purpose do they serve?
What are they to be used for?
Well, here he tells us.
Look at what he says.
He says they are to be seen
as instruments of worship.
Present your bodies
as a living sacrifice,
holy and pleasing to the Lord,
for this is true or spiritual worship.
Now, we know that in the Bible,
worship is the sincere giving of yourself
to God for His pleasure and His praise.
That's what worship is, right?
Worship is not just mouthing things
or singing some songs on the screen.
It's giving of yourself to God.
Saying, God, here I am.
I give myself to you.
But Paul here clearly has in mind
the Old Testament system of worship.
If you're familiar with the Old Testament,
every Jew or Israelite
had to regularly come before God
as a form of worship
and bring an offering,
a sacrifice.
And what they would do
is they'd bring an animal
to the priest,
to the temple,
they'd present it to the priest
and offer it as a sacrifice,
an offering of worship to God.
That's why he says,
present, same word,
present your bodies
as a sacrifice to God.
This is worship.
Now, in the Bible,
when people bring something to God
as an offering,
an act of worship,
Scripture's understanding is
that is always meant to be seen
as a representative
of the entirety of our lives.
When someone comes to God and says,
God, I give this to you,
that's not the totality of our worship.
That's just a representation.
So, for instance, right,
Claire spoke earlier
about our financial offering,
our worship to God,
our tithes and offerings.
When someone comes
and brings their tithe to God,
it's not saying,
okay, God, you get 10%
and the other 90% is mine.
I get to do what I want to do.
In a way, it's saying,
God, this is representing
the fact that all that I have,
all that I am,
belongs to you.
Or if someone gives their time to God,
you come to church
on a Sunday morning,
you say, okay, God,
I'll give you two hours
on a Sunday morning.
It's not that God gets two hours
and we get the other,
you know, 168 hours or something.
Actually, that's representative
of the fact that God,
all that I am,
all my time,
my Monday to Sunday,
whether I'm in the office
or at church or at home,
all of my time,
I belong to you.
And so when the Bible says here,
present your bodies to God
as an act of worship,
it's a representative of the fact
that all that we have,
the Christian knows
that our entire lives,
every aspect of our being,
mind, soul, body,
all of our lives,
belong to God.
Now, we know that God
is not just interested
in mechanical,
going through the motions worship,
right?
Where you kind of just
go through the motions,
you burn the incense,
you put it before God,
you just do what you need to do.
No, no,
we know that God
is interested in our hearts,
in our motives,
in what's really going on.
Remember,
Jesus meets a lady at a well
and he's talking to her
about worship
and he says,
the kind of worship
that our Father desires
is worship that is
in spirit and in truth.
In other words,
in sincerity and heart genuineness.
That's the kind of worship
that God wants,
right?
So God is interested
in our hearts
and our motives,
what's really going inside,
not just the motions.
But on the other hand,
there's the temptation
to swing to the other side
and create this false dichotomy
that God is only interested
in our hearts
and he doesn't care
what to do with our bodies.
But here,
Paul tells us
that actually the kind of worship
that God wants
is the entirety of our lives.
Yes,
our hearts,
our motives,
what's going on inside of us,
but also,
what to do with our bodies,
our physicality.
Paul says,
this is proper worship
or the ESV says,
spiritual worship.
The Greek word is logiken,
from which we get
the word logical.
He says,
this is logical worship,
this is reasonable,
this is rational worship
to bring our entire lives
and say,
God,
all that I am
is a declaration
of your kingship,
your majesty,
your worth.
Okay?
So Paul says,
what is God's plan
for our lives?
It's worship.
Our bodies are to be
given to God
as worship.
Except,
there's two differences
between the Old Testament
understanding of worship
and the New Testament
understanding.
Did you notice
what they are?
The first one here
is he says,
we are to offer us bodies
as living sacrifices.
In the Old Testament,
when you offer
a sacrifice to God,
you generally would
bring an animal,
maybe a goat
or a lamb or something,
and you come to the temple
to the priest,
and you say,
here is my offering.
And they would
slaughter,
kill the animal,
and they would put it
on the altar,
and they would burn it
as an offering
of a sacrifice,
right?
In other words,
it's a once-off,
done-and-dusted deal.
It's done,
and then you go home.
When God wants us
to bring our bodies,
we don't burn them
on the altar,
we don't kill ourselves.
He says here,
they are living sacrifices.
In other words,
it's not just
a once-off decision
when I was back
in college,
back in 1985,
I made a decision,
okay, God,
I'll become a Christian,
I'll follow you.
And then from there on out,
I live for myself.
No, it's a day-by-day
we are to live for God.
Present your bodies
as a living sacrifice,
week in and week out.
So,
whether you're at church
on a Sunday morning,
and you're worshiping God
and praising Him
and declaring His majesty
and His kingship,
or whether you are
at the office on Wednesday,
or whether you're
at the trading desk
on a Tuesday morning,
or whether you're at home
on a Friday evening,
or whether you are
out on a date
with somebody
or at the gym,
Christians think about
their bodies
as saying,
in all of life,
in every day,
every sphere of life,
God, I bring my body,
I offer it,
I present it to you,
be glorified and honored
in the way that I hand on
and steward my body.
Here I am.
All that I am
belongs to you.
All of my life,
heart, soul, mind,
body, will, emotions,
everything I am
belongs to you.
In other words,
Christians are those
who have decided
to live for God,
not just decided
to follow Him
once upon a time.
But here's the second
distinction.
In the Old Testament,
broadly speaking,
there were two kinds
of offerings
that people brought.
There were sin offerings
and free will offerings.
Typically,
when we think
of the Old Testament,
we think of sin offerings,
right?
So, somebody comes
to the priest
and they say,
okay, I'll bring
a lamb or a goat
or a bull or something
and offer it
on the altar
to atone for my sins,
to make right
for my many transgressions.
The other kind
of offering
is a free will offering
where somebody
comes to God
and says,
God, out of gratitude
for who you are,
I bring this
as an offering
of praise to you.
Now,
when Paul
is talking here
and says,
in view of God's mercy,
offer your bodies
as a living sacrifice
to God,
what is he thinking about?
He's not thinking
about a sin offering.
How do we know that?
Well,
a couple of reasons.
One is this.
Paul's writing this
in Romans chapter 12,
right?
In other words,
there are 11 chapters
of the book of Romans
before Paul writes this.
And he says here,
he says,
I appeal to you,
brothers and sisters,
by the mercies of God,
he says,
therefore,
offer your bodies
as living sacrifices.
He connects
everything that he's written
with this injunction
to bring our bodies
to God
as worship.
And the injunction
uses is therefore.
Okay?
He connects
everything he's been writing
and saying,
therefore,
in light of this,
present your bodies
to God
as worship
and to the praise
of his name.
If I say to you,
I've come down
with the flu,
therefore,
I won't be able
to meet you.
The second half
is obviously predicated
on the first half,
right?
Paul says here,
in view of God's mercies,
therefore,
offer your bodies
to God
as worship.
Now,
what is the first 11 chapters
of the book of Romans about?
Well,
if you're new to church,
if you don't know,
the book of Romans
is all about
how the Christian life
is grounded
in the radical,
extravagant,
undeserved,
unearned mercy
and kindness of God.
That though we deserve
God's judgment
and his wrath,
sinners though we are,
Jesus died on the cross
as a sin offering
in our place
to take upon himself
the sin that we have.
Jesus was punished for us
so that we can now
live for God
and know him
and be accepted by him.
So,
look at a couple of verses
in Romans.
Look at what Paul writes here.
This is chapter 5.
He says,
while we were still weak,
in other words,
while we didn't have it all together,
at the right time,
Christ died for the ungodly.
That's me.
That's you.
That's us.
Jesus died for us
when we were sinners.
But God shows his love for us
that while we were still sinners,
Christ died for us.
While we were enemies of God,
we were reconciled,
brought back to God
by the death of his son Jesus.
Much more now
that we are reconciled,
let us live for him.
We shall be saved by his life.
In other words,
Jesus on the cross
allowed his body
to be broken,
ripped in two,
torn apart,
shamed,
beaten,
crushed,
mocked.
Jesus gave himself up
as the ultimate sin offering.
And now he says,
in light of that,
bring your bodies
and offer them to God,
not as a sin offering,
not to earn God's mercy
or his grace,
but as a free will offering,
saying,
God,
in light of all that you've done for me,
here I am,
have your way.
See,
amazing,
Jesus Christ
was the sin offering
that ends all sin offerings.
Jesus died in our place
and now God the Father
can look at you and I,
sin as though we are,
and say,
your sin has been paid for,
expiated,
atoned for,
it's done,
it's gone.
And now,
in light of that,
offer your bodies to God
in worship.
You see,
friends,
worship for the Christian
is never a means
to earn God's acceptance
or his love
or his forgiveness.
Never.
It's always done
in response
to what God has done.
Jesus died
to earn God's acceptance
for us
and now in response
that we say,
with all that I am,
I give myself to you.
Sam Albury says it like this,
we don't offer ourselves
to God
so that he might love us
or forgive us
or accept us.
We offer ourselves
to God
because he has loved us
and accepted us
and loved us.
friends,
Jesus died
the sin offering
to end all sin offerings.
Jesus never asks us
to come
and to worship him
and to sing praise to him
in order to earn his love
but in response.
So,
what is God's purpose
for our lives,
for our bodies,
for our souls,
for all that we are?
What is his purpose for us?
Worship,
to glorify him,
to live our lives
to the praise
of his great name.
Okay,
so what does that
actually mean?
How does that,
what do we do with that
this week?
Well,
give thought to your
physical body.
Think about how you
steward your body.
What does the way
that you handle
your physicality
say about who God is
or who you belong to?
So,
obviously this means
that we should
automatically challenge
patterns of sinful
behavior in our lives.
Obviously we don't
steward our bodies
towards sin.
But think more generally,
think about your eyes,
right?
Think about
what do you do
with your eyes?
What do you feast
your eyes upon?
What does that say
about what is
most important to you?
What do you look at?
Those Netflix shows
that you watch,
the websites
that you visit,
the way you view
people of the
opposite sex
and gender,
the amount of time
we are scrolling
on our phones
and social media.
How much of that
is done as an
act of worship?
How much of that
is done saying,
God be glorified
with what I do
with my eyes?
Well,
think about something
as simple as
when you're talking
with someone,
are you engaging
in eye contact?
Are you communicating,
you are really
important to me
and I value my time?
Why are you thinking
about all those
around you?
Well,
think about your ears.
What podcast
are you listening to?
What music
are you listening to?
Is it fueling
a passion
for the supremacy
of Christ
and to live
for Him?
Or is it
numbing you
to the wonder
of Jesus?
If all we listen
to a podcast
about how to
grow our portfolio
and make more money
and become more wealthy,
is that fueling
an idol in our lives?
Or is it fueling
a passion
for Christ?
Well,
think about your hands.
What do you do
with your hands?
Are your hands
instruments of
comfort and encouragement?
Or are they
instruments of
aggression
and anger?
Do you lift
your hands
to intimidate people,
a spouse or a child?
Do you lift
your hands
in anger?
Or do you lift
your hands
to comfort,
to encourage,
to show compassion,
to show sympathy?
Do you use
your hands
to touch people
inappropriately,
to seduce people,
to exploit people,
to take advantage
of them?
Do you use
your hands
to make people
feel safe
and secure?
Every part
of our body
is God,
how do we
use our
physical bodies?
I think Romans,
or think about
your mouth,
think about the
words that come
out of your mouth.
Do they encourage
and build people up?
Do they praise God
or do they bring
people down?
Do we engage
in gossip?
Do we speak
the truth?
Do we fetch
the truth
with how we speak?
I think Romans 12
is not specifically
talking about this,
but at the very least
we should think
about how do we
use our bodies
in sung worship
on a Sunday?
today?
I often think
about this,
you know,
I quite like
to watch sport
and when my
sports team
is doing well,
I demonstrate
it physically,
right?
That winning goal
in the 95th minute
of the World Cup,
come on,
yeah!
Let's do it,
right?
Okay,
only Claire
finds that funny,
right?
None of you do that,
okay,
only me,
that's fine.
When I watch sport,
it's very hard
for me to say,
nice goal,
chap,
good job,
well,
I'm scoring the goal,
right?
But sometimes
when we come to
church on Sunday,
how do we use
our bodies?
We say,
praise God,
oh,
praise God,
but do we actually
engage our bodies
in our worship?
We are embodied
beings.
You don't have
to do this,
but one of the
things I like to do
is I like to raise
my hands
as a way of saying,
yes,
I believe this,
this is true.
When I say,
God,
you're glorious,
I'm saying,
God,
this is true,
yes,
come on.
Well,
sometimes I'll
just stand like this
and say,
God,
I need you.
Lord,
I come before you
with nothing in my hands.
Lord,
I need you.
Well,
sometimes even
to maybe get on our knees
and say,
Father,
I have nothing.
God,
I bow before you
and surrender.
God,
you have my,
Jesus,
you are my king.
God,
come and have your way.
You see,
the Psalms tell us
often to worship God
with our entire being,
to clap in his presence,
to kneel down before him,
to raise our hands.
The Psalms tell us
with all that we have,
not just the words
of our mouth,
but with our entire being,
heart,
soul,
mind,
body strength,
say,
God,
all that I am
is given to you
as a declaration
of your majesty
and your kingship
and your worst.
I appeal to you,
therefore,
brothers and sisters,
in view of
Jesus'
mercy,
in view of what
Christ has done
on the cross,
in view of the fact
that Jesus died
and was broken
and beaten
and said,
you can know God.
Bring your whole selves,
your body,
your mind,
your soul,
your strength,
your will,
your emotions,
bring your self
and offer it to God
as a living sacrifice.
This is spiritual worship.
You see how radically
different this is?
You see,
most religions,
in the ancient world,
certainly,
but even in modern culture,
most religious traditions,
worship is something
that you just give
to the gods
to appease the gods,
to curry their favor
so that you can get
their blessings
so that you can go on
with your life
doing what you really
want to do, right?
So you will burn
some incense sticks
and just put them
at the shrine
or you'll put some fruit
in front of the shrine
and you'll offer
something to God
and then He will bless you
in return
and you can go on
with your life.
But what Jesus says here
is all of the world
is mine.
It all belongs to me.
And if you're going
to follow me,
says Jesus,
you need to bring
your entire life,
mind, body, soul,
will, strength,
all that you are,
everything,
bring it to me.
And this is a radically
new way of thinking.
Now the question is this,
how,
before we get to our
second point,
how should we respond
to that?
How should,
how are you going
to respond to that?
You see,
you could go home
and say,
well that was quite interesting.
No,
I hadn't thought
of that before.
And then just go on
with your life,
right?
Tomorrow you go
to the office
and you completely
forget about it.
You could go home
and say,
well that wasn't
very interesting,
what a waste
of a Sunday morning.
But at least I've
done church
for one more week,
okay,
now I can really
get on to what
I want to do.
Maybe you're here
and you're not
a Christian.
And so maybe
you go home
and you think,
wow,
that's quite interesting.
I've never heard
of the idea
that Jesus wants
me to follow him
with everything
that I am,
to lay down
my life with.
That's pretty new,
I need to think
about that some more.
Okay,
that's a better
response.
But here's what
the Bible wants us
to see.
Christians believe
that God's word
is true
and because it's
true,
it's always
liberating.
It's freeing.
It's often
challenging,
but it's freeing,
it's liberating.
But here's the thing,
it's only liberating
to the degree
to which you engage
with it
or respond to it
or accept it,
receive it,
right?
In other words,
if you go home
and say,
oh,
that was interesting
and then ignore it,
it has zero impact
on your life,
zero bearing
on your life.
But if you will say,
okay,
God wants me
to give everything
that I have to him,
to follow him
with all that I am,
do you know
what you'll find?
You'll find
it'll start to change you.
It'll start to change you
and transform you.
It'll change the way
you live.
And that's what
verse 2 says
in our Bible.
Look at verse 2
with me.
This is a tricky passage,
a tricky verse,
but he says this,
do not be conformed
to the ways
of this world,
but be transformed
by the renewal
of your mind.
Okay,
that's an interesting phrase.
That by testing
or learning
or examining,
you may discern
what is the will of God,
what is his good,
acceptable,
and perfect will.
Okay,
so this is a difficult verse,
but essentially Paul says this,
the word of God,
the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ
reframes the way
we think about life
and the way
we approach life,
right?
We used to live
for ourselves
and Jesus says,
I am God,
now you live for me.
We used to live
according to the values
and the principles
of our culture
and Jesus says,
no,
I am God,
now I live
according to my values,
my principles.
Jesus Christ
used to be an accessory
to our lives,
something we just,
you know,
honored a little bit
on Sundays
and then got on
with our lives.
Now Jesus says,
I want to be
the center of your lives.
So Jesus makes
a radical claim
on our lives,
right?
And Paul says
that when you
accept his claim,
when you receive him,
what he calls
a renewal of your mind
or a renewal
of your thinking,
when you accept this
and receive it
and respond to it
and believe it
and trust him
and take him
as word,
what does he say
will happen?
He will transform
your life.
He has to,
right?
He'll change
the way you live.
The word transformation
there is the word
metamorphoster,
something like that.
Metamorphoster,
okay?
It's where we get
the English word
metamorphosis.
You know,
metamorphosis is
a radical change
like a silkworm
changes into a butterfly.
It's a metamorphosis.
It's a radical change.
God says here
that when you
take his word
and you say,
okay,
you God,
Jesus,
our king
and Lord,
I will follow you
with all that I have.
When you change
your thinking
and accept that,
he will transform
your life.
And then what happens?
What will happen?
The more you do that,
the more you learn
to understand
and know
God's will
for your life
and to walk
according to it.
So I don't know
if you're someone
that often wonders,
what is God's will
for my life?
What is God's will?
What is his will?
What does he want me to do?
Well, here the Bible says
the way to discover
God's will
is to shift your thinking
according to God's thinking.
To think God's thoughts
often.
When you start
to renew your mind
and renew your thinking
by accepting
what God's word says,
do you know what happens?
You discover
or here it says
you discern,
you learn
what God's will is,
you walk in that will
and you find
the liberating,
freeing power of God.
It'll change your life.
So,
what is Paul saying to us?
Our bodies
are gifts from God.
They are an integral part
of who you are.
And in light
of what Jesus did
on the cross,
giving up his body,
his body broken for you
that you might be saved,
now you bring
your entire life
into God
with all that I am
and all that I have,
I offer myself to you
to the praise
of your great name.
Does that make sense?
Okay.
Our bodies and God.
Secondly,
this will be very quick.
Our bodies and one another.
Look at what Paul says
in verses 4 to 8 here.
Here Paul says
that by virtue
of our union with Christ,
if you're a Christian,
you're united to Christ,
he says our lives
are not just individualistic,
it's not just me and Jesus,
actually our lives
also impact those around us.
And so look what he says
here in verse 4.
He says,
for as in one body,
he's talking about
a physical human body,
we have many members,
right?
You have an arm,
you have a nose,
you have an ear,
you have an appendix,
maybe not anymore,
but okay,
we have many members
in our bodies.
And the members
do not all have
the same function.
So,
we,
now he's talking about
the body of Christ,
though many
are one body
in Christ
and individually
members
one of another.
So he's comparing
the church family
to a human body.
He's saying,
your body's got
lots of body parts,
the church family's
lots of parts,
and we are all
distinct and different.
And then he says,
each one of us
are to use
our gifts
and our abilities
to serve
the wider body.
Look what he says,
verse six.
So,
having gifts
that differ
according to the grace
that's given to us,
let us use them.
If your gift
is prophecy,
prophesy in proportion
to your faith.
If your gift
is service,
in our serving.
If your gift
is teaching,
to the one who teaches.
If your gift
is the one
who exhorts
or encourages,
do that.
To the one
who contributes
and generosity,
do that.
To the one
who leads,
do it with passion.
The one
who does acts
of mercy
and kindness,
do it with cheerfulness.
What's his point here?
His point is,
you are not your own.
You belong to Christ,
yes,
but in a sense,
you also belong
to one another.
Now,
not in a weird
cultish way,
okay,
but in a way,
when you're saved
and united with Christ,
you're also part
of Christ's body,
and now we use
our physical bodies
to serve one another.
So,
my gifts
and my talents
are not given
to me alone,
they're given also
to the church family
to serve the family.
And your gifts
and your talents
and your abilities
aren't just given
to you alone,
they're given to you
to serve the person
across the aisle
or behind you
or in front of you.
So,
your body
is an instrument
of worship to God
but also an instrument
of service
to one another.
And you know
what happens
when you have an injury?
What happens
when you're injured,
right?
The other parts
of the body
have to compensate
for your injury,
right?
So,
you break your leg
and you're now in crutches
and now your arms
need to carry
the weight of your body,
right?
In a church family,
all of us
from time to time
are going to be injured.
All of us
are going to go
through suffering
and hardship,
difficulty,
right?
And so,
what do we do?
The body
comes around us
and compensates.
The body
strengthens one another
to help us
in our time
of weakness.
I think a great example
of this is Jack.
Where's Jack?
I saw Jack.
There you go.
So,
a few months ago,
Jack's playing badminton
and raptures his Achilles tendon,
right?
And a CG is there
with him.
Is that right?
I think they were with you?
Yeah?
Okay?
So,
the CG
gets him off to hospital.
I saw some photos
of Alfred
in the ambulance
with him,
making sure Jack
gets to hospital
and they make sure
he's all safe
and secure
and the doctors see him
and then a few days later,
there's his CG
at the hospital,
right?
And they bring him gifts
and food
and flowers
and then
for the next few months,
he's in a wheelchair
and it's really hard
to get to church.
So,
CG goes and meets him
and picks him up
and makes sure
that he gets to church here.
He has one part
of the body
helping another part
of the body
with their physical strength
in a very physical way.
Now,
maybe you say,
oh,
well,
I don't have much
to offer,
right?
I'm just like,
what can I do?
I'm very weak,
I'm very poor,
I'm sickly,
I'm old,
my body can't do anything.
I once heard a story
of an old lady
in her 80s
and she was housebound
in a wheelchair,
couldn't leave the house.
But she figured
the one thing I can do
is I can pick up the phone
and so every day
she decided
I'm going to phone
one person
in my church
and I'm just going
to talk to them.
I'm going to encourage them.
I'm going to listen to them.
I'm going to ask them
how they're doing.
I'm going to ask them
what their fears are.
I'm going to pray for them.
So here's a little old lady
in her 80s
sitting in some cottage
in a nursing home
and using her body
to serve and strengthen
the body of Christ.
Friends,
what's the point?
in view of God's mercy.
Jesus offering up
His body for us.
Now we get to offer up
our bodies
to Christ's offering
and to one another
in service.
So friends,
you are an embodied being.
You're not just a soul
in a box.
You're not just a mind
in a laboratory.
You're a human being,
an embodied being
made to know
and love
and serve
and worship
the creator God,
the sovereign God
of all creation
to be in relationship
with Him.
Not just with your heart
but with all that you are.
Mind,
soul,
body as well.
Let's do that now
as we come to Him
in prayer.
Let's pray together.
Father God,
we do want to do that.
We do, God,
want to bring
our entire bodies
before you.
We want to bring
our hands,
our mouths,
our eyes,
the words of our mouth,
God,
the meditation
of our hearts,
the actions
of our hands,
the things we look at
online,
the websites we visit,
the way we listen
to people.
God,
we want our
physical bodies
to be an act
of worship to you.
God,
I pray,
help us as a church
not just to worship you
in word,
not just to go
through the motions
but to bring
our entire lives
and say with all
that we are
and all that we have,
let them be an offering
that is pleasing,
holy,
acceptable to you.
This is our true
and logical,
our rational,
our reasonable worship.
God,
we pray,
Lord,
I pray for our youth,
God,
I pray for the teenagers,
those who are particularly
in a time that is so confusing
and where our culture
has so much to say
about our bodies.
God,
I pray
that our youth,
our teenagers,
God,
will more than anything
be radically secure
in who you say they are.
That they won't try
and find their identity
in what culture says
but they,
God,
even at a young age,
even in their teens
will say,
God,
with all that I am
and all that I have,
I give myself to you.
God,
I pray for all of us.
God,
I pray,
Lord,
for those of us
that are struggling
with our bodies.
Maybe we struggle
with physical health.
Maybe we struggle
with how we feel
about our bodies.
Maybe we struggle,
God,
with how we look.
God,
I pray that each one of us
in this room
will bring ourselves
before you
and offer ourselves
to you
and that our offering
will be pleasing
and delightful to you.
I pray this in your
great and glorious name.
Amen.