WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.000 Well, over the past few months on Sunday evenings, 00:00:03.000 --> 00:00:06.000 we've been working through a series on worship, 00:00:06.000 --> 00:00:09.000 and we've been focusing on the elements of corporate worship, 00:00:09.000 --> 00:00:12.000 what we do here on a Sunday gathering. 00:00:12.000 --> 00:00:15.000 But worship is not just an activity we do once a week, 00:00:15.000 --> 00:00:17.000 and then switch off. 00:00:17.000 --> 00:00:20.000 This evening, we're going to think a bit about worship 00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:22.000 in the context of Monday to Saturday. 00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:27.000 So the six other days, we're going to look at life as worship. 00:00:27.000 --> 00:00:29.000 And we're going to do this by looking at Romans chapter 12, 00:00:29.000 --> 00:00:34.000 so if you have a Bible, you might find it helpful to have it open there. 00:00:34.000 --> 00:00:37.000 So tonight, we're thinking about the whole of life as worship, 00:00:37.000 --> 00:00:40.000 and I want to break it down into two questions. 00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:44.000 The first, what is a true life of worship? 00:00:44.000 --> 00:00:46.000 What's involved? 00:00:46.000 --> 00:00:48.000 Second, how do we live that out? 00:00:48.000 --> 00:00:50.000 What does that look like? 00:00:50.000 --> 00:00:53.000 So first of all, what is a true life of worship? 00:00:53.000 --> 00:00:56.000 You might remember back at the beginning of our series, 00:00:56.000 --> 00:01:00.000 Corey defined worship as the outworking of a heart 00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:03.000 directed towards something of values. 00:01:03.000 --> 00:01:08.000 You see, worship is fundamentally the ascribing of value to something. 00:01:08.000 --> 00:01:13.000 It's an outpouring of something in us into something. 00:01:13.000 --> 00:01:18.000 And the reason it's so important to think about worship is that you do it. 00:01:18.000 --> 00:01:21.000 Every one of you is a worshiper. 00:01:21.000 --> 00:01:25.000 Worship is something that comes naturally to us as human beings. 00:01:25.000 --> 00:01:29.000 Paul Trip, a pastor and author in the US, said this. 00:01:29.000 --> 00:01:33.000 He said that human beings, by their very nature, are worshippers. 00:01:33.000 --> 00:01:38.000 You see, worship is not just something we do, it defines who we are. 00:01:38.000 --> 00:01:43.000 You cannot divide human beings into those who worship and those who don't. 00:01:43.000 --> 00:01:48.000 Everybody worships, it's just a matter of what or whom you serve. 00:01:48.000 --> 00:01:51.000 So worship is something that's instinctive to us. 00:01:51.000 --> 00:01:56.000 And Paul makes that so clear right back at the beginning of this book in chapter 1. 00:01:56.000 --> 00:02:01.000 He says, all human beings know deep down that they're made to serve God. 00:02:01.000 --> 00:02:03.000 But we choose to suppress that truth. 00:02:03.000 --> 00:02:07.000 We turn and worship other things in God's place. 00:02:07.000 --> 00:02:09.000 So what does that mean? 00:02:09.000 --> 00:02:12.000 Well, the great musician Bob Dylan put it like this. 00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:16.000 You've got to serve somebody. 00:02:16.000 --> 00:02:19.000 Romans 1 means the question is not, do you worship? 00:02:19.000 --> 00:02:21.000 But what do you worship? 00:02:21.000 --> 00:02:23.000 What is the content of your worship? 00:02:23.000 --> 00:02:26.000 What is the object you are focused on? 00:02:26.000 --> 00:02:29.000 There's a postmodern novelist called David Foster Wallace. 00:02:29.000 --> 00:02:32.000 He's written a few books like Infinite Jest and The Pale King. 00:02:32.000 --> 00:02:36.000 He said that everyone is looking for real meaning in life. 00:02:36.000 --> 00:02:41.000 And whatever you use to do that, whether it's money, sex, power, intellect, 00:02:41.000 --> 00:02:45.000 whatever it is, it's essentially a form of worship. 00:02:45.000 --> 00:02:49.000 He goes on to explain that each form of worship does not merely make you fragile 00:02:49.000 --> 00:02:54.000 and exhausted, but it can eat you alive. 00:02:54.000 --> 00:02:59.000 If you've read The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, you'll know the character Gollum. 00:02:59.000 --> 00:03:01.000 You might have seen the films. 00:03:01.000 --> 00:03:05.000 Gollum's ultimate desire in The Lord of the Rings is for the ring of power. 00:03:05.000 --> 00:03:09.000 It's something he craves and desires above all else. 00:03:09.000 --> 00:03:11.000 And for a while he possesses this ring. 00:03:11.000 --> 00:03:12.000 He has this ring. 00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:13.000 He cherishes it. 00:03:13.000 --> 00:03:15.000 He loves it. He worships this ring. 00:03:15.000 --> 00:03:18.000 But it slowly consumes him. 00:03:18.000 --> 00:03:21.000 It's a thing he wanted more than anything in the world, 00:03:21.000 --> 00:03:23.000 but he becomes filled with hate, bitter and jealousy. 00:03:23.000 --> 00:03:25.000 It was never enough. 00:03:25.000 --> 00:03:27.000 Now, Gollum is an extreme example, 00:03:27.000 --> 00:03:32.000 but in a similar way, the things we long for, the things we desire, 00:03:32.000 --> 00:03:34.000 the things our hearts value most, 00:03:34.000 --> 00:03:39.000 have the potential to be incredibly destructive. 00:03:39.000 --> 00:03:41.000 We know that. 00:03:41.000 --> 00:03:47.000 The things that we long for, as David Foster-Wall's put it, can eat us alive. 00:03:47.000 --> 00:03:51.000 So the point is, if the object of our worship is something other than God, 00:03:51.000 --> 00:03:55.000 it will never deliver the fulfillment we're looking for. 00:03:55.000 --> 00:04:00.000 It will never ultimately satisfy an affirm. 00:04:00.000 --> 00:04:02.000 And this is not a new phenomenon. 00:04:02.000 --> 00:04:05.000 It's not a problem just for our post-Moran culture. 00:04:05.000 --> 00:04:10.000 St. Augustine, back in the fourth century, put it like this in his Confessions. 00:04:10.000 --> 00:04:11.000 He said, 00:04:11.000 --> 00:04:17.000 Our hearts are restless until they find our rest in God. 00:04:17.000 --> 00:04:20.000 So the point is, everyone is a worshiper. 00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:23.000 What does a true life of worship look like then? 00:04:23.000 --> 00:04:28.000 This is what Paul is getting at here in the beginning of chapter 12, verse 1. 00:04:28.000 --> 00:04:31.000 I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, 00:04:31.000 --> 00:04:36.000 by the mercies of God, present your bodies as a living sacrifice, 00:04:36.000 --> 00:04:39.000 wholly and acceptable to God. 00:04:39.000 --> 00:04:42.000 This is your spiritual worship. 00:04:42.000 --> 00:04:43.000 So what does that mean? 00:04:43.000 --> 00:04:46.000 What does it mean to present your body as a living sacrifice? 00:04:46.000 --> 00:04:50.000 I mean, the whole concept of a sacrifice is pretty alien to us today. 00:04:50.000 --> 00:04:55.000 We don't really come across sacrifices in 21st century Edinburgh. 00:04:55.000 --> 00:05:01.000 But for those back in the first century to Paul's writing, it's a familiar concept. 00:05:01.000 --> 00:05:07.000 So Paul's using this imagery as a metaphor to teach us about our worship. 00:05:07.000 --> 00:05:10.000 See, when you think of a sacrifice, you generally think of something that's killed, 00:05:10.000 --> 00:05:16.000 something that's taken, that's alive, and then it's slaughtered on an altar. 00:05:16.000 --> 00:05:20.000 But Paul's calling us here for a living sacrifice. 00:05:20.000 --> 00:05:22.000 It's fundamentally about lifestyle. 00:05:22.000 --> 00:05:25.000 It's about the way we live in this world. 00:05:25.000 --> 00:05:28.000 The 16th century reformer, John Calvin, put it like this. 00:05:28.000 --> 00:05:29.000 He said, 00:05:29.000 --> 00:05:33.000 When Paul speaks about bodies here, he does not mean only our bones and our flesh, 00:05:33.000 --> 00:05:35.000 but all that we are. 00:05:35.000 --> 00:05:38.000 Our whole being. 00:05:38.000 --> 00:05:43.000 That includes our thoughts, our emotions, our wills, our desires. 00:05:43.000 --> 00:05:49.000 In other words, the whole of human life is an act of worship. 00:05:49.000 --> 00:05:52.000 Paul writes elsewhere in Philippians chapter 1, 00:05:52.000 --> 00:05:59.000 It is my eager expectation and hope that Christ will be honoured in my body. 00:05:59.000 --> 00:06:02.000 What this means is that our whole life is important to God. 00:06:02.000 --> 00:06:05.000 That includes our physicality. 00:06:05.000 --> 00:06:10.000 It includes the things we do during the week. 00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:15.000 Your work, your studies, the time you spend with family and friends, 00:06:15.000 --> 00:06:20.000 your relationships, your leisure time, how you live and act and speak 00:06:20.000 --> 00:06:25.000 and think in these aspects of life is important to God. 00:06:25.000 --> 00:06:27.000 The theologian Douglas Mew put it like this. 00:06:27.000 --> 00:06:31.000 He said that worship is a 24-7 matter. 00:06:31.000 --> 00:06:34.000 Of course, corporate worship is critical. 00:06:34.000 --> 00:06:35.000 It's so important. 00:06:35.000 --> 00:06:38.000 But we worship God when we show love to others, 00:06:38.000 --> 00:06:41.000 when we do our jobs faithfully and with integrity, 00:06:41.000 --> 00:06:44.000 when we nurture our families. 00:06:44.000 --> 00:06:50.000 God wants us always to be bringing glory to Him by the way we live. 00:06:50.000 --> 00:06:53.000 Now, Paul says three things about this sacrifice. 00:06:53.000 --> 00:06:56.000 He says it's living, he says it's holy, 00:06:56.000 --> 00:06:59.000 and he says it's acceptable to God. 00:06:59.000 --> 00:07:02.000 Now, instantly this makes us think of Old Testament imagery, 00:07:02.000 --> 00:07:06.000 of Leviticus, of the priestly sacrificial system. 00:07:06.000 --> 00:07:09.000 I think we can make sense of understanding this 00:07:09.000 --> 00:07:11.000 by looking at what Paul says next. 00:07:11.000 --> 00:07:14.000 He says here, this is your spiritual worship. 00:07:14.000 --> 00:07:17.000 And I think that's a fine translation. 00:07:17.000 --> 00:07:20.000 But it's interesting to note that the word Paul uses for worship 00:07:20.000 --> 00:07:23.000 is the noun Latrea. 00:07:23.000 --> 00:07:27.000 And there's another more general word that the New Testament uses for worship. 00:07:27.000 --> 00:07:32.000 This word seems to have more precisely a sense of priestly service. 00:07:32.000 --> 00:07:36.000 This kind of cultic ritualistic imagery. 00:07:36.000 --> 00:07:40.000 So what Paul is saying is, you know, present your body as a living sacrifice. 00:07:40.000 --> 00:07:43.000 This is your Latrea. This is your priestly service. 00:07:43.000 --> 00:07:47.000 In other words, what the priests once did in the temple, 00:07:47.000 --> 00:07:49.000 putting the head on the hand of the animal, 00:07:49.000 --> 00:07:51.000 offering up of its life and so on, 00:07:51.000 --> 00:07:54.000 Paul's applying this concept of ritualistic sacrifice 00:07:54.000 --> 00:07:59.000 as a metaphor for the daily Christian living. 00:07:59.000 --> 00:08:03.000 Each day there is to be a giving up of ourselves to God. 00:08:03.000 --> 00:08:07.000 Each day there is to be a recognition that we are not truly our own. 00:08:07.000 --> 00:08:12.000 That, Paul says, is your true spiritual worship. 00:08:12.000 --> 00:08:15.000 You might have heard of the New City Catechism. 00:08:15.000 --> 00:08:19.000 It's taken the old concept of teaching through a question and answer model 00:08:19.000 --> 00:08:21.000 and it's supplying it with contemporary language. 00:08:21.000 --> 00:08:22.000 I think it's great. 00:08:22.000 --> 00:08:28.000 And question one says, what is our only hope in life and death? 00:08:28.000 --> 00:08:30.000 It's that we're not our own. 00:08:30.000 --> 00:08:33.000 We are not our own, but we belong body and soul, 00:08:33.000 --> 00:08:38.000 both in life and in death, to God and to our Savior Jesus Christ. 00:08:38.000 --> 00:08:40.000 So that's our first point. 00:08:40.000 --> 00:08:43.000 A true life of worship is about offering God your whole being. 00:08:43.000 --> 00:08:46.000 Not just your emotions, not just your mind, 00:08:46.000 --> 00:08:50.000 not just your soul, but your body, the things you do with your life. 00:08:50.000 --> 00:08:53.000 Everything that makes us us. 00:08:53.000 --> 00:08:55.000 It means that you worship in your work, 00:08:55.000 --> 00:08:57.000 you worship in your family, in your relationships, 00:08:57.000 --> 00:09:00.000 everything you do, Monday to Saturday. 00:09:00.000 --> 00:09:02.000 So the second question, how do we live that out? 00:09:02.000 --> 00:09:06.000 How do we go about offering ourselves up to God? 00:09:06.000 --> 00:09:11.000 Well, Paul follows this in verse two with two imperatives, two instructions. 00:09:11.000 --> 00:09:14.000 There's a negative and a positive. 00:09:14.000 --> 00:09:17.000 The negative don't be conformed to the pattern of the world 00:09:17.000 --> 00:09:23.000 and then the positive be transformed by the renewal of your mind. 00:09:23.000 --> 00:09:25.000 So don't be conformed to the pattern of the world. 00:09:25.000 --> 00:09:30.000 In other words, don't let the world squeeze you into its mold. 00:09:30.000 --> 00:09:34.000 Think about some of the things that drive our culture, that drive our world. 00:09:34.000 --> 00:09:36.000 Consumerism. 00:09:36.000 --> 00:09:41.000 The desire for success and advancement at all costs. 00:09:41.000 --> 00:09:43.000 The kind of pleasure principle. 00:09:43.000 --> 00:09:49.000 The desire for instant gratification wherever we can find it. 00:09:49.000 --> 00:09:53.000 And it never delivers. We know that. 00:09:53.000 --> 00:09:57.000 See, whatever we worship also becomes a source of identity for us. 00:09:57.000 --> 00:10:02.000 Whether that's money, career, sexual relationships, 00:10:02.000 --> 00:10:10.000 whatever it is we look to for fulfillment and affirmation becomes a source of identity. 00:10:10.000 --> 00:10:15.000 Now Paul is saying there's a danger that the mindset of the world gets caught up in our identity. 00:10:15.000 --> 00:10:19.000 That it influences the way we live in the world. 00:10:19.000 --> 00:10:23.000 We're very good at naturally compartmentalizing our lives. 00:10:23.000 --> 00:10:27.000 We're maybe quite happy to give God center stage on a Sunday, 00:10:27.000 --> 00:10:31.000 but the rest of the week belongs to us. 00:10:31.000 --> 00:10:34.000 Now Paul is not saying you need to withdraw from the world, 00:10:34.000 --> 00:10:37.000 but don't imitate it. Don't allow it to influence you. 00:10:37.000 --> 00:10:39.000 Don't let its thinking shape you. 00:10:39.000 --> 00:10:44.000 Don't give to other things what rightly belongs to God as the world does. 00:10:44.000 --> 00:10:46.000 So that's the negative. The positive. 00:10:46.000 --> 00:10:51.000 Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. 00:10:51.000 --> 00:10:53.000 The mind is really fascinating. 00:10:53.000 --> 00:10:56.000 There's so much in Scripture about the human mind. 00:10:56.000 --> 00:10:59.000 In Romans 1, when Paul is talking about human depravity, 00:10:59.000 --> 00:11:03.000 there's a clear focus on the mind. 00:11:03.000 --> 00:11:06.000 It's what people know cognitively to be true. 00:11:06.000 --> 00:11:09.000 They suppress that through their wickedness. 00:11:09.000 --> 00:11:13.000 Then on in chapter 7, there's this great battle in the mind. 00:11:13.000 --> 00:11:19.000 A desire to serve God, to worship God, and the desires of sin. 00:11:19.000 --> 00:11:23.000 In chapter 8, that battle continues. Paul writes in verse 5, 00:11:23.000 --> 00:11:27.000 those who live according to the flesh have their mindset on what the flesh desires. 00:11:27.000 --> 00:11:33.000 But those who live in accordance with the spirit have their mindset on what the spirit desires. 00:11:33.000 --> 00:11:36.000 The mind that is governed by flesh is death. 00:11:36.000 --> 00:11:40.000 But the mind governed by spirit is life and peace. 00:11:40.000 --> 00:11:43.000 The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God. 00:11:43.000 --> 00:11:48.000 It does not submit to his law, nor can it do so. 00:11:48.000 --> 00:11:53.000 And now here in chapter 12, Paul continues this imagery by setting up this great contrast. 00:11:53.000 --> 00:12:00.000 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. 00:12:00.000 --> 00:12:06.000 Either you will worship the true God, or you will worship other things in his place. 00:12:06.000 --> 00:12:11.000 Now we depend on the power of the Holy Spirit for that transformation. 00:12:11.000 --> 00:12:16.000 To shape our minds, to transform us into true worshipers. 00:12:16.000 --> 00:12:20.000 Don't be conformed, Paul says, be transformed. 00:12:20.000 --> 00:12:24.000 How else do we worship God with our whole being? 00:12:24.000 --> 00:12:31.000 I want to take a step back and look at it as a life of worship that is rooted firmly in the Gospel. 00:12:31.000 --> 00:12:35.000 We don't look at these verses in isolation. 00:12:35.000 --> 00:12:38.000 What Paul says in verse 1 is really interesting. 00:12:38.000 --> 00:12:41.000 He says, therefore, by the mercies of God. 00:12:41.000 --> 00:12:44.000 Therefore is a really important word. 00:12:44.000 --> 00:12:49.000 These two verses, most scholars agree, act as a transition in Romans. 00:12:49.000 --> 00:12:53.000 In 1-11, Paul has laid out these great gospel truths. 00:12:53.000 --> 00:12:59.000 He's laid out this fulsome exposition of human salvation. 00:12:59.000 --> 00:13:10.000 He goes through the problems of sin, salvation through faith, freedom from sin, victory in Christ, sanctification, all these great doctrines. 00:13:10.000 --> 00:13:14.000 In chapter 10, he summarizes, if you declare with your mouth Jesus's Lord, 00:13:14.000 --> 00:13:19.000 and you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 00:13:19.000 --> 00:13:26.000 For it's with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it's with your mouth that you profess and are saved. 00:13:26.000 --> 00:13:32.000 Now he says in verse 1, therefore, by the mercies of God, by all that we've been talking about, 00:13:32.000 --> 00:13:37.000 we have this transition from the truth of the Gospel to the implications of the Gospel. 00:13:37.000 --> 00:13:41.000 It's like a shift from doctrine to ethics. 00:13:41.000 --> 00:13:43.000 And that happens quite a lot in the New Testament. 00:13:43.000 --> 00:13:45.000 It's a helpful way to read it. 00:13:45.000 --> 00:13:48.000 It's what some people call an indicative imperative. 00:13:48.000 --> 00:13:56.000 It's basically, this is how things are, this is what God has done, therefore, in light of that, this is how you should live. 00:13:56.000 --> 00:14:00.000 And that order is so important. 00:14:00.000 --> 00:14:05.000 What it means is that our worship is grounded in what God has done. 00:14:05.000 --> 00:14:09.000 It's not the case that you just need to worship God more so he will accept you. 00:14:09.000 --> 00:14:14.000 It's not the case that you guys aren't worshiping, so you need to worship. 00:14:14.000 --> 00:14:17.000 Paul is saying, think about all that God has done for you in Christ. 00:14:17.000 --> 00:14:24.000 Think about God's mercies and let that lead you to hold nothing back. 00:14:24.000 --> 00:14:29.000 The ultimate example of what we're thinking about has to be what Corey was speaking about this morning. 00:14:29.000 --> 00:14:31.000 Christ sacrificed for us. 00:14:31.000 --> 00:14:33.000 His sacrifice for you. 00:14:33.000 --> 00:14:36.000 His sacrifice for me. 00:14:36.000 --> 00:14:44.000 Jesus Christ's suffering on the cross mocked, beaten, humiliated, forsaken for us. 00:14:44.000 --> 00:14:50.000 It just encapsulates that whole idea of offering your body as a living sacrifice. 00:14:50.000 --> 00:14:57.000 The crux of that for Jesus was to literally put his body for us on the cross. 00:14:57.000 --> 00:15:05.000 Tim Keller at Gospel Coalition conference last week said that there's a principle at the very heart of this reality. 00:15:05.000 --> 00:15:08.000 It's my life for yours. 00:15:08.000 --> 00:15:15.000 Sin, he says, distorts things and makes us operate everything on the principle, your life for me. 00:15:15.000 --> 00:15:21.000 What can I gain from this person? What can I benefit? What can I take from this situation? 00:15:21.000 --> 00:15:24.000 But he says, Jesus Christ turns that upside down. 00:15:24.000 --> 00:15:27.000 He says, my life for you. 00:15:27.000 --> 00:15:30.000 I sacrifice for you. 00:15:30.000 --> 00:15:34.000 Every day, every hour, Keller says, we are faced with that choice. 00:15:34.000 --> 00:15:39.000 Which of those operating principles do we follow? 00:15:39.000 --> 00:15:43.000 So a true life of worship is grounded in the Gospel. 00:15:43.000 --> 00:15:49.000 Now briefly, life of worship means a life of transformation. 00:15:49.000 --> 00:15:56.000 So when Paul speaks about the renewal of your mind, he's talking about more than an intellectual ascent to some doctrine. 00:15:56.000 --> 00:16:02.000 He's talking about more than just some kind of understanding in your mind of something. 00:16:02.000 --> 00:16:06.000 And that's important. Doctrine is important. 00:16:06.000 --> 00:16:10.000 But we need to experience God's transformation. 00:16:10.000 --> 00:16:16.000 His power at working us through His Spirit to sanctify us, to change us. 00:16:16.000 --> 00:16:23.000 Jonathan Edwards, a great American preacher a few centuries back, used the illustration of the Christian being like the butterfly. 00:16:23.000 --> 00:16:25.000 You've probably heard it before. 00:16:25.000 --> 00:16:32.000 He said that a Christian whose lifestyle doesn't noticeably change, doesn't show any sign of transformation, 00:16:32.000 --> 00:16:38.000 is like a butterfly to crawl miserably along a branch as if it was still a caterpillar. 00:16:38.000 --> 00:16:41.000 It's absurd. It doesn't compute. 00:16:41.000 --> 00:16:44.000 A butterfly has gone through a radical transformation. 00:16:44.000 --> 00:16:52.000 So for it to come out of that cocoon and to continue acting and living and thinking as if it was still a caterpillar, is absurd. 00:16:52.000 --> 00:16:59.000 How much more absurd then, he says, is it for a Christian to follow Jesus Christ, to claim to know Him and love Him, 00:16:59.000 --> 00:17:06.000 but not show any sign of that in their Monday to Saturday life, to turn up at church for an hour, 00:17:06.000 --> 00:17:14.000 but to not display that transformation in the workplace, in their families, in their social settings. 00:17:14.000 --> 00:17:18.000 See, we undergo a lifelong process of transformation. 00:17:18.000 --> 00:17:24.000 The gospel changes the way we think, it changes the way we speak, the way we act. 00:17:24.000 --> 00:17:27.000 It changes the way we interact with our world. 00:17:27.000 --> 00:17:31.000 It changes fundamentally the way we value things. 00:17:31.000 --> 00:17:42.000 C.S. Lewis said that all of life's good pleasures, the good things we enjoy in life, should lead a Christian to worship, to adoration. 00:17:42.000 --> 00:17:54.000 He says that a beautiful view, delicious food, the arts, literature, a great piece of music, sport, all these things we enjoy with our mind must run back, 00:17:54.000 --> 00:17:58.000 he says, up the sunbeam to the sun. 00:17:58.000 --> 00:18:01.000 These things should lead us to worship. 00:18:01.000 --> 00:18:03.000 Now, one final question. 00:18:03.000 --> 00:18:05.000 What is life for? 00:18:05.000 --> 00:18:07.000 We're taking a big step back here. 00:18:07.000 --> 00:18:09.000 What is life for? 00:18:09.000 --> 00:18:14.000 If you were stopped on the street and you were asked, what are you living for? 00:18:14.000 --> 00:18:16.000 What is at the core of your existence? 00:18:16.000 --> 00:18:19.000 What would you say? 00:18:19.000 --> 00:18:25.000 It's a challenging question, and it's a question that consumes people. 00:18:25.000 --> 00:18:33.000 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a science fiction novel, they go and build a supercomputer specifically to answer this question. 00:18:33.000 --> 00:18:38.000 And it takes this computer seven and a half million years to come up with an answer. 00:18:38.000 --> 00:18:44.000 What is the ultimate answer to the question of life, the universe and everything else? 00:18:44.000 --> 00:18:46.000 42. 00:18:46.000 --> 00:18:48.000 It's underwhelming. 00:18:48.000 --> 00:18:51.000 It's completely meaningless. 00:18:51.000 --> 00:18:56.000 And for a lot of people out there, it might as well be their answer. 00:18:56.000 --> 00:18:57.000 What is the meaning of life? 00:18:57.000 --> 00:19:04.000 We go through the motions, we eat, we sleep, we work, we relax, we play, we die. 00:19:04.000 --> 00:19:07.000 Life can feel truly meaningless. 00:19:07.000 --> 00:19:13.000 And everyone at some level is deep down conscious of the need of a sense of purpose. 00:19:13.000 --> 00:19:21.000 We can't truly live as human beings without ascribing meaning to something outside ourselves. 00:19:21.000 --> 00:19:22.000 It's really interesting. 00:19:22.000 --> 00:19:25.000 One agnostic wrote on a blog, 00:19:25.000 --> 00:19:32.000 if all the significance of all great human achievements can be reduced to some neurons firing in my brain, 00:19:32.000 --> 00:19:36.000 then surely it's all destined to be extinguished at death. 00:19:36.000 --> 00:19:37.000 And it goes on to write, 00:19:37.000 --> 00:19:40.000 considering that the entire span of human existence on Earth 00:19:40.000 --> 00:19:45.000 wouldn't amount to a blip on the radar screen of a five billion year old universe. 00:19:45.000 --> 00:19:49.000 It seems silly to pretend like the 60 odd year life of some random organism 00:19:49.000 --> 00:19:52.000 and one of trillions of planets was anything special. 00:19:52.000 --> 00:19:57.000 By simply living my life, I felt like I was living a lie. 00:19:57.000 --> 00:20:00.000 I acknowledged the truth that life was meaningless. 00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:04.000 And yet, every day I would act as if my life had meaning. 00:20:04.000 --> 00:20:08.000 The hope and the love and the joy I experienced on a daily basis was something real, 00:20:08.000 --> 00:20:13.000 something more than chemicals firing in my brain. 00:20:13.000 --> 00:20:23.000 So the point here is, you can't get away from the fact that human beings have an inbuilt desire for meaning, for purpose. 00:20:23.000 --> 00:20:28.000 And understanding that you're created as a worshiper explains that. 00:20:28.000 --> 00:20:33.000 It gives you a real tangible purpose in life. 00:20:33.000 --> 00:20:36.000 So let's look at the answer to this question. 00:20:36.000 --> 00:20:40.000 What is the primary purpose of humanity? 00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:44.000 What are we here for? What are we all about? 00:20:44.000 --> 00:20:51.000 Our primary purpose is to glorify God and in doing so enjoy Him forever. 00:20:51.000 --> 00:20:54.000 To live a life of true worship of the one true God 00:20:54.000 --> 00:20:59.000 and to find ultimate fulfillment and satisfaction in Him. 00:20:59.000 --> 00:21:06.000 And as I've just put it, it is then that the door at which you've been knocking your whole life will be opened at last. 00:21:06.000 --> 00:21:12.000 So just to draw things together, all of life is worship of something. 00:21:12.000 --> 00:21:18.000 We worship God here on a Sunday, but you also worship Him in your work tomorrow. 00:21:18.000 --> 00:21:22.000 Worship Him as you study, as you learn things at university. 00:21:22.000 --> 00:21:26.000 Worship Him in your relationships. Worship Him with your family. 00:21:26.000 --> 00:21:29.000 Worship Him in the things you enjoy doing in life. 00:21:29.000 --> 00:21:32.000 Worship Him with your whole being. 00:21:32.000 --> 00:21:40.000 I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. 00:21:40.000 --> 00:21:43.000 This is your spiritual worship. 00:21:43.000 --> 00:21:46.000 Don't be conformed, be transformed. 00:21:46.000 --> 00:21:48.000 I'll finish with John Calvin. 00:21:48.000 --> 00:21:55.000 He says that the whole Christian life, the whole Christian worship can be summed up in a single statement. 00:21:55.000 --> 00:21:58.000 1 Corinthians 6, verse 19, 00:21:58.000 --> 00:22:05.000 You are not your own, for you were bought with a price, so glorify God in your body. 00:22:05.000 --> 00:22:29.000 May He help us, so to do. Amen.