My first real job—if you don’t count a
few summer stints in food service—
was leading worship in a local church.
Perimeter Church needed a worship
leader, and I was naïve enough to think
that my brand-new music degree and
the four guitar chords I knew might
qualify me. I mean, I loved the Lord and
I knew music—I could play and sing.
Surely that was enough, right?
It took God no time at all to show me
how unprepared I was to truly worship
him, much less to help anyone else do
likewise.
Four months into the job, when Martin
became so ill, I struggled to stand
before a congregation of people singing
songs of praise to God. How in the
world could I lift my voice in joy when
our lives seemed to be falling apart?
How could I proclaim his faithfulness
when my own faith was taking such an
awful pounding?
During this season of personal
wrest lin g , m y w h o l e c o n c e p t of
worship began to change. I discovered
that God wasn’t offended if I couldn’t
“feel it” on a Sunday morning. Instead
of worship as a warm and fuzzy,
emotional experience, I began to see
it as a deeper, conscious choice to
praise my always-worthy God.
But getting there wasn’t easy.
I began to search the Scriptures for a
solid definition of worship, something
I could hang my hat on when my
feelings didn’t automatically inspire
me to praise. It was in the book of
Romans that I finally found the answer
I was looking for.
The first eleven chapters of Romans
contain what many theologians agree
is the most comprehensive exposition
of grace found anywhere in the Bible.
After these eleven chapters full of rich
truth, it’s as if Paul took a deep breath
and answered the obvious question
now hanging in the air: Considering
all that Christ has done for us—making
us right with God by his atoning death,
freeing us from the penalty and power
of sin, lavishing us with his grace—how
should we respond?
I wonder if his answer surprised them.
It surprised me.
“Therefore,” he wrote, “present your
bodies as a living sacrifice” (Rom.
12:1 ESV). In other words, “Surrender
your life, body and soul, to God. Give
yourself up!”
Paul’s readers would have understood
the concept of sacrifice. He wrote to
the first-century house churches in
Rome, made up of Jewish and Roman
converts to Christianity. Both groups
were familiar with the practice of
offering sacrifices in worship—Jewish
or pagan—and both would also be
reminded of Jesus’ sacrifice on their
behalf.
One key word in Paul’s instruction
showed me that he wasn’t talking
about a martyr’s sacrifice; that word is
living. He wasn’t suggesting followers
of Jesus should all die for their faith;
he was asking them all to live for it—
with lives of sacrifice that were holy
and acceptable to God. This kind of
surrendered life, he said, is our true
and proper response. Worship is a lived
experience.
Solutions • 35