0:00 [Music] Romans is, as I've often said, one book that explains the gospel starting with 0:18 ABC, starting from scratch. And essentially the message of the gospel concludes in chapter 8. chapter 5, 6, 7, and 8. And then in chapter 12, he begins to talk 0:39 about what our response should be when we receive and accept such a gospel. And when he says, "I urge you, brethren, 0:57 by the mercies of God," those mercies are what he's been explaining in the previous chapters. He speaks about presenting our body a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your 1:12 spiritual service of worship. So what does it mean to present our body as a living and holy sacrifice? In the Old 1:30 Testament there were many offerings mentioned in Leviticus. There was a sin offering and which is shed with blood. Then there were thanksgiving offerings where people could bring grains and offer 1:48 that. And then the very first offering mentioned in Leviticus is a burnt offering. And that corresponds to what we read here in Romans 12:1. It's the equivalent of the burnt 2:04 offering in Leviticus chapter 1. And that is an offering where you have to cut the animal into pieces and place every piece on the altar and then either burn it or a fire 2:23 from heaven would come and consume it. So folks in the Old Testament may have wondered, why do you have to cut it all up if it's all going to be burnt? You might as well. Isn't it a lot of labor? Might as well just put the whole 2:41 bulock there and burn it. But it's only when you come to Romans 12:1 that you understand why the Lord said in Leviticus 1 that you must cut each piece and put it on the altar. So if that is 2:59 the you know response that people were to show to God for his goodness to them and Romans 12 is the response to the gospel that's been described in the previous chapters. Then we see 3:19 that the burnt offering was an act of worship. And here in Romans 12:1 it says the worshiing in the spirit or spiritual service of worship or worship in the 3:38 spirit is done by presenting our body a living sac and holy sacrifice to God. So if you turn back for a moment to John chapter 4, we read there that Jesus spoke about 3:57 worshiping in spirit and in truth. The way the Lord discerns what to say to people, I find is so different from the 4:16 way we think. We use our reason so much when we try to speak to people, but Jesus was in touch with the Holy Spirit all the time. And and he because he was touched in 4:35 with his spirit, he knew what to say to each person who came to him for any counsel or advice or anything. And when you see the contrast in John chapter 3 with John chapter 4:53 4, John chapter 3 is the Lord speaking to Nicodemus, the great teacher. You could call him a professor of theology among the Jews. And to him, he teaches the ABC of the Christian life. He must be born 5:12 again. This is to the professor. But John chapter 4, you come to a a sinner who probably knows nothing about the law or anything. A woman of I mean a Jewish woman that known something. But a Samaritan woman would know almost 5:30 nothing cuz they were not so religious as the Jews. And not only she knew nothing, but she had divorced five times and was now sleeping around with a man who was not her husband. uh an utter sinner. I don't know if 5:49 there's anyone in the gospels that you read who is so deeply in sin as this woman. And it is to her one would think that is this the one who should hear about being born again. But the Lord, as I said, the Lord listens to this holy spirit and he 6:09 speaks whatever is prompted by the spirit for each person that come came across him. I mean, if you reuse reason, she needs to hear about being born again. But he doesn't talk to her about being born again. He speaks to her about 6:24 being of worship. He says in verse 23 to the woman of Samaria, "An hour is coming." And we know that that hour is after the day of Pentecost. He's telling him telling her about what's going to happen after the day of Pentecost. 6:41 Imagine saying telling that to a woman who's in such sin when the true worshippers was will worship the father in spirit and in truth. For such people the father seeks to be his worshippers. Worshiing in the 7:04 spirit. Now when we studied spirit, soul and body, we saw that man is three parts and spirit is the deepest part which nobody in the Old Testament knew anything about it. They only knew 7:23 about soul and body. So worship in the Old Testament was only soul and body. In the psalms you see about music, singing, emotions that is also part of the soul and body raising the hands and all 7:40 types of things which is okay. But the father is looking for something more than that. For people who will worship in spirit and truth means reality. So he's talking here about penetrating soul and spirit and he's talking that to 7:59 this Samaritan woman and he says this amazing statement God is a spirit and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. I don't think she understood very much about all that but anyway it's written here in this 8:15 chapter for us to understand and the phrase which has challenged me very many times is that God is eagerly seeking the father last part 8:34 of verse 23 the father is eagerly seeking for such worship worshippers. Now, what do you do when you hear that God is eagerly seeking for something? You say, "Lord, I want to be one of 8:52 those." And whenever I read this, I'm reminded of uh the sacrifices people will make in order to please someone whom they want to please. If you really believe that God is in heaven, seeking. One would 9:15 think God doesn't need anything. Why does he seek for anything? He's got millions of angels worshiping him all the time, 24 hours a day. And yet leaving aside all that to realize that here on 9:34 earth, God is looking around the earth for those who will worship him in spirit and in truth among his people. So I see when I hear that and I think about that, every time I think about that, I say, "Lord, I want to satisfy your heart. 9:54 I want to respond to you by gratifying your desires. That which you're seeking for. Let me be one of those who fulfills your desire, who satisfies you by being one of those who worships in spirit and in truth. So if you have read that passage, 10:17 I'm sure all of you have read John chapter 4. Let me ask you whether you ever sought to find out what is it to worship in spirit and in truth. You know we know body, soul and 10:35 spirit. And I said how in the old testament the worship is only in body and in emotion and mind which is soul. What does it mean to worship in the spirit? That is where the veil is rented. That's the inside part is representing the 10:51 spirit, the most holy place. That's where God dwells to worship there. And that's where I connected it with Romans 12:1. Look at Romans 12:1. It says there, I want to read it 11:11 like this. uh present your body a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God which is your worship in the spirit and in truth. Spiritual service of worship 11:32 or worship in the spirit. So this is what it means to worship in the spirit. It's not a emotional feeling that is soul. It's not intellectual saying nice words to the Lord, Lord, you're worthy 11:52 and so many wonderful words we can say that is still in the mind, the intellect and the soul. To really worship in the spirit, I have to present my body as a living and holy sacrifice. 12:11 So then we go back to the burnt offering in the Old Testament where you had to cut up each piece and put it on the altar. That means I have to cut my body in pieces symbolically. And then we realize worshiping the spirit is not such an 12:29 easy thing. It is to say to him, Lord, I take my eyes, cut it out, and put it on the altar. I to offer it up to God 12:48 means God, I want to I want to offer my eyes to you that I'll never look at anything you don't want me to look at. That's offering it to God. or read anything that you don't want me to read. I'm not we don't have to be fanatical here that you don't read the 13:07 news or any such thing. But you know, anything that's contrary to the spirit of purity there is in God. Lord, I put my eyes there. You know, it's when you say present your body, it's very easy to say, Lord, here's my body. I take take it. But cut 13:22 it up into pieces like the Old Testament burnt offering. And then you'll realize you haven't really given your body. When I say take my body, we think we have given our body to him. But when you cut it up piece by piece, you realize it's 13:35 not so easy to give your body to God. And take my tongue, Lord. I don't want to ever say anything that'll displease you. It's yours from now onwards. Or take my hands. I don't want to do anything with my hands that will 13:49 or write anything that will dishonor you or displease you. take my legs and don't let me ever go anywhere where you don't want me to go and many parts I mean you can go deep and say take my belly and I don't want to become a glutton 14:07 and make food my god I want to present every part of my body to you as an act of worship and that's I mean it's easy to just say it now but I would encourage You when you go 14:24 home to meditate on that to think seriously uh one by one of each part of your body that in the past you have used for sin and now you the your your body is 14:42 now cleansed in the blood of Christ and it's belongs to God and your body's become now the temple of the Holy Spirit who dwells in you and now it's we have to offer that body every part of it to the 14:59 Lord for him not just for purity but also for service Lord I'm willing to go anywhere you tell me to go with my feet because you're not my legs are not going to take me where I want to go you one is one is a negative 15:18 side that I don't give it to sinful pleasure But there's a positive side to it also that I want to use my legs to take me where you want me to go to serve you. I want use my tongue to use it for uh you know the negative is I don't use 15:36 it for sin or evil. But the positive is I want to use it to worship you and to speak words to people to whom I should be your witness. My tongue is not my own. If you tell me to witness to somebody, I must use my tongue. It's not 15:48 mine. If it were mine, I could say, "Well, I don't want to do that." But if it's given to God, it's a very solemn thing to give my tongue to God and say, "Lord, you'll tell me to talk to somebody." And I can't say no. I can't say, "Oh, what will the 16:03 consequences be?" If I'm, for example, to take a stand in my office for something which is righteous, and I may end up losing my job because I stood up for something righteous, well, my tongue is God. I'm going to use it. I got to speak out and 16:21 stand up for what is right. If I lose my job, so be it. God will provide me with something better. And frankly, when you work in secular offices where there's a lot of unrighteousness that goes 16:37 on, it's very easy for us to sort of flow with the tide instead of taking a stand against it. because taking a stand against it can you know cause you problems with your job. I found this repeatedly when I was in the 16:56 Navy where I'd be asked to do something which is against my conscience and I say Lord I can't do that. I can't use my hand to sign something which is wrong. My hand I've given my hand to the Lord. It's an act of worship. 17:15 and and I found again and again it looked as if I'd got into serious trouble but the Lord delivered me and such experiences are very precious and if I had not taken a stand I would have missed those experiences which strengthened me later 17:34 on to know that God would stand by me through thick and thin. So whenever you have an opportunity to stand up for the Lord and speak out and say my tongue I've offered my tongue to God. I'm ready to speak up for what is right and uh refuse to sign 17:48 anything that's wrong. Um you if you if you miss such opportunities, you miss an opportunity to know God in a deeper way, which is the reason why many people never have a 18:06 ministry cuz God first sees whether a person is faithful in the little things and different situations he puts them in. Has he really presented his body to me? Are his hands mine? Are his tongue mine? Will he use it for me? He sees 18:23 that. It's amazing how he'll back you up. And uh you know many people say there's no opportunity for me to witness or no opportunity for there are people in different places who are sort of lonely. They're all alone in some place 18:39 and they say what to do brother there's nobody here. I'll tell you this. I'll tell such people that if you allow God to use your body and you're faithful in in your place of work, you'll be amazed to see how God will bring people to you 18:54 one by one by one. This is what we found in Bangalore in the beginning. And he started two people. And we said, Lord, we're going to be faithful to you. Whatever people may say, we don't want to be ashamed of you. We'll be bold for 19:07 you. And one by one by one, people came. And that's how a living church was built there. From there it went to other places. So present our body and for men our eyes are very important 19:23 to control our eyes because men sin with their eyes more than perhaps any other part of their body. And God is I'm trying to think why God 19:40 has made sexual desires such a strong passion in man. And I say that is to prove whether a man will worship sex or worship Jesus Christ. whether he 19:59 will I I look at this in the Old Testament when it says about they worshiped idols and then they worshiped in high places. I don't know what those high places meant but I think it was some type of sexual worship. There's a lot of that in 20:19 Hinduism where women are in the temples offering sex to the priests and all that. And I equate the high places with sexual forms of worship cuz man is drawn to that and they'll give money. 20:36 It's like it's like going to a prostitute, you know, place to satisfy one sex. and to offer that which uh offer it to God and say Lord I will not worship in the high 20:55 places. I will not offer my eyes for sexual sin. I will worship with my eyes. I will present your body a living and holy sacrifice. The word sacrifice itself means there's a self-denial involved there. 21:15 There's no sacrifice without self-denial. The person who brought a a bulock, imagine how a bulock costs, how much it costs to come and offer that as a sacrifice to God. Every offering in the Old Testament was costly. Even the 21:30 poor people had to bring some bird or something, something according to their means, but it had to be something that cost them something. There was no worship in the Old Testament that was cheap. Even the poorest people had to 21:45 bring something. And then we compare that with what we call worship today. It could be very cheap, you know, just come together Sunday morning, sing a few songs and have a nice time and go away. It's the Old Testament people sacrifice 22:04 more in their worship than the average Christian does today. So when we see that worship in the spirit, God seeks for worshippers in the spirit. And the importance of that is you remember when the devil came to 22:24 Jesus, the last of the three temptations was fall down and worship me. The devil has longed for worship from the beginning before he became the devil itself. He became the devil by wanting worship. That's why he says, "I want to be like 22:42 God." Why did he want to be like God? He was already on the head of all the angels. As you read in Ezekiel 28, the two passages, Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28. If you don't, if you haven't read it, you must read those two chapters, Isaiah 22:58 14 and Ezekiel 28, which shows the origin of sin in the universe where the head of the angels became the devil by wanting. Even though he's head of everything and all the beauty, intelligence, wisdom, everything, there was one thing he 23:13 didn't have. He didn't have people worshiping him. All the angels were all worshiping God and he was to lead the angels in the worship of God. That's what he didn't want. He said, "I want to be up there so that people worship 23:29 me." And you find that tendency [Music] in all human beings really to draw attention to myself. I mean you see that in little children as they grow up to draw attention to oneself to draw attention away from others to oneself. 23:44 You find that in churches when people sing they want to be appreciated for their singing singing songs to the Lord. They want to be appreciated themselves or when people preach they want to be appreciated for the powerful sermon they preach. They're 23:59 not really preaching unto the Lord. They're not singing unto the Lord. There's so much of this trying to draw attention to oneself. That is the worship of self. So to worship God in the spirit is one of the most supreme things and the Lord 24:15 finally told he was when Jesus was tempted Satan said fall down and worship me even to Jesus. It's what he wanted from the beginning cuz he saw Jesus father, son, and holy spirit done. I want to get there. Okay. Now Christ has 24:29 come to earth. Let me get him to worship me now. Jesus said no. You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve. Meaning that you cannot serve God before you learn to worship him. First worship then serve. And I would say the vast 24:48 majority of people I know, preachers and others are serving God without worshiping him. And that's why their service is so shallow. And that's why God doesn't back up their ministry. That's why God doesn't back up what they 25:04 speak because they are not worshippers. So all of you who ever get a chance to speak for the Lord in this church or anywhere, I would urge you my dear brothers, seek to be a worshshiper first because the order is thou shalt so the 25:23 Jesus told the devil, thou shalt worship and then thou shalt serve. Matthew 4:10. That's the order. And very few people follow that. I I know when I understood that nobody taught me. I understood just as I read 25:40 the scripture and I said Lord from that time onwards I wanted to be a worshipper first. I said service is secondary for me. It doesn't matter if I don't serve but I want to worship. A lot of believers are eager to do something for 25:54 the Lord. They want to serve. They want to serve. So I say you don't get so many opportunities. Maybe you don't have the gift of preaching but nothing is stopping you from being a worshipper. Why not have a covetousness to worship 26:07 instead of a covetousness to be a preacher? And if you have a desire to worship, may God may one day give you the gift of preaching as well. For me, it was like that. I I said, "Lord, I want to learn to worship." And I don't care. I remember 26:25 once saying when I lying in the bed, I said, "Lord, you can take away every paralyzed me that I never preach again for the rest of my life." Even though I have a great love to share God's word if I I lie down here and worship you to the 26:38 end of my life. I'll be perfectly happy. I will have no complaint because that's what I'm going to do for eternity. I'm not going to be preaching in heaven. If there's one job, the one task that I can begin on earth which I'm 26:55 going to continue for all eternity is worshiping God. So I want to urge all of you my brothers if you see Romans 12 as the conclusion of here is this wonderful gospel therefore what shall we 27:10 do Romans 12:1 therefore let's worship that is the response to the wonderful gospel that where our sin was forgiven and we are justified the blood of Christ and learn to overcome sin Romans 6:14 and the Holy Spirit has come in 27:29 cries out above father. What's the response to this wonderful gospel that saved us from the pit of hell and made us children of God? Be a worshipper. So I hope you'll never forget this because in the Christian world the emphasis is always on service. 27:47 Do something for the Lord man. do something, do something, do something which is go and serve and give some money or whereas in Romans 12 it says in view of all the mercies of God what shall we do? We shall worship and that is by presenting my 28:06 body as a living sacrifice to God. And if you go to the Old Testament and see the first time that the word worship comes in the Old Testament, that's one of the things I sometimes study. Where is the first time a word comes in the Old 28:26 Bible? And the first time the word worship comes in the Bible is in Genesis and chapter 22 where when Abraham God had asked Abraham to offer up his 28:45 son as a sacrifice. See uh Genesis 22, take your son whom you love. Now what does why did Jesus the Lord emphasize whom you 29:02 love to emphasize that he was offering up the one whom he loved more than anything. He loved Isaac more than Sarah any day. He loved Isaac more than all his money and all his everything. Isaac was the love of his life. And he 29:21 says, Isaac whom you love, go and offer him as a burnt offering. Again, that word burnt offering, which we talked about, present your bodies as a living sacrifice, a burnt offering. That is an act of worship. And he understood that it was 29:37 not a sin offering. No, you can't offer your son as a sin offering. It was a burnt offering, an act of worship. And uh that's why when he finally reached the mountain and uh he told the young man in 29:57 verse 5, Genesis 22:5, you stay here and I and the lad will go over there and I will offer him as a burnt offering. That's what he says means worship. He uses that word there. So he connected burnt offering with worship. 30:16 So worship is the first time the word worship comes in the Bible and it's very significant that it comes in uh the place where a man is asked to give up that which is most precious to him and our body is very precious to 30:37 us and it cost him a tremendous lot to put Isaac on the altar. It wasn't easy. And when we go peace by piece through our body, it's not easy to offer that up to God. So worship was a very costly thing for Abraham and it will be a 30:51 costly thing for us if we recognize that it's presenting our body that makes us worshippers. Otherwise, we're not worshippers. And the devil has, you know, everything the devil's got a substitute, a counterfeit. And all the thing that 31:07 charismatics and Pentecostals and everybody else calls worship is not worship at all. It is all emotional excitement and musical instruments to stir people's emotions and and people come away saying, "Oh, we had a wonderful time." What? You had a 31:21 wonderful time. You had a stirring of the emotions. They can go out from there and commit sin so easily. I had a friend of mine in from Canada who once told me that in Canada when 31:39 he some of the other people whom he knew in the world, he he said some of those people said that the best girls to date are Pentecostal girls 31:56 because They give you such freedom to touch their body and do all types of things. And where where does you know every girl has got a natural reserve that God has given for the normal 32:15 average normal girl has got a reserve. You don't have to be a Christian. I see that in the Hindu girls in India. They're not Christians. There's a natural reserve about them. In the villages you go, every woman covers her head. It's not because they 32:30 are Christians. It's just a a way of modesty. They cover their heads. Every they they would never come without their covering head talking to a man. And girls are there's a natural reserve God has given to girls and that's broken 32:46 down when by this Pentecostal time of stirring emotions and excitement. And this actually said he says I find Pentecostal girls are the easiest ones. they allow you such freedom with their bodies. I never forget that statement 33:00 which I said the reason is this breaking down of emotions. Now if that girl really worshiped God, she'd be much holier at the end of the worship and would never dream of going anywhere near a man. But that natural reserve has been 33:15 so broken down. You they some Pentecostal meeting they roll on the ground and do all types of things. It's when a person really comes to understand worship, they become holy. So worship is to offer that which is most 33:34 costly. It we had to pay a price. As I said, if you were to offer a bulock as a burnt offering, it'd really take quite a sizable amount from your bank account. And if you had to do that every now and then, can you imagine how expensive 33:48 worship was in the Old Testament? It was nothing like just coming to Sunday morning and singing a few songs and going home and saying I had a good time. That was not the type of burnt offering worship the Israelites had. So we ask 34:00 need to ask ourselves is our worship a costly thing? We are in the new covenant. Is the new covenant cheaper than the old covenant or are we fooling ourselves present your body. For Abraham he would have given anything in the 34:14 world except Isaac. He was asked to offer the most costly thing as a burnt offering and he called that worship. And when he did it, you see the Lord was so excited about it. God is, you know, we relate to 34:33 this what relate this to what the Lord told the Samaritan woman. God is eagerly seeking for those who will worship in spirit and in truth. Abraham never wrote read those words. That's what Jesus said to Samaritan woman. But he had that 34:49 spirit here. He worshiped God in spirit and in truth. He did not know about spirit, soul, and body and all that. But in offering his son, he was offering God worship in the spirit and in truth. And when God saw that, he was so 35:07 delighted that he said verse 12, "Now I know that you fear God." The fear of the Lord is the ABC of wisdom. And if I'm not mistaken, this is the first time the word fear of God also comes in the Old 35:25 Testament. First time fear of God comes in the Bible. It's connected with worship. So this is how I prove my reverence for God or a fear of God by presenting my body and saying Lord it's yours every 35:41 part of me and I don't really fear God if I have not presented my body and God says now I know that you fear God. I mean God looks at everybody's heart and doesn't he know what's in Abraham's heart without any external 36:00 action but he makes Abraham do it to actually go through the you know we can offer so many things in our mind it's not much of a sacrifice but we are to actually give something practically which is involves a a 36:19 sacrifice terrific sacrifice for uh Abraham, God said, "Now I know you fear me." So the fear of God and worship, these two important words that we speak about so much in in our Christian life, they're all connected with presenting to God that which is 36:38 really costs us something. Like David said, I will not offer to the Lord my God that which costs me nothing. I hope you all know that well-known verse 2 Samuel 24:24. I will not offer to God that which costs me nothing. That was 36:58 Abraham's attitude. And that is where the true church is also built as you see in 2 Chronicles. 2 Chronicles and chapter 37:28 3, David, no Solomon 2 Chronicles 3:1, Solomon began to build the house of the Lord. These Old Testament things are all pictures of New Testament realities. The house of the Lord is the church. and he began to build it. He built it on 37:47 Mount Moriah. Mount Moriah is where Abraham offered up his son. So way back then when Abraham offered up his son, God sanctified that spot saying this is the place where one day the temple is to be built and where people will come and worship 38:07 me. So spiritually speaking, what is the meaning of that? that it is where I have given the my very best to God and as an act of worship that's where I can build his church and the ones whom God uses God wants to use all of us to build his 38:27 church but uh he can use you only if you have learned to worship in spirit and in truth presenting your body as a living sacrifice and it's also it's also specified as the place where 38:44 David prepared an altar on the threshing floor 2 Chronicles 3:1 of Oran the Jebusite and that is described if you don't know it in 2 Samuel 24 where David also said similar words like 39:04 Abraham in the threshing floor of Arona the Jebusite The Lord told an angel came to David and said to him in 2 Chronicles 24:15, "Go and uh offer your offering in 39:22 the threshing floor of a round of the Jebite." And he went there to verse 18, the prophet said, "Go and erect an altar in the threshing floor of Arana Jebite." And he went there and when Arana offered everything freely to 39:41 David, David said I will not accept everything free. You know how great tendency we have to accept anything that is given freely. But he Rona said you can have the oxen freely, you can have the wood freely, you can have everything 39:55 freely, you can have this property also freely. David said no. Why? Verse 24. I will pay for it because I will not offer to burnt offerings to the Lord which cost me nothing. A burnt offering which cost me nothing. Like I said, a lot of our 40:13 worship meetings can cost us nothing. That's not a burnt offering. I will not offer to the Lord my God burnt offerings which cost me nothing. day the Lord took note of that and told Solomon in 2 Chronicles 3:1 that's the place where 40:29 you must build the temple same place where Abraham also said I won't offer sheep I'll offer my son that which cost me something so you apply all this to what we read in Romans 12:1 when we reading I beseech you brethren present 40:42 your bodies a living sacrifice which is your real worship in the spirit And when we think that we cannot serve without worshiping shall thou should you know what the lord told 41:00 the devil thou shalt worship the lord thy god and thou shalt serve him that order must be there and it's not just that I've done I've done worshiping now the rest of time I serve I believe it's a constant thing so for myself I have looked at it like this 41:19 that every My day must begin with worship. Then I read the Bible and see how I can serve. So worship is to present my body right from the very beginning of the 41:39 day. Say, "Father, I my body is yours today. My eyes, my mind, my hands, my everything. I don't it's yours. I don't want to use it for myself. I to go to my place of work. I want to use everything for your glory. I will 41:58 not write anything false. I will not speak anything evil. I will not look at anything evil because these my body is yours. I want to be a worshipper today. I prepare myself for that. In in the beginning it can be something that 42:12 we can forget to do. Sometimes it doesn't matter. And you keep trying trying trying and one day it'll become a regular feature of your daily morning that as soon as you I always say before you get out of bed worship God and then get out of 42:27 bed. Present your body and say this day my body is going to be yours. And if you seek to live like that you may forget sometime during the day but gradually it'll become you'll become familiar with it. It's like a child 42:42 learning the ABC in the kindergarten. He doesn't learn it the first day, but over a period of time, you can rattle off A to Zed or Zed to Z so easily. So, it's like that everything that begins as a practice gradually it becomes part of my 43:01 nature. So it's a very good habit to develop to think of Abraham the way he offered his son and how the Lord said I will turn back there for a moment to see what the Lord how the Lord responded to that offering of 43:20 worship. I told you that that's where the church is built. The house of God was built there. Genesis chapter 22. And the Lord was so delighted with him that he said, "Now I know that you fear God." Doesn't God know when we fear him? Doesn't he know 43:40 in our heart whether we fear him or not? But he waits for that external surrender of that which is most precious to us. Then he says, "Now you're a worshiper. Now I know you. Hear me." And listen to 43:57 this. Um, because you have done this, the Lord says in verse 16, I swear, declares the Lord, because you have done this thing, you have not withheld your only son from 44:15 me because you have made this sacrifice. apply to yourself because you have made the sacrifice of your eyes to me and your hand to me and your tongue to me that it'll only serve me and you've offered it on the altar. I will bless 44:37 you and your seed will o overcome their enemies. I will greatly multiply your seed. That means there'll be a tremendous blessing in our life and in our ministry if we have first learned. That is verse 17 of 44:56 Genesis 22. There'll be no limit. It's almost saying there'll be no limit to how much I'm going to bless you Abraham. And we see that today. You know, we're living 45:12 now 4,000 years after Abraham. and see how God has blessed [Music] him. I mean, the children of Israel came back to the land of Israel only because God had promised it to Abraham long ago. 45:30 He said, "I'll give it to you." And even if they wander around the earth for hundreds and hundreds of years, God says, "It's going to come back to you." It has come back almost miraculously and it will remain with them till Jesus comes. It's just because 45:47 of this man. He says because you have done this your children verse 17 last part will always defeat their enemies and all the nations of the earth verse 18 will be blessed through your children in your seed. And Galatians 46:05 says that refers to Christ in your seed. All the nations of the earth will be blessed because you obeyed my voice. So you see all that significance in what it means to worship in spirit. And when we see it coming up in Romans 46:22 12:1 as the only adequate response we can make if we have actually heard and received the gospel. That is your worship in the spirit. That is what the Lord told the 46:44 woman of Samaria. God is eager in looking for those who will worship in the spirit. So I think of I often connect this with David once saying, "Oh, I wish I could get a little water from the well of Bethlehem." I don't know you remember 47:01 that story. He was out in the wilderness before he became king wandering wandering wandering and he he grew up in Bethlehem. Now he said I wish I could get a little water from well Bethlehem and his soldiers were so loyal to him. Even though Saul soldiers 47:19 were there in Bethlehem they two or three of them took a risk and went there and while Saul's soldiers were sleeping they grabbed some water and brought it to David. at tremendous risk to their lives just because they heard him 47:34 saying, "I I eagerly desire some water." And I connect that with God saying, "I eagerly desire people to worship me in spirit and truth." My response must be just like those soldiers of David. And of course, 47:53 Dave wouldn't drink that water. He said, "How can I drink? This is the blood of these people." They took a risk and he poured it out. But I've never forgotten that story how loyal they were. They were willing to pay any price if their 48:06 master wanted this. Master David wanted something. Okay, we'll take a risk and get it for them. And I say Lord, am I going to be less than those people when you are eager to get worshippers and I'm not willing to give you that 48:19 worship? I say Lord, I want to say all of you to tell the Lord that from this day you want to be worshippers in spirit and in truth. Presenting your body as a living sacrifice and then presenting our mind as well. Romans 48:39 12:2 there it speaks about our mind being renewed. That's how we present our mind. Our body we present by saying I don't want to use my hand or eyes or anything outside of your will but I present my mind. Romans 12:2 says, "Don't be 48:58 conformed to this world in your mind, but be changed by the renewing of your mind, cuz then you will find out what is God's perfect will for your life." So many people are seeking God's perfect will for my life, for your life, for their 49:15 life. And I say, "Here's how you find it. Present your body completely to God. Say, Lord, I don't want to go anywhere. you don't want me to go. I don't want to do anything you don't want me to do. I don't want to take a job you don't want 49:29 me to take. It's yours. I will use this body only for your glory. Then present your mind. Let it be renewed. But to be renewed means to think like Jesus thinks. Then you will prove there again. It's not by a voice from heaven. Proving 49:49 the will of God means God will exercise your spirit. out of these four five options prove this is this is God's will you'll make that decision you will prove it yourself and you know that this is the good and acceptable and perfect will for 50:08 me I found that again and again and again how God shows if you're really eager to do God's will in the smallest little thing he'll guide you so clearly and that's the best life we can ever 50:25 where we seek to align our whole will, our whole life according to the will of God. You remember what I've often said is the autobiography of Jesus. John 6:38. I came from heaven not to do my own will but the will of my 50:44 father. That is the autobiography of Jesus life in one sentence. It's not I came from heaven to die on the cross. That is one small part of the will of the father. But the whole of it was I came from heaven to deny my will and to do the will of my father 51:00 from day one till the last day of his life. That's what he came from heaven for to do the will of my his father. So that is the perfect will of God. And that's why he could say at the end of his life I finished the work you gave me 51:15 to do. He couldn't stay for 34 years. 33 and a half. You finish God's will then you go. Paul finished God's will at the age of 67 and he went. Even though he started doing God's will only when he was around 30, he still finished it by the time he 51:32 was 67. So that assures us that even if we have lived a disobedient life or a wayward worldly life for many years, God still ignores all that. It says he overlooks the times of 51:49 ignorance. Acts 17 3031. He ignores that. And from the time that we've given our life to him and presented our body, we can do his will. And when we come to the end of our life, we'll be able to say, I've finished my course. 52:08 I've kept the faith. It's an amazing thing. No matter how much we have failed in our life, God will overlook the times of ignorance and help us to finish his plan for our life. And that plan is called here in verse two, last 52:26 part, the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. The perfect plan for our lives. There's absolutely nothing better than that. It's acceptable to God and it is 52:43 perfect. And that is how we complete our worship. First we present our body and then we allow our mind to be renewed from being. You see when we start off like it says in verse two, our mind is conformed to the 53:03 world. All our minds are conformed to the world. Our whole way of thinking is worldly is worldly in relation to money. It's worldly in relation to seeking honor from people. Is worldly in relation to my gain, my gain, my profit, 53:16 my gain, my profit. That's our whole way of thinking. And God changes that completely. That's the renewing of my mind where I'm not always thinking of what I'm going to get out of it. What's what am I going to profit from this or 53:31 what is the gain for me? But it it changes to think of what's God going to get out of this. That's the renewing of my mind. And thereby I prove the perfect will of 53:49 God. There is a perfect will of God for every one of our lives. And God's not going to force it on us. We have to seek it. We had to present our body and allow our mind to be renewed. See, part of the renewal of 54:08 that mind is by studying scripture because scripture reveals God's will. So, if I don't if I'm not consistent in meditating and trying to understand God's mind in the scripture, my mind will not be renewed. 54:26 People who are lazy to read the Bible, their mind will never be renewed. They may live decent lives or decent Christian lives. They'll never they'll never be able to finish God's will for their life. They'll live a good life and 54:42 you know flow along with the crowd. The crowd is sometimes going the wrong direction. You have to not to go with the crowd. And when we know God's perfect will, we'll have boldness to stand 55:02 against anything and everything. I remember in the early days when we started CFC in Bangalore way back in 75. You know, there was so much turnover. People didn't like what we were preaching. They' come, they get offended and go away and all that. I 55:18 remember Annie and I, we said, "Lord, even if everybody goes and it's just Annie and me, just two of us here, we will be true to you. We'll be a church, we and our children till you come." And sometimes it looked like that and everybody would the turnover 55:37 was so great. So many would come and go and come and go and come and go and come and go. But the Lord had many people whom he wanted to reach and he reached them. So I believe that God wants to use all of us to reach somebody. Don't let 55:55 your life be wasted. Say, "Lord, there's something you want me to do with my life. You want me to maybe God's not called you to start a new church or something. That's a special ministry God gives some people. but to do to be an 56:10 effective part in whatever church you're in but some positive contribution and maybe to bring somebody to the church whom God can use you to bring that way you build the 56:28 church otherwise you know we can have a laidback attitude like with many Christians are they are sort of laidback uh something happens it happens you say Lord I want to be available to you every 56:45 day I can't bring people to you but I'm available that's all you got to say and I say I'm shy that's what I said Lord I'm very shy I'm not an extrovert going out and slapping people on the back and say hi how are you I'm not that type at 57:01 all I'm very reserved and withdrawn and what shall I And don't think all those people who are extroverts and slap people on the back that they bring people to Christ. No, they could be very superficial. Whatever your personality 57:17 makes no difference. God created you with that personality. He can use that. But remember this that God has a purpose for you in the body of Christ and good and acceptable and perfect will of God. You must finish it before you leave the 57:34 earth. And thank God you know at least now never mind even if right up till today you were not gripped by it. At least be gripped by it today and Lord you got a plan for my life and I don't want to waste any more of my days. I'm available to you. I present my 57:51 body as a living sacrifice. I want my mind to be renewed and you will not be renewed if you don't read God's word to think like God thinks. You know for example to forgive everybody which I stress so much 58:07 nowadays that's to think like God thinks to be like God means you know I sometimes meditate on what is God doing in heaven in relation to people on the earth most of the time is forgiving people because all the time in some 58:24 corner of the earth some Christian is saying Lord I'm sorry please forgive me and God says forgiven next second to somebody else forgiven next second forgive forgiven Think of the number of people who are confessing to God and God 58:34 saying forgive him. Forgive him. It's almost so 24 hours he's saying forgiven. Forgive him. Forgive him. Forgive him. Forgive him. Forgive him. I say Lord make me like that. You want to be like God. That person, the other person, the 58:49 other person forgiven, forgiven, forgiven everyone. What a wonderful life to live a heart. You'll have peaceful sleep at night. You won't be lying down in bed thinking what shall I say to that fellow when I meet him next. Forgive 59:07 him. What a wonderful way to live. Present your body. Let your mind be renewed to think like God thinks. And then you will know God's perfect will. There is a good and acceptable and perfect will of God. 59:27 And my understanding is most Christians do not live in that. They want to go to heaven when they die. They're satisfied. They've accepted the Lord and they sit back say, "Okay, like you sit down in the bus and now the bus 59:45 is going to drive you up to heaven." But it's not like that. We supposed to every day of our life. Jesus would not waste one day of his life. every day of you know you've I' you've heard me use this example that would Jesus have would 1:00:06 there be anything wrong in the midst of his 3 and 1/2 years strenuous work there are times when he didn't have enough time to sleep it says or eat would there been anything wrong and Jesus said father I'd like to take a one 1:00:22 week holiday to Rome you know just to relax and see the place and he didn't even ask for it. Is there anything is there anything wrong in going and visiting a city or a country? Absolutely nothing wrong especially if you have children. I 1:00:40 remember children I want to see places and by all means take them. Of course Jesus didn't have children but he had no interest. My point is he did not have an interest in going anywhere outside the will of God. You say but don't you want to 1:00:53 relax? He'd say, "My relaxation is doing God's will." They asked him once, "Don't you want something to eat?" Eat. I've already eaten. My eating is to do God's will. Just now I spoke to the Samaritan woman. That was the will of God. I did 1:01:06 it and I ate. What was his Have you read that verse? Do you all know it? When they asked him, "Have you eaten, Lord?" And he said in John 4, "Yeah, my food is to do the will of him who sent me." that in that particular situation, 1:01:22 it was to help this poor Samaritan woman. The others had gone to the restaurant to eat. By the time they came back, he had finished talking to the Samaritan woman and brought his soul to Christ. He says, "That's my food. What a 1:01:35 will." I said, "Challenge me." I said, "Lord, I want to be like that. I want that to be my food. It doesn't mean bringing soul to Christ every day, but what is your will, Father? I want to do that all the time. That is my food, my 1:01:49 meat to do the will of him. Make that your passion. That your mind be renewed because then you'll be able to prove what is that perfect will of God. If you say, "Lord, I want my mind to be renewed to know your perfect will 1:02:07 for my life." He will help you to know that perfect will. It is from then that he goes on in the next few verses in Romans 12 to talk about building the 1:02:22 body. We are many members Romans 12:4 in one body. And we who are many verse 5 are one body. But these many must all go through verse one and two to be connected to the head. Otherwise it can't be one 1:02:41 body. And I say in most churches they don't have a clue about these things. Just go through Bible study of Romans chapter 12 and point by point by point and not understand what it all means because this is what leads to the 1:02:56 building the body in four. We are many members in one body but all these members must go through verse one two and three where it says don't think highly of yourself and then you exercise the gifts in verse six. you have different gifts 1:03:12 and exercise them. So this is a very precious passage and when I think of worship and service, thou shalt worship and thou shalt serve, the Lord said in Matthew 4:10. The thing is when we get up to heaven, I don't know what 1:03:32 type of service there may be some type of service we going to do even there. I don't know what it is. It certainly won't be preaching. Certainly won't be bringing sinners to Christ or building the body of Christ. That's all finished. 1:03:42 There will be some type of service that we'll do for all eternity. But I believe it'll always be preceded by worship. That's why in revelation you don't see much about any service they are doing for God. But there's many 1:03:55 preachers of worship. They're all worshiping the father, worshiping Jesus, thou art worthy. The worship is the primary characteristic of heaven where they present themselves to the Lord holy and adore him. And I'll close with 1:04:13 one reference to Isaiah chapter 6. In Isaiah in chapter 5, you you've heard me before. I mentioned this in a message once. Isaiah was a great prophet and one 1:04:33 function of the prophet was to condemn certain people exhort and those who are disobedient to God were to be condemned. And the way Isaiah condemned was for example Isaiah 5:8 by saying woe unto them. Woe unto them means a curse be 1:04:49 upon them who keep on buying property so that they don't give room to anybody else. And woe unto them, verse 11, 511, who are drunkards, always drinking, drinking, drinking. And like that number of woes 1:05:07 he pronounces in verse 20. Woe unto those who call evil good and good evil. That means they pursue after evil things and call it good. And the good things like worshiping God and all they say cast is evil. And verse 21, to to the 1:05:24 proud, woe to those who are proud, wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight. Verse 22, woe unto those drunkards again. And woe unto one after the other, he says, woe unto this and wo unto that and wo to that. And finally, it says 1:05:42 here one day in Isaiah 6, he saw the Lord sitting on a throne. And there he saw what the angels are doing. They were not preaching. They were 1:05:59 worshiping. The angel Saraphim had six wings and four of them he used to worship and two of them for service. The two he covered his face, two he covered his feet. That is worship. And with two he flew which is service. Thou shall worship and thou 1:06:15 shalt serve. So you see that the seraraphims are worshiping and serving. But twice the amount of service is worship. Out of the six wings, four were for worshiping and two were for serving. And then Isaiah realized in heaven 1:06:29 worship is the primary thing. Service is a secondary to that. And they are saying holy, holy, holy. And when he saw this, he says not woe is other people. Verse five, wo is me. 1:06:47 See how the woe changed from criticizing others to say, "Lord, I see my error. I'm not a worshipper. I'm just condemning this fellow for doing that and that fellow is not following the Lord here and this chap is not obeying 1:07:01 the Bible here and that person is not doing this right. Go on to them." What? You know we can have that attitude where we see our relatives and others who are not obeying scripture and we can find fault with so many people not doing the 1:07:11 right way or even in the church somebody's not bringing up their children the right way or something or the other wo onto this and onto that till a day comes we see the Lord and we say woe is me for I am undone I'm a man of unclean 1:07:27 lips I'm not as holy as I thought I was you just got to have a vision of heaven to get rid of all your conceited ideas of holiness that you think you have for my eyes have seen the king. And as soon as he came to that place of 1:07:44 brokenness where he said, "Woe is me." The fire of heaven, you know, we want to be baptized in the Holy Spirit and fire. Here is a Old Testament picture of the baptism of fire, which makes a man a prophetic preacher. The fire from heaven 1:08:01 came and touched his mouth. He said, "Your sin is forgiven." And he said, "Now go and preach. You've been baptized in fire. Now go and speak to this people." Verse 9, keep tell them this and tell them that. And so I see there that 1:08:18 worship led Isa Isaiah finally to service. So I pray these things will be true in our lives and it's not just a good Bible study we had but something that we can practically practice and experience in our 1:08:36 lives. Amen. [Music]
