Made to Worship // Worship Is More Than Music

The message we're gonna be in uh Romans chapter 12 and I was talking to my mom the other day.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

I don't get to see her as much because she lives in Southern California.

In fact, I want you guys to see a picture of my mom.

Thank you guys for clapping for my mom.

I'll let her know.

Um that's obviously before the the pre- that's pre-mustache era, Nay, right there.

And I was and she was telling me, she was doing the mom thing, she was telling me how proud she is of me and how much she loves me.

And I was thinking, how come she never talks about all the sacrifices she made for me?

Because if you're a mom, you know there's a lot of sacrifices.

I mean, uh, you know, for starters, the whole like pregnancy thing and like giving birth, I mean, that's really painful.

I mean, not that I've like experienced it, but I have heard.

When I was a toddler, my mom would tell me, she tells me she she's has told me that I was just a hyperactive child as a toddler.

She's like, I didn't need a gym membership.

You were my gym membership.

You know, she said she took me all these practices growing up over the years, and and she she won't even talk about the teenage years.

Um I think she's actually still recovering from the teenage years.

Um, she won't she won't share, she wouldn't talk about that a whole lot.

And um, moms just give up so much.

They sacrifice their body and their sleep and their energy and their time.

And my mom's probably made me a million different meals in my lifetime.

This is before DoorDash, of course.

And you think about like, why would a mom sacrifice so much for her kid, for a child, child?

Well, it's very simple.

It's because of how she views her child, how she viewed me.

And here's why I bring this up because we go to a text of scripture that shows a very simple but powerful truth is your view of God determines what you're willing to sacrifice for God.

Your view of God determines what you're willing to sacrifice for God.

Like some of us we think, we're like, man, I'm not really willing to like fully go all in for God.

I'm not uh really willing to be like fully committed to local church because I'm busy.

Because I got a lot of things going on.

We think, man, I just I don't have time to like read my Bible.

I just I have a lot of things going on.

In fact, for some people, it's like if I go to church like once a month, this is like a massive sacrifice for me.

Then there are other people that right now they have given their lives to make Jesus known in the places like the Middle East in Africa, where they literally could die for sharing their faith in those places, but they're willing to go.

What's the difference between these people and these people?

Here's the difference: how we view God.

And I want us to go to Romans chapter number 12, and we're gonna see this.

And if you're ready for it, would you say amen?

Because when we see God clearly, we view making sacrifices for him differently.

It says in Romans 12, verse number one, it says, Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view, in view of the mercies of God.

So what Paul's saying, he's like, before I tell you what I'm about to tell you, I want you to know this.

Before I tell you this, I want you to know this in view of something else.

I don't want you to know this in view of your church experiences in the past.

I don't want you to hear this in view of your disappointments in life.

Because haven't we all had disappointments in life?

I don't want you to hear this in view of the things that you're going through.

I want you to hear what I'm about to tell you in view of the mercy of God.

Now, what's the mercy of God?

Well, Paul had just spent the first 11 chapters of Romans talking about the mercies of God, talking about how even though we were sinners, which by the way, we're all sinners.

We've all messed up, that Jesus came and died on the cross for us.

Jesus didn't wait till we got ourselves together.

He loved us enough to die on the cross for us, and when we believe in him, we have eternal life.

He died for us, he loves us.

In Romans chapter 8, it says there's no condemnation for those of us that know Jesus, so we can live our lives free of guilt, free of shame, walking in the freedom that Christ promises.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

In view of these mercies, he says, I urge you.

Now the word urge has some weight to it.

Let's let's pretend that you saw one of your loved ones in the middle of the road and they were about to get hit by a car.

You wouldn't say, it would be a good idea if you kind of got out of the road a little bit.

You wouldn't say, ah, it's just a Prius.

It's not a big deal if it hits them.

No, what'd you do?

You would urge him, you think it's out the road.

Like, dude, what are you doing?

Get off your phone.

Move up, you're right.

You would you would urge, like, there would be some weight to it.

And this is what Paul says.

Paul Paul has some weight to this.

He's like, I want to urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice.

A living sacrifice.

Now, these people would be very familiar with animal sacrifices, very familiar with this.

And here's the reality of sacrifices: they die, they give up everything.

And what being a living sacrifice means is dying to yourself.

Paul isn't urging them to live a little better, Paul isn't urging them to sprinkle like a little Jesus in their life.

Paul is urging them to live their lives devoted fully to God.

Because this is your true worship.

So for me to devote my life fully to God, Paul says, this is what worship looks like.

The word worship in this context right here, this word worship means serve.

In some translations, it says, this is your reasonable service.

So for me to present my body as a living sacrifice, well, it just shows us something.

And this is actually the title of the message today.

It shows us that worship is more than a song.

Worship is more than a song.

Now, some of you are like, Pastor Nay, we talked last week about praise and worship, and we talked about praising, and we talked all about that.

And yes, that is worship.

But that's not only what worship is.

Worship is presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice before God.

Now, there um there's a challenge with this, number one.

There's a challenge with being a living sacrifice.

Here it is.

It's a living sacrifice.

It's constantly getting off of the altar.

See, we can have a holy moment.

I don't know if you've ever had these in your life.

Maybe you were at a teen camp, or maybe you were in a worship service like this, or maybe you heard some preaching or something, and in a holy moment you were like, Lord, I give you everything.

You can have it all.

You can have my tongue, you can have my eyes, you can have it all.

And then 10 minutes later, you're driving down the road and somebody cuts you off.

You're like, oh, who they think they are.

You have this moment where you're like, Lord, you could have it all.

Here it is.

And then Monday morning rolls around and you're like, oh my gosh, I don't want to have to go to work and see that annoying person again.

And then you see the annoying person and they give you the look or they say something to you.

And you're like, ugh.

Here's what I've learned when it comes to presenting your body a living sacrifice and surrendering to God is that surrendering to God is not just a moment in time, it is moments all of the time.

It's when you're in your car and somebody cuts you off.

It's when you're at home and that family member gets under your skin a little bit.

It's when somebody does you wrong and you have the opportunity to either forgive them or hold on to that hurt.

It's in the morning when you wake up and it's like, am I gonna wake up and spend time in the Word this morning?

Or am I gonna bust open the social media app and scroll?

30 minutes later, it's like, where did my time go?

Surrendering to God's not just a moment in time, it's moments all the time.

And here's what's easy for us to do.

What's easy for all of us to do in the room is to drift away from the Lord.

See, getting off of the altar usually isn't like a massive decision where we would say, like, hey, uh, you know, I'm where we're like, I'm no longer serving God, I'm done with Jesus, I'm done with the Bible.

Like, forget this.

Usually what it is, is it's just a slow drift in our life.

It's just a slow drift to saying, God's word was a priority in my life, not as much anymore.

Gathering with the church and worshiping God was a priority in my life, but now I'm really busy.

Serving God was something I was super passionate about.

Of course, I'm on a serve team, I'm showing up early for my volunteer huddle, I'm doing all this, and now I really need to sleep in.

And before we know it, we can drift into convenient Christianity.

And here's the reality convenient Christianity is easy, but being a living sacrifice costs you something.

See, you can be a convenient Christian and you can say, Man, I'm so thankful for God's love.

I'm so like thankful for this stuff.

And if somebody asks you, are you a Christian?

You're like, Yeah, I'm a Christian.

But living our life as a living sacrifice, this is costly.

This cost us something.

This is me having to commit to things that other people are committed to.

This is me having to say no to things that other people say yes to.

And we can even go to a place in our life where we drift to a place where for us to actually be a living sacrifice, we're like, there's no way I would do that.

That doesn't make sense.

Those Christians that do that, they're like the Navy SEAL super spiritual Christians.

I ain't like all that.

Like that, like that whole whole thing of like actually like serving on a serve team and like being here every week, like, I don't know about that.

And here's what's happened.

Here's why we're like this, because verse 2, because we've been conformed to the world.

This is what it says in Romans chapter 12, verse 2.

Romans 12:2

It says, Don't be conformed to this age.

See, the word conform literally means molded in shape.

To this age, it's talking about the world, so the values and the practices and the ways of this world.

So if I'm conformed to this world, then surrender makes no sense.

But if I'm transformed, then we have a different thought process.

It says here, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Now, the word transformed it comes from the word that we know of called metamorphosis.

Now, I don't know if you guys are like me, but when I hear metamorphosis, you know what I think about?

What do you guys think about butterflies?

Somebody said Power Rangers.

Butterflies.

See, so you have this caterpillar.

Oh, it's so cute, isn't it?

It's caterpillar.

How many think the caterpillar's cute?

Good, I'm oh, y'all are weird.

That's not cute.

You have a caterpillar, and the caterpillar goes from a caterpillar to a beautiful monarch butterfly.

So sweet.

It's a butterfly.

And there's a transformation process where it goes from here to here.

And this is what Paul says.

Paul says in our minds, in our thinking, there has to be a transformation process where we see things differently, where our thought processes are different, where our worldview is different than it once was.

And here's the reality that all of us have to just embrace is if you're a Jesus Father in the room, you will either be conformed or you will be transformed.

You will be conformed or you will be transformed.

See, when when we view the mercies of God and all that he's done for us and his grace, the natural thing would for us would be Lord, transform us.

But often we are conformed.

And for most of us, the number one thing that's conforming us is this.

It's basically like a full-time job.

Now here now here's the deal.

All of us on our phones, we have these things called algorithms.

Now, I'm curious, let's just for fun.

How many of you guys in the room?

You would say, I have Facebook.

I have Facebook.

A lot of you, if you're under 25 years old, you're like, I don't even know what Facebook is.

I don't check it.

How many would say, uh Nate, I have Instagram.

I have Instagram.

Okay.

Okay, how about this one?

Here's one.

Who's got Snapchat?

Snapchat?

Snapchat.

Okay, just a few.

You have Snapchat?

Okay, that's great.

Did not, did not expect that.

How many of you uh uh how many got YouTube?

You got YouTube?

YouTube, okay.

All of us are on YouTube now.

No, a lot of us we know how algorithms work, right?

Algorithms are able to pick up, they understand what you are looking at, what you're watching, and they just show more of that.

So, so if you're watching a video, you don't have to follow the account, but if you watch the entire video, the algorithm says, oh, they like that.

I'm gonna pop up and show them more of that.

And here's the here's the reality about algorithms is your algorithm doesn't ask you who you want to become, it shapes you based on what you repeatedly consume.

And all of our algorithms are different.

So my algorithm is different than Adalila's algorithm.

My algorithm's different than 6, 8, and 8's algorithm.

And and our algorithms are shaping us.

Here's what could happen.

Here's what could happen.

I can stand up here and I can preach a message about presenting your body as a living sacrifice before God.

I can do that.

But if your algorithms tell you all about, no, your life is your life, fulfill your dreams, do whatever you want to do.

Nobody can tell you what to do because it's your life.

Make money, do all this.

You're gonna hear a message from the Bible about presenting your body as a living sacrifice, and you're gonna say, that makes no sense.

So the algorithm has 49 hours of our time.

And a Sunday sermon has like 30 minutes of our time.

And here's what can happen is we can be conformed to this world and conform to our algorithm.

And I don't say that to knock anybody because I'm in the same world that you live in.

I'm on social media just like the rest of us are.

But what can happen is we can be conformed to our algorithm, to the ways of the world.

I was I was praying about this this past week, and I was saying, Lord, would you show me where I'm conformed to this age?

And uh the Holy Spirit spoke way too quickly and way too clearly to me.

I'm like, no, I'm Pastor Nate.

Like, ow, there's no place for me.

I'm not conformed to this age.

I'm fully transformed, y'all.

I'm a butterfly.

Holy Spirit's like, actually, you ain't a butterfly, bro.

You got a lot of caterpillar tendencies.

I said, Okay, well, spirit, like sh like, okay, you've spoken.

Like, what is it?

And the spirit spoke even quicker than I wanted to know.

He said, How you view success.

How I view success.

See, I had, let me back up.

24 hours earlier, I had been on the phone with a discouraged pastor, and I had said, success in life is doing the will of God and obeying him and following him.

That's all success is.

No matter what season of life you're in.

And the Holy Spirit said, You preach that, but you don't actually believe that.

Get out of my business, Holy Spirit.

I don't want you to be that honest with me.

See, I was raised um in a way where success means bigger, better, faster, all that stuff.

And what can happen to me, it's a it's it's a mindset I've been fighting for years.

It's a caterpillar mindset of thinking success is more about bigger, better, faster, you name it, than it is about simply being a faithful servant of God.

And I had to repent of that.

And I had to lay that down.

And I don't think that I'm the only one in the room that has a part, or maybe two parts, or maybe three parts, or maybe four, that is more conformed to this age than transformed by God.

Proverbs chapter 3, verse 5 says this.

Proverbs 3:5

It says, Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and don't rely on your own understanding.

In all your ways, know him, all your ways, and he'll make your paths straight.

You see, when I view God rightly in light of his mercies, it allows me to trust God.

Because if he gave his life for me, then obviously he cares enough about me that I can trust him.

Here's what a lot of us need to know in the room is that if you'll trust God and you'll follow God, he'll free you up from a bunch of junk in your life.

Some of us, we're so bitter, like we're so stinking bitter because somebody did us wrong and we've been hurt, and those are very real pains and very real difficulties.

But there's all these other effects in our life that we have because we're holding on to bitterness.

And if we would just trust God and learn to forgive, he could free us up from the issues that we're having, but we just have to lay this down.

Some of us in our life, we just have a hard time trusting God when it comes to alcohol.

We're like, oh, it's just a drink here, oh, it's just a drink there.

But what's happened is it's starting to take over our lives.

God wants us to lay some things down.

For some of us, what it is, is it's our time.

Where it's like, God, like I'm supposed to look at everything I have as a steward.

I'm supposed to give you my time.

I need to like lay this down.

Yeah, because it's his.

There's something that um that I want to end with, and I learned this in therapy, actually.

It's a little visual illustration, is that all of us in our life we have some triggers that come from negative experiences.

Every one of us in this room, we we all have negative experiences, which causes us to have a uh a cognitive bias.

We we just put C B because we can't.

Cognitive bias was kind of kind of long to right there.

Cognitive bias, which is how we view things.

Which, how we view things.

Determines our tendencies in life.

Some of us have a tendency to never trust anybody.

Why?

Because of how we view things.

Why?

Because we've got a negative experience.

Some of us have a tendency in our life to always never fully trust God.

We like barter back and forth with God.

Why?

Because we have a worldview of God.

We have a view of God in a certain way that came from something that we've experienced.

So now in our life, we're like, I don't know if I can really trust you.

God, prove yourself to me before I'm actually going to do this.

And this is what happens.

This determines the trajectory of your life.

Like the trajectory of your life.

The trajectory of future generations, the trajectory of your family.

Because how you frame something determines how you view something.

How you frame it determines how you view it.

And this is what we need to do, family.

We need to learn to flip the frame.

To flip the frame.

To say, in view of the mercies of God, it makes sense for me to trust you, God.

And if I trust you, God, then I can lay this thing down over here.

If we can get the next slide up on the screen.

I can lay my Sunday mornings down.

And I can say, Lord, I'm going to like start like committing to follow you on and gathering with the church on Sundays.

This is a key part of our spiritual development.

It's key, guys.

This is this is what God calls us to do as His people to gather.

And it's going to form holy habits in our life that's going to change the trajectory of our lives.

Here's my question this morning.

What do you need to lay down?

What is it in your life that you're holding on to?

You know it.

What is it that you're like, ah man, but Nate, like I'm really uncomfortable right now.

Let's hurry up and end the sermon.

Here's the fact is that surrendering is always gonna cost you something, but holding on to it is gonna cost you more than you think.

So here's my question.

Would you lay it down?

Maybe would you lay down your sex life?

Would you lay down your treasure?

Would you lay it down?

Because here's what's gonna happen.

If you lay it down, you form holy habits, it's gonna change the trajectory of your life.

Let's all bow our heads and close our eyes.

Let's just have a holy moment here where we choose to lay some things down.