Our Bodies and Worship

Good morning, Watermark. Let us turn our Bible, or you may refer to your bulletins.

The passage for today is Romans chapter 12, verse 1 to 8. We will read about our bodies and worship.

Romans 12:1–8

Starting in verse 1,

I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God,

to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind,

that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

For by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think,

but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith God has assigned.

For as in one body, we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function.

So we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of one another.

Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them,

if prophecy in proportion to our faith,

if service in our serving,

the one who teaches in his teaching,

the one who exhorts in his exhortation,

the one who contributes in generosity,

the one who leads with zeal,

the one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness.

This is the word of God.

Great. Thank you, CK.

Good morning, everybody.

Great to see you.

Eric and Dora, great to see you guys.

Welcome back from L.A.

And if you are new to Watermark, my name is Kevin.

Great to have you with us this morning.

We've been away for the last two weeks,

so it's really great to be back with the Watermark family.

I don't know about you,

but I wonder, how good are you at handyman stuff?

My description of handyman stuff should give away that I'm not very good at it.

I'm what you could describe a handyman hack,

which means I don't really know what I'm doing,

but if something is wrong at home or something is broken,

rather than calling somebody,

trying to find the right person,

trying to find someone that speaks English,

and then waiting for them,

and then paying for them,

I'd rather just attempt it myself.

And so I have about four tools at home.

Most of them came with IKEA furniture.

And those four tools solve most of the problems in our home,

whether it's fixing a shower,

or stripping paint,

or painting something,

or fixing a hole in the door,

or sorting out the buzz in some appliance.

Those four tools will be hacked one way or another

to fix the problem, right?

And if those four tools don't do it,

a good just whack to the side will sort out whatever is wrong in the house.

Now you may say,

well, why don't you just go to a hardware store?

You know, one of those five element stores?

They have all the tools you need.

Well, the problem is,

if I went there,

I wouldn't even know what to do with those tools.

You could show me all the tools in the world,

and I wouldn't know what they are for,

or what their purpose is.

They all just look the same to me.

Knowing what something's purpose is

really helps to know what you should do with it, right?

If you are presented something,

and you have no idea what its purpose is,

chances are you're going to misuse it.

I wonder how many husbands,

and maybe a few ladies,

have caused far more problems than they needed,

not to mention far more injuries themselves,

by using some tool incorrectly.

using a spanner to try and fix something

that needs a hammer, right?

Just whack it and jam it,

and then you end up damaging yourself.

Mike and Greta,

why are you looking at yourselves like this?

It sounds like a familiar story in your household.

Well, here's the question.

What about our bodies?

What about our bodies?

What are our bodies used for?

What is the purpose of your body?

Why didn't God just make you a soul

in a box?

Why didn't God just make you

a brain or a mind in a laboratory?

God has made us embodied beings.

What is the purpose,

the goal,

His design for our bodies?

That's the question we're going to be

looking at a little bit this morning.

Why is it that we are physical beings

in physical bodies?

If you are new to church this morning,

I wonder if you've ever considered that.

What is the spiritual significance

of your physical body?

We live in a time

where we are very confused

about how to think about our bodies.

On the one hand,

we are enamored with our bodies.

We love to think about how we look.

On the other hand,

we're very confused.

But God is not confused.

God has lots to say

about our physical bodies.

And so,

today we're looking at the question,

what is the purpose of our bodies?

And we're going to be looking at

Romans chapter 12,

Romans 12 · chapter mention

this passage that CK read for us.

If you have your bulletin,

keep it open in front of you.

We're going to be looking at this passage.

And in this passage,

the Apostle Paul writes to these Christians,

and he gives us two purposes

for our physical bodies.

Two functions that God intends

should inform how we view our physicality.

And the two purposes of this,

our bodies and God,

and our bodies and others.

Okay, very simple.

Our bodies and God,

our bodies and one another.

So, let's dive in

and take a look at it.

Firstly,

our bodies and God.

Look at this verse with me again.

Look at verse one.

Paul writes this.

He says,

I appeal to you therefore,

brothers and sisters,

by the mercies of God,

to present your bodies,

your physical bodies,

as a living sacrifice,

holy and acceptable to God,

for this is your spiritual worship.

Okay, the Apostle Paul here

clearly wants,

spells out for us

how God wants us to think

and understand about His purpose,

His design for our physical bodies.

What purpose do they serve?

What are they to be used for?

Well, here he tells us.

Look at what he says.

He says they are to be seen

as instruments of worship.

Present your bodies

as a living sacrifice,

holy and pleasing to the Lord,

for this is true or spiritual worship.

Now, we know that in the Bible,

worship is the sincere giving of yourself

to God for His pleasure and His praise.

That's what worship is, right?

Worship is not just mouthing things

or singing some songs on the screen.

It's giving of yourself to God.

Saying, God, here I am.

I give myself to you.

But Paul here clearly has in mind

the Old Testament system of worship.

If you're familiar with the Old Testament,

every Jew or Israelite

had to regularly come before God

as a form of worship

and bring an offering,

a sacrifice.

And what they would do

is they'd bring an animal

to the priest,

to the temple,

they'd present it to the priest

and offer it as a sacrifice,

an offering of worship to God.

That's why he says,

present, same word,

present your bodies

as a sacrifice to God.

This is worship.

Now, in the Bible,

when people bring something to God

as an offering,

an act of worship,

Scripture's understanding is

that is always meant to be seen

as a representative

of the entirety of our lives.

When someone comes to God and says,

God, I give this to you,

that's not the totality of our worship.

That's just a representation.

So, for instance, right,

Claire spoke earlier

about our financial offering,

our worship to God,

our tithes and offerings.

When someone comes

and brings their tithe to God,

it's not saying,

okay, God, you get 10%

and the other 90% is mine.

I get to do what I want to do.

In a way, it's saying,

God, this is representing

the fact that all that I have,

all that I am,

belongs to you.

Or if someone gives their time to God,

you come to church

on a Sunday morning,

you say, okay, God,

I'll give you two hours

on a Sunday morning.

It's not that God gets two hours

and we get the other,

you know, 168 hours or something.

Actually, that's representative

of the fact that God,

all that I am,

all my time,

my Monday to Sunday,

whether I'm in the office

or at church or at home,

all of my time,

I belong to you.

And so when the Bible says here,

present your bodies to God

as an act of worship,

it's a representative of the fact

that all that we have,

the Christian knows

that our entire lives,

every aspect of our being,

mind, soul, body,

all of our lives,

belong to God.

Now, we know that God

is not just interested

in mechanical,

going through the motions worship,

right?

Where you kind of just

go through the motions,

you burn the incense,

you put it before God,

you just do what you need to do.

No, no,

we know that God

is interested in our hearts,

in our motives,

in what's really going on.

Remember,

Jesus meets a lady at a well

and he's talking to her

about worship

and he says,

the kind of worship

that our Father desires

is worship that is

in spirit and in truth.

In other words,

in sincerity and heart genuineness.

That's the kind of worship

that God wants,

right?

So God is interested

in our hearts

and our motives,

what's really going inside,

not just the motions.

But on the other hand,

there's the temptation

to swing to the other side

and create this false dichotomy

that God is only interested

in our hearts

and he doesn't care

what to do with our bodies.

But here,

Paul tells us

that actually the kind of worship

that God wants

is the entirety of our lives.

Yes,

our hearts,

our motives,

what's going on inside of us,

but also,

what to do with our bodies,

our physicality.

Paul says,

this is proper worship

or the ESV says,

spiritual worship.

The Greek word is logiken,

from which we get

the word logical.

He says,

this is logical worship,

this is reasonable,

this is rational worship

to bring our entire lives

and say,

God,

all that I am

is a declaration

of your kingship,

your majesty,

your worth.

Okay?

So Paul says,

what is God's plan

for our lives?

It's worship.

Our bodies are to be

given to God

as worship.

Except,

there's two differences

between the Old Testament

understanding of worship

and the New Testament

understanding.

Did you notice

what they are?

The first one here

is he says,

we are to offer us bodies

as living sacrifices.

In the Old Testament,

when you offer

a sacrifice to God,

you generally would

bring an animal,

maybe a goat

or a lamb or something,

and you come to the temple

to the priest,

and you say,

here is my offering.

And they would

slaughter,

kill the animal,

and they would put it

on the altar,

and they would burn it

as an offering

of a sacrifice,

right?

In other words,

it's a once-off,

done-and-dusted deal.

It's done,

and then you go home.

When God wants us

to bring our bodies,

we don't burn them

on the altar,

we don't kill ourselves.

He says here,

they are living sacrifices.

In other words,

it's not just

a once-off decision

when I was back

in college,

back in 1985,

I made a decision,

okay, God,

I'll become a Christian,

I'll follow you.

And then from there on out,

I live for myself.

No, it's a day-by-day

we are to live for God.

Present your bodies

as a living sacrifice,

week in and week out.

So,

whether you're at church

on a Sunday morning,

and you're worshiping God

and praising Him

and declaring His majesty

and His kingship,

or whether you are

at the office on Wednesday,

or whether you're

at the trading desk

on a Tuesday morning,

or whether you're at home

on a Friday evening,

or whether you are

out on a date

with somebody

or at the gym,

Christians think about

their bodies

as saying,

in all of life,

in every day,

every sphere of life,

God, I bring my body,

I offer it,

I present it to you,

be glorified and honored

in the way that I hand on

and steward my body.

Here I am.

All that I am

belongs to you.

All of my life,

heart, soul, mind,

body, will, emotions,

everything I am

belongs to you.

In other words,

Christians are those

who have decided

to live for God,

not just decided

to follow Him

once upon a time.

But here's the second

distinction.

In the Old Testament,

broadly speaking,

there were two kinds

of offerings

that people brought.

There were sin offerings

and free will offerings.

Typically,

when we think

of the Old Testament,

we think of sin offerings,

right?

So, somebody comes

to the priest

and they say,

okay, I'll bring

a lamb or a goat

or a bull or something

and offer it

on the altar

to atone for my sins,

to make right

for my many transgressions.

The other kind

of offering

is a free will offering

where somebody

comes to God

and says,

God, out of gratitude

for who you are,

I bring this

as an offering

of praise to you.

Now,

when Paul

is talking here

and says,

in view of God's mercy,

offer your bodies

as a living sacrifice

to God,

what is he thinking about?

He's not thinking

about a sin offering.

How do we know that?

Well,

a couple of reasons.

One is this.

Paul's writing this

in Romans chapter 12,

Romans 12 · chapter mention

right?

In other words,

there are 11 chapters

of the book of Romans

before Paul writes this.

And he says here,

he says,

I appeal to you,

brothers and sisters,

by the mercies of God,

he says,

therefore,

offer your bodies

as living sacrifices.

He connects

everything that he's written

with this injunction

to bring our bodies

to God

as worship.

And the injunction

uses is therefore.

Okay?

He connects

everything he's been writing

and saying,

therefore,

in light of this,

present your bodies

to God

as worship

and to the praise

of his name.

If I say to you,

I've come down

with the flu,

therefore,

I won't be able

to meet you.

The second half

is obviously predicated

on the first half,

right?

Paul says here,

in view of God's mercies,

therefore,

offer your bodies

to God

as worship.

Now,

what is the first 11 chapters

of the book of Romans about?

Well,

if you're new to church,

if you don't know,

the book of Romans

is all about

how the Christian life

is grounded

in the radical,

extravagant,

undeserved,

unearned mercy

and kindness of God.

That though we deserve

God's judgment

and his wrath,

sinners though we are,

Jesus died on the cross

as a sin offering

in our place

to take upon himself

the sin that we have.

Jesus was punished for us

so that we can now

live for God

and know him

and be accepted by him.

So,

look at a couple of verses

in Romans.

Look at what Paul writes here.

This is chapter 5.

Isaiah 5 · chapter mention

He says,

while we were still weak,

in other words,

while we didn't have it all together,

at the right time,

Christ died for the ungodly.

That's me.

That's you.

That's us.

Jesus died for us

when we were sinners.

But God shows his love for us

that while we were still sinners,

Christ died for us.

While we were enemies of God,

we were reconciled,

brought back to God

by the death of his son Jesus.

Much more now

that we are reconciled,

let us live for him.

We shall be saved by his life.

In other words,

Jesus on the cross

allowed his body

to be broken,

ripped in two,

torn apart,

shamed,

beaten,

crushed,

mocked.

Jesus gave himself up

as the ultimate sin offering.

And now he says,

in light of that,

bring your bodies

and offer them to God,

not as a sin offering,

not to earn God's mercy

or his grace,

but as a free will offering,

saying,

God,

in light of all that you've done for me,

here I am,

have your way.

See,

amazing,

Jesus Christ

was the sin offering

that ends all sin offerings.

Jesus died in our place

and now God the Father

can look at you and I,

sin as though we are,

and say,

your sin has been paid for,

expiated,

atoned for,

it's done,

it's gone.

And now,

in light of that,

offer your bodies to God

in worship.

You see,

friends,

worship for the Christian

is never a means

to earn God's acceptance

or his love

or his forgiveness.

Never.

It's always done

in response

to what God has done.

Jesus died

to earn God's acceptance

for us

and now in response

that we say,

with all that I am,

I give myself to you.

Sam Albury says it like this,

we don't offer ourselves

to God

so that he might love us

or forgive us

or accept us.

We offer ourselves

to God

because he has loved us

and accepted us

and loved us.

friends,

Jesus died

the sin offering

to end all sin offerings.

Jesus never asks us

to come

and to worship him

and to sing praise to him

in order to earn his love

but in response.

So,

what is God's purpose

for our lives,

for our bodies,

for our souls,

for all that we are?

What is his purpose for us?

Worship,

to glorify him,

to live our lives

to the praise

of his great name.

Okay,

so what does that

actually mean?

How does that,

what do we do with that

this week?

Well,

give thought to your

physical body.

Think about how you

steward your body.

What does the way

that you handle

your physicality

say about who God is

or who you belong to?

So,

obviously this means

that we should

automatically challenge

patterns of sinful

behavior in our lives.

Obviously we don't

steward our bodies

towards sin.

But think more generally,

think about your eyes,

right?

Think about

what do you do

with your eyes?

What do you feast

your eyes upon?

What does that say

about what is

most important to you?

What do you look at?

Those Netflix shows

that you watch,

the websites

that you visit,

the way you view

people of the

opposite sex

and gender,

the amount of time

we are scrolling

on our phones

and social media.

How much of that

is done as an

act of worship?

How much of that

is done saying,

God be glorified

with what I do

with my eyes?

Well,

think about something

as simple as

when you're talking

with someone,

are you engaging

in eye contact?

Are you communicating,

you are really

important to me

and I value my time?

Why are you thinking

about all those

around you?

Well,

think about your ears.

What podcast

are you listening to?

What music

are you listening to?

Is it fueling

a passion

for the supremacy

of Christ

and to live

for Him?

Or is it

numbing you

to the wonder

of Jesus?

If all we listen

to a podcast

about how to

grow our portfolio

and make more money

and become more wealthy,

is that fueling

an idol in our lives?

Or is it fueling

a passion

for Christ?

Well,

think about your hands.

What do you do

with your hands?

Are your hands

instruments of

comfort and encouragement?

Or are they

instruments of

aggression

and anger?

Do you lift

your hands

to intimidate people,

a spouse or a child?

Do you lift

your hands

in anger?

Or do you lift

your hands

to comfort,

to encourage,

to show compassion,

to show sympathy?

Do you use

your hands

to touch people

inappropriately,

to seduce people,

to exploit people,

to take advantage

of them?

Do you use

your hands

to make people

feel safe

and secure?

Every part

of our body

is God,

how do we

use our

physical bodies?

I think Romans,

or think about

your mouth,

think about the

words that come

out of your mouth.

Do they encourage

and build people up?

Do they praise God

or do they bring

people down?

Do we engage

in gossip?

Do we speak

the truth?

Do we fetch

the truth

with how we speak?

I think Romans 12

is not specifically

talking about this,

but at the very least

we should think

about how do we

use our bodies

in sung worship

on a Sunday?

today?

I often think

about this,

you know,

I quite like

to watch sport

and when my

sports team

is doing well,

I demonstrate

it physically,

right?

That winning goal

in the 95th minute

of the World Cup,

come on,

yeah!

Let's do it,

right?

Okay,

only Claire

finds that funny,

right?

None of you do that,

okay,

only me,

only me,

that's fine.

When I watch sport,

it's very hard

for me to say,

nice goal,

chap,

good job,

well,

I'm scoring the goal,

right?

But sometimes

when we come to

church on Sunday,

how do we use

our bodies?

We say,

praise God,

praise God,

oh,

praise God,

but do we actually

engage our bodies

in our worship?

We are embodied

beings.

You don't have

to do this,

but one of the

things I like to do

is I like to raise

my hands

as a way of saying,

yes,

I believe this,

this is true.

When I say,

God,

you're glorious,

I'm saying,

God,

this is true,

yes,

come on.

Well,

sometimes I'll

just stand like this

and say,

God,

I need you.

Lord,

I come before you

with nothing in my hands.

Lord,

I need you.

Well,

sometimes even

to maybe get on our knees

and say,

Father,

I have nothing.

God,

I bow before you

and surrender.

God,

you have my,

Jesus,

you are my king.

God,

come and have your way.

You see,

the Psalms tell us

often to worship God

with our entire being,

to clap in his presence,

to kneel down before him,

to raise our hands.

The Psalms tell us

with all that we have,

not just the words

of our mouth,

but with our entire being,

heart,

soul,

mind,

body strength,

say,

God,

all that I am

is given to you

as a declaration

of your majesty

and your kingship

and your worst.

I appeal to you,

therefore,

brothers and sisters,

in view of

Jesus'

mercy,

in view of what

Christ has done

on the cross,

in view of the fact

that Jesus died

and was broken

and beaten

and said,

you can know God.

Bring your whole selves,

your body,

your mind,

your soul,

your strength,

your will,

your emotions,

bring your self

and offer it to God

as a living sacrifice.

This is spiritual worship.

You see how radically

different this is?

You see,

most religions,

in the ancient world,

certainly,

but even in modern culture,

most religious traditions,

worship is something

that you just give

to the gods

to appease the gods,

to curry their favor

so that you can get

their blessings

so that you can go on

with your life

doing what you really

want to do, right?

So you will burn

some incense sticks

and just put them

at the shrine

or you'll put some fruit

in front of the shrine

and you'll offer

something to God

and then He will bless you

in return

and you can go on

with your life.

But what Jesus says here

is all of the world

is mine.

It all belongs to me.

And if you're going

to follow me,

says Jesus,

you need to bring

your entire life,

mind, body, soul,

will, strength,

all that you are,

everything,

bring it to me.

And this is a radically

new way of thinking.

Now the question is this,

how,

before we get to our

second point,

how should we respond

to that?

How should,

how are you going

to respond to that?

You see,

you could go home

and say,

well that was quite interesting.

No,

I hadn't thought

of that before.

And then just go on

with your life,

right?

Tomorrow you go

to the office

and you completely

forget about it.

You could go home

and say,

well that wasn't

very interesting,

what a waste

of a Sunday morning.

But at least I've

done church

for one more week,

okay,

now I can really

get on to what

I want to do.

Maybe you're here

and you're not

a Christian.

And so maybe

you go home

and you think,

wow,

that's quite interesting.

I've never heard

of the idea

that Jesus wants

me to follow him

with everything

that I am,

to lay down

my life with.

That's pretty new,

I need to think

about that some more.

Okay,

that's a better

response.

But here's what

the Bible wants us

to see.

Christians believe

that God's word

is true

and because it's

true,

it's always

liberating.

It's freeing.

It's often

challenging,

but it's freeing,

it's liberating.

But here's the thing,

it's only liberating

to the degree

to which you engage

with it

or respond to it

or accept it,

receive it,

right?

In other words,

if you go home

and say,

oh,

that was interesting

and then ignore it,

it has zero impact

on your life,

zero bearing

on your life.

But if you will say,

okay,

God wants me

to give everything

that I have to him,

to follow him

with all that I am,

do you know

what you'll find?

You'll find

it'll start to change you.

It'll start to change you

and transform you.

It'll change the way

you live.

And that's what

verse 2 says

in our Bible.

Look at verse 2

with me.

This is a tricky passage,

a tricky verse,

but he says this,

do not be conformed

to the ways

of this world,

but be transformed

by the renewal

of your mind.

Okay,

that's an interesting phrase.

That by testing

or learning

or examining,

you may discern

what is the will of God,

what is his good,

acceptable,

and perfect will.

Okay,

so this is a difficult verse,

but essentially Paul says this,

the word of God,

the gospel

of the Lord Jesus Christ

reframes the way

we think about life

and the way

we approach life,

right?

We used to live

for ourselves

and Jesus says,

I am God,

now you live for me.

We used to live

according to the values

and the principles

of our culture

and Jesus says,

no,

no,

I am God,

now I live

according to my values,

my principles.

Jesus Christ

used to be an accessory

to our lives,

something we just,

you know,

honored a little bit

on Sundays

and then got on

with our lives.

Now Jesus says,

I want to be

the center of your lives.

So Jesus makes

a radical claim

on our lives,

right?

And Paul says

that when you

accept his claim,

when you receive him,

what he calls

a renewal of your mind

or a renewal

of your thinking,

when you accept this

and receive it

and respond to it

and believe it

and trust him

and take him

as word,

what does he say

will happen?

He will transform

your life.

He has to,

right?

He'll change

the way you live.

The word transformation

there is the word

metamorphoster,

something like that.

Metamorphoster,

okay?

It's where we get

the English word

metamorphosis.

You know,

metamorphosis is

a radical change

like a silkworm

changes into a butterfly.

It's a metamorphosis.

It's a radical change.

God says here

that when you

take his word

and you say,

okay,

you God,

Jesus,

our king

and Lord,

I will follow you

with all that I have.

When you change

your thinking

and accept that,

he will transform

your life.

And then what happens?

What will happen?

The more you do that,

the more you learn

to understand

and know

God's will

for your life

and to walk

according to it.

So I don't know

if you're someone

that often wonders,

what is God's will

for my life?

What is God's will?

What is his will?

What does he want me to do?

Well, here the Bible says

the way to discover

God's will

is to shift your thinking

according to God's thinking.

To think God's thoughts

often.

When you start

to renew your mind

and renew your thinking

by accepting

what God's word says,

do you know what happens?

You discover

or here it says

you discern,

you learn

what God's will is,

you walk in that will

and you find

the liberating,

freeing power of God.

It'll change your life.

It'll change your life.

So,

what is Paul saying to us?

Our bodies

are gifts from God.

They are an integral part

of who you are.

And in light

of what Jesus did

on the cross,

giving up his body,

his body broken for you

that you might be saved,

now you bring

your entire life

into God

with all that I am

and all that I have,

I offer myself to you

to the praise

of your great name.

Does that make sense?

Okay.

Our bodies and God.

Secondly,

this will be very quick.

Our bodies and one another.

Look at what Paul says

in verses 4 to 8 here.

Here Paul says

that by virtue

of our union with Christ,

if you're a Christian,

you're united to Christ,

he says our lives

are not just individualistic,

it's not just me and Jesus,

actually our lives

also impact those around us.

And so look what he says

here in verse 4.

He says,

for as in one body,

he's talking about

a physical human body,

we have many members,

right?

You have an arm,

you have a nose,

you have an ear,

you have an appendix,

maybe not anymore,

but okay,

we have many members

in our bodies.

And the members

do not all have

the same function.

So,

we,

now he's talking about

the body of Christ,

though many

are one body

in Christ

and individually

members

one of another.

So he's comparing

the church family

to a human body.

He's saying,

your body's got

lots of body parts,

the church family's

lots of parts,

and we are all

distinct and different.

And then he says,

each one of us

are to use

our gifts

and our abilities

to serve

the wider body.

Look what he says,

verse six.

So,

having gifts

that differ

according to the grace

that's given to us,

let us use them.

If your gift

is prophecy,

prophesy in proportion

to your faith.

If your gift

is service,

in our serving.

If your gift

is teaching,

to the one who teaches.

If your gift

is the one

who exhorts

or encourages,

do that.

To the one

who contributes

and generosity,

do that.

To the one

who leads,

do it with passion.

The one

who does acts

of mercy

and kindness,

do it with cheerfulness.

What's his point here?

His point is,

you are not your own.

You belong to Christ,

yes,

but in a sense,

you also belong

to one another.

Now,

not in a weird

cultish way,

okay,

but in a way,

when you're saved

and united with Christ,

you're also part

of Christ's body,

and now we use

our physical bodies

to serve one another.

So,

my gifts

and my talents

are not given

to me alone,

they're given also

to the church family

to serve the family.

And your gifts

and your talents

and your abilities

aren't just given

to you alone,

they're given to you

to serve the person

across the aisle

or behind you

or in front of you.

So,

your body

is an instrument

of worship to God

but also an instrument

of service

to one another.

And you know

what happens

when you have an injury?

What happens

when you're injured,

right?

The other parts

of the body

have to compensate

for your injury,

right?

So,

you break your leg

and you're now in crutches

and now your arms

need to carry

the weight of your body,

right?

In a church family,

all of us

from time to time

are going to be injured.

All of us

are going to go

through suffering

and hardship,

difficulty,

right?

And so,

what do we do?

The body

comes around us

and compensates.

The body

strengthens one another

to help us

in our time

of weakness.

I think a great example

of this is Jack.

Where's Jack?

I saw Jack.

There you go.

There you go.

There you go.

There you go.

There you go.

There you go.

There you go.

So,

a few months ago,

Jack's playing badminton

and raptures his Achilles tendon,

right?

And a CG is there

with him.

Is that right?

I think they were with you?

Yeah?

Okay?

So,

the CG

gets him off to hospital.

I saw some photos

of Alfred

in the ambulance

with him,

making sure Jack

gets to hospital

and they make sure

he's all safe

and secure

and the doctors see him

and then a few days later,

there's his CG

at the hospital,

right?

And they bring him gifts

and food

and flowers

and then

for the next few months,

he's in a wheelchair

and it's really hard

to get to church.

So,

CG goes and meets him

and picks him up

and makes sure

that he gets to church here.

He has one part

of the body

helping another part

of the body

with their physical strength

in a very physical way.

Now,

maybe you say,

oh,

well,

I don't have much

to offer,

right?

I'm just like,

what can I do?

I'm very weak,

I'm very poor,

I'm sickly,

I'm old,

my body can't do anything.

I once heard a story

of an old lady

in her 80s

and she was housebound

in a wheelchair,

couldn't leave the house.

But she figured

the one thing I can do

is I can pick up the phone

and so every day

she decided

I'm going to phone

one person

in my church

and I'm just going

to talk to them.

I'm going to encourage them.

I'm going to listen to them.

I'm going to ask them

how they're doing.

I'm going to ask them

what their fears are.

I'm going to pray for them.

So here's a little old lady

in her 80s

sitting in some cottage

in a nursing home

and using her body

to serve and strengthen

the body of Christ.

Friends,

what's the point?

in view of God's mercy.

Jesus offering up

His body for us.

Now we get to offer up

our bodies

to Christ's offering

and to one another

in service.

So friends,

you are an embodied being.

You're not just a soul

in a box.

You're not just a mind

in a laboratory.

You're a human being,

an embodied being

made to know

and love

and serve

and worship

the creator God,

the sovereign God

of all creation

to be in relationship

with Him.

Not just with your heart

but with all that you are.

Mind,

soul,

body as well.

Let's do that now

as we come to Him

in prayer.

Let's pray together.

Father God,

we do want to do that.

We do, God,

want to bring

our entire bodies

before you.

We want to bring

our hands,

our mouths,

our eyes,

the words of our mouth,

God,

the meditation

of our hearts,

the actions

of our hands,

the things we look at

online,

the websites we visit,

the way we listen

to people.

God,

we want our

physical bodies

to be an act

of worship to you.

God,

I pray,

help us as a church

not just to worship you

in word,

not just to go

through the motions

but to bring

our entire lives

and say with all

that we are

and all that we have,

let them be an offering

that is pleasing,

holy,

acceptable to you.

This is our true

and logical,

our rational,

our reasonable worship.

God,

we pray,

Lord,

I pray for our youth,

God,

I pray for the teenagers,

those who are particularly

in a time that is so confusing

and where our culture

has so much to say

about our bodies.

God,

I pray

that our youth,

our teenagers,

God,

will more than anything

be radically secure

in who you say they are.

That they won't try

and find their identity

in what culture says

but they,

God,

even at a young age,

even in their teens

will say,

God,

with all that I am

and all that I have,

I give myself to you.

God,

I pray for all of us.

God,

I pray,

Lord,

for those of us

that are struggling

with our bodies.

Maybe we struggle

with physical health.

Maybe we struggle

with how we feel

about our bodies.

Maybe we struggle,

God,

with how we look.

God,

I pray that each one of us

in this room

will bring ourselves

before you

and offer ourselves

to you

and that our offering

will be pleasing

and delightful to you.

I pray this in your

great and glorious name.

Amen.