Worship

Pentecost 25                            November 15, 2026
Romans 12:1-8                           Pastor Ryan Wolfe

The Only Right Way to Worship

The theme of our message this weekend is deliberately provocative. Asking nearly any group of Christians “What is the right way to worship?” is like pulling the pin on a grenade and then heaving it into the crowd. Since the 1970s, the Christian church in America has been particularly caught up in the question. So what is the right way to worship? You probably know the two sides already. Those we would call “high church,” with lots of ritual and repetition from week to week. They say “thanks be to God” after readings and stand for the Gospel. They’re sure the angels in the fields outside Bethlehem sang to the shepherds backed by a pipe organ and singing a hymn at least 500 years old. On the other side you have what we call “low church.” And they’re equally convinced that the right way to worship is a concert-style experience, with light shows and fog machines and charismatic preachers wearing button-down shirts and skinny jeans.

It’s a frustrating thing for pastors and church leaders. Because you want to know the dirty little secret the devil keeps hidden as Christians go to war for their preferred style? Both of these are the right way to worship. And neither is the right way to worship. God’s people have worshipped in an incredible variety of different ways throughout the years. Abraham built altars to God near giant trees and on mountaintops. Moses brought sacrifices to God in a moveable tent called the Tabernacle. Solomon built a temple in which every surface was covered in gold. The Jews of Jesus’ time gathered in synagogues heard the elders read from the Old Testament scrolls.

And which is the right kind? To paraphrase Paul: the kind that is done “in view of God’s mercy, offering our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This is our true and proper worship.” This weekly hour of gathering that we call worship isn’t really our true worship. This is an example of it, but true worship is what we do with every hour, in every place. True worship has to be done with our hearts. And it has to be done with our hands.

The first sentence of our text is the most important in this section. “Therefore…in view of God’s mercy…” It’s clear from the very beginning that every encouragement Paul makes here, every call to action and change, is based on what God has done for us. The word “therefore” is always important in the brook of Romans. It directs us to look at what has come before. Chapter 12 is the turning point of the whole book. In the first 11 chapters Paul laid out in perfect detail mankind’s sinful need, and God’s plan of grace to deliver us from that sin in our Savior Jesus. The awesome forgiveness won by Christ’s sacrifice. The promises that he watches over us in life and for eternity. The comforting truth that he chose to save us before we were even born – All of that is wrapped up in “therefore.”

And so, with that mercy of God in mind, Paul urges us to worship. Not the public worship that we come together for on Saturdays and Sundays, but the daily offering of ourselves that we do naturally as Christians. Remember how Old Testament believers worshipped God by bringing sacrifices to the temple? Animals died daily to remind them of their sin. Paul says that our worship is even more consuming. We offer our bodies as living sacrifices. Sacrifices that don’t involve an animal giving up its life, but with us submitting our lives to God.

It’s the most unnatural thing we’ll ever do. You see, we know what we want. We know what we want to do and think and say. And it’s not what God wants us to do. Our natural instinct is to have fun, get ahead, live while we’re alive. And yet we believers know that former way of living doesn’t really end in happiness. Sure, those who live the world’s way may be happy now. They may have everything we think we want. But the truth is that it won’t last. At the very most, they’ll enjoy peace on earth and an eternity of suffering.

And that makes submitting to God, offering ourselves, the most natural thing we can do. Not natural according to our sinful nature, but perfectly natural to the new selves God gives us by grace. Paul says here, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Fellow believers, this is the right way to worship. Offer yourselves to God by filling your hearts and your minds with things the world would not. God has renewed you already by the Spirit’s power and the gift of faith. Stop resisting him and worship God with a full and clean heart!

The fact is, whenever we look back at God’s mercy – his Son, his cross, his love – we find that God renews us again. That’s why it is important for us to not give up meeting together in public worship and in group Bible study. The gospel we see in public worship refreshes us for the daily worship we do the rest of the week. The real worship happens “out there” in what we do with our real lives. Here is where we find rest and renewal each week to keep worshiping the right way. So guitars or organs, robes or skinny jeans, if the gospel and Sacraments are taught and used there in truth, the church is doing it right. And when we see that gospel, Paul says then we can see what God’s will is. Then we recognize that will indeed as “good, pleasing, and perfect.” So worship God with a renewed heart and a renewed mind. Be transformed and let go of the world’s selfishness. Offer your heart and the rest will follow.

It’s what follows that Paul talks about in the second paragraph. There he says we not only worship with renewed minds and hearts, but we also worship God by faithfully using our gifts. Paul introduces this thought by picturing the church as a human body. “In Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us.”

Every person that walks through the door of our church is unique in some way. Everyone has some unique gift, given to them by God in grace. Every believer has a function that God has planned for them and them alone. We love to quote the beautiful gospel passages in Ephesians 2:8,9 – For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works so that no one can boast. But do you what the very next verse is? Those verses tell us who we are. The next tells us what we are to do. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Now think of that verse in the light of what we see today. You are a part of the body of Christ. You have a specific function that no other part in all of Christendom has. That makes you absolutely important in God’s eyes. It means that your role in his plan is critical, if not for you, then for someone else.

“Each member belongs to all the others,” Paul said. Your gifts don’t belong to you. You don’t belong to you. God brings his people together into this great Church of his, and he gives us to each other as gifts of grace. Your attendance here today? It’s not just for you. It’s for everyone else that is blessed to have someone here with them. Your time and talents and offerings, it’s not just to support the things that you like or help you – you have them to serve the rest.

Paul’s list of gifts here isn’t exhaustive. Prophesying, serving, teaching, encouraging, contributing to the needs of others, leading, showing mercy. These are not the kinds of gifts that only a select few have. Everyone in this room has some gift that you can use to glorify God. When we think of ourselves in view of God’s mercy, as blood-bought children of God, we can’t help but want to use our gifts to worship him.

The importance of Paul’s list isn’t the gifts themselves. It’s the attitude Paul says to have about them. Paul says, “contribute generously, lead diligently, show mercy cheerfully. When you hear these words do you think of someone who has to do something because they’re forced to? Or do you think of the person who is so excited to do something that they can’t wait to get out there? I can’t help but think of the children at chapel devotions. All I have to do is ask them what Jesus did for them and hands go flying into the air to tell me that Jesus died on the cross so that we can go to heaven. Those kids are excited about Jesus. They want to stand up and speak up.

We need that excitement for our worship services at Salem. Ushers, greeters, vestry, tech. These are important roles to share our faith.

In the last book of the Old Testament God issued a challenge to his people regarding worship. The people were skimping on their offerings and falling short in their worship. So God gives them this challenge, “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.” God’s challenge still applies to us. Let us offer our whole selves as living sacrifices and see how he blesses us. Let us worship him in spirit with our whole hearts and our whole lives and see if he doesn’t use our service to accomplish great things.

From the beginning of time, God had a plan of mercy that delivered us from sin and punishment before we were ever born. A plan to use us to share that message with the people of the world. May our worship bring others into this great body of Christ. May our worship not end when we walk out the church door, but continue every day. Transformed in heart and hands, may we rejoice in his name always. Amen.