Worshipping God is what we were made for. God created us to revere him and serve him. At the end of time, the glorious picture that John sees in Revelation has Jesus and God at the centre of the cosmos and us around the throne praising him. But worship starts now for anyone who is Christian. We do not wait in limbo for that end day, regardless of how imperfect our worship is now.
Worship is our topic for the next few weeks as we sit and listen to the Word of God from Romans 12-16. Paul begins this section by commanding his readers to present “their bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual act of worship”. We began to see last week that every day is to be given to God. We are to bring ourselves to his service, not something else like a goat or lamb. There is no one particular compartment of our life that is “worship”. How I run my business, how I treat my boss, how I behave on the sports field, whether I pay my taxes, how I welcome a new person at church, and using my gifts to build up my brother or sister in Christ- it’s all included!
My earnest prayer is that you will be better equipped to do this after today. Church is a training ground, a mission home base (it is more than this I realise!). We get our bearings, we get fed and watered, we fill our backpacks with medical supplies, and fill our magazines with ammunition, to take into a broken and sinful world. Today, rather than thinking “I’m coming to church to worship”, rather think “I’m leaving church to worship” and see what difference it makes. As the Anglican communion service reads- “Go in peace, to love and serve (or worship), the Lord”.

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