Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God-this is your true and proper worship.
The funny thing is, Paul doesn’t say, “Get together once a
week, have a band sing some songs that you can sing along to, and that is how
we should worship God.” He says, “offer yourself as living sacrifices.” When
they used to worship in the Old Testament, they used to kill animals on an
altar as a sacrifice to God. Paul says that is how he wants us to worship too - sacrificing
to God. But instead of an animal, he wants us to be that sacrifice. AND instead
of dying, he wants us to continue living as a sacrifice, giving our full
allegiance to God in everything we do, surrendering ourselves to God with
everything we have. Whether we are washing dishes, sweeping floors, or whatever
the task may be, we are truly worshipping because we are offering that moment
to God.
We should strive for excellence in worship. But excellence
in worship has nothing to do with the octave of your voice. It has to do with
your willingness to lay down yourself, to lay down your desires, your needs,
your wants at the foot of the cross in everything you do.
So when we get together and sing songs to God, what is
actually the really important part of our worship is not the notes you hit, but the
sincerity of our praise. A.W. Tozer once said, "Christians don't tell lies - they go to church and sing them." When we sing praise to God together as a body of Christ, let that not be said
of us. When you praise God, may you mean every word with all of your heart. And
even if you think you can’t hit one note of any song you sing, God will accept
your praise if you offer it in spirit and in truth.
