We were looking at why and how to worship God in our service together yesterday. We worship God because we keep his mercy in view but what does it look like to worship God in church?
Looking at (12:3-8) it means humbly using your gifts, be it prophesying, serving, teaching, encouraging, giving, leading, showing mercy, and that is not meant to be an exhaustive list. Paul paints a picture of worship as active humble service of one another.
You may be sat there thinking I’d love to serve but there isn’t anywhere to get involved. Can I assure you this morning that there are loads. Speak to Someone here or in your church and serve. Maybe you aren’t sure where to serve just ask where there are needs.
Worship in the church is putting God’s word into action and serving others.
What does it look like to worship God in the workplace?
The Bible leaves us in no doubt that work is worship. But it also doesn’t duck the joys and struggles of work. We are made to work, it is how Adam and Eve worship God in Eden, but after the fall work becomes frustrating and it is still that way now. The Bible is realistic about your office situation, about how difficult your boss can be to work for, about the conflicts you face, about days when you just don’t want to drag yourself in.
But it also says you worship God through your work, be it as a mum changing the 5th nappy of the morning, as a cleaner, a teacher, a civil servant or a pastor. They are all the same there is no hierarchy of worship. The mum worships as she cares for her child, the cleaner worships God as they clean just as the pastor does as he prepares a talk.
The key to true worship at work is having a transformed mind.
I read this week that the average time spent productively working in an office environment was less than an hour a day. The rest was spent chatting, making coffees, rearranging desks, checking email, surfing the internet and taking breaks. How do I worship God at work? I don’t conform to the world but am transformed so that I work productively.
We avoid eye-service. A manager once walked up to an employee and said why aren’t you working, to which the employee said because I didn’t see you coming. The true worshipper will not be conformed so they work only when the boss is around but transformed.
There is a danger here and that is that work or career becomes what we worship. The Bible doesn’t call us to worship work, or to have unrealistic standards but to worship through our work.
Worshipping God at work affects our attitudes as employees to our employers and as those in positions of authority to those under our care. (Romans 12:12-21) outline love in action, Titus 2, Colossians 4, Ephesians 6 all call on us to worship God through our work relationships.
That means we don’t engage in the office snipping, no matter how much we’d love to chip in. It means that as a Christian boss we are known to be good to work for.
Worship is living to please God with a renewed mind seeking God’s will, it is all encompassing, though we have just thought about two areas. In short worship is living every moment for God’s glory as a response to grace.
Worship is not just an activity in our life it is the activity of our lives. Worship is the only right response to the grace of God in Christ.
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