Worship is a whole-being response to all of who God is and what He’s done for us, encompassing all of life, empowered by the Holy Spirit, offered through Jesus, in concert with all of God’s people (past, present, and around the world), using the gifts God has given us under the regulation of His Word and in response to His revelation which culminates in Christ and Him crucified, toward the goal that His kingdom would spread to the whole of creation.

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-- this is your spiritual act of worship.” (Romans 12:1)

I. The Mercies God Has Extended To Us Are Big Enough To Demand Your Whole Being In Response!

The mercies of God have broken in to deliver us from the old way of thinking and living! The reality of the mercies of God (Rom 1-11) should be brought to bear on everything we think and do. It should affect our regrets, our hopes, our sense of what is good and pleasing and whole, our understanding of family and our gifts and what we should do with our lives. It should, in fact, turn that little phrase “our lives” upside-down and thus, in reality, turn them right-side up!

There are basically only a couple ways to live. We can live in view of God’s mercies, we can live unsure of them, or we can live in outright rejection of them. The first is true freedom, the 2nd is conscious slavery and misery, while the 3rd is the delusion that we really are in control of our worlds – and this is the worst kind of slavery of all (though it is not often recognized as such.)

“I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercies…” It is not legalistic to urge people to do something and we must recognize God’s right to tell us how to live. But notice, that here (like in the rest of the Bible), we do not have a bare command, the urging is in view of God’s mercies (all of the rich truths of what God has done laid out in chapters 1-11), and the command is given to us as members of a new family. Paul is saying “Brothers and sisters, this is how we live in the family!” So, commands from God are appropriate, but they are never bare commands, they are given in the context of the mercies of God and our status as secure members of a new family!

“Offer your bodies as living sacrifices…” Christianity is not just about abstract ideas, though many have tried to reduce it to that. Paul would have startled his Greek readers by telling them that God wanted their bodies, which their culture regarded as unspiritual and bad. But Christianity is an embodied religion and thus it is not enough to think about Jesus – do God’s mercies affect how we live with our bodies?

Paul is not talking about offering ourselves as an offering to pay for our sin, Jesus has offered that sacrifice perfectly and finally, he is talking about offering ourselves as the thanksgiving whole burnt offering. This offering (as Tim Keller explains) was to be a valuable animal from your flock, with blemish, because such a sacrifice was expensive and showed that all you had was at God’s disposal – that you did not just give Him your leftovers! “To be ‘at God’s disposal’ means to be willing to obey God in anything He says in any area of life, and, to be willing to thank God for anything He sends in any area of life.” (Keller)

“For this is your spiritual act…” The word spiritual can also be translated “reasonable” or “logical” – in view of God’s mercies this is the only logical way to live – nothing else makes sense. When we view His mercies, we remember that not only do we owe God everything, but we can also trust Him even more than we can trust ourselves and thus living as He invites is for our own good! Thus we are invited to live in such a way that we would glorify Him and enjoy Him forever! But our temptation is to think that the only way to enjoy life is to live for ourselves.

“Of worship…” We need to recover the Biblical idea that worship is so much more than singing and prayer! The New Testament almost never uses the word worship that way. Worship is a total way of life!

II. Some Important Implications

Worship is about having our sanity restored – all we have is a gift of mercy!

Worship is about all of life lived “Coram Deo” (Before the gaze of God) – it is about connecting the dots.

When we are holding back we need to be reoriented toward the gospel again! We should always be asking for God to make Jesus more beautiful and believable to us.

True worship is empowered by the Spirit (John 4, and this is the point of the invocation)

Worship is made acceptable only through Christ (1Peter 2) and because of this we get freedom and access (Hebrews8-10).

III. A Beautiful Picture Of This: The Story of Mephibosheth in 2 Samuel 9

A. We See A Picture Of Who Gets Saved

He is the enemy and a threat to David’s kingdom. Mephibosheth’s name means “a shameful thing” and he is (3 times) identified as being from Saul’s house. He is from the family of the guy who tried to murder David – Saul. As a potential future rival to the throne by David, he should have been killed because when a new king took over he usually killed all the heirs of the former king.

He is a cripple, a helpless man, lame in both feet. He is crippled because he had to flee in terror when Saul and Jonathan were killed by the Philistines (2Sam 4:1-5). He is a victim of the sin of his grandfather – the fleeing, the fall, the permanent disability, the end of his future as the royal heir – all of this happened to him while he was still too young to even understand what happened.

He is a fugitive who had fled when David became king and has been in hiding ever since. He was “the only living heir of the once great House of Saul, but nobody knew it. Because his life would have been in danger if that information was revealed, he grew up with his royal identity suppressed, grew up with all the privileges of royalty denied him, and both conditions were aggravated by his lameness.” (Eugene Peterson)

He lives in “Lo-debar” which literally means “the place of no pasture.” What a description of where those outside of Christ live! (see Isaiah 57:20 “But the wicked are like the tossing sea, which cannot rest, whose waves cast up mire and mud.”) Jerusalem is the place where God’s people live with Him, it is where He dwells, but Mephibosheth doesn’t live there.

He is most likely very bitter toward David. He is a crippled man with royal blood in his veins. How Mephibosheth must have felt about David – “This guy is the reason I am crippled and I am not the king!” He has probably heard stories about “David” his whole life and hated him. And now stands helpless before the man his grandfather had so ruthlessly persecuted and tried to murder.

B. We See The Beauty Of Salvation By God’s Sheer Grace!

The Lord is the one who initiates – just as David initiates here! “Did David send a message of welcome, inviting him to come to Jerusalem? Did he notify Mephibosheth that if he “did his part” mercy would be accorded to him. Did he forward the cripple a pair of crutches and bid him make use of them, and hobble to Jerusalem as best he could? No, indeed… King David had him brought (vs. 5) from Lo-Debar… Thank God for bringing grace.” (A.W. Pink) Mephibosheth is living in Lo-debar which means a place of no rest. What a picture! David has him brought (he can’t walk) to him and loves him!

God takes the initiative because of His love for another – Mephibosheth is safe because of David’s love for Jonathan (what a picture of a covenant mediator – we are loved for Christ’s sake!) And Mephibosheth is loved for something done before he was even born! David loves him for the sake of Jonathan and the covenant! “The one who here obtained kindness at the hands of the King, received favor not because of anything he had done, nor because of any personal worthiness he possessed, but wholly on account of a covenant promise which had been made before he was born. So it is with those toward whom God now acts in free and sovereign grace.” (A.W. Pink)

God love is a love for His helpless enemies! The gospel is the great surprise ending! (The mercy of the King for helpless traitors) The word translated “kindness” (NIV) in verse 1 and 7 is the important Hebrew word “hesed” – David is asking, “Is there anyone still left of Saul’s family that I can love in a “hesed-way” for Jonathan’s sake?” He is asking in effect “is there anyone left in the enemy camp I can love?”

C. We See A Wonderful Picture Of The Privileges The Gospel Brings! (vs. 7-11)

He gets peace! (vs. 7) “Fear not!” the King says to him.

He is called by name – salvation is intimate and personal! (vs. 6)

He gets a place at the table! This is the gospel – the King’s enemies are made to sit and eat at the His table!

He is given the inheritance his family had lost through their sin. (vs. 10-11)

He is made like a royal son (vs. 11) “More blessings than our father lost” (Watts)

Kevin Twit is the RUF Campus Minister at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee.

*This talk was originally taught as a seminar by Kevin Twit in May 2006 at the RUF Summer Conference

*For more information go to www.igracemusic.com