This weekend I was encouraged to spend some time in Romans 12. The speaker wanted us to look at the first several verses. The big themes of the message were living sacrifices and everyone doing their part in the body of Christ.
Having that in mind, I was reading Psalm 51 this morning and ran into an interesting pair of verses (16 & 17).
For You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it;
You are not pleased with burnt offering.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
A broken and a
contrite heart
O God, You will not despise.
I reread Romans 12:1
Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
Paul has just demonstrated the kind of sacrifice that God is pleased by: Our Bodies! This goes hand-in-hand with David's idea in Psalm 51, it is the heart that matters, not the bull on the altar. (No pun intended)
The message of the Bible hasn't changed. God still looks at the heart. He longs for man's devotion not his pompous show. That was a key element to Jesus' message: The Pharisees cleaned the outside of the cup, but not the inside. Sound familiar?
In conclusion, our worship is about doing a church service rightly or a sacrifice. Our worship is presenting ourselves to the Lord, with a broken heart.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrY1-gPM0KY
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