Last week I introduced the ideas of “gathered worship” and “scattered worship.” Gathered worship is what we do when God gathers us here together, and scattered worship is what you do when we’re not here all together. We’re going to see how every aspect of life is actually worship, according to the Bible.
So it’s important to understand how your life is worship – at the shops, on the school run, in work, at the kitchen sink. If you get this wrong, then the Christian life can just feel like a sequence of burdens you’re going to fail at over and over. Get it right, and you will find joy in everything in life.
These notes accompany a sermon on YouTube delivered at Bromborough Evangelical Church, Wirral, in January 2025. You can find more in the series in our sermon index.
Broaden your worship
Last week we looked at how God has always gathered his people to experience himself – from Leviticus to Revelation. Through the tabernacle, then the temple, now in Christ, and one day around the throne of God. We’re gathered to him to worship him.
But what was it like in the beginning, for Adam in Eden? There was no temple there, so what was expected? It’s clear that Adam walked in the garden and had fellowship with God. God gave Adam tasks: Gen 2:15 The LORD God took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden to work it and watch over it.
Adam was told to work the garden and watch over it. The particular words used there are exactly the terms used for priests later on: They were to work and watch (guard) the tabernacle (or temple).
Here’s the thing: The garden was a temple. It was the place where Adam met with God. He dwelt with God, and his daily work was his worship. When Adam sinned, he was thrown out of God’s presence.
The later tabernacle (and temple) was modelled on Eden. In their style and furnishings, and in having the entrance to the East, and (crucially) it was where humanity could meet with God. God dwelt there.
A second Adam?
So the High Priest was something like another Adam, a man who could go into God’s presence. But to do so required substitutionary sacrifice for sin. But that approach to God then meant that people could again work for him in service, enjoying fellowship with God.
The tabernacle (and temple) provided a way that sinful people could approach God and have sins atoned for. Eden restored!
More than that, God would then dwell among his people and his holiness would flow outwards through them. That holiness was displayed in the scattered daily lives of Israelites: In honest dealings, truthfulness, goodness, generosity.
Now the New Testament letter to the Hebrews picks up on all that tabernacle / temple imagery and explains how it was all a 2D shadow of the 3D heavenly realities in Christ. Jesus is God, whose presence we may approach. He’s the sacrifice that atones for our sin, and he’s the High Priest who represents us to God the Father. The old system was in place to help us understand Jesus.
Now you don’t need a physical temple or place to go to; you worship God in spirit and in truth as revealed in Jesus Christ.
And so you now worship God in two ways:
- Read Hebrews 10:24-25 – we gather to praise God, and to equip one another for love and good works.
- Read Hebrews 13:15-16 – like Adam did, we dwell with God and we serve him every day. Scattered worship. But what does that look like?
Gratefully sacrifice yourself
If you really want to get to grips with the Christian faith, the New Testament letter to the Romans is one of the Bible’s most comprehensive explanations.
- It’s all spelt out for you how everyone has sinned against God – the religious people just as much as anyone else.
- You read of how you’re not able to save yourself, but that Jesus has become a sacrifice that atones for your sins. God’s wrath against you is satisfied. Your guilt is washed away; you’re credited with a righteousness before God you haven’t earned.
- Once God has forgiven you, who is left to accuse you?
- There’s no condemnation for anyone in Christ!
- Would you want to know that for yourself? God would want that for you too. He invites you to pray to him, to turn from your sin and seek his forgiveness: He will forgive. Do it today.
For those who have, you enjoy newness of life in Christ. You’re indwelt by the Holy Spirit and united to Jesus forever.
There’s nothing you can give to save yourself – Christ is all the sacrifice for sin that is needed. So Romans builds all this up to a remarkable text: Read Romans 12:1.
He’s calling on you to live for God. But it’s not to be saved; it’s a response to “the mercies of God”!
You’re to live your whole life in “true worship”. It’s a rich phrase:
- “True” means spiritual, reasonable, or intelligent. You’re not like an animal who knows nothing; your living sacrifice is a deliberate, chosen response.
- “Worship” means service, or the kind of things that would be carried out for God in a temple.
So “present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship.”
Present your bodies
You’re to present your whole body – everything you are – to God for his service: That’s your deliberate worship.
- Present your eyes: You’re going to stop looking at those unwholesome things; you’re going to look for beauty and holiness.
- Present to him your hands: No more sinful activity; you’re going to be careful to do good with yourself.
- Or your tongue: Instead of harsh words – or even biting your tongue – you’re going to be deliberate about saying kind things.
- Even if your body is ravaged by age or sickness, you can present it to him: You will use your illness to bring him glory by making it clear to everyone that you trust him.
Now it’s fairly easy to be that person when you’re here. It’s harder to be that person through the rest of the week. But read Romans 12:9-21. Chapter 13 goes on to explain how you should be a model citizen (remembering that he was writing to Christians in 1st Century Rome).
It’s clear he’s writing about scattered worship – your whole life as an offering to God.
And your life outside of here is to be one of love “without hypocrisy”: You’re to be the same person Monday-Saturday that you like us to think you are on a Sunday. There’s no room for masks. It would be too exhausting, and you wouldn’t fool God anyway.
But how can you do it? How can you be sure you’re living 24×7 in a way that pleases God (that is acceptable worship)?
Go equipped
If you’re intent on living a life of acceptable worship every day for God, you need to make sure you’re going equipped.
Read Romans 12:1-2.
You’re called to true worship – to spiritual, reasonable, intelligent, thought-through worship and acts of service. So you need your mind to be renewed, changed to think the way God wants, so that your life will be transformed. And that happens when you’re reminded of “the mercies of God” (v1).
Which brings us back to gathered worship.
- Here your mind will be refreshed as you’re reminded of the good news of Christ.
- You’ll hear the Bible read and preached; we pray and sing together; there are baptisms and the Lord’s Table to excite and nourish you. We encourage one another.
- Ephesians 4:11-12 Christ “…himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints [you] for the work of ministry…”
- Today is your re-charge, your top-up, a day of equipping for the works of worship and service God has planned for you for the rest of the week.
6 + 1 became 1 + 6
In the Old Testament, there was a 6+1 pattern to the week. People worked for 6 days, and enjoyed a day of rest.
In the New Testament, the picture has changed to 1+6. Today is a day of rest, and also of re-fuelling. In Christ we gather in anticipation of the eternal rest he has in store for us. And we gather together to encourage one another as we worship, equipping and building one another up.
Because here’s the truth: You will struggle to serve God in the week if your experience of him is thin.
God himself calls you to gather for worship for your own good, to equip you for the week ahead. And so:
Worship every day
By now you might well be listening and thinking that this is impossible for you. Your life is so fully occupied that you just don’t have the bandwidth for burdensome add-ons. No thank you.
Life is hard. Many of you have a lot on your plate just now. Raising children; coping with illness; stresses at work; short of money. The thought of doing additional “good things” – even like hospitality – feels out of the question.
But that’s where we need to remember Adam. His work, his life, was his worship. He worked for God.
The call isn’t to add daily worship as some kind of extra burden to life. The call is to worship God in life. In your life.
And life goes through seasons. Read Romans 12:1 again.
Remember what “God’s mercies” really are:
- You’re saved by faith, not works. So liberating!
- You have union with Christ; his is in you and you are in him, and he is your life and strength for every day.
- The Holy Spirit dwells in you, helping you to pray even when you can’t find the words.
- And when you do pray, you have access to your heavenly Father who is also the one who runs the Universe!
- You have freedom from sin; there is no condemnation; and you have an eternal hope that is rock solid secure in Christ
Jesus is always with you
So in everything in your life, you can say: “Jesus is with me in this.”
- So put sin to death. You can. Remember that he is with you when you sin, so ask for help. He will help.
- Work can be tough.
- You might face persecution. Some of it is gentle teasing, but often it’s more serious and painful.
- Or you might just have an awful boss or work in a difficult environment.
- But you can say, “Jesus is with me in this.” More than once I had to say to him, “Lord, I’m struggling here. But I’ll do this for you.”
- That takes worship into even awful work.
- Parenting is hard. Children test you like nothing else.
- Sometimes you have to pause. Give thanks for your children.
- Give thanks that your own sinful nature is so exposed! Remind yourself: “Jesus is with me in this.”
- He knows the challenges: Go again with your children, conscious of Jesus’ help.
- That puts worship in the moment.
- Some here have significant illness.
- Jesus has also suffered terribly. He has seen plenty of suffering, and it grieves him too.
- Your situation is not an accident.
- Jesus is there with you, and will be to the end.
- Others are gripped with worry and anxiety.
- You don’t know the future, but the Lord has it.
- The future is good. The immediate future might not be. Jesus is with you in this. He holds your days.
Worship in every moment
Each good thought – even in your stress and pain – leads you nearer to Jesus, warms you heart, changes your perspective, and then re-fuels you for tomorrow.
Because you’ll need him again tomorrow.
Each moment of challenge actually becomes an act of worship as you do them for Jesus, with Jesus, in the strength and hope he brings.
Life won’t always be overwhelming.
Lessons learned in the hard days will enable you to step forward in lighter times, ready to step forward in the good things like hospitality, kindness, and generosity of Romans 12.
And you’ll do those acts of daily worship with Jesus.
Summary
- Broaden your worship: Don’t neglect gathering for worship, but remember you worship all week long too.
- Gratefully sacrifice yourself. Offer yourself to God as a living sacrifice – your hands, eyes, feet all at his disposal.
- Go equipped. Don’t face the week unprepared. Gather here Sunday by Sunday to fuel up for the week ahead.
- Worship every day. See Jesus in every moment, and worship him in every situation. He will be with you always. Remind yourself: “Jesus is with me in this.”
And then speak to him about it.