Calvary Wolfeboro

Every week, in church buildings around the world, God's people gather for what we call "worship." In cars, living rooms, and showers millions of saints play what they call "worship" music. We are continually talking about worship in a way that can cause it to lose its real meaning. Worship is more than an event. It's more than a song. Which is why Matt Redman, in his song, "The Heart of Worship," proclaims to God, "I'll bring You more than a song. For a song in itself is not what you have required. Your search much deeper within, through the way things appear. You're looking into my heart." Worship is a matter of the heart. So what is the heart of worship? Paul tells us in Romans 12:1-2.

Every week, in church buildings around the world, God's people gather for what we call "worship." In cars, living rooms, and showers millions of saints play what they call "worship" music. We are continually talking about worship in a way that can cause it to lose its real meaning. Worship is more than an event. It's more than a song. Which is why Matt Redman, in his song, "The Heart of Worship," proclaims to God, "I'll bring You more than a song. For a song in itself is not what you have required. Your search much deeper within, through the way things appear. You're looking into my heart." Worship is a matter of the heart. So what is the heart of worship? Paul tells us in Romans 12:1-2.

There are many ways to look at what Christ accomplished on the cross. He made available forgiveness from sins, eternal life, spiritual birth, and adoption into God's family, to begin with. But in addition to all of these realities, there is another accomplishment of grace that is equally amazing. For the believer in Jesus Christ, there is freedom from slavery to sin. In other words, because of the death of Jesus, and our faith in Him, sin is no longer is our master. That is, unless we allow it to be. In Galatians 5:1, we find the exhortation to not go back to the slavery we were under before faith in Christ. Which means, that we can go back. But we don't have to. We've been freed for Good!

Few tendencies undermine a life of faith in Christ like presumption. God's people have always struggled to avoid this pit. Because of the promises made to Israel and the special place that the church has in God's plan of redemption, it's easy to presume, to take for granted, to become complacent and even arrogant. This was the mistake Israel made with Jesus and it's the sin that still plagues God's people, the church, today. But it's possible to avoid the pit of presumption. Let's consider how as we dig into Romans 11:13-24 and continue our verse by verse series in the book of Romans: Deep and Wide.