Listen to Martin Smith's lyrics:
What can you do with a heavy soul? / When you can dance but there's no rock 'n' roll / Where can you go, if the sun doesn't shine? / You sing the words but none of them rhyme / What would I have done if it wasn't for Jesus? / Where do you go when you've lost the keys / When all is dark you're on your knees? / And in a world where it's love betrays / There is a light that will save the day / Don't go away
What would I have done if it wasn't for Jesus?
What would I have done if it wasn't for Jesus?
What would I have become if it wasn't for Jesus?
What would I have done?
What would I have done?
What would I have done if it wasn't for you - what would my life look like if it was not for Jesus? What would your life look life if it were not for Jesus?
Maybe a better question is, does my life look different knowing Jesus? For Romans 12:2 says “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
Am I striving to imitate the life of Christ?
I have found that this whole Christ following living is a lot easier said than done. I mean I have to daily fight against my sin and myself to make room for God to work.
Most days that I wake I am not running to be on my knees before God. I am not waking with a worship song on my lips. The world does not welcome me with a kiss, instead it’s a swift kick in the pants.
Yet in the midst of all of this, God calls us to worship him thru it all! For in John 4: it states that God is looking for worshipers which will worship him in Spirit and Truth.
What is it then that would propel someone to live a life of worship?
We are all created as beings of worship. We worship something in one form or another. Even if we say that we worship nothing we are actually worshiping a god called Denial.
If I am going to give my life to something or call something the main focus of my life, something that I am going to allow to dictate the direction of and receive the majority of my time, the thing that I am going to talk to others about, it had better be something worthy of my worship.
In any smart investment strategy a wise investor will tell you to look first at the ROI. R.O.I stand for “return on investment”. If it is a good investment, you move forward with it. If there not a good return, you would hold back or move onto something else.
In much the same way, this is a strategy we could follow in determining what to give our life to.
What is the ROI of the thing that receives my worship?
Talents? Relationships? Money? Fame? Success? Approval of others?
Since we are in a church setting I guess we should look at the worship of Jesus Christ, but not just because it is the appropriate thing to do or say in fear of loosing my job, but rather because of the evidence of the ROI.
Lets take a look for a moment at the stats:
We are talking about the one that created the universe as we see it.
We are talking about the one that gives us every breath that we breathe.
We are talking about the one that holds eternity in his hands.
We are talking about the one that paints the sunrises and sunsets.
We are talking about the one who did all of this and more that just wanted to be in relationship with us above all else.
Man was created last and was made in the mirror image of God himself
God made me in his image. (my personality, talents, smile, height, skin color, I am divinely made) I am not an accident.
But what has man done with what God has given?
Man has sought to take ownership of something that was never ours to begin with. For in 1 John, scripture says “all things are from him and for him”
1. God gave man rule over the earth, and instead man has tried to rule over God
2. God provided a companion for man, and we have determined that companion is just not good enough; and there are others better out there.
3. God created resources for man to work the earth with and we have used the resources to rage war on one another.
4. God blessed us with the ability to have children, and we have made it a matter of choice.
5. God intended man to work an honest job for an honest wage, and we have turned into work-a-holics with an unhealthy desire for more.
6. God intended for the intimacy between a man and woman to be special and beautiful, and we have turn it into a mutli-billion dollar industry which helps create an unhealthy desire within us for something that leads to all destruction.
7. God desired words to be a way of communication, and we took those words and created ways hurt others with them.
8. God desired many races, and we created division between them
9. God desired a community of believers that would worship him and reach the lost, and have created 'religion' and “Holy Huddles”.
10. God created a way of doing life that was honoring to him, and humanity saw it as too limiting and controlling.
11. God asked us to be grateful for what we have and do, man has turned it into an entitlement that God owes to us.
Anything or anyone else that I had abused that much would have gone bankrupt, died or left me a long time ago.
But not Christ. Through all of my shame he has remained. Not only has he remained but he has made me blameless.
Romans 8 says: 1Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. 3For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, 4in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. 5Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; 7the sinful mind[f] is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. 8Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. 9You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. 10But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.
Not only has he made me blameless before the Father, but he has given me his Spirit. A Spirit to lead and guide me through the days of my life here. A helper.
In return for all of this, he asks me to love him first, serve others and tell people of his love.
To worship him is a decision I freely can choose to do or not to do. I have to tell my voice to sing, my fingers to play, my feet to dance, my heart to feel.
Our role as lead worshipers whether we play, sing, create arts or support the ones that do is to love God first, serve others and tell people of his love.
We get to be God's megaphone, if you will. God created music to be something that honored him. The world has made it a gig.
Let's seek to worship God not out of obligation or duty, but rather because we see that there is nothing else we could possibly give to the one who has done so much for us?
We are carrying on the message of those that came before us and sacrificed for the cause of Christ. And we are to pass this message on to the generations that will come after us.
The Glory in all of this does not come while we are still here. It comes only after our time is done here. That is a completely different paradigm than what the world offers.
James wrote that "I, James, am a slave of God and the Master Jesus."
The Psalmist asks “God to examine me and probe my thoughts! Test me and know my concerns. See if there is any idolatrous tendency in me, and lead me in the reliable ancient path."
God is seeking his R.O.I as well
