Devotional No. 4: Offering

Devotional #4 for our November 5th Night of Worship.

Each of the first three devotionals answered a different question. Redemption answered what He did. A price was paid, through His blood, for people who could not pay it. Gratitude answered what we say back: thanks, offered with reverence, for a kingdom that cannot be shaken. Adoration answered who He is. The Lamb who was slaughtered, worthy of the room and everything in it. This one answers the question that is left. What do we do with all of that the next morning?

Paul answers it in the very next verse. Romans 11 ends with the line we closed on last time: “For from Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen” (Romans 11:36). Then chapter 12 opens with one word. Therefore. “Therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship” (Romans 12:1). The doxology does not end the argument. It sets up the request.

Look at the word mercies. Paul does not urge us by our commitment, our gifting, or how well the night went. He urges us by the mercies of God, which is eleven chapters of redemption. The offering comes after the purchase, and the order matters. Reverse it and the sacrifice becomes one more attempt to pay for what was already paid. The debt was nailed to the cross. Nothing we bring on November 5th adds to it. We are not offering to settle an account. We are offering because the account is settled.

Look also at the word acceptable. Hebrews used it for gratitude. Thanks is the means “by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe” (Hebrews 12:28). Romans uses it for the body. Same word, same idea. God does not accept the service because it was well executed. He accepts it because it was His to begin with, returned by someone who knows that.

Then the hard part. Present your bodies. Not your intentions. Not your feelings during the bridge. Your body, which is where you actually live: your hands, your calendar, your mouth, your phone, the hours nobody else sees. Old Testament sacrifices did not get up off the altar. Paul asks for a living one, which is harder, because a living sacrifice can climb down. It gets offered, and then it has to be offered again the next day. Worship that only exists between the first downbeat and the last chord is not what Paul is describing. He calls the whole presented life “your spiritual service of worship.” The night of worship is real. It is not the whole of it.

David understood cost. When Araunah offered him the threshing floor and the oxen for free, David refused. “I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God that cost me nothing” (2 Samuel 24:24). He paid fifty shekels of silver for the right to give something away. That is a strange transaction until you see the point. An offering that costs nothing is a gesture. Most of us are comfortable with gestures. We will lift our hands. We will sing loud. Those are good things. They also cost very little, and that is fine as long as we do not mistake them for the whole offering.

So what does it cost? Hebrews gives two answers in the same breath. “Through Him then, let’s continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips praising His name. And do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased” (Hebrews 13:15–16). Praise is a sacrifice. So is doing good and sharing. One happens on the platform. The other happens in the parking lot, at the dinner table, and in the meeting where you could take the credit. The text does not rank them. It puts them side by side and calls both of them sacrifices. If our praise is loud and our sharing is thin, we have offered half.

This is where the first three come back. Redemption keeps the offering humble. You cannot present yourself as an impressive gift when you remember the price. The vessel was never the glory. Gratitude keeps the offering steady. An offering tied to a good week stops when the week goes bad. An offering tied to a kingdom that cannot be shaken does not. Adoration keeps the offering whole. If He is worthy of it all, the offering cannot be a percentage. Partial room is still a rival on the seat, and an offering held back in one area is the same problem under a different name.

Paul adds one more sentence that keeps this from becoming a one-time event. “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2). The offering is not only what we give up. It is also what we let Him change. Conformed is done to you, by pressure from outside. Transformed is done in you, by Him. You cannot do the second one to yourself. You can stop resisting it. You can put yourself where He renews minds: in the Word, in prayer, and in a church that tells you the truth. The renewing is His work. The presenting is ours.

The songs end and the room empties for a reason. A night of worship is supposed to send us somewhere. The test is not how we felt in the room. It is whether we walk out still on the altar. The same body that stood and sang has to go to work on Friday. The same mouth that sang worthy has to speak to the person who wronged you. That is not a letdown after the service. That is the service Paul is talking about.

So bring the offering the first three have already prepared. A redeemed life that knows its price. A grateful life that is not waiting on a better week. An adoring life that has stopped keeping a seat for itself. Present it. Then present it again tomorrow. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.

Unworthy, but His,
Nick

A Guide for Prayer

Set a few minutes aside. Do not hurry the silence at the start. Then pray in this order.

1. Start with the mercies. Read Romans 12:1 slowly. Thank Him for the blood applied before you offer anything. Agree that you are giving because the debt is paid, not to pay it.
2. Present the body. Name the actual parts: your hands, your time, your words, your phone, the hours no one sees. Offer each one by name. Do not offer a category.
3. Count the cost. Ask Him where you have been offering what costs you nothing. Name one thing that would cost you something this week, and agree to bring it.
4. Offer both sacrifices. Praise Him out loud. Then ask Him to show you one person you can do good to or share with this week. Ask Him to keep you from offering only half.
5. Ask to be transformed. Name one place where the world has been shaping you more than He has. Ask Him to renew your mind there. Tell Him you will stop resisting.

Close by praising Him that from Him, through Him, and to Him are all things. If you feel like climbing off the altar, tell Him that too. Then stay.

Scripture

“Therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.” (Romans 12:1)