God is pleased when our worship is practical.

The Bible

says, “Offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to

God—this is your spiritual act of worship.” 11 Why does God want

your body? Why doesn’t he say, “Offer your spirit”? Because

without your body you can’t do anything on this planet. In

eternity you will receive a new, improved, upgraded body, but

while you’re here on earth, God says, “Give me what you’ve

got!” He’s just being practical about worship.

You have heard people say, “I can’t make it to the meeting

tonight, but I’ll be with you in spirit.” Do you know what that

means? Nothing. It’s worthless! As long as you’re on earth, your

spirit can only be where your body is. If your body isn’t there,

neither are you.

In worship we are to “offer our bodies as living sacrifices.”

Now, we usually associate the concept of “sacrifice” with

something dead, but God wants you to be a living sacrifice. He

wants you to live for him! However, the problem with a living

sacrifice is that it can crawl off the

altar, and we often do that. We

sing, “Onward, Christian Soldiers”

on Sunday, then go AWOL on

Monday In the Old Testament, God took

pleasure in the many sacrifices of

worship because they foretold of Jesus’ sacrifice for us on the

cross. Now God is pleased with different sacrifices of worship:

thanksgiving, praise, humility, repentance, offerings of money,

prayer, serving others, and sharing with those in need.12

Real worship costs. David knew this and said: “I will not offer to

the Lord my God sacrifices that have cost me nothing.” 13

One thing worship costs us is our self-centeredness. You cannot

exalt God and yourself at the same time. You don’t worship to be

seen by others or to please yourself. You deliberately shift the

focus off yourself.