A Reasonable Response to the Mercies of God
August 28, 2016 · Carl · Romans
Scripture referenced 5 passages
The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
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Romans 12:1 core text: offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God
1 Therefore I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service.
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Keep this verse
Romans 12:2
core text: be transformed by the renewing of your mind to know God's good, pleasing and perfect will
2 Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God.
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Romans 6:13
cited as best definition of offering ourselves as living sacrifices: give yourselves completely to God as instruments of righteousness
13 Also, do not present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God, as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
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Proverbs (unspecified verse)
quoted in prayer: to fear God is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge of God is understanding
Keep this verse1 John 4:19
cited as favorite short verse on why we love God, because He first loved us
19 We love him, because he first loved us.
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Recap
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
Pastor Carl stepped in for Ray, who was out of town, and preached from Romans 12:1-2. He built his message around three questions every believer asks: what is God calling me to do, why should I do it, and how does it actually happen.
What was said
Carl opened by drawing a line through the whole book of Romans. Chapters one through eleven lay out what to believe, the theology and doctrine. Chapter twelve, he said, is where Paul turns to how to behave. The word "therefore" at the start of verse one is the hinge. It is Paul telling the church to pay attention, because everything that follows is the reasonable response to everything that came before.
The first question, what is God calling me to do, has a short answer: offer yourself to him. Carl was careful to say this is not a Sunday-morning arrangement. Drawing from Romans 6:13, he described a living sacrifice as using your whole being, your concrete existence, as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God. The call is to actively and continually yield, not in parts and pieces, but all of it.
The second question, why, brings Paul's phrase "in view of God's mercy" into focus. Carl walked back through the mercy that accumulates across chapters one through eleven, reading a string of lines from those chapters aloud. The sequence matters: the bad news came first. No one is righteous, no one is seeking God. Then came the turn. God showed us a way. Carl's point was that good news only lands with its full weight when you have sat with the bad news long enough to feel it.
He pressed the "why" further with a handful of if-then statements. If there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus, then isn't our service to God a reasonable thing? If together with Christ we are heirs of his glory, then isn't it reasonable? He also noted that the word Paul uses for "urge" is not coercive. It is a call to respond voluntarily, the way someone says wedding vows, giving of themselves without being forced to, because they want to.
The third question, how, is where Carl located the actual work. He was direct that we cannot will our way toward God. The Spirit is born in us, and as we yield day by day, God begins to renew the way we think. That renewed mind is what makes it possible to test and approve what God's will is. The transformation described in verse two is God's doing, not a self-improvement project.
Carl closed by tying this back to the question so many people carry: what is God's will for my life? His answer was that Romans 12 is already screaming the answer. Offering yourself to God fully and freely is the first thing, not the thing you do after you have sorted out the career and the location and the big decisions. Get this one right, he said, and the other details begin to fall into place. He asked the congregation to read all of Romans 12 during the week, and noted that Ray would be back to work through the practical application of how this gets lived out.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
- Carl described the Laundry Love volunteers saying there was 'no catch' to what they were doing. When has someone's generosity toward you, with no strings attached, changed the way you thought about giving yourself to others?
- Carl said chapters one through eleven of Romans are primarily about what to believe, and chapter twelve is about how to behave, with 'therefore' linking the two. What difference does it make to you that Paul roots the call to offer ourselves in what God has already done, rather than in what we ought to do?
and 3 more questions in the guide
Read the full transcript 5,853 words
0:02
Good morning, church. I'm very excited as always to be here. Amen? Will you please stand up and let's worship God? Amen?
0:12
When I'm on the stage, it's the first time when I can kinda see Eric, eyes to eyes. So it's a blessing to look at you, sir. Right? So how are you this morning? Oh, it's it's so great to be here.
0:24
I wanna tell you from the bottom of my heart. Let's worship as God himself is present right here in this building. Amen? Because it's a it's a special time that we have as a church, as brothers and sisters gather in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen?
0:40
Amen. It's so good to be here. Amen? Amen. Amen.
3:11
You may be seated. Alright. We have just got a few announcements this morning, so we're gonna buzz through them quick. Ray is enjoying a little vacation. I believe he's in Palm Springs.
3:23
Is that right, Carl? Palm Springs, California. Desert. In the desert. Getting some of that good dry heat.
3:29
So, he's not with us this morning but he will be back this week at some point. So, pray for safe travels for that guy as him and his family are out and about across The United States. So, first announcement, summer nursery available downstairs from ages zero through five. There's a new nursing room downstairs just across from the nursery as well for nursing mothers. And if you would like to and even if you would not like to, we would like to have you be a volunteer in in the the nursery.
4:04
So, if any point you would like to meet with Bailey, she would love to chat with you about that and make that happen. Get you on the list and what a great way to serve our community here at First Baptist Church. Monday nights at First B, let us grow together. I don't know if any of you have walked behind the church but there's a beautiful, there was a beautiful garden. Now, it's a little bit over older, overgrown and there is a bunch of basil out there.
4:27
So, if you are in need for some basil, feel free to grab it. It's just going to wilt away but Monday nights, at First B, meal music and message down here and Clay speaking, right? Clay is speaking. So, come hear him. That's going to be a great time.
4:42
06:00, a great time to be together. Those Monday nighters. Old Bills Fun Run is coming up. I believe the race is August 1 and I think that the last you can donate is or sorry, September 1 and the last day you can donate is September 16. Anybody?
5:00
It's the tenth. Do not donate on the sixteenth. Make sure to donate by the tenth, okay? The race is on the tenth. We got a one right.
5:12
There was a one in that. So, on the tenth. Thank you. Thank you, front row. And you can give I should leave actually.
5:21
Anybody wanna come do It's Old Bills. But it's gonna if if you don't know how Old Bills works, it give makes your giving more. Right? Compounds it. Yeah.
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Let's skip this one. Give it to Old Bills. First Bee is a nonprofit and you guys can give us that donation through Old Bills and make it Mo. Awana is starting on September 12, Monday nights coinciding with Monday nights here down the hall. So the whole family can be here together.
5:53
So get ready for that. Do they need to register for Awana? Does anybody know? Early? There it is.
6:14
If you have any questions, ask Martin Murphy. He can get appointed in the right direction. Solid Rock, we're gonna kick off here September 15 and then high school on the sixteenth. So that is coming up. Watch for those texts that come out to all you guys who get them.
6:28
For the students and Diane want to make a point of this. Make sure to check your bulletins for all the rest of the announcements because this week's especially, we not only have all the announcements in the week and what's happening in your regular bulletin. There's also a take home schedule as well and on the back of prayer request. So, you get it twice and then, it's stuffed full of flyers for different things coming up. So, there's no excuse not to be informed on what's happening here at First Baptist Church.
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Check your bulletin and why don't we stand up together? We will do the hugs, high fives, and handshakes.
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Let's sing together.
7:20
Open the eyes of my heart lord
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We're gonna sing this song again, and I'm asking you from the bottom of my heart. Would you please ask Jesus to open your eyes?
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The eyes of my heart of my heart, open Lord. Open the eyes of my heart.
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I want to see you. I want to see
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Amen. Amen. I want to see you more. I want to see God more in my life. And honestly, I can tell you from the experience, it's one of the best feeling in this planet to feel God's presence at work, at home, wherever you are.
10:08
Even even when you are driving, singing a nice song in your car. That's means that means that God's presence is right there with you. Amen? We're gonna sing one of my favorite song, your love is like a radiant diamond. I love it so much.
10:22
Please feel free to lift up your hands, close your eyes, move a little bit to the right, to the left, do whatever you want. Just worship to God. Amen. I just I just you know what is my desire every morning when I drove to towards the church? I this, I'm I'm honest.
10:39
God, will you please bless every single person that would come this morning at the church? Will you please bless the pastor that he will bring a message directly from you? And, also, help us then we when we leave that place to be a little bit different, to feel God's Holy Spirit in our life. Amen? What a beautiful song.
14:41
Amen? We're gonna sing one more song. But before that, I wanna just say few words. Yesterday, I was part of the memorial service here at the the church, and it was my first one since I was in United States since 2006. And, honestly, it was so good.
15:01
It was not good, honestly. It was like a a beautiful worship service, and it was kind of like Romanian style. In Romania, we we gather, we sing three songs, and then someone comes up, sing the song, and then someone comes up, say a psalm, and then someone comes sing song, sing, song, sing, and then testimonies, and then preaching. And it was so beautiful, honestly. But on the way out, I was thinking, how short time we have here in this earth.
15:27
So for this reason, I was I went home and I told my wife, help me to be a better father. Help me to be a better husband because you never know when we depart from here and we're gonna be with our savior forever. It was so beautiful to see the family talking so nice about their mom. And I was thinking that whatever we do here on this earth for our family, for workers, friends, it matters. It matters because it's it's from God.
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Amen. How deep the father's love for us, how vast beyond all measure.
20:12
Amen. Oh Lord, why should we gain from your reward? But lord, you have moved us from death to life. You have moved us from darkness to light, and we are grateful. And Lord, because of that, we present ourselves to you, not just these offerings, not just these monetary things.
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Lord, that is easy to do. But Lord, we give you our lives. We give you our hearts. We give you our talents. We give you our very breath because it is from you that it comes.
20:41
So Lord, we are very grateful. We thank you. We give you our praise. We offer our praise up to you. And lord, lord, we now give you these small tokens.
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We ask that you would multiply them and send them around this valley, send them around the state, the country, and the world so that you might be worshiped by others, we pray. In Jesus name, amen.
23:40
Laundry Love kind of got started, I guess, around 2005. Our group had a meeting for probably six, seven months and this Laundry Love idea came up and I said, well, I'm just going to throw it out to our group and see what
23:49
they think. We kind of talked about this a little bit. He kind of mentioned some things about this thing called Laundry Love that I'd never heard of before and kind of explained to us what it was all about. To were find a laundromat that would allow us to come and do laundry for people. We said, hey, let's just run with it.
24:06
This is
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a great idea, it's a great way to love on our community, to give some of the blessing that we received, to give that back to the community as well. Basically the last Saturday of the month we show up here. It's mainly our small group, our little community group, and we bring a jar full of quarters anywhere we may spend $50 to $75 We just go through and pay for laundry for people. No questions asked, requirement to show up and we're going to pay for your laundry. My favorite part
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is watching the faces on people and you ask them if you can do their laundry and they look at you like, are you nuts? Why would you do my laundry? There's always a cash. Here there is no cash. We're doing it because we want to do it.
24:45
We're doing it because we like doing it.
24:47
We actually we meeting the people. First night we were in here we sat here for thirty, forty five minutes before anybody showed up. And then all of a sudden a lady came in and she started bringing more and more laundry. We said, well, we've got the money. Let's just help her.
25:00
Before we knew it, had done fifteen-twenty loads of laundry for her. And just had a great time talking with her, enjoyed, you know, she was talking with all of our group. Towards the end of the night, as she's finally finishing her drying and getting things wrapped up, she said, you know, you don't know what a blessing this has been for me. She said, I came in here and I had, I think it was $20 in her wallet. She said, I put up laundry for the whole month just because it's either do laundry or feed my kids.
25:25
So I've
25:26
been putting off laundry. Here it's not about me. It's about the people that walk in here on a nightly basis on a Saturday night when we come and do laundry love. All of sudden, I'm not thinking about my world anymore, what my problems are. It's focused on them.
25:48
We may have five people in
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here that we help. We may have every washer and dryer full. Either way, I just come out of here just overjoyed with just being able to help people and show them some compassion and love.
26:01
When it came to our our small group situation, you know, we're actually practicing what we're either being preached or what we preach. In a lot of cases, that's that's that's a rarity. You know? I mean, you can do it once. You can do it twice in any year.
26:15
We do it, you know, 12 times a year. People in our
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group have come to realize that we are called to share love and to go out into the world. It's not that we're gonna get together in our holy huddle in our living room and and meet every week. So it's just great that the the people in our community group have, you know, caught that vision as well, that they wanna be out reaching the people and caring for their needs, and that's kind of where Laundry Love came from.
26:47
You noticed that one of the the men in that small group, he said, people often ask us, he said, what what's the catch? What what's what's the catch? What are you doing this for? And he said, there's no catch. There's no catch.
26:59
We do this because we want to. We do this because we like to. We love the people. And to me, that attitude right there, it sums up. It encapsulates what we're gonna see in Romans verse one.
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And it says this is my clicker working here. Here. I'm turning it on, and it's that right there. Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship.
27:33
In my own words, as I studied this, I I like to to to put things in my own words because it helps me to, you know, put it together to understand it. In my own words, I'd say because God has been so merciful to us. Let's wholeheartedly offer ourselves to him because this is a reasonable response for all God has done. Before we go any further, can we pray? God, would you meet us where we're at this morning?
28:05
If we're distracted, would you would you get our attention? And, God, your word is more powerful than we we we know. It's more powerful than we can imagine, and it works. And I pray that your word would not just go from our head and sit sit and rattle around in there, but it would truly go from our head. It it would go to our heart, then it would go out our hands and feet.
28:30
In Proverbs, you say, to fear you is the beginning of wisdom and that the knowledge of you is understanding. And I pray that you would give us both wisdom and understanding. And it would be our joy to offer ourselves, truly our joy. We would be compelled to offer ourselves to you as living sacrifices, holy, set apart to be used by you. And we pray this in Christ's name who lives in and through us and who makes this possible.
29:00
Amen. So Ray is out of town this morning, and, by the way, his preaching through Romans has been top notch. Would you agree? Can we just he's gonna be listening this. Can we give him a hand, please?
29:14
I told him this week, I said, Ray, after all this study, this thorough study in Romans, I said, I'm feeling like j like third line JV here. So bear with me. I'm I, I don't know chiastic construction like he does. Okay? So I'm gonna refrain from butchering that, but I do know this.
29:41
Okay? I kinda had to just go through Romans and and really process this on my own, and here's what I'm finding. Whereas chapters one through 11 is primarily about this is the simplified version. Okay? Whereas chapters one through 11 is primarily about what to believe, theology, doctrine, all that.
30:02
Chapter 12 is primarily about how to be how to behave. The rest of the book of Romans, the application, the action, the attitude, our response to everything that Paul has been saying in chapters one through 11. Makes sense? The best title that I saw for Romans chapter two is this, the outworking of God's righteousness in the conduct of believers. It's God's righteousness displayed in us and through us.
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And Paul links chapter 11 to chapter 12 with therefore. Therefore, that conjunction there is screaming out to us. Church, pay attention. Right? Antenna up.
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Therefore, here is our reasonable response to the mercies of God. And I believe these two verses are gonna answer three very important questions in our lives. K? In the life of a believer, someone that is pursuing Christ and they are, hey, what is God calling me to do in the first place? K?
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What's the action? Why should I even do that? What's the reason? And how does that happen? By what means?
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When we look at Romans 12, I think those questions are gonna make sense to us, but I wanna look at the scripture together. Romans 12 verses one and two, and here it is. Therefore, this is the pay attention. Right? I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy to offer yourselves your bodies as living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.
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This is your true and proper worship. Don't conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is, his good, pleasing, and perfect will. Amen to that. Right?
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So if I'm a believer in Christ, what is God calling me to do? Right? What's the action? Why should I do that? What's the reason?
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And how does that happen? By what means? Beginning with what is God calling me to do? The short answer, first of all, I think a lot of us ask this question. Right?
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And it's and it's even bigger. It precedes this precedes the the biggest questions that we have. I'm like, should I get married? Is this the person? You know, where where am I gonna live?
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What am I gonna do? Is this the right career path? This one right here, my friends, is the most important. Because when we get this one right, all those other things begin to make sense. They truly do.
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When we get this one right, all these other details in life, God begins to guide us through these big decisions in life that we have. So here's my encouragement to you. Start with this one right here. God is calling us to offer ourselves to him. That's number one.
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That's number one. Fully and freely, everything we are, the whole of our existence, not just parts and pieces like, hey, God. Sunday morning, I'm yours, but, like, during the week, you know, twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, three hundred sixty five days a year. God and I are tight. The best definition that I could find in offering ourselves as living sacrifices, it came from Romans six thirteen.
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K? And it says, instead, give yourselves completely to God. For you were dead, but now you have a new life. That's the living sacrifices. That's the life in Christ.
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So use your whole body, your whole being, your concrete existence as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God. K? That's what it means to be a living sacrifice. With this new life that Christ has given us, we are to actively and continually yield ourselves as instruments of righteousness. But then the question becomes, well, why why should I do that?
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What's the reason? In verse one, it can be said, I think in two words, God's mercy. Overwhelmed, just checking out the mercies of God. That's why we offer ourselves to him. His mercy.
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Remember early on in Romans? We got the bad news before we got the good news. You remember this? And the bad news is no one's righteous, not even one. No one's wise.
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No one's seeking God. All turned away. There was a lot of bad news early in Romans. I remember talking with Ray and he was like, oh, man. You know, all that had to do with our depravity.
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It was a rough few weeks. I mean, we're all kinda but we needed to hear it. We need to know. The good news isn't good news unless we truly know what the bad news is. Right?
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The no one's righteous, not one. We're not really after God. But then came the good news. Then came the good news, the mercies of God. And to me, the light started to shine here in Romans three when Paul said, but now God has shown us a way to be made right with him and are really antenna up.
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He showed us a way. Wait a sec. I'm dead in my sins. Wow. I we're not seeking God.
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No one's righteous, not even one. And then we suddenly get to this part where it says, but God has showed you a way. He's shown you a way. And we're made right by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. It's through belief.
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It's through belief. And the mercies of God, they just started to roll. They started to roll. Chapters four, five, six, seven, and eight. Can I do this?
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I just wanna read some to you. May I do that? I wanna read some of them to this is the hey. Why do I why do we offer ourselves to God in the first place? K?
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And would you just take these in? K? And this isn't even all. This is just a few, and it's a review of Romans. It says, how about this?
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We'll start with, yet, God with undeserved kindness declares we are righteous. How about this? Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven. God will also count us righteous if we believe in him. This is one of my favorites.
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We have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ has done for us. God has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love. While we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and he died for our sins. How about this one? But as people sinned more and more, God's wonderful grace became even more abundant.
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Since we've been united in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was. I can't tell you how encouraging it was to witness, you know, really this memorial service, the the resurrection of a life of a believer by remembering her and knowing that this dot Waltman is now an eternity. How about this? You live under the freedom of God's grace. We're free people because of the grace of God.
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The wages of sin, that's death, but the gift of God. The free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus, our Lord. A free gift of God. There is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. Even though your body will die because of sin, the spirit gives you life.
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Together with Christ, we're heirs of God's glory. And having given us right standing with himself, he also gives us his glory. If God is with us, who can ever be against us? Nothing can ever separate us from God's love that is revealed in Christ Jesus. How is that for mercy?
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How is that for mercy church, really? Why should we offer ourselves to God? Maybe a better question is, why shouldn't we? Why shouldn't we? The bottom line is, God has offered himself to us fully and freely without any reservation.
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He gave himself for us. Even when we weren't asking for him, he came, he lived, he died, he rose, he reigns. Why wouldn't we return the favor? Why wouldn't we? I remember if it's okay, Diane, just earlier on in staff this week, we were were talking and, and she said at one moment, earlier on in in her walk with with God, she was just sitting in one of these chairs or pew or whatever.
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And there was kind of this little little revelation, I guess. And she said, I just realized as I was sitting in my seat, I'm not a sponge. I'm not a sponge. We can sit here and sponge it up. Right?
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I'm saying this, let's ring out. Let's ring out. Really? So he can fill you up and then then you can ring out. Why wouldn't we return the favor?
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I believe first John four nineteen. I love this verse. Look how short it is. These are my favorite ones. We love why?
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Yes, he did. Yes, he has. When Paul says, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy. It was fascinating to me when I looked at this word urge. This is a non course of word.
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This is a call to respond voluntarily. Volunteer. I love it. I love volunteerism. I just do.
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I love when people are compelled without having to I know sometimes we need to. I know. And there might be some prodding here in the next few weeks. I k. Just a warning.
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But here, this is the urge. I volunteer to voluntarily. God isn't forcing ours. He's not forcing us to live as sacrifices to him. He's compelling us to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice.
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And it's so winsome. It's like that couple that's saying their wedding vows. Remember saying this part? Those who are married, you remember saying this part? You get to the part that says, and with all that I am and all that I have, I honor you.
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Remember that part? And you both say it wholeheartedly and with enthusiasm, and there's no reservation about it. Why? Because you are so ready to give all of yourself to that other person. Not being forced to.
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You want to. You want to give of yourself. You're compelled to give of yourself. The last part of that verse one that's answering the why should we offer ourselves to God? Says, this is your true and proper worship.
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Other translations say, this is your reasonable service. That one right there. I wish all the translations said that one. This is your reasonable service. I appreciate that one because our service to God is truly a reasonable thing.
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Would you agree with that? Faith in Christ, this is reasonable. I won't be standing here if the Christian faith was not a reasonable faith. This is more than reasonable. I came up with a few if then statements, okay, that I pulled from just these mercies of God.
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Would you hear some of these? So if the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus, then isn't our service to God reasonable? Isn't it? If there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus, isn't our service to God reasonable? Isn't it just logical?
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How about this? If together with Christ, we're heirs of his glory and this is his home he's welcoming us into. Then, isn't our service to God reasonable? I love that we have a reasonable God because quite honestly, church, we can be unreasonable people. Right?
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We can admit it. Admit it. Again, it's God's mercy. It's God's mercy that ought to compel us to voluntarily offer ourselves to God. This is our reasonable act of worship.
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But, ultimately, how does this all happen in the first place? How does it all happen? Can we just kinda will our way toward God and all these things just sort of magically happen? Friends, this is all work of God. It truly is.
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He's the one that does the drying, drying us to him, reasoning with us, showing his mercy. This is nothing short of a miracle. I I thought about that this week. I thought salvation is nothing short of a miracle that a holy God would invite us, unholy, unrighteous people to be his, to be his kids, to be his heirs. It's nothing short of a miracle that God would do this for us.
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And as we trust in the work of a cry and and the work of Christ, that's the key. Trusting in the work of Christ because he lived that perfect life that we couldn't live. He died that death. We should have died. We trust in him, and then we begin to yield our lives to him.
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Yield. God's spirit is born in us. Amen. It's boy. He's that spirit.
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That's it's it's in us now. And we're a new creation. And the old Carl's gone and the new Carl's come. And then we begin to walk in the spirit as we yield. Right?
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Day by day, moment by moment, we're yielding, yielding. Okay, God. Yep. This one's yours. I'm yielding.
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I'm yielding myself. Your will. Your will. Your will. And then he begins to transform the way that we think.
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He begins to renew our minds the way that we think and then the way that it comes out through our hands and feet. So we can do this right here. Last part of verse two. I'm getting close. I'm gonna wrap it up here.
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It's a short sermon. So we can test and approve what God's will is. His good, pleasing, and perfect will. A lot of us are asking the question, God, what is your will for my life?
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How many
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I mean, really, you think about How many of us ask, like, what do you want from me? What's your will for my life? A lot of us, we we'll spin in that question for a long time. What's your will? What do you call me to do?
47:32
Romans 12 is screaming it out, my friends. We are called to offer ourselves to God fully and freely first. That's the biggest question we can answer right there. And then all the other details in life, where do I live? And who do I marry?
47:50
Where do I retire? Should we go here? Should we go there? All those things. Those begin to fall in place after we fully and freely offered ourselves to God.
48:00
Don't get ahead. Don't get ahead of God. I would say that. And so, okay, I'm gonna do this, gonna do this, do this. Okay, God?
48:06
You're okay with that? Okay. But rather, God, as I'm yielding my will to yours, now what? What's this God honoring thing that I could do right now? You know?
48:21
Is this all making sense? I love this passage because I think it's pretty simply stated, and so I wanna I wanna simply state it. But offering ourselves fully and freely to God first, why should we do that? Because of the mercies of God. Plain and simple.
48:41
Why would we even offer ourselves to God in the first place? He is so merciful. Can I encourage you to read through Romans again? It was like a blessing. I was up until two in the morning last time.
48:58
Just reading Romans over and over and again, just kinda letting it sit with me, and I'm glad I did. It was worth it because of the mercies of God there. Again, how about an if then statement? If there's no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus, then isn't our service to God a reasonable thing? And how does this all happen in the first place?
49:25
Church is a sweet work of the Lord. It is a sweet work of the Lord. His spirit is born in us. He begins to renew our minds the way we think, and then we can test and approve what is good, pleasing, and perfect will is. Make sense?
49:46
Would you stay tuned? K? When Ray gets back, he's gonna get into all the tangible ways that gets this gets played out in the life of the believer. I love it. I love the application part of it because it's okay.
49:59
Because it's because it's very concrete. You know, here, this, this, this. But and I don't want this morning, I wanna rest on these three things. So if you would, please read whole chapter 12 this week. You'll be glad you did.
50:14
Everything that we, covered today, it's gonna come together, I promise. And you're gonna be jumping out of your seats next week because you're gonna be so excited to use the gifts that God has given you to serve him and to serve other people. That's my prayer anyway. So I'm gonna invite the worship team to come up for for one last song. And while they're coming up, let's pray let's pray together.
50:40
Okay? God, I am overwhelmed by your mercies. You say that your mercies are made new every day, and they truly are. And so I pause to thank you for your mercies. And I wanna thank you, God, for giving yourself fully and freely to us with no reservation.
51:04
Even when we weren't looking for you, You came and you gave your life for ours. Amen. And in view of that mercy, I pray that it would be really our privilege, our honor, our joy to willingly lead our or yield ourselves to you, that we would voluntarily give ourselves to you. I think of that verse in Romans that says, when we let the spirit control our minds, it leads to life and peace. And God, we are all looking for life and peace.
51:39
And you've given us the formula. It is found in you. And so God, would you do a good work in us? Would you stir up our hearts? Would you stir up our minds?
51:50
Would you sanctify us? If if we're feeling stale in this room, and would you remind us of your mercies once more? Because it is a reasonable thing to offer ourselves to you. And when we do, we find life, and we find joy, and we find freedom in the losing ourselves. So, God, this is my my honest, earnest prayer here for this church, for myself.
52:28
Do a good work, and we pray this in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. How about we stand up for one more hour?
52:39
Thank you, pastor Carl, for a wonderful sermon. Indeed. God is good, and he's merciful. Amen. What a fellowship.
52:48
What a joy divine leaning on the everlasting arms. Let's sing with all our hearts. Amen? Amen. I love to sing faster.
55:26
I don't know why. Sorry, Ben. I can't stop it.
55:31
How about this as a benediction? Can we say this together as a church in the whole, all those parts that were broken up, but right here as a whole. Let's say together. Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship.
55:56
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and prove what God's will is, is good, pleasing, and perfect. Amen.
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