A Reasonable Response to the Mercies of God

In one paragraph

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. 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...

Read together

1. Romans 12:1 core text: offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God
2. Romans 12:2 core text: be transformed by the renewing of your mind to know God's good, pleasing and perfect will
3. Romans 6:13 cited as best definition of offering ourselves as living sacrifices: give yourselves completely to God as instruments of righteousness
4. Proverbs (unspecified verse) quoted in prayer: to fear God is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge of God is understanding
5. 1 John 4:19 cited as favorite short verse on why we love God, because He first loved us

Talk about it

1. 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?
2. 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?
3. Carl read through a string of mercies from Romans and then asked, 'Why shouldn't we offer ourselves to God?' Is there a mercy from that list that hit you personally this morning, and why that one?
4. Carl talked about Diane's realization that she was not a sponge, that God fills us so we can ring out. Where in your own life do you find it hardest to move from receiving God's grace to actively giving yourself to others?
5. Carl said that when we offer ourselves fully and freely to God first, the other big questions in life, where to live, who to marry, what work to do, begin to fall into place. Do you agree with that, and what has your own experience looked like when you have or have not started there?