Let's come to God and ask him to help us this evening as we look at God's Word. Let's pray. Loving Father, Almighty God, we thank you for this opportunity now to be able to come and look at your Word. Father, we do ask that you would draw close to us this evening as we seek to understand what you have to say to us. Father, we do pray that as we sing hymns, as we pray together, And as we hear your word, that you would be really speaking to each and every one of us. You know our hearts. There's nothing we can hide from you. Lord, we may try. We can certainly hide it from other people. But we cannot hide it from you. You know everything about us. And we ask, Lord, that you would speak to our hearts this evening. Lord, as we come before you, we do confess to you our sins, our shortcomings before you. Father, we have not thought as we should. We have not acted at times as we should have done. There are times, Orban, when we've spoken in anger or frustration. We have not shown love or patience to people. Father, you know our failings. Father, we thank you that your love is so great that you have provided the one to take away our sin. And we ask, Lord, as we come together this evening, that you would help us again to see your great love and your patience in the Lord Jesus Christ. Speak to us this evening. So, Father, we do pray for those who are on their way at the moment, those that are struggling to get here on time, we pray, Lord, that you'll give them a safe journey here. And, Lord, those who are unable to be here for whatever reason, maybe they are ill, Lord, we do pray that you would strengthen them and encourage them. We pray, Father, that though they may not be here in person but they'll be with us here in spirit as they pray and as they read your word while we're gathering here and so father please we commit this whole evening to you now speak to us we ask these things in jesus name amen well we turn to our reading tonight which is of romans romans chapter 11 and we'll be reading from verse 32 whenever I break into a passage it's always hard to know exactly where to come in but this is a helpful overlap as we're going to look at chapter 12 verse 32 for God has committed them all that's Israel to disobedience that he might have mercy on all. Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out! For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become his counsellor? Or who has first given to him? And it shall be repaid to him. For of him, and through him, and to him are all things, to whom be glory for ever. Amen. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service, and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is good and acceptable and pleasing will of God. I want to again thank you for this opportunity just to speak to you this evening and the plan certainly as it stands at the moment is that both tonight and in a month's time I will be opening up Romans chapter 12. I've been asked if I could bring something practical so as I've been praying over the last few months, again and again I felt this was the right passage to try to open up. Some weeks we're going to be, sometimes we're going to be looking at a number of verses, other times just the one, and we'll just see how it goes. So, we're going to be looking tonight at Romans chapter 12, verses 1 and 2. Well, John 3, verse 16. is often said to be the Gospel in a nutshell. Just that one sentence really encapsulates the very heart of the Gospel and shows us what is the correct response to the Gospel. Well, when we look at this passage before us, I like to call Romans 12, 1 and 2, if you like, the Christian life in a nutshell. That's what we have here, is the Christian life in a nutshell. And it's here that Paul reflects on all that he has already said about the Gospel, note the therefore in verse 1, but at the same time he's also leaning us forward and preparing us and showing us how we're to live in the light of the Gospel. In other words, how do we live now we are Christians, now we are his children, the children of God, and indeed the children of Abraham. How do we live in the light of that? Well, this evening then, I want us to grasp, if you like, three things that the Christian life is all about. Three, if you like, essential ingredients that, if we're going to explain to someone, very briefly, what is the Christian life all about, here are just three words for you. and if you like writing points down and you want to know how far we are in our 20 minutes then the first one is mercy. Christian life is about mercy, it is about sacrificial service and it is about change. Those are the three things that we clearly see in this passage and so I want us to try to open up that a little bit this evening. And so first of all then, the Christian life is about mercy, mercy. Look at verse one, I beseech you, therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, that, and so it goes on. Some people look at the world through rose-tinted spectacles, have you heard that expression before? They look at the world, maybe they look at the world through the lens of love, or political ideas, or some utopian dream, but whatever it is, it colours their whole thinking and their whole lives. They see it through those glasses. And if you look at the news recently, you never know in the future we might even be seeing the world through Google's attentive spectacles. The Google obviously interpreting the world for us as we look. Well the Christian, if you like, is to see the world through the lens of God's mercy. It is to colour everything we see. It is to affect our words and our actions and our thoughts. everything about us is to cry out to people, mercy, God's mercy to us and us reflecting that in our lives to others. But we need to of course ask the question, what do we mean by God's mercy? What do we mean by it? Well, we can certainly say that the word reflects God's great compassion and his love towards those who are helpless. In 2 Corinthians 1 verse 3 even, Paul says this, he praises God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, note how he refers to God, as the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. So we must, when we talk about mercy, we have to start there. We have to start at the God of all mercy and all comfort. And so, that therefore is there for a reason, and it points us back to Paul's argument right the way through the book of Romans. So if you can fasten your seatbelts, just want us to go on a very quick tour of Romans. We're not going to cover lots of references, so I don't want us to be flicking through. This is really as a refresher course and to remind us of some of the great themes in Romans and to see where it comes from. It's all of God's mercy. So, for instance, it is because of God's mercy that those in Rome were loved by God. and called to be saints. That's in Romans 1 verse 7. Now that is amazing simply because of this. It's amazing because when you consider the rest of that chapter, chapter 1 and 2, notice what we're like by nature. Jews and Gentiles deserve God's wrath. We're all failures before God. None of us deserve God's love. We deserve, in fact, God's anger for our willful rejection of him. Not just Gentiles, but Jews as well. Together we come under God's wrath. And so in the words of Romans 3 verse 20, no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law. It's because of God's mercy that righteousness has been made known, apart from the law. as can be seen from 3 verse 21 following and Paul wants us to understand here that all that has been promised in the past and proclaimed specifically from Abraham onwards is that God was calling a people to himself a people who could stand not on their own righteousness but on the one who was coming God's mercy, calling a people for himself throughout the ages. It's God's mercy that history has been heading somewhere. And so Jesus Christ came, the promised one, and that all those who are trusting in him, both before he arrived and afterwards, that's us, can know the joy of salvation. In fact, we are declared not guilty before God. and we were declared God's children on the count of the work of His Son. It's because of His mercy. We must never grow tired of this great theme that runs throughout, I was going to say throughout Romans, but really it's throughout God's Word, isn't it? It is all of God's mercy. We do not deserve any of God's kindness, any of His love, because all have sinned and fallen short of God's glory. And indeed, it's because of God's mercy that in Christ Jesus that all the blessings of salvation are open to us. And this is very much seen in Romans chapter 5 to 8. You know, we are given this sure and certain hope and that all we need has been provided for us. There are struggles we will go through in this world, but we haven't been left alone. No, not only do we have his word, God has given us this Holy Spirit living within us, and really Romans 8 is all about the Holy Spirit living within us, maybe not all about, but you know what I mean, it's the theme that runs throughout Romans 8, but it's because of God's mercy that God has done this for us, and then when we come on to the slightly more tricky chapters, of chapters 9 to 11 but there again it's all of God's mercy that God's plan was unstoppable and so in those chapters it is expounded for us God's mercy was not only to Israel but to the whole world that all the nations may taste and see of God's goodness and notice how it ends here We read it together, didn't we? For God has committed Israel all to disobedience, that he might have mercy on us all. It's all of God's mercy. God wants to show mercy, not just to Israel, but as he shows mercy to Israel, so that was to be a pouring out on all the nations through one man. blessing would come to all who believe. That was Jesus. And so, the point of all of this is that if we understand mercy, we'll then have the right approach to this chapter before us. We must never look at this practical chapter as, if you like, a to-do list on holiness. You know, if we want to be holy, then we've got to do this, and this, and this, and we kind of cross them off on our list. If that's our approach, then we will fall flat on our face, and we will fall into despair and discouragement. Rather, as we seek to be obedient to God, and as we fail, which invariably we will, we then have to go straight back to God's mercy, and remember our standing, not on our righteousness, but His righteousness. his perfect spanning. And so we need to remember then that the gospel is not a security blanket to hold on to, to give us comfort, nor is it some sort of insurance policy to have in times of problems. Rather, the gospel is really about transforming love. Transforming love, that's what the gospel is. it's to change us and to shape us and to mould us. And so, the question we need to ask ourselves is, are we reflecting God's mercy in our lives? Are we reflecting him? Because I remember, well I'm sure you've read it yourself, in Luke chapter 7 Jesus tells a story of two people who have both had their debts counselled from a certain moneylender, one very large and one very small, and Simon is asked a question, who's going to love me, who's going to love more, who's going to be more grateful for the debt that has been paid?" And he said, well of course the one with the bigger debt. And Jesus said, you've answered correctly, absolutely. So, those who have been loved much, will love much. And that's the challenge for us this evening. Do we reflect God's mercy in our lives? Are we critical and bitter and angry at people at times? we need to be shaped more and more by God's mercy, as we will see as we go through these next few verses. But let me move on, I'm aware of time, as another characteristic I wanted to focus on. We've seen mercy, well let's see now, sacrificial service, and Paul urges us here, by the mercies of God, that we are to present our bodies as and living sacrifice. Now the New Living Translation, no matter what you think of it, it spells out what it's teaching here. It says this, I plead with you all to give your bodies to God because of all that he has done for you. I think that spells it out very clearly, doesn't it? that we are to give our lives as a living sacrifice in the light of all that God has done. So can you see why mercy is so important? It flows through into this whole era of obedience and sacrificial service. But we do need to ask ourselves, of course, what does he mean by presenting our bodies a living sacrifice? It's a curious phrase, isn't it? And there's obviously a lot of Old Testament that Paul has in his mind that he's bringing out here. Remember he's been talking, the whole theme of the book is this contrast between the Jews and the Gentiles and all that we have in Christ. So here Paul obviously has in mind We're not to go down the line of the Old Testament sacrifices, no, there's something far better. Obviously Christ, the ultimate sacrifice, but in response to that, we too are to offer something. Not an animal, not money, but actually our whole lives, our whole body. And so we see that a living sacrifice here then means cost. A sacrifice is a strong term. we're to give our bodies, that means everything, as a sacrifice to God. And when an offering was given in the Old Testament, it was given, there was no going back. And there was no half-offerings either, you couldn't offer half a cow, it wasn't possible. Even the poor offering, they had to offer a pigeon, or a dove I should say, not a pigeon was it, a dove. But again, not half a dove, there was to be a completeness, a complete giving over. And so, for the Christian life, we have been redeemed, we have been bought with a price. That means we're no longer our own possession. We need to give our all in response to God. And remember the hymn, I think we're going to sing it later, When I survey the wondrous cross, Well, I've always been so touched by those last words, were the whole realm of nature mine, that were a present far too small, or an offering far too small. Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my... half? No, no, no, my all! Absolutely, sorry. Absolutely. We're to give everything. That's the whole point of the hymn. In the light of the cross, we have to give it all. And that's what he's talking about here. Living sacrifice means cost. It also means a life lived for God. Notice the description here that this sacrifice is to be living. It's a living sacrifice and therefore the sacrifice of our life is to go on having value to God. And so as we live our lives here and as we seek to serve Him in every way, what we see here is that God is pleased with our lives as we give it to Him. He is pleased. It says here, what is acceptable, and that doesn't mean in the sense that it's acceptable in the sense that it's possible, you know, it would just about do. That's not the meaning of these words here. They're acceptable in the sense that it's pleasing to God. it's on that ground and so we're to offer our lives in response to all that God has done and God is pleased with it as we give him his all and yet we're told here that it is to be your reasonable service now there is some debate as to what that word means it literally is our logical service here and this is where the New King James here has gone, it's taken it that way. And that's fine. It simply means in the light of all that God has done, this is what we should be doing as spiritual rescue saved creatures. It's the only thing we should be doing, giving our all to God. But the more important word here is this word service or worship. Now we often think of church services, and this is where we view our time together as an act of worship, of service to God, and I'm sure Paul would not disagree with that, but Paul would also, I believe, make sure that we're aware that it's not just Sundays and Wednesday nights that is our service to God, it's everything. It's looking after the children or the grandchildren, it's seeking to talk to your neighbours and being a witness and helping them. It is going to work and spending time with people in the office and living a consistent whole-hearted Christian life there and living out God's mercy. That's what it is to give our lives as a living sacrifice to God. It is wherever we work it is being a witness to Him. And so we see here then that the Christian is not to have little compartments in their life. I mean, we do this, don't we? This is church, this is home, this is personal time, this is work time. And we kind of divide our time up like that. But we've got to start seeing that actually our whole life is God's time. Everything we do. And so we can work with all our heart at work knowing that it is actually for the Lord, it's the Lord that we're serving. We need to remember this and of course yes, meeting together on Sundays and during the week is part of our service too because we're to build one another up, we're to encourage one another and that's what we're seeking to do this evening. Well we've seen mercy, we've seen costly sacrifice and lastly Verse 2, let us see, the Christian life is about transformation or change. I don't know about you, but I'm very impatient. I really struggle at times. I'm the type of person that I would, if I plant some seeds in the garden, I would leave them there for a week and if they're not growing, I'm actually out in the garden and I'm digging them up to see what's happening to them. Have they started growing yet? And my point is that we mustn't have that attitude when it comes to the Christian life. Change can be fast, and praise God that it can be. We've been transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. That's fast, that's great, and that's God at work, absolutely. But as that works out in every area of our life, so it takes time. I believe there is this time element here in this passage. Do not be conformed or shaped to the mould, the pattern of this world, but we are to be transformed or go on being transformed by the renewing of your mind. We praise God that we're not what we once were if we're in Christ, but we're certainly not what we should be as yet. We're still a work in progress. and that goes for preacher and hearer alike. We're not finished creations, well we are in Christ, but that work hasn't been totally complete yet. God is still at work and there is room for growth, room for change in each and every one of us. And so we see here that there will be a change in behaviour. We're no longer to live for this world, this world is facing judgement. And we're not to live for the image and the pattern and what the world is living for. We're not to be shaped to the pattern of what the world is heading for. Instead, we're to live for the new life we have in Christ. That new life, that new reality in Christ is to increasingly break in and to change us. And that is seen by this renewed mind, a mind that can start to discern what is right because he's written his law on our hearts by his spirit, quoting from the Old Testament prophets. But that's what God is doing. He is changing us and he's shaping our minds so that we can think the way we should be thinking as God works in us. Once God gave us over to a depraved mind and we lived in a crooked and depraved generation, as indeed Israel was as well. But in Christ we have been set free and we have been given a new mind and God is working in us. And so we can start to see God's purposes at work as he changes us. But this will take time. Think of a lady that I've been seeing for the last few months now, a lady let's call her Sarah. And Sarah, she was brutally assaulted by a partner, and she was forced to live in a care home away from her children. She's less than 25, very young, and she certainly professes to be a believer, and yet her question constantly is, why did this happen? I don't understand it. I don't get it. Why did God put me in this state where I can't even care for myself, let alone my children? And it was a real privilege just to be able to share with her that we trust in the Sovereign God. Though we cannot answer everything, as we look at our lives and as we can stand back at times, we can see that God has his purposes. And I shared with her the one that the story of Esther Childress you may have heard about her and at 11 she was diagnosed with bone cancer and she was living a life away from God but because of her illness she came to faith and at her baptism she was able to say these great words I thank God that he made me ill because God has worked in my life. That's a renewed and renewing mind because God helped us to see that as she saw God at work and that's what we long to see in each of us, isn't it? That acceptance, that trust in God, that dependence upon Him as He changes us. So for each of us then, may we continue to see this change in our lives as we go on giving our lives in response to what He has done for us. Don't be discouraged. There's lots of things that can discourage us, I'm aware of that. But just look at those three things here. Mercy, it's all of God. Sacrifice, it's nothing compared to the greatest sacrifice of all, the Lord Jesus for us. And change. One day this whole world's going to be changed. Twentieth of an eye, then we will see everything as we should. Let us give ourselves completely to the Gospel. Let us give ourselves completely to Christ our King, our Saviour and our Lord. May the Lord help us. So Lord we thank you for your many blessings to us as individuals and as a church and we look forward to your word on Sunday. We pray you be with Pray as he prepares even now, thank you for his commitment to serve you in various different places and Lord we pray that the day on Sunday might be a really blessed day where we might see one or more coming to know you for the first time if we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.