If you would please open your Bibles to Romans 12. Romans 12. This is God's Word. Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer 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. For by the grace given to me, I say to every one of you, do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ, we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve. If it is teaching, let him teach. If it is encouraging, let him encourage. If it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously. If it is leadership, let him govern diligently. If it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully. Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil. Cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality. Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice. Mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath. For it is written, it is mine to avenge. I will repay, says the Lord. On the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he's thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. May God add his blessing to this reading from his holy and inspired word. Paul follows a pattern here that is typical of his letters, and that is, in the first part of the letter, he typically sets forth the gospel, what God has done for us. And then having carefully laid that foundation, he begins to talk about the application of the gospel, and that is how we need to live in light of what God has done. Christian conduct is a grateful response to what God has done for us Paul begins this chapter and remember there were no chapter divisions when the letter was written Those were added much much later by Bishop Usher trying to help us find things which is very helpful tool, but if you lose track of of the fact that it all is supposed to flow together, then you're going to miss a lot of the meaning. So Paul begins this chapter by saying, therefore, whenever you see the word, therefore, what are you supposed to remember? What is the therefore, therefore? Remember that it is based on something that's gone before. So when we start a chapter with the word, therefore, we're immediately supposed to call to mind what has gone before. And what has gone before is, oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable His judgments and His paths beyond tracing out. Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has ever been His counselor? Who has ever given to God that God should repay Him? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen. Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This is your spiritual act of worship. The King James says, this is your reasonable service. It just makes sense. It's the right thing to do. In light of what God has done for us, how could we not want Him to be in charge of our lives? How could we not want Him, who gave His life for us, to now live His life through us? So in response to God's mercy, we offer our bodies living sacrifices now, I love the fact that Paul says offer your bodies I Would have said if I were writing this offer your life as a living sacrifice Because to me the word life is more inclusive. It's not just my body. It's my thoughts my emotions. It's everything It's my time it's all But Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, says exactly what needed to be said. And that is, offer your bodies. Because now, all of a sudden, it gets very practical. You see, I can sit around all day offering my life, in a theoretical sense, to God. I'd say, oh, yes, God, I'm yours, do with me what you will. And God says, I want you to go and preach in Ukraine. And I say, I'm sorry, but I'm busy. I have work to do here. I am way too busy to go to Ukraine. I believe the year was 1993, sometime around then. We had just started the ranch. And some Ukrainians were urging me to please go to Ukraine. I didn't even know exactly where Ukraine was on the map. I just knew it was somewhere over there in the former Soviet Union. And I would have missed the opportunity of a lifetime. But I'd offered my body to God as a living sacrifice. And so when I realized finally, after God's patiently dealing with me for weeks, when I realized finally that God was in fact telling me to go to Ukraine, I had to go. And if you and I want to be obedient, it's going to involve our bodies. We can't just be obedient on a spiritual level, on an intellectual level, on an emotional level. We have to be obedient on a physical level. And let me tell you, what we do with our bodies matters to God. There were those in New Testament times who saw such a split, or the word typically used, add this to your vocabulary list, is dichotomy, such a split between the body and the non-material self that they really felt they could do pretty much whatever they wanted with their body as long as their spirit was good, because the body is fading away, it's temporal, this came out of Greek thought. And Paul just absolutely blows that to pieces. Again, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he says, you need to offer your body to God as a living sacrifice. Now think about that next phrase, living sacrifice. It's a living sacrifice. Have you ever wished you could just die and get it over with? Probably you young people, not so much. I don't, I'm not walking around all the time wishing I could die, but when I get the flu, Stomach flu. Sinus stuff I can battle for weeks. But when I get stomach flu and I feel like everything on the inside wants to be on the outside, I just wish the Lord would take me. I'm not hoping this will stop. I'm hoping I will stop. I just want it to be done. I just hate suffering. Oh, I hate suffering. And so there are times when I think, yeah, martyrdom, I could handle that, preferably with a bazooka to the head. Okay? If I was put in a situation where, you know, it's deny your faith or we're gonna kill you, I would say, Jesus is Lord! Because I want him to go ahead and send me to heaven! I'd love to go! But God calls us to be living sacrifices. That means to have a lifestyle of dying to self. and living in the power of the spirit, not focused on how I'm feeling today. See, I can get so ramped up. I don't think there's anybody on the planet, unless it's possibly President Obama, who is more capable of being totally focused on themselves than I am. Okay? I mean, I'm just so easily preoccupied with moi. And God calls me to lay that down over and over and over and over. To die to self and live as a living sacrifice whose body is completely yielded to God so that He's in charge. I answer to Him regarding my nutrition. I answer to Him regarding my schedule. I answer to Him regarding where I go and what I do. God cares because my body, along with the rest of me, belongs to Him. and I have to live as a living sacrifice. Holy, that means totally His. Holy and acceptable to Him. That is intelligent worship. That is reasonable service. That is what we are called for. This is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world. I love the way J.B. Phillips paraphrased that. He said, do not let the world squeeze you into its mold. Did you know that there is a pattern in this world, a way that people do things, a way that people live, an attitude that permeates life? It surrounds us. I don't care where you are on the planet. There is a world system that teaches us to be selfish, that teaches us to be focused on what I want so that our basic attitude is get out of my way or help me get where I'm going. It's all me and I've got to die to that and so do you. So that we are no longer conformed to the world system. Don't let the world around you squeeze you into its mold. No longer conform to the pattern of this world. Now that tells you that you were formerly Conforming to the pattern of the world. All of us were, it's not like, Hey, what's wrong with you? You, you seem worldly. When I was growing up, my parents were extreme fundamentalists. God bless them. And one of the terms that was part of their subculture was the term worldly. We needed to be different than the world not conformed to the pattern of the world so basically whatever the world was doing that was worldly and so I Mean it was a guarantee of weirdness Okay, we weren't really spiritual unless we stuck out like a sore thumb and And so whatever was fashionable at the time, we needed to be a few years behind, okay? That's not what this is talking about. That was a poor attempt on the part of some fundamentalists to try to do this, but they did it in a way that was most unfortunate and simply undercut the credibility of the witness of many people. But what has the pendulum done? Evangelicals have been delivered from fundamentalism. And now, we are desperately trying to be up with the times. And so, our preachers need to have spiked hair like Baby Huey. And they need to wear biker shirts to preach in. Because we desperately want to look like we're cool. Now let me tell you something. If God saved you out of a biker culture, Therefore you're still wearing your biker shirts. I've got no problem with that but when a guy who grew up wearing button-down Oxfords and going to a Bible college somewhere Then decides in order to reach people. He's got to try and look like a biker dude That's just pathetic Do you understand? because it's still trying to conform to the pattern of the world and It's, oh, what are they doing? I've got to fit in. No, our goal should not be to fit in or to look odd. Our goal should be to be like Jesus. What does God want me to do? It really doesn't matter if you're wearing a biker shirt or a coat and tie if your motive is trying to be cool. It stinks. You understand? So part of offering your body as a living sacrifice is realizing that the consequence of obedience is that you're not necessarily gonna fit in with the world around you because it has a pattern that is headed toward destruction and you are supposed to be leading people to Jesus. If God tells you to wear a biker shirt, wear one. If God tells you to wear a coat and tie, wear one. Just do what He says. Be obedient. You say, well, frankly, Pastor, I don't recall God ever giving me fashion tips. Well, that's fine. You just say, God, I'm willing to do whatever You want. You tell me what You want me to do and I'll do it. And if He gives you any fashion tips, you obey. And if He doesn't, wear what you want. Is that clear? Don't worry about it. But if you haven't yielded that, if it's like, oh, I'm afraid if I really yield myself to the Lord, I'll look like a square. My response would be SpongeBob's popular. Oh, but poor corn jokes. I hate these corny jokes. He's so corny. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. God wants to transform your life as your mind is renewed and His Word is what renews our minds. We study His Word so that our minds will be renewed. The consequence of having a renewed mind is you have a transformed life. You live differently in light of what you now know. And you know the truth because of what God says in His Word. If you do that, if you offer your body as a living sacrifice, totally devoted to Him, and you have your mind renewed so that your life is transformed and you're no longer trying to fit into the pattern of this world, then you'll be able to test and approve what God's will is. You see, you can't even experience God's will when you're not willing to surrender to whatever He says. People ask me often, how do I know what God wants me to do? And my response is, the first thing you need to do is write God a blank check every day. Write God a blank check every day, and that is, God, I'm yours, do with me what you want. I'll go wherever you say, I'll do what you please, I'm yours. If you're yielded to him, fully yielded to him so that you'll do whatever God says, then he'll do whatever he has to in order to show you what he wants you to do. But if you're saying, God, listen, I've been looking at this situation, I'm willing to do this, I'm willing to do this, and I'm willing to do this, which of those three should I do? Well, good luck with that. Because even if God does want you to do one of those things, your attitude stinks. You're giving God the options that are acceptable to you and saying, I'm willing to do any of these three things right here. And God, I want to leave the final choice up to you. That would be like taking God out for dinner and saying, God, you can order anything from this column right here on the menu. Okay? Well, some people say, well, that's pretty good. That's some pretty expensive stuff there in that column. But you see, God might say, what if I want something from this column? Oh, no, we don't get anything from that column. Well, what if I'd rather just have a salad? No, no, no, no, no, not going to do that. Well, what if I didn't really want to go to this restaurant? Well, what exactly did you have in mind? Let me tell you, before you take God into the restaurant of your choice and show him the things you like on the menu and ask him to choose one, ask God what he'd like to do today. You want to go out to eat or you want to stay home? God, what do you want? Because I'm yours. It's all yours, Lord. Nothing's off the table. It's all on the table. It's all yielded to you. If you do that, then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is. And you know what you'll discover about the will of God? It's good, pleasing, and perfect. The will of God is actually good. A lot of people think the will of God is scary, I'm afraid if I yield my life to God that God is going to do something really weird. I'll have to wear my hair like Pastor Wood. And I'll have to stand up in front of crowds and preach. And I do not want to do either of those things. Well, it would be a bad look for you girls, but... I'm just telling you, if your goal is to do the will of God, whatever that might be, you will discover as you yield to Him that His will for you is good. It's really good. It turns out God knows you better than you do. And it turns out God knows the future. which you and I don't. And it turns out God has the power to work all the details for the good of those who love Him and who are called according to His purpose. And He's busy doing that right now. So we don't have to be afraid that if we, you know, I really want this, I really want this, please God, please, please give me what I want, please. God says, you know, I have something better for you. I could tell you a lot of stories, but let me just tell you about one. Years ago, when I was pastoring on Cape Cod, I came home from a deacon's meeting that had been so frustrating, so discouraging, those guys just weren't getting it. And I came home and I said to my wife, I am tired of this. And she said, what do you mean? I said, I would like to leave this church and just go be on staff somewhere where I don't have all the responsibilities for everything all the time. I said, right now, everything falls on me. I'm in charge of all of it. And I'm trying to get these folks on board doing things, and I'm just getting worn out. I'm telling you, I'd just like to go be on staff somewhere. And she said, like where? And I named a church. I mean, this was just a very fluid conversation. It wasn't a plan I'd come up with or something I'd been thinking about a lot. It was just, you know, I just named a church that I thought of where I'd known a guy who was on staff, and he made more money than I did, and lived in a bigger house, and he owned the house, and mine was a rental house. I mean, I just thought this is, his situation is more enviable than mine, and he works 40 hours a week. 40 hours a week, that's it. As a pastor, I worked about 60 hours a week, plus was on call the rest of the time. Somebody ODs at two o'clock in the morning, I'm there before the ambulance arrived, literally. Literally. I mean, being a pastor is not an easy thing, just so you know. So, I named a church where this other guy had been. And I think in the back of my head, I knew that he had left that church and gone on to some bigger church with more money. And so I knew there was a vacancy there. And I just thought in the moment how enviable that situation would be. And she said, really? And I said, well, yeah, I'm just using that as an example. But yes, the next day I got a call asking if I might be interested in going to that church, which was like, I think, an hour and a half, two hours away. The next day, I got a telephone call. I couldn't believe it. I thought, this has got to be God. God heard what I said, and he's offering me this opportunity. And it turns out the opportunity was better than I thought. They were wanting to bring in an associate pastor to this very affluent, upscale, prestigious church. The associate pastor would preach three months in the summer while the pastor was on sabbatical, senior pastor. Every summer, he had three months off, senior pastor did. Talk about nice. And for those three months, the associate would be in charge with the idea of grooming him toward the position of eventually being the senior pastor. Radio ministry, ministering to some of the most prestigious people in new England. I mean, big shots, corporation heads, big deal. They had a conference center. It was all paid for. They had a sanctuary and education building that was from the 1700s and totally modernized, state-of-the-art, and still looked antique. I mean, this was nice. It was my dream. And I said, yes, I'd be willing to pray about that. Because that's what they asked is would I be willing to consider it. And of course, I didn't say to them, Would I? Would I? I said, yes, I'd be willing to pray about that, certainly. You know, I'm a spiritual person, always open to whatever God wants, you know. I'd be willing to pray about that. And so they sent me this stuff and I read about it and it was exciting, it was wonderful, it was so good. And I said to the Lord, because I thought I ought to bring him in on it. I said, isn't this great? And God said something along the lines of, well, this is what you wanted, isn't it? And there was just something about his tone that was unsettling to me, OK? There was just something about God saying, you want this? I can do this for you. Is this what you want? And I kind of got the feeling that maybe it wasn't the will of God for my life. And so I made a list of all of the reasons why it would be good to go to that church. And all the reasons why it would be good to stay where I was. And it turned out all the reasons that I had to go to that church were about me. They were selfish. I had more money, more convenient, closer to my relatives, closer to Children's Hospital. That's good for my son, but he's not really the one who has to drive. I mean, all these things, it just seemed so good for me. And then I looked at what were my reasons for staying on Cape Cod. And none of them were about me. They were all about others. And I thought, okay, so this kind of looks selfish, doesn't it? And this kind of looks like taking up your cross and following Jesus. Okay, God, if You want me to stay on Cape Cod, I'll stay on Cape Cod. God said, really? I said, yeah, God, You're in charge. I'll do whatever You want. But God says, you can go there if you want to. I said, well, God, I just want to do what you want me to do. God said, then you need to stay here. You understand what we're talking about? In light of God's mercy, offer your body as a living sacrifice. That means you're going to die to self day after day and not get it over with. It's going to be ongoing. Take up your cross. Deny yourself. Yield to Him. That's what we're called to. That's what we're called to. So, when you do that, you'll discover that God's will for your life is good. And it's acceptable. It's pleasing. And it's perfect. It's absolutely perfect. I want you to know that if I had gone to that church and become the associate pastor, I might have ended up as the senior pastor and made a lot of money and had a lot of prestige and gotten an honorary doctorate. And today I would be shivering in New England, surrounded by a bunch of very liberal people. whose political views would drive me to be bald from having ripped my hair out of my head. I would be a very honorable, respectable, affluent nut job. I think it would have driven me crazy. And God in his mercy kept me on Cape Cod until God in his mercy called me to go to a church in Atlanta so that God in his mercy could give me this land in Tennessee and allow me to fulfill the vision that he put in my heart when I was a teenager. Turns out God's will for our lives is good and pleasing and perfect. It's absolutely perfect. It's not always what we choose, not always what we think we want, but it turns out God knows better than we do what's going to make us happy. And God absolutely wants to bless his children. He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things? What are you afraid of? That God doesn't love you enough? He loved you enough to send Jesus. That God wouldn't be lavish enough in His giving? What could be more lavish than sending His Son? He loves us more than we can imagine. Whatever His will is for us, even if it's not what we would choose, it's perfect. It's perfect. It's perfect. But you'll only discover that when you offer Him everything, including your body, and you do it. in response to the mercy that he showed us when he sent Jesus to save us. That's what this is about. Let's pray. Father, thank you so much for loving us so perfectly. Thank you so much for giving us your Son. Help us, we pray, to trust and obey, and we will be careful to give you the praise. In Jesus' name, amen.