So I chose these verses this morning from the book of Romans chapter 12. I'm going to preach on the first two verses, they're well known to us, but it seemed to be in keeping with The teaching we've been getting on the narrow road and what it actually looks like, what it feels like to be on the narrow road. How can we expect that we're on it? How can we know? How specific a path is this? Well, the Apostle Paul tries to make it as specific as he can without laying down a new law. But this chapter of Romans tends to give us another view of that. And so I'll begin reading verses 1 and 2, and I'll read on down through. I'll read down through the whole chapter. just to put it in its context. And these chapters are about the church and God's people. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, 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 that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them. If prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith. Or ministry, let us use it in our ministering. He who teaches, in teaching. He who exhorts, in exhortation. He who gives. with liberality, he who leads with diligence, he who shows mercy with cheerfulness. Let love be without hypocrisy, abhor what is evil, cling to what is good, be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another. not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer, distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality, bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion. Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. And if it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath, for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. Therefore, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him a drink. For in so doing, you'll heap coals of fire upon his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Let's all pray together. Our Heavenly Father, indeed, this is the ideal picture of your church worshiping, living, and loving together, O Lord. We ask that you would cleanse us from all evil, forgive us for our sins, O Lord. Purge us from all unrighteousness. Let the Holy Spirit live in our lives and direct us according to these truths. According, O Lord, to these great truths, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. So I read the chapter, I want the verses to be in context. chapter about body life and if we know the book of Romans we'll recognize that Paul is giving us the application here to all of the doctrines previously unfolded in the first 11 verses so let's look at verse 1 here where the apostle writes I beseech you therefore brethren I beseech you by the mercies of God. You notice you don't command someone by the mercies of God? You can command someone by the law of God, but by the mercies of God, the Apostle beseeches us. He wants us to consider the mercy of God, and for the mercy and the love that God has shown us, He wants that to be enough to motivate us to obey God. Not just that we obey in fear, although that's part of it, but He's reaching out to us according to the mercy of God, saying, God has shown you great mercy, let this be. an impetus for you to serve God and one another the way God has served us. So by the mercies of God, he beseeches the brethren, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And so we've come to this place in this great treatise, the Epistle to the Romans. It's perhaps the most complete doctrinal statement in all of the scriptures. It concerns the gospel and the church and the New Testament. It's been called a great sermon, as I have said. It's been called that by some because it begins with doctrine and it ends with this great application of how to walk. And so here, he says, present your bodies. In other words, I have fed your minds. I have cleansed your minds with the washing of the water by the word. And now it's time to stand and act and be seen as a child of God. show up, take a stand, present your bodies a living sacrifice, you see. And so it's been said that regarding doctrine in these first 11 chapters, great statement from Gresham Machen who makes it so plain to us, he says, Jesus died, that's history. Jesus died for our sins, that is doctrine. So to teach of historical events with their spiritual significance is doctrine. And this is what Paul has done from chapter 1 to chapter 11 of this great epistle. The Apostle gives us the meaning of the historical events that have been recorded in Scripture, from original sin through Adam, one of the fundamental doctrines of our faith, that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. He speaks of original sin, and he shows us the example that Adam was historically, and that his life was, and he binds it with the significance of Adam's life. And so we have the doctrine, you see, of original sin. He teaches us on the meaning of covenant through the life of Abraham and Abraham's walk with God. He teaches us on election in the book of Romans as is done nowhere else in scripture and he illustrates this great doctrine with the lives of Jacob and Esau. He speaks of the law of God given by Moses and uses the life of Moses to illustrate this and once again explains to us the significance of the law, you see, to the people of Israel. And then he talks of the grace of God, as taught by Jesus Christ in this new time, where the Apostle has become the great spokesman, you see. For as John the Apostle himself had written in his gospel, for the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. And so the Apostle is leading up. He's taking these Roman Christians, you see. And He's teaching them the Scriptures, the ones that were available to them, what we call the Old Testament. And He's showing them the significance of those Scriptures, and prophesying and explaining the life of Christ, and how Christ was indeed the fulfillment of that. He's explaining to the church what their faith must be, you see. So the stories of the Hebrew Scriptures the great apostle teaches, these most profound and foundational doctrines that comprise what is now the Christian faith. Now maybe he takes this time and writes this complete treatise on doctrine because the Roman Church wasn't a church that Paul founded. He wasn't there to personally teach, so he took the time to have his secretary, Tertius, who claims to be the actual scribe, if you will, of this letter, to teach them all these fundamental teachings. Many believe Paul never visited this Roman Church, though near the end of the epistle he does greet 26 people by name. whom we must have known from missionary journeys. And perhaps this is the reason that it is His desire to give them this complete doctrinal statement, an excellent exegesis of the Old Testament, and certainly we're the beneficiaries of this great teaching as well. And so we have this letter, and it reads like this great sermon from a great preacher. And we've come to the section where the preacher is making his application. You know, he has just told us in chapter 10 that the... that... Faith is by hearing, that hearing is by the Word of God. And how shall they hear, he says, without a preacher? And so he gives us this great call that the Word of God must be proclaimed and preached. And then he goes on to tell us there are gifts. The Holy Spirit actually gives us gifts. Gifts are powers to do specific things. And he gifts certain people with the power of prophecy and preaching, you see, to teach the Word of God. to these Roman Christians. And he's telling them the gifts are diverse and there's many gifts and all the people of God are necessary, contributing the gifts into this great body. And he's very excited, you see, to teach them about their lives in the church, you see. And so he's urging the faithful to put their doctrine into action. He's calling on them to live their faith and to walk in it, to let their light so shine among men, if you will. that they might see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. He's dealt with their minds and their intellects. He's armed them with proper teaching and the mind of Christ. And Paul's given them an understanding of the sacred scriptures in regard to their calling, teaching them from Genesis, as I have said, from the stories of Jacob and Esau, that they are the elect of God, that they've been chosen to be the sons of God. And he writes to them saying, in chapter 9, for they are not all Israel who are of Israel, nor are they all children, because they are the seed of Abraham. But in Isaac your seed shall be called. That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as the seed. So once again, he gives us this great distinction, this great distinction that there are children of the flesh, and there are children of the promise. And he's showing us that distinctively these are two different houses, if you will, two different peoples. And so as Paul is giving these Roman believers a complete gospel teaching. Some have called it the gospel according to Paul, and so it is. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, a great poet, called it the most profound book in existence. Luther referred to Romans as the chief part of the New Testament and the very purest gospel, saying it can never be pondered too much, and the more it is dealt with, the more precious it becomes and the better it tastes. And so it is with the Word of God. And so it is with all the things of God. And so it must be with the Church. The more we know about the Church, the more we should love the Church and exalt the Church. Because Christ loved the Church and exalts the Church in this world. And so it is with all the things of God. The more we ponder the Church, the more precious she should become in our sight. Think about the church. The apostle says, we were the foolish things of the world, the off-scouring of the world, the weak and beggarly things of the world. We were sin stained. But by God, by an act of God, a loving act by the mercy of God, He made the foolish wise, and He made the weak strong, and He made the sin-stained clean and right before God, you see. And once again, our Creator God makes something from nothing. So the more we ponder the church, the greater she should become in our sight. And we must have a very high regard for the church for whom Christ died, you see. We must love the church because Christ loves the church and died for her. We must learn how to conduct ourselves in regard to the church of God. And so what does he do here? He's given us our doctrine, our theory, if you will. And it's time to test our theory, to put it to test in our lives. He's expanded and enlightened our minds, and so now he calls upon us to present our bodies. He's dealt with Christian doctrine, with Christian character, and now he seeks to deal with Christian conduct, you see. He's fed the inner man for eleven chapters, and now he seeks to see the fruit in the outward man. He's taught us the excellent privileges of grace, the precepts of faith, and of being the object of God's love. He's taught us the condition of the Christian life, and now He calls us to consecrate our lives to God. And so just as we've seen in the words of Moses who calls us to a decision at a crossroads, so Paul brings us to this crossroads as well. All good preaching brings us to a crossroads. It brings us to a place where we have to decide to go one way or the other, you see, to serve God or to serve mammon. To serve God or to serve the gods of the Amalekites on the other side of the river, as Joshua said. To choose life or to choose death. We always come to this great crossroads, this great distinction. And that's the purpose of good preaching. And so as Moses said, I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you that I've set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore choose life that both you and your descendants may live. And so as Moses calls us to a crossroad, so does the Apostle calling us to decisive action here, you see. Just as we heard Joshua's challenge at the end of the book of Joshua. He calls us to service as well. He says, choose you this day whom you will serve. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. And so Joshua was willing to stand up and be a leader of those who choose this right road. And just as we hear our Savior call us to choose and to act on what we say we believe, He gives us a crossroads. He says, enter by the narrow gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction. And there are many who go in by it, because narrow is the gate, and difficult is the way which leads to life. And there are few who find it. have this great apostle calling the church again to decisive action. What will you be? How will you make yourself appear to this sin-cursed world? Will you appear like them or will you be not conformed to this world? Which will you be? And as with all godly teaching and preaching, there's a charge to act upon what you now have come to know. And so Paul gives us this great command, if you will. Present your bodies, he writes. Present your bodies. You know, we so often think of worship as something spiritual. But here, the Apostle lets us know it's something physical. In other words, if you're truly going to worship God, the first thing you have to do is present your body to God. Consecrate your body, you see. What's another way of saying present your body? How about, you have to show up. You have to be there. You have to be visible and physical and able to be counted. So present your bodies, he writes. So the first charge to the newly informed Christian is simply to show up. To be there when you're needed. To be there at the appointed time. Now, I know all about this showing up. You see, I'm a contractor. I've been a contractor most of my life. And there's a great stigma we suffer. Great persecution among all the contractors, you see. Because there's this great lie that contractors don't show up. You give them the money and then they disappear and don't answer the phone, you see. And it's always difficult to get over this stigma. the other contractors and put upon those of us who are good and holy contractors, you see. You know, sometimes you have to prove yourself as a contractor. I had one client, his name was Jerry Sapphire. He and his wife were both Jewish lawyers. And if you ever had any sort of stereotype in your mind about Jewish lawyers, this was double that. Because they were married. And I did all this work with them. They were one of my best clients. They loved me. And Jerry Sapphire told all his friends I was the best contractor he ever knew. And he told me one time, they said, but Jerry, why is Dan Kassiri such a great contractor? And Jerry Sapphire would say, he shows up. He said, Dan, if they ever had an award ceremony for contractors, he said we would hear. The award givers say something like, we will now honor Daniel J. Kassiri with our most prestigious contractor award. He showed up. And Jerry Sapphire would go, he showed up. He was so glad. I'm going to tell you something. I'm going to tell you something. Showing up is a big portion of the battle. You've got to be there when it's time to serve God and his people. You've got to present your body. So believe me, nothing will happen to you until you show up for service. So you have to begin there. Now there's a time limit for showing up. You understand? You have to show up and offer service to God and the church while you are still alive. Paul says, present your bodies a living sacrifice. It isn't like, oh, I'll be there, you know, when I get real close to death, then I'll serve God. You know, until then I'm going to just have it my own way. No, Paul says there's a time limit. You've got to show up and you've got to do it while you're alive. A living sacrifice, you see. And I sometimes wonder about some of the early Christians who might have missed the worship service in the upper room on the day of Pentecost. I wonder what their excuses might have been. Or those who came late. Could you imagine those who came late and just missed the Holy Spirit rushing into the room like the sound of mighty winds? And someone saying, Oh Bob! Or rather, Oh Bobbus! You just missed it! What do you mean I missed it? You know a few moments ago, each of us was wearing a celestial flame over our heads! Just for being here! We showed up! And we got tongues of fire! Jesus said, Terry! And I said, guess what? That means hang out! I'm real good at that! So 120 disciples went and they just hung out. They didn't have to be super spiritual. They just had to show up and they got a tongue of fire on their head. Think about it. And think about the 121st disciple who didn't show up. You know that never happened again. I've never heard of that happening ever again. You know? So imagine. Showing up is a big part of it. It might never happen again. The thing that happens today that God does among his people might never happen again. Show up and be expected. There was no special order of religious rites to receive a tongue of fire on your head that day. You just had to be in attendance and you were honored with fire. So first we must present ourselves to God. Our minds have been consecrated and cleansed with the washing of the water by the word and now we must show the fruit of our newly informed, freshly empowered faith by decisive outward action. So your bodies must be presented while living, Paul writes, and then he says they must be holy. A footnote in Calvin's commentaries explains this. He makes the point very clear. by showing that the apostle is comparing the living sacrifice of a born-again believer to the dead sacrifices under the law of Moses. And so we read in this footnote, it was not sufficient, Calvin writes, under the law for the sacrifices themselves to be holy. In other words, you could do all the right things with the sacrifice, but that was never enough for God in order for Him to accept your sacrifice. It was not sufficient that the sacrifice, the dead thing you're offering to God, it wasn't enough that that be prepared in a holy, consecrated, lawful manner, you see. It wasn't enough that they just be blameless. such as God required. But there was something more, he writes, but a right motive and a right healing on the part of the offerer were necessary in order that they might be accepted and approved by God. Without faith and repentance, and a reformed life, they were not accepted, but regarded as abominations. And then he cites David's words from Psalm 51, where David writes, For you do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it. David figured it out by faith, that it wasn't just the physical act. of presenting the sacrifice before God, but it was doing so with the right motive. So by the mercies of God, Paul beseeches the brethren to appear holy before their God. Holy and acceptable, he writes. And so David says, you do not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are these, a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. These, O God, you will not despise. Then you shall be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness. And so we have this rightness of heart that is this theme throughout Scripture. It was the same in David's day, a thousand years before the appearance of Christ, as it is in Paul's day, decades after the appearance of Christ. Affirmation of Isaiah, according to this same theme. Listen to this. Listen to what Isaiah writes here about being right with God. Not just doing the right things, but being right in your spirit. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to me, says the Lord. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices? I have had enough of burnt offering of rams and the fat of fed cattle. This is the Lord speaking. I do not delight in the blood of bulls or of lambs or goats. So when you come to appear before me, who has required this from your hand? This is the Lord saying, wait a minute, you're bringing all these things, but who told you I like these things? I don't like these things. He said, you trample my courts with these. Bring no more futile sacrifices. Incense is an abomination to me. I cannot endure iniquity in the sacred meeting, he says. Your new moons and your appointed feasts, my soul hates, the Lord says. My soul hates. In other words, friends, are you getting the idea? We can't just give anything we want to God. That doesn't please Him. They're a trouble to me. I'm weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands, I'll hide my eyes from you. Even though you make many prayers, I'll not hear you. Your hands are full of blood. And then He says this, wash yourselves. Make yourselves clean. You know, there's a tradition in evangelical Christianity that we don't do anything. We don't really do anything. We ask the Holy Spirit to do it through us. I defy you to find the teaching on that in the New Testament. I defy you to find where it says that the Holy Spirit is going to do everything for you. We are told, the Bible says, let him who stole, steal no more. Speak no longer lies, but speak truth with your neighbor, it says. You do that on your own. That's your offering to God. And so, Isaiah says, wash yourselves. Make yourselves clean. Put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes. Then he says, cease to do evil. Oh, but how shall I stop doing the evil? The apostle says, cease. That's how. Learn to do good, he writes. And then he says this, and this is encouraging. Come now, let us reason together. In other words, God is a reasonable God. He wants to approach us intellectually, rationally, through our minds and thoughts. And he says, though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they are like crimson, they shall be as wool. If you're willing and obedient, You shall eat the good of the land. But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. So now we have this great emphasis that the Apostle is giving us in regards to presenting ourselves to God. He's concerned for our acceptance. But let's be specific here. Our positional acceptance before God, that's the thing that's done by the Holy Spirit, friends. That was gained by the work of Christ, not by works of righteousness, which we have done. But our progressive, ongoing relationship with God must be fostered within us in our own minds and spirits, and lived out in our bodies, you see. And I've said it often enough, and I'll say it again, we must not hope to worship God by accident. Oh, let's do all the things we're supposed to do and maybe worship will break out. No. No, you worship God on purpose. You come purposefully to worship your God. That's why I plead with you to prepare your hearts Saturday night for the Sunday morning service. Sit down with your families and prepare your hearts before God and make yourselves ready for what's going to happen the next day which is a great celebration when we hear from the Word of God. So this brings us to the last part of our verse which says that our bodily sacrifice, the giving of ourselves to God is our reasonable service. Alright? Our reasonable service. Now, that is not what you might think it means. You might think, well, I don't want to overdo my service to God, so I'll serve Him in just a reasonable amount. I'll serve God at just a reasonable amount of service. That's all He's asking for. He's not asking for an extreme amount. Just a reasonable. He's a reasonable guy, God. No, this isn't the thrust of this is all. This is almost a bad translation because of the way we use those words today. Let me try to embellish a little bit. Last week we heard from Paul to Timothy where he wrote, I write so that you may know how to conduct yourself in the house of God. Well the emphasis is the same here. He's teaching us how to conduct ourselves in the church. That's why the rest of the chapter goes through this whole list of of states of mind, of things to appropriate and do and act. He says, let love be without hypocrisy, abhor what is evil, cling to what is good, be kindly affectionate to one another, not lagging in diligence, rejoicing in hope, bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse, and he goes on and on with the way you should conduct yourself in the house of God. He's giving us a picture of how people who have been enlightened, who understand the mercy of God, You should act between one another and in the house of God, you see. And so here the emphasis is much the same. Paul has just spent 11 chapters teaching the saints in Rome on the nature of the Christ who has saved them. And he's urging them to recognize the supreme privilege it is to be granted access to God and to be invited to worship Him. We have to recognize what a privilege it is. I hope church service is not a burden for you. I really do. Because you really need to work on your heart, if that's the case. You really need to work on your heart. You need to present your body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, you see. So the new King James uses the phrase reasonable service. Now in the Greek, these words sound like this. Reasonable is from the word Logikos. Logikos, alright? And the definition of it And I quote from the lexicon, pertaining to the reasoning faculty, Logikas is reasonable, rational. The sacrifice you make, it says, is to be intelligent in contrast to those offered by ritual and compulsion. The presentation is to be in accordance with the spiritual intelligence of those who are new creatures in Christ and are mindful of the mercies of God. and the word for service here is the word Latria and Latria is used of the service of God in connection with the tabernacle, you see divine service, the intelligent service of believers and so we have this Logikos Latria, you see, means Intelligent worship. Friends, we worship with our minds first. Our minds are full of right doctrine and so our bodies follow, you see. Our emotions follow. We are not these glandular beings that walk around feeling our way through life. We think our way through life. Does God want us to worship with our emotions? Absolutely. Once we've brought them in line and they're acceptable to God, you see. So remember the words of Jesus, who said to the woman at the well, when you think of this term, Logikos Latria, or reasonable service, or knowledgeable worship, remember what Jesus said to the woman at the well, you worship what you do not know. She didn't know what she worshipped. She just did it by ritual and compulsion. Right? She didn't know what she worshipped. He straightened her up. He said, God's not looking for worshippers like that. He says we know what we worship. He says the hour is coming and now is when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. Why? Because the Father is seeking such to worship Him. The Father is looking for us to give reasonable service to God. intelligent worship, to know for our minds to be full of the doctrines of God, to understand the grace, to understand our insufficiency, but the sufficiency of Christ, to understand all these things. So God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. And Paul puts his teaching in his own words to the Romans. And how does he say it? He says, and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by what? The renewing of your mind. Once again he speaks to our minds. That you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. So two things become immediately apparent from this verse. First, Paul is concerned that we approach our God to worship Him. Worship is important to God. Primary importance to God. And we must do so intelligently. We must know who it is that we worship. We must understand the object of our worship. We must worship what we know or whom we know. And secondly, we must strive to do so in a manner prescribed by God and not by man. I will read it again. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed from this world by the renewing of your mind. You know, I was thinking about a really good illustration for this just this morning. I'm just thinking about this this morning. I decided to make eggs for my boys this morning. And so I said to Joseph, would you like some eggs? And he said, I don't know dad, are you making them? And I said, yeah. He goes, you gonna put tomatoes in them dad? See we got garden fresh tomatoes and I put garden fresh tomatoes in just about everything, you know. to me it tastes so good, but I know the boys didn't really like that, so I said, no, I'm just going to put cheese in it. He goes, what kind of cheese? So I said, I gave him the answer that I knew he wanted to hear. I said, American cheese. He says, okay. I says, go ask James. And I heard him go up the stairs and he says, James, dad's making eggs. You want some eggs? And James says, is he going to put all sorts of junk in it? And he says, no, he's putting American cheese in it. He says, yeah, tell him I'll have some. And then they knocked on the bathroom door and asked Daniel, you want some eggs? And Daniel doesn't care what you put in it as long as someone else is making it and he'll eat it. You know? And I was thinking about this. And by the way, it was Swiss cheese, I wasn't. But you know what? But you know what? You put a little of the crap grated on there and the kids love it. They can't tell the difference. But I was thinking about it. I was thinking about it. You can't even approach Joseph with an omelette that's not specifically prescribed to his taste. Yet you can give anything you want to a holy God. And I thought about that. I said, we could just go to God and just mix up a big omelette and throw it out there and think He's going to eat it and say, thank you. Guess what? He's not going to. We have to make the omelette for God that He prescribes. You know, Pastor Ken used to say it like this. He used to say, you think God doesn't have any rules? You can do whatever you want? He said, try that with the IRS. God has preferences. And so when we worship what we know, we know Him. We know His nature, and we learn His preferences. My wife's preference for coffee. I brought her coffee this morning, is fill it right up the top of a big mug with black coffee, put one splendor in there, and shake the cream before you add it in. But we can just do whatever we want for God. You know something? We've got to get out of that mentality. Here's Paul saying, don't be conformed to the world, and here's the church rushing headlong to look just like the world, and take everything worldly right into the Logikos Latria, and it's not acceptable. It's not acceptable to God. And so Calvin writes here, the term world has several significations. But here it means the sentiments and the morals of men to which, not without cause, He forbids us to conform. He goes on to explain. The world praises itself, Calvin writes, and takes delight in its own inventions. But Paul affirms that nothing pleases God except that which He has commanded. You want to argue with Calvin about that? or you want to just accept it. Nothing pleases God except that which He has commanded. And it doesn't matter if it comes from your heart. He doesn't care. What pleases God is what He has commanded. That's the point of worshipping in spirit and in truth. That's the point of being admonished by Paul to not conform to the world. The world praises itself, the Reformer writes. Friends of church, in our day, it seems to me, is rushing headlong to becoming conformed to this world. We're not called to such conformity, we're called away from it. And he's talking about worship here. He's talking about the church, when they are together, using the gifts, living and loving and worshipping together. He's teaching us the application of all the doctrine that we know. And so by reaching the minds of the saints with proper doctrine, we'll find the joy in serving our God with our minds and bodies united in worship, a full and complete and acceptable sacrifice. Isn't it beautiful to know what God wants and to recognize that He's provided in His mercy that we can give Him what He wants? It's so simple what He's asked for. Now I'll never say that we as a church have perfected our worship, but that can never be until every member perfects himself and his attitude toward God and to spiritual realities and that will not happen in this life. However, it is a far better thing to be intelligently headed toward pleasing God than to be blindly determined to become more acceptable in the eyes of the world. I would rather be on the road heading toward pleasing God then blindly on the road heading toward pleasing the world. And then again we have this crossroads that every great preacher must bring us to. Every great sermon must bring us to a place of decision. Conform to the world or be transformed by the renewing of your mind. So here is that crossroads once again. And to paraphrase Francis Schaeffer we may ask, how shall we then worship? And the answer will be, in spirit and truth, with renewed minds which are washed by the water of the Word, and in a manner prescribed by God and not by man, we will worship by our physical presence, being convicted in our minds that it is pleasing to God. So our minds and our bodies will be one before God. We will worship in unity as the church must. Friends, we must worship in unity. And I have to say, I am so blessed by the single-mindedness of our people in our church. We're a church of one mind on all the essential things of life and doctrine. So we'll worship in unity as the church must, for Paul finishes his letter with these words, Chapter 16 of Romans, Paul says, Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them. For those who are such do not serve our Lord. But their own belly, and by smooth words and flattering speech, deceive the hearts of the simple. For your obedience has become known to all. Therefore I'm glad on your behalf, but I want you to be wise in what is good, and simple concerning evil, and the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly." Isn't that interesting? Not under his feet, but under the feet of the obedient church, single-minded, to avoid harmful disputes. and unloving offenses. These do not serve the Lord, he said. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen, he writes. And so we may well note here that though they gathered on the day of Pentecost not quite ready for what was about to take place among them, they did gather in one place and in one accord. That's a very powerful prerequisite to receiving great blessing from God. To be in one place and to be of one mind in one place. Worshipping in spirit and in truth. As Paul says, we'll find great joy in the doing of it. And if they had no other doctrine, They yet gathered to the command of Christ who told them to carry a while. You know, some of those 120 people that gathered there might have had very little Christian teaching, but they knew one thing. Christ said, carry a while in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high. And they said, you know what? Carrying I can do. I can hang out and wait for power to come. That much for Christ I can do. That command I can joyfully follow. And so they did. And so we must gather expectantly as well. We must expect to be enlightened and empowered by the word preached and the truth of God proclaimed. And note that there's no small power in small churches because God respects purity and quality over quality and conformity to the world any day. And so I'll close with the words of Christ to one small church that He esteemed very highly for their faithful service. And I pray this is the word to us today. So to Philadelphia, the Lord Jesus said, I know your works. See, I've set before you an open door and no one can shut it. For you have a little strength and have kept my word and have not denied my name. So I don't dare today to claim that this blessing of Christ was pronounced upon our church. But I do dare to ask for that blessing. O Lord, let that blessing be pronounced upon this church. Though we have a little strength, You know our works, Lord, and we have not denied Your Word. We've kept your word and not denied your name. And so I'll dare to ask all of you to desire that this blessing may one day be pronounced upon this church for desiring for ourselves what Christ himself desires for all the churches. Let's pray in Jesus' name. Lord, in Jesus' name we praise you for your word. We praise You for the direction the Apostle gives us, Father, and we plead with You for the strength by faith to be not conformed to this world, but transformed by the renewing of our minds and the washing of the water by the Word. Let it always be preached faithfully, courageously, O Lord, with nothing added, with nothing taken away, with no invention of man, By the mercy and power of Almighty God, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.