Main idea: You must let God’s mercies fuel your worship if you want to please Him.
Application
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Good morning faith Bible Church. My name is Josh Gilchrist and I am the resident college pastor here at Faith Bible Church. I'm also in the middle of studying at the Masters seminary. And it's a joy to be here I stand here because of the mercies of God and only because of that, I'm so thankful for that. And it's a joy to be able to open God's Word together. Today, please open your Bibles to Romans chapter 12. This summer, Ian rush and Brian Sayers have taken us through select passages in the book of Romans, as our main teaching Pastor Dan Jarms, has been in sabbatical on sabbatical in England and Scotland. And we'll be back in a number of weeks. But today I get the privilege of being able to continue our roman series, Nathan theory took us through a three week series on the book of Zephaniah. And as I said, we're back in Romans today. Zephaniah was such a super powerful complement to Romans. It's all about God's coming judgment and wrath for those who rebelled against Him who turned against him who reject Him. But it ends with a beautiful picture of how God longs to show mercy to those who seek Him. And so today, we return to Romans, Romans chapter 12. You guys could go ahead and stand for the reading of Scripture. Today, we're going to look at Romans 12, one and two. I appeal to you, therefore brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, wholly unacceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind so that by testing, you may discern what is the will of God, what is good, and acceptable and perfect. This is the word of the Lord. God, we thank You for the privilege we have to gather freely in worship together through the proclamation of Your Word. We do acknowledge your righteousness, Lord, You are worthy of worship and honor from all. We all fall short of giving you the glory that you are due. But yet you're incredibly patient and merciful. Help us to see that this morning and respond appropriately. Please speak through me today. Be pleased to use your word this morning for your purposes. We do lift up other churches in the Spokane area who are preaching Your Word this morning. We pray that You would help them to be faithful to your word. We lift up our brothers and sisters at Grace Christian Fellowship North this morning we pray that You would give pastors Dave Farley and John Kirschner and their lay pastors, your wisdom as they Shepherd their flock there. We pray that lives will be transformed through the faithful ministry of the word. Be with us now here at Faith Bible Church as we dig into your Word. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Please be seated. We'll pray prior to pursuing full time ministry. I was an English teacher for about 17 years. And love it or hate it. If you grew up in the United States, you had to take English class you just had to do it is one of those necessary evils to some people? How many of you like English class and writing and literature? Okay, there's a fair number of hands a fair number of hands, how many of you liked having to write an essay, research papers, a lot less hands, you know, there are a lot less hands. It is an intense process. And I've always tried to promote the the writing process that what you write at first, is almost guaranteed to not be perfect, it's going to take some refining and evaluating. And whenever I would assign an essay, I would give students a rubric. A lot of you probably know what a rubric is, but it's just a list of requirements and targets benchmarks that you are wanting to hit as you write that paper. And when I taught, I had a particular student who I don't think he was very excited about writing, he would write the first draft. And I think he wanted that to be his final draft. He would write it in about 15 minutes where the idea was like, take it home, take a couple days, and then turn on your first draft. And he would always come up to me. I don't know what he was thinking. But he would come up to me and be like, is this good? And I the cynical side of me wanted to say probably not based on the amount of time that you've put into it. But what I eventually started saying was like, Well, you tell me how does it stack up to the rubric that I've given you? How does it compare to the sample pair? paragraphs and parts of the essay that I've shown you how to do you tell me how it is. But with this student, I think that his idea was like, I just want to know if it's good enough, I want to make the grade, I'm not really excited about the process, telling me that it's good enough so that I can move on. And I never did. I said, now I need some work. So that is nicely, nicely as I could. This student was just wanting to do the minimum, like I said, and I think that a person can approach God in a similar way in salvation. How can I be just good enough? What's the bare minimum that I have to do? How can I make sure that my good outweighs My bad? How can I be a decent person and a decent neighbor? How can I be better than those scummy people over there? How can I be better than the bad people that are around me. But as we look at today's passage, we'll see that God's standard is so much higher than just doing the bare minimum. Those verses that we just read together were called to present our bodies as a living sacrifice. It's wholly unacceptable to God. That's good, and it's perfect. And it's a life of worship. But the cool thing is that God has not only given us the rubric and his word for how we're supposed to live, but he's given us so much more, He's given us a foundation upon which we can stand. He's given us His marvelous mercy. And he's given that to us to be the fuel that enables us to meet his righteous standards. Unfortunately, it's easy to think that we have to earn God's mercy somehow. Paul wants his readers and us to know that we have the footing already. We have a firm foundation, and it's found in the Gospel that is full of God's mercies toward undeserving sinners who could never build their own foundation. The big idea I want to impress upon you today, and I'll probably say it at least 10 different ways. Redundancy can be a good thing. You must let God's mercies fuel your worship to be pleasing to Him. You must let God's mercies feel your worship to be pleasing to Him. And we're going to look at two aspects of the worship full lifestyle that Paul is prescribing here in Romans 12, one and two, we're going to look at the fuel of worship and the fruit of worship. Point number one is the fuel of worship. In Romans 12, one is a powerful transition verse. A lot of you may know this already. But Romans, you don't get a lot of commands and imperatives about what you're supposed to do, until you get to chapter 12. It transitions from all the doctrine in the beautiful truth is about God's mercy and the Gospel. And then chapter 12, it talks about what that means for believers, how are believers then supposed to live as a result of God's amazing mercies. And Paul begins verse one by saying, I appeal to you I appeal to you to make an appeal, it means that you're just urging them on you're telling them strongly and exhorting them, you're giving them a PEP, pep talk you, you need to take this seriously, you need to consider this, you need to do this, I appeal to you, I beseech you, I urge you, I appeal to you. Therefore, whenever we see therefore, in Scripture, we have to figure out what that therefore is referring back to. And it the beginning. With our liturgy, we actually read Romans 1133 through 36, which ends with the words For from him and through him and to him are all things to him be glory forever. That's the end of Paul's just a response of like, wow, God's knowledge and wisdom is absolutely amazing. And beyond understanding, it's inscrutable, and I'm in awe of that. And he deserves everything because it all comes from him. It's all made possible through him, and everything should point back to Him and glorify Him. That is what some people say that it points back to and I think that that's a good connection. About a month ago, Brian, give us our last message in Romans, chapter 11, talking about God's plan of salvation for Gentiles and the people of Israel. And the word mercy gets used over and over again toward the end in verses 11 or in chapter 11, verses 30 through 32. But I think that you could go back to everything that's been said prior to 12 verse one, I think that Paul's appeal, therefore is pointing back to all the gospel mercies beautifully described in the first 11 chapters. I want to just give you a few highlights. But it's like Paul is saying, I appeal to you because God's righteousness is revealed. I appeal to you because we've turned aside from that righteousness and we've gone our own way.
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I appeal to you that even though we have turned aside from that righteousness, God has made justification Aisha unforgiveness possible through the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ. I appeal to you because not only does God justify, but he helps people to live different lives, live lives that are pleasing to Him that our lives filled with the Spirit, and not according to the flesh. And that it gives people the promise of becoming more and more like him and one day, standing in glory with him. And he gives people the assurance that there's no fear of condemnation, that nothing can separate you from his love. I appeal to you because he saves those who confess Him as Lord and call on his name. All of that is a message of God's amazing mercies. And there's so much more we could say. But that's just some of the highlights. Therefore, because of all this amazing doctrine, because God is rich in mercy, by the mercies of God. What I love about this verse is, Paul is appealing to them, but he takes a while to get to what He's appealing for them to do. He wants to provide a foundation for them before he tells them specifically, and that foundation is the mercies of God. And they often think of mercy is the withholding of a punishment that's deserved. And I think that that's a fair definition. But if you've put your faith in Christ, not only does God withhold punishment that you deserve, but he shows regard and compassion for those who have sinned against him. When commentator describes God's mercies as displays of concern over someone's misfortune, interestingly, the biggest misfortune for every human born human beings ever lived, is self inflicted. And it's because all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And I'm not up here saying that every single misfortune that you could ever go through is directly your fault that you've caused it. But it's because we live in a cursed world. It's because of the sin around us. We are unfortunate because of our rejection of God. And God looks at us, not with anger and wrath, but with concern. He longs to be merciful and to offer mercy to people. He, God combines his mercy with deep and compassionate love. Last week is Nathan finished the Zephaniah series he talked about Zephaniah 317 where God says I will rejoice over you, I will rejoice over you, and I will quiet you with my love. And Nathan's description of that was really powerful. Instead of saying, I will quiet you with my love. It's it was more than God's love is a quieting type of love. It's that type of love, where you don't have the words because you're so just enamored and in love, and you care so deeply. And Nathan describe it. I'm just seeing the Nathan's good analogy last week. But it's like when a husband sees his wife walked down the aisle. Like I saw my wife, Pam walked down this very aisle about 22 years ago. It's the feeling that a parent has when they see their child being born. It's that feeling like I don't even have the words, I want to cry, and it's like a happy cry sort of a thing. And I'm just in awe, I love this person. I'm in love. This is a gift from God, I would do anything for this person. And that's the way it should be. How much greater is God's love than the love of a human husband and a human parent? His mercies are beyond anything that we could describe. And here's his mercies have to be the thing that fuels you. God's mercies are not a metal that you merit, but a foundation where you need to fix your feet. It's easy to think that righteousness starts with a person's act. And it's easy to read that verse and just say, Okay, I got to be a living sacrifice. I got to present myself as a sacrifice, and you do, but there's more to it. We're undeserving whether we acknowledge it or not, whether we're inwardly hypocritical, or outwardly wicked. No one seeks God as they should or pleases Him as they should or loves their neighbor as themselves as they should. But God is merciful nonetheless. Therefore, we finally get to what it is that He's appealing for them to do present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. Now, sacrifices are super, super powerful. Most of you have probably heard about the retired fire chief who last week died shielding his wife and daughters is a shooter opened fire at a political rally. You hear stories like that all the time and it moves us. It's It's the greatest form of love. Jesus said that it's powerful. So what does it mean to be a living sacrifice? In the Old Testament sacrificial system, people would be required to take their best animals, their bowls, their sheep, their goats, even purchasing birds, and they would take them to the temple or tabernacle. And they would offer those animals as sacrifices and specific instructions would be followed in the killing of that animal and what was done with their blood. A person in Old Testament times would never take their ox to the altar thinking I'm going to make a living sacrifice. Those sacrifices always involved bloodshed and death of an animal. And they were a reminder of what Paul would eventually say in Romans 623, A, the wages of sin is death. The only thing that we can merit through our sin is death. And there has to be a sacrifice because of it. Sacrifice is needed. So what does it mean to be a living sacrifice? Thankfully, because of Jesus's sacrifice, we don't have to fear death. But it doesn't just mean that you're a sacrifice that doesn't have to die, but that you're living your life as offering of worship, that displays the new life that Christ has made available because of God's mercy. Paul, use this very command and imperative back in Romans six, go ahead and turn back that a Roman six, he used the imperative to present yourself in a certain way, Romans 623. It says, do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness. but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God is instruments for righteousness. It's all about proclaiming with your life that you have been brought from death to life. Those are the types of sacrifices that are pleasing to God. And God has to bring you to life first. You could never sacrifice in a way that would make him do that. He has to do that it's solely by His mercy. And his mercy is so amazing. And believers should respond with sincere gratitude and appreciation, and offering themselves as those who enjoy a new kind of life. And then we want to live lives that are holy and acceptable to the Lord. Holy means pure, perfect and worthy of God, we have a reverence for him. And we know that he sees us everywhere we go, and we want to please him with that. We want to want to honor him. When we go to weddings, we hopefully dress up a little bit better than we would go into the lake sort of a thing. Another example, I didn't have to think hard about this, but I decided not to wear my cargo shorts, and my black T shirt with my funny cat meme on it. And my crocs, I just thought that wouldn't really be worthy of the moment, in my opinion, that wouldn't be worthy of it for me. And I'm not saying that you have to dress up but walking worthy, being worthy of the moment being worthy of God, pleasing Him wholly seeking that. And so are you seeking to do things in accordance with His righteous standard? Or are you aware that he's always watching and that we do things for an audience of one that we want to be pleasing to Him and what we do so wholly unacceptable and acceptable, carries the idea of being pleasing? I don't think that the way that we use the word acceptable and unacceptable really captures what Paul is saying right here. Let me give you an example. How many of you have ever ordered something online? Or at least seen it where it says used acceptable? How many of you have ever seen that as an option for how you order something? Hey, did that just motivate you like, Oh, my goodness, it's an acceptable condition? You're probably like, no, it's probably mediocre. It's probably fading away. It's probably just good enough sort of a thing. Like the person who writes an essay in 15 minutes sort of a thing. It's probably, you know, okay, but not great sort of a thing. But here is the way Paul uses it. It's like, is that which pleases the Lord? Okay, we want to do things that are acceptable to him not thinking like, what's the minimum that God wants? But like, how, how can I be pleasing to Him? God's not seeking mediocrity and the offerings that we give to him. And that's not what you should be offering him if you're truly fueled and empowered by His mercies. Just as Old Testament saints were supposed to, they weren't called saints back then. But those who put their faith in God and would offer sacrifices and obedience were to offer animals that were without blemish or blight. Believers have to offer their lives as holy and acceptable to the Lord.
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But we shouldn't do that in a sense like they're I've earned my salvation. I've done it. I haven't sayin what I've done is super pleasing to God. And now I'm good because of that. We're trusting in another sacrifice be beyond any sacrifice that we could give. Look back at Romans 325 and 26, to see what the sacrifices Romans 325 and 26. We need to trust in Jesus's sacrifice. Romans 325. And 26 says that Jesus Christ is the one whom God put forward is that is propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. This was a show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show His righteousness at the present time so that he might be just, and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. God the father put his son Jesus forward is propitiation for sins, and I want to explain what that word means. propitiation is that which serves as an instrument for regaining favor with God, because of our sin and our offense against him that that favor has been lost. And so propitiation is needed. There needs to be something a payment, restitution, something needs to be given to regain that favor with God. And normally, you would think that the person who offended someone, isn't that how our society works. If someone offends someone, it's up to the one who offended the person to provide the restitution and the payment, isn't it? But here God put His son forward is propitiation. He didn't make us produce our own because we never could. This is it God is just and the justifier that the justice that you and I deserve as sinners, was given to Christ, if you trust in Him if you put your faith in Him. And the justified status, the righteousness, the spotlessness, that belongs to Christ alone, was credited to those through who believe in Him through faith. That's the sacrifice that were to trust and and that's the only sacrifice that can place you in the realm of God's mercies. And it's only when you're in that realm that you can offer yourself as a living sacrifice, it's holy and acceptable to Him. Paul says at the end of verse one, this is your spiritual worship. Worship is the rightful response to God's mercies. Those who are fueled by worship not just on Sundays, but daily, hourly, minute by minute. And the great things that God has done shouldn't motivate you to try to pay him back because you never could. But it should humble you to such a degree that you daily, seek to live and appreciation of that and to offer your lives as a testimony of God's mercies. Your life should be an advertisement for God's amazing mercies. You live that way. You live that way. You want to loudly proclaim with your life that God's mercy is great. If you are reading out of the ESV Bible today, you may have a footnote that says this is your rational service. The New King James Version says this is your reasonable service. And the point that Paul is making is that offering your life to glorify God is the logical conclusion to all of his great mercies. Anything less is illogical. So don't seek to do the bare minimum. If you're being fueled by God's mercies. You don't seek to do the bare minimum and hope that that's good enough. You give him your bodies, you give them your everything, your eyes, the things that you fix your eyes upon, and the things that you turn your eyes away from your mouths, the words that you speak, and the words that you don't speak, learning to close your mouth for the glory of God, the things that you put into your mouth, your hands, the things that you write, and type and click with your hands, your feet and the places that they take you they're all for God, it's all an offering for him the energy that you have you give it to God, by serving Him and those around you. And we do this because if we've truly been captured by God's mercies, and that's our fuel, and that's motivated us. It's the logical conclusion. It's the appropriate response. Romans 12, three through eight. The next section after these two verses, talks about specific service, specific ways that we can worship. And that's through using the spiritual gifts that God gives you if you had been brought to that new life in Christ. He gives you giftedness and the ability to serve other people around you. And we can think of mercy and have kind of a selfish perspective on that. Like, I'm so glad that God has saved me. I'm so glad that God forgives me. But just listen to this. God not only saves you from your sin, He saves you into a body into a corporate body. It's not just your body, it's the body of Christ. And each of you he's given different gifts to serve a minister. And so our concern shouldn't only be for ourselves and how we're presenting ourselves. But how am I being used to encourage the church and helping the church glorify God. And we do that ultimately, out of appreciation and gratitude for what God has done and showing his mercy. Now, do we have anyone in here who is received their or earned not received, you have to earn it, your driver's license in the last year or so? anybody? Anybody like 1514? How about like in the last couple years, driving Driver's Ed sort of a thing, okay, you're going to have to take a class and learn how to do things, your parents are going to have to take some really deep breaths and pray and take you out on practice drives and things like that, and teach you things like parallel parking and checking your blind spots and actually like signaling when you change lanes, that's a good thing. Please do that. If you're not driving yet, remember to signal signal, right? But imagine, hey, what you're gonna have to do is you're gonna probably have to go somewhere, and someone will get into the passenger seat, and you're gonna, you're gonna show them what you can do. Imagine showing up to your tests and being like, I'm so confident, I drive perfectly. I hold the steering wheel perfectly. Someone corrected me after first service, apparently, it used to be tend to, it's it keeps moving down, or spiraling out of control. Okay. But apparently, now it's four and seven. Which is weird. Like, I can't imagine that, you know, but anyway, you do all those things? Well, you're ready to go, you turn gracefully, you accelerate and slow down, you don't brake too abruptly, you're so ready to go and prove to your instructor that you are worthy of your driver's license. And you show up and that tester gets into the passenger side and you go to start the car, and it doesn't start because there's no gas in it. Your parents would never let that happen. Kids, when you get to that point, they'll make sure that there's some gas in your vehicle, probably okay. But what are you going to do at that point is all the things that you're able to do is that going to impress the tester, if you just tell them like, Hey, I know, I've practiced parallel parking I did all the hours, I can do all those different things, are you going to ask the tester to get out and push the vehicle so that you can demonstrate, hey, that would be absurd. And in a similar way, in a similar way, it's, you know, if we are going to try to please God with the things that we can do, but we're not first fueled up by his mercies doesn't really go anywhere. It's really pointless. So we need to look to Christ to be our fuel, as we seek to do things, so that we don't just fall into works, and try to merit our foundation and our standing with him. So that's the fuel of worship. That was point number one. Point number two is the fruit of worship described in verse two. And Paul, in verse two talks specifically about what a person who worship Scott as a living sacrifice is supposed to do. One of them is negative, like a don't do this and the other is positive, negatively. A person who's offering his or her body as a living sacrifice will not be conformed to the world. They won't be conformed to the world and to conform means to form according to a pattern or mold. Christians are to be radically different from the cultures that they live in culture is super influential. But if you are living is a living sacrifice. If you're offering yourself that way to God, your identity is found in Christ first and foremost, not your culture. To the people that Paul was writing to Roman citizenship was probably a big deal. I had to have been, they lived in the city of Rome and his Roman citizens, they enjoyed certain rights and privileges. They were most likely proud of certain accomplishments of the empire, in the men in that society were aggressive and domineering. And their goal was to acquire all that they could through conquest, whether that would be money, power, slaves, lovers power.
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In Roman culture, there was some religious freedom. But ultimately, people were required to say that Caesar, the emperor, the ruler of our empire, is God. They had to do that they were required to do that. And while we may think that that's far removed from our culture, I don't think it's that much of a stretch of the imagination to say that people in our society are seeking to acquire all that they can. What can I get What can I get for myself? How can I go about doing that? I don't think it's a stretch to say that people, they would never hopefully say, you know, Biden is God or Trump is God or RFK, Jr, is God, you don't hear people saying that. But I think that you see people deifying, their favorite candidate, and demonizing the other and putting an inordinate amount of hope, and human beings who can't do what God does, on the name of freedom. And I'm not in any way trying to discourage people from being a part of the democratic process and in voting, but that is not where we find our ultimate identity and hope and freedom even, it's in Christ. Paul wants them to not conform to the culture around them. But it's easy to want to just fit in and be like everybody else. It's easy to let social media and advertising tell us what the mold is that we're supposed to fit into. And it can be costly and hard to stand up for what God's Word says. It's a temptation to just be a quiet American who doesn't rock the boat or challenge cultural norms. But as a believer, we want to please God rather than the culture. We want to boldly and loudly, proclaim, not rudely, but happily and joyfully declare God's mercies to the people around us. We want to reflect that we're about the new life that He's given us, not the life that the world offers. We also in telling the world that God is merciful, that suggests that we let people know that they need God's mercy. And that's not always a thing that people like to hear, but they do. We all do, we all need God's mercy. We need to be willing to let the people around us know that God is the one who defines what love is not the culture around us. We need to be willing to tell people that the pursuit of self and our culture's preoccupation with that is not only a lie, but it's a lie that destroys souls, and families. They learn it leads to eternal destruction. Society is all about you, do you, you focus on yourself? Does the way that you live proclaim the excellencies of God's mercies? Are you finding yourself fitting into the mold of self centeredness and self realization there's nothing wrong with having goals and dreams, but is living your life as a sacrifice, the foundation of that whatever your dream may be, believers are to avoid conformity. Positively believers are to be transformed by the renewal of the mind. To be transformed is to change inwardly and fundamental character, or condition. And this term was used to describe Jesus's transfiguration in Matthew 17, two and Mark nine, two, if you don't know that story, if you're not familiar with that, Jesus, when he was doing his earthly ministry, he took Peter, James and John onto the Mount of Olives. And he became radiant, his glory started to be shown outwardly to where Peter, James and John could see him in a way that they'd never seen him before. And it was pretty awe inspiring, and frightening. And while we could never do that, exactly as Jesus did it, we can through the power of the Spirit living in us, we can show the world around us that he lives in us and through us and that he's transforming us and causing us to break out of the world's mold and be more like him. Turn to second Corinthians 318. That's another verse, where this verb transformed is used, as well. Second Corinthians 318. This is a verse that basically shows that the more that you look at Jesus, the more you look like Jesus. Second Corinthians 318 says, and we all with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord, who is the spirit. So as we look at Jesus and ponder his mercies throughout the day, we become more and more like him. We renew our minds, and we desperately need that because we're still in the world. We're still surrounded by those conflicting ideas. That selfish pursuit those messages of selfishness and self promotion, we desperately need to look to God's word and be transformed by the renewing of our mind. renewal of the mind is active. How many of you have ever thought I just need a mental break? I need a mental vacation. I need to take I need to rest I need to relax my brain sort of a thing. We all get tired. We all need refreshment and I'm not going to try to take a shot at anyone's personal leisure and what you do for relaxation but To consider the fact that your mind is constantly in need of renewal. And so for me, honestly and transparently six hours of football on a Sunday afternoon is not going to renew my mind. And I like football, I'm still gonna watch football, just not six hours of it. And when I'm watching it, I need to be making sure that I'm just keeping God's Word on my mind, if I'm watching it with my son or wife, just talking about God's truth. Seeing everything through the lens of Scripture, doesn't mean that you have to just always have your Bible open sort of a thing, but just know that our minds are constantly in need of that renewal. We want to engage in good rest and relaxation, things will actually refresh our brain. keeping God's Word on our mind letting it dwell richly in us, as it says in Colossians, 316. But worship never stops just because rest and relaxation begins. We should always be being worshipful. Notice how Paul doesn't, in this verse to say that, you know, be transformed by the renewing of your mind and the Scriptures. He doesn't say that. But I think that we can imply through what we'll look at in a minute. And what we know is that the best way that we can renew our minds is through the word of God, and word based activities and word based relationships. We come together each week as a church body and we renew our minds corporately as we sing together, John, the worship and the orchestra, all of you who participate. Were a part of that that was awesome and wonderful, and we're thankful for that. For sure. We do that corporately we witness baptism. Sometimes we partake of the Lord's Supper, we hear the preaching of the Word. But how else are you renewing your mind throughout the week? How's your daily scripture reading? Are you getting into God's Word with intention of being a doer of it, and applying it to your life? Are you memorizing it? Are you speaking the truth to other people and letting other people speak the truth to you? Are you singing scriptural songs, and listening to music that will point your heart to Christ, there's so many different things that you can do to renew your mind and we need it constantly. Go ahead and go back to Romans 12 to God's word is suggested as the source that renews the mind. In the next phrase, in verse two, when he says that by testing, you may discern what is the will of God, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. That word testing is used differently throughout the New Testament. I want to give you just a couple examples to help you understand what Paul is saying what like What is he saying when he says that by testing, you may discern what the will of God is. It's used in the gospels when a person wanted to be excused from following Jesus, because he just purchased five pair of oxen, he's like, I don't have time to follow You, Jesus right now I need to go back and examine these oxen and make sure that they see the condition that they're in and see how they can help me get the jobs done that I need in my fields, he was preoccupied with the work that he had to do his own will. I like to compare it to someone who goes and test drives a car that they're considering buying. Now, how many of you have ever purchased a car but you took it to your mechanic first to have them look at it to make sure that it was an okay situation that it would suit your needs, and get the job done that you need it to get done? That's kind of the idea, right? They're just examining, looking at over Romans 128. Back at the beginning of Romans, Paul uses this negatively to describe those who reject God who suppress the truth and unrighteousness. He says they did not see fit to acknowledge God. Negatively they decided to live apart from his will they found that his will was not suitable for what they wanted to do. His Will was ineffective in their eyes to meet their selfish and fleshly agenda. Paul is saying here that we should figure out God's will and see fit not only to test, drive it, but purchase it and drive it alone. We're not trying God's will and a bunch of other things.
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God's will will prove to be not only good and pleasing and perfect to him, but it's good, acceptable and perfect for us. It's good for your soul. Do you believe that? Do you believe that God's commands and the things that God prescribes for our lives are good? For the sake of time, if you're taking notes, just write down Psalm 19. Seven through 11. I'm not going to read all of it. I'm going to just read verse 11. But this is a great passage that reflects the heart of a person who's tested God's word. He's He sought to live it out he's sought to obey. And he's found that those things are delightful for the soul, that they're refreshing that they're good. Verse 11, at the end of that passage, the Psalmist says, Moreover, by them, by your rules that you give more over by them, as your servant warned, in keeping them there's great reward. But a rebellious and sinful heart would rather test the boundaries. We'd rather see how far we can push things. We think thoughts to God really say that? Does God really mean that? What's the minimum that I have to do? What can I get away with? But if you keep looking to God's word, and seek to do His revealed, will that will prove to be what's best for you, and it will be pleasing to God. And this is talking about God's reveal that will in Scripture, the commands the duties, it's not talking about, where am I going to go to school? What how should I buy? What career should I pursue, and God certainly cares about those things. But he's given us so much in his word so much that we can pursue we can live out his reveal will and do those things. And whatever decision you seek to make in those things, you want to do that while you're being obedient to what God has revealed in his scriptures. And his word. As I've mentioned, chapter 12, is where Romans transitions from delightful doctrine to delightful duty, the unchangeable truths about God's mercies and all that he's done, it fuels the believer to be a living sacrifice and do what God God wills. And Paul starts giving specifics in 12, verse three, and it goes all the way through 1513. And I already talked about the spiritual gifts section and 12, three through eight. In John, thank you, you helped shave off a couple minutes on my sermon by having us read 12, nine to 21, that was awesome to be able to read that together. If you have your ESP Bible that says the marks of a true Christian, I think that's what it says, The marks of a true Christian God has graciously given us targets that we can aim at. We don't have to sit around and wonder what does God want me to do? He's given us good, good things that we can aim at. Really quickly to just kind of give you a short summary of what we're skipping in Romans, Romans 13 talks about what we're to do as believers in our view of the government and our response to the government. And then Paul gives encouragement to show love to people. And then when we love our neighbor as ourself, it helps us automatically avoid certain sins, certain fleshly sin. And then chapter 14 and 15. We'll look at that together next week. But we see that God has given good and righteous aims that we can devote ourselves to, to live lives that are pleasing to Him. They're proven and good and acceptable. And it comes down to whom you want to please Second Corinthians five, nine, you don't have to turn there. But just listen, it says, whether we're at home or away, we make it our aim to please Him. We seek to please Christ and all that we do. And we do that because his love controls us. It fuels us His mercy is great a few verses down Second Corinthians 515. He died that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. We need God's mercy because we by default, live for ourselves and it's about us. I want my will to be done. I want to live for my own glory and my own autonomy. Christ didn't just die to pardon you Christ died to help you live the way that you were created to live for His glory. And for his honor. This past Christmas, my son Isaiah bought me Mr. T Funko. Pop for Christmas. I don't know if you guys know what Funko Pops are, they're really disproportionate heads to the rest of their body. I pity you if you don't know who Mr. T is. He's the king of trash talking from the epic movie rocky three. And it was really sweet my son. You know, it's sweet when you see your kid desire to finally like buy gifts for their parents. That's kind of an encouraging thing. But he was so excited to give me something that was dear to my childhood. Just something sentimental, something that I enjoyed and something that I forced him to watch as he got older, like I made them watch the Rocky movies too. But it was really sweet. He just kept saying Dad, I can't wait to show you what I got for Christmas and I have that in in my office. And sometimes I get asked why do you have Mr. T in your office sort of a thing but it's just a special She'll thing. And while we never could never wrap up a gift and surprised the Lord, like my son did for me on Christmas, we can know what kind of an offering would be pleasing to Him. And that's nothing less than us giving him are all. being fueled by His great mercy. He's living our lives to be pleasing and acceptable to him. And we can be excited about doing that, though we could never surprise them. Some application points for us today. Rehearse and remember God's gospel mercies. Remember, that's the foundation upon which you can present yourself to God as a living sacrifice that's wholly unacceptable to him. I encourage you to just be able to rehearse those truths fine. Go back to Romans and find some verses and memorize those. Those are wonderful truths, to think about. An accept His mercies. Quit trying to prove that you're good enough on your own or that you can do it be filled up by his mercies. Second, ponder the goodness of God's will. And praise him for thank thank him for the fact that he gives us commands that when we keep them, there's a reward. You can even think about times when you have sought to do things your own way and not God's way. And that hasn't been the best result. God is merciful in that. But think him that his laws good, imperfect, and that it restores the soul. Then finally offer to God what is rightfully his, every single one of you in this room, whether you believe in Jesus Christ and accept His mercies or not, you you live and breathe, and you have your being because God has made it so he upholds you. He sustains you. And he offers his mercy. He wants you to turn to Him and trust in Him so that you out of gratitude. Finding that new life being brought from death to life can be a living sacrifice. At the end of Paul's life, anticipating execution, and the very city that he was writing this letter to that you and I have been looking at today. Anticipating the death sentence, he wrote a letter to a young pastor whom he had mentored and commissioned, encouraging him to continue in the word and to keep the faith and to not be conformed to the world and to not be like the other people who had fallen away. And it's clear at the end of his life that Paul heeded the appeal that he gave to the Roman believers here to offer their bodies as a living sacrifice. He said in Second Timothy four, I'm already poured out as a drink offering and the time of my departure has come. I've fought the good fight. I've finished the race. I've kept the faith. Henceforth, there's laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but to all who have loved His appearing. Paul knew that living his life as offering was worth it. It was hard and challenging. There was suffering that came along with it, and involve him giving up his life pouring himself out as a drink offering. But he knew that God was worthy of worship, and he knew that he'd one day see face to face the one who lavished His mercy upon mercy on sinners. And Paul had been a recipient of that mercy. And he knew that eternal reward was greater than anything that he could get by living a life of selfishness and conformity to the world. And by God's mercies, may we be able to one day talk as Paul talked, I mean, we'd be able to live our lives as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to him. Let's pray. Lord, help us to be fueled by your mercies. Thank you for the salvation made possible through the sacrifice of your son. You've provided the means for sinners to regain favor with you. And it's only by Your mercy and grace that we could be brought from spiritual death to life.
49:19
Help us to live our lives by denying ourselves daily and presenting ourselves to you as those alive from the dead as living sacrifices who please and glorify you. We praise You and thank You that You've given us your word and that there's blessing for us and obeying it. Thank you for the church where we can be a part of one another's lives and serve one another as an act of worship to you Lord, may we offer you are all in light of Your Mercies Lord in Jesus name, amen.
Josh serves as Resident College Pastor for Faith's college ministry, Doxa. He and his wife, Pam, have three children.
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