Romans 12, I appeal to you, verse one, I appeal to you therefore brothers by, so he's making appeal to the brothers, to Christians, by the mercies of God to do something, present, put forward your bodies, okay, interesting, as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. So that's the status or the state of this sacrifice. Or another word could be reasonable. Some translations say rational service or worship. service, worship, these are interchangeable. If you have the ESV, there's a footnote. Number three, it's already mine is a three says your rational service. You guys have that? Yeah. Let's pray. Father, I do ask you Lord that you would Lord, help. Would you burst forth glory? Would you not let this just be a human endeavor or exercise? Lord, we are your church. We're here in your name, in the name of your son, rather. And I ask you for more of your Holy Spirit for me, for my brethren here, for all who hear this message, that they would be changed. and that I would be changed and that we would be helped. So please help us now, Lord. Grant us liberty, clear air, grant our minds to be clear, help us to let go of things that we walked in with, any difficulties or problems or weights from the week in our world. Let us think on your son, Jesus Christ. Help us now in Jesus' name, amen. Well, so, Before we look at this, I want you to, there's a helpful reflection that's been given to me that I want to transfer to you. And it's a reflection on who God is. The Trinity, we have a triune God, three and yet one. And just this reality that what we believe is not a fairy tale. This is real. There actually was a man that came into this world. He didn't start as a man like Adam, but he's called the second Adam. He started as a baby. He had to grow up, he had parents, he had to submit to his parents. Perhaps his dad took him to the men's retreat if they had one, you know? Some of you guys are gonna go to that. He's made like us in every way, yet without sin, the Bible says. You know, I was thinking this morning, Why was Jesus a carpenter? And I started thinking like, was it so that we could know that the world was perfectly fashioned by his hands and he uphold? And I thought, well no, he had a job. He had a job just like you and me. There's this sense in which the Lord Jesus Christ is otherworldly and he's a part of the Godhead and yet he comes down veiled in flesh and blood like you and me. He had a belly button undoubtedly. He had an umbilical cord, broke off, belly button. Every experience we've experienced except sin. And this God is now, he came down, he lived a perfect life, and then he was punished. He died for sin that he never committed, but he didn't stay dead. He got up and was seen by 40 days by over 500 eyewitnesses, and then he ascended. He floated. He floated. He did. You believe that. You guys believe that if you're Christians. He, not David Blaine, he lifted up and went to heaven before their eyes, and he's seated there right now. He's not anywhere else, he's there, and it says that he's alive now to intercede for us. That's real. And you know, that picture of what that is, the Bible says in Acts 7, that as Stephen is being stoned, He looks up and he says this, you don't have to turn there, but in Acts 7.55, it says, but he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed with his eyeballs, same eyeballs you and I got, into heaven and saw something, the glory of God, that's what he saw, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. Did he see God? The father, it says he saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God. It says he saw the glory of God. And verse 56, and he said, so he bore witness himself, behold, he's getting stones bashing him in the head, behold, I see the heavens open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. I see that, that's what Stephen said. So here's what I want you to think about. It's like there's this little thin veil, I mean, from the same place that you and I are standing or seated, Stephen, just a man, just like you and me, he looked up and he saw from the same vantage point you and I have, Jesus Christ and the glory of God and Jesus at the right hand of God. It's almost like if I could for you, open up, if I could just, if there was just a drawstring, like in the hotel room, you'd just pull that little stick back and say, guys, look, right there, it's real close to us. It's that close. And I think that it's that lack of reality, right? What's close to us? President Trump has COVID. That's real, right? You can see it. The debates, it's, you know, that was terrible. That's close. That's real life. But the reality is all that stuff. just as close as all that stuff to you, is an eternal God, and an eternity, and an eternal throne, and an eternal son, and a wonderful glory, and love, and place of worship, and place of majesty that's ready to be received by all who would have it. But you know what? We lose sight of that, and so we live our lives with our heads down, naval gazing, oh, woe is me, I'm bad, I'm this and that, or looking at this world, oh, the world is bad, oh, I gotta vote, and I need to change the world with human means, and what we need to do is look up, and if we did, it would change our lives. It would utterly change our lives, and not just our lives, the lives of others and how we live. So what I want to do is have us look at chapter 12, verse one, and see why does Paul say and how does Paul say our lives ought to change? And what does he say it should change into? And what is the status of this change? Like, what kind of thing are we to become? And what is the picture of what's happening with what Paul says needs to happen, okay? Think about that. Not only would your life change, let's just say, if I could pull back the veil and let you look up there, you know what it would do? It'd make you live a lot different. And it shouldn't, but it would. It'd make you live a very, very spiritual life. You'd be down here constantly thinking about the thing you had just beheld, the thing you had seen. And that's what Paul, Paul is basically wanting to appeal to you that you ought to be living that way in light of what you have seen. And not only do I want to convince you that you ought to be living that way, I want you to see in verse one at the very end where it says where I reference spiritual worship. Again, the ESV says spiritual worship, and that is a way that it could be interpreted. And the reality is, if you were to look at this same word in the Old Testament, it's constantly used for worship or for service. It's for priestly service. It's the thing that the priest would do He takes his lamb or his whatever, he brings it to the altar, the mound of dirt and stones, he lays it there, he kills it, blood is thrown against the sides. This is the priestly service. This is the picture of what Paul's saying for you to do, Christian, is to take something and kill it. It's spiritual worship. But it's also, it can be translated, the word for spiritual, it's literally logikos. You know what that word means? It's the same word you get your word logic from. It means pertaining to reason or logic or agreeable to reason, logical. It could easily be translated logical, rational, reasonable, service. It has to do with the mind, quite literally, what makes sense, what follows natural order. And you could say it's normal. This is your normal Christian life. This is your normal service. This is your rational, logicos service. This is what you ought to do, not irrational, but very rational, in light of the mercies of God, in light of these massively glorious truths you ought to live this way. So what is rational for the Christian? What's logical? What makes sense? Well, turn to Leviticus 1.1. I just want to show you something. Leviticus 1.1. This is a sacrifice. Hold your place there. The Lord called Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting, saying, Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When any one of you brings an offering to the Lord, you shall bring your offering of livestock from the herd or from the flock. Verse three, if his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall offer a male without blemish. That means it can't be one of the sick ones or the one that has a bad leg. He shall bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting that he may be accepted before the Lord. He shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering. So that's the picture. You got this creature, lay your hand on the head, and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him. Okay, so it's being offered for him, for atonement, to cover him. Then he shall kill the bull before the Lord. Okay, you got this animal. You're gonna take its life out. And Aaron's sons, the priests, shall bring the blood and throw the blood against the sides of the altar that is at the entrance of the tent of meeting. Then he shall flay the burnt offering. Okay, so you're gonna, and cut it into pieces. You're gonna dissect this thing. you know, separate it, limb from limb. And the sons of Aaron, the priests, shall put fire on the altar. Okay, so you got an altar. And arrange wood on the fire with this offering. And Aaron's sons, the priests, shall arrange the pieces, the head and the fat on the wood that is on the fire. on the altar, but its entrails and its legs he shall wash with water, and the priest shall burn all of it on the altar as a burnt offering, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord." Wow. So that's the picture. Turn back to Romans 12.1. The picture, guys, of a sacrifice is that. is what you just read in Leviticus, is a victim. That's what the word sacrifice means. It means a victim. And what I want to do is, in short order, basically make it reasonable to you why this radical life makes sense. Why does it make sense for you to put yourself on an altar to be flayed, to be killed, to be laid out, to be burned with fire, to be consumed by the Lord? Why would that ever make sense to anybody? Why would that picture, I mean, I remember before I was talking to Jamaica and she said, that's like one of my favorite verses. And I thought, That's a bloody verse. That's a rough, difficult verse. You know the song, This Life is an Altar, where I wanna offer my mind and my strength and my all, I think it says? Do you know what that's saying when you sing that? It's saying, I want to lay down and be killed and be flayed and offer to you, present to you this to you. Why does that make sense? I was in Nepal, and a friend showed me a picture or a video of a goat. Now, I don't know that this is how you kill a sacrifice, but they just stretched this goat out over a log, a piece of wood. They had a machete. And what you think happened, happened. And I'd never seen anything like it. Blood is everywhere. The goat's still moving. I didn't know that happened. The nerves, I guess, are still happening. And the thing is dying. It's kicking on the ground. The mouth is moving, separated from the body. That is terrible, right? This is not natural. This shouldn't have happened, but the fall brought it about. But that goat was killed for the sake of others to eat and stay alive. They got to eat that. That happens all the time. Chickens, goats, all that stuff. I asked the brother who did it, and he said, yeah, we do this all the time. But we're not used to that in America, right? That's gruesome. We just like to go get our gyro and eat it. We don't want to think about where it came from. But what God is saying is, this is you, Christian. You're the goat. You're the thing that needs to be presented and let bad stuff happen to you that wouldn't have happened had it not been for the fall. And there's a reason why. So, first, here's your reason. Verse one, I appeal to you, therefore. This is based on a therefore. Question is, why? Why is this rational? Well, the mercies of God. What mercies? Well, here's a few places that I think you can see these mercies. It's actually the first word of Romans. Anybody know the first word of Romans? You guys memorize it? You can flip back and look if you want. What's the first word? one mercy. This is just the mercy that I found that I think that Paul could be talking about because the reality is the mercies of God, you could just say the mercies of God is all of chapter 1 through 11. But what's the first word of Romans? Paul, yeah, you say, why is that a mercy? Do you know what Paul is? Paul is a walking miracle. Paul is the guy that was persecuting the church and throwing people into prison. Paul is the man who was seeking them out, so much so that when he was converted, they're like, no, no, no, no, no, you mean Paul, like Saul of Tarsus, that guy? The Pharisee of Pharisees, of Benjamins? Circumcised, no, that dude's a zealot for the law. He's more zealous than all his peers. God can't save him. And God did. He says in 1 Corinthians 15, nine, you don't have to turn there, but he says, I am the least of the apostles unworthy to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God. Think about this. Do you know what Jesus said when he came to Paul? He said, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting My church. No, what do you say? Me. Why are you persecuting me? Was he persecuting Jesus? Yeah. What does Jesus say in Matthew 25? Who was hungry and you fed them? I was hungry. Who was naked? Who was sick? Who was in prison and you visited them? Me. Jesus sees the church as him. It's like me saying, I was, you know, alone, and you came and visited me and my children. You say, well, Zeke, you were out of town. Yeah, but you visited my wife. And I view her as me. When you do it to her, you did it to me. You did that for me. I view it like that. And Jesus views it like that. But can you imagine the one who would attack your wife, the one who would hurt your wife, the man who would dare to come in and go after your wife, persecute your wife, try to take her to prison, That dude, kill her. He said, I forced many, I tried to force him to blaspheme. Could you imagine someone coming up and doing things to your wife and say, deny him, deny him, deny him, deny this man. What a man. And he was saved. And why? Because God had mercy on him. How about this, Romans chapter nine, verse 15. It says this. God says, for he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy. For the scripture says to Pharaoh, for this very purpose, I have raised you up that I might show my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth. So then he has mercy on whomever he wills and he hardens whomever he wills. He calls us vessels of mercy. in another place, and it's glorious. But you get that, right? Were you searching and seeking out God when he saved you? No. I mean, if you, maybe you were. Maybe you were the guy searching for the pearl of great price. Maybe you were religious. But most of us were probably living in our sin, didn't want God. The mention of him's like, ah, come on, man. I don't got time for that. Or maybe you're a little more hostile. Get that out of my face. But either way, God comes in, invades your life, and says, you are mine, Paul. You can wanna persecute the church all you want. You can be zealous, you can be hard after sin, you can be wicked and covetous in your heart, but now you're mine, and I'm setting my love on you, and you will be changed. You're mine. But more in the immediate context, these are Gentile mercies. Just look up at chapter 11. get a feel, a better idea of what he's been saying to these Gentiles. Verse 30, for just as you were at one time disobedient to God, again, that's the picture we're talking about there. I don't want God, I don't need God, hostile to God. God comes, his rules come, I don't want that, get that out of my face, too much pressure. But just as you were that way, but now have received mercy because of the Jews' disobedience. So they too now have been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you, they also may now receive mercy. For God has consigned all to disobedience that he may have mercy on all. In other words, there's one way for salvation. It's not your bloodline, it's nothing else. You all sin, you're all in the same camp, and you all are saved the same way if you're saved at all. Verse 17, look at these mercies, branches. And guys, unless any of you are Jewish, and even if you are, I mean, you're also in need of the cross and that same mercy, but especially if you weren't. Branches were broken off in you, although a wild olive shoot were grafted in among the others, and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree. Verse 19, then you will say, branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in. That is true. Note then the kindness and severity of God. Severity toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness to you. That is incredible mercy. Because, I mean, if you think about it, it was interesting, I was listening to a brother preach in Ephesians, and he said, there are very few Gentiles that were saved before the cross. The cross brought in a great ingathering of Gentiles, but you realize, if you had been born about 2,000 years, you know, a couple hundred years before the cross, you probably don't hear these things. You very rarely get access to the word of God. You got your Rahabs, you got your Ruths, and you got a couple Namens and different people, different Gentiles sprinkled here and there throughout the Old Testament. But by and large, if we had been born before this, we would have been damned, and it would be our own fault. We were already condemned because of our own sin. God is not beholden to us or required to save people. And yet the mercy of God, mercy of mercies, that you're born in the 20th century, despite 2020, and God has brought, he's shown his love to you in his son. He brought the gospel to you, and you're raptured out of this place. You were sinners. What would you be doing on a Sunday morning? Would you be going to the beach or going to party? Would you be having a hangover and a headache from what you'd done the previous night? And yet God has seen fit to shine his love into you, his light into you. This God who sovereignly controls all things from the rising of the sun to the setting of the sun, to every speck of dust floating in the air, this almighty God granting us Us, sinners, acceptance and access to the God of the universe, familial ties. He says, you're like a son to me. You have the inheritance. Reconciliation, adoption. We were just talking about the little boy who just wants to have a family. Will you be my mommy? Will you be my daddy? I might have a brother. Adoption. We have the brother of brothers. We have the King of kings and the Lord of lords. And we have this unity, and that's because God has offered up his son. the life of his son, even while we were still his enemies and sinners. Do those mercies grip you? Do you think about, like, if you really just think, just like zoom out and say, okay, like sometimes I just zoom out and say, do I really believe this? Do I believe that, okay, yes, I believe Jesus died, I believe he ascended, I believe all of this. Do I believe that I actually partake in this to where I'm gonna go to heaven and God's gonna have a smile on his face at me because the righteousness of Christ is covering me. So that any accusation, like Romans 8 says, comes and it's like, he's the judge, he's the one who justifies, who is there to condemn? Any sort of sin, well, he gave his son, will he not with him give all things? He already dealt with that at the cross. Any devil or demon or supernatural power, are they gonna separate me from the love of God and Christ? Nope, not at all. Do I believe that? Yes, I believe it. Well, then how ought you to live in light of those mercies, brethren? Do they grip you? Here you are dead in your trespasses and sins in the uncircumcision of your flesh. One way he describes us is that one time disobedient. You could have put that on your head, disobedient. You didn't obey. Earlier in this letter, he says enmity, ungodly, not doing good, not seeking God, mouth full of curses, dirty, ugly things coming out of the door of your lips. fits of anger, irritability, drunkenness, licentiousness, idolatry, pride. And while you were in that sad state, while you were a sinner, Christ died for you. That's glorious. You know, the Bible says in Romans, it says, who would die for us? Who would do that? Romans 5, 7, for one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die. Maybe your kids, maybe you die for your kids. But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Let's just say the FBI came in for a raid. Someone had committed a felony and the FBI came in here and they stopped their service and were like, oh, can we help you? We're looking for the worst felon in the United States. We're trying to find them. Which of you would be willing to get in the back of the police car for that person? Which of you? Maybe your child. You might be like, this has got to be some mistake. Maybe it was me. But which of you for? And let's just say, it's not just that you don't know this person. You know them quite well. You look at them and say, they're a wicked person. And they're against me. They hate me. Which of you would go and do that, be willing not only to do that, but to die? But God shows his love for us in this, that while we were still sinners, guilty, condemned, damned, at enmity with him, he says, I'm coming down, I'm giving my son for you. Jesus says, I'm coming down, I'm giving my life for you. I love you. He showed his love for us. Christ died for us. I mean, you gotta get that. If you don't get that, then this won't matter. If this is average, this won't matter if you don't think and wash your brain in this truth. And here's one thing. He's appealing to you by the what of God? Mercies. Now that is interesting because that is incredibly different than grace. You understand? Grace is typically translated into, it's called a what? A what? Favor, right? Or, you know, Christmas time, what do you think of? Gifts, right? It's a gift. But grace is a different type of gift. It's that which flows from someone to you undeservedly. Unmerited favor, it's sometimes translated. You see, mercy's different. Mercy's not that. The word can be translated pity, compassion, forgiveness shown towards someone whom it is within one's power to punish or harm. The boy was screaming, it's interesting. I took a definition from Webster's and that was their definition. Listen to the example sentence that they give. The boy was screaming and begging for mercy. And then it says, pipe the mercies of God. The world even knows this is a thing that is fully divine. This is only from God. An event to be grateful for, especially because its occurrence prevents something unpleasant or provides relief from suffering. So, but here's mercy. Mercy, grace is you getting something you don't deserve. Mercy is you not receiving something you do deserve. You actually earned it, the punishment. And God says, I'm not gonna give it to you. And Paul says, I appeal to you by that reality that you need to do something with your life and your body and everything else. And that's incredible. So, mercy. I want you to think about what Jesus actually received on your behalf. You know what the Bible says? It says, Isaiah 52, 14, as many were astonished at you, speaking to Jesus, and then it speaks about Jesus, his appearance was so marred beyond human semblance and his form beyond that of the children of mankind. You think about that. They hit him in the head with a reed. He had a crown of thorns on his head. We were watching on Answers in Genesis, and they just described the human suffering of the crucifixion, and what would happen, and how you'd suffocate, and what it would do, the kinds of pain that a person would feel, and how the Romans were, they weren't just about killing you. That was not even the ultimate, I mean, yeah, ultimately, you wanna die, but this was the worst kind of punishment reserved for the worst criminals. They were in the business of making you truly pay for it. nails, beatings, scourgings. And the Bible predicted this many hundreds of years earlier. His appearance was so marred beyond human semblance and his form beyond that of the children of mankind. You couldn't recognize him. It was our hands that stole, but his that received the nails. It's our feet that ran to the wherever you ran to when you were sinning, but it was his that were nailed to the cross. You think about the kinds of wicked things you've let come past your lips. It's ours that cursed God's name, his holy lips that were broken for it. They pulled out his beard. They pressed a crown of thorns into his head. They cursed the living God to his physical face, and not one word of it is true. You think about, why didn't he get down from the cross? He says, I could have called a legion of angels down. Why didn't he do it? Love. Jesus didn't do it because of love. And that gospel ought to melt our hearts. Listen to what Paul says, Galatians 2.20. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. You see, Paul isn't just preaching this to us about living sacrifice. He actually says, I've been crucified with him. And I'm not just living. It's Jesus who lives in me, and the life I do live, okay, I do live, but it's by faith in him who, and he's got his mind fixed on the cross. He loved me and gave himself for me. This is not just pretend for Paul. In another letter he says, for the love of Christ controls us because we have concluded this, that one has died for all, therefore all have died. And he died for all that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who for their sake died and was raised. You see, Paul is saying that the death of Jesus Christ completely and utterly augments the Christian life to where that death and resurrection on your behalf should mean everything to you in how you relate to one another, in the things that you'd be willing to do for God. It should make crazy things for the Lord Jesus Christ make perfect sense to you. And the only way something like that is rational is if the love of Christ actually does control you. If him dying for your sins actually steers the direction of your life so that you can come to the same conclusion Paul did. You see, Paul was beaten. He was shipwrecked. We were watching the little cartoon on Amazon Prime, the kids were watching it, and it's interesting. You hear him say, five times I've received the 40 lashes, less one. You think about, we watched, you remember, they're whipping him. Five times? What, you crazy, Paul? They stoned him. They thought he was dead. He got back up and went back into the city. Who's living your life? Now here's a thing, a moment that happened to me. I was out with a sister named Elena. We were doing evangelism, me, her, a couple other sisters and some men. And we were going, in San Antonio there's a place called the Haven for Hope, and in that area there's a lot of homeless people, there's a lot of people that are on drugs, there's drug dealers, there's people that are demonized. Threats come to us, there's prostitution pimps, just everything, everything you think of. And, I mean, you'd go down there, we would bring like pots of food and feed them hot soup and the people would be ungrateful and, you know, we'd get threatened, we'd be told, you better get out of here, so and so, I can't remember his name, but I know his face, you know, he said, if y'all don't get out of here, he's got a strap and he's gonna get you. And we wouldn't leave, right? And we'd be bold. But one of those days, I remember, we had just finished kind of getting berated, and we're walking, we're kind of a little silent, and Elena turns to me and says, Brother Zeke, because by this time, you know, initially, there was a lot of brothers out with us, but after a while, it was just me and some sisters. And she turned and said, Brother Zeke, where are the men? And I said, I almost broke my heart. Where are the men? What do you mean, where are the men? Yeah, I wish, where are they? Well, they're at home, or they're relaxing, they're watching a game or something, I don't know. And I thought about it. There's a shortage. If you look statistically, most missionaries, most people who leave their home to go to the lost, like, you know, the demoniac, to go tell them what the Lord has done for them, how he's been good to them, most of those are women. statistically in the world. Whether or not you want to argue how many are truly converted, it doesn't matter. Most are women. And there's actually a shortage of men on the mission field. There is. There's a shortage. A shortage, there's even a shortage of men on the home field. If you look, like us going out to the Haven for Hope, there's no shortage of men on the sports field, no shortage of men and families on the soccer field. There's no shortage of people in any kind of field of life except the field that is most important in this life, that's gonna be most important after this life. And that broke my heart. Thought about that. Living sacrifice, interesting. And look, I'm not talking down to anybody. I'm saying this is a reality even for me. I mean, every Friday night, me and some brethren go downtown in San Antonio. And almost every Friday night, we walk in there kind of dejected. And we all feel it. We all feel like, you know what? I could have been home with my family, just enjoying the time, you know, hanging out. And we have to stir each other up. And so we have a moment where we'll encourage one another. And, and basically, I'd say like, look, give something that the Lord gave you from the scriptures, that's going to make everybody want to go out. And it's always got to be the mercies of God, it's got to be the cross. That's the only thing that ever does that, that that you have all things in Christ, and in God. Now, real quick, before you beat yourself up over the fact that you could do more for God, we all could do more for God, and that's right, and you may say, I just need to go do something. You need to remember that being submitted to God isn't, it isn't always seen one way, okay? And this word here in chapter 12, verse one, it says, I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God to present. That word literally means to make ready at hand. It's like the remote's right there. It's within your grasp. It's ready. The kingdom of God is at hand. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. It's near, right? It's to be near to God. Near, ready, at his disposal, you might say. And so it doesn't mean that you necessarily go and have to do some particular thing. It means that everything that you are is accessible to the living God. It means that there's nothing off limits. So what does that look like? And it doesn't just mean the mission field. It doesn't just mean one little narrow aspect of the Christian life like evangelism. It means everything. Prepared for action. Ready. Doesn't just mean missionary. It could mean this. It could mean that someone in your assembly is in need and you got life savings. But you know, oh wow, they could get help now, but see, that's for my help later. And I was so wise to save this up, but they're in need. Well, no, the Lord wouldn't, because he had me save this years ago for this purpose, but they're in need now. He couldn't possibly actually want me to give it here. He couldn't want that. He couldn't want me to share what I have. No, actually, the Bible says that he could. And you know, if his love is gripping you, you're not gonna put up walls around your life to where people can't get in. Or it might be this, this is kind of could be presenting yourself, making yourself ready, saying, Lord, nothing's off limits, where you're just constantly praying, praying without ceasing, Lord, what sort of sacrificial love offering do you have for me today? I am ready, I'm yours, I'm at your disposal. I am the remote sitting here ready to be clicked and change the world. Here I am, and then sister comes in and she sins against her husband. And now you got to be the one to tell her. It's like, ah, I don't want to do that. I get uncomfortable, make our relationship a little weird. No, no, it actually says if you see that, you need to go and tell him privately and deal with it. That may be hard, but that's real life. But you need to be ready to be, I would say this, I would say you need to be like a man, even if you're a woman. You say, what? New age, progressive stuff you talking about there. Well listen, the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 16, act like men. Quit yourselves like men. Be like a man. What is a man? A man is courageous. A man is one who stands in the gap. He stands like a shield between the danger and the endangered. He's the one that's ready to go forth and advance a thing. And so you need to have courage. That's fundamentally what it is to be a man. male, but especially a man of God. And so be like that. A few other things in this about a living sacrifice and about putting your life on the altar, so to speak. It's not done later, but while you're still living, right? It's a living sacrifice. So I know I got the picture of a thing dead or being killed, but it's a living sacrifice. In other words, this isn't, an organ donor program. You know what an organ donor program is? You sign on the dotted line and you say, when I die, you can have all my body. You can have my organs. You can have my heart and my, you know, they have face transplants. You can have my stomach. I don't know if they do stomach transplants. But you can have all the best parts once I'm dead. But no, this is a living sacrifice. So actually, you need to give the best parts and the best time while you're alive. See, it almost seems like a paradox for him to say living victim. The sacrifice is killed, it's crushed, it's destroyed, but living, okay? The life I live, that I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God, but then he says, it is no longer I who live, I've been crucified with Christ. Okay, Paul, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. You died, but you live? You're alive but dead? Yes, yes. In other words, your ambitions, your life, everything that you have prioritized, scrap your list, that's what it is to be a Christian, throw it away, and this new list is present your body to God while you're alive, while you're ready. I remember, it was after John Allen Chau died. You guys know who John Allen Chau is? the brother who he basically prepared for about two years and tried to get himself ready. And he rode a boat or he paid some fishermen to take him on a ship out to this really dangerous island, the Andaman Islands, where there's this really remote group who nobody's reached with the gospel. And if you get on the beach before you can even get there, they'll kill you. And so they brought him as close as they could without getting hit themselves, dropped him in a little canoe, he rode over, and I think the first time they tried to spear him, and maybe they missed, and then he did it again, and the second time, you can go look it up, but essentially this man was killed trying to take this message. These people, they don't know that Jesus came, died, rose for their sins, seated at the right hand, and he wanted to take it to them. But you see, and someone told me, hey, you know what you do when you get old and sick and on your deathbed, go to the Andaman Islands. But you know what this would maybe infer is, no, actually, while you have life, if this is a sacrifice, if you look back at Leviticus, it's not the one with a spot or a blemish or say like, hey, just wait until your leg's all gimpy and your heart's about to give out and your brain isn't that good, it's all kind of fucked, no, no, no. a sacrifice, you know, the kind that God would have offered on the altar without blemish, the good one, the good parts. That means men, while you're young and strong, go. While you have your best years, go. I mean, I think about, I like to go play basketball, but I've been thinking lately, like, you know what? I don't need to give the best years of my knees to basketball. I need to give the best years of it to maybe climbing mountains in Nepal or maybe walking on the streets late at night on Fridays. Maybe going and helping the brethren move their furniture. Maybe all these things, but maybe I ought to just scrap what I love Not that I would never do it, but how to put it on the back burner and make sure always at any time as I see opportunity to serve God and to put myself, my body on the altar, I do it while I'm alive and while I have the best years available. You need to do that. And not just while you're alive, but think about the term sacrifice. What is that? Who is the sacrifice benefiting? Is it benefiting the sacrifice? Does the lamb or the goat or the bull that's killed, is that happening for it? No, it's happening for an atonement for others. Sacrifice infers that you yourself are doing this, not just for yourself, but on behalf of another. It's not just enough to give yourself while you're awake and alive just randomly. It's that you have Christ in your mind, and that as you give yourself and do it, you're calculating your life to benefit other people. That's a sacrifice. And think about this. Think about in... Verse two, look at verse two. Clearly in verse two, you have this reality, right? It says, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. But then, then look what he says. For by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. And then he starts to describe this body with many members and different gifts and how they use the gifts. And for what? And then in verse nine, you see, he he basically he goes and he. gets real practical with this living sacrifice. Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil. Hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal. Be fervent in spirit. Serve the Lord. Look at how these things are benefiting other people. Rejoice in hope. Be patient in tribulation. What kind of tribulation? Well, people probably messing with you and doing bad stuff to you, even in the church. Be patient in tribulation. Be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse them. Why would he need to say that again? Well, because it's tempting to want to curse people who don't bless you. who persecute you, rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep, live in harmony with one another, do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. In other words, don't just hang around the best brother in the church, go find the one that's, maybe nobody else wants to hang around, or they tend to be by themselves, or maybe they're lowly in their income or finances, whatever it is, be with them, be around them, never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all, if possible. So far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God. For it is written, vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord. To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. For by so doing, you will keep burning coals on his head. To not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. This is really the Christian life. This is the sacrifice that you're to present to God. You're to basically say, I'm in a world with sinners both in and out of the church, hopefully in the church, these people are obviously redeemed and they're being transformed and made more, less like the world and more like the Lord, and they're becoming more godly, but in that process, they're gonna sin against me, whether they're people outside of my home or even in my home, whether it's a child or a spouse or someone else's spouse. I need to basically tune myself to live godly among God's people. And you know what a major hindrance to this is, especially in America? Idolatry. Before sort of working on this text and studying it out, I was working on a section of scripture that had to do with idolatry in 1 Corinthians 10. One of the things about idolatry is that it's so much more subtle here in America, at least in our minds, right? When you think of idol worship, what do you think of? What do you think of with worship anyway? Typically the word means to bow down prostrate, right? And when you think of idol worship, you think of a picture, an image, right? It's an image worship. It's, you know, we go to Nepal and they have this little, it's like a booth. It looks like a phone booth. but it's decorated and it's got like food and potatoes and things down there on the ground because they're offering it with incense and stuff stuck near it and in it. And then people go up and they put money or they bow. Every time we were on the mountain around the road, we'd go around a curve, it was very scary. There was this little, just out of nowhere, just in the wilderness, this decorative thing, this booth, and the guy would hop out and put a dollar on it, on the little plate. We were downtown for evangelism, and one of the homeless guys was trying to convince another homeless guy, hey, you need to put, there's this Indian idol, and it's got these bowls, and she stands there like this, and he was like, you need to put some in that bowl, that's how I get fed every night. You need to do that. So it is here, but it's, you know, it's kind of, we don't see that, right? We don't see people, even when you go to the, maybe when you go to the grocery store, and you see another culture, and they're there, and you see their little Buddha, or you see something, and, oh, okay, yeah. But you don't even think that they really believe it. And so, it feels so far off from us. And there's this story of this missionary who, basically went to India and was talking with this pastor in India, and he's talking about India. There's billions of gods. You know, over there in Nepal, they worship the sea, they worship the... one of the brothers was telling me there's a god of the tools. They constantly create these ideas and images. Because, I mean, you think about it, right? Like your car breaks down, you've got to get to work, and you're like, maybe there's a God of the cars? Would you help me, God of the cars? And the car cranks up, and instead of giving glory to the one true God, you give credit to a demon. And so then they get in the car, and they're like, I worship the God of the cars now. And you'll find stickers of all sorts of new gods that they're just, They've said it's billions and billions of gods all over the streets, in your face, on shirts, in the car. I mean, in every car, there's some kind of sticker, some kind of idol, some kind of image. And so it feels like they have way more idols than us. And this missionary, he was over there, and he's talking to a pastor and his wife, and he says, he's talking to her about all the idols and different things. And he was seeing it, and he asked her something about America. He asked if she had been to America. She said, yeah, I've been to America. She said, I don't like America. I don't plan to go back. He said, why not? She said, there's too many idols. He said, what do you mean? Well, cars, bands, favorite sports teams, money, education, business, success, there's all kinds of things. that people worship as God, that they bow before, that they basically live for, they give themselves over for, whatever it is, sometimes to be beautiful. You know, you will let someone cut in your face and put things in there and sew it back up and look terrible for a few days, till it heals, just to look like you're younger than you actually are. Or now they do Botox, right, they inject it. Look, I'm not judging if I get haircuts. But I'm just saying, you got people who worship the stuff. Have you ever seen some of these things gone wrong where they've had multiple surgeries and multiple things? It's insane. And you may say, well, wait, that's not a biblical idea of an idol, brother. That's just like you're kind of like superimposing on the text something that isn't actually there. Really? Well, you know, Colossians 3.5 says covetousness is idolatry. It is idolatry to God. You know, Philippians 3.19 talks about some people whose God is their belly. You ever slow down and think about that? Whose God is their belly with minds set on earthly things. Interesting. That describes America. America, that's us. If you have credit card debt because you like eating at fancy restaurants, your god might be your belly. And I don't mean the food. I mean the appetite for new things, good things. And you contrast that. You think about that, right? I want to do this. So why would I not? Why would Eleanor have to say that about the men? I just think about myself. Why would I not want to go out on a Friday night? Why would I not want to? Well, because I want to do this. Well, OK, but go ye into all the earth and make disciples and teaching them to obey everything I've commanded you? Does that not include you, Zeke? I'm with you to the end of the age. Well, I'm scared. Yeah, but I'm with you. Go. What about my bank account? No, the Lord would have me. I'm saving so that I can go into all the earth. That brother, he doesn't need that. That's for me. That's for me to do the thing to please you, God. Do I not own the cattle on a thousand hills? If I were hungry, I wouldn't come to you. And by the way, if you see your brother and have this world's good, see him in need and close your heart, how does God's love abide in you? What are you doing? What are you talking about? Well, I have this idol of going to the mission field or whatever. I mean, anyway, it's these things we bow before. You have an authority figure in your life, and they come to you and they say, do this, and you say, no. Why? Because you worship your own opinion and yourself. You are much more important than that person. You're more important. That moment, they cannot do that. Even if they're wrong, I gotta dishonor them. I gotta disrespect them. We'll touch on that in the next message. But that's it. And idolatry so hinders our ability to serve God. And think about this now. Look at the two adjectives that Paul uses to describe this living sacrifice. Holy. and acceptable to God, you take those two out and you don't have spiritual, rational, logical worship. You heard somewhere that Peter has said, what good is it if you sin and suffer for it? What good is that? The word holy, hagios. We hear this word, we typically think of righteousness, but it literally has to do with separation and dedication, devotion. Utensils in the temple that were holy weren't so much righteous, right? They were dedicated or devoted to one thing. The Puritans would call it to be pure. It's to be single. It's to have one eye. You've heard the example of Paul Washer, where he says, this bottle of water, right? He says, this is what? What's in this bottle? H2O, right? One thing. But what if I gave it to you and I said, there's a little bit of sewage, just a little, I'm gonna put a little bit, 1%, just a little. We shook it up so you can't see it. All right, drink up. It's great, right? No, it's terrible because it's not holy, it's not separate, it's not devoted to one thing. It doesn't have one ingredient in here. And God says that for you, Christian, you are to present your body to God as a living sacrifice Holy, that is devoted to God for one purpose. And acceptable, that is not only set apart for God's service, but actually must be acceptable. It has to be well-pleasing, that's what the word means. Hear how Paul uses this word in a few other places. Second Corinthians 5.9, so whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him, that's the same word. acceptable, well-pleasing. Ephesians 5.10, try and discern what is the same word, pleasing to the Lord, acceptable, well-pleasing. Philippians 4.18, I have received full payment, Paul says, and more. I am well supplied, having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice, acceptable and pleasing to God. Colossians 3 20 children obey your parents and everything for this is acceptable or pleases the Lord. Titus 2 9 through 10 bond servants who are to be submissive to their own masters and everything. This is us at work there to be well pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, not show or but showing all good faith so that in everything they may adorn or wear the doctrine of God our Savior. Brethren, this is your spiritual worship. This is it. You need to basically think about the mercies of God. You need to consider somebody like Paul was saved, a wicked man. He was made an apostle despite all he had done against Christ's church. You need to consider that God is sovereign and you didn't get saved because of you. He came in and he saved you right where you were, and he raptured you up out of your sin. And he loved you. You need to consider that the wrath of God fell on his son. That's what mercy is, is that you deserve that wrath. But instead, he didn't give it to you. And you got to think where he couldn't just keep it in in limbo. It had to go on somebody. There had to be payment. Without the the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins that had to fall on somebody and it fell on his son. And so because of that, God says to you to present, put make it ready, make your body available, accessible to God right there within his reach so that he can just grab you and say, I want to do this with you. And you need to present it as a living sacrifice, which I would say infers that you need to do it while you're alive, while you've got vitality, while you've got time, while you've got energy in your soul, in yourself, while you're still getting ideas for the Lord. Don't think anything too small. Put it before the Lord. Go try things for the Lord. See what you can come up with for him. And not only alive, but it's a sacrifice. It's something that actually benefits other people. It's not just this selfish thing where we say, well, I'm a living sacrifice. I'm going to go live on a combine. It needs to be for others. It needs to benefit others. It needs to, husband, love your wives in such a way that it actually makes her feel like, that was really good. That was helpful. Thank you. And not only those things, but holy, set apart, pure for God, and well pleasing to him, whether that's children with their parents, or you trying to discern what is pleasing to the Lord, are you at work with your masters being well pleasing and not argumentative, not stealing, but showing all good faith that you can wear the doctrine of God our Savior. We need to do this, and this is your service. This is how you're a priest. You know, the Bible says we're a royal priesthood, a holy nation. This is your priestly service. This is your rational service. This makes sense, and it's the thing that you ought to do, laying yourself on the altar, being kind to others. and kind to the, you might say, to the Lord in the sense that you offer yourself to whatever he would have you to do your money, your bank account. It says present your body. It's not good enough to just say I present my well intent. No, everything that you are. Amen. All right. Father, I do pray that you would help even me to be more of a living sacrifice more willing, help us all to be holy, pleasing, help us to make available to you everything that we are and have in Jesus name. We love you. Amen.