We'll go ahead and sing all five of these verses. They're just two lines of these. So the Koreans are going to sing the first one again? Well, we'll just sing all five verses here. So it's a different order than the online version. I like the other two that we learned in America. You will never know me without you. He is the King of the darkness, He is the One who leads the darkness. For the beauty of His righteousness, why does He live? Does He live? He sleeps forever. He is faithful, thank you, and true. May the Lord provide the means It's a morning, not a evening, to tell a tale that we've written. Tell a love, a loving, saving, promise not to break. It's an honor to be with you. It's an honor to be with you. It's an honor to be with you. Amen, good singing. Just a reminder, for those of you planning to be there next Sunday, and I think that's most of us, please do not bring food. We are not having the fellowship meal on the third Sunday. We are having a few folks join the church, and we're excited about that. Be in prayer for this. So we will have the fellowship meal, Lord willing, final week of the month. And Dr. Harvey Park will be with us. We may have some time to sing at the end of the service. I was trying to choose some songs earlier. But we do want to spend some time in God's Word this evening. Turn in your Bibles to Romans chapter 12. We will look at the first 13 verses this evening. And what we're going to focus on is we're just going to take from this passage the concept of God's gift. And what I'd like to do is see in the first couple verses that you and I give ourselves as a gift to God. We are consecrated, we are giving ourselves to God. As we continue on in the passage, we see that God has given His Son His Body. In other words, we are the Body of Christ, and so we'll look at that a little more closely. And then we will see our response to these things from Romans 12, because the series is responding to Romans. So we're in Romans chapter 12, and we're going to read these first 13 verses here in Romans 12. And Lord willing, go from there. Romans chapter 12, verses 1 through 13. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service, and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them. If prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith. Or ministry, let us use it in our ministry. He who teaches in teaching, he who exhorts in exhortation, he who gives with liberality, he who leads with diligence, he who shows mercy with cheerfulness, Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another, not lacking in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer, distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality. Let's go to the Lord. Our gracious, loving Heavenly Father, who art in heaven, we do pray that your name would be hallowed this evening. We pray that you would help us to worship you in spirit and in truth. As we see, Father, that who we are is a gift to yourself, as we see that what you are due is everything, all belongs to you, all is yours, we give what we have because it's yours. But Lord, as we see these things, we pray that as we appreciate who you are and how you deal with yourself, how you deal with us, Lord, we pray that this would be a time of worship in spirit and in truth. And Father, as we go to you in prayer this evening, we pray that you would conform us to the image of Christ, that you would give us the mind of Christ, and that you would help us to pray as we ought. We pray these things in Jesus' name, with thanksgiving. Daniel, I'm going to ask you to do the job there with the overhead. Thank you. All right. So the title, quite simply, this evening is God's Gift. And as we look there, you see the handout by the hymnal there. And we see that we are to give ourselves. The terminology, the phraseology here is like a burnt offering, like a sacrifice in consecration But notice this is an offering to God. We are giving ourselves as ones who belong to God, to God. And so we need to give ourselves, basically unreservedly, completely, totally, wholly. This is an act of consecration. Lord, I am yours. all my talents, all my abilities, the gifts you have given, I give them back to you, as it says here, transformed as my mind is renewed, proving what is good, acceptable, the perfect will of God, presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice. This is our gift of worship, our offering of ourselves, our lives, is indeed a gift. So God, of course, why are we giving ourselves? Well, we remember what God is like, as we have seen. God is indisputably good and severe. So you've got a blank there just to exercise your writing hand. Romans 11, verse 22, I've really kind of wrapped it onto this verse here. We've come on to it again and again. We've been reminded to consider the goodness And this is severity of God. So God is indisputably good. When he created all things, his analysis of what he had made was it is very good. He himself is the standard of goodness. He is good, but he holds his creation, he holds us, to his standard, which is holiness, righteousness, goodness. And so he is severe with, you could say, the inferior quality, with the broken, the sin. So he is severe, and that goes indisputably. But he is also indescribably great. As we have meditated on Romans 9 through 11, we've seen God's plan is probably not the way we would have worked things out. We probably would have wiped the plate clean in the flood and just, you know, just said, you know, it's a do-over, it's a wash, we're not going... But God didn't just wash His hands of His creation. He sent the Redeemer. And He dealt in such a way that not only were his chosen people, the line of Abraham, those remnants, the 7,000 for Elijah and so forth, but also we Gentiles had been grafted into this tree, to this olive tree, and so his plans are bigger than mysterious, beyond our knowledge, beyond our comprehension, they are indescribably great. And so here is Paul mulling for three chapters over God's promises, God's revelation, and just trying to work out what this means, what it looks like, trying to understand God's plan for the Jews, God's plan for the Gentiles, God's final plan for the entire Shabbat. You know, just what is all this in this entire world? I mean, it's beyond our comprehension, but yet He has revealed so much. And so God's glory is enhanced by are responding to what we do see, what we do know, what we do understand with worship, with consecration, with service. And so God's glory is added to by our response to seeing, to hearing, to being what we ought to be. As we worship Him in spirit and in truth, this adds to His glory. This adds to His renown. This adds to the fame of His name as we spread the Good News to every creature. And so His glory is enhanced by worship and by our service. So we do present ourselves as a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable to God. Secondly, we see that God gives the Church The one body, what is described here as the members of the body, God is giving the church to Himself. Now what we see there, there in verse 5, is that we have one body in Christ. And we have seen repeatedly, as we've talked about, this image of the body of Christ. What does this mean? Well, Christ is the head. The rest of us are the parts, the members. And what we see is that God is giving to Himself, to His Son, us. And God is claiming for Himself, God the Son is claiming for Himself, us, by dying on the cross for our sins. And so what we have is that Triune God looks at what He has made you and I, and He says, oh, I want that. And He gives Himself what He has made as a gift. You say, Pastor Brian, that sounds ridiculous. But it's not. Have you ever given yourself a gift? You go into the market, and you see something that you haven't had in a long time, and you say, I'll get that for myself. I'll give myself a treat. Now, we sometimes pass the ice cream shop, and I get myself a treat, as well as my sons. But what we see, look at Psalm 2 here. In Psalm 2, we see the father giving to his son, who is the Messiah, the kingdoms of the world. He's saying, you know what? We've got this creation, they're doing their little rebellion thing, yada yada. Okay, don't worry about it. Son, this is for you. Look at it. Open your Bibles to Psalm 2. Huh? Well, he's laughing and cackling, not cackling, but you know, just spitefully squirming. you know, this little uprising of these children of dust, right? So Psalm 2, we come down to verse 6, we've got all this rebellion, the upstarts, the kings, and all the rest, and God just says, you know what? Yet, you know, never mind all of the first five verses. Yet. I said, my king. on my holy hill, Zion. Who is my king? Well, verse seven, I will declare the king. I will declare the decree. This is the king's command, a decree, right? This is the law, the Lord. Notice this is Yahweh, all caps there. Yahweh said to me, so now the son is speaking, you are my son. Today, I have withdrawn, but we find in Roman sense upon the resurrection when he claims him as his son. Verse 8, ask of me, just ask, ask of me and I will give you the nations, the nations for your inheritance. and the ends of the earth for your possession. Verse nine says, you will break them with a rod of iron, you shall dash them to pieces. So God the Father gives the Messiah, basically asking you will receive. You know what, son, you want it? You're charged, just ask. A gift from the Father to the Son, everything. Any one of these nations? The church. Just ask. Greece? Babylon? Rome? Any one of the nations, just ask. And the church. And you will have total, complete authority. You can break them with a rod of iron. They will have no say Verses 1 through 5 never mind That you know, these are children of best made With your hand Have life for me You brought them into the world you can take them out as my mom used to say, right? so God the Father gives the Messiah a And we see the gift not just of control of power, but he does give children. So look at John 17. This is the High Priestly Prayer, of course. And Jesus, here John reports in John 17, verse 9 through 11, look at this. Jesus has prayed that the Father would give him the glory he enjoyed before the world began. He's prayed for himself, he's prayed for his disciples, and he says in verse 9, John 17, verse 9, I pray for them. These ones, verse 6, that you have given me out of the womb. So you have given me these special ones, that will be mine in a very special way as my children. I pray for them. I don't pray for the world, but for those whom you, the Father, had given me a son. Four, they're yours. All right, they're yours, they belong to you. All mine are yours. It is a triune God, so you know what's mine is yours, what's yours is mine, you know. All mine are yours, yours are mine. I am glorified in them. Okay, so God is glorified in you, in me, right? Verse 11 now, I'm no longer in the world, but these His disciples his followers Christians are in the world. I come to you Holy Father, right? That's where he is now I come to you Holy Father keep through your name those notice again whom you have given me and And so we see here that they may be one as we are, and he goes on to talk about how he has kept them in verse 12 and so forth. And so once again we see this, you know, this is not some emergency action plan or some last-minute consideration. This is something that was part of the plan from the very beginning and from before the beginning. So Ephesians 1, 4 through 6, Ephesians 1, 4 through 6 reminds us that God, verse 4, just as He, the Father, chose us in Him, in Christ, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. Notice verse 5, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself. So in other words, God said, you know what? I'm going to make you part of the family. I'm going to give you to my son, my son's going to redeem you. That's the plan. According to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he made us accepted in the blood. And again, in Philippians 2, 9 through 11, we know that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow. So God the Father has given to the Son, us. And we, his people, are his children. And those who rebel, like Psalm 2, those who have not yet kissed the sun, will kiss his feet in subjection. So everyone is going to be subject to him. Some of us are going to be subject as sons, others as those under judgment. Some of us will be in heaven with Him, others will be in hell apart from Him, but He's still in control over all. But not only that, we also see that the Holy Spirit has gifted the Church to the Messiah. Remember, it's the Holy Spirit, John 3, who regenerates us. When we believe on the Son, the Holy Spirit blows as He wills, and He regenerates us. He gives us a new birth. And so what we see, turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 12. I want you to see here that it's the Spirit who is applying the Son's work so that you and I are a part of the body. And so what we see here in verse 8, 1 Corinthians chapter 12, dropping down to verse 8, Notice who is doing what in basically adding body parts to the body, making members or giving gifts to the body. Verse 8, 4 to 1, is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit. So here's the Holy Spirit doing this thing, to another healings by the same Spirit, to another working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning the Spirit, to another different kinds of tongues, to another interpretation of tongues. Notice verse 11, but one and the same Spirit, this is the Holy Spirit, works all these things. distributing to each one individually as he wills. And so, again, verse 12, for as the body is one, right, the church, the universal church is one body, Christ is the head, it has many members, all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. then verse 13, for by one spirit were baptized into one blood. So we see here in verse 13 that Basically, this baptism of the Holy Spirit. When you believe in Jesus Christ, you turn from your sins, you are born again. And the Holy Spirit baptizes you. This is regeneration. This is where you are unified, united to the members of the body. Christ is your head, you are given whatever gifts, spiritual gifts you have, and the Holy Spirit gives these according to his own will. And so the body's gifts, verse 7, are for the entire body. We're for one another, but what is the body? The head is Christ. And so verse 7, notice here, this is key, where I'm basically getting this from, from the Bible. The manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all. So here we have the Holy Spirit giving, in effect, creating the body as the body of the Son. And so the Son is the ultimate One who has paid the debt. All right. That brings us to the third point. God gives the Church to Christians, to one another. So we are given to God the Son but we are also given to one another for fellowship and for encouragement. The body of Christ takes care of herself in the use of the gifts the Holy Spirit has given. So as we're back there in Romans chapter 12, or in verse, what we see is that our gifts are to be used to help one another. That's verse seven. This is mutual encouragement, mutual taking care of one another, making sure that we help one another out. So verse six through eight, we see you have these different gifts, This is the grace, this is the gift that the Holy Spirit has given us. And so, you've got the gifts, use them. Why? To get a big name for yourself? To become famous? No. The reason you use your gifts is to help your body. Whether it's to fix the broken, to comfort the discouraged. You rejoice with those who rejoice. You mourn with those who mourn. You rebuke sin. And so what we see here is we've got these gifts that are to be used to help one another, whether it's prophecy, preaching, ministering, teaching, exhortation, giving, leading. All of these things are for the church, for other Christians. It's not just about me, it's about you. It's not just about you, it's about me. We all need one another. And without you, the Church is not whole, if you are a Christian. And if you're not doing your part, that is a sickness, that is you know, whether a lame hand or whatever, if you're not using your gifts, then the church is not what she should be yet, right? And so the body of Christ, the church, this sounds bad, but it's true, we love ourself. We love by this, Jesus said, you will show that you are my disciples by your love for one another. And we are told that we should love others, love your neighbor, as you love yourself. So the Bible always assumes that we do love ourselves. Unfortunately, in the 1980s, loving yourself kind of got out of whack with the world. Basically, loving yourself is kind of a narcissism. But this is not narcissism. This is just, you are a part of God's body, if you are a Christian or Christ's body. You are a part, you are someone who is made in the image of God. And so God is served by us loving one another and serving one another. So Romans 12 verse 11 says, in honor that we are to give preference to one another. That's verse 10 actually. So we love without hypocrisy. We abhor what is evil. This is verse 9. Cling to what's good. All of this is Affects one another we are loving one another being Kindly and having brotherly love there in verse 10 Preference for one another not lacking in diligence verse 12 rejoicing and hope patient and tribulation Notice verse 13 distributing to the needs of the saints Give it to hospitality. So we are God is served by the church of loving the other members of the church. Diligently serving one another, whether it's by hospitality, distributing to the needs of the city. It's there in verse 13. That is how God is glorified. And so the church is given to Christians for one another. You need the church. I need the church. And so the church enjoys fellowship with God, We enjoy deliverance from him. Notice here in this right in the middle, verses nine through 13 here, there's all these things about one and others, and then kind of right in the middle, we've got fervent in spirit serving the Lord. It's like others, others, others, God, others, others, and others. God is right there in the middle. He's central, he's key. You know, if you love God, if you are fervent in spirit, if you're serving Him, then it's going to show itself by serving one another, by loving one another, by meeting the needs of one another. Right? That's the point. You show your love for God by loving one another. If you don't love one another, you probably don't love God. That's what 1 John says. Because we can't see God. God doesn't have a body here on earth His body here on earth is you and me and other Christians Because God is a spirit And we must worship him in spirit and truth, but we show that we do indeed love him and serve him by serving one another Because we are his You belong to Jesus So I treat you the way I treat Jesus. And if I give you a cup of cold water in your knee, in his name, he says, thank you. You don't have to say it, Jesus does. Right? That's what he says. So God has given the church to us, as well as to his son, so that we are able to help one another. And so God helps his son, in a sense, by having his church help his father. And so this is why Jesus is able to say at the last judgment, you came to me in prison. And they said, what in the world are you talking about, Jesus? Well, he went to Christians. You gave me a cup of cold water. You fed me. Jesus, I've never seen you. What are you talking about? Oh, you did that to these people who belong to me. So you did it to me. So in a sense, the father is helping his own son because the son is the head of the body. And so the son takes whatever is done to the body as done to himself. So we better be pretty doggone careful about hurting another Christian. Because it's slapping Jesus, not slapping... right? And so what's our response, finally? The Church is going to receive God's gifts, and we respond to this with worship and thanksgiving. Turn in your Bibles to Psalm 80. Psalm 85. Now, the first part of the psalm is the psalmist repenting of sin. Talking about the iniquity of the people, verse 2, God's wrath at that sin, verse 3. And so we come down to verse 10 and we see Mercy in God, in Christ, mercy and truth have met together. Righteousness and peace have kissed. Now, think of your life. And when I think of my life, I don't think of righteousness and peace going together very well. Because I know that, you know, I'm a pretty miserable guy. I'm messed up pretty often. More often than I'd like to talk about. But in Christ, As he comes to us, righteousness and peace come together. Mercy and truth come together. Verse 10. Truth springs out of the earth, shall spring out of the earth. Righteousness shall go down from heaven. Verse 12. Yes, the Lord will give what is good. Our land will yield its increase. Righteousness will go before him and shall make his footsteps our pathway. We've walked down the paths of righteousness. What are we talking about? Well, Jesus is the way. He's the truth. He is righteousness and peace together. This is quoted in Hebrews about mercy and truth and righteousness and peace, right? And so we have God completely forgiving our sins And so God, because we are clean, he no longer sees our sin and sees that grossness, that iniquity, that filth. He sees Christ's righteousness and he says, okay, I'll bless you. You can have it all. All the blessings of Christ are for you. Ephesians 1 through 3. And because his people now You know, I just said I sin, I fail, and I do. But God sees righteousness, Christ's righteousness, but he also helps me to make a couple of right decisions. So that by God's grace, I'm actually able to do a few good things. And that's not because of me, right? That's God. If anything is done right. So, you turn back one page, Psalm 84, verse 11, we see, God is a son and sheep. The Lord will give grace and glory. No good thing will he withhold from those who walk uprightly. And you say, wait a minute, I'm terrible. and He will forgive that sin. And by God's grace, He will help you to walk righteously. And when you are right with Him, nothing good will He withhold. It's all going to be yours. This is not prosperity gospel. Let's not go on the wrong track here. But the things that will truly be good for you, you will get. And sometimes money is not good for us. Anyway. I'll just leave that there. But what we want to see is that because God is doing everything rightly, righteously, God's people finally say, Hallelujah. And they respond the way we began. Remember, you're going to give your body as a living sacrifice. And so what does that look like? Well, to put it in psalmist language, in Psalm 29, we see in Psalm 29, give unto the Lord, O you mighty ones, give unto the Lord glory and strength. Give unto the Lord the glory Do His name. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Because God is doing everything right, because of who He is, because of what He has given, because He is so glorious, you give Him glory too. And somehow, people like we are able to add to God's glory. Isn't that incredible? I mean, we sometimes get on this pseudo-humble thing, you know, what can I do? I can't do anything. Well, God accepts glory from us and considers it to add to His glory when people like you and I worship Him. Now, I don't really understand that calculus or that arithmetic, but that's the way God does it. That's the way God does it. Final Psalm, Psalm 96. It will be done after this will have occurred. We'll certainly have some song time then. Psalm 96, verses 7 through 10. Almost the identical words to Psalm 29. It's worth repeating. Psalm 96. No, it's not the mighty ones. Notice who it is, verse 7. Give to the Lord, O families of the peoples, So that's you and me. That's not just the kings and the potentates, the powerful politicians. This is you and I. Give to the Lord of families of the peoples. Give to the Lord the same thing. Glory and strength. Give to the Lord the glory due His name. You and I. It doesn't matter what you do, right? You're one of the families of people. Give to the Lord. Let the Lord do His will. Bring an offering. Come into His courts. Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Tremble before Him all the earth. Say among the nations. Great commission, right? Say among the nations, the Lord reigns. Now we're back to Psalm 2. No, it's all cats. No way brains The world also is firmly established. It shall not be He shall judge So the mighty ones kiss the sunlight Rest of us Those of us who know Christ Who have been redeemed? With the psalmist, Psalm 96 begins. Turn back the page here, Psalm 96. Oh, sing to the Lord your song. Sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing to the Lord, bless his name. Proclaim the good news. We've got a lot of good news to tell him. Proclaim the good news of his salvation from day to day. verse 3 declare his glory among the nations his wonders father help us to sing declare and testify as we come to you in prayer we pray Lord that you your name would be hallowed that it would be high and lifted up, that you would help us to pray as we ought, that your kingdom would come, that your will would be done on earth as it is in heaven. Lord, we do ask that you would give us our daily bread. But, O Lord, lead us not into temptation. Deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. All right.