Give God What He Wants | Romans 12:1
This message was preached at Sherwood Community Friends Church on Sunday, May 16, 2021. You can watch the video in full by clicking below.
I’d like us to start by reading aloud together Romans 12:1.
“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.” Romans 12:1 NIV
I am so thankful for God’s word, aren’t you?
I believe God has four very clear things us to receive today. Some of these things may even seem basic to you. However, I challenge each of us today that whether you have known God for 7 days or 7 years or 7 decades, to be in a posture of responsiveness as we wrestle through what God’s word says.
First, Paul addresses the brothers and sisters. Alongside them, we are asked to…
Receive God’s Word.
I was taught that when you come across a “therefore” in the Bible, you want to pause and ask “What is it there for?”
In our woman’s group, we’ve been studying Romans. We’ve been following along with Michael DeFazio through RightNow Media. As a side note, if you are looking to do a deeper dive into the book of Romans, or any other book of the Bible, everyone here has access to RightNow Media.
If you don’t have your log in information, let me know and I would be happy to make sure you are set up.
Back to our Romans study, DeFazio breaks down the preceding chapters to give us proper context before moving forward.
Paul spends chapters 1-4 explaining the Gospel and our need for it, reminding us of our brokenness.
He then spends chapters 5-8 exploring salvation more deeply.
In chapters 9-11, Paul points out that Jesus coming to earth to take the penalty for our sins was always a part of the plan.
Which brings us to chapter 12. Paul spends the remaining part of Romans encouraging the church.
It’s easy to pull ourselves out of Scripture because we know that we are not the original audience. For a little context, the audience of Romans was to the church of Rome. Actually, It was to the DIVIDED church of Rome.
While we are not in Rome, we can certainly acknowledge that we ARE the church. And, when we look at the big C church throughout our nation, we see the glaring disunity among believers, often charged by the differing interpretation of scripture and political issues of the day. The church of Rome was no different. We can be assured that Paul’s message throughout Romans is the same for us as it was for them. We are the church and we believe the plan of salvation through Jesus of Nazareth.
Have you been hesitant to embrace the Bible in your daily routine? Your first next right step for today is to accept, receive and meditate on God’s written word. Maybe for you that might mean picking one verse, Romans 12:1 is a good one, write it on a note card and keep it somewhere you will see it regularly.
Next, Paul reminds us of the lens through which we read the rest of his words…
Receive God’s Mercy.
I’m not sure about you, but I prefer to give mercy rather than receive it.
When I extend mercy, I have the power to allow the offender to experience compassion and I get to choose to extend forbearance. If I am completely honest, my pride sneaks in and even leaves me feeling like I’m a little better than them.
Receiving mercy though? This I am not so good at. Receiving mercy reveals my own nature, that I am an offender. I first “gave my life to Jesus” when I was about 8 years old. I wasn’t a “bad kid.” I went to youth group and served in church. I didn’t have a lot of boyfriends or drink or get into drugs. Overall I was “good.” So I never really saw myself as an offender of the Gospel.
What I neglected were those respectable or acceptable sins.
What about those times when I snapped out of anger to the friend who didn’t see things my way?
How about those times when I skated by on finishing my work whole-heartedly, taking the easy way out instead?
What about when I feel the prompting of God to go talk with my neighbor, but instead I indulge in my favorite tv show?
Or when I put the extra hours into my work because I worry about the results rather than trusting them with God?
No. I am not good. I just got really good at making it appear so. This is why we all need mercy. Ephesians 2:8 reminds us “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-.” It is only once we have fully received God’s mercy for ourselves that the good works God has planned for us to do in advance can then flow out of us. Otherwise our good works are just another form of legalism.
Do you hold a posture of pride or a posture of repentance? Take a posture of repentance and receive God’s mercy.
The third gift for us is…
Receiving God’s Direction.
When Paul references to “offer our bodies as a living sacrifice” he isn’t speaking figuratively. These are our physical habits, the outward overflow of our hearts.
This isn’t another self-help gimmick or life hack. The world tells us if we just work hard enough, we can make our dreams come true. I am in control of my destiny!
God is not interested in our self-help attempts. He doesn’t care how many books you’ve read or podcasts you’ve listened to. These things aren’t bad— they can actually be quite helpful! But, when we turn inward to our own efforts and pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, we might as well snub our nose at God and say, “Thanks but no thanks. I can do this on my own.”
Ouch.
Now, I could stand up here and give you a bunch of suggestions or ideas of things to stay away from for a “more godly life.” And I bet you could sit there right across from me and do the same. We know in our heads all the shoulds and shouldnts. Obedience matters, but what if it’s not only about doing or not doing the things we think we are supposed to.
I used to be a nutritionist. I would meet with clients regularly. It was easy for me to tell them all the things they shouldn’t eat. If I told you that you have to stop eating donuts, what is going to be on your mind?
That’s right! Donuts!
We can’t just take something out - it’s a good idea to have a replacement for the undesired habit. So, rather than me telling my client not to eat donuts, I might ask them what they could have instead. A green smoothie? Some oatmeal with blueberries? It’s not only about what we take away, it’s about what we are putting in.
I admit that word for word Scripture memorization has never been a strong suit of mine, but a few years ago, I committed Philippians 4:6-7 to mind.”Do not be anxious about anything but in everything, through prayer and petition, present your requests to God. And the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
What I regret is that I did not include verse 8 in my memorization! This is what we are to replace our anxiety with “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things.”
What habits are keeping you from God that you need to replace? From the posture of repentance, ask the Holy Spirit to redirect habits that keep you from Him. Remember, condemnation brings guilt and shame. God’s mercy and kindness brings gentle conviction and hope.
We have received God’s Word, God’s mercy, and God’s direction. Now we get to…
Receive God’s Presence as the freed followers of Christ that we are!
Worship is more than harmonizing our voices on Sunday mornings. In response to the mercy extended to us, we are now free to worship from our whole being.
Last week, Rich pointed out that God doesn’t just want our money. He wants all of us. It’s the same with our spiritual disciplines, our to-do lists, and our time. When we align ourselves with God, just God, then out of the overflow of our heart comes true and proper worship, with our whole being.
This sermon series is about being all in. It’s not about creating a list of spiritual practices as a task list to follow. It’s not about creating rules and disciplines and checklists to make sure we are “doing it right.”
What it is about is identifying the plastic pearls in our life and dying to our notions of importance and letting go of what we are comfortable with. It’s embracing mercy and worshipping God from that space with our whole being.
Do you spend daily time in God’s presence? This week, find just 10 minutes each day to put on some worship songs and be in God’s presence. On our website, we have a link to this week’s worship songs. Let his mercy cover you as you lean into His presence.
