Follow along in the Bibles in your pews, you'll find it on page 986, Romans 12, the first eight verses that we had for our epistle reading a few minutes ago.

This comes as a summary to what Paul has been saying throughout the whole of the book of Romans up to this point. And to oversimplify it somewhat, there are three main themes that have run through these early chapters. The opening part of the book of Romans, virtually chapter 1 to 4, deals with the theme of God's prevenient grace that our salvation is totally His doing. He's done everything for us. It is totally of Him and we receive it by faith.

Second portion of the book begins with chapter 5 and moves through chapter 8. And it has to deal with the outworking of that salvation, the outworking of redemption. That God's will for us is not simply that we be saved as some kind of legal pronouncement. That our sins be set aside and we don't have to pay for them anymore. it's more than just justification. But God's will for us is that that redemption would be worked out in our experience, in our lives, in our character, that it would make a difference, that we would be freed, in other words, not just from penalty, but from pollution,

that we'd be remade in the character of Christ, that it not be just some kind of pronouncement, but that it become fact and experience. and then the third portion begins with chapter 9 and comes up to this point the end of chapter 11 and here what Paul is dealing with is the fact that it is also God's will that as he transforms us we would become the bait to catch others he said I make you fishers of men well Paul is saying I make you the bait on God's hook that as other people see what he's done in your life they'd become hungry for that they'd want that in their own experience you might look back in chapter 11 verse 13 and 14 he says I'm speaking to you Gentiles in as much as I'm an apostle to the Gentiles I magnify my ministry to make my fellow Jews jealous

Paul is saying that people might see in me that which would make them jealous, they want it too when Jesus says you are the salt of the earth whatever else that does it makes people thirsty we're to make people thirsty for this redemption so number one God has done it all and we receive it by faith number two it's a matter of working through us not just pronouncing us justified but transforming us into the character of Christ and number three in that process, other people would want in on it.

I believe all of that stands behind this opening comment in chapter 12. He says, I appeal to you, therefore, because all three things are so. I appeal to you because God is worthy.

As we yield to him, we experience all that he has for us. And because in the process, others get in on Christ's salvation. What do I appeal?

I appeal that you would give yourselves to this great God. That by his mercy, you would present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. I appeal to you to give yourself to Him. Present yourself as a living sacrifice to Him. This is my appeal. This is the summary of this whole great book of Romans. Because all these things are so, I make my appeal to you that you would offer yourself as a sacrifice to God.

If you go back into the Old Testament, Back into the days of the temple, and even before that to the tabernacle, when God's people came together to worship Him, publicly, corporately, there were always two sacrifices. There was one on the outside before you even come into the tent of meeting. That was a sacrifice for sin. It was offered on a brazen altar. Here was the lamb who was slain and his blood sprinkled on the altar that we might be forgiven.

Here was the goat, the bullock, the dove, offered as a sacrifice for sin. You don't even come in, except by the way of the sacrifice.

But on the inside, there's another sacrifice, there's another offering. Just on the innermost part where we come to the veil, there's another altar. It's a golden altar this time. And the sacrifice here is not one for sin. It's not one of atonement, it's one of thanksgiving. It's one of praise. And what's offered there is incense coming up before God to praise Him for what He's done and who He is.

And it's offered continuously.

What Paul is saying here is Jesus Christ Himself, in dying on the cross, has fulfilled that first sin offering. He's offered Himself for our sin. But now, as a matter of thanksgiving, we're to offer ourselves, not as a sacrifice for sin, but as a sacrifice of praise to this great God. We become like that altar of incense before Almighty God. Not asking Him for forgiveness, but thanking Him for it.

Paul says, I appeal to you that you become a living sacrifice. sacrifice.

It's interesting to me that he says present your bodies as a living sacrifice. This is to be worked out in our flesh. This is to be worked out in terms of our saying no to those temptations of the flesh, to those bodily desires that are contrary to God's will. And it's also to be worked out in terms of our saying yes to those things which God says do please Him.

And we so often make a distinction, a dichotomy, between that which is spiritual and that which is physical. But look at the very next phrase. Paul says, this is your spiritual worship.

If you want a definition of worship, here it is. Presenting yourself, presenting your very body to God as a living sacrifice. This is worship. This passage comes as a tremendous summary and reiteration of all that we shared together last weekend in Malcolm Smith's seminar. You want to know what worship is? Here it is. Candles, robes, vestments, choirs, crosses, stained glass, great cathedrals.

No. all of that has its place worship is offering yourself to God making a present of myself and offering it to God not to earn anything he's earned it but to thank him this is worship of course it needs to be expressed and especially as we come together corporately we need to find ways of expressing it together but the essence of it, the center of it is that I offer myself back to this great God who has offered himself to me

I want to just think our way through the passage for he immediately tells us how we do this verse 2 do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

It involves our bodies, but it begins with our minds.

That we would say no to the ways in which the world thinks and we begin to think God's thoughts after Him. Here's where the whole tremendous endeavor of Bible study and meditation on God's Word comes into play. that we would begin to reiterate God's thoughts after Him and apply them to ourselves. J.B. Phillips translates this in a marvelous passage. He says, don't let the world squeeze you into its mold, but let God remold your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all His demands, and moves towards the goal of true maturity.

Let God remold you from within rather than having the world squeeze you into its mold. It's a matter of agreeing with God. Agreeing with what He says, sometimes in the face of conflicting evidence.

Abraham believed God. All the evidence pointed to that being a laughing matter. Abraham's 100 years old. Sarah's 90. You're going to have a son. No possible way. Abraham believed God in spite of all the conflicting evidence. We agree with God. We don't allow the world to force us into its mold. It says, can't happen.

No possible way. But Abraham says, God said it, and I affirm it. And therefore it's so. And he didn't allow the world to squeeze him into its mold.

Scripture says, as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. This is why Jesus says to the Pharisees, it's not primarily a matter of what you do on the outside, it's a matter of what's going on on the inside. It's in your heart that comes lusts and fornication and all manner of sin. And then it gets expressed externally. It's in your heart that you're obedient to God or disobedient. and then it gets expressed externally. It's a matter of the inside rather than the outside. And I've said several times, many of you have heard me say this, that the greatest threat to the church has always been

that it will simply capitulate to what the world is saying. It has never been primarily persecution from the outside. It's been capitulation from within.

when I was up in Cedar campus with the students from around the nation's colleges this past month with InterVarsity they went through a very interesting exercise took a whole bunch of magazines just purchased off of the drugstore counter and they went through and they attempted to identify all of the values that were reflected in the advertisements

it was absolutely astonishing to them because we're all vaguely aware of it, of course. We're bombarded with it all the time. But for that very reason, we become somewhat calloused to it. And as they began to go through and identify what is the appeal behind this advertisement, and this one, and this one, and this one, they found that point for point for point, without exception, the appeal was being made to exactly those things that the Scripture condemns, To avarice and greed and one-upsmanship and number one first and lust and right on down the line.

In every single case it was a matter of appealing to the very thing that the scripture condemns. Some of them held a little informal seminar afterward and they said, what would it look like to have Christian advertisement? And nobody could even imagine it. How do you appeal to sell something on the basis of the Beatitudes?

how do you do that? nobody could even imagine it see what's being said there's this incredible pressure television, radio, the media newspaper, advertisements all around us to make us think in a way that is directly contrary to those things which Jesus says are ultimately valuable how do you break out of that?

the threat to the church is not persecution from outside, but that we would simply end up being chameleons. Whatever's going around out there, we reflect.

T.S. Eliot had a devastating comment on the whole of the 20th century, a little one-line epitaph.

He said, Here were decent, godless people, Their only monument, the asphalt road and a thousand lost golf balls.

Decent, godless people.

Just living for themselves.

Paul says, don't be conformed. Be transformed. And this begins with your mind as you begin to make the devouring of His Word part and parcel of your daily life. As you begin to chew on it like a cow chews her cud and allow it to become part of you. You begin to think God's thoughts after Him and then it's translated out through all that we do. This, he says, is worship. this is worship.

I want us to notice that he takes us one step further,

and it's kind of a devastating step.

For by the grace given to me, I bid you, everyone among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think.

So the essence of spiritual worship is offering ourselves to God. the center of that is being transformed in our minds new attitude not the world's attitude but God's attitude and the very core center of that

but Paul's application of it is totally within the fellowship as in one body we have many members and all the members don't have the same function so we though many are one body in Christ individually members one of another having gifts that differ.

According to the grace that's given to us, let us use them. If prophecy in proportion to our faith, if service in our serving, He who teaches in His teaching, He who exhorts in His exhortation, He who contributes in liberality, He who gives aid with zeal, and He who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness.

will you allow this to really touch you where you are this morning

what Paul is saying I believe is figure out, find out wait upon him, ask him, discover what is your particular contribution to the body of Christ we have different gifts we're not all to do and be the same thing this is his favorite metaphor for the church if the whole body were a hand where would the seeing be?

we need each other I'm not you, you're not me and we're not to do the same things but we're to complement each other with the different gifts different functions different ministries different roles within the body of Christ that he might assign to us so you find out from him what's your contribution to be made

and then offer it in service.

The great snare and temptation, the great stumbling block that keeps this from happening, is that so often, immediately we find out what our gift is, what our ministry is, we demand that everybody else organize themselves around us.

and totally missed the point.

I offer it. If there's a need, I'll meet it the best I can. If somebody else can meet it better than I can, I'll step aside and applaud him.

And I'll wait. I'm willing. I don't have to have the spotlight. I'm willing to have somebody else have his time in the sun.

My prayer is, Lord, take me and use me as you see fit or leave me on the shelf. I'm content simply to sing your praises.

Do you see that this is a double-edged sword? One, find out what you are to do. Don't hold back. God has something for you to do that only you can do. Don't hold back. You're needed. Don't say, oh, they've got so many people and everything's all organized and there's no place for me. There's a place for you. Find out what it is.

But number two, having done that or having begun to do that, it's then a matter of offering myself in service, not demanding that everybody else organize themselves around me. the great plague of the church

is that we're a bunch of prima donnas.

Everything has to be organized around the choir doing its thing, or the altar guild doing its thing, or the Sunday school doing its thing, or the evangelists doing their thing, or whatever it might be. This is the most important thing. My goodness, how could the church get on without this?

Well, it couldn't.

But if this doesn't find itself fitting in with all the other thises, the church can't get on either.

When certain cells of the body begin growing and multiplying without regard to the ones around them, when they begin just rampant growth,

without fitting in to the total scheme of things, We call that cancer.

And so Paul says, whatever your calling, whatever your gift, whatever your ministry, offer it in the totality of what God is doing. The purpose of the church, the purpose of the church, is that we discover the joy of being dependent.

on each other in Christ.

I'll say that again. That is the purpose of the church.

If it weren't for that, it would only be me and Jesus. I don't need anybody else.

But He's called me into a body. The purpose of the church is that we would discover the joy of being mutually dependent upon each other. And as we do so, All the other things begin to happen as well. God is exalted and people are drawn to Him.

Say, look at us. We become the bait to win others to Christ. The purpose of our gifts is that we become servants. That we become servants, whatever it might be. Lord, here I am. I'm available.

So let's just recapitulate.

true worship spiritual worship is a matter of offering ourselves to God for at least three reasons he is worthy

as we offer ourselves to him the redemption of Jesus Christ becomes a fact of our experience

and in the process others are drawn to him

this begins with our minds. As we self-consciously adopt a new attitude and think God's thoughts after Him rather than allowing the world to force us into its mold.

And the very heart of all that is that we'd refuse to think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think. That we would adopt a servant mentality. That we would look at each other and applaud each other. He goes on to say in the very next verse, let love be genuine, hate what is evil, hold fast what is good.

He says, love one another with brotherly affection, outdo one another in showing honor.

This is the one legitimate area of competition.

I'm going to try to outdo you in honoring you.

and so we will demonstrate to the world the will of God we will prove to the world that his will is good and perfect and acceptable

let's pray together

Lord, we confess this morning that your gifts

are not rewards for our greatness but simply provision for others' needs.

and it would be our desire this morning to offer ourselves back to you

we pray that we might think your thoughts after you that we might have the mind of Christ

my prayer this morning Lord is that I'm available to you take me and use me for your own purposes or let me sit on the shelf and wait the time will come

help me Lord to be quick to appreciate the contributions of others

to make room for them to applaud when others have the opportunity to serve

to compete with them only in the business of outdoing each other In bestowing honor.

So exalt the Lord Jesus.

And draw all men to Him.

For we ask it in His name. Amen.