Living Sacrifice | Serving

Welcome to the first Princess Sermon podcast, where each week we dive into scripture, wrestle with truth, and discover how faith intersects our lives.

God's word meets us where we are, challenging, shaping, and calling us into something greater.

No matter where you are on your journey, you belong here.

And we're praying that this sermon might help you take a next step in faith towards Jesus.

Hey, let's dive into today's message together.

Hey, good morning, sir.

Hi.

Turn and greet one another.

I'm kidding.

It's good to be together in the house.

It's good to be back as on a four-week preaching hiatus.

We had a lot of good people in the pulpit, and I'm grateful for that.

If you're um if you're new here, you found a really great community of faith.

Um really good comfortable chairs are stuck below the elevators that are getting repaired.

That's why you're sitting in the less than comfortable chairs.

But hey, guess what?

There's a lot more of them.

You can invite a lot more friends to sit in the chairs with you.

Amen.

Uh this is actually a um a season where a lot of people move, that a lot of soil is turned up.

You know, I'm setting up my fall.

I've moved to Colorado Springs.

Hey, Thomas, bless you, brother.

And um, so it's a good time to say, hey, do you have a place to worship?

Do you have a place to grow in the Lord?

Uh this is a great place to be, and I'm glad that you're here.

We're gonna open our Bibles.

If you don't have a Bible, there's there's we've got Bibles in the back.

And so uh, if you want a Bible, seriously, throw your hand up in the air.

Matt will deliver a Bible to you.

We want you to have a Bible that you can that you can study, that you can uh know the Lord and hear him speaking to you.

And when the Bible's open in front of you, there's something that the Spirit does.

He kind of lifts up words, he kind of speaks to you off the pages.

So I encourage you to open your Bibles to the book of.

Anybody want to guess?

Let's go, church.

Let's go, let's go.

We are doing Romans from January to November.

We're in Romans 12, and we're gonna be at verses 9 to 13.

So let's pray.

Lord, how good it is to be together, to be opening your word with expectation.

Because, Lord, unless you speak your word, we are those who sit in silence.

There's nothing else.

Unless you shed your light of revelation, we are those who sit in darkness.

So, Jesus, speak to us, shed your light on us.

Help us to hear your voice.

In Jesus' name we pray.

And the church said, Amen.

Romans 12, 9 to 13.

Love must be sincere.

Hate what is evil, cling to what is good.

Be devoted to one another in love.

Honor one another above yourselves.

Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor serving the Lord.

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

Share with the Lord's people who are in need.

Practice hospitality.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Uh in Washington State, there, hey, it's good to see you guys.

In Washington State, uh, there's a group of researchers uh who are who are doing a project.

It's called the Lost Apple Project.

Now we're praying for everybody in Washington State because of the fires that are going on.

We all know what that's about.

But there's a group of researchers doing the Lost Apple Project.

Does anybody want to guess what this is about?

Apples, yeah.

Appleseeds, appleseeds.

It's about finding apples.

They're true.

What they're trying to do is they're trying to isolate the genetic uh DNA of apples that have not been showing up or been eaten for generations.

But there used to be these apples, and now these apples, they're they're gone.

And so they go back in records to like world's uh or like county fairs and things where people had great apples and orchards that used to celebrate these different varieties of apples, and and actually go to places where these orchards have been defunct and they're trying to find like the DNA, and and they go, they wander through the woods trying to find like an apple tree, and they're they're isolating lines of of DNA, the uh the genetic line, the code of these apples that have been gone for generations, and they work and they work, and they bring the they produce these apples again.

They bring these back from you know from the past.

It's like Jurassic apple.

It's like and and some of these some of these apples that they've produced, that they brought back, they produced, some of these apples are absolutely disgusting.

And they've done all this work and all this time and all this research and all, and they've brought this apple, here it is, there's this apple, and they put it in their mouth.

It's gross.

They call them the spitting apples.

They're good for one thing, spitting out.

But some of these apples they grab this apple, they produce this apple, they take a bite out of it, and they say, whoa.

That is what an apple was always supposed to be.

Romans 12 is like is like the lost apple project, it's like the lost Christian project.

It's like we've been we've been getting washed out, we've been getting formed, we've been getting pressed in upon by the world, we've been adopting other values, we've been absorbing other other trends, we've been just living in the culture, getting swept away by the culture.

We've been just walking as everyone in the crowd, just walking in the crowd.

And and Romans 12 steps in, and the Lord says, wait a minute, I want you to know the true DNA.

I've had seasons in my life where I loved apples, and I would I would eat an apple every day, I would eat an apple, and and then every now and then, and you know I would just love these apples.

I got different varieties and stuff, and just enjoy them.

And then every now and then you grab an apple and it looks just as good as the last one, and you bite into it, and what happens?

Oh.

It's like mealy.

You know that?

It's like it tastes terrible, like sour kind of mealy, and you just and then you know what happens to me is it isn't like I decide not to eat apples anymore.

I just don't reach for them for a while.

Like, I don't want that.

Are you following me?

What kind of Christians are we becoming?

What kind of representatives of the tender mercies of Jesus are we in the world?

How's the fruit of the Spirit being on display through us as we love and follow Jesus in this world?

You know, sometimes uh you bite into a good apple, a good Christian, and and you try you you and so this is this is actually this is what the world has needed.

This is what the world's been missing.

This kind of love, this kind of joy, this kind of peace.

Uh I this is this is uh this is the real thing, and the world's been wanting it, and the world resists it too, right?

I mean, sometimes the the world doesn't like the light, the world runs from the light, the world will persecute the light, but but in its heart of hearts, the world knows this is actually what I needed.

But then sometimes, isn't it true?

There's another type of Christian, and and someone who's looking, they're searching, and and they bite into that.

And it's just such leaves such a bad taste in the mouth.

That they don't actually decide, I don't, you know, I don't believe these doctrines of the church.

I think I disagree with the uh you know the doctrine of whatever, of the atoning sacrifice of cross and substitutionary.

No, it's just I just don't think I want that.

I don't think I want it.

What kind of Christians are we when the world's biting into us?

Also, please do not bite the Christians.

That's that's one thing.

There's just things I have to clarify for legal purposes before you leave.

But you know what I mean.

Romans 12 is a lost apple, a lost DNA passage.

And what we got is kind of a laundry list of how do I live for Christ?

How do I renew this DNA?

And it all starts way back at the top of Romans 12.

The top of Romans 12.

Uh Chip Ingram, by the way, he took Romans 12, he made a whole Christian discipleship program out of it, he called the R12 Christian.

They said, let's be R12 Christians.

What kind of Christian are we?

And it all starts uh up at the top where we were a couple weeks ago, but I want to go back there, the first two verses of Romans 12.

Therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercies, to offer your bodies as a as a what, church?

Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.

This is your true and proper worship.

That means if God is worthy, this is your true and proper worship.

To lay your body down a living sacrifice.

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be what?

Transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is, His good and pleasing and perfect will.

You see, you're gonna be formed.

You're gonna be formed.

And the question is, are you gonna be conformed?

Are you gonna be shaped by the forces and trends and cultures of the world, or are you gonna be transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit within you?

Are you gonna be washed out, mealy-mouthed, bad apples?

Or are we gonna be re restored to the fruit of the gospel, the DNA of Jesus?

Are you gonna be conformed or transformed?

And you see, church, it it's a body kind of a question.

It's a body question.

It says, I I I tell you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice.

And what does that mean?

That means it's not just, I want you to believe, I want you to think, I want you to feel.

It's I want you to do stuff with your body.

I want you to move around in your body.

How are you using your body to lay your life down as a sacrifice before the Lord?

We're not just spiritual uh beings, we're physical beings.

We have these bodies, and they are a gift, and we make decisions with our bodies.

And what Romans 12 is saying is look, here's some exercises, here's some disciplines, uh, here's some practices, here's some ways to shape the use of your body to be a living sacrifice before the Lord.

Not just a sacrifice that's laid down on the altar dead, but a sacrifice that's still alive.

You're you're laid down on the altar before Christ, you give your life to Christ, and you've laid your life down before the Lord, and you say, uh, I I still, Lord, I'm still alive, and and I have to be held there by will.

What are you doing with your body?

Your body.

You know, um, if your if your body had a a tracker, where would it, where would it show up?

You think about that?

What are you doing with your body?

How are you using your body?

You're using your body uh just to seek pleasure, to seek uh comforts.

Uh where are you what are you doing literally with your body?

Now you all get uh a lot of of bonus points.

Do you know why?

Your body is in church right now.

Like you did it, okay?

Yeah, give yourself a round of applause because you made it to church.

And I know it wasn't nothing to make it to church, okay?

And you got your body here.

You didn't just go to church in your mind, right?

Where did you go to church?

Yeah, I went to church in my mind, you know?

No, you got your body there.

If your body had a tracker, would it show evidence that your life is devoted to Jesus?

In 2015, um a horrible thing happened uh in Egypt, and um uh a bus was pulled over by ISIS, and ISIS uh pulled a bunch of Christians, Coptic Christians, off of this bus.

I don't know if you remember this.

They took them up to the shore of Libya and they killed all of those Christians on the shores of Libya.

Now, um if if something horrible happened like that, if you were pulled off the bus and ISIS grabbed your phone and they opened up your phone and they looked at your calendar, they looked at your bank records, they looked at your at your tracking, would there be enough evidence to convict you of being a Christian?

What are you doing with your body?

Romans 12 is saying, look, if that DNA is getting washed out, here are the things that you're gonna do with your body.

Now let's jump in.

Let's jump in.

Verse 9.

Love must be sincere.

Hate what is evil, cling to what is good.

Love must be sincere.

If I were translating that directly from the Greek, I would say love is unhypocritical.

That's what the Greek says.

It is unhypocritical.

What is a hypocrite?

A hypocrite is a false face.

It actually comes from Greek drama when the actor in Greek drama would run around the stage and pick up different masks to play different characters.

The same person, the same actor, but now I'm this person, now I'm that person.

That's a hypocrite.

And we've developed that word, right?

That's where that word comes from.

This says love.

It's gotta be sincere.

It's gotta be real.

He's saying, you want to lay your body down as a living sacrifice?

You want to grow back in that DNA, that lost Christianity, that lost apple DNA of the Lord.

Well, you you need to love in sincerity, not with false masks, false fronts.

We've all been in relationships where uh it just wasn't real.

You felt more manipulated than than cared for.

You felt more used than known.

That's not love.

What this is saying is love is not hypocritical.

Love must be sincere.

And hate what is evil, cling to what is good.

If you're gonna be uh transformed, not conformed, you're gonna love in a different way.

But sometimes people, for the sake of good feelings, they abandon any attachment to the difference between good and evil.

It's actually not love.

Love must be sincere, hate what is evil, cling to what is good.

I was listening to a podcast this a couple of weeks ago, and it's a Christian podcast, and what they're talking about was actually the need that we have as believers to be repulsed by what is evil.

They said, actually, we're losing this and we need this.

Hate what is evil, cling to what is good.

Actually, we need to be repulsed by evil.

We've gotten too accustomed to evil, and and we're used to it, and and we see it a lot, and it doesn't really hit us, and you know, we're just kind of, it just doesn't matter to us that much.

We're not repulsed.

And they were saying, actually, actually, you you you're gonna want to cultivate an aversion to evil, a repulsion.

We need to be repulsed by what is evil.

It's like when you get home from vacation and you you pull that milk out from the very back of the refrigerator.

Like, ooh, milk.

This will be delicious.

And then you you open the cap, right?

And what happens?

What does your head do?

Yeah, that's right.

You're you you do this head jerk.

Now, you didn't decide to do the head jerk, right?

It was something that made you do the head jerk.

But but what Romans is saying is you need that head jerk when you come across evil.

You you should be grateful that your head jerked back and you did not drink that milk.

Amen?

Now you need to be grateful when you're repulsed by evil.

Oh.

And cling to what is good.

Grow in your cultivation of holding on to what is pure, what is lovely, what is praiseworthy, what is true, what God has shown us is good in His word.

Hold on to that.

It's got peace, it's got clarity, it's like a mountain stream.

Hold on to that and love it.

Cultivate that and cultivate your reply.

Love must be sincere.

Hate what is evil, cling to what is good.

Let's keep going.

Number 10, verse 10.

Be devoted to one another in love, honor one another above who?

Is that gonna be easy?

What this is saying is be devoted to one another in love, be as devoted to Christian community, one another, as you are to your brothers and sisters in your family.

This should be like a family feel.

Be as devoted to Christian community as you are to a biological brother or sister, a sister or brother in your family, biological or adopted in your family.

Okay, you got me.

To be a living sacrifice is to use your actual time and space and energy, your actual resources, your body to love one another, to demonstrate a commitment to one another as family.

Isn't it interesting how Jesus taught us?

In John 13, he said, I give you a new command, a new command I give you, love one another.

They will know you are my followers.

They will know you are Christians by your love for one another.

We sang it as kids, some of us.

And then in John 17, Jesus was praying to the Father, and he explains in the course of that prayer that he says, Father, my teaching, my revelation, my gospel is going to be verified in the people who don't know us, who don't know the Lord, by the way that the church is unified and loves one another.

And then the beloved disciple John.

He wrote to the church a letter called 1 John, and he explained that love, if you really want to look for love, it's actually the core of love, is how God sent his son Jesus Christ as an atoning sacrifice for the forgiveness of our sins.

And then he says, and since God loved us like that, look at this.

1 John 4, 11.

Dear friends, since God so loved us, so we also ought to love who?

It's amazing how Jesus taught us that his love, his love for us becomes one another love.

It goes out.

Love one another.

Honor one another above yourself.

Honor one another.

Can you imagine?

Honor someone above yourself.

Is this gonna be hard?

How many people think this is gonna be easy?

Good answer, good answer.

How many people think this is gonna be hard?

Why?

Because your self is at the core.

And we're living in a world that tells us over and over again, your self is at the core, your self is all that matters, your self is the very center.

We are living in the culture of the autonomous self, the the over the that I mean, the self is everything, who I am, and my self is actually what I foist on the world.

And what this is saying is you should you should at least think, church, as an exercise.

What if you picked one person and you said, I'm gonna honor this person this week above myself, above my my preferences or my needs.

It's actually very, very hard to do.

Aristotle, great thinkers as good as Aristotle in all history, have said repeatedly, actually, fully, truly selfless service, it isn't possible.

Why?

Follow me now.

Aristotle said, no man on earth has ever done anything other than exactly what he wanted to do.

You do what you want to do the most.

That's what you do.

Aristotle said, you can't do anything else but what you want to do.

And you say to me, You're nuts.

I do all kinds of stuff I don't want to do.

Like some of you kids, you're sitting in church, you're like, I don't want, no, and no, you know, you wanted to be here.

Um you say, hey, I went to work, right?

I went to work last week.

How many of you went to work last week?

And then how many of you wanted to go to work last week?

Say, I went to work, I didn't want to go to work, I had to go to work.

Well, listen, you didn't, you didn't want to get fired, right?

And so what did you want?

You kind of didn't.

Want to go to work, but you you didn't want to get fired.

And you didn't want to get fired more than you didn't want to go to work.

And so the truth of the matter is you did exactly what you want.

Are you following me?

This actually happens in selfless service.

It happens in service to others.

It's so hard to be genuinely selfless.

Service actually gives us a high, it gives us a buzz.

There's studies that say it's so good for you.

It is so good for you.

Dopamine, dopamine.

And they say that service is so good, it's so rewarding for you.

It's very hard to actually serve somebody else.

It gives you a reward that's it's almost the same as being fed a good meal or being handed a wad of cash.

Selfless service.

So you who are running a business, you can tell your workers no more bonuses.

No, no, there will be no money, but I have signed you up for service.

And you're gonna feel just as good.

No, please don't do that.

What I'm saying is it's hard to honor someone above yourself.

It's harder than you think to serve someone in an altruistic manner with no reward for yourself.

And if you do that, it's gonna shine like a diamond.

It's gonna light up like a star in a dark world.

That you genuinely give yourself away of your body, of your time, of your energy, of your resources with no sense of return to honor, to love, to serve, to honor.

What is to honor?

To honor.

A definition of honor is to accord recognition and show appreciation for another's contribution.

To accord recognition and show appreciation for another's contribution.

You honor them.

And extra credit if you can award them recognition for their contribution with no reference to your own.

You following me?

Someone says, Yeah, I went down, I served at the um, you know, I served over at the at the nursery uh, you know, for an hour, and it felt really good.

I was glad I did it.

You're like, yeah, thanks for doing that.

I've actually served at the nursery like 4,000 times.

You know.

It's like like I went down last weekend and I served at uh I served at Spring Rescue Mission, you know, for an hour and it just was really cool.

It felt really cool.

Like, yeah, yeah, thanks for doing that.

Yeah, good.

I was on the board of the Springs Rescue Mission for like 30 years, but you know, no, no, who's counting, right?

I'm telling you, it's actually really hard, right?

How do you genuinely serve another?

And just say, that is awesome.

Thank you for what you did.

Walk away.

Love one another, honor one another, above yourself.

Never be lacking in zeal, verse 11.

But keep your spiritual fervor serving the Lord.

Church, how are we doing it's zeal?

How are we doing it spiritual fervor?

How are we doing it feeling the power of the Holy Spirit when we come into this place of worship?

How are we doing it being lit up by the presence of the Lord, the nearness of Christ, his the heat, the warmth of his presence?

How are we doing it being fired up for Jesus?

Can I put it that way?

How are we doing this is your fuel, this is your motivation to make it through the week, to come in one day and seven and say, Lord, this is this hour, and I want to worship you.

And when I leave here, I want to feel the fire, the power of your presence.

I want to be like that, that coal that just kind of got booted out of the bottom of the fire and went black.

But I came into worship and I drew near to the Lord, and I lit up again in the flames of the presence of Jesus.

Our praise team up here.

They're not singing songs at you.

You know that, don't you?

They're not singing songs at you.

You can go anywhere and get songs sung at you.

What they're doing is leading you in singing.

They're leading us in praise.

How do I feel the fervor, the spiritual fervor, the zeal?

Don't let the zeal fall flat.

How am I doing it?

Singing to the Lord, at giving my heart over to the Lord, at just allowing this music, you know what it takes?

It takes a little bit of humility, of submission, of submission, doesn't it?

Saying, Lord, just take me up.

Because I don't want to leave here cold.

I came in cold.

I want to leave here with a white hot faith for you.

Amen.

And so I want to worship.

I want to give myself over to worship.

Listen.

You will love your neighbor better.

You will love your husband better.

You will love your wife better.

You will love your kids and your grandkids better for having loved Jesus first and foremost.

You're having trouble, you're getting pressed into the mold, you're not loving sincerely, you're having trouble loving those who God has put in your path.

Looks, listen, devote yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ, draw near to him and fan that fervor.

It'll be motivation to love others.

Spiritual zeal, spiritual fervor.

Verse 12, three things in verse 12.

You want to read this with me?

Help me out.

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

Three more things.

Be joyful in hope.

Listen to me, brothers and sisters in Christ.

If you believe in Jesus, because of what Jesus has done for you, because of his life and his death and his resurrection, there is no group of people on the face of the planet who has a better basis for enduring hope than you have.

Because Jesus Christ is risen from the grave, the tomb is empty, the kingdom of God is coming, and you have a limitless resource of hope.

We must be hope people.

Amen?

Hope people.

And hope is not just positive vibes or blind optimism.

Hope is a resolute assurance and certainty that the good is coming, that the kingdom of God is on the way.

And whatever I'm enduring now, I know that in the end, God will have it right.

And because of that future assurance, that future hope, that future assurance changes the way I live today in my situation.

That's hope.

And how are we going to be in hope?

What's that word?

We are going to be joyful in hope.

The joy of the Lord is our strength.

Joy is a protest against a dark and a dying and despairing world.

It says, no, no, no.

It's not going to be like this forever.

Be joyful in hope.

Be patient in affliction.

Be patient in affliction.

Affliction can suck the wind out of your sails, can't it?

It can pull all the motivation out from under you.

Be patient in affliction.

Another word for patient is long suffering.

I don't want to be long.

You want to be long suffering.

Pastor, if there's going to be suffering, I would like short suffering, please.

Patience isn't measured like that.

It isn't a moment.

It isn't a dipstick in a moment in time.

Oh, you're really patient.

No patience.

Patience is tried and tested in the fire of long suffering.

Be patient in affliction.

And be what, church?

Faithful in prayer.

Keep praying.

Never give up on praying.

Keep praying.

Keep God in the business.

When you're at the end of the rope, that's exactly where Jesus wants to meet you.

Jesus loves the end of the rope.

He lives at the end of the rope.

He's there at the end of the rope.

Keep praying, keep praying, keep praying.

Because when you can't hold on to him any longer, his hand is grabbing on to your arm.

And so you keep praying.

Lord help, Lord help, Lord help.

Be faithful in prayer.

Amen.

Last verse.

This passage is it's kind of like a workout program, okay?

We're just doing this, we're doing this, we're doing this, we're doing this.

Last verse, verse 13.

How do I stay transformed?

How do I keep the world from pushing me into its mold?

How do I keep that DNA, that lost apple DNA of the true fruit of the gospel?

How do I keep faithful to Jesus in a world that's pushing me away?

How do I give my body over as a living sacrifice?

Last verse, share with the Lord's people who are in need.

Practice hospitality.

Two things you can do with your body.

You can do with your resources.

Share with God's people in need.

How do you do that?

I've got a friend, and she's had this practice uh, I think now for about 30 years.

And what it is is she she carries a$100 bill around in her pocket.

Not the same$100 bill.

She's always got a$100 bill in her pocket.

Why?

Because what she does, she goes through her days and she says, you know what, this hundred dollars, this$100 already belongs to you, Lord.

I'm carrying it in my pocket, but this$100 belongs to you.

And all I'm doing is I'm going through my days and I'm scanning, I'm scanning, and I'm listening to the Spirit.

Where does the Lord want this hundred dollars to go?

And she's got it right there.

And I'm not going to tell you who it is because I don't want you to mug her.

I'm like, you're walking around$100 in your book.

And she has got stories to tell.

She's not a foolish woman.

She's a wise woman.

She doesn't give it away frivolously.

But but when the spirit tells her this is where it goes, that's where it goes.

And then she sees what unfolds as she sees how this hundred dollars is exactly what that person needed.

This hundred dollars is a gift straight from the Lord.

This hundred dollars is that last bit of hope that that person needs.

I mean, it's amazing, the stories that she's got.

How do you just be responsive to the need, to the urgent need?

And finally, last two words, practice hospitality.

I want you to know what this word means.

Hospitality.

What it actually means is love of stranger.

We think hospitality, I think like a really awesome charcuterie, right?

And then I go, like, you got the gift of hospitality.

Hey, I'm for a good charcuterie, but but what hospitality, what this word really means is love for the stranger.

You've heard of fear of strangers, xenophobia.

It's the exact opposite.

Xenophilia.

I love the stranger, I love the other, I love the person that I don't have the same background as you.

How can I unexpectedly show up in the life of someone who's so far different from me and draw them close?

That's gonna shine, that's gonna be different.

That's a way that you lay your body down as a living sacrifice to the Lord and you demonstrate conformity to the good apple of Jesus.

Folks, that's the good apple.

Chip Ingram says about Romans 12 9 to 13.

He says, sum it up.

Authentic community occurs when the real you shows up and meets real needs for the right reason in the right way.

When the real you shows up, not a false mask, not a show, not a display, and meets real needs because you're devoted to one another in love.

In the right way.

I'm not looking for a reward or recognition or something to wash back to me, and for the right reason.

Sorry, the right reason is that thing where you're not getting the reward, and in the right way, joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

This is a people who demonstrate that real DNA, the fruit of the Spirit.

This is that people who are that lost apple Christianity.

They're not just pushed into the shape that the world wants them to be in, they're transformed in the likeness of Jesus Christ.

And where does it all start?

It all starts when your life is laid down, a living sacrifice at the foot of Jesus Christ, at the foot of the cross, when you lay your life down on the altar.

Jesus said in Matthew 16, he said, Whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life, whoever loses their life for me will find it.

How does that happen?

It's because you trust the Lord with your life.

And when you trust the Lord with your life, when you're a living sacrifice, the Lord starts to hand your life back to you in ways that you never even imagined, and you start living the life that is truly life.

The fruit, the DNA of Jesus, the genetic reality, the fruit of the Spirit.

Because you lay your life down at the foot of the cross and you belong to Him.

When did you give your life to Jesus?

Answer.

Forty years ago, it can't.

Ten years ago, when things got rough.

Five years ago when that diagnosis came.

One year ago, last month, you know, last week, yesterday, this morning, this hour, this minute.

Are you with me?

Are you following?

When did you give your life to Jesus?

A living sacrifice.

Paul said, For I have been crucified with Christ.

I no longer live.

Given that life, that life's gone.

I've been crucified with Christ.

I no longer live.

But Christ lives in me.

He gives me my life back.

The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

Let's be a living sacrifice.

A life given over.

Those who before the Lord have but one word in answer.

One three-letter word.

Yes.

Yes, Lord.

Yes.

Lord.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Jesus, this is a this is a challenging um passage.

Romans 12 is a challenging kind of a workout routine.

And we don't know how to keep it all in our head to do everything that's in here.

We'd love to, Jesus.

Would you help us?

Would you send your Holy Spirit?

We want to be true to you.

We want to be true to the DNA of Jesus.

We want to be the right kind of fruit of the Spirit.

Lord, would you move in us?

Help us not to be pushed around by the world, but to be transformed by the power of your spirit.

We pray that we would be a church, Lord, as we go out this week in all the places that you've put us, that as we feel the world pressing in, we feel immediately the equal and opposing power of your Holy Spirit, keeping us informed, keeping us in shape, keeping us in the likeness of Jesus, that your fruit, Jesus, will be known in this world through us.

For we love you, and we trust you.

And we say yes.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Hearing God's word is just the beginning.

What connected with you?

What challenged you today?

Maybe it's surrendering something, stepping into community, or simply trusting Him more deeply.

Whatever it is, don't leave it for later.

Act on it today.

We're praying that this message moves you closer to Jesus.

And we'd love to walk with you in that journey and answer any questions you've got.

Connect with us by visiting firstprints.org.

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Check in next week and we'll continue to grow in our faith together.

See you next time.