Answering the Divine Call: Transforming Lives through Humility, Faith, and Courage in Service

Well, good morning everybody.

We survived the week okay, it appears, and happy Labor Day weekend to you.

I'm so excited to introduce to you Brian Burton, who will be bringing our message today.

He'll be doing our teaching spot.

He and his family have been members here for four or five years maybe and they do a fantastic job of leading at Pinewood with worship band and other things.

Group leaders, a life group leader.

He is an ordained minister and has pastored churches in the area here and done a fantastic job of that.

So he's gonna challenge you and me this morning to put our yes on the table.

Romans, chapter 12, basically, whatever God's coming looking far from us, give it to him.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

You'll never be disappointed that you did that.

So glad you're here today.

So put your hands together and let's thank Brian.

And good morning.

Good morning.

Welcome to Somerville Baptist.

Those of you who are watching online, thank you for being with us this morning.

It is a privilege to be here this morning and, as Pastor Randy said, my family and I we've been a part of the church for a little over four, in between four and five years, and about a year ago, when the Pinewood campus launched, my wife Cheryl and I and our daughters went over and we love Pastor James.

He did a lot of ministry that my children were involved in as youth and so we wanted to go over and support and just encourage and when we got there we're a part of the service we realized we think this is where God wants us to be.

He was asking for a yes.

We hadn't planned that.

It wasn't on our agenda Well, it wasn't on my agenda, but it was on his and he said this is where I want you to be, this is where I want you to be a part, this is where I want you to plug in, this is where I want your yes.

And we are grateful.

We're grateful for Pastor Randy and his leadership, we're grateful for leadership across both of these campuses and we are blessed by the leadership on both of these campuses, but that's where God called us.

In that very first Sunday.

I went up to Zach, who was playing acoustic guitar this morning and I just was thanking him for giving his yes, for serving and being a part and leading us in worship.

And we were just talking and he was telling me how, as a team member, they were going back and forth between the campuses and they were stretched pretty thin and they really needed some help and I started to think well, maybe I could help out there.

It had been a long time since I played guitar, had been driving a commercial truck for the last seven years and sometimes that's kept me from giving a consistent commitment to something.

Sometimes I've allowed that to be an excuse from giving a commitment to something.

So just prayed about that and gave my yes there and joined the worship team and I've worked hard.

I've learned a lot.

I'm still working hard, still learning a lot, but I'm telling you it is a tremendous, tremendous blessing to be a part of what God is doing on that campus and as a part of what he's doing through this church across both campuses.

So I'm glad to be here this morning.

But let me just say there are many things, and you recognize this probably.

There are many things that we can say yes to with our lives.

Pretty much every day, a lot of us say yes to work, or maybe to school or studies or some other responsibilities that we have.

A lot of times we carve out time to say yes to our family or to our friends.

We make time to say yes to our downtime or entertainment.

There are a lot of things that are competing for your yes and for mine, but as followers of Jesus which most of us are followers of Jesus is anyone more worthy of our yes than our God and Savior?

And the answer to that is no.

He is completely and totally worthy.

This is where the apostle Paul writes in his letter to the church in Rome If you've got your Bible, you can turn to Romans, chapter 12 this morning.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

He begins to unfold this idea of giving our yes to God, putting our yes on the table.

In the early church, we realized, lived in a time and a place and a culture that is far removed from our own.

Yet there were a lot of demands competing for their yes.

They faced the pressure of living in a culture that was growing increasingly hostile to their faith.

They didn't know how the civil authorities were gonna respond to them from day to day, and it was becoming increasingly more hostile to the church.

They had to navigate the pressures of providing for their families, for themselves and what that looked like on a day to day basis for their families.

They had their own aspirations, their own dreams, their own goals and agendas that were crying out and competing for their yes.

But as we look in Romans, chapter 12 this morning, we realize in the first 11 chapters what Paul has been doing up to this point in his letter is laying a groundwork, a theological framework, if you will.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

He's been basically exploring and presenting the incredible, surpassing greatness of the salvation that was given to us in Christ Jesus, of the great mercies of God, and so he's been dealing with all of those just a multitude of mercies that God has poured out on us.

He's dealt with the human inability to obtain righteousness through keeping a list of rules and regulations that, without God stepping into our lives and doing something that only he can do, we are completely lost and without hope.

And then he goes on and explains that that is exactly what God did.

He answered our greatest need for a great savior by sending his own son, jesus, to die on a cross for you and for me.

So here in chapter 12, as Paul begins to make a shift, a transition in his teaching from that groundwork, or that foundation, if you will, to a more practical application.

He's basing it on these truths and he begins this teaching with a clear call for the people of God to give a complete and total yes.

Take a look at verse one in chapter 12 with me.

That's where we'll begin this morning.

Paul writes to the church and he says I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

So Paul begins this transition by appealing to or urging his fellow believers.

He's talking to those who are followers of Christ to present their bodies as a living sacrifice, that is, to give their life as a gift back to God that is holy.

He is the one who makes it holy, he is the one who makes it acceptable, but the choice belongs with the believer to say yes.

The image is connected with this idea of sacrifices in the old testament.

Those in the early church who were Jews would have been very familiar with this idea, even people that came from a pagan background, who worshiped false gods.

There were sacrifices in those false pagan religions, and so the idea of taking an animal and putting it on an altar after killing it, or killing it there on the altar and having it consumed by fire, that's not a foreign idea to them.

But he's talking about a different kind of sacrifice.

This is a living sacrifice that is a ongoing, continual, dedicated, devoted life to God and his purposes, not a one and done.

You know, I think a lot of us, we could probably do the one and done thing.

You know it's like.

If this is it, god, this is the one thing you're asking me to do.

But that's not what he's saying.

He says this is a living sacrifice that is a moment by moment, a day by day choice to say yes to God.

So, essentially, paul is urging believers and, through the scripture, god is calling us today to give him this our complete and total yes.

That's what he desires from us, that's what he's asking for.

You know, last week pastor Randy previewed the upcoming mountain man series and he mentioned Abraham as one of these people that went up on a mountain to meet with God.

And if you know the story of what happened in Genesis 22,.

God told Abraham go up on this mountain, take your son, isaac, the son of promise, the son that I said that your descendants will come through and offer him as a sacrifice to me.

And so Abraham doesn't question, he takes Isaac.

They go up the mountain.

Isaac carries the wood for the sacrifice.

Ask his father where is the animal for the sacrifice?

Abraham says God will provide.

They get it there on the mountain.

There is no animal.

At this point, isaac allows himself to be bound and placed upon the altar.

Abraham has the knife and hand and God intervenes.

If you know what happened there, he reveals what his purpose was in all of this One.

He was proving Abraham's faith through his obedience by giving his yes to God, but he was also foreshadowing by providing a substitute a ram who was caught in the thickets nearby.

He provides a substitute for his son, and that is exactly what God does for us in Jesus Christ.

He sent his only begotten son to lay down his life and take it back up again, so that you and I could become sons and daughters of the most high God.

And this is what he has in view when he makes this appeal.

It is the saving work of God that he bases this upon.

Look again at verse one.

He says I appeal to you, therefore, brothers he begins with this therefore, and it is by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

So, whenever you see that, therefore, the writer is connecting what they're saying now with what has previously been discussed, again, going back to those 11 chapters where he explored the mercies, the multiple mercies, of God, how God has given us his divine love, how he has given us his eternal love and grace, grace, unmerited favor.

He has given us holiness.

He has given us his Holy Spirit.

He has given us peace with himself.

He has given us the very faith that we express to trust in Christ.

He has given us comfort.

He has given us over the power, over sin and the penalty of sin.

He has given us his kindness.

He has given us his righteousness, a righteousness that we could never attain through our own effort.

He forgives our sins.

He forgives our sinful nature, our sinfulness.

He reconciles us, those who are lost and far away from God.

He brought us near.

He justifies us as if we have never sinned and makes us righteous in his sight with eternal security.

And that's just scratching the surface of all the mercies of God that he has covered in the previous 11 chapters.

And as I was reading through this and thinking about these, pondering and absorbing and maybe you hearing them today you were reminded or recall or think about we in absolutely no way could ever deserve any of these mercies.

There's nothing we could do to earn them.

There's nothing we could do to merit them.

There's no demand that we could place upon God that that mercy I deserve that, because there's absolutely no.

It is his mercy, it is his unmerited favor, and so it is in view of that mercy, in light of that mercy by those mercies, that we are being called to present our bodies as a living sacrifice.

Now, paul describes this as the believer's spiritual worship.

This is an act of worship.

When we say yes to God, it's also translated as a reasonable service.

That is thinking about what God has done for us.

How else could we respond than to give him our yes when he asked for it?

How else could we respond to the one who has done so much for us?

You know, basically Paul is explaining, considering all that God has done.

We owe him our yes.

We owe him our yes as a response of gratitude, not because we're trying to earn something from God, not because we're trying to repay a debt that we owe to him because we could never repay that debt.

It is a grateful response to his mercy.

When we give God our yes, it is because of what he has already done even to make that possible.

It is because what he did in Christ and so this living sacrifice that is holy and acceptable to God, it is living, it is continual.

Again, it is a daily.

It is a moment by moment choice that we make to respond to God's mercies wherever he asks.

You know you've probably heard it said, if anybody's preached this passage that the problem with the living sacrifices, that we tend to crawl off the altar, you know we tend.

It's not a comfortable place to be.

You know, laying on the altar think about that, just literally, physically.

But what does that mean?

That means saying no to myself in saying yes to God wherever he asks.

That is not a place of ease, that is not a place of comfort and a lot of times we might find ourselves crawling off that altar.

Maybe it's because our fervor or our zeal or our gratitude.

At that moment we've kind of run out of gas, maybe because our focus has shifted, we got distracted by something that's happening in our life, or perhaps it's because of some pain or hurt or discouragement that we've encountered.

You know, frankly, we get tired, we just get tired.

Sometimes, we get weary, we get fatigued.

And those moments or those seasons it is very tempting to misdirect our yes.

We can put it in a lot of places.

We can give it to the wrong person, we can give it to the wrong things, we can keep it for ourselves and just hold on to it tightly and say, god, I'm just gonna hang on to this yes, for whatever reason.

But when the apostle writes to the early church, he is not diminishing the real pressures that these believers face, and God doesn't diminish the pressures that we face as well, because they are very real.

They're the things that compete for our yes to God.

You know whether it's the pleasure of sin, or whether it is the desire to gratify ourself or to seek ease, or to find comfort or to just avoid difficulty.

Those are very tempting, very real pressures.

So something has gotta change in me, something's gotta change in all of us as followers of Jesus, if we're going to consistently, completely give a total yes to God.

And that's what Paul begins to unpack in verse two.

Take a look with me.

He writes and he says do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that by the test, or that by testing, you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

So Paul gives a negative imperative do not do this, do not be conformed to this world, which, quite honestly, is how we've lived our entire life up to the moment that we surrendered to Jesus.

We lived the way the world has taught us to live.

We may have thought we were good people, we may have been a pretty good employee, we may have been a good family person, we may have been a good rulekeeper, but we were living and thinking and acting in a way that was conformed to the world.

And what does the world teach us?

Among other things, look out for number one Protect yourself above all others, provide for yourself, depend on yourself, serve yourself above all others.

That's what the world teaches, that's what our sinful nature says to us.

And the world teaches us to reserve our yes and yes, maybe to give it when it's safe, or maybe to give it when there's something to gain from giving it, but not to give it freely, not to give it sacrificially.

We need to no longer conform to that pattern of thinking.

We need to be transformed because we cannot present ourselves as a living sacrifice if we're still being driven by what the world has taught us.

So we conform no longer to that pattern of thinking and if we don't change, we're gonna be that sacrifice that is missing in action.

When God's looking for our yes, we're gonna have crawled off the altar and we're gonna be in the corner somewhere just trying to.

I hope he doesn't see me over here.

That's what happens when we don't change the way that we think about ourselves, think about God.

So it requires a transformation in our living, our thinking, the renewing of our mind.

That's what Paul's talking about the mind being renewed by a dedicated focus on the revealed truth of God's word, taking God's word and not just agreeing with it but putting it into action in our lives.

That's why he builds that foundation for 11 chapters.

He declares the great saving work of Jesus, the multitude of God's mercies for 11 chapters.

He's directing the focus of the early church.

And if we read this letter, he's directing our focus.

God is calling us to consider all of these things before he begins to ask for our yes.

Our mind is being renewed Now.

The component that is key to this growing in the discernment of God's will how do I know where God wants me to give his yes Is the proving or the worth of God's instruction.

We test it, we prove it, we put it to the test.

Wherever God shows us, we step out in obedience and we see the results of obedience to God.

We see a growth in our faith, we see a deepening in our understanding of his will.

I was trying to think about a practical way to illustrate this.

And if you've ever been on a zip line, a lot of times, if you go up into the mountains, there's these recreation areas and my family's been to some of those and they're beautiful.

You go up and you get this harness and they put it on you and there's this wire that they stretch out and sometimes it's over these huge valleys and it's like I don't even know how high it is, but it's just tremendously high.

And so they take this harness and they say this is gonna support you and we're gonna hook you to this line and then you're gonna step out into that.

So you're being asked to take a step of faith at that moment.

Now, when you're as big as me, that harness is like you might be having some real internal questions about the ability of that harness to do its job.

And it's one thing to intellectually agree when you're standing on the edge there and, yeah, I got this harness.

This harness is good, we're good, but it's a whole nother thing to step off.

It is a whole nother thing.

That's where our intellectual agreement becomes faith, our intellectual agreement becomes obedience, and that's what it looks like to give our yes to God.

God.

Let me say it this way giving God our yes will teach us to trust him for the next yes.

When we step off that platform, wherever he has told us to do it, we will see that he is faithful to do all that he has said that he will do, that he will do above more than we could ask or imagine.

He will meet us in that and he will do his work in and through us.

And so then we are prepared for the next yes, because there will be a next yes.

God has a plan for your life.

He has a plan and he's gonna work that and his purpose is in your life.

The more you say yes to that, the more he's going to grow you and deepen your faith and allow you and enable you to say yes more and more.

So today, maybe that's where you're struggling to trust him enough to step out and do what it is he's called you to do.

But the only way that you will ever know the good, acceptable and perfect will of God is by taking that step, by putting your trust in what he has taught you, what he has instructed you, what he has directed you.

You see, it's again more than just intellectually agreeing with his revealed truth.

It is operating our lives in his revealed truth and again, that is always stepping into the unknown.

You know, some of us, we like to have a plan.

Anybody a planner here, anybody a self-confessed control freak?

Maybe a few of us.

Okay, we even got some that were willing to admit it.

You know, we want a plan from God.

God.

I want three points, I want sub points, I want footnotes, I want an engineering stamp right on the corner, I want something that is solid, that I can confirm that I know exactly what's gonna happen?

I want all the what ifs answered.

There is no faith involved in that and God has never given us that kind of plan.

He calls us to trust him, to step out in faith into the unknown.

That leads to leaving the familiar.

That means leaving the comfortable, stepping out into what we cannot predict, and that's a scary place sometimes.

But again, the way we think about God will help us step out into faith.

The way we think about ourselves is also a critical element and Paul begins to go further with that in verse three.

Look at verse three.

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 so Paul is saying, by the grace given to him, his calling and commission as an apostle of Jesus Christ, he's speaking with the authority as this apostle of Jesus Christ to everyone in the church not to think more highly of themselves than they ought to think, but to think with sober judgment to think of ourselves rightly.

There's a real danger when we think more highly of ourselves than we ought to.

It's hard to give our yes to things that we think are beneath us.

Well, that's for somebody else.

Somebody else should be taken care of that in the body of Christ.

Somebody else should be reaching out to that lost person.

Somebody else should be contributing to that need.

Somebody else should be ministering in that way, because the God's I'm above that in some way.

That's what happens when we think more highly of ourselves than we ought to, and I'll give you an example in my own life how this has worked out.

I was in seminary and I was at a local church over in West Ashley.

I was serving as an associate pastor and it is a place where we had been for years.

We were very comfortable there.

Our kids were growing up there.

They were quite young at the time.

One of them, our last child, hadn't even been born yet, but we were there, we had been serving, we knew the pastor and his family were very close.

We were again comfortable, it was familiar, it was healthy.

And then I got an invitation to go to a church that was none of those things to me.

It was not comfortable, it was not familiar, it was not healthy and I was like, okay, well, I don't God.

Obviously that's not you.

So I'm just gonna pass on this and I'm gonna move on.

But you know, god got a hold of my heart one night.

I had a dream, and I won't tell you all the details of the dream, but let me just say for days I could not get away from this thing.

It was like a 800 pound gorilla sitting on my chest and I was like, okay, okay enough, what are you trying to tell me, god?

And he said you are an arrogant, prideful and wicked man.

And I said, yes, Lord, it was time for me to repent.

It was time for me to humble myself.

It was time for me to step into something that was not familiar, that was not comfortable, that was not healthy, and work hard and love people that were hurting and minister to people that were hurting.

And we spent two years with a small group of people just picking up the pieces in that church.

But it was a privilege because the following nine years that we were there, we saw God do what only he could do to build a healthy, thriving church.

And we would have missed out, I would have missed out on the privilege of being used by God if I had not been humbled by him so that I could give him my yes.

You know, I don't know where God has called you to a yes today, but it may be something that seems not below you but overwhelming to you.

Maybe it's just you can't imagine it's even possible that God could use you in the way that he's asking you to step out.

And so what happens a lot of times is we might imagine that somehow God is limited by our limitations.

We look at his yes through the lens of our weakness.

We look at his yes what he's asking through the lens of our failure or our inability, and the scriptures are full of stories about this, where God has called people that didn't see themselves as able or qualified.

So when Paul says that we think of ourselves with sober judgment, we do it according to the measure of faith that God has assigned, because this is an act of faith, not in me, not in yourself, but in the one who has called us to give our yes.

So we are to see ourselves in God's work in and through the lens of faith, not in ourselves.

I was thinking about Moses.

What an example that God used in a mighty way to deliver the children of Israel out of bondage of Egypt to receive the 10 commandments to lead that nation.

Where did it start?

Well, kind of a lot of different places, but think about where he was in Exodus three, at the burning bush.

He's on the backside of a desert.

He ran for his life because he murdered somebody in Egypt and he's just out there doing what he knows to do.

And he walks up and there's the bush that's burning and the voice speaks to him.

God speaks to him and says take off your shoes.

The place where you're standing is holy ground.

Think about the encounter that he's having.

And so God manifests himself.

God speaks to him in a very clear and audible way and says this is what I want you to do.

And what is Moses' response?

Oh, you got the wrong guy.

I am totally inadequate for that.

Is Moses just being humble?

No, he may be humble, but he's also looking at this yes through the long, wrong lens.

He's looking at it through the lens of his ability, not faith in the one who has asked him to give the yes.

And when he does finally respond in faith.

Look at what God does through him.

And it's true in all of our lives.

You know if, wherever God is asking for our yes.

Yes, we need to respond with humility, but we also need to respond with faith.

Our faith in Jesus reveals that we are completely dependent upon him.

We can accomplish nothing of eternal significance apart from him, and so, when he asked us to give a yes, it's not because of what we can provide, it's not because of how good we are at something, it's not because of how gifted or talented we are.

It's because of what he can accomplish when we give our yes, not, again, because of what we're able to do.

And so I would say it this way our yes to God matters.

It matters because of who he is, it matters because of what he has done.

It's not about me, it's just about me being available.

It's not about you, it's just about you being available.

And so we give ourselves as a living sacrifice our confident trust, and God is going to grow.

We take that step and we reach out into that open space, into the unknown, and God meets us in that place and he leads us to even bigger and bigger yeses.

A lot of what Paul has been writing about so far could be reduced to this individualistic concept of salvation, and he is talking to us about an individual choice that we each have to make, as presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice.

But he goes and he begins to expand this that offering our lives in this way doesn't happen in a vacuum.

It happens in the context of belonging to a body of believers, his church.

Look what he says in verse 4.

For as in one body, we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function.

So we, though many, are one in body and individually members one of another.

Right here he lays out three concepts that are universally true of anyone who has surrendered their life to Jesus Christ.

One, that you are integrated into his body, which is the church.

Two, you have a function in the church.

It's not the same as other people's function, but you have a function in the church.

And the third is that you are members one of another, that you are integral, that you are essential to the health and the mission of the church that God has put you in.

And so he lays out these concepts and, as we think about it this way we see our relationship with God, our faith, our yes, our meant to operate within the body of Christ, which we are a member of.

Now, in our day and age.

A lot of people want to say you know, I can go it alone, I don't have to be a part of a local church.

I can read my devotions and I've met countless people and I'm not trying to beat you up if that's where you are.

I'm just saying you cannot look at the Scripture and say that that's what God's plan is.

You know, over in 1 Corinthians, paul says this.

In chapter 12, verse 18, he tells us that it's actually God who is arranging members in the body.

He says.

But as it is, this is verse 18 of chapter 12 in 1 Corinthians.

But as it is, god arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.

So God is in the business of arranging members in the body.

Now we may be in the business of avoiding that, but he's calling us to give our yes.

He has a place for us in the body of Christ.

We can argue that we don't belong to the body, but we can't biblically argue that, because the Scripture tells us that we belong to the body and becoming a functional, healthy member of the church is essential for the mission of the church.

It's essential.

So our yes to Jesus matters to members of the church.

Our yes to Jesus matters to the mission of the church and our yes is missing in action.

It impacts the effectiveness of the church, and so we see that there are also many things that he describes, different gifts.

Now, this is not an exhaustive list, but these are examples of how these diverse functions are to be used within the body.

Take a look at verse six.

He says having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them.

So he basically lays that foundation we all have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us.

We are to use them.

And it begins to give some examples if prophecy and proportion to our faith, if service in our serving, the one who teaches in his teaching, the one who exhorts in his exhortation, the one who contributes in generosity, the one who leads with zeal, the one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness.

And Paul is again acknowledging that, as a follower of Jesus, we have various gifts and that we are being enabled by God, we're being called by God in his grace, to use them.

And he gives this example again.

This list is not exhaustive, but he starts with this idea of prophecy, which is conveying revealed truth that both convicts and builds up.

And he says do this in proportion to the faith that God has given, in proportion to your faith, which connects us back to what he was teaching in verse three, about thinking of ourselves with sober judgment, according to the measure of faith that God has given.

Faith is an absolutely essential element to exercising any active service to God and it governs all of these others that he lists here.

In our service, in our teaching, in our exhortation, in our contributing leading, in our acts of mercy, we give our yes to God by faith.

Again, not because of who we are or what we can do, but because of who he has done, what he has already done, his incredible mercies that he's poured out on us and what he will do.

Faith in God is what enables us to function in the body of Christ.

How can those who teach, or those who lead, or those who exhort or those who serve, do so apart from faith?

How can we give generously, apart from faith?

How can we do acts of mercy with cheerfulness, apart from faith, if we're doing it apart from faith?

We're just checking a box, we're going through, we're doing religious works that have no eternal significance because they're apart from God.

So we do these things according to the measure of faith, and one of the big challenges to being a living sacrifice is doubt.

You know, sometimes, again, it's hard to believe.

For whatever reason doubt comes in, it's the opposite of faith, and a lot of times it comes back to the what ifs that I mentioned earlier.

God doesn't give us all the answers that we're looking for, he doesn't give us all the what ifs, and so sometimes that's where we get stuck.

But this trusting God for the what ifs is essential for giving him our yes.

And you know, I think about it this way If we simply could see ourselves as instruments in the hands of the Redeemer, it might change the way we think about giving our yes.

You know, I'm not a surgeon.

I don't claim to be able to do surgery, though I have offered to do surgery for my children many times and they steadfastly refuse.

They did let me pull a few teeth, and then they said that's it, no more than that.

But I got tools in the garage.

I could do some things right.

I've watched stuff on TV, but they won't let me.

I don't know enough to do a surgery, but I do know this there are instruments involved in surgery.

You know, there there are forceps, there are scalpels, there are needles, there are syringes of various sizes and there's this thing called a hemostat.

I hear the doctors say hemostat and I have no idea what that is.

But there's a hemostat in there somewhere.

And so there, the surgery is done, the sutures are done, the patient's gone out to recovery, the family's in the waiting room, the surgeon walks out and gives them the good news.

They don't say, oh, thank you scalpel, thank you mysterious hemostat, that we don't know what you did.

Thank you anyway.

They thank the surgeon, the one who held the instruments.

Were the instruments important?

Absolutely, they were a part of the process.

But who's ultimately responsible for the results?

The one who holds the instruments, that's you, that's me, in the hands of our Redeemer.

When we trust him for the results, we can step out in faith.

You know, I think about what God's been doing in his church, here and on both campuses and all service, because there are many instruments who have been for a long time and continue to step out in faith, to be available, and we should celebrate that, and you do celebrate that well.

And so here downtown and at Pinewood, we see people responding to what God is doing, because believers are stepping out in faith and giving their yes.

You know we've been there for a year I think next week will be a year at Pinewood and we, with about 170, we started average attendance.

We're close to 300 now in the summertime.

In the fall that's probably going to grow even more.

We went from one service to two services, from the Freedom Hall which was like a their cafeteria.

Now we're in the gym to make room for more people.

30, something, 38 people have joined the church on that campus.

Over 13 people have been baptized and many, many more in this service, in the earlier service, at the five o'clock service here on this campus, god is doing something in his church and many of you said yes to be a part of that, and so we said yes to leave the comfort of the known and familiar, you know, with people left where they've been for years.

Maybe they left a life group, maybe they left a service that they were a part of for many years.

And they said, yes, I will go and step out into the unknown and be a part of a new campus.

And it is.

It is full of challenges, it is exciting, it is, you know, some weeks we don't know if we're going to have air conditioning and maybe that doesn't incentivize you to come visit.

It's amazing what God does despite our lack of air conditioning at times, he continues to move.

You know, it's just amazing when God's people say yes.

You know a lot of you here on this campus.

You've committed to pray and you've been praying and thank God for your prayers, your constant prayers.

You committed to the Kingdom Come capital campaign that is helping to facilitate what God is doing on this campus, on Pinewood that campus, and what he's going to continue to do is he grows and strengthens His church and impacts this community and impacts this world through believers that have given their yes to God because they have chosen to be available, chosen to be an instrument in the hand of our redeeming God.

But if we make ourselves responsible for the results, we put ourselves in the wrong place.

He is the one who is able to do more than we could ask or imagine.

So, in asking for your yes, god wants you to trust, god wants you to depend on Him for the results of your yes.

Now, I don't know about you, but that takes a lot of pressure off of me.

You know, pastor Randy asked me if I would speak this week and it makes me nervous to stand up here and speak to you.

I was sweating bullets.

In the first service I wore a jacket, because that's what you do.

In the first service I got a little fan back here, if you didn't notice.

It's like yeah, I just make me nervous to stand up and talking in front of people with this.

It was like okay, am I going to give a yes and who am I going to depend on for the results?

Is it my preparation?

Is it my words?

Absolutely not.

Did God call me to prepare to study?

Yes, he did.

Did he call me to stand here in this moment and speak?

Yes, he did.

But he is the one who is able to do what only he can do.

He is the one who will redeem.

He is the one who will transform lives.

He is the one who will save.

He will reconcile, he will bring lost people to Himself.

He will challenge us, as believers, to take that next step of faith, to give our yes.

He is the one that we depend on.

He is the one that we trust.

We don't look to ourselves for the result.

There is a place in this church where God can use your yes.

If you're not already giving your yes, there is a place you may have to ask around, you may have to seek it out.

It may be that you already know it if you've just been struggling with it.

There is a place where God can use your yes and, hopefully, knowing that you're not responsible for the results gives you some freedom to begin to present yourself as a living sacrifice to God.

And that's what the apostle has laid the groundwork.

He's shown us why we do that, how we do that.

Now, in the following verses in this chapter and really for the rest of the book of Romans, he gives real, practical exhortations.

And in this rest of this chapter is like a rapid fire series of exhortations.

And we're going to look at this just briefly this morning and my prayer is that, as we look at it, if the Holy Spirit pings you and you know that God's saying to you this is where I want your yes respond.

Respond in faith, respond trusting Him for the results.

Respond knowing that he is the one who is able to do what only he can do.

Look at verse nine.

He says let love be genuine.

Uproar or hate 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, rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer, contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.

So this rapid fire succession of directives aimed at believers, primarily in relationship with other believers, begins with the guiding principle of let love be genuine.

Don't go through the motions.

Don't do this depending on yourself.

Surrender your yes to God.

Step out in love for God and love for His people and allow that love to direct your yes.

Allow that faith to govern your yes.

Allow that trust to instruct your yes.

He says abhor or hate what is evil.

That is, don't be conformed.

Remember what he said Don't be conformed to this world.

Maybe you're presenting your body in some ways that you need to stop presenting it.

Maybe you need to turn and change direction there and offer it as a living sacrifice to God.

Abhor what is evil or hate what is evil.

Again, be renewed by the transform of your mind.

What is he saying here?

Hold fast to that which is good, again, not being conformed, but being transformed by the renewing of our mind, loving with brotherly affection.

Let love be genuine, outdoing one another and showing honor.

And all of this requires thinking rightly about ourselves.

Remember we have to not think more highly than we ought to.

So, in humility, trusting God, with love, we're able to do these things.

In verse 11, we see matters of attitude and motivation.

He says not being slothful in zeal.

Be fervent when you serve the Lord.

Be fervent in spirit as we serve the Lord.

Again comes back to presenting our bodies as living sacrifices in response to God's mercies.

This is the fundamental calling and life of a follower of Jesus Christ Rejoice in hope.

Who is the source of that hope?

The one that we're putting our trust and faith in?

Be patient in tribulation, this patience that is sustained by hope.

It fuels a constant prayer life.

And who is it that we're praying to?

The one who is able to do more than we could ask or imagine.

So Paul stated in verse 5,.

He said, though, we are many, we are one in the body of Christ.

We are members individually, members one of another, and it's in the context of the community of believers that these acts of service are being expressed.

This is primarily where it is, and verse 13,.

Paul emphasizes this with the directive to contribute to the needs of the saints.

That is, fellow believers, take care of one another, show hospitality.

That is, open up your life in your home to one another, do life together.

That's what life groups are about.

That's maybe a place that we need to say yes today.

Caring for others, being hospitable, opening up our lives, doing lives together.

So all of this is in the context of the body, but that's not where it stays.

It's just like Sunday mornings Pastor Randy talks about blessing the rest, or going and building and bringing that.

What God is doing here is not supposed to stay here.

What Paul is teaching us is that our yes to Jesus is manifested outside of the body of Christ when we interact with the world around us.

And again he'll start in verse 14 and go through 21 and just boom rapid fire.

A series of instructions.

Take a look with me real quick.

Verse 14, bless those who persecute you.

Bless and do not curse them.

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.

Never be conceited.

Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to 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, and if he is thirsty, give him something to drink, for by doing so you will heat burning coals on his head.

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good, and every one of these instructions Paul is saying this is a possible yes that you can give to God.

You might be in a situation or a relationship where you're presenting yourself as a living sacrifice to those outside of the church.

You're presenting your life as a sacrifice to Jesus.

By the way that you interact with those outside the church, begin this idea of blessing the rest, building and bringing.

This is what it looks like engaging people that are far from God, people that don't know God, and building relationships with them that help them come closer to Jesus.

Our yes, yours and mine, will govern the way that we interact when we give it to Jesus.

It will govern the way that we interact with those who are far from God.

You know, I think about it this morning.

The reality is is I would not be here today if a 17 year old teenager didn't cross over a lot of boundaries to step into my life.

When I was a 17 year old teenager and begin to demonstrate and share the love of God in my life.

I was lost.

Raised in church, maybe would have told you I was a Christian, wasn't sure, but I was lost, living without hope in this world.

But that young man said yes and, at great risk, he entered into my world and he began to engage me and share the love of Jesus with me.

And maybe you're here today because somebody said yes and they were willing to get up and walk from their cubicle and come across the office and begin to share the love of Jesus with you.

Maybe they walked across the shop and started to build a relationship and engage with you.

Maybe across the factory line, the classroom, somewhere in your workplace or maybe in your family, somebody reached out to you and began to share that love of Jesus.

God wants our yes.

The church needs our yes.

Lost people all around us that are hurting, some of them full of anger, many of them greatly confused.

They need our yes as we move to a time of response and our worship team comes.

The question I would conclude that we all need to consider is this where is God asking for my yes?

I don't know that answer for you, but I hope today that he is revealing that to you.

It's possible that you're here or you're watching online and you don't have a relationship with Jesus.

Today, you can trust him by faith, you can surrender your life and all those mercies of God, those great multitude of mercies that we talked about.

They can be yours when you surrender your life by faith to Jesus Christ.

Maybe that's your yes.

Or maybe you crawled off the altar.

You were following Jesus and you got hurt, you got distracted, you got disoriented, you got tired and I'm not saying those things aren't real, but today may be the day that we need to claw back on that altar and give our yes to Jesus.

Got to give you my life again.

You're here in the body of Christ.

You know there's a place where you need to give your yes to God.

Or maybe, again, there's somebody in your life outside of the church.

You know they desperately need your yes to God.

As our team leads us in worship, I'm going to invite you to respond to the mercies of God, to give a grateful response, to give God the yes wherever he is asked for it.

Would you bow with me, father?

We thank you for your great love for us, which you demonstrated when you gave Jesus your only son.

And Lord, you gave that yes.

I was reminded of when you were in the garden, considering all that was before you, and you prayed let this cup pass from me, because you knew the incredible brutality and suffering that you were going to face and endure for us.

But you said not my will thine be done and you gave your yes.

Thank you, jesus.

Thank you, lord, that we could become sons and daughters of God because of what you did.

I pray for anyone here that doesn't know you anybody online, god that you would give them faith to trust you in this moment, boldness, to respond to you with their yes.

The rest of us that are following you, jesus.

I pray that by your Holy Spirit and through your word, you would challenge and convict us where we need to give our yes to you.

Thank you, god, that we can do that by faith, that we are not responsible for the results, that you are the redeemer, we are the instruments and we can trust you when we step out in faith.

Thank you for the privilege of serving you with our lives.

We pray all these things in Jesus' name, amen.

If you want to respond this morning during this time of invitation, rhonda and I will be down front.

Maybe you need to come forward and let us know that you are surrendering your life to Christ, or maybe you are choosing today to put your roots down here as a member of the church, or you need to publicly profess your faith through baptism, or maybe there is some other yes that God has put on your heart that you need to share.

We will be down front here to talk with you and celebrate that with you.

So, as God leads you, please come.