“God Can’t Steer a Parked Car” - Romans 11:36, 12:2 - Jay Miller

Well, good morning out west.

Glory, glory. Hallelujah. God is good. Amen.

My name is Jay Miller, and I, again, just incredibly humbled. I'm incredibly honored to be

able to stand before everybody and speak on the word of God and share in his word this morning.

My family and I usually reside right over there in that section at church here.

And we, I'm also affiliated with a group that's called Man Time.

And I'm going to take just a couple of seconds.

since I have the microphone to plug it.

If you've not been to man time, I would highly encourage it.

There are two genders, and which is a men's group.

That is it.

So if you are a man, we would love to have you join us.

And the purpose of man time is pretty simple.

Our objective is simply that we create and foster a community of men in an environment

where we can be honest with one another.

We can deal with the struggles that maybe we're walking out as men.

And really, we just have an encouragement in other men.

men there to lift us up. Talk through some of those issues. It turns out that we've got some

guys in there that have been through some things. And so if you're struggling, there's a guy in there

that I can almost guarantee who has struggled with something similar and can be a support

mechanism for you. So Monday nights at 7 p.m. We meet at guns in gear. And we meet in the

upstairs room. There's a little, I guess, banquet type room up there. So I encourage any man

is welcome to join. It costs nothing. We would love to have you Monday nights at 7 p.m.

So my title today of a message is it's called God can't steer a parked car.

And we're going to be in the book of Romans.

I want to take just a couple of moments, though.

Actually, I got to start my timer.

Forgive me because otherwise I don't know where I'm at.

So bear with me.

I think it's important to talk a little bit about the history and outline of each of the books.

And the reason is because I often hear this idea that, or that's a phrase, rather, called Bible stories.

This is a Bible story or it's, you know, the story in the Bible.

And the reality is that the Bible is more than just some stories.

That idea really feeds into a secular narrative that something about this book is outdated,

antiquated, or not relevant in today's culture.

And that couldn't be further from the truth.

Not only is this the holy written,

Word, living word of God. But it also happens to be one of the most historically accurate texts that we have today.

So even if you just looked at this thing and said, I'm going to look at it from purely a historical

perspective, you could glean so much information and knowledge out of that. And as each

archaeological dig keeps coming forward, it just keeps confirming more and more that what is written

in this book is accurate and true. So I just want to dive into Romans for just a second.

The book of Romans was written by the bond servant Paul. Now, Paul was formerly Saul of Tarsus,

and Saul of Tarsus was a Roman citizen. He was also a very devout Pharisee, which means that he was not a

fan of Jesus when he was in the pharicical group. He was trained by some of the greatest leaders of the

Jewish faith, some of the greatest minds that were in existence at the time. And he's also pretty

notorious as a guy who was systematically persecuting. He was trained.

and killing Christians, new believers at the time of Jesus, as they were coming in, right?

And that whole era was starting to unfold. Now, I find it really ironic that this same man,

Saul, God also used to write 13 epistles in make up most of the New Testament today.

So when you think about, man, in my life, I have done this or I've done that.

This is a guy that was adamantly against Jesus and everything he stood.

for. And then he used him to write the majority of the New Testament, which was pretty remarkable.

Paul was at one of the original 12, but he did have a personal encounter with Jesus on his road to

Damascus. And this would have been about 32 or 33 AD. And then after this interaction that he had,

he immediately began in his service to the Lord. And that service was largely defined by missions trips

where he was walking and traveling and going through modern day Syria, Greece, Turkey, so that

He could spread the gospel.

And now you can read all about this in the book of Acts.

If you have the time, I would highly suggest it.

The book of Romans was likely written towards the end of his third mission's journey.

This would have been around 56 AD.

So this text that we're going to read comes 20-something years after his initial

encounter with Jesus and after his initial, you know, just giving in to the Lord for what the

Lord wanted for him.

Romans can be broken up a couple of different ways.

but the MacArthur is the what I study. And it has the greeting in the theme in the beginning.

It talks about the need for God's righteousness. It talks about the provision of God's righteousness.

skip to the end for the good stuff. So that's where we're going to start today. We're going to be

11, verse 36.

And before we jump into the word, the reading of the word, we should go ahead and pray.

Father God, I'm just so grateful to be here, Lord.

And I'm honored and humbled by your word.

I pray, Lord, that you would enter and you would fill this room, that you would fill this

space, that this word would speak to hearts and minds that need a message, Lord,

a message that comes directly from you.

I pray to be a conduit for that message and that my delivery would be helpful.

and hopeful for somebody, but not in my name in your name only, Lord. We thank you so much for the

opportunity to come together. We thank you so much for your word, and it is in your son, Jesus' name, that we pray.

Amen. So starting in verse, or chapter 11, Romans 11, verse 36. For of him and through him and to him are all things,

Romans 11:36

to whom be glory forever. Amen. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercy. By the

of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your

reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your

mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Our message starts with a really simple declaration. God is everything.

In 1136, for of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be glory forever. Amen.

And really, we could just end right there. So we're packing it up. We're all done. Have a nice day.

Just kidding. So the ESV translation reads, for from him and through him are all things.

The very essence of everything that we know and also everything we don't know is formed and it lives in God.

God created all of the physical universe that we see, the stars, the planets, the mountains,

the oceans. This is the very first line of Genesis. In the beginning, God created.

For context, in the physical sense, I thought I would look up a little bit about space,

because space is a really big concept, right? And just to get a size context of God's ability,

I thought it would be good to look at our galaxy alone, which is the Milky Way galaxy.

Now, I'm not an astronomer, so please forgive me a finish.

any scientists in the room and I get something wrong.

But from what I found, from end to end, the Milky Way galaxy is about 100,000 light years.

And I didn't know what that meant.

So to put that in miles, that's about 6 trillion miles filled with billions of stars.

A quick Google search will tell you that astronomers estimate that there's around 200 trillion billion stars in the observable universe for whatever that means to you.

And now this is across two trillion galaxy.

All of this is at the hand of God. All of it. Every single piece. Kind of like our federal deficit.

He also created the things that we don't see. In his letter to the Colossians, Paul tells us in

chapter 1, verse 16, for by him, all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth.

Visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principles or powers, all things were created

through him and for him. So God created everything we see in the physical. And equally is important,

God created everything we see that, or excuse me, everything that we cannot see. This would be all the

systems that we adhere to in our lives, rules of physics, laws. This would be rise and fall of

governments. This would be all of the battles and the wars and all of their outcomes. And as well as both on

earth and spiritually, all of our known history and everything that we pretend,

to know, is all known by God. It's all in, it's all for God and it's all for his glory. And most importantly,

that includes us, right? And this is where we come down to. Right. So God is this massive piece.

He created the universe. And then we come down to little bitty us. And I don't know about you,

but that makes me feel incredibly small when I think about the size and the scope of the universe.

Every single person in this room was a specific creation for God, or by God, excuse me.

And God has a plan for your life.

Every single person in this room, mine included.

God created us in our physical bodies, but I think also important to recognize is this

idea of the unseen. God created us in the unseen. He created our souls. I've been struck

with this idea about the difference between soul and body over the last couple of weeks,

really since the beginning of the year. And it's started.

with a book that was gifted to me by a friend. And it was Pastor Gordon's book. It's no accident.

He talks a lot about the idea of body and soul. And then a couple of weeks ago, I had a conversation with

Steve. And Steve asked me a very pointed question. He said, when you look around, do you see people

as bodies or souls? And I didn't really have a very good answer to that question. And then as I was

preparing for today, I came across this verse and it was really fairly random. But

The verse is Jeremiah 1-5.

And it says, before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.

And so it struck me because this idea, before I formed you, would mean that before he

formed us in the physical sense, he knew us, which stands to reason that our soul had been

created.

Our objective and our missions in life had been created for him.

So I certainly won't be the defining answer on that one way or the other.

but that's why this is the living word of God.

Either way, we know that the eternal soul is critically important to God.

We know that it's incredibly important to him.

So if everything we see and everything we do not see is for God's glory,

that includes our souls and our bodies.

And like all of the things in creation, we were created to honor him.

We were created to accept him for who he is and honor him.

And that's this first step along our journey, right?

We've kind of got some steps.

I'm a big four-step.

guy. The first step is recognizing and accepting the fact that God is all things. He is the master and

the creator of our lives. Now, perhaps there's somebody here today. And it's your first time in church.

And this is really heavy. And I'm sorry. But if you're in that space where you're unsure about

accepting God for who he is, truly for who he is, there's always this group of people that reside right here

after service. And if I may, please, can I encourage you just go talk to him? Even if you're

you're not ready to accept that fact.

Even if you just have questions, can I encourage you to talk to somebody about it and they

can help answer those questions.

And if they don't have the answers, I'm sure they can help find them.

And the reason it's so important to have this first recognition and acceptance of who

God is is because it makes these next lines so much easier.

There is a wait.

When I came to Jesus about 10 years ago, a little more than 10 years.

No, about 10 years ago.

When I came to Jesus 10 years ago, there was a weight that was lifted off my shoulder that I really

cannot describe for you. I don't have the words. And there was a feeling that just washed over me of

peace and comfort. And in addition to that, when we're talking about this next line, it will make it

so much easier when we think of it in this context, particularly this idea between body and soul.

So continuing in Romans 12.1, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you

present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

Beseech. I beseech you. It's not a simple, polite suggestion. This is a strong urging.

The Greek root for this word is the same root in a word that Jesus uses for the Holy Spirit.

This is a strong urging of his brothers. I beseech you, therefore, this is why I had to include 1130.

therefore would be in reference to that previous line, that God is all things. By the mercies of God,

what are the mercies of God? We've all been given the gift. Everybody here who chooses to

accept it. How has it played out in your life? If I may, can I encourage you to think about that as

we walk through these next couple of verses? Think about the way that God's mercy has shown itself.

I've heard many times that mercy is not getting what I deserve.

And the truth of the matter is I know what I deserve.

I really know what I deserve.

It's not good.

And biblically, we're all in that same boat, right?

But not only has God decide to show me mercy,

and not only has he given me mercy upon my life,

but he's gone above and beyond and he's offered me additional gifts,

and he offers them to all who ask of him.

He's offered the gift of righteousness, the gift of faith,

the gift of grace. In earlier in Romans, Paul speaks of these gifts that he gave. In Romans 3,

Romans 3:22

verses 22 and 23, Paul says, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ,

to all and on all who believe, for there is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the

glory of God, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

All these gifts he gives freely.

all he desires in return is our faith in him, our belief in him and our commitment to him.

And if these three gifts weren't enough, he went a step further and he modeled the demonstration of love.

I'm not sure that I truly comprehended what love meant until I knew Jesus personally.

I'm not sure that I had the secular view, the world view of love, right?

But I'm not sure that I really understood in my heart.

what that actually meant until I knew who Jesus was.

Most of us have likely come across the verse, John 316,

for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son,

that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

God sent his son to atone for our sins on the cross so that we might be with him in eternity.

But even in this human life, this fleshly form we're currently living right now.

God demonstrates love. And he serves as a model that we,

should strive to, I guess, what's the word I'm looking for?

Imitate. There we go. In Romans 8, verse 39, Paul writes,

Romans 8:39

For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,

nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth,

nor any other thing created shall be able to separate us from the love of God,

which is in Christ, Jesus, our Lord. His love knows, no ends.

There's no depths, no end to the depths. So when we go back and we read this very first

section of this verse of Romans 1, we shouldn't gloss over the magnitude of this idea of

mercies of God. Paul is encouraging his fellow believers, but you might think of it in this way.

I'm urging you, my fellow believers, in the memory in the name of all that God has ever done for you

in your life, redeeming you from all the sin you've ever committed in your life, taking the punishment

that you deserved, and then on top of that, freely choose.

to give you abundance and blessings. And with this in mind, present your bodies as a living sacrifice.

Love is a choice. Sacrifice is a choice. He chooses to love us and he chose to sacrifice for us.

He wants us to choose to love him. Is your love for him strong enough to make some sacrifices in

your life? That's a question we all have to ask ourselves. So we're to present.

Our bodies as a living sacrifice.

What exactly is meant by living sacrifice here?

It's a good question.

Last weekend, I don't know if you all know this or not,

but there was this thing.

It was called the Super Bowl.

It's pretty big game.

I hear it's popular.

I don't really particularly care about the Super Bowl,

but what I do love is Super Bowl snacks.

I'm a big fan.

And my dad kills it on the Super Bowl snack front.

I mean, we had the works,

stuffed mushrooms, meat,

balls, little smokies, lots of chips in caseo for me. And in all reality, I was struggling on Monday

after the Super Bowl. I mean, I straight up sacrificed my body for Super Bowl snacks.

Sacrifice. So if this is what is men, I'm all in, right? I don't think that this is what Paul

is intending here. I don't think that this is what he is speaking of. We're going to look at sacrifice in

the Bible, biblically, where sacrifice and what it is, but it comes a little bit easier, again,

going back to this idea of souls versus bodies. If we can acknowledge and you've surrendered and

accepted this fact that we are a soul created by God, it makes the whole sacrifice part of the

body a little bit easier because the world tends to prioritize the physical body. And we see the physical

body in the flesh. So naturally, we would tend to prioritize that. It takes continuous thought and

awareness to see ourselves and everyone else around us as a soul. That's an effort. It's a, you have to work at that.

But it does make the sacrifice a little bit easier, as Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 4,

4, verse 17 and 18, for our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for a far more

exceeding and eternal weight of glory. While we do not look at the things which are seen,

but at the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are

not seen are eternal. Paul challenges us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice. And God

will bless your sacrifice. He always does. He comes through. The idea of sacrifice goes all the way

back to the offspring of Adam and Eve in Genesis 4. Kane and Abel both brought sacrifices.

One was accepted. One was not because of a heart issue. Noah made an altar after the flood

as a sacrifice to God, going all the way back to Noah. But I would argue,

and submit to you that Noah's sacrifice came well before the altar. I mean, here's a lunatic building a

ship the size of a football field when there was no rain. And everybody's like, you're crazy, Noah.

That took sacrifice. Abraham was willing to sacrifice his own son simply because he trusted the

Lord, plain and simple. He knew that he knew, that he knew that God would bless whatever the outcome was

of that sacrifice. There were five types of sacrifices are offering in the Levittical Law of Moses.

I won't get into them, but the burnt offering, the grain offering, the peace offering, the sin offering,

and the trespass offering, were all a part of the Levittical law.

Three of them mandatory, two of them mandatory, and three of them voluntary.

And they all required a sacrifice in order to commit to them.

And they were a process.

If you want to learn about them, just read the first several chapters of Leviticus.

It's good stuff.

It should make you thankful for Jesus.

There's so many other fantastic examples.

of sacrifice in the Bible and ways that God has blessed it. But there are also examples of failed

sacrifice in the Bible that God didn't necessarily bless. King Saul in the Old Testament had a few

tough moments. One comes to mind particularly in 1 Samuel 15. Saul's commanded to kill King

Agag and he's commanded to kill all the Amalekites and he's commanded to literally wipe everything

off the face, right? Done with them. In verse 3, the Lord says,

said, now go attack Amalek and utterly destroy all that they have and do not spare them.

So Saul mostly did what he was commanded to do, but he did end up sparing King Agag

and he also spared the best of a livestock for his men to keep.

Then he took that livestock and he made a sacrifice in his mind to the Lord that he thought

would be accepted.

When Samuel, the prophet returned, he expressed the Lord's anger and stated something that we

should all take to heart as we're thinking about.

our sacrifice and what it is we're sacrificing. In verse 22, Samuel said, which pleases the Lord more,

burnt offerings and sacrifices, or obeying his commands? Is it better to obey the Lord than to offer,

it is better to obey the Lord than to offer sacrifices to him. It is better to listen to him than to

offer the fat of Rams. Refusing to obey is as bad as the sin of sorcery. Being stubborn and doing

what you want is like the sin of worshipping idols. You refused to obey the Lord's command. So now he

refuses to accept you as king. I genuinely believe in my heart of hearts that obedience is what God

wants. That's the sacrifice. It's just obedience. Obedience to his will. And when we are obedient to his

will, it's likely going to mean that we have to sacrifice something. I don't know what that is for each person in this room,

but it's going to happen more often than not.

It might mean sacrificing just a simple worldly thing that you want.

It might mean sacrificing certain friends that you know are leading you down a path

that you don't want to go anymore.

It might mean that you choose to abstain from doing certain things that feel really,

really good to the flesh, like a screen, men, not calling that out for any particular reason.

Obedience doesn't always have to be negative, though.

Most of you are probably not giant sinners like me.

So for most of you, it's probably something like, God might be leading you to start a small

group. God might be leading you to serve somewhere in the church or attack kidsmen.

We know that that is a big thing. In Man's time, we covered this idea of something called the

inverted gospel this last week. And it really struck a chord with me because I've been guilty of it

so many times in my life. I know that I need Jesus. And I know how important he is in every aspect of

my life. But all too often as Christians, how often do we invite Jesus to come along? But we say, I invite you to be

behind me or right next to me, not always that I'm inviting you so that I can follow where it is that you

want me to go. That's the idea of the inverted gospel. We know we need Jesus, but we don't always want to

live by his will and what he wants for us in our lives. I've been guilty. I've been guilty.

And obedience might feel like we have difficult moments. We know we have difficult moments.

but God will bless your obedience.

James 125, the half-brother of Jesus tells us this.

But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom and continues in it,

not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it, they will be blessed in what they do.

I believe that the two run in correlation, the greater to the obedience, the greater,

the blessing, truly greater the blessing.

Now, I want to make a quick note, this is not to be confused with salvation.

You cannot earn your salvation.

That is a gift. It's truly a gift from God.

But once you've received that gift, God will bless you in your obedience to him once you've

received it. I beseech you, brothers, by the mercy of God, present your body as a living

sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

It's Paul's closing statement.

The Greek word for reasonable here is meant the word is logic.

Right.

So in Paul's mind, there's a reasonable.

only one logical solution with everything that God has done. Everything he is and everything he's done for us

in our lives. There is one logical conclusion that we have, which is to be obedient to his word.

That is our reasonable service. Oftentimes we as believers, we say we're willing to die for

Jesus. I've been known to say that, and especially in the whole ISIS things and what's going around,

right? I'd be willing to die for Jesus. But my question and my challenge,

for everybody and myself included is, great, are you willing to live for Jesus?

Are you willing to live as he wants you to live?

Not as I want to live in the flesh?

It's something that we all have to contend with.

So first we accept God for who he really is.

And then we surrender, right?

The next step in this process is we surrender to his will for our lives.

And we present ourselves as a living sacrifice.

And once we've done this, we have to walk it out daily.

We have to walk it out daily.

And we pick that up in verse 2 here in chapter 12 of Romans.

And do not be conformed to this world.

Walk it out.

Pastor Scott, he spoke about this last week.

He spoke of the devil being, or excuse me, Jesus being tempted by the devil for 40 days.

This place, this world, this is his playground.

And now if you have committed to,

to steps one and two. Like if you've gone down that path, you've accepted God for who he is and you have

surrendered your life to his will. Well, guess what? You just popped up in bright, flashing red lights

on the radar of the enemy. Because before that, he didn't really care. You were fine. You were not a threat or a

concern. He already had you. But now that you've gone through this first and second step,

you've done this work, you've accepted and surrendered.

you just hit the radar and he doesn't play nice. He doesn't play nice. So do not be conformed to this world,

which is where the devil lives. If you've surrendered your life to him, buckle up and get ready.

One definition I found of this idea of conformed was to behave according to socially acceptable conventions or

standards. Don't behave according to worldly acceptable standards. That's not okay. Right?

That's what Paul's telling us here.

Don't act as the world acts.

There's just one problem.

Turns out things of this world are really enjoyable.

They're fun for a time, right?

For a period of time.

It's difficult to live a life where we accept Jesus' words for what they are.

Give us this day our daily bread, right?

I know myself, like I've been kind of a, I've learned to be more of a prepper at one point in life.

And then I've learned to surrender to Jesus and believe that he's going to take care of me.

Just one example. The world will tell you, be prepared, be prepared, be prepared.

But Jesus has got this, right? Just one more example where it's not necessarily a bad thing.

Our world concerns often become idols, standing in between us and God, standing in between what God really

wants for our life. What worldly idols are you struggling with right now?

I know I have lots of them.

Paul gives us the list of worldly behaviors.

I won't go through all of them,

but they're found in Galatians chapter 5 versus 19 through 21,

Galatians 5 · chapter mention

and their obvious sexual immorality, impurity,

debauchity, deba, deba, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage,

selfist ambition, and he goes on.

We know all those things, right?

Those are the really obvious ones.

My challenge is to say, what about the not so obvious slights towards God?

Please note that idols don't always have to be a bad thing.

They can be a good thing.

I can tell you from my own personal experience that I train and I run big races,

run races, ultra-marathons, and that can become an idol for me.

God has commanded me to be the spiritual leader of my household, take care of my wife,

and take care of my family, and also be obedient to him.

And if running becomes a problem, running in and it's a subject.

it's not a bad thing. But if it gets in the way of what God wants for my life, then it becomes an

idol. And that's a bad thing. Right. So we have to be conscious of the good things that could be

idols. But then also this idea of compromise. Where do we compromise on things in our life

that we know aren't necessarily the right thing? I have a bit of a potty mouth from time to time.

And I have to correct that. I have to check it on a regular basis. I fall into a certain speech

pattern and then I have to rip myself back out of that pattern. Right. That is conforming to the things of

this world. Another subject at Man Time that we talked about and we've talked about a lot is this idea

of public praying when you go to a restaurant. I struggled with this for a long time.

I really didn't do it. I didn't pray publicly over our meal. And then a guy that I work with,

we've been talking about it to the men of Man Time a lot because he and I made a commitment and we

said, we're going to pray in public. And we go to lunch.

a lot. And I'm in the advertising business. And so we go to lunch with clients a lot. Now, I don't know

where these clients stand with God. I have no idea. But we've made it a point to say, hey, we're going to

pray. And I hope that's okay because we're doing it anyway, right? We don't really know what's

going to happen. And we do it anyway. And it's been great. We've not had one complaint.

Right. And then Steve challenged me maybe a week ago, two weeks ago, three weeks ago. I don't know.

Steve challenged and said on that conversation about souls and bodies, what he does is he asks the server their name and then ask them how he can pray for them.

And so I said, challenge accepted. And the guy that I go to lunch with a lot, he and I have started doing this where we're asking the name.

Now, full disclosure, and I have to confess my sins. We've not done it every single time. I haven't asked every time.

But we're trying. And we've had some really interesting responses. And so really those are the not.

so obvious lights that we can make towards God.

When we talk about being a sacrifice, I know for myself, there's countless times where

I've quieted the voice, right? I didn't pray or I didn't say something about Jesus when I knew

that I should have. Oh, they'll judge you. They won't like you. They'll think you're weird, weird,

right? Jesus freak. Why do we do that? Why do we do that? It's the worldly concerns, and it's silly.

It's silly. Galatians 110 tells us,

Paul, again, am I now trying to win the approval of human beings or of God?

Am I trying to please people?

If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Jesus.

He wouldn't have done it.

He had a really great role in title as a Pharisee.

He wouldn't have had to bother.

There's only one weapon against the enemy in this world, and it's to be transformed.

And we continue that.

Paul tells us continuing in verse 2 of Romans 12,

but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

To achieve this transformation, we must renew our mind daily.

I'm going to rip through a couple of different verses here, but they're all very relevant.

Joshua 1-8 tells us this.

This is early.

This is right after the Levitical law had been created.

This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth,

but you shall meditate in it day and night that you may observe to do according to all that is written in

for then you will make your way prosperous and you will have good success. God will bless your obedience.

The Psalmist said in 119, verse 15, I will meditate on your precepts and consider your ways.

Later in Psalms 119 in verse 105, he says, your word is a lamp for my feet and a light on my path.

Your word will lead. It will guide. God will bless your sacrifice.

2 Timothy 3, verse 16 and 17.

2 Timothy 3:16

Paul tells us this as he's writing to Timothy.

All scripture is given by inspiration of God and it is profitable for doctrine,

for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,

that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

If we're going to defend against the devil, and we're in his playground,

If we're going to be renewed every day, we have to spend time in this book as Christians.

There is no other way to do it.

You can't listen your way to other sermons and other people talk.

You have to take the time and you have to spend time in this book.

There is a battle going on for our souls.

It's always around us.

It never fails.

In last week's message, Jesus rebuked Satan with scriptures.

But we also talked about how well-sense,

Satan knew the scriptures.

He knows them.

Better than most of us.

So if we're not taking the time, if we don't know God's word, how on earth can we

possibly defend against it?

My wife is much smarter than I am.

And she came up with this, not came up.

It was, she was struck with this idea.

So I'll say she came up with it.

This idea of what's called a half-truth.

And we live in a world of half-truths.

Half-truths.

And half-truths sound pretty good.

And the devil will use this word, parts of it at least, as something of a half-truth.

And if we don't fully know it, we can be fooled by that.

And I would submit that there are lots of church congregations right now that are being fooled by

half truths, going ways that are not acceptable to God. If we don't study the word, we will be

left defenseless against the schemes of the devil. There's a great quote by a guy named Charles

Spurgeon that I really, really like. And the quote is, discernment is not knowing the difference

between right and wrong. Discernment is knowing the difference between right and almost

right. Right? Powerful. So if I could be so bold, I know, I know,

did last week and we'll be so bold to stand up here as just your fellow believer,

please spend time in your Bible, 10 minutes a day, 10 minutes a day will change your life.

I promise. And then you will want more and more and more. So if you're not there,

and if you're not there at 10 minutes a day, download the U version Bible app and just read one

verse a day and get your streak. Right. It even rewards you with a carrot there. You get the

streak. One a day. Spend time in your word every single day.

continuing in Romans 12 verse 2 that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Romans 12:2

Now, in the last few years, I've really been trying to consider what God's will is for my life.

I don't really know that I know the answer.

I'm just trying to remain humble and obedient to what it is that he asks of me.

Have you ever given thought to your life? Have you really considered what God's will for your life?

Because every person in this room, God has a plan for your life. And if you're not thinking about it,

you're never going to discover what it is. Now, I don't know all the details of everybody's,

God's will for everybody's life. But I do think he gives us some indication in the form of an outline

from these verses that we've been looking at. If we just simply follow the direction of these last few

passages, it's a great start. First, we've recognized. We've recognized.

recognize and accept just how big God really is. For all things are of him, through him, and for him.

Then we have to surrender to that fact. I beseech you, my fellow believers, to present your body as a

living sacrifice acceptable to God. Paul tells us in First Thessalonians for three about God's will.

And it reads, for this is the will of God, your sanctification. I don't believe it ends there, though.

after we've accepted who God is and we've surrendered to our sin and we've given it all to him

and we realize that the treasures of this world are not, they're not what's important.

They're not supposed to be our biggest priority.

Then we'll start to move in the direction that God wants from us.

Don't be conformed to this world.

First John, chapter 2 verse 15 says it this way.

1 John 2:15

Do not love the world or the things in the world.

If anyone loves the world, the love of the father is not in him.

It's pretty black and white.

There's the world and then there's the way of God.

This is the hard part, folks.

This is where we really, the first two, those usually come in a little bit easier space,

but walking it out day in and day out every single day,

it becomes a challenge.

I battle on this front every single day and it requires control of my thought life.

I'm again going to coin my wife here as the author of this, but Philippians 4-8 is a very powerful verse.

I can't quote it for you, but I can tell you that the idea is every single thought that you have,

you have to capture. And if it's not lovely, if it's not good, if it's not pleasing, then it is not of

God. And if the thought is not of God, we must discard it and surrender it to God and ask him to

not allow us to dwell on those things. We can't let those things. We can't let those.

those thoughts plant. We have to get rid of them. I've been taking some fairly bold steps in my life

lately. And this is where the title of the message comes from. We've been moving in a direction

and I'm actually making a career change. And part of that has been really scary and we haven't

gotten a lot of feedback. And we were in the, I coined it from a gentleman who gave this great

wisdom. We're like, we don't know what to do. And what's the next step. And I don't know.

And we said, here's what we're trying to do. We're trying to remain humble. And I'm trying to

and glory of God. And the gentleman gave us this sound wisdom. He says, great. Keep doing that

because God can't steer a parked car. If you're sitting idle and you're not moving forward,

God can't grab the steering wheel, right? If you're just sitting there and doing nothing,

God can't use your life. So I encourage everybody here to think about what is God's will for your

life and how can you start moving forward in whatever that is? And when you make mistakes,

because it's going to happen. We all do. It's okay. Get back up. Surrender it to God and keep moving forward.

Once you've accepted who God is, surrender our sin, and you realize that the things of this world aren't

important, we will be stronger, will be better. My prayer for the church body is that our actions would

demonstrate a commitment to this fact and that we'd be a little more bold in our actions every single day.

this church, as well as the capital C church.

There's some really cool things happening in the world right now,

but it will require the church to take a stand if we want lasting change in our lives and in our

communities.

It will require the church to stand up and be bold for Jesus and be bold for who he is.

In the final, or in verse three, and I won't go into it, but too deeply,

Paul talks about this idea of,

humility. And I think it's really important. So we have this concept. We are accepting who God is. We're

surrendering to his will. And we're walking it out every single day. But we have to stay humble.

For those of us that are more seasoned believers in this room and everywhere, we have to be humble.

One of the things that I battle with, and I've prayed about it long and hard with God,

is that I have this tendency to get a little legalistic about things. I see things. And I'm like,

I start seething.

It's not okay. It's not okay.

It's not that we accept sin.

It's not that we certainly don't celebrate sin.

We call it out, but we don't have to be not humble about it.

We can do it in humility.

And that's what he's talking about in verse 3.

So if I can encourage everybody to walk in humility,

that's what we have to do if we want to call more people into the church.

If we want to call more people into these seats and to fill these rooms,

we have to continue to walk in humility.

The final piece is service.

I genuinely believe that that's where God wants everybody.

He wants you to serve.

He said it in the Great Commission, Matthew 2819,

therefore go make disciples of all nations,

baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son,

and the Holy Spirit,

and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded.

And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age.

in the Gospels, Jesus chose 12 very normal men.

These were not super biblically deval.

They weren't super well-versed.

They were just normal guys, normal people that he used.

Each one of them was consumed by what they had going on in their own lives,

and they all walked through this process.

Each one had to recognize Jesus for who he was.

They had to surrender their lives to him and drop everything and go where he wanted him to go.

Third, they had to walk it.

out with their own behaviors in daily actions. They were with him for three years going through the motions.

And once Jesus felt good about it, he sent them. Right? He sent them. He sent them out to go help

others. Each one had their own battles. I know I have my own battles. It's just everybody else

here has their own battles. But if I can encourage you, when you're walking with the Lord,

you surrender to his will, he will start moving in your life. Paul, who authored these lines faced immense

battles for years and years, right? 20 years of torture. I think he was beaten within inches of his

life, like five times, shipwrecked, homeless, basically, because he was always on the move. He lived this

life of sacrifice. And the great news is, is that while the 12 apostles had Jesus right there by their

side, Paul was closely aligned with the Lord. We have the same tool. It's right here.

We have this, and we have the Holy Spirit, both.

They're both here, and they both will guide us, and they will both help us walk it out.

If every person in this church this morning are watching church online, and this is church

across the nation, were to truly walk out their lives as a holy living sacrifice to God,

what kind of change might we see in our lifetime?

I'll close with a quote, and it's from a British revivalist, Henry Varley, and I always attributed this quote

Moody, but it turns out that this British revivalist, Henry Varley, was actually speaking to

D.L. Moody when he said, and he said, the world has yet to see what God can do with a man

fully consecrated to him. Moody replied, by God's help, I aim to be that man. That's my prayer for everyone

here. My prayer is that you would find yourself fully consecrated to God, and with God, and with God,

God's help that you would walk that path that he has for your life, the will for your life.

With that, let's pray. Father, I am just so grateful again and humbled and honored to be here.

I pray for the men and women in this room, I pray that you would lift them as they go forward

throughout their week as they carry out their day to day, that they would recognize and accept

you for who you are and how great you are, accept that their lives are designed by

you and for you. I pray that they would surrender to your will, Lord, that they would continue to know you

and walk with you. And then in that process of walking it out daily, Lord, that they would find

that you would give them the courage and the love that you always do. And we thank you so much for your

son, Jesus. And it's in his name that I pray. Amen.

Well, thank you very much. I was told I have to sing a song at the end because that's what

Scottie always does. So I don't have a guitar and I'm more of an old McDonald-had-a-farm kind of guy.

So if you'll all join me, I'm just kidding. I won't torture you like that. But on a quick note,

just one more brief reminder about next week, we will not be here. We will be at the

Holiday Inn Express. It's over in Jackson Hole, junction, near Teton, Toyota. So just remember,

if don't show up here, we won't be here for next week. Thank you so much, and I hope you all have a

wonderful Sunday.