Are You Ready? | Romans 12:1

You're listening to the Bridgetown Church Podcast with

Pastor Casey Kendall, where our vision is Jesus, our mission is

people, and our cause is love. Thanks for tuning in.

Let's dive in. I want to ask you a question

today, and that is, Are you ready?

If there was ever a time that we should be ready as the Church of

Jesus Christ or a person who needs to come to Jesus Christ,

it is today. It is in this urgent moment, in

this time that I believe that as the church we should actually be

ready. Truth be told, Lisa and I have

entered into a very amazing season.

We have entered into children now being in our in their 20s

all the way down to a child who is still 10 years old.

And what I have found in the lessons that I'm learning as I'm

raising our children, as we are raising our children, is this.

It's a lesson that we've been posing, especially on the Lord's

Day on Sunday, and that is this, are you not just waking up, but

are you getting up? And this is a lesson and a

question that constantly pops up in our house on Sunday, and that

is, Are you ready? Are you ready?

I've been teaching my kids that they could be aware of their

alarm clock. They can have an attitude about

their alarm clock, but they better act on that alarm clock.

Nothing is worse than one of my sons telling me as he's been

laying in bed until the early afternoon that dad, I was

actually awake, I just didn't get up.

And I think that is sometimes how the church has functioned.

We are actually awakened with the gospel of Jesus Christ, but

we are not getting up for the gospel of Jesus Christ.

You see there, there is a radical difference that you can

know the time, you can have the time, but you don't utilize the

time that God has given to you. And I want you to really

consider this question, Are you ready?

Because on that day when you stand before the Lord, it is

appointed on demand to die once. And then after this comes the

judgement of God. Are you ready for that?

Are you ready to stand before a holy God that the Bible says is

a consuming fire? Are you ready?

Are you holding on to so much of this world that you will be

dragging behind you into glory a bunch of shadows of the past?

I want you to consider this question, if this was your last

day that you would breathe your last upon this planet and enter

into eternity, Are you ready? I believe the scripture sounds

the alarm for all of us If you're taking note that we'd be

people that are ready. The Bible says loud and clear in

Matthew 24 verse 44. Therefore you also Jesus said

Matthew 24:44

must be ready. The apostle Paul wrote in first

1 Corinthians 16:13

Corinthians chapter 16 verse 13, he said I want you to be

watchful. In first Peter chapter one verse

13, Peter writes these words, therefore preparing your minds

for action. Now notice what Paul said again

in Romans 13 verse 11. Besides, you know the time that

Romans 13:11

the hour has come for you to wake from sleep and it is today

that we read in our Bibles in Romans chapter 12, verse one.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

Therefore Paul says, I beseech you.

Therefore, there there, there is within this moment an urgency

that we really live out what God has invested into us in our

salvation. Because I really believe that we

miss the meaningful moments when we open our eyes but we fail to

stand to our feet. I think in the church many times

we can find that in our lives that that we know that it's time

to wake up, but we choose to lay our head down rather than allow

our heart to be lifted up. I love what John Stott wrote in

his book. He said we must allow the word

of God to confront us, to disturb our security and to

undermine our complacency and to overthrow our patterns of

thought and behavior. God is up to something.

And what God is up to is raising up dead people in the new life

to offer more dead people new life in Jesus Christ.

And I believe it's time as a church that we really not just

have repentance and revival, but we have what Jesus said is salt

and light, and that is the resistance for the glory of God.

The apostle Paul would say that God is up to something in Romans

Romans 12 · chapter mention

chapter 12. And the question is not will God

use you? The real question is when will

God use you? And in that moment I want to be

ready. Why?

Because I'm not a monument for earth, I'm a movement for

heaven. And God has called me to this

place and he's equipped me for this place.

Because we're the people of God, saved by the power of God-given

the word of God, representing the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

Are you ready for what God has in your life?

You remember that old song that used to by Keith Green?

He used to sing the world as sleeping in the dark that the

church just can't fight because they're asleep in the light.

The question is not is God working today?

The question is, are you obeying God today?

You see as we come to Romans chapter 12, this is the apostle

Romans 12 · chapter mention

Paul on mission. This is the apostle Paul

speaking to Christians. This is the Apostle Paul giving

to the church in Rome his and God's aim of glory for all of

their lives. The Apostle Paul was a

missionary. I wonder if you would consider

yourself a missionary or a mission field.

I wonder if you're actively changing the temperature in the

room or the room is changing the temperature of you.

I know there's potential in this room.

I know that we've come to a spot in our lives where God is

raising you up and He's giving you gifts and He's calling you

to use these for His glory. I remind you not of Paul's words

only, but my mom's words. She said I'm ready to go and I

want all of us without any regret to be people that would

be willing to say I am ready to go no matter what happens in my

life, no matter where I go, no matter what what I have to say,

I am ready for Jesus's return. You see in Romans chapter 12, it

Romans 12 · chapter mention

is our alarm clock. It is Paul switching from from

the doctrine of what he has just went through in Romans chapter 1

Romans 1 · chapter mention

all the way through Romans Chapter 11.

Romans 11 · chapter mention

He states the 1st 4 words in the verse.

I beseech you therefore, therefore someone is once said

is one of the most beautiful words in all of scripture

because it connects your doctrine to your duty.

It connects your behavior to your belief.

It connects the creed to the conduct by which we should all

be living. Notice what Paul says He says, I

beseech you that this is this is meaning that this is an urgent

request. If you're taking note this, this

is a not just an urgent request. This is an anxious plea.

This is what 1 scholar said is the big bag.

If we put it in medical terms, this is code blue.

I'm calling you to act upon this because Paul says you have been

justified because you were once condemned and now you were

cleansed because you've been sanctified, because you have

experienced death from the first Adam and now you've experienced

life from the second Adam. Therefore now because you have

all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

We know that the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God

is the eternal life in Christ Jesus.

Therefore now because God has demonstrated his love toward us

and while we were yet sinners. Therefore now because we've

realized that apart from Jesus. O wretched man that I am, who

can save me from this body of sin and death.

Thanks be to Jesus Christ our Lord.

Therefore now because in Romans chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

If God is for us, who can be against us Therefore, now

knowing that nothing can separate me from the love of

Jesus Christ, the apostle Paul says in Romans chapter 12, I

Romans 12 · chapter mention

beseech you, therefore this movement should move you.

This should be something that is Paul is saying that this is a

movement in your own heart first.

And I think the problem often times with myself is I want to

see people moved without me being moved first.

Paul says I'm beseeching you as the church in Rome.

I want you to understand that all of your condemnation, your

justification, your sanctification, your election,

your predestination means nothing without transformation

in your life. And thus Paul says, I beseech

you, this is teenager like, like like your parents telling you

for the last time, not just giving you your first name, but

your first, middle and last name, that that's the word

beseech. If I put it in those terms, that

this is the term for us to move in a direction.

And what is the direction that we are called to move in?

God has called us to be people who don't just wake up, but they

actually get up. Are you ready?

Are you ready? Are you ready to be sensitive to

the moving of the Holy Spirit at Stater Brothers?

Are you ready to pause long enough in the parking lot that

you're not frustrated at the person that took your parking

space, but maybe you go and see it as an opportunity to pray for

somebody? Do you walk into your job ready

with joy on Monday, and on Tuesday you walk into your house

not frustrated that things aren't in order or they don't

meet your expectation, but you're actually carrying the

fruit of the Holy Spirit of gentleness and peace and

long-suffering and kindness and goodness and gentleness and this

last one, self-control. Are you ready?

And Paul says we can be ready. Why?

Because we're going to be a people.

If you write this down, we're going to be a people who live

sacrificially. Do you know people?

We exist to reach people where they are and connect them to

everything that God has for their life in Christ Jesus.

Because we're a people who live sacrificially.

Do you know this, this, this statement?

We exist to reach people where they are and to connect them to

everything that God has for their life in Christ Jesus is

because we're going to be a people who live sacrificially.

Can I just say that again, do you know the statement we exist

to reach people where they are and connect them to everything

that God has for their life in Christ Jesus is because we're

going to be a people that live sacrificially.

Notice what Paul says. He says I beseech you.

Therefore, brethren, he's writing to the brethren or the

sisters. What would I like to say is this

is that we are because we're born again into the family of

God. We're sibs from different cribs

who might be brothers from another mother.

But, but, but listen, we've been all washed in the blood of

Jesus. You like country and other

person likes rock, but we're brothers in Jesus Christ.

Some of you like hip hop, some of you like R&B, but we're

brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ.

We all might have different views of different things, but

we're brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ.

Oh, how the church needs to hear these words.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, because many times

we're looking at the problems of the world without fixing the

problems that are in our own church.

And so Paul addresses the church at large in Rome because the

church at large in Rome was able to make a large impact in Rome

if they were willing to allow the judgment of God to 1st fall

in the House of God. And so he says, I beseech you

therefore, brethren, notice this by the mercies of God, No notice

that term by the mercies of God point Paul's pointing them back

to the mercy of God because God is sovereign, because God is

saving, because God is cleansing, because of the grace

of God, you were saved by that grace.

And now because of that saving power of God, I, I live

sacrificially in my life towards Jesus.

We like to put it this way here, because Jesus gave it all.

I give him my all because Jesus gave it all.

I give him my all, he says because of the mercies of God.

Notice this you that you present your bodies a living sacrifice.

Now. Now, if you would just stop

there in your Bible now, now Paul proclaims that we present

your bodies as a living sacrifice, that that literally

means that I'm bringing myself to the altar now.

Now that the Christians in Rome would understand this language

because the Apostle Paul was bringing them back to the Old

Testament priestly language of sacrifice, this would often

happen in the temple or the Tabernacle.

There were different offerings all throughout the Old

Testament. There there was the burnt

offering that this was a gift of atonement for sin or for prayer

or for praise. There was the grain offering

that's mentioned in the Bible of a voluntary devotion to God for

his goodness. There was also in the Old

Testament a peace offering. This was an offering of of of of

us. If we've we needed our atonement

from our sin, we would bring peace as a as a sacrifice to the

Lord. We bring an animal, There was

the fellowship, a purification offering for forgiveness of our

sins. There was the guilt offering,

and there was the trespass offering.

There's many offerings that are mentioned here in the scripture,

but the word present there. Notice he says that you present

your bodies. You're not just bringing a

sacrifice, you've actually become the sacrifice to the

Lord. Notice this.

Presenting your body means that God wants you.

He just doesn't want your offering.

You are actually the offering that God wants.

This is what God says. Put all of yourself, all of your

brokenness, all of your bruising, all of your battered

blessed save self, your mind, your eyes, your mouth, your

hands, your feet. Hold nothing back as you hold on

for the glory of God. Presenting my body as a living

sacrifice means that I am willing to bring everything that

I am desire will to be back to Jesus Christ.

Why? Because the altar is the new

address for the person who has become born again.

Do you see, unless I come to the altar of God, my life will not

be altered. Are you ready to give it all?

We just had some friends that were messaging us, or not us,

but other people letting them know that on their trip to

Africa, as they were crossing the lake from where they were

into the Congo, that their ship, their their boat sank 3 1/2

miles from shore. It took hours for them to be

rescued. Are you willing?

Are you willing to risk that? Are you willing to give up your

own safety and your security for the cause of the gospel?

Are you willing to come to a place wondering one day will I

die here and live there? Am I willing to leave the path

of ease and enter in sometimes to a path that I have to endure

and not give up for the glory of God?

Paul says. I want you to present your

bodies as a living sacrifice. Now an altar.

I think sometimes in my life I want the altar to be filled with

pillows. I want the altar to be filled

with some bubble wrap around it. I want it to be soft and not

cutting. I want it to look a certain way,

but altars are normally bloody and messy and sometimes serving

the Lord, it could get messy. But listen, that's where the

miracle actually begins. We are really not ready to live,

Ruth Graham said, until we're ready to die.

There are only three people in all of Scripture that were

called to be a living sacrifice. Isaac in the book of Genesis,

Jesus in the Gospel, and you in Romans chapter 12.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

And as we live this out, I love what the missionary said from

the Free Burma Rangers. He was asked this question, why

does he do what he does to go into these dangerous areas and

rescue people? And this is what he said.

He said, because that is what love calls me to do.

He says, what has love called you to do with your time, your

money, your family and your life?

Living sacrificially means that I'm willing to give up so people

can really go on. So how do I really live

sacrificially? I want you to realize some

things from Romans chapter 12, and that is this.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

Whatever's placed on the altar, God raises up.

Whatever is placed on the altar, God raises up because we believe

in a theology of resurrection. So after death there is

resurrection, but you cannot experience resurrection without

death. And I think some of us want

resurrection, but we don't want the death.

And this is something that only God can raise up in this time.

Notice that the man who is writing these words is the

apostle Paul. So not only am I raised up on

the altar, notice I'm not giving up at all.

The apostle Paul exemplified this throughout his life is that

he would not give up. And then lastly, Paul wasn't

letting up with the gospel. He wasn't going to be willing to

let up with the gospel. And that is me stopping in my

life. The the excuses of I couldn't, I

wouldn't, I shouldn't listen. I will if it's God's will.

Let let's just say that together.

I will if it's God's will. And I think sometimes there's

things we're praying about that scriptures already made clear

for you not to pray about, but for you to obey.

And this is an opportunity for us to go into people's lives and

come into their life and live as G Campbell Morgan said.

He said organized religion and Christianity that does not make

a disturbance is dead. How am I going to live this out?

That we exist to reach people where they are and connect them

to everything that God has for their life in Christ Jesus is

because we're going to be a people who live sacrificially.

Can I give you one more thing before we go?

And not only are we going to live sacrificially, but we're

going to do this. We're going to worship Jesus

passionately. We're going to worship Jesus

passionately. Notice the Bible says, I want

you to present your lives as a living sacrifice, holy and

acceptable to God. No, Notice this.

Your sacrifice is holy and acceptable to God, which is your

reasonable service. If you would just underline this

term reasonable service. It literally means your logical

worship. Your logical worship.

Now notice this. This again was temple language.

So the priestly service and the sanctuary work is the temple is

where the presence of God would reside in the Holy of Holies.

The living sacrifice always leads to us being living

worshippers, and being a living worshipper, I find myself

understanding that the God of Heaven through the Holy Spirit

lives within me. No longer does God reside in the

Tabernacle in the temple. I've actually become the

Tabernacle and the temple for the Holy Spirit now because of

that, I think in my life, because God resides in me, this

should get your blood Raisin, your hands lifting, your mouth

shouting, your feet stomping. I don't know what will move you

if this doesn't move you, that God lives in you through Jesus's

death and resurrection on the cross.

I don't know what could move you.

What else could can move you in the sanctuary to stepping out

into the city streets if it's not first an attitude and a

logic of worship. Worship is not just the song you

sing, it's going to be the life that you bring to the Lord.

And here's I've seen this. I've seen people get passionate

about a lot of things. Passion is a strong and barely

uncontrollable emotion. I've seen people get passionate

on the baseball diamond. I've seen people get passionate

on the gridiron. I've seen passion displayed in a

hockey rink. I've seen passion on a court, a

tennis court, a pickleball court.

I've seen passion in airports. I've seen passion at weddings.

I've seen people shout and clap and stomp and yell, scream,

record, faint, express, run, Sprint.

But when it comes to the one who holds the universe, who became a

man, who, although he is God, live the life that I should have

lived and died, the death that I was called to die and forgave my

sin, secured my eternity, I want to be quiet about that.

I'm told to be quiet about that. No, I'm not telling you to be

obnoxious. What I'm asking you to do is be

obedient. And I think that starts in our

lives by allowing things to be set in their proper place.

I remember the we lost one wedding ring that I gave my wife

at her job site at Fairview Ford in San Bernardino.

And her boss said, I'll buy you a new wedding ring for you and

Casey, don't worry about it. He gave us $3500.

I was like, let's buy a different ring and we'll keep

the rest of the money. I'm just kidding.

We bought the ring within a few days.

I'm looking at Lisa's ring, I said.

Your diamond is gone. It wasn't set properly in the

ring. And sure enough, we put our hand

down underneath the couch, and there was this small little

diamond, The most probably expensive part of the whole ring

wasn't securely set in its proper place.

And I think sometimes in our lives, Jesus is not set in his

proper place, the one who means the most to us, the one who now

saved us. He's not set in his proper

place. You and I might have 80 years to

live, 80 years to live, and then we have the rest of eternity to

worship Jesus. If we were to look now at our

lives now that I'm 50 years old, we would all agree that we're

looking back and it has gone by like a blink of an eye.

Do you have any regrets over the last years of your life?

Not that you weren't born again, but you were born again and

you're wasting your life here. One thing matters, men and

women, and that is this is this is an opportunity for us to set

Jesus in his proper place. And that is first.

And that doesn't mean necessarily that you have to go

across the ocean right now to go share the gospel.

But can I challenge you to do something out in the the foyer

area of our building that we rent?

We have little carts and it says you are loved on them.

And what I want to challenge you to do this week is live it, live

this message out. And how you live this message

out is by doing this simple thing.

Buy someone a coffee, hand them this card and just tell them I

want you to know today that Jesus loves you.

Just start there. Just start there.

Like Casey, I don't know all the verses yet.

You don't have to know all the verses.

I, I don't know the full gospel proclam.

We can work on that. That's OK.

Be obedient in the moment that God put you and set Jesus in His

proper place. John Piper writes that we are so

filled with the crumbs of this world that are falling off the

table that we're not ready for the eternal meal that Jesus has

to offer us. What God has for you is a life

that he's calling you not just to wake up, but to actually get

up and be the person that he's called you to be.

Why? Because we exist to reach people

where they're at and to connect them to everything that God has

for their life in Christ Jesus. Don't wait for this.

Don't, don't say this. It's the last thing I'll say to

you. Don't don't wait here and say I

need to they got to hear a message from Pastor Casey.

I just got, they got if you want to do that, that's totally fine.

But I want you to be the message.

And if you're going, I don't know what to share.

Let's talk about that. Let's connect, learn how to

connect people to everything that God has for their life in

Jesus Christ. And I believe that true mission

follows out of out of true worship.

It flows out of worship to the Lord.

I cannot live life on mission if I don't know and see the glory

of God. So this is what the Psalm said.

The Psalm says let the redeemed of the Lord say so.

All right, I'll try that again. The Bible says let the redeemed

of the Lord say so. All right, we'll, we'll just try

that one more time. This is a this is I know it's

the summer slumber. Let the redeemed of the Lord say

so. All right, what it's warming up

in here. It's like turning into like more

of like a golf clap. The Bible says let's redeem to

the Lord say soul. David said these words.

I will extol your holy name. Now, it's one thing that we

worship Jesus in here, but how about as we're in our elevator

going to our office, we're worshiping Jesus.

How about when we hop on the plane and we're we're heading

off to our new vacation destination that we're

worshiping Jesus? How about when we're in our

neighborhood and all our neighbors know us the best.

They hear the fights that are happening in our house.

They but we turn on the worship, we're worshiping Jesus.

Well, what if, what if we allow this to be a place where we

learn how to passionately worship Jesus and that passion

overflows into our neighborhood. Something happens in our city

when the people of God worship God and go forth with the gospel

of God to preach the Son of God. Something happens.

And I just want to encourage you.

We're going to leave a few minutes for us to do that.

I ended early for a reason. And that is as if we set Jesus

in his proper place in our heart right now.

As if we give Jesus this, this first place, The place where I

know that you've been distracted by difficulties, the place where

the pain seems permanent, the place where it just seems like

proximity with people has diminished possibly in your

life. I'm going to give Jesus the

proper first place and I'm going to lift my voice and sing to

him. Can we do that today?

We hope you enjoyed this message and we'd love for you to join us

in person every Sunday at 10:30 AM.

For more information and updates, visit

wearebridgetown.com. Thanks for tuning in and we'll

see you next week.