Under Control : What Am I Holding Back? | Romans 12 | Micah Hales

All right, all right.

You guess go ahead and take your seats.

Take a seat.

Hey, good evening, Salt Company.

My name is Jared.

If we haven't had a chance to meet yet, I get to uh serve here at Ambassador Church as the lead pastor here, and it's always grateful.

I'm always grateful to get a chance to be here with you guys tonight.

Um, but hey, I want to double tap really quick on what uh Mac was talking about in announcements, okay?

Uh global trips, man.

Uh, if you're not considering global trips, I just want to present to you maybe you should consider global trips a really exciting opportunity.

Um, I had a chance to be out of the country for a really long time in my life, from like most of my formational years, from I think 21 to when I was 28.

I lived outside of the country, okay?

Um, and I was in a particular place, and that's France.

I was in France for like seven years.

It was amazing.

And so part of our partnership with France and sending you guys out there is like a way for you guys to like like it's near and dear to my heart, but it's a place where like my wife and I even till a little bit of soil to prepare even for this, like in a real God-ordained way.

I think like back what God was doing back then was something he was preparing for now.

And I'm looking forward to the fruit that's gonna be raped from uh the work that we did back then and the stuff that you get to enter into as you say yes to going to check out France.

Okay, so uh don't blow that off if you're at all considering, if you're on the fence, uh keep checking it out, man.

Have conversations, talk to Mac, we'd love to have you have that experience, all right?

Well, if you have your Bibles, you can go ahead and get those out with me.

We're gonna be in the book of Romans, it's in your New Testament.

If you're not familiar, uh it goes Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, and then Romans, it's six books in to your New Testament.

We're gonna be in Romans chapter 12.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

And as you're turning there, I kind of want to just catch you up on where we've been in the last couple of weeks.

You guys have been in a new series called Under Control.

And in week one, Micah kind of talked about uh our desire.

And what he was doing was answering this question uh what are you living for?

Okay, what are you living for?

What kind of desires well up in your heart?

What are the things that you're saying?

Man, this is the stuff that I'm gonna live my life for.

And in week two, he talked about our thoughts.

Answering this question, what are you thinking about?

What's taking up most of the time?

Are you a person that worries?

Are you a person that like has anxiety, all kind of stuff?

Like you can cast your cares on God.

There's things that God wants to do with your thoughts.

And tonight, what we're doing is talking about souls, all right?

Desire to thoughts to souls.

They all have a question.

And here's the question I'm gonna be tackling tonight, and it's this one right here.

Uh, what are you holding back?

We talk about our souls, the question is, what are you holding back?

Which I think is a great question for this particular topic, because depending on the situation, our desire to hold back can be different.

Like some things we really want to hold back on, but then there's some things in our life that we really don't.

For example, for me, uh, I love Wing Stop.

Okay, any Wingstop fans in the room?

Actually, okay, let's be honest.

I just like wings, okay?

Wingstop, any kind of wings, period.

I'm in.

By the way, uh, there's a phenomenal restaurant, literally a 10-minute walk from the building called Hooligans, who has phenomenal wings, by the way.

So if you're a wing person, make your way down there, have a really good time.

But, anyways, when it comes to wings, like I don't hold back at all, okay?

I lean absolutely in.

Ask Mike, ask Mac.

We were just there the other day.

I lean in all in when it comes to wings.

I like my wings battered, like I like them fried, I like them grilled, I like them dipped, not dipped, like it doesn't really matter.

Any type of way I can get wings, I'm gonna get them.

But here's one caveat.

I don't like boneless wings because those aren't wings at all, by the way, okay?

You can we can all the chicken nuggets, bro.

They're chicken nuggets, they're not even wings, okay?

They've gotta be bone in.

I like the buzz in the room, okay.

We all like chicken, that's amazing.

Good job.

But it doesn't take me long to go all in on wings.

And some of you like you're checking out already, you're like, I don't really get down with chicken like that, especially the bone-in kind.

Okay, maybe that's fine.

That's fine.

But there's maybe something in your life that's like that for you.

Like maybe you lean in when it comes to a good shopping deal, right?

You just lord in your email buzzes, and what comes across is like these big red signs with the sale and all the negative percentage marks, and you just love a good deal.

Anytime that comes across, you're just like, I lean in heavily on that.

Like there might not be a deal that comes across your face that you're just like, I'm I'm passing that up.

Nope, I'm leaning right in.

This might be you.

Or maybe you're a person that likes the gym, you lean in at the gym.

Like some of you, you'll miss a lot of things, but one of the things you're not gonna miss is an opportunity for them gains, okay?

Like you're gonna go get them gains.

Like, like this is just what's true of you.

Or maybe you hoop, right?

Maybe you're gonna go get a good hoop session in.

Like you just anytime somebody's talking about ball, you're like, yo, sign me up.

I'm right there.

Like this can kind of be the way that we are, right?

You lean in, and it's hard for you to hold back on some of these things.

And if we're honest, all of us have something that's kind of like that.

Maybe it's whatever popular concert tickets that's hitting the market right now, it's an invitation to a night out, maybe it's a guy's trip you guys have been planning, or a girl's trip that you've been planning.

Like anything to get that quick dopamine hate, you might be one that raises your hand, but yeah, I'm all in on something like that.

But here's a question: what about the things that cost us something?

Like, what about when the cost is something that we're not willing to pay?

Are we in on those kind of things?

I would say not so for me.

Like when something will cost us whatever it is, too much money, too much comfort, too much of our reputation, or they infringe on our cherished views of whatever things in the world, whatever it might be, or anything like that, like we're less likely to engage then.

And instead of leaning in, it's actually easy to hold back.

And I know what I'm saying isn't a surprise to anyone, this is just what's true.

This is a natural response when something isn't desirable to you or when it feels like it won't benefit you.

And here's where I'm going with this.

Because there are some things in our lives that the cost is just simply too high for.

And my concern, especially in our day, 21st century America, here in 2026, that many of us think our Christian walk is just too high of a cost.

And instead of leaning in, what we want to do is hold back.

And whatever hold back looks like for you, instead of prioritizing your Bible reading, you let it slide off and you put it off and off and off.

Instead of praying and tapping into the communication that you have with God, the access you have to your heavenly father, you hold back on that instead of prioritizing gospel community.

Maybe I've not had enough of that.

I've done it for the last couple of weeks, all that kind of stuff.

I kind of need a break.

I'm not gonna go in, right?

You kind of hold back on those kind of things.

In our text today in Romans 12, 1 through 2.

This is actually what the apostle Paul is going to be talking about.

What it means to truly lean in and not hold back, listen to this, from our worship.

What it means to lean in, not hold back from having a transformed soul.

When we're talking about our soul and holding back, what are you holding back?

For many of us, we can raise our hand and be like, Man, I think it might be the thing I'm holding nearest to me, the thing that makes me who I am, to my inner core, my my deepest desires, who I want to be, who I long to be, the vision I have for myself.

That's something that I'm holding on to, and it's hard for me to let it go.

I hold it back when it comes to my soul.

I don't lean in.

Okay, and my hope tonight is to let you know that we should be people who lean in with this very thing that God's given us.

You are not your own.

If you were a Christian in the room, you were bought with a price, and the hope is that you lean in with your soul, not hold back with your soul.

So if you're a need-to-know person, here's where we're going for the rest of the night.

I'm gonna read us our text, we'll unpack it, uh, we'll get to the end, and hopefully you walk away with something practical by the end.

You guys ready for that?

If you're in the Bible, Romans 12, verse 1, here's what it says.

Romans 12:1

It says, Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.

This is your true worship.

Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Why?

So that you may discern what is the good, what is the pleasing, and what is the perfect will of God.

Let's look back at verse one.

Paul begins, hey, therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, he says, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.

This is your true worship.

Like I love what Paul begins to say right here in this text, and I love how my boy Micah tends to say this.

Anytime your text says, Hey, therefore, what do you have to do?

You have to ask what the therefore is.

Thank you.

So, what is the therefore there for?

And most times in the text, you can literally go back a handful of verses and be like, oh, this is what the therefore is there for.

But right here in this juncture in Romans chapter 12, what Paul is talking about isn't just a couple verses back in chapter 11, but he's literally talking about all the stuff he's been writing so far from chapters 1 through chapters 11 until it gets right here.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

What we need to know about what Paul is talking about is he's talking about these mercies of God.

You guys see this?

He's saying, Hey, therefore, brothers and sisters, you Christians, in view of the mercies of God, what are these mercies of God?

The mercies of God is all the things that you know and love that comes true from the gospel.

The fact that Jesus Christ lived the life that you couldn't live, died the death that you should have died, risen from the rose from the grave, and because of that, he made a way possible for you to now become a new person, a transformed person, the Holy Spirit now indwelling with you, and not only that, but that those way you can come into contact with his family.

That what you get now is going from being far off, cast out, without any hope in the world, far away from God, and now because of what Jesus has done in the blood of Jesus Christ, you now have the ability to be brought near because of these mercies of God.

And in this text, that would have been super important because you got to understand a little bit about the Jew-Gentile connection, okay?

There would have been an in-crowd and an out crowd that Paul would have been addressing in this letter.

And the in-crowd would have been thinking, like, hey, we're the people that are in, we are the Jews, we are the chosen people of God, we're the ones who are rightfully in, and we get to benefit from all things that God has done.

But what Paul is writing this letter is saying is that even people who aren't like you, even people who live a different kind of life, even the people that you would call sinners, the people that you think God wouldn't even bat an eye out.

He says, even they and stall company, dare I say, even you, dare I say, even me, because of these great mercies of God.

Now we have an end as well.

The mercies of God.

Like you being a part of God's family has always been about the mercy of God that extends an invitation to be at his table to people who all believe in his son.

So he says, Hey, I urge you now, because of this reality, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice.

Anybody read the word sacrifice in your Bible and you think, like, I hope you ain't talking to me when he's talking about sacrifice.

Like sometimes I can be like, um, I'm like, can I just search the text and be like, I hope you ain't talking to me when you're talking about that crazy stuff?

Because what does this mean?

Right?

Maybe you've been around the church for a while and you're thinking, like, hey, Jesus sacrificed himself.

What do you like?

This is this is this referring to me.

Do I have to sacrifice to you?

Like, hold up.

And the answer is yes, he did.

Jesus Christ died on the cross, it is finished, it is done.

But here's what we need to know about sacrifice, okay?

There's two types of sacrifice in the Bible.

One, there's an atoning sacrifice.

Somebody say atoning.

Atoning.

But then there's also an answering sacrifice.

Jesus' sacrifice was an atoning sacrifice.

Meaning what?

Jesus' sacrifice was the one and only sacrifice that needed to be done.

Why?

In order to make you right before the eyes of God.

It was in your place, it was an atoning sacrifice.

Like what Jesus did on the cross was pay in total the cost of our sin, the cost of our guilt, and the cost of our shame.

And so this means that whatever we do, we do not have to pay the penalty for our sin.

Jesus has already done that.

But our sacrifice is an answering sacrifice.

Like what we do now, because of what Paul calls the great mercies of God, now what we do is a response to what Jesus has done.

And here's what you need to know: that it's not to earn anything or atone for anything, but we recognize this that our lives are a living sacrifice, is the right answer to Jesus' death as the final sacrifice for our sin.

We live among that reality.

I love how the writer of Hebrews says it in Hebrews chapter 13, verses 12 through 16.

Hebrews 13:12–16

I'm gonna read this to you really quick.

Here's what it says here.

It says, Therefore, another, therefore, therefore, Jesus also suffered outside the gate, so that he might sanctify the people by his own blood.

So let us then go to him outside the camp, bearing his disgrace.

For we do not have an enduring city here.

Instead, we seek the one to come.

And therefore, through him, let us continually offer up to God, hear this, a sacrifice, a sacrifice, a sacrifice of praise.

That is the fruit of lips that confess his name, Jesus.

Don't neglect to do what is good and to share, for God is pleased with such sacrifices.

Do you hear this in the text?

We get the atoning sacrifice of Jesus, and we get the answering sacrifice of those who believe in Jesus.

We go to him outside of the gate.

Why?

Not to atone for our sin, but to answer the call to sacrifice because he has sacrificed everything for us.

And Paul goes on to say, or why is this important?

Because Paul goes on to say that your presenting of your body as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, is this.

Look at your text.

It is true worship.

He says, This is your true worship.

You guys ever wonder what worship is?

You guys know what worship is.

And oftentimes when we're in a Christian space, what we can think is worship is when we come to a place like this.

We open the church doors, we come and sit in the pews, we have our little get-together and hangout and chit-chat time, and then the little countdown starts and the bomb music starts playing.

It used to be, I don't know, what do we play on that Mac?

Swag surf.

Yeah, yeah, y'all, y'all switch it up on me tonight.

But you play the music and then you come and sit down, and then the music starts.

And what we tend to think is like, oh, now it's time to worship.

This is worship.

Among my peers, in the church building, in the pews, when the music starts, this is worship.

I'm not here to tell you that that's not worship.

What I am here to tell you that holistic is way more holistic than that.

Worship is your whole life.

Paul says that presenting your body as a living and holy sacrifice, pleasing to God, he says, This is your true worship.

What does this mean?

And it means that worship is not the only time that you spend fifteen minutes out of your week singing a handful of songs.