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Divided Hearts Settle Through Undivided Worship | Romans 12:1-2 · Saint City Chapel

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Made it a little bit easier to wake up this morning.
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You know, little, little sunshine in my steps.
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If if I was in a musical right now, that the soundtrack would
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be awesome. Let me put it that way.
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It's good to be here. It's going to be back here.
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I mean, last week we were my wife, Maddie and I and many of
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our college student leaders and students, we were over in Iowa,
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the urban heavyweight known as Des Moines.
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That's who we were. And there was 7500 college
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students gathered to do what we just did, to sing the name of
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Jesus and to hear his word preached that they would be
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mobilized for the mission of God on planet earth.
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And it was just so amazing to see college students for every
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tribe, tongue and nation from all across our nation to say
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Jesus Christ is King. And they're coming from schools
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like Florida and from Oregon, from Syracuse and Iowa State and
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Dallas, TX, at Denton University of North Texas.
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I mean, we're coming from all over the country united under
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one name, which is Jesus Christ. And we are a part of that
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movement here in the Salt Network.
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We are about seeing the the gospel advance in the next
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generation. And I am so excited to see what
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he does here at ASU in 2026. We're praying big things.
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I'm not just here to celebrate with you what's happening in New
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Year. I want to actually preach God's
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Word to you. So if you could turn your Bibles
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to Romans chapter 12. We're going to be starting a new
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series this morning just for the month of January.
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That in a world that is super anxious and worried and
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stressed, what actually anchors us?
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What actually settles us in the middle of a turbulent world?
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What actually gets people to be steady when life is unsteady?
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I think the Bible has some things to say about that.
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I think that that Scripture is going to be helpful for us in
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seeing what it's like to live the life God intended.
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It's interesting how the turn of a New Year's calendar can make
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you painfully aware of how much you want to be like everybody
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else. You know you'll listen like 1:00
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to 10:00. Ask yourself this question one
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to 10. How much pressure do you feel
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this year to be like somebody else?
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Certainly not everybody else. Like I'm not waking up this
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morning wishing I was a Packer fan.
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You know, that's not me, but I am.
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I have considerations, right? I'm thinking to myself, hey, how
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can I be more like this dad or this husband?
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How can I take care of my body in this way?
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How can I take care of my finances like them?
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How can I dress like them? Maybe you are less socially
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inclined. You're like, you know what?
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I actually don't look at people and go, I want to be like them.
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I kind of want to stand out. Maybe you're more individualist
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in nature, but I guarantee you have people that you look to and
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respect, people that you follow on social media, people that you
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see at work that you're like, man, I just want to be more like
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them. And that's a pressure that we
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feel each and every week. And it provokes insecurity,
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fear, jealousy, greed, envy. It's a pressure.
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Pressure to vacation like they do, dress like they do, work
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like they do, live in a house like they do, date like they do,
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be married like they do. That pressure is exhausting and
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it's anxiety inducing. That pressure is not meant to
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bear the weight of your life and your soul.
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That pressure divides your heart.
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That pressure to look out at what everybody else has and what
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they are doing and what they are like.
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It's crushing. We're in this series called
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Undivided, which is for you younger folks in the room, it's
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going to be looking at mental health.
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Us older folk might say it's just our stress.
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We haven't said the word mental health is often, but it is
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common. It's the we're all talking about
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the same thing. It's like, hey, how can I go
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about the stress and anxiety and the worries of this world?
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How can I do that and be steady and strong?
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How can my life be settled? Because the temptation each of
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us face every single week is we'll slice up life like a
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pizza. We have our family slice and our
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work slice, our church slice and our money slice.
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But God isn't intended to be a portion or a slice of your life.
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He's meant to hold the whole thing together for you.
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And if he is only a portion of your life, you'll experience the
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woes of building your life on something other than God.
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If God is just a piece of your life, you won't actually
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experience the peace He wants you to experience in 2026,
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because the divided heart brings in brings an anxious life, but a
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undivided life brings a settled, peaceful heart.
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So I want to help show you through God's Word what it's
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like to make God everything about your life, what it's like
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to make him more than a peace, but the thing you're the
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epicenter which you orbit your life around.
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I think Romans 12/1 and 2 is going to be helpful for that.
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We're in the book of Romans, and the book has a premise.
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In case you're unfamiliar, Paul wrote this book to a church in
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Rome and he's writing to them saying, hey, all of humanity has
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a big problem. It's called a worship problem.
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We have a worship problem. We worship created things rather
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than the Creator. We try to worship ourselves and
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all our doings and our achievements and say, Hey, God,
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look at me and all the greatness I bring to the table, and would
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you just look at me and save me? But that's actually contrary to
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the gospel. And he says, hey, guess what?
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All that working, all that striving, all of that obedience,
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guess what? It's not enough to save.
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And so the book in these problems of worship, it kind of
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hinges around for their force for therefore is in the book of
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Romans, the first one is in verse chapter 3, verse 20.
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And it talks about how all the world stands condemned under the
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law that your righteousness is not going to be enough to get
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you into heaven, That if you got to heaven tonight and God's
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like, hey, why should I let you in?
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And you said, hey, look at all the good things I've done.
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That's not going to cut it. That's not the ticket because
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your righteousness is insufficient.
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So he says in 320, therefore we all are under wrath.
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Then you move to chapter 5 and it's the therefore of
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justification that we have been justified by Christ and his
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righteousness and now we can have peace with God.
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Then you have Romans chapter 8 verse one, which is therefore
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now there is no condemnation for those of us who are in Christ
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Jesus. That's three.
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Therefore is going from condemnation to justification to
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the assurance of not being condemned anymore.
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But now we get to chapter 12 verse one, and Paul is
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reflecting on all those mercies of Romans one through 11 and
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he's saying, look at what God has done.
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And then he writes this Romans chapter 12 verse one says this,
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I appeal to you. Therefore, I urge you, I'm
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pleading with you as emphatically as I can tell you
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this, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies
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as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your
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spiritual worship. Verse 2, Do not be conformed to
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this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that
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by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good
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and acceptable and perfect. These are God's words for us
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today. I want to help you grab hold of
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them for your life in the form of a big idea.
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This is the sermon in a sentence.
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If you like to take notes, I hope you jot this down.
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It's this that divided hearts settle through undivided
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worship. Divided hearts settle through
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undivided worship. That if we're not giving God our
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whole selves, if we're giving him just a component or a peace
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or a part of our life, our hearts are going to grow
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anxious. They're going to going to grow
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weary and worried, but God saying here to us in Romans
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chapter 12 verses one and two that divided hearts will settle
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through an undivided worship. If we would offer our whole
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selves to God, we will find the peace that he has promised.
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So I want to give it to you three ways to offer your whole
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self today. The 1st is this, that if I give
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God my whole self when my body is a sacrifice.
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Here's how you know you're giving God your whole self and
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not just a part of your life. First, I give God my whole self
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when my body is a sacrifice. Do you see that there in the
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text? I appeal to you.
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Therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, you consider all
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that God has done to move you from being condemned by your sin
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to being justified by faith. God's mercy is the Vista with
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which you're looking at your life.
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You look at God's mercy towards you, His withholding of His
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wrath and His judgment against you, and then what do you do?
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You present your bodies as a sacrifice.
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That's a good thing to write down.
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Your body is a sacrifice. That's a spiritual truth.
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Your body, it's constantly being offered to someone or something
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in worship. You were made to do that.
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It's just who is the audience of your worship is the question.
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Your body is a sacrifice. Now, what comes to mind when you
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think of the word sacrifice? Do you think of animals on an
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altar? Maybe you think of like a
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sacrifice bunt in baseball. Maybe you're like like a total
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sports pro in that way. And the first thing that comes
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to mind for you is baseball when you hear the word sacrifice.
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Or maybe you think of like Ron Weasley and Harry Potter, like
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he's going to sacrifice himself. Like you think of that, or you
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might be thinking similarly to how the Romans thought altars,
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temples, priests and blood. That's when they hear the word
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sacrifice. That's what they think too.
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But like, hey, this is going to require blood.
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It's going to require a temple, it's going to require an altar.
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That's how they thought about it too.
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In the Greek Roman world, people would have had those similar
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thoughts. But Paul is redefining it for us
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here as a Christian that there's three characteristics of a
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sacrifice. He wants you to see.
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So you see that word living. That's not just a living
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sacrifice, it's actually wants you to think of the sacrifice as
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three pieces, living, holy and acceptable.
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See that in your Bible? That's the kind of sacrifice
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your body is supposed to be living sacrifice, a holy
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sacrifice and an acceptable sacrifice.
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Now let's look at that first one.
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Living sacrifice. That feels a bit like an
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oxymoron, does it? Not?
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Like jumbo shrimp or man child, right?
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Or maybe even good coffee. Yeah, somebody like, wow, that
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guy's putting coffee on a blast. I don't like it.
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I'm sorry. Living sacrifice is
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intentionally an oxymoron because in the Old Testament
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sacrifices were dead, and in the New Testament sacrifices, us are
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alive. That's a shift.
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That's a shift in Christian sacrifice, that we are a living,
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breathing, alive sacrifice unto God.
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We are not only a living sacrifice, we are a holy
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sacrifice. That means we are set apart from
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sin, that we go about our everyday lives hunting down,
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chasing, removing the cancer, the tumor that is in US called
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sin because it is destroying us from the inside out.
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And because God is holy, we are called to be like Him in
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holiness because His Spirit lives in us.
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We are crushing sin at every turn we can.
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We hate it because it put our Savior on a cross.
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So we are living. We are holy sacrifices set apart
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from sin, and we are acceptable. Which means it is well pleasing
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to God that there are sacrifices some of you are making to God
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right now that aren't acceptable because they're not actually the
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offering God wants. That's something you go about
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your life and the unacceptable sacrifices.
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You're saying, hey Lord, look at all the good I am doing and you
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look at him and go, God, look at me and how awesome I am.
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Look at all the people that are following me.
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Look at all the accolades I've achieved.
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That's not what that's not God's economy for this a holy and
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acceptable sacrifice, sacrifice that's well pleasing is simply
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this obedience. Are you doing what God has said?
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That's what's well pleasing to God.
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If you are stuck living in unrepentant sin, you are not
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holy and you are not offering a well pleasing sacrifice, holy,
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acceptable, living. These are worship.
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You see that in your Bible there, a sacrifice that's
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living, holy and acceptable, which is your spiritual worship.
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You might have another translation of the Bible there
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that's talking about true worship or even reasonable
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worship, depending on your translation.
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They're all getting at this idea that worship goes beyond just
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singing. It is not less than singing like
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what we just did is worship. Certainly that is the narrowest
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sense of the word. What Paul is doing for us here,
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that our sacrifice, our living wholly and acceptable worship to
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him is the broadest sense of worship.
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It is offering your whole self to God.
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That's what he's saying. Not just your lips in praise,
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not just that part of your body, but you wake up every single day
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consumed and captivated by Christ.
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You worship Him. You offer your whole self to
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God. Hey, I'm going into that meeting
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as a representative of God. Hey, I'm parenting this
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bickering match between my kids as an offering to God.
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I'm opening up my Bible in the morning as an offering to God.
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I'm driving this car as an offering to God.
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Everywhere you go, everything you do is meant to be worship
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unto God. Whatever it is, whether you eat
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or you drink, it's meant to be done unto God.
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And the only proper response to God's grace and His love and His
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mercy for you in Christ, the only reasonable, true and
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spiritual response is that your whole life and whole heart
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belong to Him. Member, I appeal to you.
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Therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, what God has
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done for you has changed you completely, that you are not
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your own anymore because you were bought with a price.
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And now Christian, guess what? You can't help but see what
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Christ has done and you can't help but live like He lived as a
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living, holy and acceptable sacrifice.
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Because Christ doesn't just want a piece of your life, He wants
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the whole you. He doesn't just deserve a piece
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of your life, He wants the whole you.
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And we understand the difference between giving a part of
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ourselves and our whole selves. Now imagine for a moment you're
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in a relationship or you're married.
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Let's stick with a marriage one for the sake of the
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illustration. And if I got home today and I
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told my wife, hey, you have 12 minutes of emotional connection
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today. That's it.
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That's the only part of my that's the only part of my heart
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you're getting today. 12 minutes.
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You know why I don't have time for that.
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That'd be pretty, pretty aggressive, wouldn't it?
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How well would that go for me? Not good.
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Or if I said, hey, you know what, my body has a limit and I
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will no longer be taking out the trash.
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You get a part of my body, you don't get all of it.
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You can have my attention for 12 minutes, but you know what?
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I'm not taking out the trash. I'm not going to serve you in
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that way. Or to flip the illustration,
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hey, if your wives fellas told you know what, you can hold my
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hand and that's all you're getting from me physically
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forever, That holding back parts of yourself would undermine the
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unity that God intends. That that relationship is meant
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to be an offering of your whole self and body and mind and
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heart. Holding back would destroy the
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relationship. It would hurt it.
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And the same is true of our relationship with Christ.
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He is worthy. He is deserving of our whole
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selves, our whole bodies, physically for him.
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And Christ sets the pace for us in this.
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This isn't something he's God isn't asking you to do something
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he hasn't already done for you. And what's crazy to me is like
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if you read the Bible, there's no shot a human being would have
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invented a story like this. They wouldn't have invented a
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Christ like this, a savior like this.
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Only Jesus is like this. And only God could have created
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such a divine plan of mercy and grace for us.
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Because Romans 12/1 is telling you to present yourself as a
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living sacrifice, the very thing Christ did for you.
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He lived his life as a complete sacrifice for you, offering his
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body in obedience, offering his body with his blood dying on a
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cross for us. He lived a life where it cost
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him that body and in turn we live lives in return that may
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cost us our very selves is why people like Jim Elliott have no
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problem dying for Christ is because Christ died for him.
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He's like you know what to live is Christ to die is gay.
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It does not matter. I want to offer my body as a
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sacrifice of worship. So why does this matter?
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Where does this hit real life? I want to help you see where God
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is calling you to put your body on the altar in 2026.
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I just want to walk. Walk through those 3 words.
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Living, holy, and acceptable. So where is God calling you to
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put your life and your heart on the altar?
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Your body first? Maybe it's in the living
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category. Here's what I mean by that.
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Does God exhilarate you? Like does God exhilarate you?
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As thrilling as things can be on earth, is the most thrilled the
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thing that makes you most alive? Is it God?
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That's a tell tale sign of your worship is God is thrilling to
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you. You love him, you're captivated
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by Him. You can't help but talk about
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Him. Maybe, just maybe, he's calling
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for you to put your life in a different category this year and
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say, hey, no, Christ is my life and your body would follow suit
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in that second holy. Are you setting yourself apart
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from sin? Like, are you listening to what
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God has said in his word about how to live and conduct
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ourselves here on earth in a holy and acceptable way?
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And you're saying, hey, I'm putting to death this part of my
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life that is sinful. I'm not sleeping with somebody
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that is not my spouse. I am not lashing out in anger.
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I am not getting greedy when I hear about other things that
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people are achieving with their wealth.
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Are you putting to death those things in your life?
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Holy and acceptable? Acceptable.
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I want you to ask this question of yourself.
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Has God's mercy shifted your audience in life to pleasing
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God? A lot of us are here today,
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living a life that's trying to please others.
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That your body is a sacrifice to the pressures of this world, to
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the pressures of your boss, to the pressures of your parents,
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to the pressures of your friends.
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Could you just shift your audience to being, hey, what am
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I doing today to please God? You give your whole self to God
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when your body is a sacrifice. He gets you and your presence,
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your physical self. That's not the only component.
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Second, I give my God my whole self When second, my mind is
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transformed. When my mind is transformed.
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Verse 2. Do not be conformed to this
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world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.
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Conformed is the idea of being fashioned or molded mentally.
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I want you to think of like a glass welder, like, like the
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people who do those cool Instagram videos that like are
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so satisfying to watch. You know, when they're making
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glass with their bare hands and blowing in.
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There's like all kinds of heat and stuff.
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I want you to think like that, that your mind is being
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fashioned like that every time you are reading something, every
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time an idea is introduced to you, that you begin to believe
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things about the world and about God and about yourself.
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That can be good or they can be bad.
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They're almost never neutral. And you are being conformed.
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You are patterning your life after somebody.
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When I was 8 years old, I wanted to be nothing other than Benny
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the Jet Rodriguez from The Sandlot.
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So I wore the cool 2 tone shirt and I wanted to get the PF Flyer
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T-shirt like shoes. Like I wanted to be that dude.
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Never got his jawline apparently.
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But you know, I, I, I, I prayed for it.
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You're patterning your life after somebody mentally.
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You're like, hey, how am I going to live?
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How am I going to think? How am I going to spend money?
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How am I going to spend my time? And God is saying, do not be
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conformed to how the world tells you to think about the world.
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Don't let the world fashion and shape you and pattern you after
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it, but rather what does the Bible say?
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Be transformed. This is where we get our word
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metamorphosis. That you, like a Caterpillar
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would become a beautiful butterfly.
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Like you would actually have that level of change in your
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life that people would not even recognize what you've become
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because the Word has changed you so much that you might have been
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an angry person and now you are a loving person.
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You might have been a cynical person and now you're a person
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full of faith. God can do that in your life.
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This year. He can take the most anxious
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person in this room, the person who thinks there's no way I can
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get out of this prison cell and he can set you free.
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That is the power of God. He can do it.
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So we are not like the world. We want to be like the Word
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being transformed by the renewal of your mind, and the world is
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not going to let up on pressuring you to be like
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itself. It's peddled down from the world
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in your ears all the time. Hey, have our things, spend
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money our way, solve conflict like we do, lead like we do,
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parent like we do. The world is full of
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worshippers. Human beings have a worship
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problem though. People are often worshipping
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stuff rather than the Savior, and the Bible is calling God's
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people Saints to not be conformed to the world.
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Listen to me St. City, the world will pressure
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you to become like itself, but the Word will fashion you to
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become like God's Son. You must have the word in your
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life. It must be the thing that is
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renewing your mind non-stop. That's actually that word
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renewal is huge there for understanding why we're talking
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about the Bible right now. Do you see that word there in
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your Bible? If you are unfamiliar, be
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transformed by the renewal of your mind.
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That word in your New Testament is always connected to the Holy
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Spirit. Whenever you see the word
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renewal, I want you to think this is the Spirit's work.
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We worship God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit,
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and this is His role in changing you from the inside out.
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That the word renewal is like new birth, that what was dirty
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is now clean. What is old is now new because
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of the Spirit and the Spirit's primary agent.
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The thing that is God is using to change you the most I'm
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holding in my hands. Would you let God renew your
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mind this year? Would you resist the temptation
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to be fashioned by the world and let God fashion you to be like
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him instead? That is the best life, the most
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flourishing life possible. That most of your anxiety is
25:31
because you're disobeying God. And little by little, day by
25:37
day, you can be fashioned into the image of the designer.
25:43
I don't know if you like home renovation shows.
25:46
I like them as ambient TV in the background where I'm just trying
25:49
to like, you know, play a video game on my phone or something
25:51
and Maddie just wants to clock in there.
25:54
But one of the things I love about it is I love watching the
25:57
process. Little by little, day by day,
26:00
this, this designer, this architect will come in and they
26:02
completely have a new idea to make this thing look brand new.
26:07
And there's a process of tools and work being done.
26:10
And what I love seeing is at the end of it, you can't even
26:13
recognize the old home. Do you realize that God can have
26:19
a complete renovation project of your heart?
26:24
A complete renovation project of your heart?
26:29
Like, you may be prone to losing self-control every time you get
26:34
bad news, but you don't have to stay that way.
26:41
That you, like a moth to a flame, could pull up your phone
26:47
and be drowning in a sea of debt because you're addicted to
26:50
gambling, but God can break you free from that.
26:57
The architecture of your life is built by what you give your mind
27:01
to. You can be a new person,
27:07
Christian, You are a new person, and now you can be renewed day
27:11
by day, new mercy after new mercy, and your life is moving
27:16
in the direction of your strongest thoughts, the things
27:19
you believe most about the world, and for the pressure of
27:22
this world to fade, for anxious hearts to settle.
27:24
For 2026 to be your best year yet, you have to get your mind
27:28
renewed by the words that you can discern what ought to happen
27:31
tomorrow for your life. So what's this going to mean?
27:34
It means St. City, we're going to have to
27:36
have less scrolling and more Scripture in 2026.
27:40
Less scrolling and more Scripture.
27:42
As your pastor, may I just confess something to you?
27:44
This is such a hard problem for me, like the dopamine addiction
27:50
is real right here in this pulpit.
27:52
I wake up and I am ashamed to tell you that.
27:54
Well, the first thing I do is I open up my phone and I just
27:56
start scrolling and I scroll and I scroll and I scroll in what is
28:01
called by our younger friends doom scrolling, right
28:06
prophetically stating that doom is upon me, it's coming upon me.
28:09
And when I read and when I see and when I have.
28:11
And may I just say that I one of the reasons why I'm doom
28:14
scrolling instead of opening up my Bible first, I don't actually
28:19
believe some of the things God said.
28:22
I would say I believe it, I would read it and then I'd say I
28:26
believe it and I would try to apply it.
28:28
But the reason I'm not actually applying it is because I don't
28:31
truly believe it. Here, let me explain for you
28:33
that Psalm 19 I want to read for you verse, it says this, that
28:37
God's words are more to be desired than gold, even much
28:43
fine gold. It's sweeter than the sweetest
28:45
thing you could think of, honey. Now I would tell you, I believe
28:51
that. But when I wake up in the
28:53
morning and the thing I crave 1st is my phone, guess what?
28:57
I'm telling my life and my heart that I actually crave something
28:59
else more than scripture. And if Scripture is going to
29:03
change your life in 2026, you can't just read it, not think
29:08
about it or not believe it and then start doing it.
29:12
You have to ask yourself the real hard question.
29:15
Do I believe this? Like if you're going through
29:19
your Bible reading plan and you're like, hey, it's it's
29:21
January. I'm in Genesis right now.
29:22
So maybe you're reading about Abraham right now and you're
29:24
like, hey, do I believe that faith is what God blesses?
29:30
And where in my life does it take faith?
29:32
Do I believe God is trustworthy enough to follow?
29:36
You have to ask yourself the hard questions and go Lord show
29:39
me what's in me that doesn't believe this and watch on this
29:43
side. Your life will truly change.
29:46
Don't just spend 2 minutes in a devo.
29:49
Actually sit with God and say I love you and I love your word
29:56
and watch as he changes your mind from the inside out.
30:00
He'll renew it. So less scrolling and more
30:04
scripture now. Second, less entertainment, more
30:08
enjoyment of God's glory. Now, I don't want you to just
30:13
have Scripture on your mind. That's a great thing, and I hope
30:16
I appropriately emphasize how important it is for your life.
30:20
But this word renewed in 2nd Corinthians 318, jot that
30:23
reference down. It's saying with unveiled face,
30:28
we're being transformed to be more like God from one glory to
30:31
the next. And the thing that helps you
30:33
transform beyond just Scripture is a meditation and an enjoyment
30:38
of what? The glory of God, the weight of
30:43
who God is, sits so heavy on your life.
30:47
His gravity upon your soul is so mesmerizing that you are
30:52
enjoying him. You read a story of Jesus
30:57
meeting with people in John and he's dunking on the Pharisees in
31:02
John 8:00 and you're like, man, I love Jesus.
31:09
I can't believe I would know him like this.
31:12
Enjoying God, exhilarated by God.
31:17
And what gets in the way of that is our stupid attention span
31:20
most the time. We get entertained way too
31:24
easily. And that's saying that as
31:27
somebody who loves movies and TV and hobbies and sports, like I
31:30
love all that. I'm not saying none of that.
31:33
I'm saying less of it, that your life would look different, your
31:37
anxiety level would look so different if you would have just
31:40
enjoyed God with part of your day.
31:43
If instead of in the car listening to Joe Rogan for the
31:46
70th time, what if you listened to somebody talking about the
31:50
glories of Christ? What if instead of on Netflix
31:54
binge watching again and again and again, what if you took the
31:57
time to actually take time to enjoy God in prayer and in
32:02
presence? And some of you are like, man.
32:06
Or is he saying that I can just sit there and enjoy God?
32:08
Yes, he's meant to be enjoyed. He's meant to be loved.
32:18
We must give our minds to God. And I'm convicted by this.
32:24
Like I'm going to be changed by this in 2026.
32:26
Lord willing. I'm praying God would speak to
32:28
me in a new way this year as I lay aside so many trinkets and
32:32
treasures and just stupid garage sale stuff for the treasures of
32:36
heaven that would seek first the Kingdom of God in his
32:39
righteousness, that that would be true of me in 2026.
32:43
So would you go with me this year?
32:46
And would you say, hey, less scrolling and more scripture,
32:48
less entertainment and more enjoying of God.
32:50
And I think that our church will look so different as a result.
32:53
So will your life. You won't regret giving God
32:56
less. 3rd and finally, I give my whole self to God.
33:03
I give God my whole self when third, my will is surrendered.
33:10
You are a human being, which means your body and your mind
33:14
have been given to God. But you have another part of
33:17
yourself that some of you and your mind and your body.
33:21
You're in the right place with your body.
33:22
Like you'd go to church right now and your mind would be
33:26
engaged. You're listening to what I have
33:27
to say, but it does not change the way you live at all.
33:31
Your will is unaffected. You remain in the same place in
33:36
your life because you're like, Nope, you're stubborn.
33:39
You're like, Nope, God, you don't get to tell me what to do
33:40
in that area of my life. Look at listen what the Bible
33:44
says. You'll be transformed by the
33:47
renewal of your mind that by testing you may discern what is
33:51
the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect that
33:55
we're meant to discern as we go about our life, what we ought to
33:58
do in our everyday decisions that honor God, that pleases
34:01
God, that brings glory to God by the way that we live.
34:05
We're discerning through the testing.
34:07
We go about our day and like, hey, how should I handle that
34:09
thing at work, that parenting moment, that conflict with my
34:12
spouse? How should I handle that?
34:14
You're testing that. You're thinking about that and
34:17
you're like, hey, is this how the world thinks about it?
34:19
Or is it here's how the word thinks about it and you're going
34:21
about that non-stop. And then there's a point of
34:24
choosing. Will you obey or disobey?
34:28
That's where the will is that phrase the will of God is can be
34:32
very confusing for people. So I want to clarify it for you.
34:34
There's two types of God's will in the Bible.
34:38
It can be used in two different ways.
34:40
The first is this that one got one way to think about God's
34:44
will is his sovereign will. It's the will that always gets
34:46
done. Like if God says it, it happens.
34:50
If he speaks, guess what, Let there be light, there's light.
34:53
If he says, hey, my son is going to come in 2000 years and die on
34:56
the Roman cross, that's God's sovereign will.
34:59
We call that his will of decree, that he speaks like a king and
35:02
consider it done. It's happened.
35:06
The 2nd and the one that's talking about here in Romans
35:08
chapter 12. We call that His will of desire.
35:14
It's what God wants for you, it's his design for you, and
35:20
it's the kind that we can actually violate, the kind that
35:24
to violate would be sin or foolishness, and God's will is
35:29
simply that you would obey him. I've heard it said this way,
35:34
that God's word is God's will, and God's will is God's word.
35:40
God's word is God's will, and God's will is God's word.
35:44
Meaning when God tells you to do something, do you obey the
35:48
commandment he's given you? Like right now?
35:51
Don't be conformed, be transformed, or you obeying
35:54
that? Or does it go in one ear, out
35:56
the other? It's easy to not surrender to
36:01
God's will because our hearts have been so formed by the
36:02
world. His influence on us needs to
36:06
keep growing and growing and growing and growing.
36:09
And it does with time. Praise be to God, but our hearts
36:13
are so depraved and dark that even with the Spirit in us,
36:19
there's still so many things that pull us towards the things
36:21
of this world that we need God to act upon us.
36:26
We need His influence so His ownership of us would not be
36:30
diminished. And for many of us, it's like we
36:33
want Jesus to have the keys to our house, but just not every
36:37
room. This is how it feels in our
36:39
heads that he won't. We give Jesus the keys to our
36:41
house, but not every room. Like he can have the living room
36:43
on Sundays, but we keep the bedroom, the office, and the
36:46
entertainment room locked. Like you can't have that.
36:48
You don't get to talk over that area of my life.
36:49
Lord, your, your desires there don't match mine.
36:53
And I'm going to do what I want to do.
36:56
I'm going to live with who I want to live with, even though
36:58
they're not my spouse. I'm going to watch what I want
37:01
to watch. I'm going to lash out how I want
37:04
to lash out because it feels good.
37:07
And some of you are here thinking, wait a second, Is he
37:09
calling me to put every part of my life over to God?
37:12
Yes, yes I am. Because you're asking if I gave
37:19
God my time, what would happen to my calendar?
37:22
What would happen to my plans and my hobbies?
37:27
You're riddled with doubt and you're like, hey, if I gave,
37:28
actually gave God my talent, what would happen to my career?
37:32
If I gave God my treasure, what would happen to my retirement
37:35
plan? Jesus is worthy of your total
37:38
will being surrendered to Him. Let Him worry about all those
37:42
things. You just do what He told you to
37:44
do. Don't let the world convince you
37:48
to only surrender parts of your will to Jesus.
37:52
He gets to tell you how to live in this life.
37:54
He gets to tell you what to believe about the world.
37:56
He gets to call the shots for your life.
37:59
He is your Lord. That word means Master, boss,
38:03
authority, and He teaches us through here what His will is.
38:11
Don't let your heart stay divided.
38:13
Let it be settled through undivided worship, that your
38:16
body and your mind and your will align and be unified.
38:21
Let the gospel renew you, because what hope could you
38:26
possibly have to fix your heart? What hope could you have to
38:33
change what you want in life? I mean, our hearts unconsciously
38:39
and instinctively produce all kinds of things.
38:43
Like what hope could you have to stop being a jealous and
38:47
prideful and ego driven person? What hope could you have against
38:52
insecurity and cynicism and anger?
38:57
How are you going to stop being those things?
39:00
What hope to heal your heart could you have for foolishness
39:04
and anxiety and doubt? What hope is there for despair
39:09
and shame and bitterness? Don't you see it runs so much
39:14
deeper than just what you do in your will?
39:16
It's who you are underneath. That's the problem that God has
39:20
to change who you are at your core.
39:23
You need a new heart. You need a new mind.
39:26
You need a new body. You need all those things.
39:31
And thanks be to God that Jesus Christ Saints City has come for
39:35
us, that that outside force has changed us and it can continue
39:40
to change us. That we have a living, breathing
39:43
sacrifice. We have a mind that was
39:45
perfectly renewed. We have an acceptable, pleasing
39:48
offering to God in Jesus. Don't you see the gospel that we
39:53
have a living, holy, pleasing sacrifice, who gave His body on
39:57
the Christ on the cross, so that we could have a Christ that He
40:01
gave His blood on the cross, dying of death.
40:04
You should have died for your sin, having no sin of His own to
40:07
pay for. He went there on a bloody cross
40:09
for you and I. And not only that, he had a
40:12
completely transformed mind. The mind that is Christ Jesus is
40:17
the mind that looks at everybody and says, you know what, I'm
40:20
going to count them more important than me.
40:22
And thank God he did because he thought I was more important and
40:25
you were more important than his own life.
40:28
He shed his blood on a cross so that we can have a relationship
40:32
with God again. Don't you see how much God loves
40:35
you? He sees that dark part of your
40:38
heart. He sees that pattern in your
40:40
thinking, that pattern in the way you behave, and he sees how
40:44
much you hate it, how ugly you think it is.
40:46
And he looks at you and he says, But God demonstrates his own
40:50
love, and that while we were still sinners, that while we
40:52
were at our ugliest and our darkest, he died for you so that
40:58
your body, your mind, and your will could be glorified in
41:02
Christ. It could be changed.
41:07
This is the good news of the gospel.
41:09
It is an announcement. You can't fix your heart.
41:11
But guess what, I can. That's what God tells you today.
41:18
It's so often our division in our hearts, our disunity in our
41:21
minds and our bodies. Guess what?
41:23
It's because we forget the most basic and foundational thing in
41:27
the Bible. You can't change you, God can.
41:34
God can do it. Don't believe the lies that
41:39
you're going to be stuck there forever.
41:41
God can change your life this year.
41:45
His Word is alive, His Son is alive and His Spirit is active
41:52
all. Would you let Him work in you
41:55
and through you? Who else is there to want and
42:00
live for? What other Savior is coming for
42:05
you? There's only Christ, the one who
42:09
by the mercy of God saved us from our sin.
42:13
Why worship anyone or anything else?
42:16
Why let the pressure of the world and people?
42:19
Why try to become like them when you have Jesus, the one who is
42:26
worthy to pattern your life after?
42:29
I appeal to you, therefore, by the mercies of God, to present
42:34
your bodies as a living, holy and acceptable sacrifice to God.
42:39
Don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the
42:42
renewal of your mind that by testing you may discern what is
42:47
the will of God, what is good, what should I do, what is
42:51
acceptable, what does God want and perfect?
42:56
You have the perfect sacrifice in Jesus.
42:59
Let's be his disciples. In fact, I want to help you
43:01
close with this four ways that you can be an undivided disciple
43:05
this week. These are our language for
43:08
disciples here at Saint City. These are how we think about
43:13
being a disciple. That this component hits all
43:15
parts of our life as a Jesus follower.
43:18
That's why we have 4 words actually, Because I don't want
43:20
you to be an undivided disciple. I want you to look at every part
43:24
of your mind, body, will. I wanted them to all be affected
43:27
by the gospel of Jesus Christ. So 4 WS so you wouldn't be
43:32
divided, but you could stand. I think Abe Lincoln said that
43:36
house divided against itself cannot stand, right?
43:38
Is that an Abe Lincoln quote? Don't quote me on that.
43:40
Abe said it first. Offer God these four things this
43:43
week. Ready.
43:44
Offer God first your worship. Are you offering your whole self
43:49
to God? Only you can answer that
43:53
question. Are you offering your whole self
43:55
to God? Or is He just get Sunday
43:57
mornings from 10:00 AM to 11:15 on the Sundays you want to be
44:01
here? Does he get just a portion of
44:04
your day? Or is your whole self belonging
44:07
to God? That is your only hope in life
44:09
and death, that you belong to Christ.
44:14
So are you offering your whole self to Him?
44:17
Second, offer God your walk. I'm talking about spiritual
44:22
disciplines when I say this. When we talk about walking with
44:24
Christ, we're talking about spiritual disciplines at Saint
44:25
City. Like, hey, what part of your
44:28
life have you pulled off of the altar that you are not willing
44:32
to sacrifice anymore with your spiritual disciplines?
44:36
Maybe it's sacrificing your attention in prayer.
44:38
Maybe it's sacrificing your time and getting up a little bit
44:40
earlier so you can spend time getting to know God, so you can
44:43
love God more through His Word, being in a small group.
44:50
In fact, community groups are launching this week at Saint
44:52
City. If you want to be in community,
44:53
be encouraged to be a disciple like this.
44:55
May I just encourage you to meet with us Tuesday night at 6:30 at
44:57
the Graduate. That's not in my notes.
44:59
I'm not I wasn't going there. I just feel it right now in this
45:02
room that you guys need to hear. Hey, guess what?
45:03
You can be a disciple with God's people.
45:05
You can have fellowship and carry out the one another's and
45:07
they're going to help you walk with Christ.
45:11
But some of you pulled that part of your life off the altar.
45:13
You're like, you know what, God, I've experienced too much pain
45:15
from the church. I don't want to be in a
45:16
relationship with Christians anymore.
45:19
That Sunday morning is just good enough.
45:22
You're living a divided life. God intends for you to be in
45:26
fellowship with His people. Don't settle for the anxiety
45:31
producing absence of gospel community.
45:34
Divided hearts settle through undivided worship.
45:37
Give God everything in your walk.
45:41
Don't pull it off the altar. The problem with living
45:44
sacrifices is we often keep crawling off the altar.
45:49
God wants to keep crucifying your flesh, so keep walking with
45:52
him. Third and not finally work,
45:56
offer God your work. When I say working for Christ
45:58
always that same city is talking about disciple in terms of how
46:01
you serve the local church that that's our language for serving
46:05
the church. Why?
46:06
Because even in the rest of Romans 12, you can Fact Check me
46:09
on this. The next thing he starts talking
46:10
about is how you use your gifts for the church that this isn't
46:14
it's directly connected in the Bible that your worship always
46:18
produces an output inside of a local community of believers.
46:22
So how are you sacrificing in 2026 for the church?
46:26
Join a team, get here early once a week, once a month, you know,
46:29
like do what you got to do. We we work with your schedule,
46:31
but you need to know something. It's always going to cost
46:35
something if it's a sacrifice. If it doesn't cost you anything,
46:37
it wasn't a sacrifice. So work for Christ 4th and now
46:41
finally offer God your witness. We worship, we walk, we work and
46:46
we witness as his disciples. Who are you telling about the
46:48
sacrifice Jesus has made? Have a person that you're
46:52
praying for this year that would come to know Jesus.
46:54
Have a person in your life that you are praying about.
46:57
Hey, I need to tell them about what God has done in me.
46:59
Testify. Witness, some of you are here at
47:02
the invitation of one of those things.
47:04
And may I just tell implore you, consider what Jesus has said.
47:08
Turn from your sin and embrace him by faith.
47:10
He is the only hope for living a life of eternality, of
47:14
immortality. It's with God and God alone.
47:18
When God gets our undivided worship, our hearts are settled.
47:22
So we all forgot our bodies, our minds, and our will.
47:30
Would you pray with me, Lord? Thank you.
47:32
Thank you that no one else and nothing else is worthy of this
47:34
kind of affection and worship. It's you and you alone.
47:39
And so, God, I pray that 2026 would be a year for a St. city
47:42
where we March forward into the great and glorious reality of
47:46
your Kingdom on earth, Lord, that we would see you work and
47:50
move in our discipleship. That we would be less divided,
47:53
less distracted by the things of this world and we lean into all
47:57
that you are. Oh God, you love us so much and
48:01
we're so grateful for your patience in our pursuit of you.
48:07
But God, would you show favor upon us more grace?
48:10
You don't, we don't, we don't deserve it.
48:13
But I'm asking God that as people take one step this week,
48:15
you'd give them ten that as they open up your word, maybe for the
48:18
first time this year, God, they would change their heart in an
48:21
instant. They go, man, I want this.
48:25
Would they be transformed? And God would you get all the
48:28
glory in Jesus name, Amen.