In Robert Bosley's sermon, 'The Christian's Response to God's Mercy', he examines Romans 12:1-2, marking a crucial transition from doctrine to practical application in the book of Romans. Bosley emphasizes the importance of God's mercy as the foundation for living a life of sacrificial obedience. He explains that believers are called to present themselves as living sacrifices, a concept rooted in the Old Covenant sacrificial system but now fulfilled through the New Covenant in Christ. This involves offering our entire selves, both body and mind, to God as our reasonable service. Bosley warns against conformity to the present age, urging believers to be transformed by renewing their minds through the Holy Spirit and various means such as prayer, fellowship, and engagement with Scripture. This transformation enables Christians to discern and prove what is the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God. The sermon underscores the necessity of a renewed mind in fulfilling ethical commands and serving within the church body, highlighting the interconnectedness of individual spiritual growth and communal Christian life.

Well, it's our privilege as we continue in our study on joined and knit together, it's our privilege to have our brother Robert Bosley come. He came to us, he was needing to have an opportunity to preach from the Pauline Epistles. And he approached us and said, we would be glad, we would be glad to have you come. And we sought to tie it in to where we are here in this series. And so he'll be coming and opening up Romans 12, 1 and 2 to us.

And Lord willing, in a couple weeks or so, I'll be actually, I don't even know if he's specifically aware of, but I'll actually be tying that in as we move further in Romans 12 on gifts within the body and ministering to one another. So this really sets the stage. I'm really looking forward to our brother coming and opening up this section for us, Romans 12, 1 and 2. So why don't I pray and ask God's blessing upon our time together in this passage. Father, we thank you for your goodness to us.

Lord, we thank you for your word. We pray now that you would give Robert peace of mind and Lord, that you would fill him with the unction of the spirit. Lord, that he would forget himself and just focus so much on this precious portion of your Word and what it calls us to do, Lord, to not be conformed to this world but be transformed. Oh, God, make us a transformed people. Help us, Lord, even as our brother opens up the word, help us afresh to see where we have rounded off the corners and where we have been pushed into molds that we shouldn't be in.

And Lord, give us grace to break free and to do what is that acceptable and perfect will of you. Help him now, we pray, and Lord bless his family as they're up in Maryland. And Lord, we pray that you would watch over Andrea and the girls and Lord that you would bring their baby safely into the world. Lord bless them during this time of separation. Lord bless our brothers as he travels up each weekend.

Lord we thank you that he's here now and he can preach and help him we pray and help us in Jesus name amen okay so as Mike said I'll be in Romans 12 1 & 2 And what I hope to be able to do today is to give you the starting point on how we're able to do the things that we have talked about already. How do we as a church live as a body joined and knit together? What is the foundation and the starting point of that? So if you're following along, as I said, we'll be in Romans chapter 12 verses 1 and 2. The Apostle Paul says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God." So if you're familiar with the structure of the book of Romans, you know that this is the turning point in the letter. Up to this point, Paul has given us doctrine upon doctrine. He's just pounded home the theology that is the foundation of the Christian faith. And so the first 11 chapters are rightly, I think, called the theological section, and this begins what is often called the practical section of the book of Romans. And so this is where Paul is now taking what does it mean to live out the truths that have occurred and that he has laid out in the first 11 chapters.

And verses 1 and 2 provide the bridge between these two sections. Recently I was listening to a podcast of this guy who reviews sermons. He's a Lutheran pastor actually. But he reviews and critiques sermons or snippets of sermons, usually really, really bad ones. And he was critiquing this sermon from some guy who was preaching from Romans 12, and He made this comment that evangelicals seem to think the book of Romans begins in chapter 12.

And by that he was saying that evangelicals often have this idea of just tell me what to do, give me the practical and I can do that. I don't want to worry about doctrine or theology, doctrine divides, and I don't want to be caught up in all of that. And there's some truth to that. There is a tendency in evangelicalism. In our camp, though, the Reformed camp, there's an opposite tendency.

Some Reformed folks, you would think, believe that the book of Romans ends in chapter 11, so focused on doctrine and so caught up on what it is to believe the right things about Christianity that we forget that it has an ethical and practical application. And so the great danger, regardless of what camp you lean more towards, is to look at a section of the, for whatever reason, particularly the book of Romans, and look at it apart from its context. So what I'm going to do is first let me quickly summarize what Paul has said up to this point in the first 11 chapters. So beginning in chapter 1 and moving into chapter 3, Paul has laid bare the sinfulness of all humanity. In chapter one, he begins talking about the fallenness of man and that mankind has become futile in their thoughts and God has given them over to a debased mind to do the things which are not fitting.

Remember that that will be important later we have a debased mind. And he culminates his case against mankind in chapter 3 saying that all are under sin There is no one who does good, not even one. And then after spending these three chapters showing us our sin, showing us our condemnation, he gives the gospel. From chapter, the end of chapter three through chapter four, he presents the gospel and how the righteousness of God is given to those who have faith in Jesus and he proclaims salvation by faith alone. And then from chapters five to eight, he lays out some of the effects or the results, the benefits of salvation that are conferred upon the one who believes in Jesus.

He talks about our union with Christ and Christ's substitution and all these wonderful benefits that come to those who are Christians. And then in chapters 9 through 11, he explains the sovereignty of God in salvation and the sovereignty of God over the nations, particularly the nation of Israel. And so that's the foundation that has been laid by the time we get to chapter 12. And so verse 1 here shows us this close connection with what has preceded. And here I want to show you the first point that I want to make here, that the mercy of God demands a life of sacrificial obedience to God.

Paul says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God. A quick help for your own Bible reading, your own Bible study, a kind of a corny phrase, but it's actually helpful, is this phrase, what is the word therefore, there-for? When you see the word therefore, that is usually a concluding statement. It's the beginning of a conclusion. In other words, what has been said before is the foundation for this conclusion that he's about to make.

So you've got the argument, you've got therefore, Here's the result. And so Paul begins, therefore, this is the conclusion of what has preceded. He says, he calls what is also preceded, he calls it the mercies of God. The mercies of God. What are the mercies of God?

Well, the mercies of God are the first 11 chapters. The mercies of God have been throughout this letter up to this point, particularly in Romans 9, we have that great statement, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. God's mercy is free. It cannot be demanded. God's mercy given to whom he wills.

And then in chapter 11, Paul culminates, oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out." Well, why does he break into such song and doxology? Because he has just said that, as for, I'm sorry, for as you were once disobedient to God, yet you have now obtained mercy, you Gentiles obtained mercy through Israel's disobedience. Even so, these also have now been disobedient that through the mercy shown to you, they may obtain mercy. And so what causes Paul to break out in just this rejoicing, this doxology, is the mercy of God being brought to Jew and Gentile alike. So the mercy of God had been this recurring theme throughout the book.

God's mercy is seen in chapters 1 and 2 and 3 and his revealing of himself in nature and in scripture and his mercy is seen in withholding his wrath against those who deserve to die. His mercy is seen in the giving of his son to be the propitiation for all who would believe. His mercy has been seen in the doctrine of election. And so God's mercy has been shown throughout the letter and as the basis of what Paul is about to do. And so understand this, that this text is addressed to those who have tasted the mercy of God.

That is the starting point here. You cannot begin with these practical exhortations. You cannot begin with these commands that follow from 12.1 to the end of the book. You cannot begin here and then try and constrain God to therefore show you mercy because you've been a good person. Now, the starting point is the mercy of God, therefore you have these ethical expectations.

He says, I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, That you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. We are to give our bodies. We are to give our bodies. And the emphasis here is clearly on the physical, what we actually do with our body. But it is best, I think, to understand this statement as referring to our whole self, not simply our body, not simply what we do in the body, but also our mind, our will, our emotions.

Calvin in his commentary on Romans said, by bodies he does not mean only our skin and bones, but the totality of which we are composed. He has used this word to denote by synecdoche all of our parts for the members of the body, the parts of the body are the instruments by which we perform our actions. And so this is so key. Paul says, give your body, give your whole self to God, present it to God. And this is flying in the face of the pagan Greek philosophy of Paul's day.

The philosophers of the day exalted the spiritual, exalted the intellectual, the body was bad, the body was to be considered as secondary or not important at all. And so Paul is saying, no, you give your body to God. The body is not evil, it's what you give to God to serve him and this also is in contradiction to the basically pagan cultural Christianity that we have today where you can have this idea that well I'm just going to live in sin and be unrepented about my immorality, but you can't judge me because you don't know my heart." Paul says, no, you give God your body. You give him all of you because if God really has your heart, he will have your body also. The body follows the heart.

And Paul uses language of sacrifice, present your bodies as a sacrifice. This is drawn from the sacrificial system, of course, that was instituted under the Old Covenant. The Old Covenant commanded the people of Israel to regularly present a living animal that would then be slain that had been set apart or made holy and had had to be acceptable according to God's standard. And Paul's using the same language referring to the believer. The Christian under the new covenant does not bring animal sacrifices.

To bring an animal sacrifice now would be blasphemy of the highest degree. The book of Hebrews is crystal clear. Christ died. He is our sacrifice. That there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins because Christ has died in the place of his people.

But that doesn't mean that there's nothing we offer to God. It doesn't mean that there's no longer any sacrifice for the people of God. In Philippians 4, Paul, he's not contradicting himself when he says that the gifts of the Philippian church to him were a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God. The writer of the Hebrews, the very writer who said there no longer remains a sacrifice for sin, he says at the end of the letter, offer a sacrifice of praise up to God. So yes, there's no more sacrifice for sin.

Christ has made that sacrifice, but there's still a new covenant sacrifice that we are to bring. And that is the sacrifice, a life given to God, a life presented to God, a sacrifice of self as a living sacrifice, no longer a sacrifice that was brought alive and then slain on the altar, but now a sacrifice is brought where we lay our life down but we live for God. That's the acceptable and holy sacrifice of the believer under the New Covenant. That's what God is calling us to do. And he further describes this devoted life as our reasonable service.

Paul again is using temple language. The word translated here as service is used in the book of Hebrews as well as in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament that would have been used in Paul's day. This word is used in Hebrews and in the Septuagint to refer to the offerings and the religious rituals that the priests performed in the temple. They performed service, what the New King James translates as, service. And so get what Paul is saying.

He's saying that we are to bring an offering like the old covenant priests, but it's a living offering. Like the old covenant priests, there is a religious service that we offer. So we are priests. Peter makes that clear, the rest of the New Testament makes that clear, that everyone in the New Covenant is a priest. We are priests bringing our sacrifice and serving God through the rituals of the new covenant, which is living a life devoted to God.

And this is not simply Paul spiritualizing the old covenant. He's not simply spiritualizing the temple. No, he's saying this is the fulfillment. This is what all of that pointed towards. It's the fulfillment of it and the expansion of it to every dimension of life.

And so yes, we ought to meet regularly. That is our time of our worship service. We ought to meet regularly on the Lord's Day. We're commanded to. It's a good thing, and we ought to enjoy it and look forward to it.

But for the Christian, our service also consists in giving our whole selves to God, day by day, doing what pleases him. And this service is called our reasonable service. There's much debate about how exactly this word should be translated. If you look in your translations, you've got about a 50-50 chance this word will be translated as reasonable or spiritual. And that kind of sounds like polar opposites, but the, I'm not going to go into the language, but the word can be rendered either way.

I think a persuasive argument is made for the New King James rendering, reasonable. I think that's the best translation. It is a reasonable sacrifice. So I favor the New King James reading here. If you look at the ESV or NASB, it'll say spiritual.

But I favor the New King James. And I think what Paul is saying is that our service to God is reasonable in two senses. First, it's our reasonable service, and then it is our logical response to God's mercy. In light of everything that God has done for us, how can we do anything less than give our all to Him? Giving up ourselves and living entirely for the glory and will of God is the right response to God's mercy that he has poured out on his people.

And second, it's also reasonable in that it's a function of our inward or rational capacities. Our religion is not simply external or even emotional. It is a thinking religion, a thinking Worship is what we give to God. So it's a reasonable we are reasonable creatures Made in the image of God and therefore we worship him in a reasonable rational way So so Paul is not simply calling us to to rote external service where we just do God's stuff because he said so. That's not what he's saying.

It's not simply do the right actions. But he's saying that instead our hearts and our minds should be so captured by the grace and mercy of God that we can't do anything but devote ourselves to him and his kingdom. It's the only right thing to do. And so Paul has told us that the mercy of God demands, it calls on us to become living sacrifices, devoted to serving our God. Now, of course, the problem is, how do we do that?

Sounds nice, but how? How do we do this? Because the problem is, of course, if we're living sacrifices, the problem with a living sacrifice is it will keep one to crawl off the altar. The animal sacrifices were really easy to keep in place. They were dead.

But a living sacrifice is not going to want to stay on the altar. So how do we keep that sacrifice there? Well, I think verse 2 tells us. Now, some commentators will disagree with me. They think verse 1 and verse 2 are giving parallel but distinct commands.

Verse 1 is a command on what we should do with our body, command in verse 2 on how we should serve God with our minds. I disagree and thankfully there are commentators on my side. I'm not just making this up as I go along. I think it's better to understand that verse 1 is giving our all to God and verse 2 is explaining how do we do that? And so in verse 2, this is my second point here, a life of sacrificial obedience comes from a renewed mind.

Paul says in verse 2, and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. And so Paul first gives us a negative command. He says, he gives us the don't. Do not be conformed to this world or literally to this age. This is not the normal word that's translated world.

This is different. So I think honestly a better translation would be age. Do not be conformed to this age. What Paul calls in Galatians 1, for this present evil age. In Ephesians 2, too, he uses the same word when he says that we once walked in the deadness of our sins we walked according to the course or the age same word of this world following the devil himself so This is the this age that we are in this age that is characterized by sin and death under the control of Satan under the rule of the devil all because of our first father Adam's fall This age is one of death and sin and rebellion against God.

That is what he's saying. And Paul warns the Christians in Rome, do not be conformed to this age. And he's telling us, do not be conformed to this age and this is very important to note he's warning believers not unbelievers it's to those who have tasted the mercies of God that he says do not be conformed to this age. Because the unbeliever, they're already in the grasp of this age. They're already following the course of this world.

There's nothing trying to conform them. They're already conformed. It's to the believer, the one who's been rescued from the kingdom of darkness and transferred to the kingdom of God's beloved Son. This is the one that has to be told, do not conform to that age you've been taken out of. Because this age does not want any to escape its grasp.

This age through its temptations and persuasions and every trick in the book is going to try and squeeze you back into its mold. And Paul is saying no you can't let it you have to avoid being conformed to this age. 1st Peter 1 13 to 14 gives a similar warning and Peter says therefore gird up the loins of your mind be sober and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, not conforming yourselves to your former lusts as in your ignorance." So notice Peter's saying the same thing, grab the loins of your mind, be sober, do not conform yourself. So this evil age is not to be the paradigm by which we live, this is the ways, our old ways, the ways we've been rescued from, the ways of our ignorance.

We are not to go back there. We've been rescued from it. Now what does it mean to resist conformity to the world? It's not just avoiding certain movies or dressing modestly or not swearing. I mean, those are all good things, don't get me wrong.

Some movies we shouldn't go to. Men and women both should dress modestly, and we're not to let any filthy language out of our mouth. But that's not all there is to avoiding being conformed to this world, that's mere superficial distancing ourselves from the world. Pagans can do that. To be honest, pagans can dress modestly.

That's not what Paul's talking about. What he's saying is we're to avoid submitting ourselves to the ways of thinking and living, the patterns of life that are characteristic of the world that hates God. That's what he's saying. We are to avoid any influence that would mold your character in ways that are not in accordance with Christ. As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 10, 4-5, he says, the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, they're not physical, they're not fleshly, but they are mighty in God.

For pulling down strongholds, spiritual, intellectual strongholds, casting down arguments, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. That's what it means to resist conforming to this world. We are casting down anything that stands in the way of us becoming more like Christ and exalts itself up between us and the knowledge of God. But it's not just enough to tear down. If you tear something down you need to rebuild in its place.

And so 2nd Corinthians 10-5 finishes and bringing every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. And so here in chapter 2 of Romans 12, Paul is saying the same thing. Do not be conformed. Don't do this, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. We must be changed.

This is not merely an external change. This is a change from the very core of our beings. We must be renewed in our mind, the mind, the seed of the intellect, the seed of the will, the emotions, all of these things. The mind is to be changed. And this transformation begins in Regeneration when the spirit moves causes you to be born again.

He gives you a new heart and new desires He begins the process of renewing your mind. Titus 3.5 it says that God has saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit. So regeneration is the beginning of this renewal But it doesn't end there. If it was, Paul would have no reason to even be writing about this. This renewing continues.

It's not just a one-time thing. It's an ongoing thing. It begins in regeneration and continues in our sanctification. And so how are we renewed? How does this reprogramming of our minds take place?

What's interesting if you look at these words, be conformed and be transformed, they're passive verbs. So he's saying, you can't do this. But they're also imperatives, They're commands. This has to be done. You can't do it.

And so when he's talking about, do not be conformed, you're not going to conform yourself to the world. The world's going to conform you. It's going to try to. And same thing with being transformed. It's passive, but it's an imperative.

You have to be transformed, but you can't transform yourself. So what does this mean? I understand this to mean that while we cannot actually change our minds through just sheer willpower, we can intentionally put ourselves into submission to what will change our minds, to what will renew us. We can put ourselves in position of either having the world shape us and mold us or we can put ourselves in a position where God will shape us and mold us. And So while we cannot make ourselves new, we cannot make our minds new, we can use the God-ordained means to be renewed and submit to the change that these means bring.

Primarily, again, Titus 3.5, this is a renewing by the Holy Spirit. So it's the work of the Spirit renewing your mind. And the Spirit works through multiple means. We see throughout the New Testament the means the Spirit uses to change God's people. Prayer, fellowship, the Word of God, even singing.

Singing is an incredibly powerful way to have your thoughts transformed because singing isn't just entertainment, it's also teaching. That's why Paul tells us in Ephesians 5 to speak to one another in songs and in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing is teaching. A great example of this, as Mike said, my wife and girls are in Maryland waiting for the baby to be born, and Andrea messaged me on Facebook yesterday and she said, I quote, your daughter Ruth just said to Rachel, Andrea's sister, your daughter just said to Rachel, did you know that Christ died for our gain? And then she started singing the song by Sovereign Grace, To Live as Christ, to Die as Gain. So, singing is incredibly powerful.

My little girl, four years old, I don't know that she's been born again. Chances are not, but that shows how powerful music is. Even in a child that as far as I know has not been born again she's getting these things in her mind and it's coming out. Now she didn't fully understand what she even said. My sister-in-law explained it more to her, but it's there.

So How much more effective would that be on us who have had our minds already renewed in regeneration, singing, the preaching of the word. This is why we have preaching every week, because the word of God is powerful, Hebrews tells us. It's active. It gets in there and it cuts away those things that are still showing that conformity to the world and renewing us into the likeness of Christ. So use whatever means God has given to submit yourself to those powers that can renew your mind whether it's it's singing or edifying conversations with one another whether it's hearing the preaching of your word or listening to even good podcasts whatever We have more opportunities today than at any point in history to have ourselves immersed in the truth of God.

And that's ultimately the point. Use whatever means possible to get yourself under the truth of God. Jesus in his high priestly prayer that we looked at a little bit today, what did he say? He said, sanctify them, make them holy by your truth, your word is truth. So how are we made holy?

It's by the truth of God. So we need to put ourselves into where we are submitted to that truth. And what is the purpose behind this renewal? It's that you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. And this proving is not to be understood as in you're making a case, you're laying out the evidence, and you've proved this thing by the evidence.

That's not what it means here. This is actually the same word in the original language as we find in 1 Timothy 3 about how deacons should become deacons. Let them first be tested, and then if they qualify, they may serve as deacons. It's the same idea here. It's a proving by examining, a proving by testing to see how something works, to see if it's superior.

That's what the result of having the renewed mind is. Your mind is renewed so that you may discern what is truly pleasing to God." The ESV's translation is really helpful here, I think. He says that by testing you may discern what is the will of God. That's why your mind needs to be renewed so that with a renewed mind you can know what pleases God. For the Christian our ethical standards are not merely external.

Not that the external commands have gone away. Romans 12 through 16 are basically one external command after another. But the only way to really have true obedience to those commands that pleases God is if you are able to discern, to know the will of God by having your mind renewed. That's his point. Our source of ethics and our source of morality is not simply external commands, but it's God is changing us, helping us to know what is right.

Because, Yes, scripture is sufficient, but can we all agree scripture does not lay out how we should respond morally to every conceivable situation in life? It doesn't do that. It gives us basically case laws. It gives us examples and ideas on what morality looks like and what justice looks like. And we have to use that to see how we ought to live.

And that's what Paul is saying. Your mind is renewed so that you may understand and do what is this perfect and acceptable and pleasing will of God. And so what's the connection? This is a series on the church and church life, not salvation and sanctification and holiness. So How is this connected with everything else that we've been doing in these sessions?

What does this have to do with a church being knit and joined together as a body of Christ? Look at the rest of Romans 12. I'll just read a handful of verses. The very next verse, verse 3, for I say through the grace given to me to everyone who is among you in the church not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think but to think soberly as God has dealt with each one a measure of faith." And he goes on verse 9, let love be without hypocrisy, abhor what is evil, cling to what is good. Verse 10, be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love.

These are all commands he's giving to Christians in the church. And the point here is you can only do these commands if your mind has been renewed, if you have resisted conformity to this world, if you've devoted yourself as a living sacrifice to serving God, the commands on how we do church together, those are only, those can only be fulfilled by those who are living sacrifices for their God. It's the only way it works. Previous sessions in our series have looked at topics such as the roles of elders and deacons. We looked at what it means to be a great commissioned church.

We looked at just, I think it was two weeks ago, the governing of the tongue. These things are only possible if your mind has been renewed and is continually being renewed. Take the governing of the tongue, for instance. How can you control what comes out of your mouth if you are still being conformed to this world. I mean, I don't know if anyone's noticed, but there's not a whole lot of governing of the tongue going on in the world.

I mean, it just doesn't happen. Or world missions. How can anyone be willing to abandon the home and the people they love and go to a culture that has never heard the gospel unless they've given their lives to God as a sacrifice? You can't do it. And so the only way that we as a church can truly be knit and joined together as a local body of Christ is if we are resisting becoming conformed to this world, if we are having our minds renewed and being transformed from the core and therefore Devoting ourselves to God so you see Paul's argument.

He says Give yourself to God make yourself a living sacrifice Do this by resisting evil influences and putting yourself under the influence of God and His Spirit and the result is that you can love one another, that you can truly serve God by serving one another. And so here's the application just really quickly three basic points of application. First if you have not yet tasted the mercies of God, Search for it. Beg God for it. Don't make the mistake of thinking that you can try and pull yourself up by your bootstraps and do these commands and then force God to show you mercy because you've been so good.

That's not how it works. First comes mercy, then comes a life of obedience. If you have not seen that mercy in your life yet, seek out God, run to Christ, fall at the foot of the cross and beg Him for His mercy. That is what you need. And second, if you have tasted the mercy of God, devote yourself to Him.

Give yourself to God. It's your reasonable service. It's what's expected of you. God has been so kind. How can you do anything else?

If you're holding something back, don't do it. God is worthy of your all. You will not be disappointed by what you find in Christ. As Calvin said, I gave up all for Christ. And what have I found?

Everything in Christ. And then lastly, particularly for this series on being joined and knit together as a church, in view of God's mercy, humble yourself. In view of what God has done for you, consider your brother and your sisters as more important than you. You are not the most important person in the room because God has given His Son for you, gives to your brothers in need. Because the Son of God was slain for you, weep with those who weep.

Because the Son of God was raised from the dead for you, rejoice with those who rejoice. Because of God's mercy, lay down your life, Serve God. Serve one another.