In his sermon 'Reasonable Service,' Jason Dohm explores Romans 11:33 to 12:2, emphasizing the transition from theological foundations to practical application in Paul's letters. Dohm explains that living for God is a 'reasonable service' for believers in light of God's mercies. Paul structures his letters by first establishing a theological base before moving to practical advice, urging believers to present themselves as living sacrifices. This involves not conforming to worldly patterns but being transformed through mind renewal, rooted in the mercies of God. Dohm underscores the importance of the incarnation, where Jesus' sacrifice provides the foundation for this transformation. The sermon highlights that believers should not let God’s mercies out of sight, as they underpin all Christian reform and living. The transformation through mind renewal allows believers to prove the goodness of God's will experientially, offering their lives in service to God as a response to His saving grace.

Our sermon text for this week comes in Romans chapter 11 verse 33, starting at verse 33 and on to chapter 12 verse 2. 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. For who has known the mind of the Lord or who has become his counselor Or who has first given to him and it shall be repaid to him For of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be glory forever amen I Beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you 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 that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." The title of the sermon this morning is, Reasonable Service.

Just lifting two words right from the text. Paul is making an argument that living for God is simply reasonable service. So that's a summary of the text. Nothing makes more sense than living for God, for the believer, in view of God's goodness. This is the big shift in Paul's letter to the believers in Rome.

He's writing them this letter, and he's given the whole letter this far, chapters 1 through 11, to establishing the fundamental of the Gospels. I have to say my soul has been refreshed every week as Paul talks on these things that we owe spiritual life to. He really hasn't been bossing us around at all. He hasn't been telling us what to do. He's getting ready to boss us around.

He's getting ready to tell us how Christians ought to live, what we should do, what we shouldn't do. But to this point in Romans, he's really been just refreshing our souls with the goodness of God and sending Jesus Christ to save sinners. Now we have this shift from the theology to the practice. As I talked about last week, most if not all of Paul's letters to churches are structured that way. He takes a good long time to establish the fundamental of the Gospels before He moves on to practical application.

And now as Paul transitions to practical application, he gives us a framework for everything that comes after to keep it linked to everything that came before. So we're getting ready to go into five chapters of practical application, but he wants you hooking everything in the next five chapters back to the things that have already come before, because they're not perfectly distinct topics. They are separate topics, but they never belong separated. So we should always keep them together. Think of these two verses as Paul giving us a framework.

Everything else that comes after needs to be hooked back onto this framework. Paul never wants his readers to lose sight that the foundational elements of the gospel are the reason and foundation of all Christian reform and living. Let me say that again. The fundamental elements of the gospel, that God saves sinners and how God saves sinners, are the reason and foundation of all Christian reform and living. If you embark on efforts for Christian reform and Christian living without building on that foundation, it is a fool's errand.

You'll never be able to sustain it. Paul knows that. So Paul wants you building on this foundation of what God has done for us before you ever try to do anything for Him. Don't try to do things for God until you have in view the things that God has done for you. Everything that comes after in these five chapters that we're embarking on sits under the banner of these two verses.

They just hang as a banner over all practical application, and I hope I'll have the good sense to keep bringing us back week after week to these two verses. We'll see if I have the good sense to do that or not in the coming weeks. Let's pray. God, we think of taking up the cross as such a weighty thing, and in some ways it is. But from another vantage point, it's such a reasonable service.

It is a light burden. God, I pray that these eleven chapters that we've been through would loom large over all of our efforts for Christian reform and living. We wouldn't forget about it and now set about trying harder as if that secured our standing with you. I pray that you would make today's text and sermon very profitable. In Jesus' name, amen.

We have two verses. We'll take them one at a time. Hopefully your Bibles are still open to Romans chapter 12. And follow along as I reread verse 1. Paul writes, 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.

Here in verse 1, Paul gives us what reasonably proceeds from the mercies of God. So if you're taking notes on the handout by filling in blanks, proceeds fills in the one blank. What reasonably proceeds, or what reasonably flows from the mercies of God. The mercies of God are wonderful. They ought to be studied and loved by us, but they're not the termination point in the mind of God, in the purposes of God.

The mercies of God actually serve as a jumping off point for something that proceeds from them, that flows from them. Paul wants to urge us, in light of the mercies, plural, The mercy of God, he could have said that, that would have been true, but that's not what he says. He says the mercies of God, plural mercies. To beseech, I beseech you is to urge or to appeal. So, God's, Paul sets forward the mercies of God and makes an appeal or urges us based on that.

Because of all these mercies, because of what God has done, not only withholding the judgment and condemnation and eternal punishment that rebels against God deserve, but also pouring out on them all the good that they don't observe at all. So again we have these two things. He withheld what we do deserve and then he he pours out what we don't deserve. All that rolled into one. Because of that, In view of all that, Paul makes a plea, he urges us, he makes an appeal.

An appeal for what? What is he urging us to? That you present your bodies a living sacrifice. That's what he's appealing for, urging the believer to that you present your bodies a living sacrifice. God gave Himself to you and for you in such a full and remarkable way.

Now you give yourself to Him and for Him." That's really the whole argument here. In Jesus, in sending Jesus from heaven, in Jesus voluntarily coming and living and dying to redeem rebels, God gave Himself to the believer and for the believer in a full way, in this remarkable way. Now, believer, you give yourself to Him and for Him. And who could deny that the advantage is all the believers? Does anybody want to make the case that we are getting the short end of the stick?

Well, God, this is really a good deal for you. You send your beloved son to die for rebels, but now you get me." Who could deny that the advantage is all the believers? Clearly, it's we who are gaining. We don't have anything to give to God that he doesn't have. We don't add to him.

The advantage is ours. If anything is beyond reason, it is that God would send his only begotten son to die for rebels. Have you ever been able to make sense of that? Sometimes you think you can almost get to the edge of why God would do that. Okay, it's for your glory, but there's so many ways to display your glory.

I haven't ever been able to really get my arms around that. If anything is beyond reason, it's that. Let it be enough that it makes sense to God. Let it be enough that it pleases God to save rebels at the cost of the blood of His Son. But to offer yourself to and for the God who ransomed you with the blood of his own beloved son is a very reasonable service.

Can we agree on that? Very reasonable service. Is anything crazy being asked for by God here? No. It makes perfect sense.

Here's how Paul makes the same point in a slightly different way. Just listen to 1 Corinthians 6, end of verse 19, and verse 20. Paul makes the same point in a slightly different way. He writes this to the Corinthians. You are not your own, for you were bought at a price.

Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. Believers no longer belong to themselves. Why not? Because they've been bought out of eternal destruction at a tremendous price. What was the price?

Jesus, his life, his death. That was the cost of buying rebels out of the condemnation that they had worked themselves into, the condemnation that they richly deserved. So Paul in 1st Corinthians 6 says, look at that. Look at the price paid to buy rebels out of the condemnation that they earned, they deserve. Therefore, because he did that, glorify God in your body and your spirit because they're gods.

He bought them. He bought that body. He bought that spirit. Paul already said something very similar in Romans. I want to actually look at this one together.

Turn back to Romans chapter 6. Paul started down this track in Romans chapter 6, but he didn't continue down this track because if to continue down this track would be to get into practical application, and he's not going there in Romans chapter 6. So he stops after making this statement. Now in our chapter, Romans chapter 12, he's going to keep going down the track. But he at least opened up the category in Romans chapter 6.

I'm just going to look at one verse in Romans chapter 6 and it's Romans chapter 6 verse 13. Look at Romans chapter 6 verse 13. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. Here in Romans chapter 6, he's saying almost exactly the same thing, just in slightly different terms. Don't present your members, okay, You have arms and legs that you're going to be going places on those legs.

You're going to be doing things with those arms and legs. Don't present them as instruments of unrighteousness to sin. That belongs to people who haven't been bought out of their rebellion by the blood of Jesus. People who have been bought out of their rebellion by the blood of Jesus need to take those legs and feet, those arms and hands, and go different places and do different things. They need to be offered up as instruments of righteousness to God.

He's saying really the same thing in our text. Now, why these exhortations to believers? Why is Paul saying it in Romans chapter 6 and then saying it again in Romans chapter 12? I would say he's saying Romans chapter 6, giving that exhortation, don't offer up your members, your arms and legs to sin, but offer it up to God because of Romans chapter 7. What was Romans chapter 7?

Do you remember what Paul said in Romans chapter 7? I find myself doing the things I don't want to do, and I find myself not doing the things I do want to do. I want to do these things. I know I should do these things. They're lovely to me, but I find myself backward toward them.

Why is that? I find myself doing these things that I find sickening, and yet I find myself doing them. Why is that?" And he ends up saying, it's the body of death. Who will save me from this body of death? It's Jesus.

So Paul is making these exhortations in Romans chapter 6, in Romans chapter 12, because we still have these remaining corruptions pulling at us. They're pulling at us every day. He's exhorting us because we need to hear it. And not just in one chapter, but in many chapters, because these remaining corruptions are a drag on us. So every day, every hour, we face a choice.

What am I going to present the members of my body as instruments to? Have you ever thought of it like that? You're being faced. Hour after hour after hour after hour after hour, you're being faced with this choice. I've got these arms and legs.

God sent His Son to bleed and die to buy me out of the destruction that I've earned and and I'm not that man anymore and I don't have to be that man anymore. Okay, this hour what am I going to offer my arms and legs as instruments to? Are you going to go wallow around in the old filth? Or am I going to offer my arms and legs to do what is pleasing to the one who redeemed me? This is the whole argument being made.

So Paul urges us, he appeals to us, consider and choose in view of God's many colored mercies. Starts with the cross, but the mercies don't end at the cross. They're new every morning and they're many colored. If you were going to make a list of God's mercies, could you fit them on a page? I doubt it.

I doubt it. I bet you'd run out of lines and you'd have to turn it over. If you thought hard, you'd probably run out of lines again and you'd need a new page. God's many colored mercies, Paul wants to set them before you this hour when you're making that decision, what am I going to offer my arms and legs in service to? He wants to let this loom over that decision this hour and the next hour and tomorrow and next week.

He wants that looming over this hourly decision that we're making. What am I offering the members of this body as instruments to and why. The appeal is to nothing more than reasonable service. When a king gives his son to rescue you, You devote the rest of your life to serving Him and no one who knows the details would ever ask, why are you doing that? A king gives his son to rescue you and you're just a subject.

In fact, you're just a criminal subject and the king gives his son to rescue you and you give the rest of your life in devotion to him. Did anyone who know that story ever ask you, why are you doing that? No! It's obvious why you're doing that. It's a reasonable service.

Now we're familiar with sacrifices in the Bible, but they don't fit this profile. Almost all, there are a couple exceptions I can think of, but almost all of the sacrifices in the Old Testament don't fit this profile at all. Why not? Because the sacrifice results in death. That's the point of the sacrifice, is to pour out the penalty for sin and the wages of sin is death.

A living sacrifice is not the normal pattern because the result of the sacrifice is death. That's the whole point. But this is different because this results from that kind of sacrifice. This is not the death of the guilty. This results from the death of a substitute.

So I understand we're talking sacrifice, but it's not the normal sacrifice, the sacrifice that we're used to. That's the death of the guilty. But this results from the death of our substitute. So you don't have to die. The substitute died, I don't have to die.

And so now I live for the one who provided the substitute. So the lamb dies for the believer and then the believer lives for the lamb. That's the thrust of the logic here. The lamb, the substitute, the lamb without spot or blemish, the one who could be acceptable as the sacrifice comes and dies, and then the one purchased out of condemnation by the blood of that sacrifice lives to the Lamb, lives for the Lamb. A holy sacrifice, an acceptable sacrifice to God.

Holy to God, set apart from this point forward, existing for God. So you offer your body a living sacrifice, holy, set apart to God. Now there are marks of righteousness, which holiness is sometimes indicating, marks of good in your life. So being good, but really the literal meaning is set apart to God. That does result in good marks in your life, but it really just means being set apart to God.

When you're set apart to God, you just live in a different way than the old man. From this point forward, existing for God, living for God. The idea of the whole verse is consecration to God, devotion to God, being set apart to God and for God. God says, you're mine, you say amen. God says, you live for me, you say Amen.

And acceptable to God, or in some translations pleasing to God, because acceptable and well pleasing are both in the range of meaning for this Greek word. Either would be fine. Actually, you find both in the translations. Acceptable to God or pleasing to God. And of course, you can link this to the Old Testament sacrifices which were holy to the Lord.

The Old Testament sacrifices were holy to the Lord. This animal is not like the other animals. It is set apart to God for His purposes. They were consecrated to God and they were acceptable and pleasing to God. They were a sweet smelling aroma to God.

God smelled this acceptable sacrifice and said, oh sweet smelling. So this is the why and the what. Why? Because God has poured out his many colored mercies on rebels. That's the why.

You're a rebel, But God saw fit to lay claim to you. He's poured out his many colored mercies on you. That's the why. Everything proceeds from his mercies. And what?

The presentation of the believer as a living sacrifice. I belong to you. I don't belong myself anymore. I belong to you. I live to you.

I live for you. Now to the how. I think verse two gives us the how. Verse one gives us the why and the what. Verse 2 gives us the how.

So hopefully you're back in Romans chapter 12, or maybe you never left. Romans chapter 12 verse 2. Paul writes, and do not be conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. In this verse Paul says, not conformed but transformed. You're filling in blanks, taking notes that way.

Transformed, fills in the blank. Not conformed, but transformed. How does a believer present his or her body a living sacrifice? In this verse we have a don't, a do, and the result from obeying the don't and do. So this verse gives us a don't.

Do not do this. It gives us a do. Do this instead. And it gives us the result from obeying. If you don't do the don't and you do do the do this is what should result.

That could have been a Mountain Dew commercial could it? You were thinking Mountain Dew commercial weren't you? Do the do. The don't. Do not be conformed to this world.

Do not be conformed to this world. The Greek word translated conformed means to form yourself to another's pattern. So just think about it for a minute. This is the Greek word being translated. It comes across to English, conformed is a fine translation, but the lexicon literally says to form yourself to another's pattern, to adopt somebody else's pattern.

It becomes your pattern. You form yourself to it. And the world, or The age, the Greek word translated world could have just as well been translated age, either is fine. The world or the age is reaching out every minute of every day saying, Come be with us. Come be like us.

Come form yourself to our pattern. Hang with us. Be like us. Every minute of every day, the world or the age that we're in is making that appeal to us. Come be with us.

Come be like us. In Greek mythology, there are mythical creatures called sirens who could sing songs which were irresistibly hypnotic to sailors. Irresistible. The sailors had to go to the song. The song essentially was casting a spell over them and they had to go to it.

The problem is they were being drawn to waters that were shallow with rocks just beneath the surface. Their ships would be dashed against the rocks. These songs that were irresistibly beautiful to the sailors were their death. The sirens, These mythical creatures that would sing a song that would make you spellbound, and you just had to go towards the irresistibly hypnotic songs. Songs, this is the world.

Irresistibly hypnotic songs drawing, come, be with us. We want you with us. Come, be like us. We'll go together. Form yourself after our pattern.

Oh no, but it's shallows with rocks. The ship will be dashed. It'll be your death. So believers face this siren song every day. They hear this siren song every day.

It's the music that's playing. So we have to decide over and over and over again, Am I going to be drawn in by this song and form myself to this pattern? It seems so beautiful. It seems so desirable to form myself into this pattern. As a believer, I have to have it so firm in my mind.

This is not the pattern for me. My pattern is Jesus, and it doesn't look anything like that pattern. We do need to be conformed, but it's not to that pattern. We do have a pattern, but it's not that pattern. Our pattern is Jesus Christ, and it looks nothing like what our world is offering.

Nothing like what our age is offering. But if you listen to the music that's playing, you end up there, not conformed to Jesus. You've heard the term the spirit of the age. You might have heard someone say zeitgeist. Zeitgeist is just German for spirit of the times.

It just means in harmony with the age in which we live, going with the current. You can just sit back in the inner tube and let the river carry you. There's a current that's going somewhere. You're just down from Niagara Falls. You're just down from Niagara Falls, enjoying the ride on the Inner Tube.

But if you knew it was Niagara Falls, you'd get out of that stream, you'd get out of that flow, You'd paddle as hard as you could in the opposite direction. If you knew that what was in harmony with the age in which we live was actually taking you over 100 footfalls, you wouldn't stay in that current. Rob Ventura lists the different isms that describe the age in which we live. Listen to Rob Ventura. He says we are constantly being attacked with so much moral filth through multiple outlets like music, the media, many anti-god mouthpieces all around us.

Through the influences of secularism, humanism, hedonism, postmodernism, relativism, and materialism, etc. We are continually being bombarded with the lives of the enemy. Therefore, if we would live as God's holy people in the world, we must seek regularly to implement the opening words of this chapter in Romans. The age in which we live, The things that are in harmony with the age in which we live are largely described here. Secularism.

What is that? That's a world without God. That's a world that never once considers God rejects the Scriptures. This isn't really revelation from God. It is a worldview.

It is a structure where God is nowhere to be seen. Secularism, humanism. What is humanism? Mankind at the center. All that matters is what matters for mankind's desires.

Mankind at the center, serving mankind in everything. Well, That's not what this book describes at all. God is it if you believe this book, God's at the center of all things. Hedonism. Headlong into whatever you crave.

If there's a craving, serve it with all your might. Hedonism. Postmodernism. What is postmodernism? What is truth?

There's no fixed truth. There's my truth, there's your truth, there's no fixed truth. Relativism. What is relativism? There is no fixed moral point.

Morality is defined by cultures and circumstances. Is that what this book teaches? Like some things are right and wrong, and some cultures under some circumstances, and oh, There are fixed points in this book. Materialism. What is materialism?

Go for the gusto. Pile up all you can. You only live once, go for the stuff. This is the spirit of the age. This is the zeitgeist.

This is the siren song that is calling out to us. So the do not be conformed to this world, this siren song that is calling your ship towards these waters where just under the surface are the rocks of destruction. The do, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. The contrast to forming yourself to the pattern of the world is ongoing transformation by the renewing of your mind. So you get the polar opposites here.

You get the Sickness, forming yourself to the pattern of the world is the sickness. What's the medicine? You get the contrast to it. You get the fix for it. Ongoing transformation by the renewing of your mind.

Just as refusing to be conformed to the spirit of the age is not one time but ongoing, the Siren Song isn't done, it's still playing in the background, always playing in the background. So not refusing to conform yourself to the spirit of the ages, not a one time, but it's ongoing. So is transformation by the renewing of your mind. Believers can't just say, check, I've done that, move on to the next thing. It is an ongoing transformation by ongoing renewing of our mind.

A man at Men's Bible study said, Paul is telling us where the battle is. Exactly. The battle is fought in the mind. The battle is fought in my thoughts. If a believer is going to offer his or her body as a living sacrifice, that is going to start with a mind that is being transformed by ongoing renewing.

There's something directing these arms and legs. There's something directing these legs. They don't just go on their own. Thoughts instruct those legs. Thoughts direct those legs.

There's something that is informing my arms and my hands and the things that I do. There are thoughts that are directing and informing and instructing my arms and legs. If there's going to be a body presented as a living sacrifice, It is going to be because the mind is being transformed by an ongoing renewal in where the thoughts are happening. Then how do I cultivate that? Well, let's start here.

It is cultivated. It isn't magically accomplished. It comes with intention. It comes with a proactive effort. It is cultivated.

Like gardens are cultivated. You shouldn't expect a garden, the output of a garden, without cultivating the garden. That's called weeds. That's called a meadow, not a garden filled with good fruit, good vegetables. Listen to Colossians 3, 1-3.

Just listen. Colossians 3, 1-3. Paul writes, If then you are raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on the things on the earth. For you died and your life is hidden with Christ and God." You see how this fits hand in glove with the argument that Paul is making in our text.

Set your mind. Set your mind. You direct your mind. You constrain your mind. You take every thought captive.

Friends, the world is trying to squeeze you into its mold every day. This is the counteraction. The world is exerting pressure, trying to squeeze you into its mold so you'll be formed to its pattern. You better have a counteraction. Paul gives you the counteraction.

Setting your mind on things above. Ongoing renewal of ongoing renewal of the mind, being transformed by the ongoing renewal of your thoughts. I get that this deserves a whole sermon. We're not going to get it. We are going to work through these chapters, which actually gives us practical thoughts on how we do that.

So we'll have to save a lot of it for another day. But let's start here. It is cultivated. It doesn't just happen. If you're not willing to constrain your mind, you have to have the Holy Spirit to do this.

Preaching this to unbelievers would be completely unfruitful. They have no power to do it. It's going to take power to do it. But we have that power. Believers have that power because we are indwelled by the Holy Spirit.

In many ways this is a work of the Spirit. But if you're not willing to constrain your thoughts, take those thoughts captive, proactively set your mind on heavenly things, on spiritual things, then you will not have the transformation that comes from an ongoing renewal of your mind. The world is trying to squeeze you into its mold every day. This is the counter action. It breaks the spell of the Siren Song.

So when you read the Odyssey, Ulysses, the sailors, they couldn't help it. They were captivated. They had to, but that's not you. There is something that will break the spell of the Siren Song and keep you from destroying your ship on the rocks. What is the result of obedience?

If you do not conform to the world, if you do transform through the renewal of your mind. The result is that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. This is the result. Believers prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. On paper, the will of God is good and acceptable and pure.

That's what the Bible says about the will of God. It gives you the will of God, but it also says It's good. It's acceptable. It's perfect. The will of God is best.

On paper, loving what God loves, hating what God hates, living consistent with what God loves, staying far from all that God hates is good and acceptable and perfect. This is what the Bible teaches. On paper, The will of God is best. Paul says, now take that out of the conceptual and theoretical and bring it into the experiential. It's not just good and acceptable and perfect on paper.

It's actually good and acceptable and perfect. Prove it. Bring it out of the conceptual and the theoretical and bring it into the experiential. Let it be proved in your life. Let it be proved in practice.

Let it be proved in experience. The will of God is more than good and acceptable and perfect on paper. It is good. It is acceptable. It is perfect.

And you can prove it by living for God. But you'll never prove that in practice unless you refuse to be conformed to the world and you are transformed by the ongoing renewing of your mind. You'll never prove it. You'll never prove it to yourself. You'll never prove it to the world unless you refuse conformity to the world.

Unless you are transformed by the ongoing renewal of your mind. This is a crucial way in which God receives honor in the world. His people trust him. They reject the world's siren song. They renew their minds.

They do his will and therein prove that his will is best. And He looms over the world as a glorious God who transformed and gives his people the best. You know you've seen this. An unbeliever sitting in the wreckage, having been irresistibly drawn in by the siren song of the world, looking at the life of a consistent Christian and saying, that is so much better. That is so much better.

I wish I had done what they did with my life. Even with all the problems and sorrows, that's not to say that a Christian is done with problems and sorrows. It doesn't say that at all. It means that even in the midst of problems and sorrows, the person sitting in the wreckage of being conformed to the world and having their thoughts unconstrained looks and sees you even in the middle of your problems and sorrows, sees you being sustained and flourishing even in the middle of problems and sorrows. They say, I wish I had placed my bets where they place their bets.

I wish I had made my investments where they made their investments. Applications, I'll give you three. One, never let the mercies of God out of your sight. Any of you have a kid that you just can't let out of your sight? I'm not letting you out of my sight.

I'm not letting you out of my sight. I'm not letting you out of my sight. Why not? It's not good things that happen when they're out of your sight. Maybe the mercies of God, Maybe we should consider the mercies of God like that.

I'm not letting the mercies of God out of my sight. Bad things happen when I let the mercies of God out of my sight. It's the good things that are happening when the mercies of God are in my sight. Don't let them out of your sight. They're many-colored.

It starts with a cross, but it does not end with the cross. So many mercies. Don't let them out of your sight. Number two, make living for the God of mercies the framework for all the do's and don'ts. Make living for this God of mercies the framework for all the do's and don'ts.

If you don't, you'll be ground to powder trying to do all the do's and not do all the don'ts. But when it becomes just living for the God of mercies, it changes them. It changes the complexion of it all. Rob Ventura says this, before Paul even begins to speak about our various relationships in the church and in the world, there is a matter which is absolutely crucial in our lives, our complete Consecration to God. Here's where you start.

I belong to him. He bought me with his blood. Then the other stuff makes perfect sense. Then the other stuff becomes very reasonable Service. Before Paul even begins to speak about our various relationships in the church and the world, there is a matter which is absolutely crucial in our lives, our complete consecration to God.

It's striking me again, the radical claims of the Gospel, how different this is. Complete consecration to God. I thought that was something for people in full time ministry. Nope. It's for the everyday Christians.

By the way, people in full-time ministry are everyday Christians. Three, especially today, consider that all of this has its roots in the incarnation. All of this has its roots in the incarnation. This is so pointless unless Jesus leaves heaven and lives and dies for sinners. This is just moralism without salvation unless Jesus Christ leaves heaven and lives and dies for sinners.

This is just moralism without salvation unless Jesus Christ leaves heaven and lives and dies for sinners. It's all rooted in the incarnation. Gary said this, I think he's on zoom, he can hear this. Gary said this at his house at prayers he's given the exhortation before we prayed. He said, circumstantial evidence wise there's probably not a less likely day that Jesus was born December 25th.

Don't worry about that. It's not about the when, it's about the who and the what. So almost certainly Jesus wasn't born on December 25th. There's so much about Christmas not to like. But here's what's to like.

The who and the what. The Son of God was sent and voluntarily came to walk in this, to live a life in this sin sick world. Being humbled and then humiliated to die for sinners. It's astounding. God has given Himself to us in such a full and remarkable way.

And now we are given the privilege to offer back our lives. It's such a privilege to offer back our lives that he doesn't really even need any way. We just do it because we love Him. J-Bells, I thought you were waving at me. No, I don't.

We'll cut that from the audio. Let's pray. Got every word uttered, sung, read during our service today would be as appropriate in June as it is today. Thank you for your son Jesus. In some ways this is why we meet.

To think of all the good, the many colored mercies that flow to us just because you sent your son from heaven, he willingly came from heaven to buy rebels out of their desperate state. Pray that in our minds it would be such a privilege to offer ourselves back to you for whatever we're worth. Offer ourselves back to you that you might be seen as a great Savior in the world. Pray this in Jesus name, Amen.