The Mercy Made Life: Spiritual Maintenance

You can go a long time without a warning light and still be one mile away from a breakdown. That’s the frame we use to talk about spiritual maintenance through Romans 12:1–2, where Paul’s call to a “living sacrifice” is not guilt-driven hustle but a clear-headed response to mercy. We read the text, slow down on the “therefore,” and trace how Romans builds the case that every one of us stands guilty under sin and yet is met with the grace and mercy of God.

We also tell a vivid story from police body cam footage that shows how mercy works in real life: a crime is still a crime, consequences are still real, and compassion can still change the outcome. That picture becomes a mirror for the gospel. God doesn’t pretend our sin isn’t serious; He meets it with undeserved mercy, and then He calls us to live differently because that mercy is true.

From there, we get practical about transformation. We talk about what it means to stop being conformed to the world’s pressures and identity molds, and what it looks like to be transformed by renewing the mind. Renewal is “making new again,” and it happens as we feed on God’s Word, learn God’s will, and prove it by living it until experience confirms it is good, acceptable, and perfect.

If you’ve felt drift, numb routine, or a quiet sense that you need to realign, this is your pit stop. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs a reset, and leave a review with the one line that hit you hardest.

Transcript

Worship Song And Opening Moment

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The waters of my soul. May my spice. I want you. I want you. More than give me you. My friend. Do you guys know you are the words in the music? You are the words and the mus. You are the words and the music. You are the song that I say. You are the melody. You are a harmony. You are the load of laws. You are the mighty God. You are the king of okay. So now I give back to you the song that you gave to me. You are the song that I say. You are the song that I sing. You are the melody. You are the name I will pray. You are the Lord of lost. You are the mighty God. You are the King of all kings. So now I give back to you the song that you gave to me. You are the song that I sing. Amen.

Romans 12 Reading And Theme

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Romans chapter number twelve.

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Romans chapter number twelve. Commencing at verse number one, culminating at verse number two. Reading from the New American Standard Bible. Scripture says, Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this will, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. If you read that with me, say amen. From this passage I want to lift the contextual demonic topic, the mercy made life. The mercy made life. Every

Why You Need Spiritual Maintenance

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now and then you need to drive it in just to do preventative maintenance. Not because something is necessarily wrong, but because you want to make sure that your vehicle is still operating under perfect conditions or acceptable enough conditions for your journey ahead. So that as you embark on this journey, you already know beforehand that you've been maintained, you've gotten your car checked up. In the same way, medical experts tell us that every now and then you should just visit your doctor before the pain happens, before malady hits, you should, every now and then, my doctor, I think he likes money because he tells me I should see him every two months. I'm like, I don't believe you need to see me that often. But but whatever the frequency, every now and then, without having a headache, without having some pain, just because you want to make sure all things are well, you should walk in and say, Doc, give me a checker. In the same way, I believe that scripture tells us every now and then you need spiritual maintenance. Every now and then you should not wait until trouble occurs. You should not wait until difficulty arises. Every now and then you just need to pause and take inventory of where you are spiritually because you need spiritual maintenance too. This is actually where Paul is at. When we read this text, we we do all sorts of stuff with it, but I want to take it from the vantage point of needing to realign myself with God. I want to look at this under the lens of all this Mike wants to give trouble on today because God needs you to know this, and the devil doesn't want you to. Every now and then you need to pause just to make sure that you are spiritually maintained. Now we don't necessarily use the language of spiritual maintenance regularly. We sometimes use the language of rededication, we sometimes use the language of commitment or recommitment, renewal. Those are the words we we tend to use, but they all speak of the same thing. To be rededicated comes after you've done some checkup, you've done some inventory of your soul, and you say, I need to rededicate. I want to help you before I even get into this text. You don't need something wrong to rededicate your life back to God. Now you're looking at me funny. Every year, if you're married, there is a particular date that you and your spouse share together. And on this date, if you remember it, you typically have memories of times past, years past, and you reflect on those memories, and you allow those memories to refuel you and cause you to commit to another year. If you celebrate an anniversary, every time you celebrate it, you are recommitting yourself to that marriage. You're telling yourself and your spouse, I remember the times, good, bad, and indifferent. I remember the memories, I remember how you made me feel, and I loved you then, I love you now, and I will love you tomorrow. Husbands, borrow that, tell your wives on your next anniversary, you'll be good. You're rededicating yourself. Every now and then, you need to do that spiritually as well. You need to pause, not because something is wrong, but just because every now and then, because you know the road is not always easy, because you know the devil is after you, because you want to make sure your faith is strong, you need spiritual maintenance. With that in mind, the apostle Paul begins chapter number 12 of this book by saying, Therefore,

Romans Overview From Sin To Mercy

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I urge you, brethren, I urge you by the mercies of God to present your bodies of a living sacrifice, wholly, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. The fact that he says, therefore, allows us to remember what he said before the therefore. What Paul said before takes us all the way back to chapter number one. In chapter number one, Paul says that if you are a gentile, you are under sin. In chapter two, he said, if you are a Jew, you are under sin. In chapter three, verse number nine, he says, What shall we say therefore? Whether we are Jews or Greeks, we have both agreed that they are all under sin, for there is none righteous, no, not one. Then verse 23 of chapter three, he says, For we all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Paul begins the book of Romans by telling us we have a sin problem. That's the first three chapters. We have sin. Whether you know it or not, you have sin, whether you agree with it or not, you have sin. We have all sinned. And in chapter six, he says that sin, the payment for it, the wages for it is supposed to be death. So from chapter three to chapter six, he lets us know that the payment for sin is death, but God gave you grace and mercy. I wish I had an amen inside right there. Because no, no, I really wish I did, because watch this. If it wasn't for grace and mercy, I would still be heading to death. If it wasn't for grace and mercy, the home that was prepared for the devil and his angels would have been my abode when I rest my head on that dying pillow. I'm thankful for his grace and mercy. In chapter number seven, he tells you, you got that grace and mercy not because you were pretty, not because you were intelligent, not because you had X amount of money in your bank account. You got grace and mercy because God was gracious and merciful. There was no other reason. The only reason sometimes we need to pause to remember that the only reason you're here today is because God is gracious. The only reason you're still breathing is because he's merciful. If God was not gracious, we may not have had the extension on our life that we have now. If he was not merciful, we may not be as good or blessed as we are now. So every now and then we should say, Thank you for grace and thank you for mercy. In chapter 7, Paul paints this picture of a person, even though he knows about the grace and the mercy of God, this person struggles. Uh, what Paul says is the good that I want to do, I don't do. But the bad thing that I should not do, that is what I end up doing. And he has this tug of war in himself between what God calls him to do and what sometimes his flesh wants him to do. And we've all experienced this tugging, this pulling between being a Christian and being you. Oh, you're coming inside here. There are times, there are times, I know that's right. There are times that even though you're a Christian, you have a moment where you just wish you could put it down for two seconds and just give that person a piece of your mind. Oh, now you'll see something. Amen. I know that's right. Uh I I know I'm a I'm a Christian, but but every now and then I I have this this strange thought telling me to do unchristian things, and I I now have to wrestle in myself between the thing God wants me to do and the thing that I feel like doing. Paul says, God has given you mercy, even though you have that struggle. And then in chapter 8, he said, There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of spirit and death. For what the law could not do, God did sending his son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh so that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us. God did it, and then Paul from chapter nine to chapter eleven says what God did could be summarized by one word mercy, mercy, all of chapter nine to chapter 11, Paul repeats this word, it is the mercy of God. In fact, if you don't mind, meet me in chapter 11 really quickly. Chapter 11, and from verse number 30, this is how he ends. Verse number 30. He says, For just as you once were disobedient to God, but now have been shown, there it is, mercy because of their disobedience, so these also now have been disobedient, that because of the mercy, there it is again, shown to you, they also may be shown mercy. Here's verse 32 for God has shut up all in disobedience so that he may show mercy to all. Let me make that plain. And when he pronounces, he has said that every one of us is disobedient to his law, therefore, you're guilty. That's his pronouncement. You are guilty, you are disobedient, but the reason why he does it

A Body Cam Story About Mercy

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is so that you can appreciate the mercy that he offers you after. You all don't understand this. Watch this. Someone sent me body cam footage yesterday, and I I this is not even in my notes, but sometimes God moves weird. I had no intention of telling you that I spent two hours binge watching police body cam footage. Here's what happened a friend of mine sent me one, it was so interesting that I decided to go on the YouTubes and Google police body cam footage, and I spent two hours just a binge watching. Let me confess because confession is good for the soul. I only stopped because today was Sunday, and I had to prepare for today. I am actually excited to go back home because I have a playlist queued up to continue watching some more body cam footage. Here's why that just entered my spirit to tell you while binge watching, I saw this incident that took place October of last year, where an elderly woman leaves a home and she goes to Sam's club to get gas. And when leaving Sam's club, there is someone who is driving a buggy leaving Sam's club, and the old lady does not see this person on the buggy when she leaves for gas and hits them. The police is called, she is now home. Police knocks on the door, she opens up, they ask her if she is. They call her by name, she said she is, they asked her for ID, and then they ask her what happened. Did you leave your house this morning? She said no. And then he said, Are you sure? Did you go by Sam's club? She said, No, I don't need groceries. And then she's like, Oh, I remember I went for gas. And then as he talks with her, I realized that she is losing her memory and she's losing her sight. And she ends up telling the officer she's 88 years old, and and and he has this compassionate discourse with her. The way he deals with her changes. She committed a crime that he called hit and run. He even told her that the person she struck is now in the hospital, but hopefully they should make a full recovery. She hears this and she is remorseful. But the officer said, You still did a crime. And now, realizing the gravity of the situation, she asks, Do I need to now go to jail? This sweet grandma. Like, are you gonna take me to jail? He said, Unfortunately, I I need to. And she said, Does that mean that I'm going to get to wear handcuffs? And he said, Yes. And as he begins to, he he he first tells her, put her hands behind her back, but then she she says she has arthritic pain. And he says, I don't believe you're going to be a menace or a threat to me. So you know what? Instead of handcuffing you at the back, I'll handcuff you at the front. And let me know if it's too tight. And then he puts her into the vehicle, and and and she says it's a bit compact. And so he did something unconventional. He put her in the front. And I'm watching this and I'm like, this is mercy. I know it doesn't sound like mercy yet. Just wait. Just wait. And he takes her to the station. And when he takes her to the station and he begins to write up the report, he asks if there's anyone who normally stays with her home. She says no. He asks, Is there anyone that you could call and let them know that you might be in jail overnight and you may have to make a court appearance? She says no, and then he says, All right, let me make a few calls. I don't know what happens, but the camera dips the black and it comes back. And then he says, I spoke to my supervisor, and I spoke to the district attorney. You could go back home. Oh, you all don't know when to shout. You could go back home. It's not that she didn't do a crime, it's that they found it within themselves to give her mercy. The judge said, You will meet me at this day, but I'll send people to pick you up. And because we recognize you were not malicious or intentional in what you did, we will find some other way, other than punitive jail time, to work this out. And so the guy at the end says that Granny doesn't go to jail, and they find some program with her to give her assistance so that that situation never occurs again. That was the definition of mercy. Because the truth is, I said all of that the way I did, because the truth is, regardless of how old and sweet she was, she still did a cry. She was given mercy not because she was 88, but because the officer who arrested her had compassion. Does that make sense? Mercy. Paul says what God did is that for you. We did the crime, we call it sin. We should be serving jail time for our sin, we call that death and hell. But God gave us mercy so that we got out of it. Chapter 12 then says, therefore, on the basis of God giving you mercy, on that basis, on the basis that you received something that you did not deserve, on the basis that God was kind, on the basis that God, instead of sending you to jail, instead of sending us to the devil's hell, give us mercy on that basis,

Living Sacrifice As Reasonable Worship

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present your bodies. A living sacrifice. Let me break that down. I'm almost done. What he says is because God has been merciful, in response to God's mercy, you should live better. In response to God giving you a second chance, a new chance, you should make this chance count. That's what he means when he says, present your bodies a living sacrifice. You now need to live differently than you lived before God gave you mercy. And then he categorizes how it is, it should be an acceptable living to God. If I had time, I would take you to the Old Testament to Leviticus, and we would walk through the offerings that a Hebrew Israelite would have to give to Yahweh, and that the requirements was that it be without spot or blemish, it be a perfect sacrifice. God, through Paul, is saying that our lives should now be an unblemished, holy, perfect sacrifice lived in honor of him who gave us mercy. And then he ends verse number one. It's it's interesting. Paul could have stopped there, it would have been a complete sentence to say, I beseech you, therefore, by the mercies of God, present your bodies a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable to God, full stop. But then he goes on, because he wants you to get this, he says it is if you read it in the King James, your reasonable service, other translations, your spiritual act of worship. In Paul's mind, living this way because God has given you mercy is just logical. It's just reasonable. The service part here is the idea. He uses the Greek word latre, which is the word used of priests who carry about their duties in the temple. So he says, your logical, priestly living, your logical, priestly work is to live in a way that honors God because he gave you mercy. Logical. Priestly service. If I had time, I don't want to keep you long today. If I had time, I'll tell you that's why this has nothing to do with you coming to church on Sunday, singing three hymns, eating a small piece of bread, and barely tasting grape juice, and then going home. No, Christianity is so much more than one hour and 15 minutes we spend here on Sunday. It might be an hour 25 minutes because you'll have a long-winded preacher. But it's it's longer than just Sunday morning. Christianity is about me living in a way that is appreciative of God's mercy to me, not God's mercy to John, not God's mercy to Drew, not God's mercy to anybody else, his mercy to me. Because just like Paul, we all need to say, Oh, wretched man that I am. But amazing grace, how sweet the sound. It saved a wretch like me. So now we have that out of the way. Present your bodies because of God's mercy. How do I present myself? That's verse

Conformed Or Transformed By Renewal

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two. I present myself as a living offering to God, as my priestly service of sacrifice to God, by not being conformed to this world, but by being transformed. We've said a lot about these two words. I am not going to do all the gymnastics we tend to do. I will say, however, the word conformed is a present passive imperative. Present means that it is something you do continuously. Passive actually means it's not what you do, but it happens to you. Imperative means it's a command. Present, passive, imperative Greek word. What that means then is I should be in a continuous habit of not allowing myself to be conformed. The question now means, the question now is what does conform mean? And it's simple. We live in a world that tells you how you should think, how you should act, what is the norm, what's acceptable, and what's acceptable in society is not always acceptable according to God's law. What the text is saying is I must not allow myself to be swept up by what's going on in my social circles, my political circles, my academic circles. I must not allow these things to sway me so that my identity becomes it or is shaped by it. I must not allow myself to be shaped by social media culture. I should not allow myself to be shaped by political culture, and I should not allow myself to be shaped by whatever culture you want to insert here. To allow myself to be shaped by anything that's not the will, and the word of God is conforming to something that isn't of God. I know that was a little rough inside there, but that's it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's it's it's not being shaped by that, on the other hand, I am changed and shaped by God. Well, how am I shaped and changed by God? Because what he says is, do not be conformed, but be transformed. Well, how do I find myself not conforming to that while being transformed to this? Says it's simple by the renewing of your mind, and let's pause for a Bible commercial. Renewing comes from a Greek word. I've said too many Greek words today, so I won't tell you this one. You probably don't even remember I said the Greek word for service is a train. This one it comes from a Greek word that says make new again. That's it. I'm renewing, I'm making it new again. I had a vehicle back home that was my first vehicle. I purchased it for myself in 2011. That's a long time. And because it was my first vehicle, I had an unhealthy attachment to it. I'm okay saying that. This car was good to me. This car saw me through thick and thin. We've been through wars together. That car, I had a nice name for her. It was a female car, by the way. That car and I went through some stuff. But now the paint was beginning to fade. And now some chips were appearing, the tint on the glass didn't look as shiny or as black as it was when I first had it tinted in 2011. Some things were no longer as new as they were when I first got it. And so I took it into the Auto Care Clinic, and I said I want to do some restoration work on my vehicle because I want to make it look new again. I need it to look new again. And then he said, Well, we need to sand off the paint and paint it over. We're going to change the seats and we're going to put in some new seats, and we'll make sure that we have a particular type of cover for your seats. We'll replace this part and that part. We'll do some waxing, some coating, some polishing, so it will be made new again. But it had to go through some stuff to be made new again. Transformation does not happen by accident. To be transformed, the word transform, I told you, conformed was a present tense, passive voice, imperative mood verb. Present tense meaning it's present and continuous, passive, it happened to you. Imperative, it's a command. Transformed is a present tense active voice, not passive, imperative mood. Present tense again means you must presently do it and it's continuous. Active means you are the one doing it. Imperative makes it a command. So you and I must actively be transforming, and that only happens by making new again. And what you're making new again is your mind, renewing your mind. What does that mean, Paul? It means that I need to be putting in my mind things that make it new. Simple enough. Well, what are the things that I should be putting in it? God's word. We sang that a while ago. God's word is a lamp. No, we didn't sing that today, did we? It's a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. It was in my head. But we didn't sing it. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. His word is what I'm feeding myself, and his word is what causes my mind to be made new again. But then Paul says there's something that happens when you renew your mind. As you renew your mind, he says it has a purpose. In most English Bibles, he simply, most English Bibles simply say so that. So that. But so that here is the renewing of your mind has a purpose. The purpose is so that you will know the will of God. Many of us walk around saying, I don't know what's God's will for me. The answer is simple. Keep renewing your mind and you will know what his will is. He also made sure that this will is described. He describes it as the good, the acceptable, and the perfect will. So that you may come to know what is the good and the acceptable and the perfect will of God. One more thing, and I'll bring it back to you need spiritual maintenance. Most Bibles have so that you may prove, so that you may know, this word prove comes from another Greek word. And this Greek word says that you learn it by doing it and having the experience. If I'm

Proving God’s Will By Practicing It

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to put this all together, it means that my transformation is where I fill my mind with God's word. I begin to teach myself his thoughts and his word. So I start to think his thoughts, I start to know his will, and then that will, as I walk in it, as I follow it, it proves to me as I do it that his will is good, his will is acceptable, his will is perfect, but I'll only know it when I do it. So that you may prove by doing, by experiencing. So in the act of renewing, I find out that his way is right, his word is wonderful, it's good, it's acceptable, and it's perfect. Paul says we should be actively renewing our mind every day. That just means that every now and then you need to pause for spiritual maintenance. You need to pause to make sure that my spirit is chasing after God and His will. You need to pause to make sure that I'm still believing in Christianity for the right reasons, I'm still practicing something worship for the right reasons. I'm I'm still in line with what God would have me to be. That could only happen when you take a spiritual checkout. Every now and then you should take inventory, not when things are wrong, but because you want to make sure that you are living in honor of God because of his mercies toward you. It would be a shame to find out at the end of all things that we missed the mark. I don't do what I do for amens, even though I tell you say amen. I I just want to make sure you're tracking with me, and the best way to make sure you're tracking with me is if you say amen. But I don't do it for amens. If you guys never said amen again. Please do. But if if if you never said amen again, I would still do what I do. I don't sing because I want somebody to hear me sing. I sing because I love God and I love to express it in the act of singing. I don't do what I do because I want claim or fame. The only thing when I was younger, probably, but now the only thing I'm interested in is making sure at the end of the day he says, Well done, thou good and faithful servant. I said this back home, and hopefully you'd allow me to say it the way I feel like saying it. It would make no sense, no good sense for me to spend all this time studying the word of God, teaching it on Wednesdays, preaching it on Sundays, singing it in between, getting theological degrees, playing church since nineteen ninety-six. To hear him say, Depart from me, I never knew you. Here's my position. I mean no harm, but here really is my position. If Christianity no longer makes sense to me, you ain't going to see me. I am going to be outside of the church. And when I say I'm outside, I'm outside. Some of you will catch that on the way home. Yeah, I I I want if if this thing no longer makes sense to me, I'm doing everything that I didn't do when I was a Christian. Yeah, yeah. I I am turning it up in the club, I'm dropping it low and like it's hot. Yeah. I'm smoking all the things because Christianity doesn't make sense. Here's why I say that. If Christianity does make sense, there really is a God, then you shouldn't be playing church because you don't want to play church and miss God. So if I'm doing this, I'm doing this 100. What that means is every now and then I need to check myself to make sure I'm still aligned. Not just when things are wrong, but because I want to make sure that I'm still on track, I'm still prepared for the journey ahead of me. Does that make sense, Church? I'll say one more thing. When I was driving the Faithful Camry,

Rededication Without Playing Church

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I missed that Camry. I do, I do. I miss the Cam ray. But when I was driving the Faithful Camry, it started to pull to the left, and so I took it in to a tire shop, had it looked at, and they said that it needed to be aligned. And so I had it aligned, but that's because it was pulling to the left, it was giving me science. I wasn't here for three weeks, and I wasn't here for three weeks because, as many of you know, Mahilli and I went to South Carolina. What some of you don't know is after South Carolina we went to Tennessee. From Tennessee, we went up to Ohio. From Ohio, we came back down to Tennessee. Somehow we ended up in Atlanta after Tennessee before making it back to Sissy. It was a total of 29 hours of driving and over 1,800 miles covered in about seven days. Because I knew we were going to be traveling this amount of time the Friday before we left for South Carolina. I went to an auto repair shop. There's no check engine light on on my vehicle. There's no warning lights on my vehicle. There's no pulley to the left or to the right. Oh, y'all ain't feeling me on this side. Let me try this side. The brakes wasn't squeaking. It's squeaking now, but it wasn't squeaky. I had no indication that the vehicle needed maintenance. But I wanted to take preventative caution before driving over eighteen hundred miles. So I took it into the shop. I took it into the shop, not expecting to get a bad report. Because I have no indication that anything is wrong with the vehicle. And then I hear my name. Over here, everybody gets confused. Does the George coming from the Anderson or the Anderson coming from the George? Which one is your surname? Which one is your first name? I had a police officer look at my driver's license. It literally says, surname George. First name Anderson. He reads it, looks at me, and he says, Is this right? Did they make a mistake? Shouldn't you be George Anderson? Like, no, it says Anderson George. It's correct. Said all of that because the guy comes on the mic and he says, Mr. George Anderson, could you meet me at customer service desk? And I didn't realize it was me. Because I'm Anderson George. So he says it three times. Mr. George Anderson, Mr. George Anderson, and the third time he says, the owner of the Toyota Sienna. So I walk to the desk. It says, Ah, Mr. Anderson. Is it Mr. Anderson or Mr. George? That's neither here nor there. What's wrong with the car? Says I think you may have to do some work on your vehicle soon. Let's give you the not so bad things, Fiz. Um your brakes fluid is to the right level, but it's the wrong color. Sorry. Your brakes fluid looks like oil. You should change that. That's minor. Said um your oil has losed some of its viscosity, so you should probably change the oil. Um, I told him I was going on a 1900-mile drive. He said you should change it now. So I did. He said, um, your fluids are low, we'll top that up for you. But most importantly, is we saw something alarming on the right-hand front side near some bearings and axles that we need to probably take a look at. It should be good for your drive, but I'm just telling you now that you may start to hear some noise, and it's that, and we want to take a look at it. I would not have known any of that if I did not do preventative maintenance. I said all of that to say things that could feel good with you now when God is still saying you need a checkup spiritually. You

Invitation To Recommit And Closing Prayer

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may be feeling like all things are well, but God knows that there may be something on your horizon that you're not properly equipped for, and so He is calling us to have spiritual maintenance. Back home, I would have several moments in the year that I would call it our rededication days, and it would be days where we just recommit to God, we do spiritual inventory, literally. I would give them a sheet of paper and assess yourself spiritually, and then Sunday we would come talk about our inventory and then recommit ourselves to God while we didn't do that. I don't encourage you to be renewed from today. I don't encourage you to be rededicated from today, be realigned today. Let today be a day where you make a pit stop and reassess where you are spiritually and what God is calling you to be and what he needs you to do. Let today be that. Let's hold stand, let's hold stand. Don't be singing yet because unfortunately, I'm going to change John's song. It's it's rededication time. I realize you guys don't like walking to the front, but we're going to sing a song, and I want you to meditate on the words as we sing it. And as you sing, be resolved to be rededicated. It's have thine own way, God. I really wanted another I think you know this one better. So it's have thine own way, Lord. And as soon as we sing this, I want you to think of the words, and as you're thinking it, just have a moment where you say, Today, God, have your way. I'm rededicating. It's not my spiritual anniversary, but I'm rededicating myself, I'm recommitting myself. I've drifted a little. We don't always like to acknowledge that we drift sometimes. I've drifted a little, so I don't read as I should, I don't pray as I should, I don't feel as I should, I don't feel connected to you as I should. I'm not sure you hear my prayer today, God. I'm renewing myself. I want to be recommitted, I want to be rededicated, but I'm not just doing it to say words. I want you to have your way in my life, have your way in my health, have your way in my family, have your way in my finances, have your way with my age, have your way in everything, have fine way, God, because I'm rededicating. You're good.

SPEAKER_01 58:56

Absolutely. Always living in Amen. You maybe seized it.

SPEAKER_00 59:36

Let's pray together. Almighty God, thank you so much for uh allowing us to be gathered today and uh Lord uh to take uh what Anderson has put before us, that our spirit would be renewed, that you would have your own way in our lives, that we'd be rededicated as people of your pasture, that we seek your face and to be renewed and transformed into your likeness. Lord, be with us this week as we go forth. May we be those things that we talked about. May we rededicate ourselves in your presence. In Jesus' holy name do we pray. Amen.