Righteous Living Starts With Laying Your Life Down

Ever feel like following Jesus is an impossible checklist you’ll never complete? We walk through Romans 12 and 13 to show why Paul calls surrender a “reasonable” way to live, how grace—not willpower—fuels real change, and what a renewed mind looks like in everyday choices. After grounding the conversation in the gospel’s “therefore,” we explore how presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice reshapes ambition, identity, and practice. From there, we unpack discernment: learning to recognize God’s good and perfect will through Scripture, honest prayer, and wise community while resisting the world’s pressure to conform.

We also get practical about humility and calling. God measures faith and distributes gifts, so the church thrives as one body with many roles. You’ll hear how prophetic conviction, patient teaching, steady service, generous giving, diligent leadership, and cheerful mercy work together—not as spiritual status symbols but as acts of worship. Along the way, we confront a counterfeit kindness that blesses what breaks people. Love without hypocrisy means abhorring evil, clinging to what is good, and pointing hurting hearts to the cross where forgiveness and freedom are found.

Finally, we draw a simple map for resilient discipleship: honor others, keep at it when it’s hard, rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, stay steadfast in prayer, and practice hospitality that turns beliefs into welcome. If you’re weary from trying to be “good enough,” this conversation will help you trade striving for Spirit-empowered living and find your place in the family of God. 

If the message resonates, follow the show, share it with a friend who could use some hope, and leave a review telling us which part of Romans 12 challenged you most.

Come On Up is the radio ministry of The Mountain Cross in Waynesville North Carolina. To learn more about us please visit: TheMountainCross.com. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:05

Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, and we shall walk in his paths.

SPEAKER_00 0:13

Welcome to Come On Up, the radio ministry of the Mountain Cross in Waynesville, North Carolina.

SPEAKER_02 0:20

Lay down your life that you would walk in the gospel, that you would walk in his grace, and that you would be used by him, and this is reasonable. Trying to do it on your own, trying to fulfill the law. All these things that we talk about, you can't do it on your own. It's unreasonable. But in the grace of God, it is a reasonable thing to do because it's possible. And do not be conformed by this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

SPEAKER_00 0:49

There are so many rules and specific things we must do and not do, and things we must give up to follow Christ. It can seem like a giant impossible list. But don't worry, because in today's message, Pastor Carl will acknowledge how unfeasible that seems. But he will also show you how you can live righteously before and for the Lord. By the power of guidance of the Lord, you can choose him. You can follow the laws set to protect you, and you can live righteously and holy. And now, here's Pastor Carl.

SPEAKER_02 1:28

Well, let's get into a study of God's Word. We are in the book of Romans, and we will be in Romans chapter 12 and 13. So if you would turn in your Bibles to Romans chapter 12, and let's get right into it. Romans chapter 12, verse 1. 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. Now we start out with a term here, therefore. I beseech you, therefore, brethren. And whenever you see a therefore, you need to figure out what it's there for, right? And what it's there for is everything that he shared with us in the first 11 chapters of Romans. A lot of doctrine, a lot of calling out some of our false thinking. First of all, he's writing to the Roman church, believers in Rome, comprised of Jews and Gentiles. And he's excited by the fact that they've come to faith in Jesus and they're growing and they're sharing the Lord with other people. But he's challenging their judgmentalism because we have a tendency as Christians to uh we we've been saved by grace, but that guy over there, he's he's messing up a lot, so obviously he isn't saved. Uh there was a challenge to your background. Of course, I'm a Christian because I was brought up a Jew. And and Jews are are the first and foremost Christian because of course Jesus was a Jew, right? And Paul challenged that. It's not your Jewish heritage that makes you a Christian. It's the fact that you believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ, because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And who Jesus is, he came to justify the sinners. We we could do nothing on our own. Well, of course, background is one thing, and and the law is another thing, and that's where the judgmentalism came in, but we come back to it. We think we can do these things to earn our way to heaven, even though we've already gotten in because of the gospel of Christ. We seem to forget that and and live out the rest of our Christian life like we have to do good works. And Paul is challenging that as well. He says, that's not the case. And then he talks about the rest of the Jewish nation that hasn't come to faith in the Lord in his heart that they would come to faith in the Lord. And he uses that to challenge the Gentiles, not to think of themselves higher than the Jews, because they have come to faith in Christ and the Jews haven't. The Lord's not done with the Jews, and if it wasn't for the Jews, the Gentiles wouldn't have the gospel anyway. And then just this, he broke into this, you know, worship of the Lord. Oh, the mighty wisdom of the Lord, who can fathom it? I praise God. Now, because of these things, because I've been born a sinner, Jesus came in my place. It's not about what I do, it's not about what other people do. I mean, pointing out sin and so forth. We need to point them to the cross. That's where we find our life, that's where we find our justification. That's who you are as a believer in Jesus Christ. Now that we got that straight, I beseech you. I'm not commanding you, I'm urging you, I'm begging you to live out your life the way that God intended it to be. And that is by the mercies of God, you're not walking in your own strength, you're walking by the mercy, the grace, the power of God that He gave to you, because these things I'm asking you to do, you can't do on your own. By the mercies of God, you present your bodies a living sacrifice. When Jesus was walking with his disciples, he said, if anybody wants to come after me, first let him what? Deny himself, pick up his cross, and follow me. We need to take our agenda and take it off and put it down and say, Lord, it's not my life, it's your life. You sacrifice your life, you present your life. You died for me, you purchased me, I am yours, and I am surrendering wholeheartedly. And the only way I'm doing this is by the power of the Holy Spirit, by your grace, that you would work in my life. This holy, this living sacrifice that's holy and acceptable to God. What makes it holy? Christ makes it holy. We aren't holy. He is holy. And when we believe the gospel, when we trust in him, he makes us holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. This is reasonable to do. I'm not asking you to do something you can't do. Well, I am asking you to do something you can't do, but Christ can do it in you if we let him. And that's what I'm urging you to do, Paul is saying. That you would lay down your life, that you would walk in the gospel, that you would walk in his grace, and that you would be used by him. And this is reasonable. Trying to do it on your own, trying to fulfill the law, all these things that we talk about, you can't do it on your own. It's unreasonable. But in the grace of God, it is a reasonable thing to do, because it's possible. And do not be conformed by this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you might prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. What does God want you to do in your life? Well, you find out by changing your mind, renewing your mind, gaining the mind of Christ. How do you do that? By getting into the word of God. Because Jesus is the living word. You want to know how he thinks, you want to know how he feels, his heart, you get into the word. You eat it up, you partake of it, you pray, you listen to God, you talk to God, you share with God, you let him share things with you through his word. You in fellowship with other believers that are seeking after the same things, after the goodness of God. You come and you encourage each other and say, Ah, the boy, you're on the right track, or oh boy, you need some prayer. I've been there. Let's pray together. We can overcome this in Jesus. We have victory together. And when we seek the Lord, when we allow Him to change our minds the way we think and not get polluted by the things of this world because the world is sending messages to us all the time, causing us to think in ways that are not aligned with God's word. We need to put those aside and we need to have the Lord change our minds. Don't be conformed by the world, but conform yourself to the word by the power of the Holy Spirit. Allow God to do this. Then you will know what is good and acceptable in the perfect will of God. And it's different from each of us. I mean, in general, it's the same. We are to live to glorify God and to share the gospel, to be changed, to have fellowship with Him. But how does that play out? In different ways. How do you know what that is in your life? You got to listen to the Lord. You got to let Him show you. And you do that because He's made it possible through the gospel. Verse 3. For I say, through the grace given to me, I'm not saying this by my own strength, I'm not saying this by my own wisdom, by my own education. I'm saying this by the grace of God that was granted to me, the revelation that God gave to me, the power of the Holy Spirit that the Lord gave to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. The perfect will of God that you're seeking for your life, it might look different than the perfect will of life for your life than other people's that God has, right? Are you following? And so don't think of yourself as so much. I have I have learned, I have walked with God, God has brought the word alive to me and He's shown me things. Don't you see the same thing? I mean, have you been around people who uh, and you might be one of them, I might be one of them, who the Lord showed them something and they're so excited about this one thing that the Lord has shown them, and you think everybody else should see it too, and they don't see it. Obviously, they they're not right with God because they haven't seen this thing, right? They haven't seen the revelation. They don't see that things are happening in this way because God has done this and so forth. And yet He gives us all a measure of faith. You know, we're to we're to walk in His grace that's accessed by faith, and even that faith is a gift of God that He's given to us. If He hadn't given us faith to believe, then we would go our own way. We wouldn't even seek after God, right? But now He's given us faith. What are we doing with that faith? Are we accessing it? But He's given us a measure of faith. My faith might look different than somebody else's faith. And the question is, are you walking in the faith that God has given you? Are you walking by His grace? Are you walking by His mercy? Are you doing the things that He's put in your path to do by grace, through faith, or are you going, man, I'm doing these things and nobody else is helping me? Because they've been called to some other things, possibly. He's saying, be careful. Because when we walk in grace, when we walk in forgiveness, when we walk in the power of the Holy Spirit, because we're still in these bodies of death, as Paul describes, we have a tendency to elevate ourselves instead of the Lord. The Lord has given me great insight into this area. And so I'm an expert in this area. And so I'm greater than other people in this area, and all of a sudden it becomes about me instead of about the Lord using me. Be careful. Don't think more highly of yourself. What's the truth about ourselves? If it wasn't for the grace of God, we'd be dirt. We're created in dirt, we're created from dirt. And because of our father and mother, Adam and Eve, we were born into sin. We're sinners that don't seek after God. We're only self-centered. We think of ourselves, we're full of sin and continually find new ways to sin. That's the reality of who we are before Christ. But by the grace of God, what are we now? We are holy, we are righteous, we are accepted. And remember, it's not because of you, it's because of the love of God. He has accepted you, He loves you, and He's changed you, and He made you like Him. We need to keep our minds focused on what is true about who the Lord is and who we are. For we have many members in one body, but all members do not have the same function. So we being many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another. Look, He's given us a measure of faith, He's given us specific jobs to do as members of the body of Christ. You know, the beginning point is have you been changed by Christ? Have you believed the gospel? Have you become a Christian? Have you been born again? If you have, now you're part of the body of Christ. You're part of the church. And there are things that he has you to do that very well may be different than other people are called to do. The eye does one job, the nose does another job, the feet do another job, the heart does yet another job. And many times the heart might feel, golly, I'm the only one that's always working. Everybody else kind of shuts down at night, but I'm still pumping and pumping and pumping. They should do some pumping too, right? That's one attitude. The other attitude is the Lord in his grace has allowed me to pump and pump and pump, and I'll continue to pump as long as he gives me the strength to pump for his glory and the good of the rest of the body. You're part of the body. The body benefits from you, and you benefit from the body. That's why it's so important to be in fellowship. That's why it's so important to be in the word. That's why it's so important to be surrendered to the Lord fully. It's not my life. He's purchased it. It's all about him and the work that he's doing in me and in others, and through me and through others. That's the body of Christ. Verse 6: having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them. If he's given you gifts, don't just leave them on the shelf. Pick them up and use them, because it benefits the body. If prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith. And this idea of prophecy is boldly proclaiming the word of God as it uh uh uh uh applies to events in the here and now and in the future. A prophet would tend to say, you know, if we continue on this path, the word of God says that we have trouble coming. Uh we are uh unleashing the judgment of God when we reject God as a nation. And I'm calling for us to repent, because if we repent, the word says that God is faithful to relent from the judgment and give us grace and bless our nation once again. That's what we need. And sometimes prophecy involves, you know, prophetic utterances about a future event that will happen, a special insight that you won't get, but it's generally this bold proclamation of where we are, where we're going, and warnings, warnings, warnings. If you are to be a prophet of sorts, teachers and prophets tend to have similar um similar giftings. But if if if God has called you to be a prophet and you are saying things just because they sound exciting and powerful, but if you're not believing it in your innermost being, it comes out in a way that that sounds artificial and not right. If you are going to go out and declare to the world, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, and you don't believe it, it's not going to be effective. So when you prophesy, prophesy in proportion to your faith. What has God convicted you of? Share that. Or of ministry. Let us use it in our ministering. Just coming alongside and uh like the ministry of the deacon, encouraging one another, meeting practical needs of one another, praying for one another. If God has given you that gift, go out and use it. Use it and be sincere and let the Lord work in and through you. He who teaches in his teaching, again, being consistent in what he has taught you, teaching that to others, so that it is the Lord doing the work in and through you. He who exhorts in uh exhortation, he who gives with liberality. That's one of the places where we talk about liberalism in the Bible. You give liberally, because our God has given liberally, he has given greatly. If the sin of the world was this much, how much did it cover when he was on the cross? This much. He has given us much more than we need. He who leads, lead with diligence. Oftentimes, when you're you're leading a bunch of sheep, you get frustrated and you give up. Paul's saying, don't give up, be diligent, continue to do what you know is right, what the Lord has convicted you of, what the Lord has gifted you with, what he has empowered you with. Don't give up. Don't do your work based on what other people do or don't do, or respond or don't respond to what you're doing. Do it based on what the Lord has given you to do. Because he understands he's been rejected. People didn't understand him when he came, they still don't understand him today. But he hasn't given up. He's diligent to proclaim the word, to get the word out, to use you and me and his service to declare the truth. Don't give up. Lead with diligence. And he who shows mercy with cheerfulness. The mercy, the grace of God is kind. There's something about the the joy of the Lord that is our strength. If God has given you the gift of ministry, of mercy, exercise that gift with cheerfulness because you see the Lord at work and He's good. Verse 9. Let love be without hypocrisy, abhor what is evil, and cling to what is good. I believe this thought from Paul comes as a result of writing a letter to the the Corinthian church, which believed that they are walking in God's grace and his mercy, and they were glorifying God by accepting sin. I believe there was a man who was having sexual relations with his mother in law. And they were celebrating the freedom that they had in Christ in this. And it's like, no, Christ has come to save us from sin. We're to abhor what is evil. All specifically, all sexual deviancy is harmful. It's not good. It's not something to celebrate. But the Lord in his grace has called us out of it. This old saying that you've heard is accurate. Hate the sin, but love the sinner. But the sinners feel like you hate them when you point it out. Hate the sin. Abhor what is evil. Point it out. But say, but there is hope. There is forgiveness. There is freedom from this captivity that you're in. Cling to what is good. The cross is good. Forgiveness is good. The gospel is good. Let's point people to Jesus. That's where we find true love. Love is not just accepting the sin, it's abhorring evil, clinging to what is good. Be kindly affectionate to one another in brotherly love, in honor, giving preference to one another. It's not about you, it's about the grace of God. And because God came and became a man and he served us, we are to serve others. He considered others more important than himself, so he took our place on the cross. And so we too do the same thing. Consider others more important than them than you. Be kindly affectionate. Have concern, have love for one another. Not always pointing fingers, giving preference to one another, not uh lagging in diligence. Again, we need to follow through. It's hard to love some people, isn't it? It's hard to consider others more important than yourselves when they just take advantage of you. Paul also talks about being willing to be wronged in another place. Be fervent in the spirit, not in your flesh. Let the Lord work in and through you, serving the Lord, because when you're serving others and considering others more important than yourself, you're actually serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope. I'm doing this because I know the Lord is at work and he's coming back. And I can't wait. We can look at all the bad things that are happening in this world, and we we need to, we need to be aware, uh, be aware of the signs of the times. But we need to keep looking to Jesus and rejoicing in the hope that he's allowed us to be here at this time to be used by him. Patient in tribulation. Well, let's just skip that one. That's a little too far, isn't it? No, he's saying, be patient in tribulation. Look to Jesus, look at his example towards for us on the cross. He endured patiently that tribulation, that torture, that crucifixion. Continuing steadfastly in prayer. Again, you can't do this in your own strength. You can't do these things that Paul is calling us to do in our flesh. It has to be the grace of God working in our lives. We need to be ever in commun in communion with the Lord. And so be in prayer. Even if the prayer is help, Lord, help, Lord. Distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality. This is how the body of Christ should be working: helping, encouraging, building up one another, welcoming, so that we together might glorify God in the truth of the gospel.

SPEAKER_00 24:07

That's Pastor Carl of the Mountain Cross. He's simply going through the book of Romans, verse by verse, chapter by chapter. There's just something about having the full counsel of God's Word, and that's our aim, to read and go through the full counsel of what God wants to teach us. Imagine the Apostle Paul writing this letter and sharing the good news, the gospel, to the nations beyond. He was giving a thorough explanation of the fact that before Jesus, we were trapped in a state of sin that was oppressive and limiting. Even following the laws of the Old Testament wasn't going to do us any good, as far as needing to be rescued. But through Jesus' mercy and grace, every single person has the opportunity to be brought into the fold, the family of God. Isn't that an incredible thing to think about? We are adopted by God and brought into his family. If you're not sure what some of this means, or if you'd like to learn more about being adopted by God, you can go to themountaincross.com where you can get a clearer understanding of what it all means for you personally. We have a tab at the top called How to Know God. Click on that and go from there. Once more, that website is themountaincross.com. We're so glad you've taken the time to listen to what Pastor Carl had to share in today's study of Romans. There's so much more to grow in as we study the Word. So come on up to the mountain with us again tomorrow as we seek to learn more from the Lord through his word. Come on up is sponsored by the Mountain Cross, a Calvary Chapel fellowship.