Romans 12:1-2 - Pastor John Harmon - May 17th, 2026

Join us this week as Pastor John Harmon shares from Romans in our Sunday morning service. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:22

It's always interesting for me to go right from all that into preaching. Uh, and it's especially interesting preaching on grad rec Sunday. I was telling Duncan this morning we were talking about that I I love when Pastor Kyle gives me the opportunity to preach on Sunday mornings. Uh, it's definitely easier when I'm just stepping into the next section of a book study. But we're not in Ephesians today. Um today's also odd because while I I I do plan to preach to the congregation as a whole, very much this morning is directed to you six. Uh the purpose of this morning is to talk to you. So if y'all catch me a lot just staring this way, you can kind of just give me a little wave and remind me that you're over here and I'll turn and but I'm excited. I was thinking back over the last two grad wrecks that we've done and what we've talked about. Two years ago, we talked about being rooted in the Word of God and the necessity of the Word of God. I remember that was a cool morning because, unbeknownst to Bill and myself, the charge that he has in his Bibles was what I preached on that morning. The first year that they gave Bibles to our graduates as gift of the Bible had begun. And I preached on that passage. Last year I preached on the new key verse of Thrive Ministries in Psalms 1 and talked about how it is necessary that we find ourselves rooted in Christ. And I was thinking through what it would look like this year, and I I had a thought, I was curious about graduation as a whole, because it's a thing that happens all across the country. And I had some fun, I wanted to see some numbers, so I thought I'd tell you some numbers, okay? So over the course of your school career, at minimum, you attended school for 13 years as kindergarten through your senior year of high school. 13 years of school. In the state of Florida, uh it's supposed to be 180 school days per school year. All right, so I did some math. That means that you have attended school 2,340 days. Now, that just sounds like a number, but I thought we'd break it down more. The average school day is seven hours long. So realistic breakdown. You were in school in your life thus far, 16,380 hours. That's 982,800 minutes or 58,968,000 seconds. Now we don't measure our life in minutes and seconds, so I said, well, let's go in the opposite. Well, if you take those seven-hour days and you apply them back out to full days, that means over the course of the last 13 years, you spent 682 and a half full days of your life in school. That equates to about 22.75 months or just under two full years of your life. Two full years of your life you have spent in school. Now, schools look different for each of you, whether you were homeschooled, public schooled, private schooled, or some mixture of each throughout your life. School has existed. And for many of you, school will continue to exist after today. It'll look different. I think you know that college doesn't look like high school anymore. Uh things are vastly different when you take into that world. The estimates would say that over those 13 years, you've taken over 1,800 tests. Do you like tests? I got a whole lot of head shakes. No, no, no positives there. You've written reports, you've written projects and other assignments, and all of it leads to uh the next week or so in each of your lives as you graduate. Those of you who go to SWANE, school's technically over. We're in celebration week. Uh, why do I think you graduate Thursday night? Uh Drew is, you know, Drew's done. He's homeschooled, he's finished his work, he's been working on college for a while, as many of you have. Julianne's already graduated from the Votech, and she'll graduate Thursday morning from the virtual school. So we're we're into celebration time. But along with the six of you, 3.9 million high school seniors will graduate high school from the U.S. this year. Last year was actually, they estimated the largest graduating class we're gonna have for a while, and we're gonna start to see a small decline. But we're right there, just under 4 million students are gonna graduate high school. And they're gonna sit in some sort of graduation ceremony. They're gonna go into a lot of different directions. Some are gonna go to college, some are gonna go to trade school, some are gonna enter the workforce, some are gonna enter the armed forces. They are gonna move in a lot of different directions. And as they sit in graduation ceremonies and celebrations, and maybe even some of them may sit in churches, and they're going to hear lots of things. Two things they're gonna hear a lot are phrases like, chase your dreams and follow your heart. And I believe so strongly that those two things are so dangerous for the life of a believer. And that's what I want to talk about today. I want to talk about the danger of falling into the worldly lie, that the goal of your life is to chase your dreams and follow your heart. Because the reality of life is that is not what you are called to. You see, you are called to follow Christ. As believers, we are called to let the Lord direct the steps of our life. And as I thought through Scripture, there was a clear place that I wanted to go this morning. So if you'll turn with me to Romans chapter 12. Romans chapter 12. This is what the word of the Lord says. Paul writes, I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Let's pray together. Gracious Lord, I pray that in the next several minutes, as we seek truth from your word, your Holy Spirit would work. Pray that it would work in me and speak through me. Pray that it would work in the hearts and minds of each person that is listening. God, for the believer to be challenged to continue in what we are called to, and for the non-believer to hear the truth of the gospel, that in each of our lives we would seek to respond to the truth of your word. And that you would receive honor and glory in all that takes place. We pray all this in your name. Amen. So, if we're not supposed to chase our dreams and follow our heart, then we are supposed to, as Paul said, follow the will of God. Now we hear that phrase a lot. Follow the will of God. What is the will of God for my life? And there are many places in Scripture where the will of God is mentioned. I love this one because Paul gives us three marching orders, three things that we should do. And if we do, he says will directly lead to the knowing of the will of God for our lives. So for each of you, and for each of us in here, I want to walk through the three things that Paul tells us. I want to see how we apply them to our lives, and then I want to challenge us to do so because I cannot tell you, you or anyone else in this room, what the will of God is for your life. I can venture I can tell you a lot of things that aren't the will of God for your life, but God tells you the will He has for your life, and Scripture shows us how we can know the will of God. So what do we see first? Well, we see first in verse one that we are to present our bodies as a living sacrifice. So if you're taking notes, the first way that we can know the will of God is to present our bodies as living sacrifices. I love that phrase, but I often know that it can be confusing. Because if we look with a biblical lens at the word sacrifice, what is most often associated with it? Come on, I'm a student pastor, I do call and response. What is associated with sacrifice? Death. But Paul, right before the word sacrifice, puts the word living. And we're found in this moment of living death. And sometimes the mind would find that confusing and say, well, those two things can't exist. Well, they can't exist in the same way for the same entity. You see, the the living sacrifice that Paul is calling to does involve life and it does involve death. You see, what Paul is calling us to, what Paul is calling each of us to, what Paul is calling you all to, is to die. And that death is meant to be what we are in our sinful selves. It needs to die. Now you can look to salvation and say, well, I put myself to death and put on the righteousness of Christ in salvation, but there is the reality we know on earth, and that is your sinful flesh keeps popping back up. Right? Wouldn't it be great if we could just kill that and it stay dead? It would make the Christian life a whole lot easier, right? It would make walking with the Lord easier, but it is not what we have. Paul writes, I believe, a beautiful picture of what he is talking about here in Romans 12 in Galatians chapter 2. Galatians 2, verse 20 says, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. A living sacrifice is someone who has put themselves to death and allowed instead the life of Christ to be the life that they live. This is imperative to knowing the will of God. You cannot know the will of God for your life if you are continuing to live in the flesh. You cannot honor and fulfill the desires of yourself and know and pursue the will of God, because I can promise you they are never in the same direction. God will never call you to gratify yourself. He will never call you to give in to the flesh. No, every time we understand the will of God, we understand that it goes against the idea of the things that our flesh wants. Paul tells us that over and over again as he speaks on not doing the things that he wants to do and doing the things that he doesn't want to do, as he wrestles with his flesh. Now, the living sacrifice decision is not a one-time decision. It's a daily one. Every day that we wake up, we have to consciously decide. Today I want to put to death the things of my flesh. And I want to let Christ live through me. I want to look like Christ, I want to act like Christ. I want to speak like Christ. So, for you six, my hope as we talk this morning is that, first of all, your desire is to live in the will of God. I can tell you, all of this is worthless without the desire first to pursue the will of God. Because none of these things will happen without a pursuit of it. That's true for each of us in here. The will of God does not come naturally, it is a decision and it is a pursuit in the direction of following the will of God. So my challenge to you is this. My challenge to each of us is this. Tomorrow morning, when you wake up, say, God, today I want to put to death my flesh. I want to look, live, act, and speak more like you than I did yesterday. We know the big church word for this process. It's it's the word sanctification. It's a process that will be ongoing until the day that we either breathe our last or Jesus comes back. It is the making of the believer to look more like Christ. And my desire for your life, the desire of your parents and peers and leaders and the body of First Abbott Church, is that you would desire to look more like Christ each day. And Paul tells us the first thing we must do is be a living sacrifice. I want to caution you with one thing before we move on, and it is, as I said, conscious daily decision. Do not fall into the trap that the idea of putting the flesh to death can become a habit. It is not like anything else. You can never decide to put your sanctification on autopilot. I believe that many people in this room can attest as I can of moments that we've chosen that. That we've said, oh, I've got this. Oh, things are going well. And we allow things to lax and we allow things to slip. And we say, Well, I've been pursuing the Lord so well. I believe that those things are going to continue. And that's when the enemy attacks. Because that is when you become most vulnerable because you, without consciously realize it, begin to rely on self again. Sanctification and the daily desire to be a living sacrifice must be a daily conscious decision. Each day decide. And if you find a day where you say, Man, I messed up, don't let the mess up become the pattern. The next day when you get up, say, God, better than yesterday. Let's let's get back up. Let's keep going. What does Paul say next? The next direction he gives is do not be conformed to this world. I I love the words that are used here in these next two, the the opposition of them. Conformity is dangerous. It's dangerous in almost all contexts. It's especially dangerous in the context of conforming to the world. I wanted to find a good definition of the word conform that I thought fit best with the context that Paul was speaking of here. And I found one that I really love. And it happens to come from Britannica, in case you're curious. This is Britannica's definition of conformity. It's the process whereby people change their beliefs, attitudes, actions, or perceptions to more closely match those held by groups to which they belong or want to belong, or by groups whose approval they desire. Now that is, I think, a very clear definition of the danger of conformity when applied to the world. You see, the world, the Bible tells us, is contrary to God. We need to understand the reality that the world is never going to come in line fully with the teachings of God. Individuals and cultures may shift in their understanding and their desire to pursue Christ, but the world as a whole, it's not going to happen. So when we see Paul talking about conforming to the world, what I am telling you, and what Paul is telling each of us, is this do not change who you are in Christ to fit in or be approved by this world. Because there is no prize there. There may be temporary pleasures and powers, but ultimately there is no value in satisfying this world. Let me say that to each one of you. There is no value in satisfying this world. And if you are living today for the approval, acceptance, and satisfaction of this world, I can promise you, you are not living in the will of God for your life. This is not a possibility. This is not a maybe. This is definitive in the word of God. You cannot pursue God and His will for your life while trying to fit into this world. It will not happen. You will spin your wheels. And I promise you, whether it's today or somewhere down the line, you will find yourself broken. Because this world is not meant to satisfy you. This world is not meant to be. Our goal. But as you as you sit where you do, I know with certainty that the temptations of the world are probably no greater than they are in the next several weeks. Because you will make decisions that will alter the trajectory of your life in the days and weeks and months ahead. I've told you all countless times on Wednesday nights. Every decision that you are seeking to make, from the school that you'll attend to the career field that you will follow in. Prayer is necessary. Do not look at the things the world looks at. I promise you this and this alone, because I know this to be true. Things like salary and benefits and living situations and cities and states and countries and comfort, none of those things are bad until they become more important to you than following what God has for your life. And that's true for all of us. If those things are more important in your life than following Jesus, then they have become idols. They have become more important than following the will of God. And there has to be a change. Because whether we realize it or not, when we make those things most important, that is us conforming to the world. Because the world will always find those things more important than following Jesus. And my heart cry for you is that you would never find anything in life that you believe is more valuable than following Jesus. Because nothing exists in the world that is more valuable than following Jesus. I pray that you know that that is true. Because the world has all manners of counterfeit to try to convince you of its value. I was fascinated as I was thinking through how these passages play out in Scripture. And I found myself thinking of Paul's writings, and I found that, and I talked about this a lot with the students, so often Paul likes to give us these long lists. And what's cool is each of those long lists that he gives us, they kind of fall into the second and third point this morning. So I want to show you an example in Scripture in Galatians 5. The second half of the example for the third point, you'll know well. But I want to read first the things that Paul equates with conforming to the world. It's Galatians 5, picking up in verse 16. It says, But I say walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the spirit, and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh. For these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law. So that's the intro. That gives us what is coming. The desires of the flesh are those things that we need to kill. That is what it looks like to conform to the world. And then Paul gives us a list. He said, Now the works of the flesh are evident sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Those are the things that it looks like to conform to this world. Those are the things that the world places value on. Those are the things that your flesh places value on. And they are the things that we need to put aside. I say a lot, but I love when Paul lists out things like that because he never lists all the things that we need to get rid of without immediately following it with all the things that we need instead. I think that's important that you understand God is not calling you to empty yourself to stay empty. God is not calling you to emptiness, God is calling you to better things to fill you up. And that's exactly what we find in the third point from Romans. The last thing Paul says is be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Transformation is really cool. I think so often we see those two words, conformity and transformation. I love the physical example that I've heard a lot, and that's this. Conformity is what a thermometer does. A thermometer will match the room. A thermometer has no effect on the temperature of a room, it merely adjusts and conforms to what the temperature in a room is. Well, transformation is a thermostat. It's something that sets a level and then the room adjusts to it. And in the case of the believer, our thermostat is Jesus Christ. He sets a precedent of the life of a believer, a precedent that you and I cannot reach here on earth. But our desire is to daily move closer to the precedent, move closer to the thermostat, to the standard that is Jesus Christ. That is our goal as a believer, and that is what it means to be transformed by the renewal of your mind. Transformation, Britannica again, defines as a complete or major change in someone or something's appearance or form. I thought it was cool that it was appearance and form. So often when we hear the word appearance, we think of looks. But appearance is how we present ourselves. So the way that we appear, you have two choices of believer. You can appear to be your fleshly sinful selves of this world, or you can appear to look like Jesus. Transformation is the change in our appearance, but also in our form. What makes us who we are. You see, as a believer, you have been transformed in salvation. And the desire in sanctification is to see that transformation outwardly affect and inwardly affect within the mind everything that we do. Transformation is necessary. If we go back to Galatians chapter five, many of you know the second half of this, but Paul gives us those things that are the result of a transformed mind. He says, But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. We see the things that God wants to fill our life with. I don't know about you, but those sound a whole lot better than the first list. This is what transformation looks like. The fruits of the Spirit are only possible through the Spirit. That's why they're called that. The Holy Spirit enables us to understand and live out love and joy and to have peace and patience, to be kind, to have faith, to be self-controlled. Those things come as we look more like Christ. They are not natural, they are not a part of our fleshly selves. My challenge to you is to put to death the idea that the world is worth pleasing, and instead find the reality that the only person who is worth pleasing is the person of Jesus Christ. The difficulty that is so often found within these is that most of us in here probably don't struggle to put to death some of our flesh. We're not gratifying every desire that pops up in our mind. I would even venture to say that a good majority of us probably don't struggle to put to death a good bulk of our flesh. But that's not the call of Christ in the life of a believer. God doesn't call us to put to death most of our flesh and to live mostly for Jesus. The call of your life is not to compartmentalize those things that belong to Jesus and those things that belong to you. But so often the world will seek to invade the church and tell you both those things can be true. Many of us in here have heard and maybe some have believed the lie that both of those things can be true. That we can have the things for ourselves and give the things to Jesus, and both those things can continue to operate. But we are not called to partial sacrifice, we are not called to partial obedience, we are not called to having partial control of our life. It all belongs to Him. And the challenge of every believer, the challenge for you is to surrender everything to Jesus. Give him all of it. Because I promise you, there is not a better place to be. We will know what God's will is for our life. You don't have to wonder, how do I know the will of God? It's right here. If you want to know the will of God, surrender your life to Him daily. Give up the desires of this world and cling to what God has for you. And he will make clear the will he has for your life. The scary thing is, you may not know the will of God for your life if you don't first do those things. Because those things will pull you to seek your own desires, to seek your own will, to seek control. As we close, I want to point out three things. The band can go ahead and come back up. I love what Paul finishes verse 2 with. You see, Paul doesn't just say that we can know the will of God, he defines three characteristics of the will of God. And I can guarantee you that in the will of God, these three things are always true. The will of God is always good. Because God is goodness understood. The will of God for your life is always good. Not by the world's standards, but by his. The will of God is always acceptable. It will always please God that you walk and live in his will. And then finally, the will of God is always perfect. There are no flaws in God's will for your life. There are no broken pieces. There is no confusion. It's perfect. The confusion and the brokenness, those things come from the world as you try to fit them together. But they don't fit together. The world and God will never fit together. We must choose. You must choose what is important to you. And my prayer and the prayer of each one in here for you, and my prayer for each one in here, is that we would find that the thing we desire most is Christ. And in doing so, we would find the truth of what the will of God is. So how do we respond? Well, response is always in my brain boiled down to questions. So the first question is always the same. It is impossible to know the will of God or to live in the will of God if you are not first saved by God, if you are not first cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ. So if you're in here this morning and you don't know Jesus, then nothing that has been said can be applied to your life without first a surrender of self to the gospel and to salvation. If that's something that you'd like to talk about, there'll be pastors down front during our response time that would love to talk to you about what it means to give your life to Christ. But if you're in here this morning and you are a believer, then you fall into one of two categories. You either fall into the category of a fully surrendered believer that's wholehearted desire is to pursue Christ and live in his will, or a believer that is still holding back portions or desiring flesh more than Christ. And if you are in here this morning and you find yourself struggling to give it all to Jesus, I would encourage you, either where you are with a pastor or down front, that you would come and you would say, Jesus, I want to give it all to you. I want to relinquish the control that I have white knuckled. And I would say, Yes, Lord, you lead the way. Because there's no better place to be than in a life that is led by Christ. Whatever the Lord has for you, I pray that you'd be obedient during this time. Let's pray.