WEBVTT 00:00:00.320 --> 00:00:04.000 This podcast is a ministry of Grant Parkway Baptist Church. 00:00:04.240 --> 00:00:07.599 Helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God. 00:00:08.320 --> 00:00:13.279 For more information about Grant Parkway, visit GrantProquay.org. 00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:16.879 So, Lord, let our lives take on the texture of your word today. 00:00:17.039 --> 00:00:19.280 Your word is as resplendent as you are. 00:00:19.440 --> 00:00:21.199 It's as glorious as you are. 00:00:21.359 --> 00:00:23.120 It's as true as you are. 00:00:23.280 --> 00:00:28.719 And so when we come to the Bible, we're seeing the highest revelation of God's nature. 00:00:28.879 --> 00:00:34.079 It's not the latest emotional experience we had, it's the concrete reality of your word. 00:00:34.479 --> 00:00:41.119 So we've come to submit to it, to bow our intellect down before it and say, Yes, Lord. 00:00:41.439 --> 00:00:43.439 And so, Lord, just speak this morning. 00:00:43.679 --> 00:00:48.799 Illuminate the scriptures, cause it to come alive and take root in our lives, we pray in Jesus' name. 00:00:48.880 --> 00:00:50.960 And everyone said, Amen. 00:00:51.200 --> 00:00:51.520 Amen. 00:00:51.600 --> 00:00:54.960 If you've got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open it up to Romans chapter 12. 00:00:55.039 --> 00:01:00.240 And I want to talk to you this morning from Romans chapter 12 about why you should never go to the Grand Canyon. 00:01:00.399 --> 00:01:02.320 Why you should never go to the Grand Canyon. 00:01:02.399 --> 00:01:03.520 Let me just by a show of hands. 00:01:03.600 --> 00:01:06.159 How many people in this room have ever been to the Grand Canyon? 00:01:06.319 --> 00:01:08.159 Okay, you know there's the Grand Canyon, okay? 00:01:08.319 --> 00:01:11.280 If you've been to the Grand Canyon, you shouldn't have gone, and I'm gonna tell you why. 00:01:11.439 --> 00:01:14.000 If you're our guest today, we've been preaching to the book of Romans. 00:01:14.079 --> 00:01:23.760 We did all the first 11 chapters, and this morning I'm just gonna preach about two verses Romans chapter 12, verse 1 and 2, under the title of Why You Should Never Go to the Grand Canyon. 00:01:24.000 --> 00:01:35.040 As most of you know, during the holidays or after Christmas, my family loads up in the minivan, sexy, and goes to Florida to my in-laws for a week, where we just kind of hang out and do stuff. 00:01:35.120 --> 00:01:36.959 I fix stuff around my in-law's house. 00:01:37.120 --> 00:01:40.000 One of the things I do while I'm there, I have a friend named Don Minton. 00:01:40.159 --> 00:01:42.239 Don Minton lives in Pensacola. 00:01:42.319 --> 00:01:45.920 He and I get together for breakfast at Panera Bread because we're two old guys and hang out. 00:01:46.000 --> 00:01:50.799 And uh we got together for breakfast like we always do uh after Christmas, and we're kind of talking. 00:01:50.879 --> 00:01:55.519 And Don, all you gotta know about Don is he is a rabid Auburn University fan, okay? 00:01:55.680 --> 00:01:56.719 Or University of Auburn. 00:01:57.120 --> 00:01:57.519 Is it Eddie? 00:01:57.599 --> 00:01:59.840 Is it Auburn University or Auburn? 00:02:00.159 --> 00:02:00.640 Auburn. 00:02:01.200 --> 00:02:01.840 It says Auburn. 00:02:02.000 --> 00:02:03.680 Auburn is a college in Alabama, apparently. 00:02:03.760 --> 00:02:05.920 If you live in Alabama, whatever, it's Alabama or Auburn. 00:02:06.159 --> 00:02:07.920 He is diehard Auburn all the way. 00:02:08.000 --> 00:02:12.639 And so, matter of fact, during the Iron Bubble, when the guy ran the kickoff back 108 yards, I texted Don. 00:02:12.719 --> 00:02:14.000 I said, I hope you're at the game. 00:02:14.080 --> 00:02:15.840 He texted back, I am here. 00:02:16.080 --> 00:02:17.759 And I'm like, dude, you're like 54. 00:02:17.840 --> 00:02:19.599 Get off the field, you're gonna get run over. 00:02:19.680 --> 00:02:20.560 But he's just rapping. 00:02:20.800 --> 00:02:23.759 So I just, in the course of conversation, we're talking about how's your church? 00:02:23.840 --> 00:02:25.360 And we're talking about his, he works at a church. 00:02:25.520 --> 00:02:28.479 We're just talking, I said, So, are you going to the national championship game? 00:02:28.879 --> 00:02:31.120 Because Auburn tomorrow night plays Florida State. 00:02:31.199 --> 00:02:36.319 And he said, No, no, I went back in 2009 when they were out in Arizona. 00:02:36.479 --> 00:02:48.879 We went, my wife and one of our daughters, we went, and and and and it was kind of it was kind of weird because we went to the national championship game and we were there, and it's about$3,000 for us to go. 00:02:49.039 --> 00:02:54.639 And then the next day we went up to the Grand Canyon, and he kind of got not sad, but kind of melancholy. 00:02:54.719 --> 00:03:00.159 And he says, even after the game was over, I was kind of like, I don't know if this is a good idea. 00:03:00.319 --> 00:03:04.159 And then the next day I went to the Grand Canyon, I realized it wasn't a good idea. 00:03:04.400 --> 00:03:05.439 And I said, What do you mean? 00:03:05.599 --> 00:03:14.960 He said, Because kind of going to the Grand Canyon, I just was just kind of like, ah, I don't think I sh I don't know that I wanted to do, yeah. 00:03:15.439 --> 00:03:17.680 And as he said, so I don't know that I'll ever do that again. 00:03:17.759 --> 00:03:20.719 And people in his church come up and go, hey, are you going to the National Championship game? 00:03:20.800 --> 00:03:22.080 And he said, No, I'm not going. 00:03:22.159 --> 00:03:25.199 They're all like, and I said, just tell them you've been to the Grand Canyon. 00:03:25.439 --> 00:03:28.000 They'd be like, What's that got to do with it? 00:03:28.159 --> 00:03:30.080 You're probably wondering why I'm telling you that. 00:03:30.159 --> 00:03:37.840 I'm telling you that because so far in Romans, we've kind of been, Romans chapters 1 to 11, we've been to this theological Grand Canyon. 00:03:38.080 --> 00:03:43.919 Because you see, now Paul kind of turns the corner and he calls us to the outworkings of the experience that we've had. 00:03:44.080 --> 00:03:48.000 And he says these words in Romans chapter 12, verse 1. 00:03:48.400 --> 00:03:49.199 Just two verses. 00:03:49.280 --> 00:04:01.599 He says, 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. 00:04:01.840 --> 00:04:14.639 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. 00:04:14.879 --> 00:04:16.800 And you say, Well, what do you mean? 00:04:16.879 --> 00:04:21.040 There's just three things that I want I want to draw attention to in the text this morning. 00:04:21.120 --> 00:04:24.000 The first one is the motivation, the second one is the logic. 00:04:24.160 --> 00:04:31.680 If you're a person that's scientific or you're an engineer, whatever, and you're like, I reject Christianity because it doesn't make any sense, that I want to talk to you this morning. 00:04:31.759 --> 00:04:35.680 And then lastly, I want to talk about the balance because there's always balance in the Bible. 00:04:35.759 --> 00:04:43.680 The Bible does not call us to this extremism, this radical fundamentalism where we go around yelling at people and trying to win religious discussions. 00:04:43.920 --> 00:04:44.399 Not at all. 00:04:44.560 --> 00:04:49.439 There's this beautiful, simple balance in the Bible that I want to end on this morning. 00:04:49.519 --> 00:04:52.160 But I want to begin by talking about the motivation. 00:04:52.480 --> 00:04:58.560 And the motivation that Paul says, he says, I appeal to you, brothers, uh, by the mercies of God. 00:04:58.800 --> 00:05:00.879 Now, just hear this again. 00:05:00.959 --> 00:05:03.680 He doesn't say mercy, he says, I appeal to you, therefore, brothers. 00:05:03.839 --> 00:05:12.480 And by the way, when he says therefore, some translations I read and preach from the ESV, but some translations begin verse chapter 12 with therefore. 00:05:12.639 --> 00:05:17.600 Because it's kind of like, and it's not just what I said at the end of chapter 11 or all of chapter 11. 00:05:17.759 --> 00:05:19.360 It's everything I've been saying. 00:05:19.519 --> 00:05:29.040 I've been kind of just piling it up for 11 chapters to get to this point where I could just kind of turn and we go from doctrine to kind of duty, from this kind of indicatives to this imperative. 00:05:29.279 --> 00:05:32.000 It's kind of like, hey, I've been telling you all this stuff. 00:05:32.079 --> 00:05:38.480 And in the first part of Romans, we start off, and basically Paul says, hey, man is depraved beyond anything. 00:05:38.639 --> 00:05:40.879 God gave them over, God gave them over. 00:05:40.959 --> 00:05:43.680 And the third time in chapter one, he says, and God gave them over. 00:05:43.759 --> 00:05:48.399 He says he gave them over to a depraved mind to do what ought not to be done. 00:05:48.560 --> 00:05:54.160 And so all of humanity has been handed over to what feels natural and preferable to them. 00:05:54.319 --> 00:05:57.199 The Bible says it's what ought not to be done. 00:05:57.360 --> 00:06:00.160 And then from chapter one to chapter two, it doesn't get any better. 00:06:00.240 --> 00:06:07.759 He turns the corner in chapter two and says, Hey, you religious people, don't rejoice that these irreligious people, these Gentiles, these pagans, don't know God. 00:06:07.920 --> 00:06:08.959 You're not any better than they are. 00:06:09.040 --> 00:06:10.399 You don't have a relationship with me. 00:06:10.560 --> 00:06:11.360 You're just religious. 00:06:11.439 --> 00:06:13.759 You're just religiously lost, is what he tells the Jews. 00:06:13.839 --> 00:06:14.879 And he kind of builds up. 00:06:15.040 --> 00:06:18.240 Chapter 3 says, All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. 00:06:18.399 --> 00:06:23.199 And he goes on a few chapters later and says, Hey, the wages, the paycheck for sin is death. 00:06:23.360 --> 00:06:24.560 Sin's a big deal. 00:06:24.720 --> 00:06:26.800 Paul establishes that in the first part of Romans. 00:06:27.199 --> 00:06:35.680 First four chapters of Romans, basically the theme is that, hey, that man is depraved and sinful and beyond repair. 00:06:35.839 --> 00:06:42.240 And then chapters 5 to 8, he says, by the way, God demonstrates now that I've told you by nature how sinful you are. 00:06:42.399 --> 00:06:47.839 Remember a long time ago I used to tell you that you by nature are sinners and you deserve to go to hell? 00:06:48.000 --> 00:06:48.879 Remember that? 00:06:49.920 --> 00:06:50.959 Let me just remind you again. 00:06:51.120 --> 00:06:52.240 That's still true. 00:06:52.560 --> 00:06:58.720 You by nature are sinners and you're wicked beyond cure, and your heart is not disposed towards God. 00:06:58.879 --> 00:07:00.800 My heart's not naturally disposed towards God. 00:07:00.959 --> 00:07:10.639 So I could have been born and God could have never revealed Himself to me, and God could still be a loving God, and I could have gone to hell, and I couldn't accuse God of any kind of injustice. 00:07:10.959 --> 00:07:13.360 I believe that because I believe the Bible. 00:07:13.600 --> 00:07:15.120 God didn't owe me a chance. 00:07:15.279 --> 00:07:18.639 He didn't like some of you are better activists than you are Christians. 00:07:18.800 --> 00:07:23.519 You read good doctrine like in the book of Romans, and you're like, well, what about those people that never hear? 00:07:23.600 --> 00:07:27.839 Or I got a problem with a God that would create anybody and then not choose them. 00:07:28.560 --> 00:07:31.120 Who are you, old man, that you would answer back to God? 00:07:31.519 --> 00:07:35.839 You've kind of somehow lost a wonder of the fact that he revealed himself in mercy to you. 00:07:35.920 --> 00:07:44.720 But chapter after he kind of builds this case in the first four chapters and says, Hey, you are horribly sinful and obsessed with your sin. 00:07:44.800 --> 00:07:56.399 And then chapters 5 to 8, he builds a case and he begins chapter 5 early on by saying, Hey, by the way, God demonstrates the fact that he loved us and that he sent his son to die for us while we were still sinners. 00:07:56.639 --> 00:08:00.399 See, everything the Bible says, it doesn't just say it, it says it for a reason. 00:08:00.560 --> 00:08:07.839 So he says in the beginning, hey, if you understand what a wretch you are, then you understand what a wonder it is that God loves you. 00:08:08.160 --> 00:08:19.600 And he ends chapter 8 by saying, by the way, this love of God that I told you that he demonstrated after I told you you were all wretches, both religious and irreligious, he ends chapter 8 by saying, Nothing's gonna separate you from this love of God. 00:08:19.759 --> 00:08:24.560 Not height nor depth, life or death or anything in all creation. 00:08:24.800 --> 00:08:27.680 This love that God has for you is so certain. 00:08:27.759 --> 00:08:35.519 And then he begins chapter 9 to 11, and he kind of talks about how you experience that, that it doesn't depend on man's effort or desire, but on God who has mercy. 00:08:35.759 --> 00:08:43.600 The first and only time, the first time the word mercy is used in the book of Romans is in chapter 9, the chapter no one wants to read. 00:08:43.759 --> 00:08:49.360 And he says, Hey, by the way, it's resplendent and full and overflowing with God's mercy. 00:08:49.440 --> 00:08:54.080 Let me just kind of read when I say the motivation, the the the the motivation is mercy. 00:08:54.159 --> 00:08:59.519 That's why he says in chapter 12, verse 1, he says, I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God. 00:08:59.679 --> 00:09:04.639 Now, if you don't understand the mercy of God, you've got you say, Well, thanks for the recap of all of Romans. 00:09:04.720 --> 00:09:08.480 You gotta get this in your head because then you don't you don't understand mercy. 00:09:08.559 --> 00:09:12.080 If you don't understand what a wretch you are, and that God loves wretches. 00:09:12.159 --> 00:09:13.840 You know he loves wretches, right? 00:09:14.639 --> 00:09:15.279 Hello. 00:09:17.279 --> 00:09:24.879 He loves wretches, he loves sinful people, he loves people that are jacked up, screwed up, messed up. 00:09:25.039 --> 00:09:40.240 It's like I like going to my in-laws in Florida because they live kind of outside in a little country, well, outside of Pensacola, and apparently all they have there is like convenience stores and tattoo parlors because everybody there is just tatted up with bad tattoos and they smoke meth. 00:09:40.320 --> 00:09:41.200 And you say, How do you know? 00:09:41.279 --> 00:09:42.960 They got about four teeth in their head. 00:09:43.120 --> 00:09:46.080 I mean, you go to a restaurant, there's more ears in there than teeth. 00:09:46.240 --> 00:09:47.200 It's not a good thing. 00:09:47.519 --> 00:09:52.080 And so I kind of find myself looking around, and very clearly God says, I love these people. 00:09:52.320 --> 00:09:54.159 These people are jacked up. 00:09:54.320 --> 00:09:55.679 I want you to let them know that. 00:09:55.759 --> 00:09:59.840 I want you to overtip that waitress over there who can't remember anything, like that. 00:09:59.919 --> 00:10:01.759 We're here and we're hungry. 00:10:02.080 --> 00:10:05.600 I had to tell one lady, we're not leaving until you bring us food. 00:10:06.159 --> 00:10:09.519 Just gonna give you a heads up about my intentions for this time. 00:10:09.759 --> 00:10:13.679 I want to eat, and it's your job to bring me food to eat. 00:10:13.919 --> 00:10:14.799 No pressure. 00:10:15.039 --> 00:10:16.399 Oh, yeah, you know, I know. 00:10:16.480 --> 00:10:18.480 I just oh, I just can't remember anything. 00:10:18.799 --> 00:10:20.480 Smoke less meth. 00:10:21.360 --> 00:10:21.679 Okay? 00:10:22.399 --> 00:10:24.399 Well, I'm trying, honey, but it's hard. 00:10:24.639 --> 00:10:27.679 And I'm just thinking, oh, yeah, and I'm making light of that person. 00:10:28.000 --> 00:10:29.360 God loves those people. 00:10:29.600 --> 00:10:39.279 If you don't believe, I mean, the person that you have the tendency to look down on the most and kind of just kind of write off the most, here's how you know you understand that God loves you. 00:10:39.519 --> 00:10:41.679 He loves that person as much as he loves you. 00:10:43.440 --> 00:10:45.519 And he's not gonna stop loving those people. 00:10:45.679 --> 00:10:48.080 He's not gonna say, oh, your behavior, that's enough. 00:10:48.159 --> 00:10:51.519 If I had known you were gonna smoke meth, I would have never died on the cross. 00:10:51.679 --> 00:10:57.039 No, he's just gonna keep pouring out love on those people the same way he did for you. 00:10:57.279 --> 00:11:10.639 That's why he says, hey, in view of God's mercies, and when you gotta get your head around this, that God is so mercy, the motivation is not duty, it's not guilt, it's not I ought to or I should. 00:11:10.720 --> 00:11:12.399 It's hey, I've been unfolding. 00:11:12.480 --> 00:11:14.960 Let me just read you a couple things that the Bible said. 00:11:15.120 --> 00:11:19.440 Salvation depends not on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy. 00:11:19.600 --> 00:11:24.639 And his purpose is to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy. 00:11:24.879 --> 00:11:30.080 As disobedient Gentiles have now received mercy, so too disobedient Israel. 00:11:30.159 --> 00:11:33.279 Uh, religious people will now receive mercy. 00:11:33.440 --> 00:11:39.519 For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he might have mercy on them all. 00:11:39.679 --> 00:11:45.440 So now we come to chapter 12, and he says, in view of God's mercies, do you see God's mercy? 00:11:45.919 --> 00:11:55.120 Because if you don't see God's mercy, everything the Bible tells you to do is gonna sound like an insult to your better ideas and your personal preferences. 00:11:55.279 --> 00:12:02.720 Because Romans chapter 12, if you're like into Bible trivia, has more commands in it than any chapter in the entire New Testament. 00:12:03.200 --> 00:12:08.000 And there's a lot of stuff in here, and you're gonna go, oh well, I that's just kind of not me. 00:12:08.080 --> 00:12:09.039 I'm I'm not there. 00:12:09.200 --> 00:12:11.919 I appreciate that the Bible says that, but I'm not gonna say that. 00:12:12.000 --> 00:12:13.600 I'm I'm not gonna go there. 00:12:13.840 --> 00:12:20.080 And how you go there, how you go from what is natural to what is supernatural is in view of God's mercies. 00:12:20.399 --> 00:12:27.279 So you gotta understand, I have to understand the role that mercy plays in everything the Bible asks us to do. 00:12:27.600 --> 00:12:31.600 See, the motivation for what the Bible says is mercy. 00:12:31.759 --> 00:12:33.600 And he ends verse one with this. 00:12:33.679 --> 00:12:38.320 He says, I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God to present. 00:12:38.480 --> 00:12:39.600 See, that's the motivation. 00:12:39.759 --> 00:12:40.720 Now, here's the logic. 00:12:40.879 --> 00:12:48.399 He says, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 00:12:48.559 --> 00:12:49.840 Now hear that last part again. 00:12:50.000 --> 00:12:58.399 He says, This is what a and what once you get affirm and fixed in your head how merciful God is, here's what you do. 00:12:58.639 --> 00:13:04.559 You present your body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. 00:13:04.879 --> 00:13:09.200 Now, those are if somebody asks you over the holidays, hey, describe yourself in two words. 00:13:09.360 --> 00:13:12.720 Most of you would not pick holy and acceptable, would you? 00:13:13.679 --> 00:13:14.159 Hello? 00:13:14.879 --> 00:13:15.440 Would you? 00:13:15.919 --> 00:13:20.480 No, you would, you because even if you thought it was true, it kind of sounds arrogant to say, hey, tell me about you. 00:13:20.559 --> 00:13:21.919 I'm holy and acceptable. 00:13:22.799 --> 00:13:25.360 And kind of fool of yourself, aren't you, you weasel? 00:13:26.240 --> 00:13:28.320 No, the Bible says, see, here's the thing. 00:13:28.399 --> 00:13:31.039 If anybody ever asks you, hey, what's the book of Romans about? 00:13:31.120 --> 00:13:33.200 You go to a church, they talk, they talk about that, didn't they? 00:13:33.279 --> 00:13:40.559 You can just say the whole first 11 chapters of Romans is about how people who are by nature unholy and unacceptable to God. 00:13:40.799 --> 00:13:42.559 You know that's how you were born, right? 00:13:43.120 --> 00:13:45.120 Unholy and unacceptable. 00:13:46.799 --> 00:13:51.120 Let's break off ties with this cultural mantra that says we're all God's children. 00:13:51.200 --> 00:13:51.759 No, we're not. 00:13:51.919 --> 00:13:55.919 We're all God's creation, but that didn't make you God's child just because you were born. 00:13:56.240 --> 00:14:02.159 That's why Jesus said to a very religious man in John 3, hey, hey, marvel not, you gotta be born again. 00:14:02.399 --> 00:14:08.000 But see, he said, you offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable. 00:14:08.159 --> 00:14:10.320 Because the Bible embraced this, beloved. 00:14:10.559 --> 00:14:15.919 The Bible says now that you know God, that you've been chosen by God, you're holy and acceptable. 00:14:16.080 --> 00:14:22.559 So you never have to come into his presence, kind of wondering how he's gonna think or what he's gonna feel or what he's gonna do. 00:14:22.720 --> 00:14:24.559 And and why? 00:14:24.720 --> 00:14:27.759 Because you've been made holy and acceptable. 00:14:28.080 --> 00:14:30.639 You don't have to earn entrance into his presence. 00:14:30.799 --> 00:14:34.399 You don't have to like live up to some kind of moral standard. 00:14:35.519 --> 00:14:39.200 You do, but but that's not the way you earn God's uh uh approval. 00:14:39.360 --> 00:14:40.399 You're approved by God. 00:14:40.559 --> 00:14:40.879 Why? 00:14:41.039 --> 00:14:43.679 Because you're holy and acceptable. 00:14:43.919 --> 00:14:47.200 That's what Paul's been teaching us for 11 chapters. 00:14:47.840 --> 00:14:59.600 And he says, hey, this is what now that you understand the mercies of God, here's what you do: you offer up your to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable God. 00:14:59.679 --> 00:15:07.440 And here's a phrase I want us to think about for just a minute, which is your spiritual worship, which is your spiritual worship. 00:15:07.600 --> 00:15:11.360 Now that you're gonna I don't know what that means. 00:15:11.440 --> 00:15:12.720 That's kind of nebulous and fuzzy. 00:15:12.799 --> 00:15:14.159 What do you mean spiritual worship? 00:15:14.320 --> 00:15:17.120 Actually, spiritual is a bad translation of the word in the Greek. 00:15:17.200 --> 00:15:18.879 The word in the Greek is logikos. 00:15:19.279 --> 00:15:22.080 Logikos, it's where we get our English word logic. 00:15:22.720 --> 00:15:28.399 So if you're an intellectual, if you're an engineer, if you're kind of like, hey, for Christmas, I got a slide rule and a protractor. 00:15:28.480 --> 00:15:29.919 Let me talk to you just for a minute. 00:15:30.080 --> 00:15:33.440 If you're like, I've got a calculator and I can go 10 to the 20th power. 00:15:33.519 --> 00:15:56.000 Let me, the Bible says, hey, when you read, if you start reading in Romans chapter 1, verse 1, and this afternoon you put on a pot of coffee and you read from Romans chapter 1, verse 1, all the way to the end of Romans chapter 11, verse 36, where he kind of ends on who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor, who's ever given to God anything that God should repay him for from him and through him, and to him are all things. 00:15:56.080 --> 00:15:57.600 To him be the glory forever. 00:15:57.840 --> 00:15:58.399 Amen. 00:15:58.559 --> 00:16:12.399 Therefore, because this is true and everything I've said at this point is true, I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, because this is the least you can do. 00:16:12.639 --> 00:16:16.000 This is your spiritual, this is the logical response. 00:16:16.080 --> 00:16:27.919 So if you've sat in this church, while we've been teaching the book of Romans for all this time and you don't have a relationship with God, you should find in you some kind of a desire to kind of give yourself to God. 00:16:28.000 --> 00:16:33.600 You should go to your car on some Sundays and have some desires in you that you've never had before. 00:16:33.759 --> 00:16:38.559 You may not be there yet, but you may not be as hostile to this as you used to be. 00:16:38.720 --> 00:16:45.279 You may not be so driven to disqualify the Bible based on some conspiracy theory you saw on the History Channel. 00:16:45.360 --> 00:16:48.960 There may be just a more favorable disposition in you. 00:16:49.200 --> 00:16:49.519 Why? 00:16:49.679 --> 00:16:52.639 Because that's a logical response to what the Bible says. 00:16:53.039 --> 00:16:55.919 Christianity is not emotional, that's a part of it. 00:16:56.159 --> 00:16:57.120 It's logical. 00:16:57.840 --> 00:17:15.759 The logic is simply this hey, offer up your bodies as an offering to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which, by the way, doing that is i i i i it's just the most logical thing you can do. 00:17:15.920 --> 00:17:27.920 And when he says bodies, he's not just referring to your physical body, but the sum total of your personhood, all that is offered up to God in response for the fact that he offered his son up for you and for me. 00:17:28.079 --> 00:17:34.960 Simply put, he's saying, Hey, if you want to demonstrate that you understand what the Bible says, this is what you do with it. 00:17:36.160 --> 00:17:38.480 This is how it kind of fleshes itself out. 00:17:38.640 --> 00:17:40.960 In a phrase, it's everything. 00:17:41.279 --> 00:17:42.240 It's everything. 00:17:42.400 --> 00:17:49.599 It's not, you don't understand the magnitude of the gospel and kind of go, yeah, okay. 00:17:50.240 --> 00:18:00.400 Well, I'm going off to college, and you just kind of put that on hold because I'm gonna go get my freak on, and then I'll be back, and I want to talk about this when I got kids and a minivan. 00:18:01.279 --> 00:18:03.200 You you will weep your eyes out. 00:18:03.359 --> 00:18:04.559 Because it happens for many people. 00:18:04.640 --> 00:18:09.359 It's kind of like, oh, well, you know, hey, great, wonderful. 00:18:10.160 --> 00:18:12.799 One of my daughter, my oldest coaches go right across the street. 00:18:12.880 --> 00:18:18.400 One of her teachers said, Oh, your parents are so strict and so conservative, you're gonna go off to college and go off a deep end. 00:18:19.279 --> 00:18:21.920 So I'll be visiting the campus this week. 00:18:22.720 --> 00:18:26.559 Just to say, hey, listen, I don't need parenting advice from a woman who's never been married, okay? 00:18:26.880 --> 00:18:28.720 And I don't need you telling my kid what you did. 00:18:28.799 --> 00:18:30.559 I don't care what you did when you were in college. 00:18:30.880 --> 00:18:35.279 But the person that goes off to college goes off the deep end demonstrates I understand the gospel. 00:18:35.599 --> 00:18:39.039 I came to church and did Jesus stuff because my parents made me. 00:18:39.200 --> 00:18:43.279 But there's nothing really in my heart restraining me and guiding me. 00:18:43.440 --> 00:18:44.559 We'll get to that in just a minute. 00:18:44.720 --> 00:18:52.960 But nothing kind of propelling me forward to live a life that is that that is unnatural in this culture, but very natural in the kingdom. 00:18:53.200 --> 00:18:56.559 He says, Hey, this is the this is the logical thing. 00:18:56.720 --> 00:18:58.480 It's it's it's it's it's everything. 00:18:58.640 --> 00:19:01.759 And by the way, it's not just here, it's all through the Bible. 00:19:02.400 --> 00:19:10.319 Start reading in Genesis chapter 1, and you see when people finally understand who God is and what God's about, they just kind of give him everything. 00:19:10.480 --> 00:19:15.759 At one point, Ezekiel, he finally saw it and he just fell to the ground like a dead man. 00:19:15.839 --> 00:19:17.200 That's what the Bible says. 00:19:17.359 --> 00:19:18.720 Aren't you glad that's in there? 00:19:18.880 --> 00:19:21.920 He says, I just I just shook and became like a dead man. 00:19:22.160 --> 00:19:23.599 Daniel, same thing. 00:19:23.839 --> 00:19:39.039 Isaiah chapter 6, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord lofty and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple, and above him were seraphs, each with six wings, and with two wings that covered their feet, and with two wings that covered their face, and with two wings they flew. 00:19:39.119 --> 00:19:44.799 And they were calling out to one another: holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. 00:19:44.960 --> 00:19:55.839 The whole earth is full of his glory, and at the sound of their voices, the doorposts and the temples shook, and all of a sudden I realized there's something in the world bigger than me. 00:19:56.079 --> 00:20:04.960 Oh my gosh! And he said, in response, I am ruined. 00:20:06.079 --> 00:20:07.279 I am ruined. 00:20:07.440 --> 00:20:13.920 The problem with most of us is we've never been ruined for this ordinary life you insist on living. 00:20:15.680 --> 00:20:17.359 You've just never been ruined. 00:20:18.079 --> 00:20:19.119 I'm ruined. 00:20:19.279 --> 00:20:24.000 I'm a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the king. 00:20:24.160 --> 00:20:26.400 Everything was great until I saw the king. 00:20:26.559 --> 00:20:28.880 I was regular, but now I'm kind of ruined. 00:20:28.960 --> 00:20:32.880 I'm kind of jacked up, I'm kind of messed up in the way I think about things. 00:20:33.359 --> 00:20:37.440 He didn't go post on Facebook or get some pictures on Pinterest or anything. 00:20:37.599 --> 00:20:38.640 He just said this. 00:20:38.799 --> 00:20:40.240 This is crazy. 00:20:40.559 --> 00:20:41.599 Here am I. 00:20:42.079 --> 00:20:43.200 Send me. 00:20:44.960 --> 00:20:45.359 Why? 00:20:45.519 --> 00:20:55.839 Because it's the natural, logical response to the gospel, to the revelation of God to just put everything out there and just say, Here am I. 00:20:56.640 --> 00:20:58.319 Just do with me whatever you want. 00:20:58.480 --> 00:21:00.079 I've done so little with this. 00:21:00.240 --> 00:21:01.440 Are you kidding me? 00:21:01.680 --> 00:21:07.759 I'm trying, I'm tired of putting pictures and captions and trying to convince everybody my life is really interesting, God. 00:21:07.920 --> 00:21:17.920 You and I both know that I get in bed at night and I am radically underachieved for another 24-hour period of my life, and I've got everybody fooled, but I can't fool you. 00:21:18.559 --> 00:21:23.519 If you have those thoughts, God's inviting you to just get ruined. 00:21:24.240 --> 00:21:26.319 He's saying, Hey, happy new year. 00:21:26.480 --> 00:21:28.000 Let's just knock it off. 00:21:30.240 --> 00:21:32.880 See, that's the logical response. 00:21:33.680 --> 00:21:34.400 It's just everything. 00:21:34.480 --> 00:21:37.599 So my meditation for the past five days has just been the word everything. 00:21:37.920 --> 00:21:40.079 By the way, that's the theme of the rest of Romans. 00:21:40.240 --> 00:21:43.759 Romans chapter 12, all the way to chapter 16, is just everything. 00:21:44.000 --> 00:21:44.640 Everything. 00:21:44.880 --> 00:21:45.200 Everything. 00:21:45.359 --> 00:21:50.880 He's going to talk in the and we we've we've kind of divided it out, and the preaching schedule is set from now to April the 6th. 00:21:50.960 --> 00:21:53.599 If you're wondering when we're going to get through with Romans, on April the 6th. 00:21:54.000 --> 00:21:54.960 That's when we're going to get through. 00:21:55.359 --> 00:21:59.680 He's going to talk about your relationship to yourself, your relationship to authorities, your relationship. 00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:07.680 To your enemies, and he's gonna say crazy things like, Hey, hey, when your enemy mistreats you, don't, don't, don't, don't just mistreat them back. 00:22:07.839 --> 00:22:11.759 Do good to them, and in so doing, you'll heap coals on their head. 00:22:12.559 --> 00:22:16.079 And some of you are like, Yeah, I want to build a fire on somebody's head. 00:22:16.240 --> 00:22:17.759 It's not what he's saying. 00:22:19.200 --> 00:22:20.640 That'd feel good, wouldn't it? 00:22:20.720 --> 00:22:23.359 You're like, yeah, I got some people I want to burn down. 00:22:23.599 --> 00:22:29.039 No, because when it was cold, they would take coals and wrap them in this blanket and put it on their head to comfort themselves. 00:22:29.119 --> 00:22:33.279 And the Bible says, comfort people who treat you wrongly. 00:22:34.720 --> 00:22:36.400 See, unless you get this everything. 00:22:36.559 --> 00:22:38.079 So I just think, God, what is everything? 00:22:38.160 --> 00:22:38.799 What is everything? 00:22:38.880 --> 00:22:40.079 And then I made this mistake. 00:22:40.240 --> 00:22:41.839 I told you yesterday I need to repent. 00:22:42.160 --> 00:22:42.960 Did you get that? 00:22:43.200 --> 00:22:45.039 Yeah, here's my repentance, okay? 00:22:45.279 --> 00:22:53.920 Because I'm in Florida and I just kind of fix stuff at my in-laws' house and we go out to eat, and and it's great, and I love it. 00:22:54.000 --> 00:22:55.039 I do cultural research. 00:22:55.119 --> 00:22:58.640 I just kind of look around and kind of go like Jane Goodall among the chimps. 00:22:58.880 --> 00:23:00.559 Go to the mall and people watch. 00:23:00.720 --> 00:23:03.039 If you see me at the mall sitting on a bench, don't come talk to me. 00:23:03.119 --> 00:23:05.119 I'm just taking note of our culture. 00:23:05.680 --> 00:23:06.319 Wow. 00:23:07.359 --> 00:23:13.359 I mean, we get stuff for Christmas, and we get like a gift card, and we are just driven to spin that thing down. 00:23:13.599 --> 00:23:16.240 It's kind of like people just buying stuff they don't need. 00:23:16.319 --> 00:23:22.319 And I'm like, I want to just say to one lady, I bet you're gonna go home and tell your husband you need a bigger house. 00:23:22.480 --> 00:23:25.119 You don't need a bigger house, you need a smaller appetite. 00:23:25.440 --> 00:23:33.440 Just hauling bags of nonsense out of the mall, and I'm just like, and I don't look and judging, I'm just thinking, what can I get rid of? 00:23:34.960 --> 00:23:36.400 How can I make my house bigger? 00:23:36.559 --> 00:23:37.680 Get rid of some stuff. 00:23:37.920 --> 00:23:42.559 Go through your closet today and anything you haven't worn in the past six months, give it away. 00:23:43.359 --> 00:23:47.039 Go in your garage and anything you're not using, get rid of it. 00:23:49.680 --> 00:23:51.279 I wish I could see your faces. 00:23:51.359 --> 00:23:52.880 You're like, where's Aaron? 00:23:53.039 --> 00:23:54.400 Is he available? 00:23:54.880 --> 00:23:57.680 We you've been alone too long. 00:23:57.920 --> 00:23:58.640 Maybe. 00:23:58.960 --> 00:23:59.519 Maybe. 00:23:59.759 --> 00:24:01.279 But here's my repentance. 00:24:01.359 --> 00:24:09.519 One of the things I do when I go to my in-laws is that I go just hang out and stay out of the way and let my in-laws worship my kids, which is horrible. 00:24:09.599 --> 00:24:11.519 But anyway, my kids enjoy it. 00:24:11.599 --> 00:24:13.519 Uh and they get free stuff. 00:24:14.160 --> 00:24:15.039 It's great. 00:24:15.119 --> 00:24:21.440 Uh, but but but I almost got in a little verbal tiff with my mother-in-law because she said, Well, we're grandparents, we're supposed to spoil our grandkids. 00:24:23.119 --> 00:24:24.880 Where's that in the Bible? 00:24:26.160 --> 00:24:30.319 I don't want you to teach my kids to think more highly of themselves than they ought. 00:24:31.119 --> 00:24:34.079 Oh, you, I'll just tell you what? 00:24:34.640 --> 00:24:36.480 That no one's ever said that. 00:24:36.720 --> 00:24:38.000 Well, they should. 00:24:38.640 --> 00:24:39.359 They should. 00:24:39.599 --> 00:24:40.480 I love my kids. 00:24:40.559 --> 00:24:41.519 They ain't missing any meals. 00:24:41.599 --> 00:24:42.880 Have you seen my kids lately? 00:24:43.119 --> 00:24:44.880 They ain't doing without. 00:24:45.839 --> 00:24:49.839 I just, if you're a grandparent, it ain't your job to spoil your grandkids. 00:24:50.079 --> 00:24:56.000 It is your responsibility to live a life that your grandkids look and say, hey, when I'm 78, I want to be that way. 00:24:56.240 --> 00:24:57.920 My grandpa's a crazy old man. 00:24:58.000 --> 00:24:59.920 He's just crazy stuff. 00:25:00.240 --> 00:25:01.680 And it's awesome. 00:25:01.920 --> 00:25:13.440 I want to go, I want to go hang out with my grandparents for the summer, for a week in the summer, not because I'm going to come back with loot, but when I'm going to come back and I'm going to be ruined to think like every other 15-year-old that I know. 00:25:14.400 --> 00:25:18.960 Because my grandfather's going to wake me up and say, hey son, let's go leverage the kingdom today. 00:25:19.519 --> 00:25:23.200 And I'm going to be like, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, okay. 00:25:23.599 --> 00:25:25.920 I don't know what that means, but okay. 00:25:27.039 --> 00:25:29.279 And so that discussion didn't end well. 00:25:30.559 --> 00:25:32.400 And I said to my mother, who I love. 00:25:32.640 --> 00:25:36.880 You ever wonder sometimes if you give them so much stuff because you don't know what else to give them? 00:25:38.240 --> 00:25:43.039 You're here at the end of your life and you realize maybe this isn't real for you like it once was. 00:25:43.359 --> 00:25:45.359 It's sentiment, not principle. 00:25:46.640 --> 00:25:50.559 Yeah, you don't want to have that conversation when you got three days still to go, stay in there. 00:25:52.960 --> 00:25:56.960 And I see the look on your face that some of you are like, man, I'm glad you ain't my in-law. 00:25:57.200 --> 00:25:58.319 That's fine. 00:25:58.640 --> 00:26:00.480 Love my in-laws, they're great people. 00:26:00.960 --> 00:26:03.680 They'll both be closer to the throne than I am. 00:26:04.079 --> 00:26:08.960 But I still don't want my kids to get up and think I'm awesome and the world revolves around me. 00:26:09.119 --> 00:26:10.319 I tell them they're awesome. 00:26:10.480 --> 00:26:10.799 They are. 00:26:10.880 --> 00:26:12.000 They're great kids. 00:26:12.160 --> 00:26:14.960 Don't go to my daughters and kind of go, I feel sorry for you. 00:26:15.039 --> 00:26:15.440 You're dead. 00:26:15.519 --> 00:26:16.000 No, no, no. 00:26:16.480 --> 00:26:17.519 They're okay. 00:26:18.640 --> 00:26:20.160 They're doing fine. 00:26:20.799 --> 00:26:25.599 The point is, is there ought to come a point where everything, so I'm I'm sitting there reading, and I read this. 00:26:25.680 --> 00:26:31.359 This is a pastor in Oklahoma, a very godly, godly man that's been hammering away at it for 40 years. 00:26:31.440 --> 00:26:36.079 And he wrote this article, 40 years of pastoral ministry, things I wished I'd known. 00:26:36.240 --> 00:26:40.559 And I'm reading down the list and I'm kind of checking myself and I'm thinking I'm doing pretty good, I'm doing pretty good. 00:26:40.640 --> 00:26:41.759 And I get to number eight. 00:26:41.920 --> 00:26:43.359 And this is what I need to repent of. 00:26:43.440 --> 00:26:45.599 And I'm not kidding, I'm not trying to be funny. 00:26:45.759 --> 00:26:47.200