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Romans 12:1-2
12:1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers,1 by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.2 2 Do not be conformed to this world,3 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.4
[1] 12:1
[2] 12:1
[3] 12:2
[4] 12:2
(ESV)
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
But it was so good to be with you all this morning. Normally, what we're used to on Tuesday nights, hitting it once and getting it out, and so this is, our 3rd go at it. So hopefully my voice stays with us on this time. My name is Craig Millard. I'm the college minister here, at Redeemer Community Church.
Collin Hansen:So thankful to be with you. I might get a little more excited or maybe even a bit more emotional, than I have before when I brought to the word to you on my yearly opportunity, because I have my team with me. It's so good. I'm just so thankful to be up here and have the our college worship team leading us in worship. We're probably gonna worship a little more than we normally do on the back end because that's just how we like to do.
Collin Hansen:So, I'm just so thankful that you all are here. Go ahead and flip and turn to Romans 12 with me. We're gonna continue our study of the book of Romans. Unlike last week when we covered the entire book of or sorry, book chapter 11, We're just gonna camp out in Romans 12:12. Just a couple of housekeeping things.
Collin Hansen:I want you to know that, you are free if you feel in the spirit, if you hear something that you know is true and and believe to be true and you wanna respond a little bit, please do. It it it it definitely gives me the encouragement to keep going when I hear from you that what you hear is hitting you in your heart. And so understand this is a free space, a safe space for you to do that. That's kind of the the atmosphere we like, when with our college students. So feel free.
Collin Hansen:Let's go ahead and read chapter 12 verses 1 and 2. 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. This is the word of the Lord.
Collin Hansen:It is to be done. Let's pray. Dear heavenly Father, I pray that it would not be lost on us. That gathering here to worship together as brothers and sisters and to hear your word preached is not something to be taken lightly. Father, we have brothers and sisters around the world to where where where where this is an opportunity that they don't see often.
Collin Hansen:So I pray, God, as we come into this space, Lord, we would be present. That, Father, that your spirit would quiet the voice of the adversary that we can focus on what you have for us in your word. Lord, I pray just as we walk through it, lord, that whatever you need to do in our hearts, you would do that, Lord. If it needs if we need change, Lord, do change. If if we need conviction, bring conviction.
Collin Hansen:If we need encouragement, bring encouragement. Meet us where we are, Lord, but may we not walk out of here the same. Lord, we love You. We pray all these things in Your name. Amen.
Collin Hansen:As we start chapter 12, and we're gonna talk about here in a little bit, this is a bit of a transitional point, in the text. If we saw here right at the beginning, Paul says, I appeal to you therefore. Other translations say, I urge you, therefore, or I'm pleading with you by the mercies of God. Paul in the text here is asking the reader to remember everything he's been talking about. And we're gonna hit on that, what exactly that was.
Collin Hansen:But in its essence, it was what he's been talking about is the gospel. He's asking them to remember their salvation, remember how Jesus has rescued them from their sins. And now he's gonna call them to something that may seem impossible. As I was preparing and thinking through just how to to get us to that place, I hesitantly remembered a story from my life a couple years ago that I would like to share with you. But this story, I pray that as you hear it, because it is a story of a rescue, I pray that the Lord and the spirit within you recalls your salvation and how you were lost and drowning in your sin and needing of Jesus Christ.
Collin Hansen:About 2 years ago, my wife, daughter and I went to North Carolina to visit some friends of ours from back when we lived in Memphis. It was a quick weekend getaway that we were going to go to the beach and and spend time with them in the midst of what was crazy, 2 Octobers ago. And on that Saturday, when we were there, we we weren't spending much time on the beach because there's double red flags, and there no one was getting in the water. There there was actually 2 set of waves out there. But my daughter woke up from a nap about midday and and normally, I'm a person who likes to only be around people and other people and our friends were in the house.
Collin Hansen:Normally, I wouldn't have followed my wife's direction. But she was like, hey. Why don't we go out just the 3 of us and just spend some time together on the beach? I don't I don't know what it was, but this is the first moment I would say in this story that it was the Lord's hand, his providential hand at work. Because we went out to the beach and there was no one around us.
Collin Hansen:We're alone on this beach in North Carolina just sitting there having a good time. But there was a crowd about a 100 yards down in in in the public area where people were gathered and hanging out. And as we're sitting there, my wife looked at me and she said, did you hear that? Water. And me not knowing what happened, I'm like, oh, man.
Collin Hansen:Shark. There must be a shark. Let's look. Right? And so I'm scanning the ocean.
Collin Hansen:Where is the shark? Like, this has got to be pretty cool out in the Atlantic Ocean. Let's look for it. I don't see a shark, but about after 30 seconds or so of scanning the water, I heard
Joel Brooks:a sound that I'll never forget.
Collin Hansen:I heard a small girl shrilling for her life. My eyes scanned and I saw her past the second set of waves about a 100 yards into the water screaming and flailing her arms. And I don't know what came over me in that moment, but I took off out of my chair like I was shot out of a gun and I took off running. The only proper response in that moment was to go. And I didn't stop.
Collin Hansen:I didn't process. I didn't think. I didn't wonder about my own life. And I saw no one go so I jumped in. And there was no amount of crossfit that was gonna prepare me for the water that was there.
Collin Hansen:There was a rip current like I had never felt before underneath me. And I get to the first set of waves, and I'm and I'm trying to get over them and trying to get over them. And I kid you not, like, it took 2, 3 minutes just for me to get past those waves. And when I did, I was already exhausted. I had no energy left in my body.
Collin Hansen:But second point, where God was clearly there, somehow there was a little girl who had a boogie board that was far too small for my frame waiting to hand it to me. And so I took the boogie board and I went and I went out swimming further and I get to the 2nd set of waves and I kid you not, like no exaggeration, people were surfing the day before. Like 6, 7, 8 foot waves. Just crashing over and over. And I'm like, I have no idea how I'm gonna make it through.
Collin Hansen:But I dove and I dove and I dove. And after 5 minutes, I finally made it to the other side. And I had no energy left. But as I was there, as I was on the swelling of the back end of waves, I looked around and the girl was nowhere to be seen. Nowhere.
Joel Brooks:It's just when I was about to give up because I was like, I don't know how I'm gonna make it back. She pops out
Collin Hansen:of the water and screams again. 50 yards out. And I don't know how she did it, but other than the Lord sustaining her in that moment And so I swam to her and I recalled my 15 year old lifeguard training that she has to stay calm. Because if she does not stay calm, she's gonna take us both down. So I asked her to say, hey.
Collin Hansen:Hey. Calm. Hey. I'm coming. I got you.
Collin Hansen:Trust me. I got you. I got this little boogie board. Like, we're good. I said, get on my back.
Collin Hansen:And so this 13 year old girl latched onto my back, and we began the journey back. I was exhausted. There was no way I should make it back. And I'll spare you all of the details, but I knew that I needed to talk to her to to continue to just keep her calm. And we talked about a number of things, but the question that hit me the most was when she asked me, hey, are we gonna die?
Collin Hansen:And in that
Joel Brooks:moment, I didn't know and I had to
Collin Hansen:lie to her to keep her calm.
Joel Brooks:I was like, you know what? No. We got it. We're gonna make it. My mom immediately went to, what am
Collin Hansen:I gonna do if she catches a cramp? Am I gonna let her go? Thankfully, the Lord sustained us. And after 30 more minutes, we got back to the shore and we made it. And she falls to the ground and the medical professionals who, for whatever reason, chose not to come into the water took care of her.
Collin Hansen:I sit there and I felt like my body like my life just exited my body. And I knew in that moment, the only reason and we had prayed. Right? I told her, hey, the only way we're making it back out there, we had prayed to the lord that he would strengthen us and I knew in the moment the only way we made it back was him. That I did not save this girl.
Collin Hansen:The lord saved this girl. And so I went to her and I was like, guys, I don't even remember her name. I grabbed her by her hands and I said, hey, look. The only reason I came out to you was because of Jesus Christ. The only reason I entered the water because it was my faith in him.
Collin Hansen:I said hey, this this story right here. You being rescued. I pray that the I pray for you that your only proper response to this is that you go from here, that you submit your life to him and you follow him all of your days. He saved you. Now walk and follow him.
Collin Hansen:She just looked at me and nodded her head. And I prayed and I still pray to this day that this earth earthly rescue for her life would point her to the eternal rescue and salvation she needs. And today as we get to our text, Paul is doing this on an infinitely bigger scale. He's pleading with the reader to remember the eternal salvation they experienced in Christ and to now walk in a manner worthy of that salvation. He's asking them to remember the cross and the magnitude of their salvation.
Collin Hansen:And I ask you, if you have been saved by Christ, to remember your salvation in the gospel, as we think about these seemingly hard things Paul calls us to do. This is the heart of the appeal that Paul makes. When he says, I appeal to therefore brothers by the mercies of God. Paul's transition is one that hinges on all that comes before this chapter. Paul appeals to the Christians on the basis of salvation, which he has laid out over the course of the letter.
Collin Hansen:He is making his appeal to them because there's assumption that they, both Jew and gentile, have been saved by Christ and have submitted to and are following Christ. See, they've experienced the transformative work of the cross. And they've experienced the mercy or as Paul says here, the mercies of God. Over the last 11 chapters, Paul has painted a deep and beautiful picture of the gospel. And as we have, over the last few months, walked through the text, we have gotten a full picture of the gospel.
Collin Hansen:Right? We've seen that we are sinners apart from God, deserving of condemnation. That all of us are like that little girl drowning in the ocean needing a savior. And that savior is Jesus. And he was sent to be the propitiation of our sins.
Collin Hansen:And we are justified or made at peace with God through faith in him alone. Not in our works, but in Christ alone. Then we learned how the Spirit was given to each of those who have been justified by Christ to live according to God's will. And that very spirit serves as the seal of our faith as we are adopted into sonship by our heavenly father so that we know that we cannot lose the salvation that has so freely been given to us. Then we spent the better part of the last month talking about some really fun and easy to comprehend and interesting things like election and predestination.
Collin Hansen:And to that, I say, thank you, Joel, because you made my job really easy as a college minister. Chapter 12, as we read, marks a turning point or transition in the text. Paul moves from what the gospel is and why we should trust and believe it to what Christian living ought to look like. Because the believers have experienced these things, Paul instructs them on what effect this transformation they've experienced ought to have on their lives. It's as if he almost anticipated the Romans reading the first 11 chapters and being like, yes.
Collin Hansen:Yes, yes, I I believe all of those things. I'm a Christ follower, but now what? Many of our college students about a month ago experienced similar things like this as we were in Panama professing the gospel of Jesus Christ. And we were so blessed to see some people proclaim and put their faith in Christ. And then they turned and looked to us and said, and now what?
Collin Hansen:These verses instruct us on how we are to live in light of the gospel. Paul focuses on 2 things, the body and the mind. So we will do the exact same thing today. But hear me before we move any further, before we move into the application of the gospel in our lives. Our motivation towards Christlikeness is not on the basis of earning God's love, but rather by the mercies of God.
Collin Hansen:We pursue and live in a Christ likeness or a transformed life because we've experienced the mercies of God in our own lives. You're gonna sit here and I'm gonna ask you to to to press in and do some things as Paul asked you to do. And your flesh is going to ask you and tell you, hey, turn to yourself and turn to your own traits. Depend on yourself to do this and then God will love you more. No.
Collin Hansen:God's mercy is both the reason we are transformed and the motivation to pursue continued transformation or sanctification. So the overarching question I have for us today is how do we live in light of the salvation and mercies we have experienced? Again, I'll say, how do we live in light of the salvation and mercies we have experienced? Well, Paul tells us, verse 1 point 1. Offer your body as a living sacrifice.
Collin Hansen:He tells us to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice. The concept of a sacrifice is not one very common to us in today's world. But sacrifice was something extremely common during the time of the letter for both Jew and gentile. See, sacrifice is temple terminology. The original reader would immediately think of the process of going into the temple and offering sacrifices to God.
Collin Hansen:And there were a a number of different sacrifices practiced by the Jews in the Old Testament because it was common place in their pursuit of him. So the metaphor Paul uses here is one that they connect with well. You know, oftentimes, when I think of the worshiper entering the temple and and offering up a sacrifice, I think of a sin offering that I read about in the old testament. Right? Where you come in and it's a sin offering to Lord as blood is shed from an animal for the forgiveness of sin.
Collin Hansen:But Paul has spent the last 11 chapters explaining in detail how Christ is the sin offering for our lives. So when Paul instructs the reader to present their bodies as a living sacrifice, He is saying to do this in light of the completely sufficient sin offering already given on their behalf by Jesus. So when we read sacrifice here, we need to think of a different kind of sacrifice, a whole burnt offering. This offering was typically an extremely valuable animal from a person's livestock. A valuable animal from a person's flock that is offered without blemish or defect to be burnt completely at the altar.
Collin Hansen:This type of sacrifice or offering was meant to display complete devotion or commitment to the Lord. A declaration that all that we have is God's. When Paul commands those who've experienced the mercies of God to present their bodies as a living sacrifice, he is telling the believer that they are to live in such a way that their lives communicate that they are fully at God's disposal for him to do, direct, and lead as he pleases. And you know, as I think about this this term living sacrifice, when I when I read it for the first time, I actually thought that it was a contradiction. Right.
Collin Hansen:If something is is is is is sacrificed, that means that it's killed. So how can a sacrifice be living? Well, Paul is teaching us something very specific here about the Christian life. He wants us to know that the presenting of our bodies as a sacrifice is a continual and ongoing offer of our whole selves to God. This is not a one time offering and then we move on to other things.
Collin Hansen:No. We daily, hourly, and sometimes minutes by minute are to turn and offer our bodies to God for him to lead as he desires. This is why Jesus in the gospel of Luke tells his disciples that anyone who follows after me must deny himself and pick up his cross daily. Paul highlighted this in chapter 7 and Joel preached on it when he talked about this war waging within us to turn back to our old ways in a way from a life lived for Christ. And if we're honest, and if I'm honest, we all still feel this pull as we seek to follow Christ in our own lives.
Collin Hansen:We know that even though we have been saved and we pursue Christ, we still hear at times the siren call of our old sinful self calling after us. This is why Paul commands us here in the passage to present our bodies as living sacrifices. That if we have been transformed by the gospel, we now need to continually lay our lives down at the offer altar and offer our whole selves to him. Why? Because we know we are weak people prone to wander without God leading and directing our steps.
Collin Hansen:How quickly we turn to sin but praise be to God that he accepts us and forgives us every time we return to his feet. The fact that Paul tells the readers to present their bodies as living sacrifice nails this point home even further. The idea of presenting one's body was pretty mind blowing for the Greco Roman reader because they viewed their bodies as both bad or negative. They were raised under Plato's philosophy that told them that their bodies were weak and corrupt, that it was a thing or a vessel that your soul needed to escape from. So spirituality to them involved only their mind and their soul.
Collin Hansen:Paul is stating that God doesn't just want an inward, heady worship, but rather a total and complete one that leads us to giving him all of ourselves. A giving of themselves as he says, that is holy and acceptable. See, the presenting of their bodies as living sacrifices is to be one holy or an acceptable or pleasing to the father. Why? Because the life transformed by the gospel reorients us to pursue lives not to please ourselves or others, but to please him.
Collin Hansen:It's 1 Thessalonians 24. We turn from sin no matter how good it looks and turn to God because of the gospel. We turn from the temporal satisfaction of sin because we know and believe that Jesus is in fact better. And the beautiful thing about the gospel is that it both motivates us and frees us to live lives pleasing to God. See, we no longer if you profess Christ, we no longer are the ones who get to choose how we live.
Collin Hansen:But we submit to the commands of God in his call for our life. Trusting in and following God even when we don't want to, It is a result of experiencing his complete favor and acceptance given to us. Because God is pleased with us. And hear me. God is pleased with you.
Collin Hansen:We are motivated to and can live in a manner pleasing to him. We ought to long to be obedient to him out of an overflow of gratitude not to earn God's love. And we're about to wrap up first one. But Paul finishes verse 1 by stating that this way of living as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable, is our spiritual act of worship. And you know, you typically when I think of worship, I think about what we just did.
Collin Hansen:Right? With the singing of songs and the raising of hands and giving praise and glory to the Father. And hear me. It is that. But Paul is showing us that all that our life all of our lives is worship to the Father.
Collin Hansen:All that we do is to be done to bring glory to God and thus is our worship to him. And the original Greek word here for spiritual is more prop properly translated as rational or logical worship. Paul is showing us, if you haven't gotten the point yet, that when we truly understand what God has done for us on the cross, the only logical thing is to offer our whole lives completely and wholly to him. To live open handed to the Lord and to say, lead me as you will, and I will follow. Christian, this is what our lives need to look like if we truly understand the salvation given to us.
Collin Hansen:So verse 1, we're called to present our bodies as a living sacrifice. The second thing Paul calls us to in these verses, verse 2, be transformed by the renewal of your mind. He calls us to be transformed by the renewal of our mind. After talking about our bodies, Paul turns his attention to the mind. Paul knows that to in order to pursue the radical life demanded by the gospel requires a transformed mind.
Collin Hansen:See, because there is a war waging for our souls And the mind is one of the main battlegrounds. Paul knows that we are creatures of conformity. So we will either be conformed to this world or transformed to the things of God. This transition to an emphasis on the mind shows the daily transformation of the gospel is one that is not simply outward, the things that people see, but it's also inward. And if we want to walk in a manner that reflects our salvation, we must learn how to fight the battle of the mind in dependence on the Lord.
Collin Hansen:So we must learn to recognize and reject the patterns of the world. If we're not to be conformed to the world, we must learn what exactly is of the world. What is worldly or ungodly? By definition, it's anything that's not in accordance to God and his character. I heard Jen Wilkin explain.
Collin Hansen:I thought this was really helpful. She said, ungodliness is anything that we love that is of the world, but it's also loving things of God in an incorrect manner. See, most of us, when we think of worldliness or ungodliness, we think of we think of and we point to like the obvious sins. Much of the time, these are things that we point to that are outward things that can be easily seen or condemned. But Paul's emphasis on the mind points to a non conformity to the things of the world that can't be easily seen.
Collin Hansen:They can be hard to identify. Why? Because we live in the world. And the world champions these things and tells us this is where we will find freedom. So we are tempted to believe them as well or at least, overlook them as not that damaging.
Collin Hansen:The world tells you so many things. For 1, the world is sending the message that you are your feelings. That if you feel and think something, then it must be true. The world tells you that you are your work. I need to hear this one.
Collin Hansen:That if you work harder or if you hustle, then the better you are and the more respect you deserve in your day to day. The world tells you that your value comes from the things that you own, That you are blessed if you are able to get the newest thing or be able to go and do the thing you want when you want to. Or I think for so many of us and many of my students especially, hear the lie that the world tells you that you must be excellent or perfect. That your value and worth comes from the excellence with which you bring. Are our feelings, work ethic, possessions, excellence, inherently bad things?
Collin Hansen:No. But when we love and pursue these things more than the things of God, we are being conformed to the world. And this is why my life and my guess is many of yours looks way too eerily similar to your unbelieving neighbors. That we don't look all that transformed when people view how we spend our time and what we put our hope in. What for you competes with and at times, is where your mind rests over the things of the Lord.
Collin Hansen:See, if we are not to be conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewal of our mind, How do we do it? How is our mind renewed away from the pattern of the world? Well, Colossians 3/16 16 points us in the right direction when Paul instructs us to allow the word of Christ to dwell in us richly. Our minds are renewed when they are filled and consumed with the word of God. We must be a people familiar with the Word of God and all the things that commands us to do and teaches us to believe that are true even when we may not want to.
Collin Hansen:We grow into the people God is calling us to be when we grow in our knowledge of truth and then we're able to use that truth to combat the lies of the world. The word is sharper than any 2 edged sword and we must learn how to use it. You know, I speak with college students all the time about this. See, our minds can be consumed with the anxieties, worries and cares of this world, which may, at times, cause us to feel distant from God. Paul is telling us here to fight back against these things with the truth of God.
Collin Hansen:Right? As we hear the lies, what are you speaking over those lies? Are you sitting in them? Are you fighting back with the truth of scripture? Because that what your mind dwells on?
Collin Hansen:Is that what you will ultimately believe? What is your mind dwelling on? Things of this world or things of God leading to renewal of the mind? But before you walk out of here and think you must look to yourself and your ability to just consume as much of the scripture as you can to then apply it to your life that that it's gonna be your efforts that's gonna do this renewal. Remember the truths of 1st Corinthians 211 through 14.
Collin Hansen:Our minds are not renewed by our efforts to discern and implement the truths of God. But our minds are renewed by the spirit working in us and leading us to know what is true. And that spirit enables us to walk in accordance to God's word. The word of God and the spirit of God work in tandem to lead us in our growth as we discern the will of God in our lives. We can discern what is good, acceptable, and perfect because we pursue the truths of God and then submit to the spirit as it renews our minds.
Collin Hansen:So if you want to live in light of the magnitude of the salvation that hopefully you have experienced, Paul tells us 3 simple truths really here. He tells us to be a people who remember the mercies of God, remember the work that Christ has done on your behalf and just how marvelous and magnificent that work is. And as you remember that, recognize that the only rational response to Christ's work is giving all of yourself to him. But not just your bodies. We must be a people, 3, who fight for the renewal of our minds.
Collin Hansen:If you do this, this is a promise I can stand on. God promises in his word. He promises that he will sanctify you and he will grow you in Christ likeness. But hear me. I I would be a hypocrite if I stood here and acted like this was so easy to do.
Collin Hansen:You know, I think we can hear stories like the one I shared at the beginning of my trip to North Carolina. And I'm prone at times, and I'm sure maybe, it depends. Maybe you're not as prideful as me. But oftentimes, I like to view myself as the savior in the story. But if I'm honest with each and every one of you, most of the times in my life, I don't operate as the one doing the right thing all the time.
Collin Hansen:More times than not, I feel like I'm the little girl drowning in the ocean. Sometimes my sin has taken me there and I've been swept out by the current and I have no way of saving myself. Sometimes, life just hits me in the face. And I'm brought so low that I don't have the energy to get back to the shore. Or other times, I'm simply complacent to the roaring lion prowling around trying to devour me that the apathies of the world slowly draw me out into the deep waters to where I no longer can get back.
Collin Hansen:Our savior is one who did not have to leave his position in heaven to save us, yet he did. And unlike me, he knew the exact danger he would face as he entered into it on our behalf. Right? He knew the ridicule, the mocking, the scorning that he would face. He knew the violent death that he would have to die in order to ransom us and he he chose to be obedient in it for us.
Collin Hansen:What a savior we have in Jesus. Right? He does not get tired in his pursuit for us as we are surrounded by the tumultuous waters. And he does not grow weary in his pursuit. He chooses to come after us because he cares for us.
Collin Hansen:So brothers and sisters, I encourage you, me, all of us that the truth of the story is the of the gospel is one that is worthy of all. And when I mean all, I mean all of us. There is no toeing the line of being 1 foot in the world and 1 foot in the kingdom. Right? You are either all in or all out.
Collin Hansen:And I plead with you as Paul pleads with you. Give your life to him. You will not regret it because Jesus is better. In him is fullness of life. In him is salvation alone.
Collin Hansen:Praise God. Offer your lives to him as a living sacrifice and allow him to renew your minds by his spirit to be in accordance to his will. Because Christian, you have been set free for freedom. So live into your freedom. Let's pray.
Collin Hansen:Dear heavenly father, god I admit that I'm far too prone to wander. That God, that siren call of my old self, oftentimes seems louder than the call to pursue you.
Joel Brooks:Lord, I pray
Collin Hansen:for me and I pray for all of us, lord. That we would see and truly believe, lord, that you are better. That lord, we remember the mercies that you have lavished upon us, father. And that, lord, will lead us to the only logical response of giving our whole selves to you. That Lord, we would give up control and let you, father, lead us because father, you are worthy of it all.
Collin Hansen:And as we do that, as we submit to your spirit father, renew our minds and grow us in Christ likeness. Do the work that only you can do. We love you, Father. We pray all these things in your name. Amen.