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October 7, 2026 | Noah Sidhom continues his series on praying through God's Word by inviting believers to offer themselves as living sacrifices to God based on the mercies of God. He explains that this sacrifice is holy and acceptable through Jesus' eternal sacrifice, and that such a life of spiritual worship is continually enabled by God's mercy.
Worship service on Wednesday nights in the Chapel
Good evening. Thank you so much for being here this evening. And thank you, Sam, for leading us, even though you're a little sick. But we appreciate you pushing through and leading us. And thank you, Helen, for backing them up there. Let's pray as we jump into God's Word tonight. Lord, I thank you so much for your Word. I thank you for the opportunity that you've given us to come to your Word, to read it, to study it. And Lord, to be transformed by it. Lord, we know that there's nothing in us that is worthy of the price that you've paid for us and all the good things that you have done for us. So Lord, right now, in humility, we come to you and submit ourselves to your Word. And Lord, we commit tonight to do what your Word tells us to do, to think the way that your Word tells us to think, and to live the way your Word tells us to live. We pray this all in the name of Jesus. Amen. We're continuing our series tonight on praying God's Word. And this is a verse that is always close by when I'm praying. Every single morning when I go on a walk, this is one of my go-to prayers. And I'm excited to share this verse with you tonight. Romans chapter 12, verse 1. The Bible says, I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, and that includes you sisters. I appeal to you, therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. I love this verse because Paul is giving us a challenge from the Lord. But he's also giving us an encouragement from the Lord. And more than that, he's giving us an invitation from the Lord. Before we jump into this text specifically, Dr. Rogers always trained us that when you read a text of scripture and you see the word, therefore, you need to stop and see what it is there for. And so we need to look back at what comes immediately preceding this verse in order to understand what he's even talking about and why he is issuing this invitation. If we go back just a few verses in the end of Romans 11, all throughout the book of Romans, Paul is giving a theological treatise. And he is giving so much profound truth. And he is sharing about God's grace and his mercy and what he has done for us. And he gets so excited that at the end of Romans chapter 11, he breaks out into doxology regarding the incredible greatness of our God. He says these words, oh, the depth of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments. How unsearchable his ways. For who has known the mind of the Lord? Who has been his counselor? Or who has given him a gift that he might be repaid? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. And amen. And as Paul gets out of that, he goes into tonight's invitation. And we see that Romans 12, verse 1, is an invitation to enter into a deeper relationship with this incredible God that Paul is talking about here in Romans chapter 11. Paul says that God's wisdom and his knowledge have no end. They are unsearchable. There is not a man that can bring any wisdom to the Lord. There is not a man that can understand the Lord's mind. In fact, God said of himself in Isaiah 55, 8 and 9, he said, my thoughts, they're not your thoughts. Neither are my ways your ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. Romans 11 teaches us that nobody has ever given a gift to God that might be repaid. Nobody has. God does not owe anybody anything. And you've never given anything to God that he needed. Now, the Lord desires our heart. And we'll talk about that here in a little bit. But the Lord does not need anything that we bring. He is not indebted to you. He owes you nothing. And he needs nothing from you. And in case that offends you, I'll let you hear it from God's voice himself in Psalm 50, verse 12, when the Lord says, if I were hungry, I wouldn't tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine. The Lord says, I don't get hungry. But if for whatever reason I were to find myself hungry, I own everything. I would not need to come to you for help. Romans 11 goes on to tell us that everything that was created is for God, from God, through God, and is ultimately going to God in the end. Where did the world come from? Came from Jesus. Who is holding the world together? Jesus. Where is the world ultimately going? To Jesus. The Bible says in the book of Revelation, we get a picture of what happens at the end of time. And when everything is said and done, the Bible says there will be many loud voices that together will proclaim, the kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ. And he shall reign forever and ever. At the end of time, all of creation, all of the earth, all dominions, all kingdoms will become subject completely to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is with that context that Paul in Romans chapter 12 says, because of who God is, because of his greatness, because of his wisdom, his knowledge, his power, because he's created everything, he holds everything together, and everything is going to him, because of all of these things, 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. You see, Paul's challenge to the church here is rooted in the greatness of our God. But he does not issue it as a command or a decree. There are many times in scripture where Paul would say, I'm commanding this. This is what you need to do. But notice the language here, I appeal to you. He's inviting us. He's saying, do not miss this opportunity. Come in and do not miss out what is being offered to you. And I want to join with Paul this evening, and I want to invite you to participate in this mystery as well. I want to invite you, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies, your very lives, as a living sacrifice. As we walk through this invitation, I want you to notice something that's easy to run by, easy to pass up without noticing. This invitation is not rooted in who you are, but who God is and what he has done. It says this invitation is by the mercies of God. So what is the invitation that Paul is inviting us into here in Romans chapter 12, verse 1? The first part of this invitation we see, because of God's mercy, you can offer yourself as a living sacrifice. Because of God's mercies, you can offer yourself as a living sacrifice. I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice. We don't talk a lot about sacrifices today, because we do not live in a day where the sacrificial system is part of our daily life. But when you look at the Old Testament and the early New Testament, sacrifices were a daily part of their existence. It was a way of life. There was always some type of sacrifice that was being made in the temple. And there are two issues, though, with this idea of a living sacrifice. And for somebody in the Old Testament and early New Testament, they would have had no clue what this could possibly mean, because it's a contradiction in terms. You see, there was no such thing as a living sacrifice. In order for a sacrifice to be made, for a sacrifice to occur, there had to be blood. When it would come to a living being, a living animal, there had to be blood involved in the sacrifice. The Bible says in Hebrews 9.22, indeed, under the law, almost everything is purified with blood. And without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. So how can we, as a living sacrifice, offer ourselves when there is no blood? The Bible says it's because of the mercies of God, and that God's mercies provide everything that we need. The Bible says that after Jesus completed His sacrifice on the cross here on Earth, and after He rose from the dead, that He entered into the holy place in heaven, and not by means of the blood of goats, and blood of calves, and not by the blood of all these other things, but by the means of His own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. Notice that, an eternal.
redemption. The sacrifices in the Old Testament and early New Testament had to be repeated over and over again. But when Jesus made His sacrifice, it was an eternal sacrifice. No other sacrifice would ever be required again. Jesus, who now serves as our High Priest, entered into heaven and applied His own blood onto the altar from His own sacrifice. So our blood is no longer required. And that's a really good thing. I'm grateful that I don't have to offer a sacrifice of animals all the time, but I'm very grateful that my blood is no longer required. The Bible says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and that all the wages and the penalty of our sin is death. But because of the work and the blood of Jesus Christ, we are no longer required to die. And so while a living sacrifice, the Bible shows us over and over again, was an impossibility, it is now our reality. So the first issue is that you can't have a sacrifice without blood, but the mercies of God cover over that. The second issue we face here is that it's a lot easier to keep a dead sacrifice on an altar more so than a living sacrifice. Living sacrifices tend to crawl off the altar when things get uncomfortable. And whether we like to admit it or not, we daily struggle with our actions. And even though many of us have been following the Lord and walking with Him for many years, we still find ourselves struggling to believe at times, still find ourselves at times struggling to obey. At times we find ourselves crawling off the altar. And even though we're saved daily, obedience and following Christ is still difficult, and the body of sin, as the Bible calls it, still pulls us in the wrong direction off the altar. And this is why we must learn to present our bodies to the Lord daily as a sacrifice unto Him. There's coming a day that we will stand before the Lord. The Bible says that one day we will see the Lord, and when we see Him, we will be made like Him. And in that moment, our sin will no longer be a curse on us. We will no longer be pulled in different directions. But until that day comes, the Bible teaches that we must daily lay down our lives as a sacrifice to the Lord. Paul said it this way, I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. And while I wish we could do that once and be done, that's not the reality that we experience. Even the Apostle Paul struggled with that. The Apostle Paul was one of the greatest missionaries the world's ever known, one of the smartest people when it comes to understanding the doctrines of God. But even he said these words, I know that nothing good dwells in me that is in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what's right, but I don't have the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good that I want to do, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Can anybody relate with Paul in that moment? We know what we're supposed to do, and in fact, it's not just that we know we're supposed to do it. We desire to do the things of the Lord, yet we continually find ourselves being pulled in the opposite direction. So each morning, we need to offer our bodies to the Lord. Many afternoons, we need to do the same thing because we find ourselves crawling off that altar. And the next morning, we need to wake up and start it all over again. But we shouldn't be surprised. That's exactly what Jesus told us what it would look like to follow him. Jesus told his disciples, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. We decorate with a cross today. You have it on the stage right here behind me, and we have the crosses right there on Appling Road that are an icon that our church is known by. But the cross is not a fun little cute symbol of Christianity. The cross is an execution device. It is a way to die. And Jesus says, if you want to follow me, every single day, you need to pick up that cross, put it on your back, and walk to the altar. Walk to the death of your flesh. I'm so grateful that we never come to the end of God's mercies. We can offer our bodies as a living sacrifice to the Lord by the mercies of God. And even though we must come to him again and again, day after day, hour by hour at times, his mercies never run out. There's always more to be had. The Bible says in Lamentations 3, 22 and 23, the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They're new every morning. Oh, God, great is your faithfulness. So what's the practical application? How do we practically lay down our lives as a living sacrifice to the Lord each and every day? There is no literal altar that we can go to and lay on. That is not something that we are meant to do. But what does it mean to present our bodies? I've told you here this semester that I've been going on morning walks, and that's when I do my primary prayer time in the morning. And I did that after something that Pastor Steve told me one time. He said he likes to pray when he walks. He prayed on a treadmill. He said, "'Cause you'll only fall asleep on a treadmill once." And so I found myself able to concentrate better and stay alert better as I walk and as I get out and move. So each morning as I pray, I begin. We start the semester with the verse out of Psalm that says, Psalm 5 verse 3, it says, "'O Lord, in the morning, you hear my voice. In the morning, I prepare a sacrifice for you, and I watch.'" So every time I pray that, every morning, I pray, "'O Lord, you hear my voice,' and I pray through that. And then I pray, "'Lord, in the morning, I prepare a sacrifice for you.' And when I do there, I take a little detour, and I go straight to Romans chapter 12 verse 1. And as I pray, "'O Lord, in the morning, I prepare a sacrifice for you.'" It's the sacrifice of my life that I prepare in that moment. And I just go as best as I can through my body, and I offer as much of it as I can to the Lord. I pray and offer my feet to the Lord, and I ask him to send me that day where he wants me to go and that I would be faithful to go where he tells me. I offer the Lord my hands and ask that he will help me to show me what I'm supposed to do. I give the Lord my eyes and ask the Lord to direct my eyes and help me to see the people and the situations that he wants me to see. I give the Lord my ears and ask him to help me to pay attention to what I'm supposed to hear and to what I'm not supposed to hear, what I'm supposed to turn my ear away from. I offer the Lord my mouth and pray that the words in my mouth, the meditation in my heart, would be acceptable to the Lord. I pray and give the Lord my mind, and asking him to help me to think about what I need to think about. I give him my heart and ask him to love and desire the things that he wants me to love and value. I give him my lungs and I ask him to help me with every breath that I have to praise the Lord. And I used to just do that, and then the Lord convicted me one day that I was leaving some things off the altar. And as I started praying about it and trying to figure out what it was, I realized that there are some parts of me that may be not as presentable, that sometimes we try to hold back because we may not think the Lord wants them like our regrets. And the Lord has led me each morning, if there's any regrets I have from the previous days or from the past, I lay that down and give that to the Lord as well and say, this is yours and do with it as you would. Maybe it's my hopes and my dreams for the future and things that I desire. I lay those down for the Lord as well. The things that I wish that were, the things that I wish were not, I lay it all on the altar. You know, it's so easy to want to package up the parts that we think are desirable, the parts that we think are good, and to offer those to God. But God wants it all. God wants our very bodies, our very lives. So tomorrow morning, I want to encourage you, when you wake up, offer your body as a living sacrifice to the Lord. The Bible says that you are not your own. You have been bought with a price. And the Lord has redeemed you and we need to daily offer our bodies back to him. And it's only by the mercies of God that we are able to do so. So we see that because of God's mercy, we can offer ourselves as a living sacrifice. But secondly, because of God's mercies, our sacrifice is holy and acceptable. The Bible 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. See, the second part of this invitation is not only to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, but there's a promise attached to it that when we do so, our sacrifice is received as holy and acceptable to God. Now, there's a problem. Just like there's a problem with a living sacrifice, there's a problem with our sacrifice being holy and acceptable to God. The problem is that we do not qualify as
adequate sacrifices. The Bible says that in order to be sacrificed, the animal had to be perfect without blemish. Leviticus 22, 20, and 21 says, You shall not offer anything that has a blemish, for it will not be acceptable for you. And when anyone offers a sacrifice of peace offerings to the Lord to fulfill a vow or as a freewill offering from the herd or from the flock to be accepted, it must be perfect. There shall be no blemish in it. In fact, the Bible shows in several places that when people would offer a sacrifice to the Lord with a blemish that was not perfect, it was offensive to the Lord. The Bible says in Deuteronomy 17, verse one, you shall not sacrifice to the Lord your God an ox or a sheep in which there is a blemish, any defect whatsoever, for that is an abomination to the Lord your God. If you read the book of Malachi, much of the Lord's complaint with his people had to do with the fact that they were offering blind and lame and disabled sacrifices to the Lord. They were not offering the very best that they had. They were offering sacrifices that had a blemish. So we look at the sacrifice of our life, and there's a big problem because the Bible says that all have sinned, and that includes you, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And it's not just that we've fallen a little short or like we're just barely not over the finish line. The reality is that we have all fallen desperately short. Bible says in Psalm 14, two and three, the Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if there are any who understand, to see if there's any who seek after God. They have all turned aside. Together they have become corrupt. There is no one who does good, not even one. You know, it's so easy for some of us to think that the Lord hit the jackpot when he got us on his team, and that our talents and our abilities are so helpful to the Lord, and he is so grateful and happy to have us working on his side and in his kingdom. But the reality is that we have absolutely nothing to offer that the Lord needs. And the reality is that we don't have anything to offer that he did not first give us anyway. Our heart beats because of him. Our lungs have air because of him. Our minds are able to think because of him. But even if we could function on our own, our sacrifice on our own would be meaningless. Isaiah said it this way, the very best moment of your life, the most righteous moment that you could possibly identify is like a filthy rag before the Lord. When you compare the best that you have with the righteousness of Jesus Christ, it is like a filthy rag. But I'm so grateful that God's mercies are enough to cover that as well, that by the mercies of God, we can offer our bodies as a living sacrifice to the Lord. And by the mercies of God, that sacrifice is received as holy and acceptable, not because of our works, but because of his mercies. What do those mercies look like? The Bible says in 2 Corinthians, God made him, Jesus, to be sin who knew no sin so that in him, we might become the righteousness of God. What that means is that Jesus, though he had never sinned, ended up being nailed to the cross in your place. And it wasn't the nails that held Jesus on that cross, it was the mercy of God that held Jesus on that cross. It was his love for you. And the Bible says he hung on that cross until he could say, it is finished, until he could pay the price for every single one of your sins. And on that day, when God the Father looked down from heaven and he looked at Jesus hanging on the cross there at Calvary, he did not see Jesus's righteousness when he looked at his son. Instead, Jesus had taken on your sin and my sin. And when God the Father looked down at Jesus, he saw your sin. And as God the Father looked down and saw your sin, he poured out the cup of wrath on Jesus Christ that you deserve to have and that I deserve to have. But because of that moment, when God the Father looks at you today, he doesn't see your sinfulness, he sees the righteousness of Jesus Christ. That's what God's mercy looks like. That's why we're able to lay down our lives as a living sacrifice. And when we do so, it is holy and acceptable to God. It's not our righteousness, it's not our good deeds, it is the blood of Jesus that has been covered over us. And when God the Father looks down at that sacrifice with the blood of Jesus, he calls it holy and acceptable. This is all in Christ Jesus. When I was going through the PhD program at Southwestern Seminary, the most intimidating part, from the very beginning, when I first read the requirements, from the very beginning I knew that the most intimidating part was gonna be what they call the comprehensive exams. And that is exactly what it sounds like. It is an exam that is comprehensive. You say comprehensive of what? Of everything. And there were years worth of classes and hundreds of books that were assigned. And in this comprehensive exam, I was responsible to know everything that I had ever been taught in the program. It's an impossible task. And thankfully, they like to mess with you a little bit, but if you text them a day or two ahead of time, they'll give you a little bit of a hint on the direction they're gonna go in, but they only give you a couple days' notice on where to focus in on history. So I studied for that exam harder than I've ever studied. Rose knew it was serious when I started breaking out flashcards, because I don't do flashcards, but I did for that exam. And I studied, and I studied, and I studied, and I came with the best I had to offer. And it's a three-hour, it was a three-hour exam, and I had three people who were experts in their field who could ask me anything. And I got through the first guy who I was most nervous about, and I studied the hardest for, and I aced it, and I felt awesome about it. And I'm sure he thought I was awesome as well. And, but then I got to the second guy, and it was an area I wasn't expecting to be prepared to answer for, and so I spent very little time preparing anything for this part of the material that I was supposed to be ready to speak to. And so I was able to talk my way through it, but it was very clear to myself, and I'm sure very evident to them, that I was just using some words that sounded good together. But may not have been the exact answer they were looking for. And then I got through the third section, and then they have you leave the room, and for about 15 minutes, they confer, and I probably make fun of you, whatever else they wanna do. And for 15 minutes, I'm rehearsing that middle section in my mind and thinking, I didn't make it. There's no way, I should have said this, I should have studied harder on this, and I was thinking through all these things that I should have done differently, because I knew that what I had offered there was not good enough. So I came back into the conversation, and to my surprise, they didn't mention that middle section at all, and they passed me for the exam, and they said that I had passed and received an acceptable grade on the exam. That was a huge relief and a great moment. But a week or two later, I ran in, I was at the Southern Baptist Convention, and I ran into one of the professors, the one who had grilled me on that middle part. So we were talking about a few things, and then I brought that up, and I said, hey, I was like, hey, I'm sorry, I should have been better prepared for that section, I did not feel good about that. And I told him, I said, hey, I pulled some of those books out, I'm gonna be working back through that material, because I need to know that better, I'm gonna learn that stuff that I didn't know. And he looked at me, I'll never forget it, and he said, why would you do that? You've already passed. You've already been accepted. Why would you go back and try to fix it? Now, here's the truth that I can take home from that. No matter how hard you try, no matter how hard I try, you cannot, any of you yourself, be holy and acceptable to the Lord. Your sacrifice is never going to get high enough, it's never going to be strong enough, it's never going to be clean enough. You cannot do it. But when the Lord sees us striving, and trying to reach up, and trying to correct ourselves, and trying to raise ourselves to the levels that are required, he would look at us, and I believe he'd say, what are you doing? You've already been accepted. You see, when Jesus paid the price for us, there was nothing more to do, and because of the incredible mercies of God that cover over our lives, God looks at our sacrifice, and he doesn't see the brokenness, he doesn't see the sins of yesterday, or the failures of tomorrow. God looks at our sacrifice, and because of Jesus Christ, he says, yes, it's holy, it's acceptable. And that is only by the mercies of God. That's not anything that we can do on our own, that is only by the mercies of God. Because of God's mercy, we can offer ourselves as a living sacrifice.
He provides the blood and He provides the mercy for us to return time and time again. Because of God's mercies, when we do make that sacrifice, it is received as holy and acceptable to the Lord. There's nothing more for us to do. And because of God's mercy, we can offer spiritual worship. You can offer spiritual worship. Paul 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. You know, last year we walked through the Bible, through the chronological Bible, and while I don't read it that way every year, I do enjoy every few years re-acclimating myself to the story of Scripture and the ark and realizing from beginning to end how God has sought after His people. And we realize the Bible is very consistent and tells one message. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth and people and everything was perfect. And God and man were able to walk together in the garden in the cool of the day, and they were able to have communion with one another, and they were able to worship the Lord without hindrance. But Genesis chapter 3 tells us the story that sin came into the world and created a barrier between God and man. The majority of the Bible is the story of God seeking after His people and giving them way after way to come back to Him and to be close to Him once again. But it would never be the same as it was in Genesis chapter 1 and 2. I'm so thankful that when we get to the end of the Bible and Revelation, we're told of a day that one day everything is going to be restored. Everything sad and all of death is going to be made untrue. And we will once again be fully restored with the Lord, but this time forever. That's the story of the Bible, how God is seeking after His people and wants to be among His people and one day will restore us to Himself. But for the time being, you and I are stuck in the middle part of that story. We still live in a world that is broken and is dominated by sin. And because of our sin, our worship of the Lord is not what it ought to be. We're not able to walk with the Lord the way that we were originally intended and the way that we will one day be able to walk with the Lord. The sacrificial system of the Old Testament was established in order to allow God's people to approach the Lord and to not burn up with His glory as they offered the sacrifice on their behalf. But it was never really about the physical sacrifices. God was always after the heart of His people. From the very beginning, that's all God really wanted. And that's why God gave Adam and Eve a choice in the first place is He did not want to demand their love. He did not want to force their love. He wanted their heart and for their hearts to choose to love Him. The Bible says in 1 Samuel 15, 22, regarding sacrifices, Samuel, the Lord is saying through Samuel, if you're going to do one thing, just listen and obey. Don't try to just do these sacrifices and try to build up this system. If you're going to do one thing, just listen and just obey. Yes, the sacrifices and through the blood that was offered was God's way of covering over their sins, but it was also God's way of getting hold of their hearts. Jesus said it this way, For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Our hearts long to be with the Lord, especially as Christians and as believers and as redeemed saints. But our flesh holds us back over and over again. Our sin prevents us from coming before the Lord the way we were meant to do and the way that we desire to do. Psalm 24 says it this way, Now, unfortunately for us, not one of us fits that description. So year after year after year, God's people would come to Jerusalem with their sacrifice and they would offer up their sacrificial lamb in order to get by through the next year with the covering of God's forgiveness. They would offer up to the Lord and then they'd come back and do it again and again. And the ability to come before the Lord with a sacrifice was a great mercy of God. He didn't have to provide a way back to himself. He didn't have to give them this opportunity. But it was not enough to truly satisfy the heart. Then one day in around 30 AD, Jesus was walking on the earth and he ran into a Samaritan woman. He gets into a conversation and this woman perceives that Jesus is a prophet. She realizes this is no ordinary man. And she brings a very important question to Jesus. She says, you know, the Samaritans and the Jews were not friends. They would not talk to each other. They would not associate with one another. They definitely would not worship together. And this woman comes to Jesus and says, Our fathers, they worship on this mountain over here. But you, the Jews, say that in Jerusalem is the best place where people ought to worship. The Samaritans worship over here, the Jews worship over here. She's saying, who's right? Is there a right way? Is there a better way? Jesus said to her, woman, believe me. The hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. Jesus tells her, you're thinking about this in old terms. You're thinking about this in an old way of thinking. Something new is happening. Jesus goes on to say, but the hour is coming and it's already here. When the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. But the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth. You see, Jesus here proclaims that the day had come. It was already here when true worshipers wouldn't go to the mountain. True worshipers wouldn't just go to Jerusalem with their sacrifice. True worshipers would not focus on where they were standing, but rather how they were standing. It wasn't about Jerusalem or a mountain. It was about worshiping the Lord in spirit and in truth. Did you catch what Jesus said about that kind of worship? He said, it's the kind that the Father seeks. Think about that. God is in heaven right now, his eyes roaming across the earth, and he is seeking, he is desiring to find somewhere, someone that is worshiping him in this way. He's looking for it all over. The question is, where is he going to find it? Is he going to find it when he looks at your life? Or is he going to find somebody that metaphorically is just going to Jerusalem or going up on the mountain and offering their sacrifice and turning around and walking away? Or is he going to find somebody that is worshiping in spirit and in truth? And that's why I love the truth we find here in Romans 12, verse 1, where Paul 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. See, when we offer our bodies and our lives in this way, God provides the mercy, he provides the blood, he provides the holy and acceptable. And when we do that, when we offer our bodies to the Lord, I believe God in heaven is looking and saying, yes, this right here is what I have been seeking, true worship. Do you want to worship God that way? I do. Do not miss out on this invitation that the Lord is making to you in Romans chapter 12, verse 1. He says, I appeal to you by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice. The blood of Jesus provides the satisfaction for the demands of the law. By the mercies of God, our sacrifice is holy and acceptable. When God the Father looks at the sacrifice of your life, he doesn't see all your mess. Instead, he sees the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And by the mercies of God, you can offer him true spiritual worship that he seeks. Don't miss out on this invitation. And when you live that way, you'll understand why Paul in Romans chapter 11 said these words. Oh, the depth of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments, how unknowable his ways. For who has known the mind of the Lord? Who has been his counselor? Who has given a gift from him that he might be repaid? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory.
forever. Amen. I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable. This is your spiritual worship.