Romans 12

Chapter 12, Romans. A couple of Sundays have passed since the last time we dealt with this book. Perhaps you will remember that the last thing we dealt with was the people of Israel, remember? Chapters 9, 10, and 11, and we are making our way through the Epistle to the Romans. We have already come quite a long way. The Epistle to the Romans has 16 chapters; today we are at Chapter 12, and there in verse 1 it says:

“...Therefore, brothers, I beseech you by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service....”

I am going to qualify a little what it says there, “which is your reasonable service.” What does that really mean? We will see in a moment.

Verse 2: “...Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God is. For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think of himself with sound judgment, according to the measure of faith that God has allotted to each one....”

I don’t know whether that is... Gonzalo, can you put the text up on...? Okay, they are looking for it. Thank you. We have somehow gotten spoiled by having it there. It is a great blessing, a great service.

Verse 4: “...For just as we have many members in one body, but not all the members have the same function, so we too, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Therefore, having different gifts according to the grace given to us, if it is prophecy, let it be used according to the measure of faith; if service, in serving; he who teaches, in teaching; he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with generosity; he who leads, with diligence; and finally, he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.”

May the Lord bless His holy Word. Father, we certainly commit it to You this morning, that it may be Your mouth speaking to us, Father, ministering to each one of us and opening up a new vision of Your revelation to Your people, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Anyone who reads this passage, Chapter 12, after having read the previous 11 chapters, immediately realizes that there is a change in the tone of the Apostle Paul’s letter. Without a doubt, this chapter marks the beginning of a new section in this entire letter. The first eleven chapters have been a theological reflection on the nature of salvation, the mercy of God, the sin of man, the fact that man cannot justify himself and needs the grace of God, and the fact that Jesus Christ is the instrument God uses to save us by grace.

It speaks about the process of sanctification and the fact that being saved by grace and not by works does not mean that we can become careless in our conduct, in our moral lives, but quite the opposite. It says that we have died to sin and that we now belong to another, and that just as we once served sin, we are now supposed to serve holiness; it clarifies all those things.

It is a very profound, highly nuanced theological reflection by a man who was highly trained in biblical, theological, scholarly reflection—a man who adds qualifications where they need to be added, clarifies terms, anticipates objections, and does everything possible to give a clear idea of the theology of the church regarding the subject of salvation, the fall of man, his tendency to sin and offend God, and therefore the need for a Savior. All those things are very well delineated in those first eleven chapters.

But in Chapter 12, then, a practical, applied section begins. It is the application of what has transpired up to that point. It is a call from the Apostle Paul saying that, well, now that you know what God has done, your situation and the situation of man, and God’s plan of salvation, these are the things you have to do in order to live in light of that lofty revelation you have received, in light of everything God has done for you.

And especially when one considers that in Chapter 11, at the end of that Chapter 11, the Apostle Paul speaks about how God has arranged things so as to bring all humanity to a point of total dependence on Him, to the recognition that all have sinned, that all fall short of the glory of God—Jews, Greeks, believers—and that God has invested so much care in devising an entire eternal, universal plan to save humanity and prepare it; in other words, that God has taken pains and gone to great lengths to prepare a perfect plan for humanity.

In Chapter 11, in verse 33, Paul bursts into praise and an expression of admiration for the mercy and greatness of God. It says in verse 32, “...For God has subjected everyone to disobedience, that He might have mercy on everyone. Oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways beyond tracing out....”

Then, in Chapter 12, verse 1, speaking of that mercy which we have just pointed out that God has for everyone, the Apostle Paul says, “...Therefore, brothers, I beseech you by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies....”

Do you see? That “therefore” indicates that Paul’s thought is connected with what he wrote previously. What it tells us, brothers, is that when we consider all the care God has shown us, the mercy God has shown us—the Word says that while we were mired in sin, Christ died for us. We did not seek Him; He sought us. He gave His only begotten Son so that we would not be condemned, so that no one would perish.

God is a God of great mercy. He has invested so much care in humanity, and so Paul says, brothers, in light of that great mercy God shows us, the only thing we can do, the very least we can do, is present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.

What does it mean to “present our bodies as a living sacrifice”? That word “present,” “paristemi,” means “to present something, to surrender something so that it may be used in a certain way.”

If you go to Chapter 6 of Romans, verse 13, it says, “...Neither present your members....”

It is the same idea. Your members means your arms, your legs, your eyes, your organs in general, everything that makes up your life. Do not present it—there is the same word, “paristemi”—it means to present, hand over, or surrender something to someone as his property for his use, so that it becomes his possession and comes under his control or dominion, to place it at his disposal.

Paul says, “Do not present your members, your body, your life, to sin as instruments of unrighteousness....”

That is, do not hand over your life; do not allow your life to be used for sinful and harmful things, but, it says, “...present yourselves”—again, the same word—“to God as those alive from the dead....”

Do you see the image there? That image of sacrifice in Chapter 12. Here it speaks of “...presenting yourselves as those alive from the dead, and your members to God as instruments of righteousness....”

In other words, God’s call to the believer is a call to live a life consecrated to noble things, good things, righteousness, love, mercy, kindness, and good works. A Christian should never be used to harm anyone, neither by word nor by action nor in any other way. We are people completely consecrated to one thing, and that is to be angels here on earth, to be bearers of the grace of God, to be messengers of the love of God. Wherever you may be—in your home, at work, in your neighborhood, wherever—your body, your life, has been consecrated to be an instrument of righteousness, love, kindness, and mercy.

And that is what we are 24 hours a day. If you see someone in need on the street, you have to see yourself there as an instrument of God’s grace and mercy. If you see someone at work who is sad, depressed, and needs a word of comfort or advice, you are there because you are... that is your life. You have presented, you have consecrated your life to serve the Lord and to be an instrument of blessing. If someone has a material or financial need and you can lend them a hand and help, that is your calling. But you cannot be used for anything ignoble or unjust, because your life has been consecrated to the Lord, and the Lord calls you to that.

What is more, even your mind must be consecrated to what is positive. In Philippians, Chapter 4, verse 8, the Apostle Paul says, “...Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good report, if there is any virtue, if there is anything worthy of praise, think on these things....”

In other words, our realm, the place where we dwell as people who have been presented to the Lord, is the world of kindness, love, righteousness, and things that are good and noble. The Apostle Paul says in another passage that “...the weapons of our warfare are not carnal....” And he also says that we do not use the weapons of darkness, but the weapons of what? Of light.

We are people who have been consecrated to the Lord, and Paul says, “...present your bodies....” Do you know how one presents a baby? One presents a baby, brings the baby to the Lord, and consecrates the baby to the Lord. That is what the Jews did: they brought the firstborn; they brought children when they were born, circumcised them, or presented the baby girl or baby boy and consecrated the child to the Lord; they presented the child to Him. That is the idea.

And likewise, we have to present our lives, our bodies, to the Lord and consecrate them. Another image that helps explain this is the image of the sacrifice that was presented before Jehovah. When a lamb or another animal was slaughtered for the purposes of the temple sacrifice, the priest or the Levite slaughtered it and then presented it to the Lord. Sometimes, if the offerings were, for example, offerings of vegetables, flour, or oil, they would wave them before God; they would present them to the Lord so that the Lord would, as it were, say, “Okay, I approve it; I accept it.”

It is like when you are in a very fine restaurant and they come over after you order a certain very elegant drink—which I am not going to name—and they present the bottle to you, right? I have only seen it in movies, so... and the waiter comes and presents the bottle to see whether you approve, okay? And he presents it to you.

And that is likewise how we present our lives to the Lord. And Paul says, I beseech you to present your lives... In light of everything God has done, the only thing left for us to do is for our lives to be a surrender, a sacrifice to the Lord. In this idea of presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, once again there is the idea, brothers, that when we enter into the ways of the Lord, in light of everything God has done, we have already died.

Do you remember that in Chapter 6 there is also this entire image of dying? I spoke about that: the image of dying to the world, dying to self, dying to sin, dying to the flesh, all these things, and how in that dying there is great blessing because we rise again to a new life. So when we live our lives as a sacrifice, there are many things—the Christian life is full of things that we have to sacrifice before God. There are many pleasures and many preferences in which we would very gladly indulge, but we know that God does not approve of them, and so we sacrifice them to the Lord.

There are many people, however, who do not want to relinquish those parts of their lives and want to live with one foot in the world and one foot in the Gospel, and they love the things of the world so much that they are not willing to let them go. But that is not how it is with God; we have to live our lives as a living sacrifice.

Another idea I get from that image of the living sacrifice is that the Christian life is a continual process of renewal and change, of surrendering things, relinquishing things, and dying to things; it is continual. That is the idea of a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. You have to make a living sacrifice 24 hours a day for the rest of your life. You have to be continually burning before the Lord, and your life must be used for the glory of God. Your energy, your money, your talents, your family, your time, everything, your profession—everything must be available: a living sacrifice. You are a living sacrifice; God is continually waiting for you to bless Him with the fragrance of your life being consumed for His glory.

How many say amen to that? That is what God wants: that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. Your translation may say that this is “your reasonable service.” That is one of the worst translations in the entire Spanish language, because in the original Greek, the idea it conveys is “which is your true worship,” or “which constitutes your true worship or your spiritual worship.” The word “logiken,” which is translated here as “reasonable,” is a very complex word from which the word “logic” comes, but it means, rather, “it is your worship with coherence, with consistency, with reason.” In other words, the true worship of the Son of God is this: to live your life in that way, as a living sacrifice.

It is not merely coming to church and singing with our mouths and attending the service. And that is something we have—the mindset of the children of God has to change regarding that, brothers and sisters. Many times we have been taught that being a Christian means going to church for a little while, witnessing something that is taking place on the platform, and then, well, we have done our duty and go home until the following Sunday, when we come back. How many used to live that way and thought that was religion, right? Going there, sitting down, perhaps making the sign of the cross and saying something while thinking about the beans you had left at home that were burning, or whatever, and thinking that because you were there, in that place, doing those things and carrying out certain rituals, you had already fulfilled your duty. Yes, because that is what matters: carrying out the rituals.

But there is no such thing in the Gospel. In the Gospel, we ourselves are supposed to be absolutely and profoundly involved in living the Christian life. It is not only the priest or the pastor or the evangelist; it is every Christian, every believer. And if you think about it, that is a revolutionary idea: the fact that you are supposed to live your life in complete intimacy with God, interacting with God, with the Word of God, with the call of God, living your life as a sacrifice—sweating, crying, calling out, serving, giving, growing, transforming, surrendering, losing, gaining, being hammered by the Word of God.

You are in continual dealings with God; you are a spiritual athlete, and that is what constitutes your true praise and worship. It is not coming to church and carrying out outward rituals. All of that is good, beautiful, wonderful. Singing to the Lord with the people of God is beautiful. Praying is lovely. Tithing is precious; tithing is precious. How many say amen? I could not let that one get away. It is all good, but that is not what constitutes our true worship. True worship is what you live outside the church, in a sense, you know?

Coming here to church is easy. Here we are all little angels. A tie works wonders in changing a person, but true praise is how you live out there, huh? When Francis says to you, “Brothers, don’t park your car so close to the other one.” Ah, I am a living sacrifice. Before throwing that little dagger at his eyes, say, “I am a living sacrifice.” Breathe, count to 10, and say, “Thank you, brother, that’s fine, I’ll move it. May the Lord bless you.”

On the road, when someone cuts you off, instead of letting out words in tongues that are not angelic, you say, “I am a living sacrifice,” right? And then you rein in the horses and do what a child of God does. When there is marital strife and you want to bring out that thing you have been keeping in reserve for 4 days, which is already nicely aged because you have been savoring it carefully and it is ready for you to hurl with great pleasure, right? You say, “No, I am a living sacrifice.” How many say amen to that?

That is true worship, “logiken la treian,” true worship. It is worship that has coherence, that makes sense, that has consistency. When we live our lives as a sacrifice to the Lord, then we are truly worshiping Him, and He delights in our sacrifice. He looks down from His temple, from His sanctuary, and smells burning flesh, and says, “Mmm, how good; My child is learning.” How good a little pork rind smells when it is frying there; it smells good. That is it: God likes to breathe in the smell of flesh cooking little by little.

“...A living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, which constitutes your true worship.”

And he continues developing this idea, right? In verse 2 he says, “...Do not conform to this age....”

What does that mean? What does “do not conform to this age” mean? First of all, what age? It is not the twenty-first century. The word in the original Greek is “aion,” which means epoch, era, time. It says, do not conform to this time, to this era in which you are living, and that applies to every century.

The Lord tells us, “Christians, you must not conform.” We are countercultural people; did you know that? The Christian goes against the culture. People are going in one direction, and there is the Christian in his car, driving down the middle in the opposite direction. And people say, “Why doesn’t this person join us? Why is he going in the opposite direction?” Because the Word says, “Do not conform to this age.”

The believer’s life—the values of the Kingdom of God—are totally different from the values of the world. It turns the world’s values upside down. That is why, when John and James came to Jesus to say, “Lord, when You are in Your kingdom, put me on Your right and my brother on Your left,” the Lord said to him, “Just a moment. In the Kingdom of Heaven, things are very different. In the world, those who are lords use others to serve themselves, but it is not that way in the Kingdom of God. In the Kingdom of God, what does the greatest one do? He serves the lesser, and the first has to be like what? Like the one who comes afterward, like the last.” It turns things upside down.

The Lord always said, “You have heard that it was said, hate your enemy and love your friends,” and the Lord says, “No, sir, it is not that way: you will love your friend, you will bless the one who curses you, right? You will help the one who is doing you harm; you will speak well of the person who speaks badly of you, because you will heap burning coals on his head, and God will bless you because you are doing that.”

It says that the way we fight is not according to the flesh, but that the weapons of God are powerful for the destruction of strongholds. Man is accustomed to the hammer, the rifle, the dagger, and the child of God says, “No, I have weapons far more powerful than those. I have weapons that change the heart, that turn the enemy into a friend, that neutralize him, that unleash angels upon him who can do a better job of destroying him than I can.”

The Word says, “Leave vengeance to the Lord. Vengeance is Mine; I will repay, says the Lord.” Do not seek vengeance yourself, it says. Do you see? That is the idea: do not conform to this world; do not live according to the laws, customs, values, and tastes of the culture in which you find yourselves. That is terrible; it is difficult, because you want to fit in, you want to dress the way people dress. You want to talk the way the world talks; you want to act the way the world acts, and the Bible tells you, “No, you have entered a different culture; it is the culture of God.” And there, things move in a way completely contrary to how they move in the world, and so we have to adjust to that and live with the agony of each day.

That is part of being a living sacrifice, you know? When your friends want you to go in one direction and you say, “Ah, I can’t,” and then conflict comes and you feel alone. When you are at the university and on Saturday night the young people are out there running around, doing whatever they please and sleeping with everyone, with the liquor flowing and the drugs... and you are shut up there, young man, in your room watching television because you cannot take part with them. That is being a living sacrifice, because you say, “No, I cannot conform to this age. I am a member of a different race.”

That is living life as a living sacrifice. That is not conforming to this era. It is difficult, yes or no? When you go to the video store and see that video you are dying to watch, but it has an R there that does not look very good, and you know it has sexual content that will complicate your life, and you tear it from your hand, put it back, and look at it like this: “Good grief, why, Lord? One exception, Father, even if only for today.” “Do not conform to this age.” “Do not conform to this age.”

You drool over that soap opera when you see the advertisements, but it does not have good images; it is going to fill my mind. The Word says, “Everything that is good, everything that is pure, everything that is lovely,” and there I do not see anything good or pure or lovely or worthy of praise, so I cannot go there. Like a living sacrifice, not conforming to this age.

I am sorry if I made things more complicated for some of the sisters. Right? But then it says, “Do not conform to this culture, but what? Be transformed, be transformed through the renewing of your understanding.”

In other words, instead of... there is a play on words there: instead of adapting ourselves to the world, what we must do is always be in a process of continual transformation and renewal. The Christian must always be transforming; the Christian must always be in motion. God did not call you to enter the Gospel and remain exactly the same as you were 20 years ago. There is nothing more beautiful than a Christian who has said, “No, I want to be in a continual process of change in my life, learning new things every day.”

I look at many of you, and over the years I have been able to see the changes in your lives, the transformations, the growth. Your personality has gradually become more aligned with the Gospel and the Word of God. You have made sacrifices; you have taken parts of your character and allowed the Lord to mold them. You are now a little sweeter; there are fewer quills when I touch you like this, and I feel more softness in your skin. The look in your eyes has changed a little; there are grudges that have now been released. Some men have learned to cry in the presence of the Lord. Before, they could not even sing; now they praise God with joy and freedom. Some have experienced changes in different ways; they have learned to give the Lord their time, their resources, and their money. There have been changes; they have gradually been transformed and renewed.

The Christian life has to be like that, brothers and sisters. We have to change; we have to be renewed. You cannot say, “I was born this way, this is how I am going to die, and this is how I was formed,” and be a Christian. That is a contradiction. The Christian is always being renewed, changing, acquiring new things. Glory to the Lord.

God has called you to a life of perpetual growth: developing new skills, learning new things, changing your personality. There is nothing more beautiful than a man or a woman who is changing and improving, surrendering new things to the Lord, learning what the Christian life is and how to flow in the Lord, and discovering new spiritual resources for life. That is beautiful. Like a living sacrifice, you keep letting go, letting go, becoming lighter, happier, and more beautiful each time. You enjoy life more. That is the beautiful thing: the more you give to the Lord, the more you receive—more blessing, more joy for life. It is all for you.

Do not conform to this world, but be transformed through the renewing of your understanding. That is why it is so important to immerse oneself in the Word of God. I do not know a better way to change your way of thinking than to learn to study the Bible, learn to read the Scriptures, and delight in the Scriptures.

What I remember most about my mother was her love for the Word of God. One of the things that hurt her most when she lost—when she began to lose her sight—was that she could not read the Bible. The source of her wisdom and of her very special personality was that she was a woman who fed on the Word. She was not an educated, highly intellectual woman, but the Word of God taught her so many things. In her simplicity, the Word became a source of wisdom for her.

And one of the things for which I thank God is that she passed on to me that joy in the Bible, in the Word. And that respect I have—of all the books there are in the world, brothers and sisters, I can tell you with complete assurance that there is no book deeper or wiser than the Word of God. And the act of reading it is not merely about the information one acquires; it is that this Bible, this Word, has a quality that, it says, is living. And it gets inside you and changes you. It is as though you were eating energy, consuming spiritual fuel, and that is changing your innermost being. When you act according to the Word of the Lord, the Word of God gives you wisdom and changes your mind. You then see life in a very different way, and you process life’s events, human relationships, tragedies, struggles, problems, tensions, illnesses, disappointments, and also triumphs and joys with a computer very different from the world’s computer. Your understanding is changed, and you can enjoy life more because you can better understand the reason for the things you are experiencing.

So Paul says, transform yourselves by renewing your mental computer, changing your understanding. Brother, I advise you in the name of the Lord: become a student and a lover of the Word of God. Take advantage of the resources this church offers you.

Right now there are brothers and sisters taking their classes here, studying discipleship. I encourage others to do that; when the time comes later on, join the teaching sessions. Read your Bible every day. Keep your Bible close at hand there at work; when you have 10 minutes during your lunch hour, go off to a corner, read two chapters, and devote some time to those two chapters. Ask yourself, “What is God saying to me here? I am going to draw out one truth, and I am going to meditate on that truth today.” And tomorrow, do the same thing, and you will keep accumulating truths that will be a great blessing to your life, and you will keep growing in wisdom because your understanding will be changed more and more.

And finally, what happens as a result of this.... I am going to ask the brothers to get ready in a couple of minutes to come forward, and we are going to distribute Holy Communion.

The last thing that happens when we live life this way—look at what we have said; let us review it before we conclude. God has given much, He has bestowed much, He has invested much in us; we have seen His mercy in those previous chapters. Therefore, it is our responsibility to live life by offering our bodies, everything we have, and sacrificing whatever is necessary so that God may be glorified and so that we may become a sacrifice pleasing to the Lord.

This constitutes our true life of worship. This is what distinguishes a believer who is a true worshiper. It is not what comes out of their mouth or what they do with their body in church, but the way they live their life 24 hours a day. One of the things that enables us to live life this way is for us to say, “I am not going to conform to the world; rather, I am going to live my life according to God’s values, continually transforming myself and renewing my mind through the study of the Word of God, submitting my brain—my way of seeing life—to the way of thinking of the Kingdom of God.”

It says, “So that you may prove what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.” Why does the Apostle Paul say that? So that you may prove what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God. Well, I interpret this in the following way: for us to be able to confirm the blessings God has for us, to be able to prove the goodness of the Gospel and the benefits of being a Christian, to be able to enter into the purposes God has for my life—which are purposes for good and not for evil, as Jeremiah 29 says—for the things God promises will happen in my life to come to pass, I have to live that way. Yes or no?

Do you see? “...so that you may prove what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.” The way one enters into the enjoyment of what God has for His children is by first giving to Him, surrendering to Him, sacrificing for Him, paying in cash, paying up front. And then, when one does that, God’s blessings begin to manifest themselves in one’s life.

It is marvelous, brothers and sisters. Many of us do not want to give God things that matter to us and that we like, and we cling to them; and we are very restrained in what we give God, although we are not so restrained when it comes to other things. But when it comes to God, we become very sober and prudent people. We give God only the bare minimum, like Simon the Pharisee. And God says, “No, I want people to give to Me abundantly,” as the woman who poured out the jar of perfume did. She gave Him expensive perfume, wet Jesus’ body with her tears, dried His body with her own hair, kissed His feet, and showed Him abundant love.

Simon the Pharisee was there, very proper, very decorous, very formal. And brothers and sisters, for the Lord truly to activate all the blessings He has for our lives, we have to live life as a living sacrifice. We have to give to the Lord. We have to surrender to the Lord; we have to sacrifice for the Lord.

And you know what? The marvelous thing is that He then opens the windows of heaven and pours out blessing until it overflows. There are times when I—and I get annoyed with myself—complain to God that I am working too much, that I am doing too much, that there is this and that, and that I have to go to such-and-such a place. And I go reluctantly, grumbling, as we say, about this and that. But time and again God shows me, brothers and sisters, that when I give to Him abundantly, He gives back to me many times over—with blessing, health, material provision, blessings upon my family, emotional joy, enjoyment; everything I long for and desire, God gives me when I give to Him.

When I sacrifice for Him, I prove God’s goodness; I prove His good will. Many of us preserve our lives, we preserve ourselves, and then we cannot enter into God’s abundance. The Lord Jesus Christ said, “Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains alone.” A grain of wheat, unless it decays in the ground, does not give life; it does not multiply.

It says, “...but if it falls to the ground and dies, it bears much fruit.” I have learned, brothers and sisters, that when I give to God, when we give to the Lord, when we sacrifice for God, when we invest for His sake, He never tires of blessing us. Then we can prove the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.

Elijah said to the widow, “Give me something to eat,” and the widow told him, “I am sorry, I cannot, because all I have left is a little flour and a little oil, and my son and I are going to eat them, and then we are going to lie down and die.” And Elijah told her, “It will not be that way. Give me—the servant of God, God’s representative in this house—something to eat first, and I promise you that you will not run out of flour and you will not run out of oil.” And what happened? The widow made the food for him, and it says that she did not run out of oil or flour until the famine in her country, in her land, was over. And when her son died, the prophet of God was there to save her son and raise him from the dead. What blessing could be greater than that? But first she had to dare to give to God.

We must put God first. We must sacrifice; we must suffer loss for Him; we must give up comfort for Him. And when we do so in the name of the Lord, we prove the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God. How many say amen?

That is God’s call upon your life. Because of everything God has invested in you, live your life as a living sacrifice, and you will prove the good will of God.

Christ has said, “I have come so that they may have life, and that they may have it abundantly.” But you know what? We must die first. When we die, then we can live again. And the life we now have in Christ is a precious, marvelous life. Now we entrust our peace, our abundance, and our provision to the Lord. We concern ourselves with Him, and He concerns Himself with us. Glory to the Lord.

Let us live our lives this way, brothers and sisters: as living sacrifices that are always proving the good will of the Lord. Thank You, Father. We worship You; we bless You, Lord. Thank You because You set an example for us, Lord, of that kind of life, because You gave Yourself for us; You gave Yourself for the will of the Father. You sacrificed Yourself for us, Lord, and Your Word says, “Let this same mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” And we want to be like You, Lord. We want to be like You; we want to live as a living sacrifice for our God. Thank You, Jesus. Let it be so, Lord. Amen and amen.