The Lord put a lot on my heart
this morning to share about how we should
be responding to the Lord's mercy and to
the Lord's righteousness and just the Lord's goodness,
what our response should be like.
You know, those of us who were in
Chicago this last week really just experienced the
Lord's goodness and it was just wonderful.
And that first song we sang is like,
wow, this is like perfect, you know, what
a fellowship, what a joy divine, leaning on
the everlasting arms.
What a blessedness and what a peace is
mine, leaning on the everlasting arms.
Oh, how sweet to walk in this pilgrim
way and it goes on and on.
It's just great.
But we had a great fellowship and just
experienced the joy of the Lord the last
few days.
And the Lord really just showed me a
lot through that, like how we should then
respond after witnessing the righteous acts of the
Lord.
And this scripture in Revelation that Joe just
sang about, Revelation 15, 3 and 4, is
just so appropriate, you know, it just says
how great and marvelous the Lord's works are
and just and true are all his ways.
And then the conclusion after considering these things,
verse 4 is like, well, who wouldn't fear
you?
Who wouldn't worship you?
Your righteous acts have been revealed.
What's wrong with all the people who don't
worship God?
How can you not worship God?
And it's just amazing.
That's the proper response to God's goodness.
We show love because he first loved us
and we love each other and all the
goodness that we have is just a reflection
of God's goodness to us.
Even Jesus said, you know, there is only
one good, and that's the Father, you know,
but Jesus just reflected his Father all day,
every day.
And wow, just reflecting God's goodness, how should
we respond, serving such a wonderful and great
God?
You know, what a fellowship, what a joy
divine.
We should just be leaning on God and
just reflecting his grace and his joy, and
wow.
If we could start out this morning, let's
look at Romans 11, Romans chapter 11.
You know, sometimes we have experiences that are
maybe a little more difficult to rejoice in,
like being in prison for the Lord or
whatever, various hardships that, you know, we really
just are a little harder to rejoice in,
but boy, I tell you, in Chicago it's
really easy to rejoice in the Lord.
It was just amazing to see the Lord
working in the lives of the young men
that we met with and just the wholehearted
devotion.
And when you see the Lord transform some
lives, you know, hearing the testimonies of these
guys, I'm not going to go into great
detail, we shared a lot the other night,
but just hearing what the Lord has done
and just totally changed, it's just really neat,
you know, it's really neat to hear that,
you know, because those of us who are
his true children have experienced that too, just
walking into depravity and just wickedness, and then
just, bam, you know, getting changed by the
Lord, becoming a new creation, and all things
becoming new.
And just to see that, even the fresh
experience of that, and one of the guys,
Pepe, you know, he's been walking with the
Lord since like February, you know, just to
see, and the other guys that, you know,
they haven't known the Lord for 50 years
or something, but they're just sold out to
God, and it's just wonderful.
So the end of Romans 11, verses 33
through 36, it says, Oh, the depths of
the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of
God!
How unsearchable His judgments and His paths beyond
tracing out!
Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been His counselor?
Who has ever given to God that God
should repay Him?
For from Him and through Him and to
Him are all things.
To Him be the glory forever.
Amen.
You know, it's just like, as you're reading
through the book of Romans, those verses just
kind of stick out of there, as like,
I believe Paul's just writing and all of
a sudden he's just, wow, the depths and
the riches of God, you know, wow, it's
pretty amazing, pretty marvelous, and just amazing, beyond
description.
His ways and His knowledge is just so
high, and His judgments, unsearchable.
And just concluding, wow, who has known the
mind of the Lord?
Who can really figure out the way God
operates and understand every detail, and no one
has ever given to God that God should
repay Him?
That just speaks of God's mercy.
The good things we receive from God aren't
a reward or aren't a payback from something.
Nobody has ever given to God to deserve
anything good from His hand.
Period.
Never.
And just realizing that, wow, God is it.
He is everything.
For Him, through Him, and from Him comes
all things, it says.
That's it.
God is it.
He is the all in all.
I mean, He is everything.
And then continue, how should we respond?
Wow, recognizing this, getting a glimpse of God's
greatness.
What should we be like?
And so Romans 12 continues.
If we could just read the end of
Romans 11 and then the beginning of 12
like there isn't a chapter separation that was
inserted by some people earlier ago.
Because it starts out, it says, I beseech
you, therefore, therefore.
What's the therefore, therefore?
It's therefore, it's there for the conclusion of
chapter 11.
Remembering just how great God is and how
wonderful.
He is everything.
I mean, through Him and to Him and
for Him are everything.
We don't deserve any good from His hand
because He's not repaying us.
And therefore, it says, by the mercies of
God, Paul beseeches them that they present their
bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God,
which is your reasonable service.
And do not be conformed to this world,
but be transformed by the renewing of your
mind that you may prove what is that
good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
So therefore, in view of God's mercy, because
of God's mercy, the natural response, the reasonable,
rational response is just to, well, yield yourself
to God.
If you really understand that from Him and
through Him and for Him are all things,
you'll just, oh, yeah, I'm going to yield
myself to Him since from Him and to
Him and through Him are all things.
He's great and marvelous.
He's so high.
He's so far above us.
I'm just going to yield.
I'm going to be a living sacrifice.
It says it's your reasonable service at the
end of verse 1.
Some translations translate spiritual act of worship and
things.
I was a little curious about that word
reasonable and couldn't figure out really where spiritual
came from because it means it's like Greek
is logicos or something like that.
It's logical, rational, reasonable.
It's like the common sense conclusion.
If you really comprehend the greatness of God
is to do this, be a living sacrifice.
And we've looked at this verse a lot.
And many of us have probably memorized that.
But it's got to be in view of
God's mercy as a result of His goodness.
You know, we can't just sit down with
a checklist and go, oh, okay, I'm going
to get renewed here in my mind and
I'm going to do this because this verse
says so.
This needs to be in a response to
God's mercy because of God's goodness.
And I think the reason why a lot
of people don't do these two verses, Romans
12, 1 and 2, is because they have
no understanding of the end of Romans 11
or the goodness of God.
Because if they really understood God's goodness, they
would submit to Him.
They would give Him their all.
They would be a living sacrifice for Him.
1 Peter 2, maybe verse 2, it says
to crave, desire that pure spiritual milk of
the Word so you can grow thereby.
If so be you've tasted that the Lord
is good.
The result of tasting something good is you
would like seconds and thirds.
So if indeed we've tasted of the Lord's
goodness, we're going to crave His Word.
We're going to be renewed by His mind.
We're going to renew our mind by His
mind.
We're going to seek to have the mind
of Christ.
And so not conforming any longer to the
pattern of this world, all of a sudden
it doesn't become a hardship to do that.
Like 1 John 5 says these commands are
not grievous, they're not burdensome.
They're liberating the liberty of the children of
God, the freedom not to be bound to
these things anymore.
And it's all in view of God's goodness.
Having an understanding, just experiencing the goodness of
God.
Saul on the road to Damascus, he couldn't
be the same after he experienced God's goodness.
He just couldn't.
It was impossible.
I mean, he started facing death right away.
Boom, boom, boom, boom.
I mean, immediately after his conversion, they're plotting
to kill him.
They let him down through a window or
something like that.
How's that for a babe in Christ, you
know?
I mean, just wow.
He's just going.
And so in view of God's mercy, you
know, Psalm 116 verse 12 says,
How can I repay the Lord for all
his goodness to me?
How can I?
But notice that's the thought of the psalmist
here.
I'd really like to repay God.
I know I can't.
None of us in this room can even
repay God for the goodness that he's shown
to us.
Nobody can.
So what can we do?
Well, the only reasonable conclusion from all this
is just to be a sacrifice for him.
That doesn't cut it.
I mean, that doesn't really match or repay
him in any way.
It's just all we have.
That's all we can do is just offer
ourselves.
That's it.
So it's not like we're even to be
commended for that.
You know, Jesus said in Luke somewhere that
after you've done every single thing I've told
you to do, after you've obeyed me fully,
your reaction should be, well, we're only unprofitable
servants.
We're just servants.
We've only done our duty.
But we're not going to have that mindset.
Nobody will have that mindset if we don't
understand the goodness of God.
Romans chapter 2 also speaks about God's kindness
and God's goodness.
Romans chapter 2 verse 4 says, Or do
you show contempt for the riches of his
kindness, tolerance, and patience, not realizing that God's
kindness leads you toward repentance?
God's kindness, his goodness, his mercy, the revelation
of who he is, leads us to repentance.
It leads us to become living sacrifices.
That's what happens when somebody repents.
They decide to become a living sacrifice for
God.
It's not this process of, well, I mean,
how can you see God's goodness and keep
some selfishness for yourself?
That's not what the Bible says.
The reasonable response to God's kindness and goodness
is to sacrifice yourself for him.
That's what it says.
And so here, showing contempt for God's kindness,
God's goodness, really is just failing to offer
yourself as a living sacrifice.
You're despising the riches of his kindness because
his goodness, his kindness leads you to become
a living sacrifice, leads you to repentance.
From one time you're going your own way
and later you turn around and you become
God's servant, God's instrument for his glory.
So one proper response to God's goodness is
repentance.
It is the proper response.
It is becoming a living sacrifice.
And to do that, we need to have,
to really live as living sacrifices.
It's imperative.
You've got to understand God's goodness.
You've got to understand just how great God
is.
You've got to have an accurate picture of
God and then an accurate picture of yourself.
Luke 3, you know, God in his richness,
in his mercy, in his loving kindness, he
prepared people for the coming of his Son.
He did.
He prepared them.
He said, well, gee, I'm going to send
my Son, the Lord Jesus Christ here, and
I've got to send a messenger to prepare
his way before him.
And this was John the Baptist.
And so in Luke 3, we get a
glimpse of what kind of things John told
the people to prepare them for Christ.
Now, John told the people how great Christ
was.
Okay, I'm not even worthy to untie his
sandals.
He's going to be baptizing you with the
Holy Spirit.
And he's got his winnowing fork and all
these great things that he said about God.
But you know what?
He also gave the crowds an accurate picture
of themselves.
And in verse 7, as John said to
the crowds coming out to be baptized by
him, and he said, you brood of vipers.
Oh, brood of vipers.
Who warned you to flee from the coming
wrath?
And then what does he say?
Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.
Change your lives.
Become a living sacrifice.
Don't think, don't even start to say to
yourself, oh, we've got Abraham as our father.
We're good people.
Don't even go there, he says.
For I tell you that out of these
stones, God can raise up children for Abraham.
The proper way to see yourself is a
brood of vipers.
Wicked people.
Wretched.
So we sing that song, Amazing Grace, that
saved a wretch like me, right?
So we are unworthy.
And when we understand both those things and
have an accurate picture of who we are
and who God is, now I add the
picture, not only the goodness of God, but
who we are.
Add that to the picture here, and then
we see how much more reasonable it is
to become a living sacrifice.
Not only how good God is, but how
wretched and miserable, sinful we were.
But while we were still sinners, Christ died
for us.
Wow.
We were sinners.
Christ died for us.
Goodness and wretchedness.
What's the way out here?
It's to reconcile the two.
Repentance, living sacrifice.
Join God's team, if you will.
2 Corinthians chapter 5.
Just another scripture that talks about our response
to the love and mercy of God.
2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 14 and 15.
It says, For Christ's love compels us, because
we are convinced that one died for all,
and therefore all died.
And He died for all, that those who
live should no longer live for themselves, but
for Him who died for them and was
raised again.
Well, there we have it right there.
Again, it talks about not living for self,
living for Him.
That's why He died.
That was the purpose.
So we have stopped living for ourselves, become
a living sacrifice, wholly set apart to do
His will.
That's why He came.
And look in verse 14.
It says, Christ's love compels us.
Some translations read constrains us.
I was really interested in that word.
And I looked it up and got a
better meaning of the Greek word.
And it just means, the literal word is
to arrest, like you're arresting a prisoner.
That's kind of neat.
Figuratively, it means to compel, perplex, preoccupy.
So in other words, we are so preoccupied
and just amazed, blown away, perplexed by God's
love, that it's like we've been arrested by
His love and we can't do anything else
in response.
We're like a prisoner of Christ's love and
just loving to be there.
That's really what it's like.
The same word compel was used in Luke
8.37, after the demon-possessed man in
the garrisons was healed and the people were
overcome, it says, with fear, and they didn't
want Christ there.
They were overcome with fear.
Overcome is the same word in Greek as
compel.
So picture that.
I mean, we are overcome by Christ's love.
I mean, we are just so deeply persuaded
that this is how we react.
We stop living for ourselves and we live
for Him.
And again, I'm convinced that those who still
live for themselves have not tasted of the
love of Christ.
They have not experienced that goodness.
If they had, what would their life be
like?
They've either outright rejected the goodness of God,
they choose to ignore it, or they deceive
themselves, whatever, but they are not experiencing the
goodness of God because if they were, their
lives would reflect it by being a living
sacrifice.
This is reiterated in 1 Peter 4, 1
-2.
1 Peter 4, 1-2 says, Therefore, since
Christ suffered in His body, arm yourselves also
with the same attitude.
I don't know what it's saying there.
Since Christ suffered in His body, the natural
response is to...
Maybe I shouldn't use the word natural.
The reasonable response is to arm yourselves with
that same attitude.
Why?
Because he who suffered in the body is
done with sin.
As a result, he does not live the
rest of his earthly life for evil human
desires, but rather for the will of God,
just like we read in 2 Corinthians 5
just a minute ago.
I'd like to read this in the New
Living Translation.
It's pretty neat.
It says, So then, since Christ suffered physical
pain, you must arm yourselves with the same
attitude He had and be ready to suffer
too.
For if you are willing to suffer for
Christ, you've decided to stop sinning.
And you won't spend the rest of your
life chasing after evil desires, but you'll be
anxious to do the will of God.
Anxious, eager to do the will of God.
So therefore, in view of God's mercy, because
Christ suffered, arm yourselves.
Get that same mind.
Get that same attitude.
Maybe we can turn over to 1 Peter
2.
1 Peter 2, starting in verse 10.
Now, this passage gives us some practical applications
of what it's like to be a living
sacrifice.
You know, we've talked this morning about the
proper response to God's mercy and just being
a living sacrifice.
Well, how does that carry out in our
daily walk?
What practical examples is there for us to
pattern ourselves after in Scripture?
And this Scripture gives us some, starting in
maybe verse 10.
It says, Once you were not a people,
but now you are the people of God.
Once you had not received mercy, but now
you have received mercy.
There's mercy again, okay?
We've received the mercy, the goodness of God.
Again, the response, Dear friends, I urge you,
as aliens and strangers in the world, to
abstain from sinful desires, which war against your
soul.
Live such good lives among the pagans, that
though they accuse you of doing wrong, they
may see your good deeds and glorify God
on the day he visits us.
There's a response to having received God's mercy.
Now, Peter's writing here and he's saying, you
know, live such a good life.
And we're not going to do that, with
our souls in this world, foolish among these
people.
Among the people.
Okay, we are in the world, we're not
of the world.
Okay, so other people are going to see
our lives here.
Verse 13 says, Submit yourselves for the Lord's
sake to every authority instituted among men, whether
to the King as the supreme authority or
to governors who are sent by Him to
punish those who do wrong and to commend
those who do right.
There's the authorities.
We can submit ourselves to the authorities.
That's one practical aspect.
We're not going to try to skirt around
the law.
A lot of people try to do that.
We're going to obey the laws that are
set up for us.
Why?
One of the reasons is we're going to
live such a good life, we're so above
reproach that other people can see our good
deeds.
Even Jesus advocated paying tax to the Romans'
government.
Then in verse 15 it says, For it
is God's will that by doing good you
should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men.
Now this is God's will we're talking about
here.
We know that in Matthew 7.21 Jesus
says, No, not the people who just call
me Lord, Lord.
Not everybody who calls me Lord, Lord will
enter the kingdom of heaven, but only those
who do the will of my Father.
So this is God's will it says here.
Pretty important stuff.
So it's God's will that by doing good.
So all embedded in these verses we've got
God's will and we've got some instruction on
how to do good.
First practical concrete thing we came to is
to submit to the authorities.
It says, Live as free men, but do
not use your freedom as a cover-up
for evil.
Live as servants of God.
That sounds familiar, kind of sounds like a
living sacrifice.
It says, Show proper respect to everyone.
Love the brotherhood of believers.
Fear God.
Honor the king.
Be respectful to people.
We're going to get something interesting in verse
18.
Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all
respect, not only to those who are good
and considerate, but also to those who are
harsh.
Wow.
Now that's an interesting thing.
Submit to your masters, slaves, even to the
harsh ones.
Wait a minute, I could serve God much
better if I just ran away.
No, that wouldn't be living such a good
life among these pagans.
That though they accuse you of doing wrong,
they can't help but glorify God on the
day he visits us.
Instead, Peter's advice is just submit.
What kind of testimony do you think that
is?
When you submit, well, we'll find out what
it says.
It says, For it is commendable if a
man bears up under the pain of unjust
suffering because he is conscious of God.
Again, conscious of God.
You have God's goodness.
You're being conscious of how great God is.
But if you suffer for doing good and
you endure it, this is commendable for God.
And then verse 21 says, To this you
were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving
you an example that you should follow in
his steps.
He committed no sin and no deceit was
found in his mouth.
So these slaves here that Paul's writing to
really had a unique opportunity to suffer unjustly.
You know, and we can apply this today
to maybe employees and employers.
You know, talking, a lot of teachers, other
teachers at work really sometimes talk not so
good about the principles or administration and different
policies and procedures.
And you know what happens at work is
that we have one principal, two assistant principals.
They're under superintendent and assistant two superintendents, and
they're under the governor and, you know, all
this kind of stuff.
Well, what happens is that the building principal
say, hey, I want everybody to do this,
do this certain principle, stay outside your doors
between passing time.
Some people do it.
Some people don't.
We have different policies.
The principal say, I'd like you to follow
this procedure for giving students passes to use
the bathroom.
Some people do it.
Some people don't.
I follow the policy.
And so when I follow the policy, hey,
I've got to fill out your pass in
your planner there.
Get it out so I can sign it.
Oh, no, Mr. So-and-so doesn't make
us.
Mr. So-and-so doesn't make us.
Wow, does that make for an inefficient operation
of a school or what?
So we can take that and look at
when our employers tell us to do something,
we can all just do it and everybody's
good.
Everybody's the better off for it, and we'll
be living such a good life that people
will end up glorifying God because of us.
In Ephesians 6, verse 6 kind of reiterates
the same thing about slaves and masters, and
I'd apply it.
Obviously, none of us in this room are
literally slaves and masters, but we do have
obligations to fulfill.
A lot of us have employers.
Not all of us.
Some of us are self-employed, but still
need to be faithful to your responsibilities.
Ephesians 6, verse 5 says, Slaves, obey your
earthly masters with respect and fear and with
sincerity of heart, just as you would obey
Christ.
Obey them, not only to win their favor
when their eye is on you, but like
slaves of Christ, doing the will of God
from your heart.
There's the will of God again.
Doing the will of God from the heart.
Matthew 12, verse 50 says, Whoever does the
will of God, he is my brother, sister,
and mother, doing the will of God.
So 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 18 says, Give
thanks in all circumstances, for this is the
will of God for you in Christ Jesus.
It's the will of God for you is
to give thanks in all circumstances.
And I guess after reading 1 Peter, we
can say especially when you're being treated unjustly.
Because that's commendable before God.
As I was looking at these things, I
thought about forsaking all.
Luke 14, verse 33 says, Jesus is speaking
and he says, Any of you, you want
to be my disciples, you've got to forsake
all you have.
Period.
That's it.
You've got to.
If you don't, you can't be my disciple.
And that's really what we've been talking about,
right?
Being a living sacrifice.
How can you be selfish, keep stuff for
yourself if you're somebody else's slave?
If you've sacrificed yourself for God.
That doesn't really make too much sense.
So of course Jesus would say, you've got
to forsake all you have.
So all people are called to forsake all.
And we saw some great examples of that
when we were in Chicago the last few
days.
These guys had forsaken all.
A couple of them, both guys named Chris,
had just stopped going to college and they
just forsook all.
And they really, literally and physically just stopped
doing a lot of things.
And Justin at the University of Southern California
forsook all, but he stayed in college.
And he continued to go to college to
the glory of God.
It was crucifying his heart though, just like
it was crucified in Chris' life too.
So we see in the scripture, we see
that some people, everybody forsakes all, forsakes everything.
But not everybody forsakes everything physically.
It's all crucified in our hearts.
But for example, most of us in this
room, I think all of us have a
house.
We have not left our houses and we
don't live on the street corner now to
serve God.
But we better have our houses crucified in
our heart, forsaken.
So that if it burnt down, we can
rejoice.
If God called us to go to the
street, we can give thanks and all that,
all the circumstances, even that one.
The example from scripture, we don't want to
justify our lives just because we've done it.
But the example from scripture, some people are
called to forsake, physically forsake houses, lands, families,
whatever, for the kingdom of God.
Some people weren't.
They're all required.
Everybody, Jesus said in Luke 14.33, had
to forsake everything, but not all physically.
Everything had to be crucified in your heart.
And so the example, there's lots of examples
from this, but we all are familiar with
the rich young ruler.
In Matthew 19.21, the rich young ruler
was told, he kept all God's commandments, he
said, and all this stuff.
And Jesus said, you lack one thing.
I want you to sell your possessions, leave
your home, give it all to the poor,
and then come follow me.
So in coming to follow me, you've left
your home, you've left everything, you've physically gotten
rid of everything, and you're going to come
follow me.
The man from the Gerasenes, I mentioned him
earlier in Luke 8.39, he was healed,
or Jesus cast out two demons, and he
said, Lord, I'll follow you anywhere.
It's gone.
He forsook all.
It's crucified in his heart, and Jesus says,
no, go back home.
Go to your home.
Now here he is trying to physically forsake
his home and his homeland, but Jesus said,
no, I want you there.
I understand it's crucified in your heart, but
you're going to be there, because I want
you to tell what God's done for you.
That's just one example from Scripture, or a
couple examples from Scripture.
Everybody, hopefully that's clear, everybody needs to forsake
everything in their heart.
Crucify it all.
It's gone.
How that manifests itself physically is up to
the will of God.
So then we've got a couple pitfalls that
people fall into.
Some people would just as soon forsake some
outward things, or get some outward things right.
Make it look good on the outside, but
they haven't forsaken all in their heart.
Now, what they do on the outside might
make it look pretty good.
They might be able to fool some men,
but they won't fool God, because God says,
forsake all.
So some people give up lots of stuff.
Jesus says in Matthew 23 that some people
travel over land and sea to win only
one convert, but then they make them twice
as much a son of hell as they
are, because they're not sold out to God.
So God isn't only interested in physical sacrifices.
He wants, first of all, our heart to
be fully submitted.
So some people don't take heed of that,
and think that they can hold back places
in their heart reserved for themselves, and yet
they've given up seemingly so much for God.
Isaiah chapter 1 talks to such people.
So maybe these people, I like to spend
a lot of time in prayer.
Oh, I spend hours in prayer every day,
they might say.
But you know what?
If their heart's not right with God, if
they haven't forsaken all in their heart, God
doesn't even hear their prayer.
Isaiah chapter 1, starting in verse 15.
He says, when you spread out your hands
in prayer, I will hide my eyes from
you.
Even if you offer many prayers, I will
not listen.
Why not?
It says your hands are full of blood.
Wash and make yourselves clean.
Repent.
Be a living sacrifice.
Take your evil deeds out of my sight.
Stop doing wrong, all of it.
Learn to do right.
Seek justice.
Encourage the oppressed.
And he goes on and talks about some
things that they need to reform.
But that shows you right there, prayer doesn't
do it.
You might be forsaking time or something to
go pray.
If it's merely outward and physical, and not
in your heart, if you haven't forsaken all
in your heart, if you're not that living
sacrifice, if you haven't responded to God's mercy,
God's goodness, in a reasonable way, and you
just want to respond with offering lots of
prayers, even if you offer many prayers, God
says he's not going to listen.
Oh, but maybe I'll be a worship leader
in my church, or I'll be in the
choir.
Let's look at Amos chapter 5.
Amos chapter 5, verse
23.
God is speaking through the prophet Amos, and
God says, away with the noise of your
songs.
I will not listen to the music of
your harps, but let justice roll on like
a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream.
Continual, complete righteousness is what God wants.
He wants you to love him with all
your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
He doesn't want you to sing songs if
you're not right with him.
And so Amos says, well, God says, away
with the noise of your songs.
It's noise.
Ah, I can't stand it.
I think about that on Sunday mornings.
When we're singing to God, or Friday nights,
whenever we sing, I often think about, wow,
right now there's probably other people singing to
God, and God's just saying, stop.
Don't sing anymore.
I'm just thankful that, you know, as we
can have fully submitted hearts to God, that
God can be pleased with our songs.
He delights in the songs of his saints,
but with some people he's like, no, no,
stop the worthless singing.
Maybe if I read my Bible more, that
will make me right with God.
Well, only if you take heed to it.
Only if you respond to his mercy by
becoming a living sacrifice.
Let's look at Psalm 50.
So some people resort to, oh, I pray
a lot.
I'm in the church choir.
I read my Bible a lot, maybe.
Well, in Psalm 50, verse
16, it says, But to the wicked, God
says, what right have you to recite my
laws, or take my covenant on your lips?
You hate my instruction, and cast my words
behind you.
Can you imagine that?
I mean, you'd think it's pretty nice to
recite God's words, and read them, and what
God's actually saying to some people, what are
you doing this for?
You're not listening.
You haven't even responded to what you've read.
Maybe we could turn over to Jeremiah chapter
7.
So we don't want to put our confidence
in these things.
We don't want to examine our outward looks,
and how we're doing things.
We want to examine the heart.
God looks at the heart.
And so in Jeremiah chapter 7, there's some
people that are trusting in the temple.
Oh, I worship at the temple, they say.
God says it's deceptive to trust in the
temple.
It's deceptive to trust in your church.
It would be deceptive to trust in this
fellowship.
Jeremiah 7, verse 4.
Well, maybe we could do verse 2.
Let's start in the beginning of the chapter.
Verse 1 of Jeremiah 7.
So this is the word that came to
Jeremiah from the Lord.
Stand at the gate of the Lord's house,
and there proclaim this message.
Unfortunately, the Lord's house has become a place
at the gate of the house where we
need some preachers.
Because they're just like these people in Jeremiah.
It says, hear the word of the Lord.
All you people of Judah who come through
these gates to worship the Lord.
This is what the Lord Almighty, the God
of Israel says.
Reform your ways and your actions, and I'll
let you live in this place.
That's what we've been reading all the time.
Hey, become a living sacrifice.
Reform your own ways.
Conform to mine.
Do not trust in deceptive words and say,
this is the temple of the Lord.
The temple of the Lord.
If you really change your ways and your
actions and deal with each other justly, if
you do not oppress the alien, the fatherless
or the widow, and do not shed innocent
blood in this place, and if you do
not follow other gods to your own harm,
then I'll let you live in this place.
In the land I gave your forefathers forever
and ever.
But look, you are trusting in deceptive words
that are worthless.
Verse 9.
Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and
perjury, burn incense to bail and follow other
gods you have not known, and then come
and stand before me in this house which
bears my name and say we're safe?
Safe to do all these detestable things?
We are safe.
We are delivered.
We're saved.
We're saved, and so we can continue to
sin?
No, that's not what God wants.
He wants complete reformation of all your ways
and actions.
And it says put no gods before me
in the end of verse 6.
Don't follow other gods.
In the words of the New Testament, that
might mean crucify everything else in your heart.
Set apart Christ as Lord in your hearts,
it says in 1 Peter.
So we've looked at that.
Praying, singing, reciting God's words, going to the
physical outward things that people do in a
way that they can point to these things
and say, see, I've forsaken all, I've forsaken
all, but they reserve in their hearts things
that oppose God.
So we don't want to be like that.
Let me read one more verse about the
temple.
It's just amazing.
I can just hear the Lord in Malachi
1.
Malachi 1, verse 10.
He says, Oh, that one of you would
shut the temple doors so that you would
not light useless fires on my altar.
I am not pleased with you, says the
Lord Almighty.
I will accept no offerings from your hands.
I'm not going to accept your sacrifices if
it's part way.
Oh, you might be sacrificing some things, but
you're not a living sacrifice to me.
I mean, I can just hear them.
Oh, man, if they could just shut that
door, then these people wouldn't be praying, they
wouldn't be singing to me, they wouldn't be
reciting my laws.
Well, if I could just stop that.
It's like a stench in God's nose.
So we don't want to do that.
We don't want to take the message of
the Bible and make excuses for ourselves, look
real good outwardly and reserve one little thing
in our heart.
Don't want to do that.
Well, you don't want to go the other
way either.
We don't want to go, you know, there's
another pitfall you can do.
You can take advantage of this concept in
the Bible, forsaking everything in our heart.
And therefore, the outside doesn't matter anymore.
Oh, believe me, everything's crucified in my heart.
Oh, yeah, I know I'm doing this and
this and this, but God doesn't really care
because it's all in my heart.
Hmm.
Well, the Bible teaches that if everything is
crucified in your heart and you have forsaken
all for God, it will manifest itself outwardly.
Thus, we read in First Peter that we'll
be living such good lives among the pagans.
We'll be living unreproachable lives, blameless lives.
We'll be submitting, slaves will be submitting to
their masters and all these other things.
Wives will be submitting to their husbands and
whatever else.
We'll be great employers and we'll be obeying
the laws of the land and all these
things.
That's outward manifestation of inward heart.
So in Galatians chapter six, it addresses the
people who would like to think that, oh,
God is pleased with me.
God is pleased with me, even though I
continue and do some things that aren't right.
But hey, it's my heart.
That's not true.
Galatians six addresses that.
Galatians chapter six, verse seven, seven through nine,
it says, do not be deceived.
Some people want to deceive themselves about what
it's going to say here.
Don't be deceived.
God is not mocked for whatever a man
sows, that he will also reap.
For he, life.
And let us not grow weary while doing
good.
For in due season we shall reap if
we don't lose heart.
So don't be deceived.
God's not fooled.
You say, oh, my heart's right.
My heart's right.
Then you go sowing the seeds of the
flesh.
No, if you're pleasing your flesh, your heart's
not right.
No way.
That's over in chapter five of Galatians, verse
13.
It says, yeah, you know, you're called to
be free, Paul says.
But don't use your freedom to indulge the
flesh.
Don't use your freedom as an occasion to
serve yourself.
It's not what it's about.
We read earlier in first Peter, chapter two,
sixteen.
Yeah, live as freemen, but don't use your
freedom as a cover up for evil.
Instead, live as servants of God.
Your lives should reflect the fact that you
are a servant of God.
If your lives don't reflect that, it reflects
the fact that you are not a servant
of God.
And so we see, I've heard all kinds
of people make excuses like for their immoral
and ungodly movies and things like that, even
though God's words, Psalm 101, verse three, I
will set before my eyes no vile thing.
That's a response.
The psalmist, that's a response to God's goodness.
Oh, God is so great.
I'm not going to set before my eyes
any vile thing.
Psalm 119, verse 37.
The psalmist is praying, oh, turn my eyes
away from worthless things.
It's not God saying, hey, you people.
This is a response by the psalmist to
how great God is.
It's a reasonable response.
If God is holy and righteous and just
and true, and we believe he is, are
we going to set before our eyes things
that aren't or that are unholy, against being
righteousness, and utterly false and deceptive and wicked
and abhorrent?
No.
But why do people excuse it?
Oh, it's all in my heart.
No, I'm sorry.
God wants us to be living sacrifices.
It's a reasonable response to God's mercy, and
it's a response to God's mercy.
We talked several weeks ago about babes in
Christ and how babes in Christ are like.
Anybody who has seen and been experienced to
God's mercy is going to just, whoa, and
just drop everything, forsake all in their hearts
for the Lord.
And sometimes, my experience with new Christians, brand
new Christians, is that they're overzealous.
They throw away everything, and not only do
they forsake it all in their heart, but
sometimes that just goes maybe a little too
far, and they, whatever.
I've seen that.
That's the tendency I've seen in people who
truly come to know God.
Maybe I've seen it the other way where
they're kind of slower to catch on to
things, but a lot of times it's an
overzeal.
Because the first time they've experienced God's mercy,
it's like, oh, wow.
Yeah, I've got to share this with some
of you already, but Pepe, with his violin.
He's an accomplished violinist, and he's just a
blessing in Chicago, but he's been walking with
the Lord since February, I think he said.
Not very long, and he's just talking about
how he's got these violin recitals and these
things coming up in a couple weeks.
He's like, yeah, I should be practicing five
or six hours a day right now, but
I wanted to come here to Chicago to
meet you guys.
I canceled my rehearsals with my pianist, which
I think he said his pianist was from
Paris.
And I'm like, wait a minute, Pepe, what
kind of recitals are we talking about here?
And Chris Facey jumped in and said, yeah,
he's just being kind of modest.
He's pretty well-known, I guess, in the
violinist world, but it was gone.
I mean, it was crucified.
Pepe just said, you know, if God told
me tomorrow to throw away my violin, I
will.
I don't care if it's worth $150,000.
I was like, what?
A $150,000 violin?
It's just gone.
I mean, it's practically in the trash for
him, but he's forsaken it in his heart.
It's gone.
I mean, he's got a career out there.
It's gone.
Since February, he's been walking with the Lord.
Didn't take too long, did it?
But he just had this initial response to
God's mercy, you know, and he's ready to
just throw away his whole violin career and
just lock himself in his apartment forever.
He's not thinking about how he's going to
eat next month or whatever's going to happen.
I mean, he's just going, you know, and
God's going to work out exactly how that
zeal will combine with now a little more
knowledge of God and what he's going to
do.
You know, he might have a violin career
to the glory of God, and we don't
know, but if he has a violin career,
you can be assured with Pepe, it's crucified
in his heart.
I mean, it's gone.
It's not an idol to him.
And if it is an idol, he won't
be having a violin career.
Amen.
And the other guys that we met in
Chicago were similar.
You know, they, just forsaking everything and just,
you know, whatever.
I mean, I could tell you all kinds
of stuff, but, you know, as their zeal
combines with the knowledge of God, and as
they continue, and as they continue to respond
to God's kindness and his goodness, you know,
I have confidence in those guys that if
something's an idol, they're not going to be
doing it.
And so God is like that, you know,
it's what kind of process was there involved?
You know, it's like, wow, God's goodness, God's
mercy, a little like Saul, you know, getting
zapped on the road and just, you just
can't help but respond that way.
And so those of us in this room,
I think those of us in Winter Chicago
is kind of got charged up seeing these
guys, you know, that initial response to God's
mercy that we had maybe several years ago
for some of us, you know, it was
great to see that initial, you know, it's
just neat.
And so what we need to be careful
of is not to get hardened to God's
mercy, not to forget just how great he
is, just how good he is.
I mean, we don't want to stop responding
to the goodness of God, to the mercy
of God.
We don't want to fall into these pitfalls
like, oh, we've forsaken all in our heart,
I'm sure God wouldn't mind if I do
this or, well, I'm doing all this stuff
for God.
You know, I went to Chicago, I gave
up my time off of school.
So of course, in my heart, if I
keep this reserved, it's okay.
No, no, no, we want to make sure
that in view of God's mercy, if we
truly believe how great and how good God
is, that we are responding and continuing to
respond to his mercy, just like we have
been all along.
And if we're not responding right, if there's
something not right, get it right.
Because what a fellowship, what a joy divine,
leaning on the everlasting arms.
Praise the Lord.
Maybe I could pray.
Father, we just want to thank you so
much for all these things in your Word,
Lord.
It is so simple, Father, just your goodness
and how unworthy we are in combining these
things together and just responding to you properly,
Father, in a way that would bring you
honor and glory.
Lord, it's our desire that we wouldn't be
hardened to these things, that we wouldn't forget
your goodness, that we would constantly be just
spurred on and compelled and constrained, arrested by
your love, Lord, and just motivated in all
things by your love.
So, Father, we do want to just thank
you so much for your abundant mercy, Lord,
that we are just so unworthy and we
thank you, Father.
It's perplexing to even consider that you count
us worthy, Lord.
Father, you've bestowed on us riches in heaven,
Lord, riches from heaven that we can now
do your will.
And so we ask for your help, knowing
that apart from you, we can do nothing.
Lord, I do want to pray for these
guys that we met this week, for Pepe
and Chris Facey and Chris Craighead and Justin
Cox, Lord, and the other people they've been
ministering to, Father, that you would just guide
them and lead them into all truth.
Father, that they would continue to have all
things set apart and just crucified in their
heart, Lord, that you would be there all
in all.
Father, even as I pray the same for
each of us in this room, that we
would just be totally all about you and
not about ourselves, Lord, and that we truly
have a grasp of just who you are
and who we are, Lord, that we're your
servants.
So we thank you for the privilege of
serving you.
It's in Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.