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Romans 9-16

Applying Righteousness: Towards the Lord

Jayson Combs · Sunday, 19 October 2025 · Romans 12:1-2 · 35:33 · 4,847 words

Romans S26 · 12:1-2 Waterford

There is no public page for this message yet — the transcript below is the whole of it.

Romans 12:1‑2 teaches three changes that happen when a person becomes a Christian. The believer’s motivation shifts from fear or self‑gain to gratitude for God’s mercy at the cross. The aim of life changes from earning God’s approval to eagerly pleasing him as a living sacrifice. Finally, the mind is renewed so one stops conforming to worldly thinking and discerns God’s will. The pastor urges listeners to rest in God’s love, read Scripture, guard what enters their thoughts, and give themselves wholly to the Lord.

What this sermon is about

Ranked by keyness against every other sermon in the corpus. Each one is a word this sermon actually said — nothing here was written by a model.

change 53 aim 19 motivation 21 bells 13 motivate 12 mind 24 maintenance 5 please 19 mercy 18 shake 7 sacrifice 14 scare 6

Topics

Sanctification 4 Atonement & Sacrifice 3 Prayer 2 The Gospel 1 Sin 1 Salvation 1

Scripture referenced 28

Verified against the transcript. A reference the recording does not support is never listed here.

Romans 12 0:35 Romans 12 1:02 Romans 12 1:18 Romans 12 2:12 Romans 12 2:25 Romans 12 2:44 Romans 12 3:06 Romans 12 3:41 Romans 12:1-2 3:54 Romans 10 4:36 Romans 10:1 6:18 Romans 1 7:49 Romans 1:16 7:49 Romans 3 8:08 1 Corinthians 9:26 13:37 2 Corinthians 5:9 13:41 2 Corinthians 8:21 13:49 1 Timothy 1:5 13:54 1 Thessalonians 2:4 20:55 Romans 1:1 24:38 Romans 1:2 24:46 1 Peter 1:14 25:30 Ephesians 4 30:55 Colossians 3:16 31:35 John 3 33:15 Romans 5 33:17 1 Corinthians 13 33:19 Colossians 1:9-10 34:01

Transcript

Every word, as spoken, with the second it was said. Each word links to its own entry in the index.

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Morning again, everybody. If you have your Bibles, we'll be in Romans chapter number 12, Romans 12.

Again, as Justin said, our Trunk or Treat coming up this Saturday, really excited about.

We can still use your candy. My wife says we can really use your candy.

But just something that we've been so fruitful for us, the Trunk or Treat.

So glad that so many of you give to that and serve in that.

So Romans 12.

We're going to do something a little different this morning.

I'm going to ask you all to stand.

I know some of you have said, Pastor, I've already met my stand quota for today.

We're going to read together.

It's only two verses, and just as a church, I would like us to read God's Word together.

So Romans chapter 12.

It's going to be up here on the screen.

Let's read together.

The Bible says,

I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercy of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice,

holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind,

that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Let's pray.

Lord, thank you for your Word.

Lord, may we listen to it this morning.

May I just be a tool used by you to preach the Word as you've called me to.

We thank you, Lord, and pray this in Jesus' name.

You may be seated.

Now, again, you've heard this for I don't know how many weeks.

Hey, we've been studying Romans, but it is an exciting time.

I can almost guarantee every location pastor at the river looks at Romans 12 and goes,

yay, we get to 12 through 16 because some of the passages before this are difficult,

and we love walking through those difficult passages, but when you get to chapter 12,

it is so practical.

It's so like it just fits right.

It fits right into our lives today, and it's an exciting passage to study,

and I will tell you it's an exciting passage to preach.

When we get to Romans chapter 12, the rest of the book of Romans is telling us

what is then expected of a Christian.

How then, as we've learned about in chapters 1 through 11,

the resources we receive when becoming a Christian,

now how do we use those resources?

In chapter 12, there's a very important word.

It's the word therefore.

I appeal to you therefore, and this word therefore, what it's doing is it's saying

what I've just talked about, all of those things because of the truth in chapters 1 through 11.

Therefore, if you are a brother in Christ, I am urging you.

It is like Paul, again, in this loving, caring, but firm way say,

I am urging you as a brother.

This is what it looks like to be a Christian.

One commentary said that as you get to chapter 12 in the Greek and the way it's written out,

it slows the readers down.

I wrote down it's a speed bump, right?

Like you're driving through the sub, there's a speed bump, you need to slow down.

We slow down and we come to Romans chapter 12 verses 1 and 2.

And 1 and 2 are packed.

We're spending a whole sermon on two verses.

Why?

Because here we really have the summary.

In these two verses of the whole Christian life.

Here, it speaks of the change that happens when someone meets Jesus.

That what they were before, something changes.

They are now different.

And so when someone humbles himself, repents of their sin, believes in the saving work of the cross,

and as Romans 10 says,

confesses with their mouth that Jesus is Lord,

and believes that he rose again when they are saved.

There are some changes that take place.

And it just brings me kind of to a simple question.

What changes happen when somebody becomes a Christian?

What really takes place?

Maybe you're here today because someone in your family, they have become a Christian lately.

And something has changed in your life, in their life.

And you may be wondering, like, there's something that is different.

There's something that, they like, church used to be something they kind of did.

Now it's like every Sunday they're committed to this.

And the way they talk and what they're doing, there is this change.

What does that change really look like?

As I thought about this and I sat on the word change, to be changed,

I couldn't help but think of going into Kohl's or going into Old Navy.

And they have those rooms off to the side called the changing rooms, right?

One of my favorite things, I'm very thankful in the changing room,

is some of them have a chair out front.

It's so great.

Guys, do you love the chair out front?

Like, the chair out front is really important of the changing room.

But the chair where you go in and now you come out different.

And then you have to look and go, yep, that's good.

I like that.

All right.

But there's a change.

Here in chapters 1 and 2, I want to show you three changes that take place in a Christian's life.

So in verse 1,

So Paul goes into it and says, I'm appealing to you.

I'm urging you.

What you have learned.

And he makes the statement, by the mercies of God.

This is a very weighty couple words here.

What Paul is saying, there is going to be a change that happens.

But what changes when we become a Christian is our motivation changes.

I want you to think about the things that motivate you.

Whether it's, you know, there are some good things.

Like, love can motivate you.

Or happiness can motivate you.

There are some good things.

There are also some bad things that can motivate us.

Like, lust can motivate us.

Greed can motivate us.

Jealousy can motivate us.

Fear can motivate us.

And here, Paul, he starts and says, now, with all that we've learned.

If we've truly become a Christian, our motivation changes.

What is now our motivation?

Our motivation.

It's the mercy of God.

This is what motivates believers to live a different life.

The mercy here.

When he speaks of mercy, he is reflecting back on all the things in the book of Romans that he's taught.

He's reflecting back, like in chapter 1, verse 16.

He's reflecting back to the gospel, which is the power of God to salvation.

This is the mercy of God, what Jesus has done.

He's reflecting back to God's great kindness.

He's reflecting back to the kindness and restraint and patience that's to lead us to repentance.

He's looking back in chapter 3 to the forgiveness that we receive in Jesus.

That God takes our place.

He is the propitiation for us.

That we receive justification because of the mercy of God.

It is this mercy.

It is reflecting back that we are free from sin.

That we are reconciled to God.

That we have redemption.

That we have eternal life.

That we have divine sonship.

That we are children, sons and daughters of the almighty God.

We have the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.

He intercedes for us.

We have the amazing love of God.

It is poured out in our lives.

When Paul says, I urge you, brothers, sisters, those of you who know the Lord, our motivation,

why we do what we do is because God's great mercy.

God could condemn us, but he loves us.

It is not because we are good, but he is good.

It is not because we have done something, because he did everything.

And now as a believer, we took communion this morning.

What are we doing?

We're running back to the mercies of God.

Why would God command the church hundreds and hundreds of years after he

went to the cross to take bread and a cup and remember the body and blood?

Why?

Because a believer needs to set their eyes constantly on the cross of Jesus.

It is why the gospel of Jesus Christ is not just something for new believers.

It is for all of us because our motivation and why we live and why we love and why we care

and why we serve and why we serve.

Sacrifice and why we present our bodies as a living sacrifice is not because we are scared

of God.

And if we do something wrong, God's going to come down and strike us.

That's a motivation of fear.

It is not because we go, if I do enough, God's going to love me.

I got to do some things and then God will look down and go, okay, I like that one.

That is not the motivation of a believer.

Fear, right?

It will run out.

Fear is exhausting.

Our motivation, if we know Christ, it is because we look at the wonderful mercies of God.

One pastor said, if our motivation, fear, we'll either think God is paying me back or

God has abandoned me.

If it's fear, we'll think I've crossed the line this time and now he's mad at me or something

doesn't go good and we think I did right and so God's not fair.

If we do it out of fear, I obey so that God will bless me.

Bad things won't happen.

He says, in other words, a despair or a bitterness will be the result of suffering if one's life

is based on fear.

It's the same thing if you base your life as a Christian on happiness and what you get

from the Lord.

You go, well, I'm serving the Lord, so what's he going to give me?

How is he going to bless me?

What's he going to do?

If that's your motivation, it's going to run short.

Why?

The broken world we live in is not all happy.

And smiley, even for Christians, it's difficult.

It's heavy.

And so if your motivation is happiness, you're like, I'm going to do things for the Lord

when he makes me happy.

It's going to run short.

Now, do we have joy and hope in the Lord?

But if you're looking for a now happiness all the time, that's your motivation.

You're going to struggle in the change.

What does change really look like for a believer?

Their motivation changes.

It moves them to a heart that is humble, thanking.

Thanking the Lord, knowing that we serve him because of his mercy being poured out

on the cross.

This is the change.

So he says, I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies

as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.

So not only does our motivation change, our aim changes.

Why?

What we're doing, it changes.

If you're a believer, the aim of your life, you set your sights on something different.

I love that the Bible uses the word aim all the time.

Like in 1 Corinthians 9, 26, it says, we do not run aimlessly.

Or 2 Corinthians 5, 9, it says, whether we're at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.

2 Corinthians 8, 21, we aim at what is honorable.

Or 1 Timothy 1, 5, the aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

Our aim changes.

Why?

Because we know.

We no longer obey God so that he will save us.

We are grateful to God because he has saved us.

What does that look like?

I've used this illustration before, but years ago, I remember my son, he had one of those

Christmas programs where they had those really annoying bells that they ring, like the color

cards, and when it was his color, they would shake the bells.

And so I just remember, so I have a little clip of this, it's very short, because bells, they're not

from your children, are real annoying.

Okay, that's all the bells people can handle if it's not your children.

I love that because I remember sitting over here in, I don't know if we're here in another church, but I just

remember him shaking those bells and going, nobody else mattered in there.

And listen, he didn't shake the bells going, dad, will you love me?

Dad, dad, love me, dad.

Dad, will you love me?

That's not why he shook the bells.

He didn't shake the bells and do things, right?

The aim and what he was doing is not like, if I can do this, dad.

Will you now love me?

Will you now accept me?

That's not why he shook the bells.

He shook the bells because he goes, my dad loves me, and I can't wait to please him.

My mom right there, my mom loves me, and I shake the bells because I can't wait to please

my mom and my dad.

The aim as a Christian is different.

Our motivation is because what Christ has done, and now the aim of how we live is not

because we go, God, please.

Please love me.

Please love me.

We can look to the Lord and go, the Lord loves me.

And now, as Christians, the change is we can't wait to shake the bells for Jesus to please

him.

That's how a Christian is different.

Eleven's still a little more clappy than you guys.

Not that you need to clap, but the aim says here that we would be a living sacrifice.

Our motivation is the cross and the mercy of God.

And so this brings us, there's this.

Appearance, like Paul is speaking, and there's this hint of looking back to the Old Testament

when they would have to sacrifice an animal.

They would have to bring the best of the best.

What they had, the very best, they would have to bring in sacrifice.

And so Paul is saying, now we, as believers, we are a living sacrifice.

It is this constant and continual, lifelong sacrifice of giving our best to the Lord.

I know.

I know some of you are scared of that.

You're scared of the call of God saying, hey, I want the best.

I don't want the leftovers.

And it's scary for you.

One, because some of you think, a pastor said this, well, some of you think as soon as you

go, okay, God, you can have my best.

He's going to go, pack your bags.

We're heading to Zimbabwe.

Here we go.

And we're scared that God's going to, once we go, God, I'm in, he's going to go, yep,

you're in.

And I can't wait to make this miserable for you.

And we miss who God is.

Many times.

When we say, God, I'm in, he takes those things that we've created to be.

He takes even the desires of our heart.

And he goes, man, I've called you to work with middle school kids.

And you're not like, I don't want to see.

It's like, man, I go there and there is this wonderful joy of serving the Lord here.

Or I go to a nursing home and I speak there and preach the word.

And there is a wonderful joy there.

Or I go to the food bank or I go in my community.

Like when we give it all to the Lord, you don't have to be scared.

Scared because what the Lord has, if you believe he loves you, he still has the best

for you.

Now, may he take you out of your comfort zone for sure.

But can I tell you, you're better for it.

And so here, the aim, a living sacrifice, holy.

What does this mean?

To quote a commentary, it's renouncing the sins of the old life and be committed to a

life of obedience to the will of God.

It means to be set apart.

To not live as the world lives.

To be in tune with the Holy Spirit so there's conviction of sin that leads us to repentance.

Can I tell you, church, we need to be a church of repentance.

It's not just, well, I repented of my sins and now I'm saved.

No, we continue in repentance.

We continue confessing and forsaking sin.

We continue to go to our brother and sister and say, hey, I wronged you.

I shouldn't do that.

I did this.

I'm wrong.

Every week.

I pray that as we gather, there'll be a gathering of repentance.

Living sacrifice, holy, acceptable.

And pastor, he said, holy to God describes the quality of life we should pursue.

And then this is acceptable to God or pleasing to God.

This means the results.

See, the gospel radically changes the aim of our life.

The gospel both motivates us and it frees us to live.

We live a life that pleases our creator.

It changes the aim.

It is not about pleasing men or pleasing ourself.

It is about pleasing God.

1 Thessalonians 2, 4.

But just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak not to please men but to please God who tests our hearts.

Aim is a life that is living in sacrifice, that is devoted to being holy.

And this is pleasing to the Lord.

This is the joy.

This is the shaking the bells and looking at our heavenly father and going, oh yeah, I hope this is pleasing to you.

And this verse wraps up.

It says, which is your spiritual worship?

I honestly like how the Caden James version, the old English version, translates this.

It uses the word reasonable service.

And now, as I studied this and read through commentators and people who study Greek,

the literal meaning of that spiritual is the word, we get the word logical or we get the word rational.

So one said, once you have a good view of God's mercy, anything less than a total, complete sacrifice of yourself to God is completely irrational.

So this logical, this rational, this is the reasonable call.

And worship, why I like the word service because it encompasses in our mind and the English so much more.

We put worship in a.

Box of like singing a song.

It's so much more than that.

And serving the Lord.

It is reasonable.

It is crazy to not serve him if we know the mercies of God and he's changed our life and our aim.

So how does a Christian look different?

How does a Christian change their motivation changes their aim changes?

Now, let's let's look at the last one in verse number two.

It says, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that by testing you may discern.

What is the will of God?

What is good and acceptable and perfect?

The third change is that God changes our mind.

Think about when you had children and they come to you.

Did you change your mind?

Can I have that candy bar?

Did you change your mind?

And I think of that thought that God changes our mind.

He changes our thinking.

My son on Friday got his permit to drive.

I'm not sure if it's a good thing or a bad thing.

But when I get in the car with him, I look at him and go, don't drive like me.

I don't know if it's good.

You're bad.

All right.

But I think about, right, we're driving now and no stress at all.

In the future, he'll get a car.

So he gets this gift of, you know, he gets a car.

But I just think about he's going to get this car.

I'm going to go, son, now there's some things you're going to have to remember to change.

Because if you don't, you're going to wind up in a bad spot.

You need to change the oil.

You need to change the brakes.

You need to change the tires.

You need to change the windshield wiper.

Now, not him specifically.

That would be crazy.

All right.

I'll help him.

But it's maintenance.

And I love how one Everett Harrison said that verse 1 calls for a commitment.

And verse 2 calls for a maintenance of that commitment.

Here, it says, if you're a believer, our motivation is different.

Our aim is different.

And now because of that, the maintenance on our life, we need to be careful.

We need to continually change our mind.

Do not be conformed to this world.

What does it mean?

Tim Keller says to resist godless patterns of thought.

As a Christian, the maintenance on our lives is we must learn to resist godless patterns of thought.

1 Peter 1.14 says,

Obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance.

It's rejecting.

A pattern of thinking.

It's protecting our minds.

I have weakness in my thinking.

I have areas that if I'm not careful, I will fall into.

I bet you do too.

There are different areas.

For me, I can easily have this angry, fighting spirit.

I can drive down the road and I can go to, well, if that guy does something, I know how I'm going to respond to that.

I know I'm going to fight there.

I know.

And you're like, pastor, that's terrible.

Except for all of us in here who have that same spirit in us that we fight.

That angry, and if I'm not careful, I will dwell on those things and begin to absorb my mind in ungodly patterns of thinking.

So as a Christian, I fight to not conform myself to that kind of thinking.

I have to not go, well, I didn't do anything and I can think on these things.

That's not the change in a believer.

We fight to think right.

As we know, our thinking leads to our doing.

And if I continue to think angry and fighting, it's amazing how easy my words can become sharp to my wife and my son.

As a believer, we change our minds.

And for you, you may laugh and go, that's kind of weird.

Well, I didn't say yours yet.

For some of you, it's the shameful thinking that you have.

It's this guilt.

It's this failure that consumes your soul that you sit on it.

And when you drive, you sit.

In the guilt of things instead of remembering what Christ has done and the forgiveness you've received in him.

For some of you, you sit and your mind is absorbed in sexual sin.

Some of you are absorbed with jealousy.

You compare yourself to others and you will either think wrongly of yourself

or you will be in anger towards someone else because of what they have or what they look like.

One said, our mind can be captured by sex and money, our job and approval.

Our child success and our looks and it can be consumed.

But as a believer, Paul in love goes, listen, our motivation is different.

We're not motivated by fear or greed or jealousy.

We're motivated by the care and the love of Jesus that has saved us.

It's moved us to a different life where we live a life in holy sacrifice to the Lord, pleasing the Lord.

And now in this maintenance, we must guard our minds.

We must guard our minds.

We must guard our minds, what we hear and what we see and what we read.

Let's just get offensive.

If you don't want your child to act like that artist or that sports star,

then maybe don't have your child daily consume their teachings.

If we don't want to act like the world,

maybe we need to be careful on what we are consuming and letting go

and letting into our mind and into our thoughts

because the world will squeeze us and mold us

and hurt us.

So the passage says, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

This metamorphosis is the word here.

We get the word, the Greek word here transformed is the word that we use for metamorphosis.

And that what's so awesome is this change is not the change from outside.

It's the change from the inside.

It is what the Lord has done because we received the Holy Spirit.

Listen, church, we may be transformed.

God gives us the strength.

To think differently, to live differently.

It is not from the outside in.

It's from the inside out.

It's why I've had conversations with some of you.

You look at your loved ones and you look at their lives and you go,

how is the Lord ever going to change that?

How could they ever come to a place and live differently?

How could that ever happen?

How does that happen?

The mercies of God show up.

Somebody comes to know Jesus.

And from the inside out, they are transformed.

They are renewed.

And they become.

They become new in the Lord because of what Jesus has done.

That's what it means to be a Christian.

That's God's transforming power.

Ephesians 4 says,

To put off your old self which belongs to your former manner of life

and is corrupt through deceitful desires

and to be renewed in the spirit of your mind

and to put on the new self created after the likeness of God

in true righteousness and holiness.

Be transformed by the Holy Spirit.

Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

What does that look like?

It looks like learning and listening to who God is

and hearing what he has for you.

Colossians 3.16 says it this way.

It says,

It's when we grow in God's word and grow in his fellowship

and the gathering of God's people together becomes more important to you

because you want to hear God's word.

You want to hear what the Lord has to say

and that daily devotion becomes more important

because you so want your mind to be transformed.

And I love how this passage ends.

It says that by testing you may discern what is the will of God,

what is good and acceptable.

It's not about a list of rules.

It's about a relationship with God that will lead you to discernment,

to wisdom, to do what he's called you to do.

So this morning as I close,

maybe just a personal challenge.

Maybe you're struggling.

Maybe you're struggling with your motivation.

Some practical steps is this week,

go find a place by yourself,

whether it's in your house or in a closet,

in your basement, in your car,

and come to the Lord and ask the Lord to help you

to rest in his love and his truth and in his gospel.

Read John chapter 3.

Read Romans chapter 5.

Read 1 Corinthians 13.

Sit there and read and soak in the goodness and the salvation of God.

And maybe you've never accepted Christ.

Well, this morning,

you can receive the mercies of God right where you're at,

right in your seat.

You may cry out to God right where you're at and say,

Lord, forgive me of my sins and save me,

and he will save you.

Maybe you're struggling with the aim.

Can I tell you to put in your car a verse,

Colossians chapter 1 verse 9 and 10,

that says,

Lord, may I walk in a way that is pleasing unto you.

And every day look at that verse,

and this week pray that every day.

God, may I walk in a way that's pleasing to you.

Maybe it's your mind.

If it is,

maybe you need to crush some of those things

that are feeding your mind in a worldly way.

And you may need to get radical.

You may need to go to a flip phone.

You may need to cancel the subscription.

You may need to walk up to a brother or sister in the Lord

and be real and honest and say,

this is my mind and I'm struggling.

Will you keep me accountable?

These are real actions.

This is the change of being a believer.

Let's stand together.

Pray for you.

Lord God, I thank you for this morning.

Lord God, I pray.

Lord, it's so exciting.

It's so exciting to know the change you call us to.

We thank you.

We praise you, Lord.

We honor you in Jesus' name.