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Romans 9-16

To Be Transformed by Mercy

John Carter · Sunday, 19 October 2025 · Romans 12:1-2 · 46:20 · 6,648 words

Romans S26 · 12:1-2 Flushing

Listen to this message

A walk through Romans 11 – 12 shows how Paul’s portrait of God’s mercy leads naturally into worship. The speaker explains that mercy is not receiving what we deserve, and that grasping this truth compels a response of whole‑life sacrifice. Romans 12 calls believers to present their bodies as living sacrifices, turning ordinary activities into spiritual worship. The sermon also links this to communion, urging reverent participation and inviting those who have never received God’s mercy to accept it.

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.

mercy 69 worship 31 altar 14 awe 9 paul 60 communion 10 aspect 13 sacrifice 17 climb 6 goodness 12 maybe 26 experience 13

Topics

Atonement & Sacrifice 4 Grace 2 Hope 1 Baptism 1 Righteousness 1 Faith 1

Scripture referenced 27

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

Romans 12 1:24 Romans 12 1:28 Romans 12 6:52 Romans 11 6:59 Romans 11:30 6:59 Romans 11 7:03 Romans 11 7:39 Romans 12 7:39 Romans 3 9:37 Romans 12 11:13 Romans 12 13:59 Romans 12 14:13 Romans 11 14:27 Romans 12 14:34 Romans 12 14:39 Romans 12 15:23 Romans 12 15:30 Romans 12 17:12 Romans 12 26:22 Romans 12:2 26:22 Romans 1 39:04 Romans 12 41:54 Romans 12 41:58 Romans 11 42:02 1 Corinthians 11 43:28 1 Corinthians 11 44:11 Romans 11:26 45:13

Transcript

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

Pre-service announcement — 9 lines, 0:41. Excluded from every count and search on this site, kept here so nothing is hidden.

Hey, everyone. My name is Mitchell Holmes, and I want to thank you for checking out this message

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Thank you again for joining us, and we hope you're blessed by today's message.

We're going to take a couple passages just before Romans 12 to kind of gain some context

as we go into Romans 12, and to help kind of create what we're walking through and what

we're trying to grasp that Paul is really taking us on this understanding of the gospel of Jesus.

I want to ask you a question, and I want you to think about this possible moment you have

experienced in your life. It's a moment where words just aren't enough. You're experiencing

something in your life, and you're trying to figure out what it is that you're trying to

express in your life, and you don't know how to express it in words, but all you can do is just stand

in awe. I remember a moment like this in my life. It was shortly after I got saved. I went back to

Japan where my parents were living, and I climbed Mount Fuji. It was something that I wanted to do.

Now, I didn't make it to the top. I don't know if you know this, but Mount Fuji is a really tall

mountain, and there is a thing called altitude sickness, and let me tell you, it's horrible.

But I was high enough where I was above the cloud line,

and I remember being high enough to see the cast. This is really weird to even imagine.

As the sun was coming up, the shadow of the mountain peak was laying on top of the clouds,

and I just sat there in this. It's really a volcano, so there's lava rock everywhere. I sat

on this lava rock looking at this moment going, wow, I've made all of this. How small am I in

comparison to this vastness as I was looking at God's wonderful creation? And you may have

experienced something like this. Maybe you're a hunter, and you've sat in the woods in your tree

stand, and as the woods are coming alive, it was a moment where you would realize, like, wow, I made

all of this. How wonderful, and you're just sitting there in that tree stand. I don't know how many of

you have done this, and you're just in awe of God's glory. Maybe it's something different. I'm

not much of a beach guy, but maybe you've been at the beach, and you've seen the sunset, or you've

seen the sunrise, and you go, wow, how amazing and how awesome is God. Maybe you sat outside in the

heavens, and you saw the stars, and how expansive they are, and how massive they spread across the

sky, and you're just like, wow. Maybe there are just these moments in your life you've had.

Maybe it's your kid graduating. You're like, man, I never thought that day would come. I'm sure that's

what my parents thought about me. I'm sure that's what my parents thought about me. I'm sure that's

what my parents thought about me, right? I can vividly remember walking across that stage and

thinking, even into the moment that I had it, like, I didn't open it on in the stage, but I was like,

this is fake. It's not real until I got out, and I opened it, and it was actually in there, and I'm

like, yes, I got it, and so, like, that's, those are moments that I remember. I was in awe that I

actually graduated, and you as parents might feel that way about your kids, but maybe it's something

different, right? You're in a hospital. You'd received maybe some bad news, possible news, and as

you went through all of that, what seemed impossible, maybe months, maybe even years later,

you walk through, and you see the Lord working in ways that are impossible, and you're in awe. You

have no words to express God's goodness in that situation in your life. Maybe, just maybe, you've

experienced this. You're going through a difficulty in your life, a trouble, just a trial,

and the right song comes on at the right time. Might be in your car, might be in your house,

might be on your phone, be during your workout playlist, I don't know, right? And just the right

song comes in at the right time, and you know that God is near. It's like, okay, God, thank you. I

don't have any words to express in this moment. I'm in awe of your presence. Thanks for being here.

It could come from a word, from friends, right? Like, or even a neighbor that says something

that's like, I just needed to hear that. This is kind of what we're walking through. Maybe just

another moment of awe that you may relate to is when

you yourself or someone that you have earnestly been praying for comes to understand grace

very first time, where they get to experience or you have experienced that, hey, forgiveness

is, in fact, very real, and it's being offered to each of us. And you can go back in that moment,

and I can remember that moment in my own life, and maybe you can reflect on that in a moment when

you received God's goodness and his forgiveness in your life, and you go, I have no words to express

him just in awe of you. Thank you, right? And you get to see that maybe, maybe you've experienced

that, where you've seen that happen in somebody else's life. Maybe your kids, maybe some family

member, maybe a neighbor, maybe a co-worker, where they grasp God's goodness, his mercy,

and his grace, and you see them receive God's free gift. You know, what's amazing is when we

walk through this, this is kind of where Paul's at as we go into chapter 12. As we are examining,

what Romans 11 concludes with, and we're going to look at that beginning in verse 30,

Paul is really pointing us to, at the very end of Romans 11, he's walking through a summary,

a very brief summary, of what he's been laying down for the first 11 chapters. He speaks of,

very clearly, God's goodness, his mercy. He's been explaining it for the past 11 chapters,

his mercy, his faithfulness to his people, his grace that's offered to all people, and his plan

to bring redemption to humanity, right? Paul, this is what Paul is walking through, so let's just read

verses 30 through 36 real quick, in Romans chapter 11, as we go into chapter 12. He says,

for just as you were at one time disobedient to God, but now you have received mercy. I just

want to define mercy real quick. Mercy is not receiving what you rightfully deserve.

Grace is getting what you don't deserve. Mercy is not receiving what you do deserve. Does that

make sense? They sound similar, but they have two completely different implications. Mercy is when

you do not experience the rightful judgment that you deserve. Grace is getting something that you

never had a chance to have to begin with. You never deserved it, but it's been given to you. That's

mercy. Not getting what you actually deserve. I love this because he says this multiple times,

and he's using this as an illustration to grasp God's mercy. But now you have received mercy,

he says, because of their disobedience. Obviously, if you are disobedient to an almighty,

holy, perfect God, there are consequences. And mercy is when those consequences have been

negated, right? This is the gospel message that Paul is really summarizing in these short verses.

He goes on, verse 31, so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to

you, they also may now receive mercy. For God has consigned, I want you to see this, for God has

consigned all to disobedience. This is no different than what Paul said earlier in Romans, I believe

it's in chapter three, there is none righteous, no, not one. See, God has consigned us all to

all. We all find ourselves in the seat where we are disobedient to a holy, righteous, and good

God. We all fall in this place where we find ourselves rebelling against, disobedient against

this God. Then he goes on, and I love this, that he, that is God, may have mercy on all. It's not

limited to certain peoples, it's for all people. And what happens in the next few verses, I love this,

here I can imagine Paul, he's a very intellectual man, he's a very scholarly man, and if you really

work through Romans at the beginning, he almost sounds like he's an attorney arguing and really

debating his case in a courtroom. And as he's coming to this chapter, you see him kind of wane

a little less from this academic, attorney-style conversation into a realistic, as he's writing

this out, he's like, and he's thinking about God's mercy, I'm sure in his own life, man,

that God's mercy in my own life, I used to murder people, and God has shown mercy on me, I don't

deserve it, yet God's goodness and his kindness has shown me this route to know Jesus. As he's

writing this down, what's amazing, and this is what we're going to really walk into with Romans

chapter 12, Paul can't help himself. Paul goes and does what we all should do when we grasp God's

mercy. Paul can't help himself, he starts to worship. Look at this in verse 33,

oh the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments, and how

inscrutable are his ways. For who has known the very mind of the Lord, Paul says, or who has been

his counselor? Who's going to God and say, God, man, listen, you need help figuring this out,

let me help you. That's basically what he's saying, right? Like, hey God, I know you got a

lot on your plate, this probably is an area you kind of fell short in, I can help carry this

burden for you, let me show you how to figure it out for you. That's, there's nobody that's done

that with God. As he continues, you see him say this, who has given a gift to him that he might

repay? See, Paul recognizes God's mercy, his goodness, the free gift that God gives us,

and there's nothing that we can give back to him. Even as we sang today, we talked about that,

right? What can I give God but hallelujah? That's praise, that's worship. And look at what

Paul says as he continues this, in verse 36, for from him and through him and to him are all things.

To him be glory forever. See, Paul right here, as he walks through this latter part of chapter

11, he is in this doxology, he's, this is not some afterthought Paul has, this is Paul's

emotional response to grasping God's mercy in his own life. And I can, I just imagine, because

I'll do this sometimes if I'm writing, you know, I'll be intellectually thinking through things and,

and working through what I've, I've been studying. But then there's moments where you can just kind

of get carried away in your writing. I almost feel like this is what Paul's doing. As he's

writing and trying to explain the mercies to somebody else, he applies it to himself,

and he cannot help but start praising and worshiping God, even in his writing. And it

is in this praise and this worship, I feel like Paul is overwhelmed. He can't help himself. He

believes and he knows this part of God's character, this mercy, and it just moves him to this place

where he is worshiping God. And I want you to understand this. This is, this is not just about

singing a song. We're about to go into chapter 12. This isn't Paul just singing a song. Yes,

that's a part of worship, but it's way more than just singing songs. This is about how we live.

Paul says in chapter 12 there, one of the opening statements that he says, he uses this word

And anytime you come across that word, you know that's a connecting thought. So you take what

Paul's just wrote down in Hebrews, or I'm sorry, in Romans 11, and you, you see this mercy in him

going into this worship, and then he goes into chapter 12. This is the context of what we're

walking in, in the first two verses of Romans 12. Paul comes here and he uses this word

therefore. Paul's response is really this. If God's mercy is that big, and that mighty, and that

wonderful, Paul and his intellect goes, the, the, there's only one logical, reasonable, spiritual

response to God's mercy. That is that our whole life, every part of it, becomes an aspect of

worship. I love, I love that this is how Paul is sanctifying the ordinary. What Paul is about to

walk us through in Romans 12 is this, that when we drive, when we cook, when we go to work, all of

this, it's a part of worship.

To God, and we're going to see this as Paul unveils this in the next two verses of chapter 12. We walk

into this, we just have to be ready and recognize that, that what he's doing is not just asking us,

as we're going to see this, he asks for us to be a living sacrifice. He's not asking us to die for

God. It's actually quite the opposite. He's asking us to live for him daily, to live for him

intentionally, and to live for him fully. That was my introduction.

We've got 20 minutes. I got three points. I'm not getting through this message. I already know it.

But we're going to get through the key parts, the important parts that will hopefully stir your heart

and help you see what Paul is pointing us to in being a living sacrifice. Let's go to the Lord

real quick and pray and ask him to be a part of this gathering, to be a part of us this morning,

to have his spirit lead us and to guide us. Heavenly Father, Lord, we love you. We thank you.

We know your spirit is here with us this morning.

Lord, we know that you are here and you desire us to understand what Paul is laying out for us

in these passages. Help us to grasp it. More importantly than anything else, Lord, help us

to understand your mercy so that our actions, the way we move is towards this whole worship of who

you are and this loving of you like, like nothing else. Lord, we love you and we thank you in Jesus'

name. Amen. So I'm going to read Romans chapter 12. I'm going to begin in the very first verse.

It says,

I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, there's that connecting thought,

by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God,

which is your spiritual worship. You see, in this, in this one short little verse, there's so much

that Paul is unpacking. I love this. He starts with an appeal. Earlier in the, in the chapters in the

book of Romans, Paul is writing like a scholarly attorney. He's not commanding that you do this.

He's coming to you with this appeal, this, this, this matter of tugging at your heart. He's not

commanding, he's not twisting your arm. He's trying to compel you from the very deepest emotional part

of your being, your heart. He's compelling. He's like, hey, I appeal. That word appeal means to

urge, to exhort, to plead. Not a command that he is saying. He's actually trying,

in every sense of the term, to plead, to, to touch you in a way that says, okay, I understand

God's mercies. Now my response should be this worship that I give. Because you've received

this mercy, respond with worship. He says, by the mercies, we've walked through this quite

extensively. We, we, we understand here, and this is just a quick point, mercies is not singular.

It's plural. See, there's, there's so many mercies of God that Paul has already laid down

in chapters 1 through 11. I mean, just a real quick understanding. Justification by faith. That's a

mercy of God that we get to experience. Freedom from sin and death. That is a mercy that God gives

to those who call on him and believe in him. That is a mercy that is applied to us. Being adopted

into his family is a mercy that God gives to his children, to his adopted children. The hope for the

future. This is a mercy that God gives to his children. The hope for the future. This is a mercy

that God gives his people. God's faithfulness to his promises is a mercy that we get to receive.

So it's plural. There's many mercies that we can look at that should compel us to this worship.

Paul then says, present your bodies. This word present implies to offer, to place beside.

It is in the aspect of placing a sacrifice on an altar to God. Now that's very,

very foreign to us, right? Like, I don't think, unless some of you have walked in some of the

pagan cultures, I don't think anybody's making altars so often that we would recognize this

terminology, this aspect of sacrifice and what it means to offer. That's not something we generally

do in our culture. But in Paul's time, this was a very common term. Whether you were a Jew or a

Greek, you understood this imagery that Paul is laying out of sacrificing or offering or presenting

something to a God, whether the Jehovah God or a pagan God, right? There's a distinction here.

For Jews, this sacrifice from the Old Testament meant holiness, it meant purity, and it meant

atonement. For a Gentile who was coming out of the pagan culture, this aspect of sacrifice was

their way of pleasing their gods through doing this ritualistic bringing dead animals on an

altar. And so while it might seem strange to us in our modern culture, as Paul is laying

this out and he is communicating to the listeners of this letter, they would have grasped this and

understood it very clearly, this notion of what we offer to God. He flips it. He does a wonderful

job. He says, present your bodies. And this is not just talking about our physical body. This is

talking about our whole, what makes us as a person in this physical world, the way we think,

the way we act, our habits. This is part of what

defines us as individuals, our personalities, if you will. This is what this is referencing,

this present your bodies, your whole person, not just part of you. Hey, Lord, I'm going to give you

my hand today on the altar, right? Like here, you can have this. The rest of me, we're going to hang

out over here. No, Paul is implying very clearly, this is an aspect of your whole person. Lord,

you can have my physical body, but my mind, my thoughts, those are mine. You can't have those

today. And listen, this is a reality. This is a reality. This is a reality. This is a reality.

This is a reality. And as we're walking through this, you're going to see Paul kind of really

challenge the thinking of this when he says this, this aspect of presenting your bodies as a living

sacrifice. I want you to think about this. You know what's so hard about a living sacrifice on

an altar? It wants to move. It doesn't want to stay there. It wants to get off the altar because

it's so contrary for our flesh, for our nature to say, okay, Lord, I am going to yield myself and

submit it to you as you please.

Do what you want. See, a living sacrifice, we have to willingly, intentionally offer ourselves

daily for the purpose of the Lord, for his glory. And this is rooted in our understanding of his

mercies. Paul says at the end there, that word he uses, he says, as he's talking about this living

sacrifice, this spiritual worship. Some of your versions, if you don't have the ESV, some of them

may say a reasonable service. It's the rational worship. Some of your versions may say something

like that. It's reasonable. It's rational. It's logical. This is, this is our spiritual worship

is when we come to the altar of God. And then after we understand all of his mercies, we go,

Lord, the only thing I can do is say, here am I, use me as you please. It's the only logical

response Paul comes to. The notion of being this, this, this, this living sacrifice. Man, so often our flesh

we, we, we so often we're like, okay, Lord, I'll give you this day. This is yours. The rest of the

days, they're mine. I'm not going to give that to you. I'm going to do what I want. I'm going to

operate the way I want to operate. I'm going to think the way I want to think. I'm going to act

the way I want to act. Oh, on, on Sunday, Lord, here, you can have this day. Monday through

Saturday, Lord, I'm, I am me. This is this contrast that Paul is saying, hey, listen,

as a living sacrifice, our reasonable worship. And this is part of what Paul is saying. This

is an aspect of worship. When I wake up every day, listen, what we're saying is this. When I

wake up every day, I'm saying, Lord, I'm climbing back up onto this altar and how you choose to use

me, use me. Paul says, because we understand his mercies, because we understand his goodness,

his character, we can climb up on that altar and it doesn't feel like work. It is actually our

worship of God. I hope I'm saying this in a way that you are grasping it because it is so important

because of God's goodness, because God didn't pour out. I'm just going to use me. Didn't pour out on me

his wrath, which I rightfully deserve. Right? So often we forget that and we forget like, Lord,

no, this is the way I want to do things. Lord, no, Lord, I don't understand what you're doing

in my life. This doesn't make sense. I'm not sure I'm on board with this. No. Paul says, listen,

because of God's goodness, his character, his mercy, you can climb back up on that altar

and you can worship. Deserves it. It's the reasonable,

rational thing for us to do. And as we continue in this, going into verse two of chapter 12,

we see Paul telling us this, this contrast of thoughts. We covered this a couple of weeks ago.

He starts with, do not be conformed to this world. And this world is not talking about his creation.

This is talking about a mindset, a worldview, an ideology. Do not be conformed to the world.

I love how Paul says this because his implication,

the thought process as he's working through this is he assumes it's already happening.

He assumes that the pressures of the world, that's what this conformed idea is. It's like a pressure

coming from the outside and forming you like, like you would consider maybe a, a metal forge or a

stamp of some kind, right? The word conform is this idea of being pressured from the outside to look

a certain way, to act a certain way, to think a certain way, to behave a certain way. And it comes

from this worldview that is contrary and rebellious and disobedient to God. And he's

saying, Hey, listen, it's happening. And the only way to make it stop is you have to be intentional

while not being conformed to it. That's hard. In contrast, he says, do not be conformed to this

world, but contrast, be transformed by the renewing of your mind. The word transformed

is a really interesting Greek word. It's actually the same word we get the word

metamorphosis from. I'm not going to try to say it in the Greek because I would botch it,

but it's the same idea of, quite frankly, when we look at the image of a caterpillar,

when a caterpillar goes into its cocoon, it transforms into a butterfly. It becomes,

it's a metamorphosis that occurs and changes it from a caterpillar into a butterfly. It doesn't

come out of that cocoon saying, Hey, I'm a better caterpillar now. Nope. Comes out of that cocoon and

becomes a totally new creature. This is the same concept that Paul has laid out earlier when he

talks about this aspect of knowing Jesus, recognizing him as our Lord and as our Savior,

being baptized in him. And as we are baptized, we are saying, I am dying to myself, dying to the

things of the world, and I am being transformed. I am being changed into a new creature. Same concept.

Here, Paul says, resist the conformity,

be transformed into this new creature that God desires his people to be. Such a beautiful,

beautiful picture. He says to do this by the renewing of your mind. What we enter into our

mind is so, so important to recognize that it has the ability to change us to walk from one way

that is maybe good or another way that can be completely contrary to the things of God.

My uncle, I don't know where he got it from, but he helped me see something when I was a young,

younger man walking through my faith. He said very clearly, John, what you put in your mind,

this is the way I understood it, and I've hung on to it for a long time, and to this day, I still

use this. John, what you put into your mind is going to directly affect your heart. What affects

your heart is going to affect what your actions do. And if you don't want to take those actions

anymore, you got to go back to the very beginning and affect what's going into your mind. Because

what changes your heart is what you allow to enter into your mind. This is where Paul is rooting us in,

God's word. We're not in it,

and we're not reading it, and we're not consuming it. What we bring into our mind,

how can we expect our heart to ever change? We're not receiving the word of God and consuming the

word of God, right? How can we ever expect our hearts to change? And if our hearts never change,

how can we ever expect the way we act, the way we behave, the way we treat people ever to change?

This is what we're working through. This is what Paul is saying. Hey, this renewal of your mind,

it isn't something that you, this isn't a self-help idea. I want you to understand this,

because though the subject matter of this is me and you as individuals, the change agent is God

himself, through his word, through his spirit, through our relationship with Jesus. That is the

change agent, not a self-help, not a how to be a better, again, caterpillar, but allow the changing

of God's word, the changing of his Holy Spirit to really impact us deeply to say, okay, I am motivated

because I understand your mercies. I am now motivated, Lord, to offer to you all that I have.

Not a small portion of what I have, all of what I have. The way I act, the way I talk, the way I

behave, the way I think, it all, Lord, is for you to use for your glory, my worship to you. And as Paul

continues in the second verse, the latter part of the second verse, he says that by testing, you may

discern what is good and acceptable and perfect. Love this. This is just, there's so much meat in

these simple two verses. What Paul is saying here, that this aspect of testing, you discern that word

testing means to examine, to test, and I love this latter part of it, to prove genuine by experience,

to prove authentic by experience. What is Paul saying? Listen, this aspect of renewing your mind,

of testing or discernment comes out when we live what we say we believe. Part of what Paul is saying

is what we should be living is this aspect of climbing on this altar as not a dead sacrifice,

but a living one that represents the mercies and goodness of God in our own lives so that we can

proclaim not our goodness, but his goodness. We go, God, whatever you want to do with me to glorify

wonderful, holy, righteous name. Man, I am down with it. Easier said than actually doing, let me tell

you. This is the battle of the flesh. This is the battle that we like, nope, man, when maybe, maybe

when it gets a little uncomfortable on that altar, and trust me, there are moments that that happens.

We're like, oh man, this is getting a little hot and uncomfortable, Lord. It's time to get off.

It's what I would do, right? But no, this is the aspect like, no, I know God's mercies. That fire is this refinement. This is

the imagery that Paul's doing that we would come out not as a piece of metal in essence that is

dirty and full of contaminants, but no, this fire is what refines us so that we come out and we are

the purest form of that metal. All the impurities have been burnt away in a sense. Love that Paul is

doing this and this act of discernment. Man, this is, this is really cool as we grow in the Lord, as we are taking his word into our life, as we are

living this out day in and day out. I love that Paul says we as believers gain the ability to recognize

what pleases God. Not, listen, this is really important. We recognize what pleases God, not just

what displeases God. I want you to hear that. Paul says as we live it out, as we walk in this faith, as we offer

ourselves to the Lord, we start to discern not just the problems of our life, not just the, the don'ts in our world,

right, as believers, but we start to recognize the do's, what pleases God. Man, how horrible of a place

that is. Lord, I know what I'm not supposed to do. Please show me what I am supposed to do, right?

Like, like when you're teaching a child and all you tell a child is no, don't do that, no, don't do that.

Man, they, they're afraid to do anything because they're afraid they're going to mess up because of the big don't list.

Here, Paul is saying, listen, as you walk in the Lord, as you have that relationship with God, you start to discern what

actually pleases God. And you learn the do's list, so to speak, how to please him, how to walk in him, how to, as he says

here very clearly, that you may discern what is the will of God in your life, how you behave, how you act, how you

treat people, how you do that on a daily basis. Paul says, this is how you do this. You will see, you will see the

parts of God's will and you will see what is good, what is acceptable and what is perfect. And it'll point you to

I love this. It points you to this ultimate place where you stand in awe who God is. You can't help

but worship him for his mercies. He's poured out on our life and you stand in this place of awe and

you go, God, all I can do is praise you and give your name all the glory that it deserves because

there's nothing in this world, nothing in this world greater than you. And here I am to be your

servant. Use me as you please.

What an incredible, wonderful illustration and passage that Paul is pointing us to. At this time, I'm going to, this really ties into our understanding of communion. I know we're going to take communion this morning, so I'm going to ask for those that are scheduled to help with communion to go ahead and go back there and grab the communion plates and begin to start passing them out. And as we're doing this, I really want to walk you through this correlation of what's happening. Yeah, you're good.

There's an incredible thing that's happening here as we are walking through what Paul is saying here and how it ties into communion. You see, if God's mercy is true, if it's really that deep, that wide, that undeserving, the reality is this. It then demands a response that we as individuals have to take. See, God's mercy invites our surrender, our submission to him. His word renews our

mind. His spirit aligns our walk. All of it, every aspect of it is an element of worship. See, the heart of this passage, I'm telling you, it's not behavior modification. You guys can go ahead and pass it out. And as you're taking the cup, I want to ask you to do some things. It's not behavior modification. It's a movement motivated by understanding God's mercy. Paul says by the mercies of God. You notice he didn't say by the threat of judgment. He didn't say by the fear of failure. He said, but

by the mercies of

God. Everything that

flows, everything that we read

here, everything that Paul's laid down in the beginning

of Romans chapter 1 all the

way to this point, flows from

what Christ has already done

for you and for me. He

took your death and he gave you

life. He took your sin

and he gave you righteousness.

He took your shame and he

gave you belonging.

The cross is the very reason, in

fact, you and me can

be living sacrifices.

Jesus was consumed, so

you could be continually

renewed. And as we look at this,

Paul shows us that this worship

isn't just what we sing, it's how

we live. When we offer our lives to

God, when our minds are

renewed, we align with his

will to worship. So as they're

passing out communion,

I want you to take a moment today.

I want you to think about some of the

things in your own life.

Maybe there are elements that you have

not placed on the altar

as a living sacrifice. Maybe there's a

part of your life you're like, nope, Lord, when it

comes to that, I'm climbing off and I'm

going to deal with it on my own. Paul's

desire for the believer is that, no, you

would stay there on the altar and allow the

Lord to refine you, to shape you,

to transform you

into this new creature. You are

partaking in communion. Recognize

this isn't a ritual.

This is an element of worship. This is

us recognizing God's mercies

in our life. And as

we take this cup and we're going to read

this passage of scripture in 1 Corinthians,

we're going to see it directly

ties to the cross.

It's one of those elements where

you're going to see God's mercy in full

display through a simple piece of

bread, which is the body of Christ

and a simple thing of juice. It's just imagery

to remind us

of the mercies of God at

the cross. And if you're here today and you

don't know and you've never experienced

or received God's mercy,

I want you to know something. This

passage is a passage for you.

See, you can't live a transformed

life until you've received

saving grace. You can't

offer what you don't have.

You can't renew what hasn't been

redeemed. So Romans 12

is this, Romans 12

is really life after

Romans 11, the receiving of

His mercies. So I want to encourage you

if you've never done that, listen,

first comes this mercy, then comes

the transformation. God who

reached down, and we covered this in the passages

that reached down and always

extended His hand to an unbelieving

Israel. And the same

God who offers that to

the Gentiles in their rebellion,

same God that's reaching out to you

today. He's not reaching out to

you with wrath or judgment,

but He's reaching out to you

with mercy. Take

some time, reflect in your life

and listen, if you're here today and you've never

received that mercy and in this moment

you call out to the Lord, as Romans

10, 9,

9 and 10 say, confess

with your mouth, believe in your

heart, and you will

be saved. You will

not be put to shame, and your

Lord, He will never leave you,

nor will He ever forsake

you. You have the cup in one hand,

one is juice that represents

the blood of Christ, one is a little cracker

that represents His body. 1 Corinthians

chapter 11, Paul is giving

the instructions for how to take communion.

I'm not going to read the passage, but he does

give a warning. Listen, do not take

this, do not take this

half-heartedly. Don't

partake in communion if there is

something in your heart you haven't dealt with.

He even goes so far as saying, like, listen,

some of you have abused this mercy

of God, and because of it, some of you

are sick. Some of you are even

experiencing death because of it.

So there's this warning that comes in taking

and partaking in communion. We are doing

it as an act of worship. Paul

says, as he gives his instructions in verse

23 of 1 Corinthians 11, he says,

for I received, thank you, for I

received from the Lord

what I also delivered to you,

that the Lord Jesus, on the night when He was

betrayed, He took bread. When He gave

thanks, He broke it. He said,

this is my body. This is my body

which is for you. Do this

in remembrance. And in the same

way, He also took the cup after

supper, saying, this cup

is the new covenant in

my blood. Do this as often

as you drink it in remembrance

of me. What are we remembering?

We're remembering His mercy.

That we don't deserve. And all that

mercy leads us to is this place of

worship where we worship Him. And He

says this in verse 26, for as often

as you eat this bread and drink

the cup, you proclaim

the Lord's death till He

comes. Take this bread and

this cup and take it in remembering the Lord's

mercy. Heavenly Father, Lord,

thank you for your mercies

in my life. Lord, thank you for your

mercies. Man, there's so many I

could list where you didn't give me what I

deserved. And you cared for me and you

loved me, forgave me.

Lord, help us to live this life where

we worship you in everything.

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