Today the scripture reading comes from Romans chapter 11 and 12.
Please follow along on the screen, the bulletin, or your own Bible.
Starting in chapter 11, verse 33, we read,
O the death of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable are his judgments, and how incruitable in his ways!
For who has known the might of the Lord, or who has been his counselor,
or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?
For from him, and through him, and to him are all things.
To him be glory forever. Amen.
I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God,
to present your bodies as a living sacrifice,
holy and acceptable to God,
which is your spiritual worship.
This is the word of God.
Great.
Thank you.
Thank you, Sherman.
We've got a short passage today compared to Daniel,
so well done for reading that.
Let me just pray for us as we get into God's word this morning.
Father, I just thank you that actually as we come before you
and we get in your word this morning,
this is such an incredible passage,
and I know it's a passage where many of us who've been in church
have heard this before,
but, Lord, we want our hearts not just to check out
because we've heard something before,
but we want you to warm our hearts.
We want you to melt our hearts.
We want you to change our hearts
so that actually as we go out this week into the rest of our lives,
Lord, that we live our lives as an offering of worship to you.
Lord, I pray even as I speak, Lord,
would my lips be worshiped to you?
Nothing about me, Lord, but about you.
Would as we listen, Lord,
would it be worshiped to you?
Would you open our ears so that we want to honor you
in the way that we hear and respond?
And I pray, Lord,
that you would just be with us right now.
By your Holy Spirit, we pray.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.
Great.
Welcome, everyone.
My name's Chris.
If you don't know me,
I'm one of the leaders at Watermark.
Today, Kevin's actually preaching at another church,
Faith Community Church,
so you can check out with him.
Actually, that's one of the things we really believe God has us here as a church,
is not just to be here for ourselves,
but also to be a blessing in the city.
And so that's why Kevin's going and speaking at another place this morning.
We're starting a new series in the book of Romans.
Let me start off by saying I was talking actually just last week to a cafe owner,
and she said to me,
you know, all religions are basically the same, aren't they?
You know, it's just about,
it doesn't kind of matter what you believe,
it's really all about just being good, isn't it?
So as long as you're a nice person and kind of help grannies across the road,
it's great.
It doesn't matter what you believe.
And it sounded plausible,
except for the fact that she had missed the crucial fact that,
though what you do is really important,
the why behind the what is also crucial,
in fact, even more important.
Because I can be nice to you just to manipulate you.
I can be nice to you to feel better about myself.
But the passage in Romans 12 that we're going to be looking at,
and we're going to spend a few weeks just going through this extraordinary passage in Scripture,
it's amazing.
I encourage you all to be reading it in between.
It's a passage which calls us not just to be nice people,
it calls us to be people of radical love and sacrifice.
It calls us to be a community,
which is so beautiful because it's shaped entirely by Jesus and his love for us.
And we're going to focus,
really zoom down into the first verse of this passage today,
which is really the foundation for everything else that Paul is going to say in Romans 12.
Because if you don't get this part of the verse,
everything else that he's going to call us to is going to be useless,
because it's going to be a what without a why.
It's going to be morality without the motivating power to sustain it.
You know, I remember when I was a teenager,
I mean, my friend, we went to climb the tallest mountain in the UK called Ben Nevis.
And we wanted to do it because it was the tallest mountain.
And so we got halfway up,
but we realized that actually it's eight hours of just monotony.
It's the most boring mountain ever in the world.
And halfway up, my friend and I, we were just exhausted.
We were kind of like, I can't bother to do this any longer.
We just sat down, we stopped, we looked at each other and go,
I can't be bothered.
And then, this really hot girl walked past us racing up the mountain.
And do you know what happened?
You have never seen two 16-year-olds climb Ben Nevis as quickly as we did.
Because we found our why.
Before, we thought we had a why, but it was just in our heads.
But then we had a why which captured our hearts at that moment.
And though that's a stupid story,
if we're going to live radical lives,
loving Jesus as he calls us to,
it's tough work.
It's like climbing a mountain.
And we're going to need a greater why
than all the other whys that the society around us preaches to us.
We're going to need heart-motivating rocket fuel.
There we go, the spirit is working.
Excuse me.
We're going to need heart-motivating rocket fuel
to really enable us to live this kind of life.
Excuse me, I'm going to put this down here.
So we're going to look through this passage,
this verse,
and I've just got two things that I'm going to say.
One is about give me your why.
And the second is give me your all.
Okay?
So just have the bulletin open in front of you.
And we're going to look through this.
Because here is the verse.
It says,
I appeal to you,
therefore, brothers,
by the mercies of God,
present your bodies as a living sacrifice,
holy and acceptable to God.
He says,
therefore,
which is actually,
he means in the light of everything that I've said
in chapters 1 through to 11.
And then he summarizes
the why behind the what
that he's going to go into.
And he says,
well, the NIV translation says,
in view,
and actually our title says,
in view of God's mercy.
But that's actually only half right.
Because in view of means kind of think about it
and then go ahead and do it.
Maybe out of obligation,
maybe out of guilt,
but just do it.
That's not what he's saying here.
The actual Greek says,
by the mercies of God.
Because what by means is,
it means having thought about it,
having allowed it to marinate
and soak in your heart,
and allowing it to empower
and energize you.
These mercies of God
then live radical lives after that.
And do you notice,
it's actually not the mercy of God,
it's the mercies of God in Greek,
which means you try counting how many mercies there are.
They're innumerable.
And so what I'm going to do is,
I'm going to just go through a few
from the book of Romans,
from chapters 1 to 11,
of some of the mercies of God.
You see, chapter 1,
Paul says,
I'm not ashamed of the gospel,
because it's the power of God for salvation,
for everyone who believes.
And in it,
the righteousness of God is revealed.
The restoring,
the saving,
the healing,
the renewing power of God is revealed.
The gospel,
the mercies of God,
are not about what we do for God,
it's about what God has done for us.
It's about God's solution to our problem.
And so as the Romans carries on,
he says,
our problem is that though we knew God,
we didn't glorify Him,
or honor Him in our lives.
We walked out on Him.
We took the glorious symphony of God's creation,
in all its complexity,
all its beauty and wonder,
and we scrubbed out the name of the composer,
which was God,
and we tried to put our own names in there.
And then maybe we ended up worshipping the music stand,
or something we'd created,
an idol,
instead of the one who deserved all the honor.
And it says we became jealous,
selfish,
unkind,
judgmental,
and we justified it all.
Anybody like that?
One or two.
And he says,
religion couldn't help us,
morality couldn't help us,
because we failed even our own standards.
And he says,
all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
And he says,
because of that,
the wages of sin is death.
We were under God's judgment,
under His wrath,
condemned.
No defense at all.
And then he says,
but.
But God showed His great love for us,
in that while we were still sinners,
while we were powerless,
while we had nothing in our hands,
Christ died and rose for us.
He took our punishment on the cross.
He freed us from the penalty of sin.
Instead of being His enemies through Jesus,
we're reconciled.
We've got peace with the Creator of the universe.
He said,
there's now no condemnation for any of us in Christ.
He says,
He doesn't just forgive us,
doesn't just wipe the slate clean.
He credits us with the gift of righteousness.
We have right standing before God.
And we can reign in the new life that He gives to us today.
And He says,
we have access into the very presence of this holy, awesome God.
And He calls us His adopted, beloved children.
And by Him we can cry,
Abba, Father.
Have you thought how amazing that is?
There's no other religion which says,
the God who created everything,
the galaxies,
the Milky Way,
you can call Him Dad.
And He loves to hear your voice.
And He says,
there is nothing in all creation
that will ever separate you,
if you're in Christ,
from the ever doting,
ever watching,
ever caring,
ever passionate love of God for you.
Nothing.
Because we're united to Him.
The mercies of God.
But then He says,
there's more.
He says,
God works through every circumstance,
you go through for your good.
He's going to conform us to be more like Jesus,
to be glorious image bearers,
the beautiful people we were made to be.
He is restoring us.
And He says,
even though we groan in this world,
He will,
He's not just setting us free from the penalty of sin,
but also the power of sin.
He fills us with the Holy Spirit's presence within us.
He doesn't leave us slaves to fear and anxiety.
But the Spirit reminds you,
you are a child of God.
Remember that.
He lifts up when we just don't,
we feel so weak,
and we don't even know how to pray.
He says,
He helps us in our weakness,
and He intercedes for us,
and He lifts our prayers to the throne of heaven.
And because of Him,
you have resurrection power inside of you
to say no to your selfish desires,
and to choose to live lovingly,
obediently,
and courageously with His power.
And in the groaning of the world,
He will not just move the penalty of sin,
not just the power of sin,
but also He removed the presence of sin.
Because He's giving you an unshakable future,
a hope that's never going to disappoint you.
You become heirs of the estate of heaven and earth.
You're co-heirs with Jesus,
will reign with Him.
You're more than a conqueror
through Him who's loved you.
And your body,
which right now may get allergies,
and asthma,
and high blood pressure,
will be healed and transformed
to a place where we'll go,
well, what do we call that back then?
Was it cancer?
Because He will have brought
this abundant new creation in life,
and you and I will be there
if you've trusted in Christ.
And we did nothing to deserve it.
Nothing in our hands.
It's purely the gracious generosity of a God
that we go,
why on earth would you do that?
And He says,
because I love you.
And we receive it all as an open gift
with empty hands,
the empty hands of faith.
And I've only just begun to start talking about
the mercies of God.
Because I could talk about the fact
that His mercies are new every single day.
And that even though I so often forget about His mercies,
He still continues to be merciful to me.
Even today.
How often do we rehearse the mercies of God?
And you know,
the amazing thing of this is that
Paul,
he's a brain.
He knows all this doctrine.
And you know,
people who have real intelligence,
often they're great at academics,
but they're cold a little bit
in the way that they're just clinical.
But actually,
he doesn't get tired of this
because in chapter 11,
he ends the whole of chapters 1 to 11
with this splurge of uncontrolled praise.
He goes,
oh, the depths of the riches of the wisdom
and the knowledge of God.
How unsearchable and how inscrutable
are His ways and His judgments.
He's going,
wow,
I can't get my head around this.
I don't even have the words to say.
Why is Paul so excited about this?
This isn't theory for Paul.
For some of us,
that can be nice.
That's nice theory.
This is not theory
because his life is the testimony
to these mercies.
You know,
1 Timothy 1,
he says,
formerly I was a blasphemer,
a persecutor,
an insolent opponent.
But I received mercy
and the grace of our Lord
overflowed to me,
he says.
You know,
this is personal.
And you know,
actually,
this will only make you sing
when you realize
how much you need it.
Until God runs a 10-ton truck
over your life
to the place where you go,
wow,
I need mercy,
you will not realize
that the power and the joy
that there is
in the mercies of God.
You know,
I knew a guy,
I knew of a guy who,
his dad
was always working
for the family.
And as a son,
he was grateful
that he paid his college fees
and he was dutiful,
he was there on birthdays
and Father's Day
doing the kind of right thing.
But emotionally,
he was not really invested.
He was,
he was just,
you know,
he invested in a whole
load of other stuff.
He took his dad
quite for granted.
And you know,
they had a,
just a dutiful relationship.
But then one day,
his mom came to him
and said to him,
do you realize
why your dad
took so many multiple jobs
and was busy all the time?
It's because he had to pay off
the debts
for the treatment
that saved your life
when you were a kid.
And actually,
you meant the time
that he's actually spent with you,
do you realize
he was actually sacrificing
the sleep
that he should have gotten.
Actually,
it's affected his health massively.
And he didn't want you
to know about this
because
he didn't want you
to feel guilty.
And when the son,
the son heard this,
do you know what it did?
It melted his heart.
He broke down.
He wept at how cold
he could have been
towards his father.
And it changed him
to determine
to invest his life
in rebuilding
his relationship
with his dad.
You know,
Jesus isn't just
a busy, absent father.
He's an ever-present father.
But if you think
that Jesus is just,
you know,
the greatest mercy
that you have from him
is he gave you a good job.
Or he, you know,
helped you to get,
I answer a prayer
that you had.
If that's the extent
that you think
his mercies go to,
then you'll be grateful.
You'll go,
well, thanks, Jesus.
That's nice.
I'm forgiven.
Maybe here's $10
in the offering for you.
Thank you for dying for me.
Now, what price
were the Tesla stocks
at the moment?
Because you might give
your duty,
but you won't give
your heart
until you realize
the depth
of the sacrifice
for you
that he went to.
In fact,
to just give him
your duty
is actually quite offensive,
right?
After all he's done.
But if you know
that he sacrificed
everything for you,
the very breath
that you have right now
is a gift from him.
That if it wasn't
for his mercy,
you would be
in a way worse place
than you are right now.
And I know that
for myself.
Then that changes
everything.
You found your why.
You found
the way
that you can be
propelled
to really love
and to live for him.
Do you know
your need
for his mercies?
Do you know
just how incredible
much he loves you?
Because if you do,
Paul then appeals
to you
and to us
with this why
to respond.
And he says,
respond
with spiritual worship.
And that word
spiritual
means
the only
logical,
reasonable,
not external duty,
but internally
motivated
and fueled
from the inside
response
is worship
which says,
I give you
my all,
Jesus.
He's given you
his why
and now he tells you,
give me
your all.
That's the second point.
And this music stand
is getting lower
and lower.
Or I'm getting
shorter and shorter,
I'm not sure.
Paul says,
by the mercies
of God,
what should you do?
Present
your bodies
as a living
sacrifice,
holy
and acceptable
to God,
which is,
this is,
your spiritual
worship.
You see,
this is the language
of the Old Testament,
of Old Testament
worship,
where you take a bull
or a lamb
or some animal
and you'd offer it
on the altar
and you'd slit
its throat
and it would die
as a substitute
for the worshipers.
And it was a costly
sacrifice.
It was brought
before God
to bring
that offering
but actually
you would only
bring the best.
Your animals
were your possessions,
your wealth.
You know,
you didn't bring
a sheep with acne.
You had to be
spotless.
And there were
three types
of animal sacrifice.
There were sin offering,
sin and guilt offerings,
there were burnt offerings
and there were
fellowship offerings.
But the guilt
and the sin offerings
and the fellowship offerings,
the priest could eat
some of it.
But the burnt offering,
you brought it all
and you burnt it all
in front of you.
There was nothing left.
You didn't say,
oh,
I'll just take a thigh
from that afterwards
once it's cooked.
You didn't do that.
It was totally consumed
in front of you.
Why?
Because what you are saying
is,
this is my total,
utter,
no holds barred,
consecration
and devotion
to you, God.
This is my worship
for you.
And what Paul
is saying here,
he says,
Jesus has done away
with the animal sacrifice,
but do you know
where is the sacrifice now?
You're the sacrifice.
But you're not
a dead one.
You're a living one.
You're not a sacrifice
for the sin offering.
This is the burnt offering
of saying,
where my day-to-day life is,
thank you,
we need a repair man.
My day-to-day,
moment-by-moment life
is an offering
of responsive worship
to the God
who's given everything for me.
It's a heart
that's captivated
by his mercies.
Because you know
what worship is?
His worship
is giving
the highest value,
the highest worth,
the highest priority
to what you think
is most valuable,
is worth the most.
And so he's saying,
is Jesus
the most precious thing
to you?
Is he?
Can you say,
Jesus,
I want to surrender
my all to you?
And notice he doesn't say
actually just,
bring your spiritual life,
bring your church life,
bring your Bible studies
to me.
He doesn't say that.
He says,
present your bodies,
your lips,
your arms,
your mouth,
your tongue,
your every part of you,
your sexuality
to God.
Verse 2
is going to talk
about the mind.
And we'll look at that
next week.
But here he's saying,
true worship
is not just singing
some songs on a Sunday.
It's not even just
confessing some sins
from your heart,
although those are worship.
It's every single aspect
of your life.
Everything.
One guy,
commentator,
William Barclay,
said this,
we might say,
I'm going to church
to worship God.
But we should also
be able to say,
I'm going to the factory,
the shop,
the office,
the school,
the garage,
the mine,
not many mines in Hong Kong,
the shipyard,
the field,
the cow ship,
definitely not many of those,
the garden,
to worship God.
You're going,
I'm going to change nappies
and send emails
and have conversations
and plan vacations
and have sex
with my spouse,
all for the glory
and honour of God.
Every part.
Because he says,
if you've got your why,
and if your why
is not just here,
it's come down here,
then this offering
of what you present
to God,
it's holy
and acceptable.
You know,
in the Old Testament,
God doesn't accept
any old sacrifice.
It had to be perfect.
He won't accept
an imperfect sacrifice.
You know,
he won't accept
a sacrifice
from somebody
who isn't a believer
in him.
But the gospel says
that imperfect people
like you and me
are made acceptable
and holy sacrifices.
Because in Jesus,
God doesn't look at you
like we look at us
or like other people
look at us.
We go,
but can't you see
all the kind of things
I do wrong?
And God says,
yeah, I know.
But in Christ,
I have cleansed you.
I see you
with my righteousness,
holy,
spotless,
acceptable,
pleasing.
Your sacrifice
delights his heart.
Isn't that amazing?
Some of you
are not amazed,
but I think
it's amazing.
So what does it mean
for all of your life
to be worshipped?
Well,
there's a parallel passage
in Romans 6
which says this.
It says,
don't present
your members,
that means
your body parts,
your arms,
your legs,
all those things,
to sin
as instruments
for unrighteousness.
But present yourselves
to God
as those who have been
brought from death
to life.
You're alive,
you're living.
That's what he's saying,
a living sacrifice.
And you're members
to God
as instruments
for righteousness.
What is he saying?
He's actually saying
you are always
presenting your body
to something.
You are always
worshipping something
every day.
It's not a matter,
a choice of
whether you worship
or not,
but who or what
you will worship.
And so,
what you will do
with your lips
and where you are
focused with your eyes
and your ears
is where you will
lay those down
on the altar
of worship
to that thing.
You know,
the reason we present
our bodies
to pornography,
the reason we present
our bodies
to anger
and shouting
and all the other things
is because
we are worshipping
something other than God
and we've lost sight
of the mercies
of God towards us.
You know,
every morning
the first thing
some of us do
is present
our bodies
to our phones,
to Facebook,
to the news,
to WhatsApp
because we worship
being up to date.
We fear
missing out.
But you know,
one of the things
I've started trying
to do
as a habit
in my heart
and my life
is to start
my day
praying a prayer
that author
Elizabeth Elliot
prays
to actually offer
every single day
and here's
what she says
her prayers
loving Lord
and heavenly Father
I offer today
all that I am
that means I'm a father
I'm a son
I'm a colleague
I'm a friend
whatever you are
all that I have
my phone
my laptop
all the things
that you have given me
my flat
that all that I do
that project
that I've got
right now
this sermon
that I'm writing
whatever email
you're sending
and all that I suffer
my struggles
the pains
that I'm going to
go through today
to be yours today
and yours forever
isn't that an amazing prayer?
I want to be
a living sacrifice
to you
but you see
there's a choice
because you'll not
find your why
to change
and do these kind of things
by me just telling you
okay
just pray
before you
first thing you do
in the morning
before you're looking
at the phone
okay
if I say that
I can guarantee
tomorrow morning
none of you
will be praying
that prayer
but what do we need
to do
we need to rehearse
the mercies of God
towards us
personally
so that actually
it begins to melt
your heart
so you make decisions
and go
God I want to
put that in my diary
I want to put that
in my calendar
I want to change
my life
and you're saying
God
change my heart
so that actually
these mercies
are not just here
but are down here
because sometimes
we forget
right
and so here's
what's at stake
you know
it's possible
to have been
a Christian
at one point
in your life
and at one point
said I'm going
I'm putting my life
down on the altar
but it's possible
over time
to be a Christian
and not enjoy Jesus
you know that
because you remember
that sin and guilt
offering was about
atonement
Jesus has paid
the price
there is no more
sin and guilt
offering
you know
but there was also
that fellowship
offering
which was about
enjoyment of God
and communion
with him
but you know
the way that you get
from the atoning
sacrifice
to the enjoyment
comes through
the burnt offering
it comes
through that place
of sacrifice
of getting on the altar
and willing to stay
on the altar
and saying
God take me
I don't know
where this is going
but take me
and it's only there
that actually
you'll really see
that the joy
and the mercies
of God
will become
not just a theory
but actually
they'll become
even richer
in your life
and you'll experience
them more deeply
which will then
motivate you more
to want to offer
more of your life
to him
let me make this
practical
by giving you
four characters
I could do
many many more
but these are
characters that
over my time
in church
I've just
seen
different people
in these categories
and for what it
has meant
for them
to get on the altar
so I'm going to
give you
four different people
I'm going to
give you
feelings
Felicia
feelings
Felicia
her whole life
is presented
as an act
of worship
to her feelings
if she feels
a little tired
she cancels
on CG
sundial service
or any of her
commitments
if something else
comes up
that makes her
feel better
she serves
when she feels
in the mood
but not when
she doesn't
she lives
for the instant
gratification
of her feelings
whether that's
food
or YouTube
or other
things
and the
mercies
of God
come to
feelings
Felicia
and say
Jesus
didn't lay
down his
life
because he
felt like
it
he laid
down his
life
because he
loved
you
and so
he calls
you
as an
act of
worship
to lay
your feelings
on the
altar
to surrender
them
and to
find
that as
you keep
your
commitments
as you
persevere
in things
you find
difficult
to do
you'll
discover
that his
mercies
lead to
way more
joy
than
binging
on YouTube
ever does
because his
mercies
are for
your good
even when
in the
short term
it doesn't
feel like
it
feelings
Felicia
then there's
Burden Barry
okay
Burden Barry
used to be
on fire
for God
back in
uni
but he's
grown jaded
disillusioned
distracted
and he's
taken his
life off
the altar
you're here
in body
but your
mind is on
your deadlines
is on your
kids education
is on a
whole lot
of other
things
even on
the grievances
and the
pains that
you have
in your
life
grievances
with God
grievances
with your
spouse
grievances
with
everybody
else
and God's
going to
call you
today
if you
are like
Burden Barry
to stop
worshipping
your distractions
to stop
even worshipping
your pains
and to
come into
the loving
arms of a
God who
loves you
way more
than you
realize
and to
lay your
distractions
to lay
your burdens
to lay
your regrets
and your
hurts
on the
altar
and find
that his
arms of
love
are big
enough
for you
and let
him free
you
to come
back to
your first
love
some of
you need
to pray
and ask
for God
to change
you in
that
feelings
felicia
and
then
this
insecure
Ian
you
worship
your
insecurities
you know
that actually
God is
calling you
maybe he's
calling you
to quit
your job
and actually
go into
full-time
ministry
or maybe
into
missions
or maybe
he's actually
calling you
to join in
with the
core team
of this
second
service
that we're
starting
or he's
calling you
to give
away
or to
serve
in a
whole
load
of areas
which you
just don't
really want
to because
you're feeling
inadequate
in things
and you
want to
put a
little
toe
on the
altar
or maybe
an arm
but you
don't want
to put
your whole
thing
because it
feels
scary
and you
don't know
what's
going to
happen
and God
says I
want it
all or I
don't want
it at
all
present
your fears
to me
rehearse
how much
I've been
faithful to
you so
you know
that I'm
going to
carry you
all the
way
through
don't
live and
worship
your
insecurities
let me
be your
security
step out
and trust
me
with what
I'm
calling
you
to
do
feelings
Felicia
burden
Barry
insecure
Ian
final
one
committed
Carol
you
see
for
committed
Carol
everyone
looks at
you
because
you
look
like
a
living
sacrifice
you
invest
all
your
time
in
serving
other
people
in
missional
justice
and
in
a
whole
load
of
activities
and
a lot
of
people
think
you're
the
perfect
Christian
but
deep
down
you know
you've
lost
your
why
it's
become
dutiful
you
maybe
find it
hard
to
say
no
because
a lot
of your
serving
is
driven
maybe
from
childhood
things
but
it's
driven
by the
sense
that
you're
never
doing
enough
you
need
to
perform
to
be
accepted
and
to
be
valued
and
to
be
loved
and
if
you
stopped
you
just
wonder
whether
you'd
have
any
significance
and
actually
that's
a
really
heavy
yoke
for
some
of
you
and
the
mercies
of
God
come
to
you
today
and
say
surrender
your
desire
for
acceptance
and
value
on
the
altar
and
allow
my
acceptance
of
you
to
be
enough
for
you
because
my
mercies
are
way
more
way
more
way
more
satisfying
securing
and
delighting
in your
heart
than
trying to
gain it
from
anybody
else
or even
from
yourself
I don't
know where
you're up
to
I don't
know whether
you fit
into any
of those
or actually
God is
speaking to
you in
another
way
but
you
realize
you
can
have
the
most
amazing
attractive
spouse
in the
world
and
over
time
you
can
grow
familiar
and
just
take
them
for
granted
and
sometimes
you
need
somebody
else
to
remind
you
wow
your
spouse
is
amazing
in
the
church
we
need
each
other
to
remind
us
of
just
how
amazing
the
gospel
message
is
that's
why
we
talk
about
Jesus
every
Sunday
but
we
need
that
to
go
from
just
I
know
this
to
going
I
know
this
and
my
appeal
to
you
this
morning
as
Paul
appeals
is
don't
go
away
from
here
just
going
that
was
nice
God
is
calling
you
he
is
saying
I
want
it
all
but
I
am
not
calling
you
to
just
a
burdensome
duty
I
am
calling
you
to
delight
in
me
because
you
see
how
much
I
have
done
for
you
and
if
you
are
not
in
that
place
he
says
run
to
me
and
ask
for
me
to
change
your
heart
because
I
love
answering
that
kind
of
prayer
here
is
a
why
big
enough
for
when
you're
tired
when
you're
bored
when
you're
struggling
in
whatever
area
you're
up
to
propel
us
to
see
our
bank
balances
our
sex
life
our
careers
our
schedule
as an
offering
of
worship
not
for
ourselves
but
for
his
glory
and
his
praise
I'm
going
to
stop
there
there's
three
kinds
of
responses
that
we
started
talking
about
last
week
and
I'd
like
you
to
actually
think
how
should
you
respond
now
if
you're
a
Christian
you're
a
prince
and
a
princess
in
the
kingdom
of
God
some
of
you
may
just
actually
need
to
respond
in
praising
or
thanking
him
because
you
don't
take
time
to
thank
him
you
know
this
week
I
spent
I
took
about
30
minutes
to
just
go
over
the
mercies
of
God
that
I've
actually
seen
in
my
life
it's
an
amazing
thing
to
do
some
of
you
right
now
you
actually
just
need
to
take
a
minute
or
two
and
just
go
God
how
have
you
been
merciful
to
me
in
fact
don't
just
do
it
now
I
encourage
you
to
do
it
every
day
this
week
some
of
you
actually
just
need
to
confess
that
you
have
treated
Jesus
so
lightly
you
put
a
toe
on
the
altar
maybe
not
even
a
toe
and
he
wants
it
all
and
you
need
to
run
to
him
and
just
be
honest
with
him
and
some
of
us
as
we
think
about
what
he's
calling
you
to
do
you've
got
to
make
a
decision
to
choose
to
follow
what
he's
calling
you
to
do
and
tell
someone
about
it
so
I'm
going
to
give
you
a
minute
or
two
just
to
actually
respond
right
now
with
any
of
those
three
things
we're
going
to
come
up
in
a
minute
to
take
communion
but
I
want
you
to
let's
not
take
communion
lightly
let's
not
take
communion
until
we've
really
rethought
and rehearsed
the
mercies
of
God
so
this
is
no
longer
an
external
ritual
but
it's
spiritual
worship
from
the
inside
so
let's
as
I
want
to
invite
the
band
to
come
up
maybe
the
communion
stewards
want
to
come
up
as
well
but
I
want
you
to
take
a
minute
where
are
you
with
Christ
how
precious
is
he
to
you