To Romans chapter 12. So Romans chapter 12 in this together. In the first 11 chapters of Romans, Paul spends a great deal of time explaining the doctrine of salvation. So now on the latter chapters beginning in chapter 12, Paul turns his attention towards Christian living. That is what we should be doing in light of the salvation we possess in Christ.

As important as understanding salvation is, it is just the beginning. It is just the beginning of what God has to teach us. It is just the beginning of our life as believers in Christ and children of God. As important as it is, it is equally important to our Lord how we live, how we live out our new life in Christ, serving together in the household of faith, in the body of Christ. That is what Paul begins to deal with here in Romans chapter 12.

It is up to each and every one of us to do our best, to do our best for the glory of God, but also for the health and wherefore welfare of his body, the church. We are in this endeavor together, everyone of us who knows Christ. You that are here today, we are in this endeavor together. Kind of like an an orchestra. In an orchestra, each person, each musician must do must play their own what?

Their own heart. They'll do their best, and together they make beautiful music. A different illustration for you that like NASCAR, a racing team, maybe you're not in the orchestra. Okay? But a racing team.

In a racing team, person must do their their best, their part. They must pull their weight in order to win the race. Every person's job is critical, not just the person driving the car, but every person on the race team. If one person fails, then likely there goes the race. God, apostle Paul in particular, likes to use the illustration of the human body.

For the body to be healthy and prosperous, each part needs to do its job to pull its weight or else the body will struggle or even fail. That is the illustration that Paul mentions here. He says in verse four, for we as we have many members in one body and all members have not the same office or the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ and everyone members one of another. Not every member of the church has the same function. Right?

Of course not. But together, we can make beautiful music. Together, we can prosper as a body of Christ and be a testimony to the Lord Jesus Christ in our community. Together, we can be a healthy body in service of Jesus Christ, the team. That's what this passage of scripture is all about.

Now the first two verses you may have heard messages on many times and I will touch upon them this morning because they are the basis for what follows. But this is a passage about the team and how this team works, how God has set up this team to function, to bring glory to him, to prosper, to win the race. We start out again with verse one. I beseech you therefore brethren, Christian brethren, Paul's writing, by the mercies of God, according to God's mercies, that he present or give your bodies a living sacrifice only acceptable on the God which is your what? Reasonable service.

Point number one in the functioning of this body, of this team is this. The body is made up of individuals. In this case, the individuals are individual believers in Jesus Christ. And in order for this team to work as it should, in order for this body to function as it should, each member needs to be committed to doing its what? Its heart.

Its function doesn't work right otherwise. So point number one, give yourself fully. You have to give yourself fully to who? To Christ. He is the head of the church.

He is the head of the body. In order for this to work, we have to yield ourselves more fully to Christ. As he mentions here to give our bodies a living sacrifice. Paul pleads with the Christians in Rome. He pleads with them.

That's what the word beseech. May I come beside you and I plead with you. I beg you, brethren. According to the mercies of God, mean as you have been given this so undeserved opportunity. We have been given this so undeserved opportunity because of the mercy and grace of God.

Let's not waste it. Let's not waste it. Let's make the most of it. And how do we make the most of it? We make the most of what God has given us by fully surrendering our body, dedicating them to service because he gave his life.

He suffered in his what? Body for us on the cross of Calvary. Romans five eight, that God commended his love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans six twenty three, for the wages of sin is death. That's what we have earned.

But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. That is the mercy of God. For whosoever shall call in the name of the Lord shall be saved. How have we been afforded this mercy? Because what Jesus gave for us, what Jesus suffered for us, what Jesus did for me, for you.

That's what the mercies of God are. That is the opportunity we have been given. And that Paul says, as I have given myself, my body to the Lord for his service, that we should do the same. Present our bodies. A living sacrifice, not a dead one.

God wants a living sacrifice. God wants deserves for us to use our body, our time, our energy, our talent and service to the one who gave his life, suffered in the flesh for me. Paul, several occasions, uses himself as an example. Paul wrote here in Galatians two twenty, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live.

I'm not dead. I live. Yet, not I but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Paul says my life is no longer mine.

It's his. I not only acknowledge that, I willingly yield it to him to be used in his service. A living sacrifice, Paul says. And that is what Paul is asking of them. Holy acceptable unto God, that is set aside for whose purpose?

For God's purpose, for Christ's purpose. To give, present our bodies to him, set aside for his purpose and not just my own selfish, sinful desires. I have a purpose. It's not just my purpose. It's what?

His purpose. Romans six thirteen says, power of neither yield your members as instruments or tools of unrighteousness on the sin, but yield yourselves on the God as those that are alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness on the God. So as we have been freed from the bondage of sin and the slavery of sin, now that those shackles have been torn off by our savior, we are now free to serve him. But we still must decide. Every day we do not.

Am I gonna serve him today? Am I gonna let him use my body as an instrument for his glory and his purpose? Or am I simply going to go through the motions or do as the flesh desires. First Corinthians six twenty, Paul wrote, for ye are bought with a price. What price is that?

Jesus Christ. Christ. His suffering is death on the cross. For you're above the price, therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God's. We live in a world today that says that loves to say, I did it my way.

I'm gonna do it my way. You can't tell me what to do. I can't tell you what to do. I don't want to tell you what to do. But there is one who can, and there's one to whom we should listen.

Why? He made you. He knows what will bring fulfillment and joy into your life. Not only that, but he died for you, and he gave himself to you. It is your what?

Your reasonable service to give the time we have here in service to him. He died for us, saved us, and now we belong to him. Not merely his servants, but his children. So Paul says, I beseech you that you give your bodies a living sacrifice. Now secondly, in verse two, he says, and be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is a good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Not only does Paul beseech us, plead with us to give our our bodies a living sacrifice, but our minds to be molded and transformed, for our thinking to be transformed. Before you were saved, your mind was filled with all kinds of thoughts that were contrary to what? Contrary to God's word and to his purpose, to his mind. And as now we are saved and we are children of God, God wants to change who you are by transforming the way you think. We are bombarded daily by what the world thinks.

Are we not? Every time we listen to the radio, every time we turn on a TV set, every time we talk every time we open our eyes, driving down the road, see the billboards, the world is constantly trying to push stuff down us, to force us into its mold. God says, if you're going to succeed to the extent that you can and should as a body of believers in Christ. You need to yield your bodies for his purpose and you need to let him change the way you think. Be renewed in your mind.

You must not cave to the pressure of the world to fashion you after its philosophy and image. Casting down imaginations and every high thing that is altered itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. That is what Christ expects of us and enables us to do because he has not asked this of you without this and without the one who lives came to live inside your heart. If you're a child of God, the Holy Spirit of God lives where? In you.

And you are capable of discerning right and wrong. If you'll listen to his spirit, if you'll look into his word, he will help you to cast off the thoughts that the world has placed into our minds that are false and replace it with ones that are true. Colossians two eight, Paul writes, beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of man, after the ruins of the world, and not after Christ. In every one of these passages, Paul is writing people who claim to know the Lord Jesus Christ as savior, and he's telling them you need to be careful. Our enemy is like a roaring lion, Peter says, roaming about seeking whom he may devour, and he is still capable if you're not vigilant of leading you what?

Astray in your thinking. Don't let that happen. You can be renewed. You can be transformed if you will rely and trust in God's word and in his spirit. First Peter two two says, as newborn children, babies, you need the milk of the word that you may grow.

Thereby, as babies need milk to grow stronger, we need God's word. And the more we take it into our life, the more it will change our thinking and conform our thinking to the thinking of the savior that we serve. And the way you think will change how you act. If you're not seeking God's word and his thoughts and his advice, then you're probably going to make a lot of errors with your body and what you do. And as we do this, we do prove, we do show that God's will is good and that it's acceptable and that it is perfect.

And others watch us. Our testimony gives testimony that God is true, that his word actually works and it changes lives. So Paul begs them, pleads with them, give your bodies a living sacrifice, give your minds to be molded to the mind of Christ, And then as you do that, use the gifts that God has given particularly to you to function in the body of Christ, to do your part on the team. It begins with individuals giving themselves yielding themselves, listening to the coach, the head, who is Christ, doing as he says, and then using the gifts that each has individually been given. Back to the racing team illustration.

On the racing team, you have one driver, but you also have a manager or whatever that's on the radio, spouting out instructions. And you've got the cats and you've got the people at the pit crew that changed the wheel. Not every person has the same function. There's only one driver, there's only one manager, But every person on that team, if the person take changing the tire messes up and calls them five seconds in the pits, now what happens to the race? So won't win it.

That orchestra with that beautiful music. Not everybody is going to be the tuba player or the flutist. Not everybody is the director, but everybody in the orchestra has a what? A part. A part.

And if one person doesn't play that part or if they play the wrong part, is the beautiful is the music so beautiful? The answer is no. It's no. It might still be music, but it isn't as beautiful as it could've been. We're all different.

Who made us that way? God did. He has gifted us with different spiritual gifts and enablements and abilities. You're not to use mine, and I'm not to use yours. I'm to use mine, and you're to use yours, and we're all important.

Verses three through five, again, Paul says, for I say through the grace given unto me, to every man is among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think but to think soberly, of course, God has dealt to every man of measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body and all members have not the same office, so we'd be many or one body in Christ and everyone members of one another. First of all this, be on guard against conceit over the different gifts of the spirit or talents or other assets God has given you to be used in his service. He warns here in verse three, don't think more highly of who? Yourself than you want to think because it takes many different people on the team with many different gifts to fulfill the purpose, to win the race, to make beautiful music.

You are not the only one and your gift is not the only gift. We need each other. Look if you would quick in first Corinthians. Turn just a few pages towards the back of your bible and you'll come to Corinthians. Look in first Corinthians chapter 12 and we'll begin in verse four.

First Corinthians 12 verse four. Alright. Now there are diversities of gifts with the same spirit. We don't have the same spirit, but that spirit has given us different abilities, gifts. There are differences of administration, function, but the same word.

Difference diversities of operations, but is the same God which worketh all in all and in all of us. But the manifestation or the gift of the spirit is given to every man to profit with all. In other words, that everybody in the body might what? Might profit. Not just he didn't give me this gift for me to profit, he gave me this gift for you to profit.

And the gifts he's given you, you gave for all of us to profit in the body. Verse 12 gives explains the metaphor. For as one body for as the body is one and half many members, all the members of that one body being many are one body, so also is Christ. For by one spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one spirit. For the body is not one member, but many.

If the foot shall say because I am not the hand, I am not of the body, is it therefore not of the body? If the ear shall say because I am not an eye, I am not of the body, is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were the hearing, where were the smelling? But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body as it hath pleased him.

And if they were all one member, where were the body? But now are they many members yet but one body. The eye cannot say of the hand I have no need of thee nor again the head to the feet I have no need of you. Nay much more those members of the body which seem to be more feeble are what? Necessary.

We make judgment. This gift is more of this talent, this ability is more important than the other dysfunction. But really when it comes to it, every one of us in this body is here for a purpose. Each one of us has been given gifts and abilities. Some of those gifts and abilities you may not be able to exercise as once you could, but there is something for you to do in the body.

Maybe it's sending a card. Maybe it's just saying a kind word. Maybe it's praying for somebody. Maybe it's lifting up your voice in song when we sing congregational hymns. Maybe it's fixing this or fixing that or or helping that person or But I'm not just here for me, and you're not just here for you.

At least I hope that's not the case because that's not what you know, my kidney is not just here for my kidney. My kidney is here so my body can function. If my kidneys fail, I have a problem. We're all part of one body. We all matter.

We have been placed in the body of Christ and endowed by certain abilities and gifts as our maker and Lord has seen fit. We must neither boast in nor dismiss our usefulness to Christ. We're all on this shift together. We're all part of the team. We must not compare ourselves to others.

We must not pride ourselves in our God given abilities or position or look down at Smith to dismiss others as left gifted than me. You ever watched the football game? Who's the most important person on the football team? Coach. Coach.

Okay. The team that's out on the field. The quarterback. That's what we say. Right?

And he is important. But you know some quarterback can't do a thing if the five, six people stand in front and don't block those guys that are coming to knock him off his feet. He can't do a thing without them. He doesn't have anybody to throw to if his receivers just stand there and look at him. Same thing's true with the church.

Everybody's important. And though we we tend to exalt certain people in certain positions, God says, you need to focus not on others. You need to focus on yourself and say, what God how can I serve? What can I do? What gift has he given me?

These gifts are given to us by God. We didn't earn them. We didn't choose them. We have nothing to boast in or brag. They are divinely and diversely distributed among God's children for their use in the body of Christ.

Everyone is useful. Each one is necessary. We're all members of one another and what we do not only affects us, it affects it affects others around us, particularly the functioning of the body of Christ. If we if we decide, well, we're just not gonna show up for a while, does that affect? We say, no.

It doesn't affect anybody. I'm just a person who sits in the pew. Well, it probably does affect more than you think. And maybe you need to be a little bit more than just somebody that sits in a pew. Sometimes it's a lot easier for people to go to churches that are in the hundreds or thousands because they can just come and sit in a few and they don't feel any any need to do anything else because, hey, there's somebody else doing it.

And nobody notices when they're missing, But they're missing out. We're not a church in the fastest. Everybody is needed. That's true of the other church too. They just don't notice.

They don't realize it. Right. And we need not boast what God has given to us. Instead, we need to use what God has given to us. And that brings us to back to Romans chapter 12 verse six.

Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to proportion of faith or ministry, let us wait on ministry or he that teacheth on teaching or he that exhorted on exhortation. He that giveth giveth, let him do it with simplicity. He that ruleth with diligence and he that showeth mercy with cheerfulness. Rather than comparing ourselves to one another, rather than overestimating our worth or underestimating or dismissing our value, we need to use what he's given. There's a song I don't think it's in this hymn book, but it's in another one I have.

It's called Little As Much When God Is In It. Don't underestimate you're not underestimating you, you're underestimating who? God. Let him use you. Be a part.

Use the gifts you have been given in your home, in your church, in your community. Be salt and light. There's only one you. God wants you. He created you for his glory, for his purpose.

He deserves for you, for me, to yield ourselves to him. Our body is his instrument, our mind to be changed that we might use the gifts he has given to bring glory to our father and to minister to one another. I'll close by reading from Ephesians four this morning. We'll look more into the specifics of these gifts tomorrow next week, but in Ephesians chapter four verse seven, it says this, but unto everyone of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. That means to you.

God didn't leave you out. And in verse 11, it says, and he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers and the other list of things that we read in Romans 12 there. For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying the building up of the body of Christ till we all come and the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the son of God under a perfect or a complete man under the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ and henceforth, we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every bend of doctrine by the slight of man and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive. But speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things which is the heading in Christ. For whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supply according to the effectual working and the measure of every part make an increase of the body under the edifying of itself in one.

How does the church edify and build itself up? As the individual members look to God and say, what can I do? And see that every joint, every organ has a life, a function, and a purpose, and is important. And as we do, we will grow to be a more complete and perfect and functioning body in Christ. But one person or five or 10 can't do it alone.

Everything. Matters. What is your plan? What instrument can you play? What function do you have?

Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, thank you, Lord, today for your words. Thank you that you have not left any of us without a purpose, without a function in your body, in our homes, in our community, in service to our God, Lord, you have given us a purpose in Jesus Christ. And reason, it is our reasonable service to give our lives to be used as instruments of righteousness, the one who gave his life to impart to us this righteousness, to impart to us eternal life, to give us a a home to look forward to, and a a savior to walk with us day by day, and a father in heaven who is watching over us. Lord, I pray if there'll be one here today that is yet to receive the gift, the mercy of God, your faith in Christ, I I pray that you help them open their eyes, help them to see their need today, to recognize what you have done for them, that how much they do need you, to receive you by faith today.

And I also pray for your children, and each and every one of us with whatever time or energy or strength we have left. Lord, to seek to be used in service to you and to one another. We thank you for that opportunity. Help us to seek it. Help us to practice and use what you have given.

May you be honored and glorified. May lives be changed. In Jesus' name, can pray. Amen.