Sunday Service - Romans 12:1-2 "The Living Sacrifice"

Seven weeks ago we began a journey together — back to the blueprint, back to the foundation, back to what God actually designed the church to be. We have covered a lot of ground. We established that this church belongs to Christ and that He is its active Head. We examined the four devotions of the early church and asked whether we are genuinely devoted to them. We confronted the spectator culture and called every member into active, gift-contributing participation in the body. We looked at what it actually means to love one another the way Jesus commanded. And last week we talked about what it looks like to depend on the Spirit's power rather than our own competence. 

All of it has been building toward this message. 

This week — Week 7 of our Built series — we come to the message that holds everything else together. Romans 12:1–2. The Living Sacrifice. 

Paul opens with a single word that gathers eleven chapters of the most sustained theological argument in the New Testament — therefore — and presses it toward one inescapable conclusion. Given everything God has done. Given the mercy He has shown. Given the redemption, the adoption, the Spirit, the promise of glory — here is the only proportionate response: present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. 

Not a feeling. Not a spiritual experience. A decision. Specific. Dated. Embodied. Everything you are, placed on the altar of the One who gave everything for you.