Well all I could think when Kyle said that the Sunday after Easter is kind of a let down for a lot of folks I go oh my goodness What a tall call to follow Leo's sermon last Sunday I hope and pray this is not a letdown to you all so I think what we ought to do to that end is open and prayer So let's go before the Lord and pray Gracious Father. It is truly a delight to come and worship you for the reality Father is this that we know When we gather as your people for the purpose of worshipping you there is no letdown For there is no greater delight that we have in this world with our lives Than to come and gather and worship you Father would you take this time? Would you use my thoughts? Would you take all that is going to take place now and use me strengthen me speak through me Open the eyes of all of our hearts to hear your word To be challenged and encouraged we lift this time committing it to you in Christ's name a man Well, I don't know what your home is like in the morning, but ours more often than not starts off with the bang And if you know my family that may not surprise you But one morning in particular before I could get my first cup of coffee I'm filling it up and I hear these words coming from the breakfast table Serial please where's my oatmeal? I need my chocolate milk. This isn't the right spoon Where are my clothes? Will you please go get my shoes and that was just from one child Our six-year-old son a.k.a Alexander and Just kind of shocked by this barrage of demands coming from him half amused and half Exasperated with them I asked him and I said Alexander Why are you asking me all of these things and his reply was classic as many of them are he said this Because you're here to serve me Just as matter of fact is that I didn't know what to say and it's a good thing. I didn't speak quickly Because what I would about what I was going to say probably wouldn't have been too edifying but I stopped and all of a sudden I just started laughing and the reason why I started laughing is because you know what my son is a lot like me No, I don't come home at night demanding to be served by Kimberly and the kids Where's my dinner get this go get this turn the TV on for me all that? I don't do that at least I hope I don't but I kind of demand to be served in other ways It's much more subtle what about you when I'm driving to work I want the cars around me to serve me by getting out of the way When I go to the bank to make a deposit I want the teller to serve me and say hello, mr. Cook the The deposit will be right out just one minute and it just takes boom like that when I go to the cleaners I want them to see me walking in and have my cleaning right there and I just pay wouldn't and go But it's worse when I come into the office and I walk into the office building and I go push the elevator door I want that elevator there to open up right then and it sure would be nice if someone greeted me It's that hi robber good morning. Do you do that? Elevators are my pet peeve I don't know if they are for you The reality is this how do you approach life? How do we approach life? Do we approach life saying I want to be served or do we approach life and say I want to serve others? I want to serve you Regardless of what we do the challenge really the exhortation that Paul has before us in these verses in the book of Romans is this We are called to serve as the body of Christ to serve one another not begrudgingly not out of duty, but out of delight Why because of the mercies that have been given to us through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? Now many of you know the book of Romans is really one of the most magnificent Expositions of Christian doctrine there is I mean it is chalked full of theology from chapters 1 to 11 We see things like this that Paul unfolds for us Understanding where our sinful nature comes from that right in the beginning We're hit that we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God That the wages of sin or what their death our sins calls a separation a barrier that we cannot bridge before God But the hope that Paul brings in as he does is this that a righteousness from God has been revealed That is the awesome news that through faith in Jesus Christ the righteous one He has saved us from the wrath of God now not only has he saved us from the wrath of God He has adopted us into his family and he calls us his sons and his daughters now if that isn't good enough He also goes on and gives us an inheritance in heaven that is tremendously glorious that we long for when we've tasted His love here. We long for that glory in heaven when we will see our savior face to face Now look it begs a question and light of all that and I didn't even do it justice if you were to read the first 11 chapters and light of all that it begs the question how then shall we live? How does God call us to live? For some of us it is far too easy to get wrapped up in the Christian doctrine To the end that it would feed our intellect only But if you know anything about Christianity, it is never to just feed our intellect It is different than any other religion and then it's about a relationship the reason why Paul goes on in 11 chapters Saying what he says it says look listen and see the glory and the mercy of God Who showers down his love upon a sinful undeserving people? Do you see that when we grasp that when we see that that is what is being unfolded before us We then have to ask ourselves a can light of that mercy that I've grasped. How then shall I live? What is my responsibility as a child of God now? Paul says it now in chapters 12 through 15 talking about various Christian responsibilities He talks about our corporate responsibility as the body of Christ how we relate to one another He talks about our individual responsibility our responsibility to civil authorities And then our responsibility morally all of this begs the question how then shall we live? I think Jesus sums it up perfectly in these words from John chapter 13 verse 17 when Jesus says if you know these things if you know these truths Blessed are you if you what if you do them? Oh, there is so much work to do in the building of the kingdom for God this side of heaven Do you know that? Do you have a kingdom perspective? What is your perspective on your life this side of heaven? Is it just to have pleasure and have fun where you are or do you really have a kingdom perspective saying what God has given for me here This side of heaven. I am to be useful for his glory Not that it would earn favor with him But because of the favor that he has freely given to us it matters then how we live our lives We celebrated Easter last Sunday Jesus's resurrection and one of the most beautiful scenes that I love in the Bible that's recorded when he meets with various Fogues is when he meets with his disciples one morning and after breakfast What does he do he calls that one disciple Peter to his side now you remember Peter don't you Peter's the one who did what he denied Jesus three times before Jesus was crucified So Jesus in this tremendous act of love makes a clear statement of his love for Peter and he says these words Simon son of John do you love me and he says that three times Peter replies yes Lord you know that I love you and Jesus said then feed my lambs Simon son of John do you love me yes Lord? You know that I love you then tend my sheep Simon son of John do you love me yes Lord? You know that I love you then feed my sheep Do you see the charge the charge of the gospel is one of taking action? That when we have grasped the love of our Savior He comes and calls us to action and specifically that we're gonna look at this morning action and Serving one another there's three things briefly that we're gonna look at this morning The first is our motivation for serving then secondly the manner in which we serve and Then finally the makeup of those who serve the makeup of the body of Christ But let's first look at our motivation for serving what is it that motivates you to serve? Maybe a better question is this how do you tend to view your serving? I think often we do it in one of two ways. We often view our serving either as duty or Delight and it makes a world of difference when we do Let's first look at duty what happens when we serve out of duty Really serving out of duty is what it's really about myself It's really about what I want to do when it's convenient and who I'm gonna do it for and what I might get out of it You know when you serve out of duty it's saying I'm gonna do this so that I can look good in And in front of others or it's saying I'm gonna serve in this way because of what I can get in return Another way to look at it is this when we serve out of duty We do it because we can't say no Do you have that problem? Do you have a hard time saying no and my family? We call it the disease to please It is that I don't want to say no to anyone. I've got to please everybody It's that fear of failure that we all don't want to admit that disease to please when we serve in that way What are we doing? We're serving out of duty? Well what happens then when we serve out of duty? Our motivation begins to lose its power the joy begins to dissipate and There's little satisfaction in it. Have you been there? Are you there now in your serving that you're looking to go? Yeah, you're pegging me. It's just duty You see when we serve out of duty oftentimes we do it for the external rewards that we can get Or we do it because we're concerned about the outcome the results or we do it because We think we're gonna get something great in return for it But look serving out of duty is temporary It is never lasting and serving out of duty Fractures community. I think we've all fallen in this trap I find myself falling in this trap from time to time But the reality is this when we serve out of duty Here's what happens. We do it because of what we can get out of it Well, what does Paul say here in Romans chapter 12? There's got to be a better motivation for our serving because duty doesn't get us anywhere and duty doesn't honor the Lord when we serve in that way Paul sheds light on how we can then delight in our service He says it in verse one of chapter 12 He says I appeal to you therefore brothers by the mercies of God That is the motivating factor Behind us serving one another and the Lord in his church by the mercy of God and you see the word there for and you all know the story When you see the word therefore you look at and go what's it therefore? Well, it's there because it points us all the way back to everything that was said in the first 11 chapters of the book of Romans But really you don't even have to go that far back You just look at the at the last few verses of chapter 11 and you begin to understand what he is talking about you begin to see the punch the impact of what he's saying when he's talking about the mercies of God What we see in the end of chapter 11 is this Paul is writing about when God made the covenant with the Jewish nation when he chose to set his love upon them Okay, but what happened he didn't do it because they were worthy But when he set this love upon him what did they do they were disobeyed it and they just kind of thumbed their nose at God and didn't care So let me read what Paul writes in Romans 11 30 through 32 and remember Paul is writing this book to Gentile Christians He says this just as you were at one time disobedient to God But now have received mercy because of their disobedience So they too have been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you They also may now receive mercy is that like a tongue twist? I mean is that confusing or what let me shed light on to what Paul's really saying here here's what's happening It's really a stream of mercy a stream of God's loving kindness flowing down from heaven upon the Jewish nation And in their disobedience it's diverted that stream of mercy is diverted onto the Gentiles and then in their disobedience It's diverted back on to the Jews. Do you see what's happening here? They're all disobedient, but what is God doing with this mercy? It's still flowing down from heaven upon the Jews and the Gentiles. Why because they're good? No He says it right here in verse 32 All were consigned to disobedience that he may have mercy on all God's mercy flows down from heaven on all whom he chooses to show mercy to without Distinction of nationality and the spotlight here is on on the incomprehensible riches that is mercy Do you know is mercy to understand is mercy? You've got to understand where we started from what Paul writes in Romans 323 all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God That in the high courts of heaven all humanity has been convicted and found guilty Neither Jew nor Gentile can lay hold of the mercies of God You see we have all disobeyed, but the beauty here that Paul is drawing out here is this that without distinction God chooses to have mercy some of the most beautiful words and all the scripture are found in Romans 5 But God Shows us his love for us that while we were still sinners Christ died for us a Number of years ago Kimberly and I were on vacation in Highland, South Carolina If you've ever been there, it's a beautiful part of South Carolina where the mountains are magnificent and One day we went on a hike and we saw this beautiful stream flowing pretty rapidly So we walked down a little bit longer We saw another stream kind of come and meet it making obviously a much bigger stream But on our hike we knew that not far from there was a big cliff a big drop off So he said let's go see what's gonna happen? So we walked over and we saw the most magnificent waterfall I'd ever seen Do you see it? Do you see the picture those two streams represent the mercies of God? It's not one mercy. It's a mercy of mercies God's love flowing down from heaven to a people who don't deserve it But it cascades upon us his children that when we see it we are cleansed by his blood and grasp the richness of His love for us his mercy is magnificent Do you know the mercy of God? Have you grasped the mercy of God? Do you know that we can't do anything to earn his favor? Mercy is nothing if we do warn it It's mercy when we don't and because we don't You see that in view of all that God has accomplished through us and the person of Jesus Christ the question again is begs asking how then shall we live? We live by knowing this mercy when it's impacted our lives By serving others out of a heart of gratitude not begrudgingly not out of duty, but out of heart of gratitude So let me ask how are you serving the Lord now? Is your service right now duty or is it delight? When we delight in the Lord our Service is done in this way. It's free from the need to calculate results That's very freeing it means that we can simply serve wherever there's a need It doesn't matter where I talked to a young single woman who's going who's on the youth Retreat the student retreat right now and the other night I asked her and she said oh, I'm going on that retreat I go you all how great is she goes well I'm actually kind of terrified and I said why and she goes well just Point blank she goes well. I'm terrified of the youth of our country And I was like oh, where are you going on the retreat? And she goes because there was a need and I want to learn how to love kids. I like to listen She jumped in where there was a need to serve and is giving of herself this weekend You see serving out of delight is not just saying I'm going to serve here in this ministry I'm going to serve here for a short time or I served back then It's a lifestyle What Paul is unfolding for us here is the result of the mercies of God It's a lifestyle of serving God and his church serving one another We'll seeing that how we are called to serve in that way. Let's now look at the manner in which we serve Two things to briefly look at we serve by first. It's in verse 1 Presenting our bodies is a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God and secondly we see in verse 3 That we serve with a sober mind We're going to look what that looks like in just a minute But first let's see what Paul is talking about when he says present your bodies as a living sacrifice holy and pleasing to God There's reference here all over this section of the Old Testament sacrificial system Remember when an animal was brought to the temple to be sacrifice what happened It was alive one minute and then what it's presented in the temple and it's sacrifice and it's dead Okay, doesn't go on any further What Paul is saying here is look the sacrificial lamb has already come He has made the ultimate sacrifice for us We then are his priestly people who now no longer offer sacrifices in the temple What do we do we offer ourselves to the Lord for his service for his glory That our lives this side of heaven would be used for a purpose a glorious purpose Being used to serve our lord and king That type of service the Lord delights in you see offering our bodies is not an abstract concept We have hands we have feet we use them for the Lord we have a mind we have mouths to speak we use them for the Lord All that we have is meant to be used for God's glory. Let me ask you How would that make your perspective living this side of heaven? How would that change it Would it give you a greater purpose to see that when we do serve out of the mercies of God There is purpose behind it and it is rich and it is fulfilling Well, look that he Paul goes on to make three qualifiers on the way in which we do present our bodies We are to present ourselves as a living sacrifice wholly and acceptable to God The meaning what he's talking about when he says a living sacrifice is this our service to the Lord is To be perpetual. It's not a one-time sacrifice like the animals It is to be a life lived Sacrificially for the Lord it is to be ongoing and what it shows us to is this our service for the Lord should not be neglected Now does that mean that you have to be filling every waking hour and serving the Lord? No, it's a lifestyle It's a mindset of being willing being available when needs come or where you have passions to go and serve The second qualifier he says is that we are to present ourselves wholly Let me read this verse and see if you catch what I'm doing I appeal to you therefore brothers by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice Then you will be wholly and acceptable to God Do you see what I did? How many of us fall into that trap that the reason why we serve the reason why we serve in the children's ministry Is because when we do God is going to look upon us and think well of us Then I will be pleasing to him and I'll be seen as holy no We serve not out of that way. We serve because we are holy Not in order to be holy and that is so freeing It is God who makes us holy not our service and look if it is God who makes us holy that that's who we are That's our nature now Does he not then give us all that we need to do the service that he requires of us He doesn't withhold his good things for his people you see And the third qualifier is that we would be acceptable the what we do would be acceptable to God again Our being acceptable to God is not because of what we do we stand acceptable because what who what Christ has done for us So look when you collect clothing for star of hope when you volunteer at Caron at price crisis pregnancy center When you change diapers in the nursery When you give a ride to someone to church when you take them to the hospital when you come up to the office and help make copies When we're doing it because of the mercies that we grasp that Lord has given to us what it is then pleasing to the Lord These are sacrifices that are pleasing and acceptable to the Lord And at the end of that section Paul says that this is our spiritual worship What he's saying here is this it is reasonable. It's a reasonable and logical Thing that we would serve the Lord in that way Based on the mercies that he has given to us in Christ The author of Hebrews writes this in Hebrews 13 Talking about our priestly nature as well through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God That is the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name do not neglect to do good and share what you have for such sacrifices Are what are pleasing to the Lord The second manner in which we serve briefly Paul talks about in verse three. He says serve with what a sober mind Is he talking about there? Don't do it when you're drunk In a way But let's unpack that a little bit more we ought to serve not out of an inflated self image But serve how out of a right understanding of ourselves out of humility Because that is how our Lord came and served us Not showing us That he is so great though he is though he was but out of humility he served us we take that on It's being in touch with reality And having a sane mind but what's one of the greatest dangers in serving Pride is it not how easy pride can creep in to our service Pride creeps in and saying look I can do this on my own strength I want the recognition God's given me this yes, I want others to see me and think well of me Have you been there? Are you there does pride? Do you see how pride has crept in your service to the Lord? What does Jesus say what did he say to the mother of the sons of Zebedee when she went up to him and said May my two sons sit at your left in right hand in the kingdom of heaven pretty arrogant thing to ask Jesus to sit next to him And in the kingdom of heaven. What was Jesus's reply? It's powerful. He says this But Jesus called them and said you know that the rulers of the Gentiles Lord it over them and their great ones exercise authority over them It shall not be so among you But whoever would be great among you must be your servant and whoever would be first among you must be your slave For the son of man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many Christ The one who gave his life for us served us in that sacrificial way The call of the gospel when we know the mercies that we have been given as to what Take that charge on ourselves and go forth serving one another out of humility and love for what our Savior has done for us Now finally, let's look at the third point the makeup of those who serve We see it here in the last few verses verses four through eight There's a great paradox of the gospel that to some may make no sense But in reality it makes a great sense the paradox is this diversity breeds unity Wouldn't you think it's the other way around conformity breeds unity? No diversity why because God has given gifts the Bible talks about spiritual gifts to every believer Every Christian has at least one spiritual gift to be used for what purpose He says and first Corinthians 12 to each is given a manifestation of the spirit for the common good For the purpose of the church the body of Christ would what would be built up If we all have the same gifts guess what happened we'd compete left and right and there'd be all kinds of needs out there Not being met But God has given his people gifts for the profit of his church that we would be built up Into a glorious people of God that ultimately the world would see and be drawn to our Savior Well, let me take a moment briefly to get very practical How do you know what your spiritual gifts are some of you may be wondering well? I think one of the best ways to discover what your spiritual gifts are is this experience them in ministry It's do what we told our kids to do last last Sunday when the neighborhood pool opened and we went over there It was actually on Saturday and we went over to the pool and they're just looking at the water and I was like just dive in You're gonna remember how to swim it doesn't matter if it's called you're gonna have a blast once you're in the pool just dive in That's the charge that I give to myself and to you all just dive in Start serving and allow the Lord to begin to show you what your passions are where you like to serve There's three things that you can look at actually before you dive in It's first is your affinity. What is it that you gravitate to What is it that excites you do you like to work behind the scenes or do you like to work up front with children? You know, what is your affinity? Secondly, what is your ability? What are you good at? What kind of things are you really good at doing? I had no idea that I would be a competent counselor or go into the field of counseling But a number of years ago when I was working managing a plastics company that the church where I was attending I was serving and doing a lot of one-on-one discipleship Now, I love meeting with people one-on-one. I had no idea about counseling But different people came up to me and said you know what? I know you're thinking about going to seminary. You ought to think about the field of counseling I had no idea But as I began to look at that and develop that I saw the Lord. I had that ability that he'd given me So I decided to put it to use The last thing to look at is opportunity is this a season in your life where you can jump in and serve in a particular area Some of you right now maybe they may be needing to say you know what? I need to be serving my family first Before I go and serve in the church Others say yes, I have a lot more time. Where are their needs? That's why we put out our sign-up to serve for you all to show us where you would like to serve And we want to be intentional even more intentional than we have in the past To follow up with you to say we need you We need you We need the diversity of gifts to be working well in this church And in these verses verses 4 through 8 a number of gifts are listed. It's not an exhaustive list of gifts But the purpose that what Paul is really trying to do is this he is exhorting each member of the community To use their gifts diligently and faithfully What's he really saying? It's not an option to not serve We've got to be using the gifts that God has given to us Faithfully and diligently for his body for his glory. Do you realize that there are needs in this church? Do you realize that there are needs in the ministries that we support in the city of Houston? Do you realize that there are needs in the ministries that we support around the world? Do you see the word that I'm saying over and over again need? The reality is this we all have needs if we didn't minister to one another if we didn't use our gifts That would be awful to the kingdom of God The reality is this every person who walks in this door comes in needy every Sunday morning I was talking to a friend the other day who's struggling with the particular sin And I said he goes I'm ashamed to come into church and I said why he goes because I'm unworthy I have my my my sin is so great I said that's not true Every person who walks in those doors have needs we are all needed that the church is a hospital for the sick and the needy We come when we see the needs of one another and begin to minister one of the what happens we are built up people are encouraged Marriages are saved Relationships begin to flourish Children are taught students are listened to the gospel goes forth with great power But do you see the key factor here? We've got to grasp the mercy of God It is his mercy when we come with our need that overwhelms us it says yes Wherever you are calling me to serve whatever that might be I am here Because we need this church to be built up for the glory of God And finally it's recognizing that there is a much greater purpose for us than just living the way we want this side of heaven It is this that we would love and serve our God By the way that we love and serve one another And the name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit Amen