What does it mean to grow in your faith? And everybody wants to grow. Well, OK. People don't want to grow, they want the results of the growth, don't they? Right? That's why they're called New Year's resolutions, not New Year's disciplines, right? Because we want to have the fruit. Without the efforts behind the fruit. Right. We want the nice pretty shiny fruit. But we're hesitant to adjust our watering schedules, aren't we? And we know that's true, that we desire those things. Because we have and make New Year's resolutions. No one makes New Year's disc resolutions. No one goes into the new year and says, you know what? I really hope I'm more bitter this year. You know, I really hope I get out of shape and lose 20 or gain 20 pounds, you know, I think I'm gonna pick up drinking, right? People don't pick negative consequences. We desire to grow, to get stronger, to get better, but a lot of times we get stuck and we don't know where to begin. Well today we wanna talk about. Not just planting a seed in your life, but, but the soil in which it's planted. You see, the soil matters. Growing up in the Midwest, uh, I'm not personally a farmer, but we grew up in the middle of nowhere. Turn left, you find a little town called Cedar belt and you're surrounded by cornfields, right? And so every year those who are farmers would just work the land, right? And so much effort went into preparing the soil for the planting of the seed with the hopes of the harvest that is to come. And so we talk a lot about planting the seed God has in your lives, but the reality is you also have to prepare the soil. In fact, Jesus gives a parable in Matthew 13, the parable of the sower. The parable of the seed and the parable of the soil. And it gives this image of somebody throwing seed out on the 4 different types of soil. But there's only growth in one. So there's thrown on the path. That is thrown on a rocky ground, thrown on a thorn filled ground, but then thrown on good soil. And Jesus' own words to describe what is the good soil of the heart, and he describes it in Matthew chapter 13 verse 23. It says, as for what is sown on good soil, This is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields in one case a 100fold, another 60, and another 30. That when you plant a seed in healthy soil, it's gonna produce fruit. So the question is, how is the soil of your heart? What does it mean to tend to the soil of your heart? If you're taking notes, I encourage you to write this down, that the seed of transformation grows in the soil of commitment. The seed of transformation, of change, of growth, of sanctification grows in the soil of commitment. That you have to prepare your heart and to prepare your life for the change that is to come. That the seed is good whether you plant it or not. But it's not gonna produce the harvest of the fruit you want in your life unless the soil is ready for it. And that soil is the commitment that we make in our lives. Over the next 5 weeks, we're gonna take a deep dive into Romans chapter 12. To talk about what a spiritual growth for Christians even look like. And today's message is entitled to grow in commitment because we're taking a look at the commitment soil in our lives. And that's really found from the first two verses here in Romans chapter 12. Let me read this to you, and then we'll dive in together and discuss what it means. The apostle Paul writes this in Romans chapter 12 verse 1. He says, 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. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that by testing, you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Now these verses are pretty powerful. We're gonna take a deeper dive into them, but just some broad strokes here for a moment. Is that there, it starts off with Paul talking about therefore. I appeal to you. Other translations say, I plead with you or I urge you. In other words, he's not even commanding them to do this. It is just a pastoral pleading, saying like, please do this. This is good for you. This is what's gonna change things for for you. And he pleads to them to do what? To offer your body as a living sacrifice. Now today in 2025, hearing the words living sacrifice, we don't quite resonate with it as much as the original audience did. And that is because the early believers, many of whom were Jewish believers who followed the Old Testament or the Old Covenant in the writings that we have in the Old Testament, the teachings of Moses. Then come in and now have put their faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior, but they're trying to connect who Jesus is with what they understood from the stories of the Old Testament or the Old Covenant. Well, in the old covenant, there's this idea before Jesus came, is that sin still requires a sacrifice. And so families or would or would work through a priest or ultimately the high priest would present a sacrifice on behalf of the people. As a payment on the altar to plead with God to ask for forgiveness. And so there was these animals that would come and it would be really sad and it was, and it was a it was an innocent animal that was killed on behalf of the sins of the people as payment for it because sin always requires payment. But what's different now, and the reason we don't continue to do this practice right now is because Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice. That Jesus didn't just bring forth a sacrifice, he was the sacrifice. And so that when he died on the cross, the ultimate payment. That he ultimately would defeat death itself. And then rise again, providing a way of forgiveness for believers and for the people of God. And so since Jesus died, Now as Christians, we are in turn called to live for him. So a living sacrifice. And so we don't understand really in modern context, the impact of a regular sacrificial system, but we do understand the idea of sacrifice, don't we? That love to love someone. is to sacrifice something. To give, to serve, requires. A sense of humility, a sense of surrender, but then also an action that shows that humility, that love that surrender. So let me put it to you this way, is that worship that doesn't cost you something is not worship. Yeah. Jesus is not sitting there at your local coffee shop after you place your order, flipping the screen saying, it's gonna ask you a few questions. But that's how we approach Jesus, don't we? We approach Jesus like we're tipping Jesus. Cool, thanks for salvation. Cool. What? 20%? Some people go to church, wanna get their blessing, want to get the word, want to sing a song, and we're like, OK, Jesus is gonna ask you a few things. Worship that doesn't cost you something isn't actually worship, because worship by definition, is to give all you have to whom or what you value most. And you were created not simply to worship, but you were created worshiping. Our culture understands worship. We were created to worship. We just don't all worship the God who created us. Right? We worship athletes and actors and actresses. Right? We go to concerts. Right? And we lift up our hands and we respond and we react, right? and entire groups of people will take their money, their time, their inconvenience to experience something together. And there's something about being in a crowd, unless it's on a jumbotron of Coldplay, but. To where you can connect. With others. Well. We were created worshiping. And maybe concerts aren't your thing, or sports aren't your thing. But what about wealth? Or business or fill in the blank. What do you give your time, talent treasures to? And if you can't think of what it is you worship, maybe. You put yourself in that God spot, right? That the end goal is my desires, my heart. So here's the, here's the tricky little thing about a living sacrifice. You ready? The challenge with having a living sacrifice. I said you can crawl off the altar at any time. Right? Like it's, you are choosing to place your life onto the altar. And here's what we do. We representation, right? We crawl onto the altar, we sing songs, oh. Oh, I want you. Yes, Jesus, yes, more like you, yup, yep. And then Monday comes, we're like, we good. Or you come in and your intentions are like, God, help with my attitude and my life and my speech, and then Tuesday comes and somebody cuts you off on the road. Right? And you raise a different kind of hand. Not in worship, right? Oh my God, have, have my heart, have my mind. Oh, but not what I do here. But not my bank account, but not my marriage, but not my work meeting. But not what I do on Friday night. And so we're selective with the altar. But that's the pesky thing about a living sacrifice, is that you have to ask yourself, is what are you living for? Like what you're living for? Is that worth what Christ died for? Is what you're living for worth what Christ died for? Because why would Jesus come all the way down from heaven to earth? Take on the limitations of the human body, take a beating and mocking from the very people he's sustaining to die on the cross, to defeat death itself, to rise again for us to go. OK. Living sacrifice is your daily choice to understand God, you gave your life for me and so I'm gonna live my life for you. This is your spiritual act of worship any way more than just singing songs, singing songs is part of it. You see all over and over again, like you see the whole book of Psalms is is musically inclined. You see in there like in Colossians 3 that were called to sing to each other, hymns and spiritual songs of Thanksgiving. So music is definitely a part. But even greater than the music is the life that you live. And here's what's fascinating. It not only calls it your spiritual act of worship, other translations really define it as your reasonable act of worship. Well yeah, of course you would live that way. Why? Because he says, I appeal to you in view of the mercies of God. See, we're picking things up in Romans chapter 12, but this isn't chapter 1. He actually spent chapters 1 through 11 listing out the mercies of God. So mercy by itself is not receiving a negative consequence which you deserve, right? So if you've ever been pulled over and A cop had mercy on you to let you off without a ticket. That's mercy. So mercy is not receiving what you do deserve, but then grace is receiving a gift or something greater that you don't deserve. And so that's why grace and mercy are always going together. But when you see here, the mercies of God, is that it is so great, it just summarizes the goodness of God. And God is so, so incredibly good. That when you understand even just the glimpse of it, the reasonable act of response is to surrender your life to him. What am I talking about? Let's walk through this together. So again, frame it in two different ways. First is what's called the Roman's road to salvation. Is that what, what evangelicals will say when they try to walk through the gospel, they walk through the book of Romans and a couple verses to highlight the path of humanity, and I'm gonna just lay it out there. It starts off pretty dark. We're not looking great. Right? Like it's like when you open the movie and you see the bad guy, we're the bad guys, right? Like it's not good or Satan's a bad guy and we're already taken captive. What do I mean? Romans 3:23, right? For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. All of us How many sins does it take to not be perfect? What Right. So you have a perfect, holy God, and all of us have fallen short, Mrs. Markson repeatedly. OK, so then what happens? Romans 5:8, But God shows his love for us and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. So we didn't get our act together and then returned the guy said, OK, I'll accept you back in. While we were at our worst, Jesus was at his best. So then in Romans 6:23, we read in here, it says, for the wages of sin is death. But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. We deserve hell and damnation and death, but through Christ we have this gift of eternity, of forgiveness, of purpose, of love. Well then how do you receive that? Well, in Romans 10:9, it says, because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Not on your doing, but on who Christ is and what he's done. So, OK, but how do we know that to be true? Well, a couple verses later, Romans 10:13 says, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. So in light of these mercies, in light of your salvation, in light of the forgiveness and the goodness of God, how will you choose to live? But he doesn't stop there. See, many paint Romans as this deep theological work of how dark humanity it is. And, and it's true cause you see verses like well for all of sinned. But did you know Romans is not simply about our depravity, but it's about the mercies of God. Let me just walk through 24 mercies that I've seen. Now if you have your phone, encourage you to take it out because unless you can write super fast, um, or I can I encourage you to download that church center app, but you might want to take a photo of this just as a reminder here, but let me just walk through just some of the mercies of God described in Romans chapter 1 through 11. We're not even going outside of Romans. This is the same letter, OK. Because of God we receive his love, grace, comfort, power, faith, kindness, honor, righteousness from God, redemption, forgiveness, justification, peace with God, hope, holy Spirit, reconciliation, new life in Him, freedom from our sin, no condemnation. Before him, adoption of sons and daughters of God. We share in his glory. He intercedes on our behalf when we pray. He offers security that nothing will separate us from the love of God, that he offers his patience when we fall short. He offers his mercy again, more than what we deserve. Then he calls us out and we're called his elect. So picture the writing of Paul, who by the way, persecuted and even killed Christians. So he understands this at a deep personal level. Look, if, if God can save me. I promise you he can save you. And so what he could say at the beginning of Romans 12, therefore, as your friend, as your pastor, as someone who's been saved by this, let me plead with you in view of God's love, grace, comfort, power, faith, kindness, honor, redemption, forgiveness, peace, hope, the Holy Spirit, new life, freedom, condemnation, adoption, shared with glory, intercession, security, patience of God, mercy, and then calling an election. He doesn't say that. He goes in view of mercy, because I think his hand got tired of writing. But he could have. Do you get that? There's so much that Christ has done for you and for me that the reasonable act of spiritual worship is of a course, I surrender. Cause I'm gonna mess my life up on its own anyway. Here, take it. You made me. You saved me. You love me, you give me the power that conquered death. Of course, I'm gonna give you my life, take it all. A lot of times when we sing, we sing with our hands raised or our hands open. And I love that picture of surrender because when you think of surrender, you think you've been caught, right? Hands up, which, let's be real, we've both been caught in something. Or you think of a child reaching up to the parent. In both cases, there's the acknowledgement of a justice and of a love that is beyond anything we could comprehend or imagine. In view of the mercies of God, please, church, may we be a church that presents our bodies as a living sacrifice that daily chooses surrender to him. Yeah. If you do that, if you, if you prepare the soil of commitment in your life, you're gonna be amazed at how that seed of transformation will grow. Another way to look at this passage is would be what how I would describe it as the commitment cycle because in this passage we see 4 stages. That can help you practically live this out as a believer in him. If you wanna see triumph and change in your life, it starts with the truth. You have to believe, you have to receive, you have to understand and know the truth of who God is and what he's done. We live in a culture that says truth is subjective. No, truth is not subjective, truth is sovereign. Because you can know truth because truth is the person of Jesus and Jesus himself said to John 14:6, I am the way, the truth and the life. He said in John 8 that you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. So in view of God's mercies, in view of who God is and what he's done, that leads you to the second step of the commitment cycle, which is you can trust. You can trust, meaning you can surrender. Say I place my life into your hands. Because faith and living the Christian life isn't simply about trying, it's about trusting. And that's why you can present your body as a living sacrifice. so many times I think we think, OK, I accepted Jesus and now I'm gonna white knuckle it and just like here and just like grind and like I'm gonna do better. The problem is, when your hand is clenched like this, you can't receive anything else. And then you lose circulation in your hands and you get exhausted. And sometimes God can't place something in your hand because you got your hands cleansed on something temporary of the world and you're sitting here going, oh. He's like, what, what are you doing? You didn't earn your salvation. Do you think you're gonna earn your growth? No, I, the power that saves you is now going to help you grow. And say try harder, and I said trust me. So now what that means is you take your marriage, you take your relationship, you take your work, you take your income, you take whatever it is that you think you need to control, and you lay it on the altar and say, God, take it. I give my life to you. So you start with the truth of God, then you move to trusting God. And if you, if you truly trust God, what you're gonna start to see then is transformation. You're gonna start to see areas of your life start to change. You're gonna think differently. You're gonna speak differently. You're gonna behave differently. We are still broken, fallen humans, so we still sin. But even you're gonna view your sin differently because the power of the Holy Spirit is starting to hold you. If you've ever talked to someone who's been changed by the power of God, they will have a common theme throughout. It's like, ah, I, you know what? I used to be held by my possessions, but now. I just told them. It's not my stuff, it's God's stuff. I used to think I needed everyone to affirm me and now it's like, no, no, no, I, I have God, I'm good. Right In the areas of struggle become areas of sanctification and this idea of God moving in and through and for His glory. And so now you start to treat people differently, that your marriage changes, that your friendships change, that your perspective on money and business change. It's not that you work less, but actually you work for. Why? Because you're not living for your identity, you're living from your identity. You're not living to earn God's love, you're living in response to God's love. And let me tell you, church, that is so much more freeing. It says You're no longer conforming to this world. But you are being transformed. Ongoing. By the renewal of your mind. That we need constant reminder of renewal. Like, and I, I read the stories of the disciples and in recent years I've actually been encouraged more and more by their mess ups than anybody else. Like think about it, like, right before the, like right at the great commission, like where it says go and make disciples of all nations. You know the verse right before that? It says they're on the mount with Jesus after he had resurrected 40 days eating with them, drinking with him, miracles, preaching, sermons, and send some worship God and some disciples doubted him. Who's doubting Jesus in that moment? Like they're on the mountain face to face with Jesus, and they go, uh. OK, if the disciples doubt, look, you and I are gonna doubt. But what are we gonna do with that? Because the same place for doubt is the same place for faith. Of the unknown. And so you can give that to him and things start to change. And if things start to transform, you start to grow. Guess what happens? The final step of the cycle is that you start to see triumph. You start to experience victory and healing and hope. That's what I was saying, if you do these things, you will be able to test and approve and understand and know the will of God. Which makes sense because if you align your heart, mind, body and soul with God's heart, mind, body and soul, you're gonna start to view the world as he views the world, and that changes everything. Here's what I love about this. If you're struggling in one of these areas. The best thing you can do. I simply just go back a step. So if you're not seeing victory in your life, if you're not seeing triumph, if you're you're struggling to identify and understand the will of God. Just go back one step and say, hey, am I being transformed? And what's to say nothing changes if nothing changes. Is your life actually changing? Have you seen those? Therapy memes like, yeah, I just feel awful. OK, did you get some sleep? No. Do you eat healthy? No. Did you work out? No. Did you meet with friends? No, but I just don't know what's going on. We approach God that way, right? I just want to know the will of God. Have you read your Bible? No. Have you prayed? No. Have you, you know, have you worshiped? No, have you given, no, if you sacrificed, no, have you served, no. But I just can't want God to tell me. Why are you focusing on what you don't know when you fail to obey and follow what you do know? And someone was saying like, OK, but I'm struggling with transformation. I'm not seeing change. OK, let me ask you this question then, are you trusting God to change you? Or are you trying to change in your own strength? Cause again, it's not about trying, it's about trusting. God's gonna be the one to speak through you, right? It's the fruit of self or the fruit of the spirit? I can tell you the fruit itself, it's all sin. So it's the fruit of the spirit. Are you trusting the spirit of God to move in and through you to then lead you and do what he's telling you to do? And then if you're struggling with trust, and again, it's natural to do that. I encourage you to go back and remind yourself of just how true are the mercies of God. Because if you know who God is and you believe the truth, that'll allow you and To trust him and surrender your life present as a living sacrifice to him, and when you do that, then you'll start to see transformation because you're not conforming to the patterns of this world, you're being renewed daily by the renewal of your mind through His word and when you are being renewed, then you're gonna start to be transformed and changed and experience triumph and victory in your life, and this is what it means to grow. In a few moments we're gonna take communion and. There's a story in John chapter 6 when Jesus feeds the 5000. Takes a little lunch from a boy and goes and he feeds the thousands and then he proceeds to tell them that I am the bread of life, meaning that you're, you're, you're focused on the hunger for your bellies, but I'm gonna, I'm gonna satisfy the hunger of your soul. And that's a tough teaching and so a lot of people leave. And so he's gonna turn to the disciples saying how you're gonna leave too. So we read in John chapter 6, verse 66, it says, after this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the 12, do you want to go away as well? And Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God. Like, where else are you gonna go? The world's, it's filled with empty promises. The world's gonna say you gotta look a certain way, dress a certain way, act a certain way, have the right people, have the right stuff, and then maybe you'll be approved, but the reality is none of that's gonna satisfy your soul. And the truth is, is that salvation comes to Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone. And that he died on the cross as payment for your sins and for mine, and that when he rose, he provided a way of salvation, but then he says, come and die. Come and follow me. Salvation is gonna cost you something. Salvation by nature is a complete surrender to whatever you're hanging on to. But I promise you it's worth it because when you commit your life to him, when you trust him with your life, you're gonna start to see change and if that change you're gonna start to see triumph. Because the seed of transformation grows in the soil of commitment. And so what I wanna do to end today is simply ask you this question in view of all that Jesus has done for you. Will you commit to Jesus today? Will you pray with me? God, if there's someone in the room today who's never put their trust in you. God I pray that we would admit that we're sinners. That we can't make it to heaven on our own. God, we believe in you as Lord and Savior, that it's only through you. That your death on the cross and resurrection that we can be saved. We believe in you. We put our trust in you, we receive you into our lives. And we commit our lives to you. Thank you for saving us. Thank you for loving us. Therefore, God, in view of all of your great mercies. May we present our bodies as living sacrifice. Holy and pleasing to you as our spiritual act of worship. Will we not be conformed any longer to the patterns of this world, but may we be transformed by the renewal of our minds so that we can test what is your perfect will. And know who you've called us to be and what you've called us to do. We commit our lives to you today, and your son's name we pray, amen.