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[ Music ] [MUSIC] ♪ Every moment you live ♪ ♪ May he, oh, bless me ♪

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♪ May he, oh, bless me ♪ ♪ Now, now, now, now ♪ ♪ May Jesus shine ♪ ♪ May he, oh, bless me ♪

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♪ Oh, Savior, I pray ♪ ♪ May be a blessing to someone today ♪ ♪ Give us what's given to you in your need ♪ ♪ Love as the Master loved you ♪

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♪ Be to the helpless the helper in need ♪ ♪ Until your wish shall be true ♪ ♪ May be a blessing ♪ ♪ Make me a mercy out of the dark ♪

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♪ Make Jesus shine ♪ ♪ Make me a mercy, O Savior, I pray ♪ ♪ Make me a mercy to stop the today ♪ [music]

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Amen. Speak to our hearts, O God, in the strong and perfect name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. hear this word recorded in the epistle to the Romans, the twelfth chapter, the first and second verses.

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"I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may

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prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. The subject, the sacrifice of a transformed life, the sacrifice of a transformed life. A renowned psychiatrist, Carl Jung, says, "It is only through the mystery of self-sacrifice

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"that a man may find himself anew." It is only through the mystery of self-sacrifice that a man may find himself anew. In what is regarded as the most profound theological treatise

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of all his epistles, the Apostle Paul comes to the close of his epistle to the Romans by giving his readers exhortation. He describes the kind of life the Christian ought to live. After he has mentioned how the remnant of Israel remains, after he has explained how

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Gentiles are grafted into the olive tree, he gives a doxology, praising God for his marvelous gift of salvation. Then begins chapter 12. He uses the word "therefore" in the opening words of that chapter, "such being the case." Then there follows an exhortation to Christian living. The Apostle gives his readers what we may consider unsolicited advice. We don't

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know how the Romans would receive what Paul has to say. Some people have built-in resistance to exhortations and are quick to respond. "Don't tell me how to live my life. "If I want advice, I'll ask for it."

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Well, this is a word of advice from the senior pastor. This is counsel from a seasoned general on the battlefield. This is the word of a veteran

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who has considerable experience to support what he has to say. Listen again to his words. In other words, he's saying,

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since you have been accepted to walk in wisdom's way, since you have chosen to follow the straight and narrow path, such being the case, I urge you, by the mercies of God,

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that you present your bodies a living sacrifice. We've just passed through a bruising national election in which candidates have tried to present themselves in an acceptable manner.

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Paul urges the Christian community in Rome to be presentable. He is anxious that they present themselves in a manner that honors Christ.

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The Christian task is to represent Christ. represent Christ Let me say that again the Christian task is to Represent Christ. In other words, we say represent which really means represent

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We present Christ to others over and over and over again if we are truly his disciples in word and deed Now, how do we fulfill this task?

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Paul tells us how. He says, "Present your bodies as a living sacrifice." Now, this is a rather radical viewpoint for such priority to be given to the human body. The Greeks gave primacy to the spirit. Paul's words are addressed to persons influenced by the Greek way of thinking.

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He lived in the Greco-Roman world. And to the Greek mind, what mattered most was the spirit. The body was regarded as only a shackle, a prison house. And I have a suspicion that there's some who've been influenced by the Greek way of thinking

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among us because so often when someone doesn't show up they say, "Well, Reverend, my body wasn't there but my spirit was there." This is how the Greeks placed far more importance upon the spirit than upon the body. But Paul begins, this is why I say it's radical, he begins by saying, "Present your bodies."

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Now this is visible confirmation. Some focus on the body to the neglect of the spirit. They buy the best food, they take all the proper exercises, they wear the best clothes,

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they secure the best healthcare available. They care for the body but neglect the spirit. The Christian belief is the body belongs to God as well as the soul.

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Christian worship is the offering of bodily existence. The Christian view emphasizes regulation and moderation in the care of the body. For the Christian, the body is not something to be despised or ashamed of. The body is the temple in which the spirit dwells.

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The body is the instrument through which the Holy Spirit works. According to the media, more young people are smoking, which means there will be more smoking-related diseases and more cancer deaths due to smoking. And a disproportionate number of those people so affected will be us.

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And if there is a group that needs to take seriously what it really means to properly care for the body, it ought to be us. Because we are dying at a disproportionate rate. Here is Paul dealing with the body.

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And he says, "Just as a church or a cathedral "may be built for the worship of God, "so our bodies are to be the dwelling place of God." The doctrine of the incarnation

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brings together body and spirit. Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Body and spirit are the work of God. The scripture tells us that in the beginning,

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God took the dust of the earth and he molded it into Adam and then he breathed into it. He made Adam's body out of the dust of the earth.

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God did that. Then God also breathed into that body the breath of life and Adam became a living soul. So both body and spirit are gifts of God.

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The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Body and spirit, the world and the church. So we ought to have worldly concerns. God knows that we need these things.

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He needs something to eat, something to wear, to care for the body. He knows we should have these worldly concerns. We also have concerns of the spirit, the church.

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The body has to do with the outward form, which differs from year to year. We don't look the way we looked when we were babes. You know, we've made a number of changes since that time.

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So it differs, the body form changes. Someone, as I heard one friend of mine say that he had a friend that when he knew her, she had a figure like an eight, you know,

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and then that eight, after a period of time, turned into a zero. (audience laughing) Our bodies change.

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Body changes. So our outward form varies from year to year. Our worship is not limited to going to church, but our worship is in what we do. In the workaday world, the jobs we work on, the issues that we are concerned about.

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But then Paul moves on to say, "Be not conformed to this world." He talks about, really, he brings before us the issue of the peril of conformity. Peril of conformity. In other words, J.B. Phillips translates that,

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"Do not let the world squeeze you into its own mold." Do not, and that can so easily happen. When I was a lad in Dallas, I went over to play with Sonny Boy.

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And while we were playing, Sonny Boy says, you know, Uncle Willie has this truck here and it has something in it. Let's open it up.

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I said, no, I don't want to do that. Well, he said, I will. So he opened the trunk and he, there was a tin can in there and Uncle Willie had about $5.00 in that, in that day,

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that was a great deal of money. So Sunday boy said, we'll take a dollar. So we took a dollar and we got on the trolley. I think it was about either three cents a nickel

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in those days to ride the trolley. And we went down to the theater, to the Harlem Theater on Central Track in Dallas. And we saw a movie.

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I never will forget it. It was Gene Harlow in The Reckless. We saw this movie. I can't remember anything that really happened in the movie.

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I just remembered to say because all the time I was on edge, you know, I know I shouldn't be here. Mother told me not to leave home and I'm down here and all this, but I get back before she gets back and all of that.

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But we came back and Uncle Willie noticed that the lock on his trunk was broken and he asked Sonny Boy what happened and he said Marvin did it. He did it. And of course they sent for me and mother came over there and she said, "Oh no, I know

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Marvin did not do that. He wouldn't do a thing like that. Marvin, did you do that?" "Yes, ma'am."

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Oh, I got a good threshing about that. But it all started because I was trying to conform to what Sonny Boy wanted me to do. Paul says to us, "Be not conformed." Don't worry about how the world is going around you.

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Dare to be different. Christians are called peculiar people, people who dare to be different, who are willing to blaze a new trail,

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to do things a different way. So, he goes on to say that the world that the world is not to be permitted to mold us in the way that the world would desire. There is a danger in conforming to the world.

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Be not conformed, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your minds. Now he speaks of this transformation all in the context of sacrifice, sacrifice, sacrifice. being willing to surrender, being willing to do without. As I look at my own pilgrimage in life,

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it has been how I'm willing to sacrifice. And if you look at yours, it ought to be measured by the sacrifices that you have made and are willing to make, sacrifice.

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Bishop College was playing Langston in Texarkana I had Laverne as my date and when we got there we had to leave early we missed meal that after that evening at school so you had to have something to buy food for yourself and I only had a dime.

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That's all I had and so as the game went on I became hungry and so I asked Laverne to excuse me and I went down and and I bought a hamburger and left her there and by the time by the time I took a good bite of that hamburger Laverne had gotten a little disturbed about the time I'd been away I guess and so I looked

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around and there she was and and I tried to offer her something she said oh no But I was avoiding the sacrifice that should be made. Sacrifice, sacrifice. And it's a long, long, long journey toward,

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you know, we have this feeling, you know, satisfy yourself, look out for number one. That's natural, but when you take that pilgrimage, later as I got married and we were living in Cleveland

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And I was working on a job making just $50 a week and we had, there were three of us, and I was the only one working. And my wife loves beautiful things

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and there's nothing that motivates a man like having a wife who has expensive tastes. (audience laughing) And I went to work every day and we tried,

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we had to save and we wanted to get her something new. I remember we saved, I don't know how many months it took us to save, almost $100 to get what was in that new look, you know, that long dress that came down to your ankles.

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But that was sacrifice. And in your family, the family grows and is transformed in the way that we are willing to make sacrifices. Some people never succeed in giving their children

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the kind of education that they ought to get because they're not willing to sacrifice. One wants to have, they want to go to, almost go to college in a Rolls Royce.

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You know, not willing to make sacrifice, but Paul says here that we are to present ourselves a living sacrifice, that our lives ought to bear testimony to our sacrifice.

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Sacrifice. So, do not be conformed, but be ye transformed by a life of sacrifice. In Ebony Magazine, some time ago,

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there was a story of a couple where the man needed a kidney and his wife. was willing to give him one of her kidneys. And she tells a story of how she went through this experience.

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There were so many people who asked her, why would she do this? Why would you risk your life to do this? But she was joyful about it all.

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It enriched her life. It brought them closer together. she risked her life and shared what she had in order to make it possible for her husband to live his life.

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Sacrifice. Sacrifice has a way of transforming our lives. It has a way of lifting us to a higher level when we are willing to sacrifice. My mother's sacrifice had a powerful influence upon my life because when I saw how she was

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going to work from early in the morning to late in the evening and how she was doing everything for me, then I gave up a lot of things because I figured I ought to make the best marks in school, I ought to be the best possible person I ought to be as a student because of the sacrifice that mother was making for me to be there.

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And there is one. There is one who has made even a greater sacrifice. There is one who went to that hill called Calvary and gave his life in order that we may live more abundantly. Who made the supreme sacrifice.

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And because of His sacrifice, we ought to live a life that is transformed by the renewing of our minds so that in Christ we are new, new beings, new creatures. And we can say, "Consecrate me now to thy service, Lord, by the power of grace divine. Let my soul look up with a steadfast hope, and my will be lost in thine." So if any person has this changed way of life, if any person has been so transformed, and

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And that, brothers and sisters, is what we're all about. We are a congregation in the business of transforming people, of changing lives. That's what Jesus went about doing, and that's our task, that's our mission. So we can say, "I want to live above the world, though Satan's darts at me are hurled, for

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Faith has caught the joyful sound, the song of saints, on higher ground. As we sing now the invitation, "Jesus paid it all," we extend the privilege for those who would live the transformed life, motivated by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, we invite you to come.

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[MUSIC PLAYING] Go where the church is. I hear the Savior say, "Thy trinity is small; God of weakness, watch and pray;

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I give Thee mine all in all." ♪ Jesus prayed it all ♪ ♪ All to him I owe ♪ ♪ Said, "Has not the Prince of Spain ♪

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♪ He watched him by his throne?" ♪ ♪ For now in me have I ♪ ♪ That thou, that guide of hope ♪ ♪ Can change the limplest marks ♪

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♪ And melt the hardest stone ♪ ♪ Jesus, pray it all ♪ ♪ All to Thee, I owe ♪ ♪ Sin has left the brimstone slain ♪

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♪ He washed it white as snow ♪ ♪ Oh, nothing good I've done ♪ ♪ Where I've had grace to thank ♪ ♪ I'll wash my garments white ♪

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♪ In the blood of death which last ♪ ♪ Jesus paid it all ♪ ♪ All to Him I owe ♪ ♪ Sin has dealt the prisoner's debt ♪

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♪ He washed it white as snow ♪ ♪ I've been before the throne ♪ ♪ I stand in Him complete ♪ ♪ Jesus died my soul to save ♪

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♪ My lips shall still repeat ♪ ♪ Jesus made me whole ♪ ♪ All to the isle ♪ ♪ Say has not the princess failed ♪

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♪ He was in white as snow ♪ [Music] [Music] [ Silence ]