It's great to be able to be with you all this morning. Like Danny said, we are in our Sweeter Than Honey series, so we're taking a look at one or two verses at a time. And I'm excited to dive into today's text with you all. Last night I picked up my son from one of his friend's house and he just kind of asked, hey, are you ready for your message? I'm like, yeah. And then he asked this question. I don't think he meant it this way, but this is what he said. He said, dad, when you're up there, does it seem as long for you as it does for us? No. Don't know how to, how to take that. But. But with some encouragement, I guess we're ready to dive in. Romans 12, 1 and 2. If you want to open up your Bibles, we'll get there in just a second. But I do want to ask you a question this morning. I simply want to ask you, do you feel the pressure to conform to the world around you? Yes. Yes, you do. So do I. Do you feel the pressure to be like everyone else? Do you feel the pressure to fit in, to be accepted, to be normal, so to speak? Can you see how various environments that you find yourself in, whether that's work or your neighborhood or your family or others, can you see how those are influencing you one way or another? It's almost like the shows you watch and the podcasts that you listen to and the social media posts that you engage in and the influence that you follow. It's almost like they're trying to influence your behavior. They are secrets out. Right? Let's take it a step farther and ask the question of what are you conforming to? Or who or what are you becoming? You ever thought about that? My family had the privilege of going to Colorado with a few other families that we've known for years and decades. And we stayed at a one of their Airbnbs outside of Winter park and we had 13 kids, all kind of around my kids age. And so one night the parents are kind of off a little ways and the kids are off talking and whatever. And one of the other kids said, that is drip. That is so. Drip. That is so. Oh my gosh, just drip, drip, drip, drip, drip. And I'm like, where? Like we need to fix something here. But I could kind of gather like from the context that drip, at least from my perspective, meant cool or awesome or something like that. And so being the cool 43 year old dad that I am. Later on in that trip, I saw a sweet mountain and a sweet storm rolling. And I was like, that is drip like dad? No, it's not how it works. Apparently, drip only means cool or awesome when you're talking about someone's clothes or their accessories or whatever else. There's your English lesson for the day. Parents use it today. Use the word drip. Impress your kids, Embarrass them, whatever. The reality is, though, here I am, maybe half joking, half serious, trying to be liked and trying to be accepted by a group of 14, 15, or 16 year olds. Like I was conforming to their language using terms like drip. We'll never do it again, but we often find ourselves trying to be somebody who we're not trying to mold ourselves to the crowd. And so again, who or what are you becoming like? You see, my biggest concern is the fact that there's a good number of people in this room who are being influenced by. Who are conforming to the world being shaped in a way that's not good. And you have no idea. You have no idea. We've used this example before, but it's relevant. And so I'm just gonna ask a question. Have you ever noticed how other people's houses smell like everyone else's house smells? It might smell good, it might smell bad. It might smell like a fine blend of essential oils. It might smell like they eat fish every day for dinner. But everyone's house is smells except for yours. Your house is scentless. Smells like nothing. Unless you go on vacation for a week or two and then you come back home after being used to something else, and you're excited to sleep in your own bed. And you open your door like, what does that smell? Does our house really smell like this? Yes, it does. Your house has a smell, too. But the reality is, we can be so used to something, we can be so in something that we're blind to the reality that that's actually influencing our lives. You can be so in the world, you can be so going with the flow that you're being conformed, you're being influenced, you're being changed, and you have no idea. So follow up. Question is, how do we not be conformed to the world? Let's dive into our passage. Turn to Romans 12 once again. We're just looking at a couple verses, verses one and two this morning. It says this. 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 the will of God is, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Two verses, lots of stuff in there. You see kind of high level, that there's two positive commands, do this, do this. And there's a native command, don't do this. We're going to focus on the negative command first. But before we dive in, I want you to know the context of these two verses. This comes at a very pivotal point in Romans or kind of a hinge point in Romans, where Paul's writing to the Roman church. You have both Jewish believers and non Jewish believers or Gentiles. And sometimes kind of that cultural clash causes problems. And so Paul goes to great lengths to first clearly explain the gospel and then to say, because of that, in light of that, you should live this way. So we're going to high level, go through a handful of verses just to kind of help give you some context. Romans 1, 18:25, verse 17. Before that actually ends by saying, the righteous shall live by faith. And then it goes on to say this. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him. But they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creepy things. Goes on to say, therefore God gave them up in the lust of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies amongst themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie. And they worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. And so in those we see that God's creation reveals parts of God's character. Yet humans suppress truth for a lie. We worship created things rather than the Creator. And that idolatry leads to all kinds of sin. Let's keep going. Romans 3:23 through 24. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Hopefully, that's a familiar verse to you. Goes on to say then, and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. So we all sin, we all fall short of God's glory. The only way we're made right with God is through and by his grace. It's a gift. Romans 5:1. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have. We are justified not by something we do or don't do, but by faith in what Jesus has done, in faith in Christ. Romans 5:6. Jake talked about this two, three weeks ago. For while we were still weak at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. Once again. He spent 35, 40 minutes talking about this. We're talking about this for like two seconds. While we were still sinners. Christ died for us. Not because we're awesome, not because we deserve it, not because of us at all. Romans 6:23. Hopefully another familiar one. For the wages of sin is death. But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Again, the penalty for sin is death. What you earn when you sin is separation from a holy God forever. And yet by God's grace, we can be reconciled to him and live with him forever. We go on to see that in Romans, even though we can have faith in Jesus, we can have a new life in Christ. We still battle the flesh. We still do and don't do what we shouldn't do and should do. Romans 8:1 2. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. There's no condemnation for those in Christ. In Christ we are free. We're no longer slaves to sin and death. Romans 11 goes on to talk about God's mercy even more, talks about how the Gospel applies to both the Jews and the Gentiles. So we see in the first 11 chapters of Romans. If you've not read that, I would encourage you to read it multiple times. Study it, dig in. But we see high level that we rebelled against the Holy God, that we suppressed the truth of God for lies, that we've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And yet we're justified by faith. Because while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. We see how he defeated sin and death. There's freedom in Christ. God is merciful. We can go from enemies of God to His children, from condemned to accepted God shows unmerited favor, unmerited love. And we've done nothing to deserve it. You see, Paul spends a lot of time in chapters one through eleven explaining and defending in detail the reality of the gospel, how we are justified through faith in Christ. And then he goes on again, pivot point. In chapters 12 through 16, it says, in light of that, live this way. Do these things, don't do these things. So if the Gospel is true, which it is, he explained it, he defended it. If that's true, your life should look different. You should not conform to the world. You should offer your body as a living sacrifice. You should be transformed by the renewal of your mind. And so everything Paul goes on to say in chapters 12 through 16 is in view of God's mercy. So we can't forget that because veritas, the gospel changes everything. It should impact your daily living. You should think about it. Often when we understand the gospel, we understand God's grace. That should create just this giant amount of gratitude in us. Which is exactly why Romans 12:1 starts off with Paul saying, I appeal to you, therefore. I plead with you, therefore. In view of the gospel, in view of God's mercy, do these things. Again, Paul gives two positive commands. Do this, do this. And then one negative command, don't do this. We're going to start with the negative first. And it says, do not be conformed to this world. We talked about this earlier this morning, right? Don't be conformed to this world. Don't pattern yourself after or imitate the world around you. We are to be distinct from those around us. You often hear parents say, I want my kid to fit in. I want my kid to fit in. I want my kid to be normal. The reality is you don't want that. I understand what you're saying, but if the world of culture is going this way, you want to be swimming upstream against it. What does conforming to the world practically look like? We caught a glimpse of it in Romans 1 earlier. So let's just kind of revisit some of those things. They didn't honor God or give thanks to him. It's pretty world equality. They became futile in their thinking. They claimed to be wise. We know it all. We have all the answers. We don't need any outside authority because we have it figured out, idolatry. They valued created things more than they valued the Creator. They exchanged the truth for a lie. Seems to be pretty common today. They had dishonorable passions. Their passions led them astray. Going on to verses 29 through 31, it says this. There was unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, Malice, envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They were gossip, slanders, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful inventors of evil, disobedient to parents. Kids, pay attention. Especially my kids. Right? Foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Sounds pretty worldly. And yet church. As followers of Christ, as people who have been made new, as people who are no longer slaves to sin and death, with the mercies of God in view, with the Gospel in view. Keeping that in mind, you should constantly, constantly resist being influenced by the principles and the standards of a world that has rejected God. And yet my fear and my worry and even my observation is so many self professing Christians, not out there, but in here, live life in a way that is no different at all from the world around us. See, we shouldn't let the world squeeze us into a mold. When it comes to consumerism, sexual immorality, pride, making a name for yourself, the way you handle money, what your life's goals and ambitions are, how you view retirement, how you use this thing. You should not look like your non believing friends, family, coworkers and neighbors. If you've been made new in Christ, you should refuse to think and act how the world thinks and acts. Now, a good first step in this might be to ask the simple question of how am I different and how am I the same? From people around me who claim to not follow Christ, is my life the same as theirs? I mean, statistics would say in many ways, yes. Or do you see evidence of the fruit of the spirit? You see love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and justness and self control. Do you see fruit? Do others see fruit? Or do they see somebody who's just like everybody else? Another way to think about this is if you went to your non believing neighbor or co worker or classmate or whatever and you said, hey, I'm a Christian, would they be like, really? Huh? I would have never guessed. Or is there evidence and behavior that would prove otherwise? As I was preparing for this Sunday, just to be honest, one of my biggest prayers for our church would be that every single person in here who is a follower of Christ, who's a Christian, that God would very clearly help us see how we're in danger of conforming to the world, that God would say, matt, watch out in this specific way, Christian, because of the gospel, do not conform to the world. Now if you're anything like me, when there's a negative command, I'm like, okay, I know what I'm not supposed to do. But what am I supposed to do? Paul gives two things. He says, first, verse one, present your bodies as a living sacrifice. Present your bodies, living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Offer your bodies, offer your lives to God. The world says you matter. You're number one. It's all about you. Do whatever you want to do to make a name for yourself, to make yourself happy, to bring glory and praise to yourself. Do whatever you want. Yet Paul's saying in Romans 12, in view of the gospel, in view of God's mercy, offer yourself as a living sacrifice. The word sacrifice, like many of our words today, might not carry much weight when we say, oh, I sacrificed this, I sacrificed that. But to a Jewish audience, it would have carried weight. See, in the Old Testament, the nation of Israel, God's chosen people, they were called to make numerous sacrifices. But at the root or the core of all of them, they were to take something that was spotless, that was without blemish. They were to have a good heart about it, and they were to sacrifice it. And it wasn't simply giving up something for something greater. It was taking something that belonged to you and offering it to God in a way that it no longer belonged to you. So if you were to take like a spotless lamb and slaughter it, you didn't get that back. It was no longer yours. And this passage is calling us. Offer your life to Christ. Take something that is yours, yours, your life, and give it to him in a way that your life is no longer yours. You were bought with a price. Live that way. We see numerous calls in the New Testament to die to yourself. That's what this passage is saying, die to yourself. Live for Christ. You see the call here, the command here, the challenge here is to offer yourself to God in total surrender and dedication, realizing you're not that big of a deal, you know, who is God. Therefore, your life should not be about you. It should not be about your glory. It should not be about making a name for yourself. It should be about him and his glory. Live for him in a way that is holy and acceptable to God. This is your spiritual worship. That's worship honoring him above all else. You see, many people live compartmentalized lives, right? Yeah, you guys, especially the eight o'. Clock, they braved like a monsoon storm wind this morning, but they were here. I don't know. Was it raining when you guys came? Maybe a little bit. Like, you guys will show up on a Sunday, which is awesome. I love worshiping together. A lot of you Will take some of your income and be generous. That's awesome. Some of you serve, that's great. Some of you guys even like go to connection group. That's awesome as well. It's not drip, but it's awesome. Right? But then there's other areas of your life where you're more like this, where you're more close fisted. This is my time, these are my hobbies. You have toddler syndrome. Mine, my retirement, my finances. And yet this isn't a call to give a portion of your life to God. This is a call to give the entirety of your life to God. This is a call to be open handed in all areas of life, not just some. Again, this is hard. But when you consider the mercies of God, when you consider the gospel, when you consider Romans 1:11, it's a natural response. So again, to kind of dig a little bit deeper, if you were to look at your calendar or your checkbook, well, nobody uses checkbooks. So if you were to look at your bank statement or your budgeting app, what story would those things tell? Would they tell a story of somebody who's close fisted? Mine. Or they tell a story of somebody who's open handed saying, my life is yours. Another positive command in these first two verses. It's be transformed by the renewal of your mind. You see, you're not to conform to this world. You're to offer your bodies as living sacrifices and you are to be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Transformed doesn't mean like this small subtle change. The root word is metamorpho. That's like same word that metamorphosis comes from. You think of metamorphosis like a weird little caterpillar changing into this like beautiful butterfly. Big change, transformation, way different. And here we're called to be transformed in two realities. One, we can't transform ourselves. We're not in the business of transformation. And two, when we're made new in Christ, the second, we cry out to God for salvation with saving faith. We're transformed, we're made new. We're no longer slaves to sin. And yet this verse says, be transformed by the renewal of your mind. This is an ongoing process. Notice how Paul says, do not conform. Offer your bodies like those are kind of focusing on actions. And then this last one points out the importance of our minds, the importance of what goes in there, our minds, what we know, the information we take in matters. Because beliefs, thoughts, information, knowledge leads to action. So what do you put in your mind? A 23. 2023 study this is a couple years old, which when I read it, will maybe even be more alarming. It says this. Our world is awash in an unprecedented volume of data. Nearly every second of every day, we're exposed to an endless stream of news, knowledge, memes, reels, photos that compete for our attention and keep us glued to the screens. From tablets and smartphones to computers and TVs. In fact, across all platforms, it's estimated that we consume nearly 12 hours of information every day. It says information scientists. Not sure how you become one of those, but information scientists have found that an average person living today processes as much as 74 gigabytes of information a day through TV, computers, cell phones, tablets, billboards and many other gadgets. That's the equivalent of watching 16 movies, reading over 200,000 words, or scrolling on TikTok for nearly 200 hours. It's a lot of information in one day. This is crazy. And every year our brains take in 5% more information than the previous year. Again, two year old study. To put this in the context only 500 years ago, 74 gigabytes. What we take in one day, 74 gigabytes of information, would be what a highly educated person consumed in a lifetime through books and stories. A lifetime. One day we're bombarded with information. In order for us to be transformed, in order for us to offer our bodies as living sacrifices, in order for us to not conform to the world, the Holy Spirit has to change or renew our mind. Again, we don't do the transforming and yet we play a very big role in this because we have some control over what enters our mind. We can control what comes into our heads. We can control the knowledge that we take in. You've probably heard sayings like you are what you eat, or you're a combination of the five people who you hang out with most. What they're getting at is who you're around or what you around matters. The same thing's true with knowledge. What you take in matters, they say, garbage in, garbage out, mostly for like food and stuff. But same thing can be said true about your mind. A polluted mind will lead to a polluted life. So again, what are we taking in church? If each one of us takes in on average 74 gigabytes of information a day. What's going into your head? What are you listening to? What are you watching? What are you looking at? Are you willing to show your Internet search history from the last week? Are you willing to hold your phone open and say, here's my screen time from yesterday, you might have heard people say, christianity is a religion about action. Like, it's like putting your faith into action. We've got to do stuff. And there's some truth to that, right? But Paul spent 11 chapters Romans, not talking about action, but talking about truth, talking about the mercies of God, talking about things that we should know. Because the reality is your actions tend to stem from one of two places, the Word or the world. And so many of us know the world really, really well, yet we don't know the Word at all. If you're a follower of Christ, if you're a Christian, if you're somebody who's like, yeah, I'm saved by grace through faith, then a regular rhythm of your life should be reading and meditating on God's Word. That should just be a normal habit, a normal rhythm, a normal cadence of your life. Philippians 4. 8 says this. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things, Think about those types of things. Fill your mind with the truth of God's word. So is that what's in your head? I mean, is that what's in your mind? Or is it something else from a time standpoint? Apologize. We don't have time to get into the last part of verse two, at least in depth. It says this. Then by the testing, you may discern what the will of God is. What is good, acceptable, and perfect. I do just want to kind of say a couple things here really quick, though. I remember being in college and like, I had kind of a major life decision. Do I pursue this career? Do I pursue that career? And just thinking like, oh, I wish I knew the will of God. Do I go left? Do I go right? Do I choose A? Do I choose B? And it's interesting. This is, I think, true with everybody, but I've seen a lot in young people. You're pretty. It's normal, I should say, to kind of do life your own way. You're in control, do what you want to do. And then you come to a fork in the road, to a crossroads. You're like, ah, what does God want me to do? And it's great that you're seeking God's will, but often you live life on your own until you really need it. And so I just want to say something, a couple things about God's will. From this passage. You want to know God's will, Offer your bodies as living sacrifice. Do not conform to this world and be renewed by the Spirit through what you take in. In other words, your sanctification, you becoming more like Christ is God's will for you. And as you do those things, decisions seem to be more clear. So again, in view of the mercy of God, offer your bodies a sacrifice, be renewed by the word of God, and do not conform to this world. There's so much in here that I want us to take away. And once again, in hindsight, there's so much in these two verses. I should have just chosen one because we would have been able to go deeper even. But what I want our church to see, what I want our church to actually be about, is a church that conforms to God's word, not the world. If that could be said about Veritas. Veritas is a body of believers that conforms to God's word, not the world. That would be awesome. I want to take kind of just a minute or two here in closing and talk to you as one of your pastors. I mean, hopefully that's what I've been doing for 30 minutes, but kind of like bring it down, kind of a more relational level. Like, I don't know if some of these things are hopes that I have for our church or if this is more application or whatever it is, but I really want to be a church that is marked by the following things. Okay, so in view of God's mercy, in view of the gospel church, devote your life to the Lord. Live open handedly. Live life in service to King Jesus. Be about his fame, not yours. Confess areas of your life that you have a tight grip on. Wouldn't it be great to be part of a church where the posture of its people was this, God, whatever you want, whatever, whenever, wherever. That's a logical response to the reality of the gospel. Number two, grow in biblical literacy. This is just kind of us being open handed. Our elders have been having conversations for quite a while. We've told our leaders, we've told our staff, we've told a lot of our members. We'll tell you here in a couple weeks. But one of the biggest concerns that we have about our people, not just like the church in America, but like Veritas church, is that a lot of our people don't know their Bibles. A lot of the people that call Veritas home are biblically illiterate. And so we want to be so much more intentional this next year with helping you know God's word more, know God's Word better. And so my encouragement as you learn about these opportunities, take advantage of them. Bible reading plan, classes, conferences, discipleship opportunities. Open up God's Word. Meditate on God's Word. We want to be people that have a biblical worldview. And so when those 74 gigabytes of information are coming at us, when we're making decisions, when we're saying, do we do this, do we do that? You're making those decisions based off of what God's Word says, not off of what culture says. And unfortunately, many people don't know the difference. And so we want to grow in our understanding and knowledge of God's Word as a church. Can we commit to that together? Yeah. Good. Finally, number three. Remember the Gospel Daily. Paul takes 11 chapters, and they're pretty thick, dense chapters, right? He takes a huge part of his letter to the Roman church, says, this is what humanity is. This is what Christ has done. This is God's mercy. This is the Gospel. And for so many of us, we just quickly forget that, go on to what should we do? Church, let's remember the Gospel Daily. Let that be your motivation. There's nothing you bring to the table. There's no way for you to earn salvation. You could have the worst moral day you've ever had ever, in your whole entire life, ever, ever, ever. You could have the best day you've ever had. Like, the best. Like, did you see that? And yet, good or bad, God doesn't look at you any differently, doesn't love you any less, because your standing before him is not dependent upon you. Remember the Gospel. When we truly understand God's grace, it is a lot easier to live like, you're not that big of a deal. When we truly understand God's grace and we have God's grace in view, it makes offering our lives to God seem like a natural response. It makes God's Word more desirable. I want to know him more. It makes going against the current of the world seemed like a better choice. But we have to have God's mercy. We have to remember the Gospel Daily Church. I've loved this series. Hopefully you have as well. Anytime we can look at even small chunks of Scripture and just really dive in, this is a great opportunity for us as a church. And the reality is, I've loved Romans 12:1 2 for decades. And the reality is also that there are some passages in scripture that are more comforting, right? And so you just kind of read them. You're like, ah, that's great. I think of Psalm 23, for example. I'm not going to read the whole thing, but the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, restores my soul, leads me by quiet waters, my cup overflows. His rod and staff, they comfort me. I'll dwell with him forever. We skip some, but use the point. You're just like, ah, you could be having a terrible day, week, month, year. Read that. And you're like, oh gosh, this is just what I needed. And then there are some passages that are less like a nice warm side hug and more like a swift kick in the pants. Romans 12:1 and 2 has been that kick in the pants that I've needed time and time again over the course of my walk with Christ. And it's my hope that it can be a kick. Maybe not a kick, a gentle prodding for you as well, that you will continually have God's mercy in view, that you will be open handed with your life, that you will not conform to everybody else in the world around you, and that you will be intentional with putting biblical truth in your head day after day after day after day, so the Holy Spirit can use that to continually transform you. It's a lifelong battle, it's not going to be easy. But in light of God's mercy, it's the right response. Let's pray. God, I confess I often get to the so what? What do I have to do? What should I not do? What should I do? And quickly skip over the gospel, quickly skip over your grace, your mercy. Lord, I pray that we can be a church that continually, on an ongoing basis, reflects on and remembers the gospel. That we can say in view of God's mercy. We fill in the blank. And God, so help us do that now as we take communion, help us to remember that it was your body that was broken, that it was your blood that was spilled, that we were purchased with a price, that through faith in you we are saved by your grace. God help that be the fuel, the motivation, the reality that we dwell on for the rest of our lives. We love you, your name, we pray, amen.