Committing to Excellence — Romans 12

0:02 Oh, no, no, no. There we go. I don't want anybody looking ahead. Alright. Connor, right?

0:11 What is this? Stand up. Come here. How are you, Connor? Nice to see you.

0:16 I'm really happy that you dressed up for me today. Do you, like, wear size thirteen shoes? And a half. Ten and a half? Yeah.

0:26 It's close to thirteen. Alright. What is this? Explain explain... Okay.

0:30 Talk loud enough. Tell everybody what that is. Beach ball. Okay. What do you...

0:35 What else do you see besides the fact that it's a beach ball? Explain it to them. Many colors. How many? Count it again.

0:48 Three, six. How many? Six. Alright, six. There's six different colors.

0:52 What are the colors? One. Wait a second. Do you know your colors? Yeah.

0:57 Okay, good. One, green, blue, red, white, yellow. Excellent, thank you so much. So yeah, so this is a beach ball. He named off every color that, there you go.

1:06 Yep, exactly. Congratulations. Alright. So Wayne, since you called on me, I'm gonna call on you. I want you and Debbie to stand up.

1:14 This is what you get. Alright. So just separate yourself a little bit. You come there. Alright.

1:23 So Debbie, want you to hold the ball, the beach ball like that. Alright? About eye height. Okay? Wayne, I want you to tell us what you see.

1:31 You can back up a little bit. I know how the... How it is when you're old. Focus. Tend to lose your focus a little bit.

1:37 Alright. What do you see? Just tell me the colors, the panels, the colors that you see. They're red and white mostly. Red and white.

1:43 Debbie, what do you see? Green and orange. Green and orange. Okay. What do you see?

1:48 Yellow and white. Art, what do you see? Green, blue, red, white. Okay. So based on where their perspective is, they see specific colors on this beach ball, right?

2:06 Right? Right. Okay. Thank you. But it's the same beach ball.

2:22 We saw where Debbie was standing. It was unique to her. Maybe somebody behind her could see something similar. Alright. But if she's too close, she...

2:31 Maybe she can only see the orange. Somebody behind her might be able to see the orange and the and the yellow. Alright. Are you with me so far? Every single one of us has a unique and distinct perspective.

2:46 Twins. See, you blew it because your brother's not here. Twins also, even though they're born at the same time, were raised together, have unique perspectives. Everybody's perspective is different. Alright.

3:06 So the message that I'm going to give you today, I've got my own perspective. You have your own perspective. I'm going to want some audience participation in what we're going to go through today because I wanna see your perspective. I wanna hear your perspective. I wanna identify your perspective.

3:25 Okay? You know why I didn't have George and Lisa do this? Because I know George well. I've seen George and Lisa working together in the kitchen at Camp Lai Lai. And that relationship George, George thinks he's always right.

3:52 The fact of the matter is when we're at, see we miss George. He hasn't been there the last couple of years. We miss George. But at camp, when we cook for how many people we cook for, George's perspective is always right. We always...

4:09 George knows the answer to this. We'll seek his perspective. So yeah. But when we're talking with our wives, mean that... I mean the the idea here too, right, when we're...

4:17 Those of us that are married, we're looking at the same beach ball, but our perspectives are different. Alright? Why why even... See so so Nancy's perspective... We didn't set this up but Nancy's perspective is her perspective is different.

4:35 We do miss Lisa. But I I felt that it was important... This ties in a little bit with the message. I felt it was important to point out my perspective of George. Nancy felt it was perspective, it was, she needed, she always points out her perspective.

4:59 But that's the point, right? We all have our own unique and our individual perspectives. We all look at life differently. We would get together, we would get along with each other so well if we understood that the other person had a different perspective. And right?

5:16 And if and if we're looking at this, if we're looking at this beach ball, right? So my perspective is red, white and yellow. Okay? But your... Everybody else's perspective is different.

5:28 So if I would realize that my perspective is my perspective, I'm going to be able to give grace. I'm not talking about grace and mercy today, but I'm able to give somebody else grace because it's a beach ball. We all see it from a different angle, right? So you know in our lives that would be awesome. But again that's not the point of the message today, but nevertheless that's where we're going to start.

6:23 Okay. As as an individual, the question is the question is this, right? We can take a look at this from from any perspective that we want to, but maybe... There. There we go.

6:41 Look at it from from a from this perspective. As an individual, am I committed to excellence? As an athlete, am I committed to excellence? As a part of the body of believers, I committed to excellence? As a servant of the Lord am I committed to excellence?

6:58 Right? We need to ask ourselves that question. Are we committed to excellence? Again we take a look we take a look at these professional athletes. LeBron James is committed to excellence, right?

7:10 He spends a million $1,000,000.5 every year on his body. All right. He's committed to excellence. He wants to be the best basketball player that he that he can be. Committed to excellence.

7:20 The question I have for you, are you committed to excellence? Are you committed to be the best, fill in the blank, that God calls you to be? Then we see... Then I... Then we have this one, purposeful practice.

7:31 This is something I've been doing a ton of research lately, and this is something that absolutely amazed me. So for those of you that were here to see Touche get up here and play the piano, we know John is a wonderful piano player, and I'll bring LeBron in too. LeBron is such a great basketball player. And we go, Isn't he gifted? Well yeah, a little bit of that is gift.

7:55 The rest of it is purposeful practice. You cannot be the musician that John is unless you put the time, effort, energy to it in a way that's going to make you better. Growing up I heard this on the field all the time. Practice makes perfect. Whoever said that has no idea what they're talking about.

8:15 Practice doesn't make perfect because if you practice doing the wrong thing, you're gonna continue doing the wrong thing. Talk about it in a marriage relationship, right? I could practice... I got to be careful with my my choice of words here. I can practice being Bob Markovich, but that's not going to make my marriage better.

8:32 Right? But if I purposefully practice to to make my marriage better, my marriage is going to get better. If I purposefully practice to be the best free throw shooter that I can be, I'm going to be the best free throw shooter. John, do you have any idea how many hours you spent practicing the piano? Any idea?

8:57 Ten thousand? Oh, do some math and get back to us. But it's not like you just sat down and played. You practiced, right? Fingerplays.

9:11 I have no idea how to play any musical instrument. I have no musical, you know that, I have no musical inclination whatsoever. I cannot carry a tune in a bucket, a note in a bucket, whatever they say. But but you you have to purposely practice how you put your hands in everything. Correct?

9:25 Am I right there in making that assumption? Right? So if you're lazy, is a lazy piano player going to be as good as a piano player as John is? Probably not. So so are we committed to excellence?

9:48 Who wants to... Before we do that, we're going to open up in a word of prayer though, before we do that. Lord, come before you. We ask you to take this time. We commit it to you, Lord.

9:55 We help you... We ask you to help us see this message through the lens that you've given us and to incorporate it to our life the way that you want to, and we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. So who's got it? First Corinthians ten thirty one.

10:14 Go ahead, David. Let me hear you. Good. Okay. It's not a quote.

10:33 So I made a commitment, and you guys could all hold me accountable. I made a commitment at the beginning of this year that I was going to live a Romans 12 life. I committed myself to excellence. That I was going to live a Romans twelve one life. Now, again, you know that I use the CSB version of the bible.

10:55 There's many reasons why I do. But this specific verse, I love how it puts it here. So I'm gonna read it from the from the the Christian Standard Bible. Romans 12 verse one. The Romans twelve one life is what I call it.

11:09 Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God. So we know that Romans one through 11 is is Paul talking about the good news. Right? Giving the message, the gospel message. The entire...

11:28 Paul should have been an attorney. Right? He used 11 verses to talk about salvation. And then after he's done talking about salvation and says, you need to be saved, the first thing he does is he starts Roman twelve one, and I've got issues with my phone. See Denzel, you did this to me brother.

11:50 I told you I wouldn't blame it on you, but apparently... Yeah, Okay. So... Yeah. Go ahead.

12:01 Read read... Somebody read Romans 12 verse one. Perfect. Which is your spiritual worship. My...

12:07 The CSB says, right here, I hang out with them and I hear different things. What is worship? What is worship? What is worship? I think I think that I think that Paul points out Romans twelve:one what true worship is.

12:20 Presenting our body as a holy and living sacrifice. Alright. What's the problem with the living sacrifice? It has... Who said that?

12:31 Denzel? Say it loud. Altar. It crawls off A living sacrifice crawls off the altar. See my mind is going faster than the words are coming out of my mouth.

12:49 But that's what we were asked to do. We're told to present ourselves as a holy and living sacrifice. Romans twelve one. That's the Romans twelve one life. Does anybody here know who C.

13:03 T. Studd is? Was because he's no longer living. CT Stud. Alright?

13:09 CT Stud, right, he's a missionary. We know about CT Stud. Alright? So let me quote CT Stud here, because we're going to talk about... This is the word that we're going to spend the entire time today on.

13:20 The word is sacrifice. Okay? And this is what CT Stud says. Listen to this. Right?

13:35 Talked about it in our relationships in the church. Talked about it in relationships with our partners in marriage, committing to excellence, purposeful practice. Let's talk about it in the form of sacrifice. Here's what C. T.

13:49 Studs said, If Jesus Christ is God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him. No sacrifice is too great for me to make for him. Alright. Commitment to excellence. Purposeful practice.

14:27 So we're going to walk through each of these each of these words. We're going to have verses for each of these words or each of these each of these letters. And again, if you have a better verse than you think the one is that I picked out, I I I'd love to hear it. Okay? Because it's your perspective.

14:43 I'm giving you my perspective. So when I sit down and I say that I want to live a Romans 12 life, these are the words and the verses that I'm concentrating on and I'm holding myself accountable for on a daily basis. Right? Before the sun goes comes up in the morning, I walk through this. Did I serve?

15:00 Right? So the first, the S stands for serve. The S in sacrifice stands for serve. Alright? Now, some time ago, I gave another acronym for serve.

15:14 An acronym for serve. Does anybody remember that one? You don't have to. But first before I do that, the the Bible verse. I've got a I've got a verse for Serve.

15:26 Matthew twenty twenty eight. Matthew twenty twenty eight. Just as the Son of Man did not come to serve, not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. So our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ did not come to be served, He came to serve. So the S in...

15:50 The S in sacrifice, I think stands for serving. Are we serving others? Alright. So what does... Again, I've got an acronym for S.

16:01 R. V. So here's what I came up with S. E. V.

16:03 The S is selfless. When we serve others, we're thinking of our self less. We're putting others before us. The E stands for energizing. Alright?

16:20 When we serve others it gives us energy. Right? You go to camp. Right? I use camp as an example because that's pretty much where I serve.

16:29 We use camp as an example. When you're in the kitchen and you're dead tired, you're actually energized because you see George out there doing the math, figuring out how many pounds of bacon we need to put in the hash to make sure that the hash is is right. Whatever. We're energized. We're out there working.

16:45 You you you're you're that that that oxygen, the deep breath that you take is getting you through. You're energized. When you're serving others you're energized. It's a relationship builder. The relationships that I built at camp are the best relationships that I have.

17:02 Alright. The Lord blessed Nancy and I to be able to serve with many of you in here. And how those relationships have grown is pretty amazing. Outside of the people here, there's other people at Team two that I served with that I have awesome relationships with. Right, the Palmers, for those of you that know the Palmers, just a just a great relationship.

17:21 And I know that Bob and Joanne, great relationship with the Palmers as well. Denzel, great relationship with the Palmers. Alright. You take a look at anybody here that's worked with the Palmers because they always get to clean the toilets and throw out the garbage and that stuff. If anybody worked with them, it's a great relationship that you that you have.

17:38 It's a relationship builder. Right? You're working with other people. Serving builds relationships. Right?

17:45 Serving builds, adds value. When you're serving somebody, first of all, you're showing them the value of the Lord Jesus Christ. Right? You are working for him. You are serving others.

17:58 They see they see their value. They see their value. When you're giving of your time, talent, and treasures to other people, they are seeing your value. They're see... They're seeing a value.

18:12 This person is willing to do this for me. It's unbelievable how that opens up people's eyes, if not our own eyes. When we're serving other people, we're giving other people value as well, and the e is eternal. So when we serve, we... The benefits that we get, even though we're energized, even though we build relationships, even though that we're we're showing value, we we...

18:38 It's eternal. And isn't that what we're looking for? Alright. When I finish up the word sacrifice, I'll talk about that a little bit. Because sacrifice is eternal as well.

18:51 So the S in sacrifice stands for serve. And again the verse that I had, just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. Anybody else have a verse that they think is appropriate or would like to share on that one? Okay. Feel free.

19:16 The next one is attitude. Right? The next one is attitude. Mr. Pyle at the first meeting this morning read these verses.

19:24 Philippians two:five-eleven. Attitude. Right? In art, I wish I wish I could have taped it and played it here. Because it was better than anything that I could say.

19:38 But let's let the word speak for itself right here. It says, adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus, who existing in the form of God did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited. Instead, He emptied Himself by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity, and when He had come as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason, God highly exalted him and gave him that name that is above every other name, so that the name of Jesus, every knee will bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. So sacrifice.

20:27 Do you have the right attitude? Do you have the right attitude in in in sacrificing? When we sacrifice, we need to have the right attitude. CT Stud. Alright?

20:39 This is a quote from Stephen Ross, who wrote one of the biographies of of CT Stud. Listen to this. CT's life stands as some rugged Gibraltar assigned to all succeeding generations that it is worthwhile to lose all this world can offer and stake everything on the world to come. His life will be an eternal rebuke to... Listen to this.

21:08 Listen to this. To easygoing Christianity. He has demonstrated what it means to follow Christ without counting the cost and without looking back. I'm going to read another... In in a second here, I'm going read another quote about C.

21:28 T. Stutt. But attitude. Do we have the right attitude? Again, this is...

21:34 Remember, perspective. Pretty... My perspective is I want to live this lifestyle. So I'm gonna be pretty loud and pretty animated. But the question is, what's your perspective?

21:47 What's your perspective? When it comes to sacrifice, what attitude do you think God is calling you to have? Attitude. Philippians two:five-eleven. Any anybody have a verse that came to mind?

22:05 Okay. Praise God. C, cost. Just think about it. Right?

22:15 What does it cost to live a Romans twelve one life? What does it cost to sacrifice? What does it cost to sacrifice? Versus Matthew sixteen twenty four through 26. Then Jesus said to his disciples, if anyone wants to follow me...

22:37 Okay. If anybody wants to follow me. So Romans twelve:one, we're supposed to follow him if you're saved. Let him deny himself. Ouch, that hurts, right?

22:50 Who wants to deny themselves? Who wants to deny themselves? Even on the easy things, right? Oh, I want that extra cup of coffee. I can't deny myself one cup of coffee.

23:00 If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whosoever loses his life because of me will find it. For what will it benefit someone if he gains the whole world yet loses his life Or what will anyone give in exchange for his life? What does it cost? What does it cost?

23:31 I mean, are we playing this life of Christianity or are we really trying to be committed to excellence? What does it cost us? What has it cost us? Okay. Again, perspective.

23:47 Perspective. Don't let me point I'm not trying to point the finger at anybody. Believe me, my point my finger is pointing directly at myself. This is a message that was given to me by the Lord to me. Alright.

24:00 I'm sharing it. Cost. Let's talk, let's let's take another look at CT Stud. Okay so listen to this. It was while in China, so CT Stud went to China as a missionary, he also went to India as a missionary.

24:22 His dad was... His dad gained a lot of wealth. So CT Stud... I should give a little bit of the backstory. CT Stud, is English, right?

24:34 Born in Britain. His dad made a fortune in India. All right. So CT Stud's dad made a fortune in India, moved back moved back to Britain, moved back to England, and and then he had a vast amount of wealth. So so what I've garnered from listening to CT Stud's life, it was eventually he wanted to go back to India, where his father made the wealth in order to spread the gospel there.

25:02 The reason that he went to China was he followed, okay, who was our, who? Say it again? Hudson Hudson Taylor, right. He was one of the seven that went with Hudson Taylor to China. Alright.

25:22 So while he was in China, CT reached the age of 25. Who's younger than 25? Raise your hand high. Who's younger than 25? Okay.

25:34 It was while in China as he reached the age of 25, so that means he was in China before he was 25, right? In which according to his father's will, he was to inherit a large sum of money. Okay? So think about it, you kids that are 25 and under, you're going to inherit a large sum of money. Alright?

25:54 Remember, we're talking about cost. What does it cost to live a sacrificial life? Through reading God's word in much prayer, CT felt led to give a few pennies to Christ. No. His entire fortune.

26:22 His entire fortune. Through reading God's word and much prayer, CT felt led, again, his perspective, he felt led to give his entire fortune to Christ. This was not a fool's plunge on his part. It was the public testimony before God and man that he believed God's word would be the surest thing on earth that the 100 fold interest which God has promised in this life, not to speak of the next, is an actual reality for those who believe it and act on it. Right?

26:58 That 100 fold, how it's coming back. Can you imagine, and and this was several several £100,000 at that time. Could you imagine the number of souls that were saved as a result of him giving that his fortune to the work of Christ. He could have come back and lived a comfortable life. He was financially set.

27:23 How many of us in this room are strive to be financially set? How many of us strive to be financially set? Believe me. Once you think you're financially set, 2008 happens and guess what? You're broke.

27:42 Alright? Financial sentenced doesn't happen. But CT was able was able to have the right attitude was able to have the right attitude and give that money away. So that's cost. That's what it cost.

27:56 What does it cost to live a sacrificial life? Reverence. R in sacrifice stands for reverence. Right? We we have a savior.

28:09 We have God the father. Do we revere them? Hebrews twelve twenty eight through 29. And again, I... If you have another verse that you think is better than one that I have, or or you like it better, or whatever, let me hear it.

28:23 Hebrews twelve twenty eight through 29. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, that's pretty awesome right there, receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful by it we may serve God acceptably with reverence and awe. But listen to the next, listen to verse 29. For God is a consuming fire. God is a consuming fire.

29:02 We have to have reverence to God. He is a consuming fire. When we sacrifice, we show reverence to God. When we sacrifice, we are revering God. When we sacrifice, we're kind of running away from that consuming fire thing a little bit too, aren't we?

29:26 I... Lord, I don't want you to consume me with fire. I always thought the worst... So you know we... Dave and I, if you can understand this.

29:34 The rest of you who knows. Maybe you guys don't think the same way we do. And honestly I don't think the same way that Dave does, I'm pretty close. But I think his mind is a little bit weirder than mine. You would agree, right Dave?

29:45 You say it all the time. What's that? See it isn't. Isn't that that scary? So I, you know, growing up growing up, it was always hard for me to fall asleep because my mind wanders.

29:58 And I mean it wanders. And so I'm thinking, would be the worst way to die? Why would somebody think of that? And I always thought drowning would be the worst way to die. But thanks to Bob Buttress, thanks to Bob Buttress, almost, I experienced drowning.

30:17 I didn't drown, but I got there pretty close. You know, it wasn't so bad. Right? As I'm underneath the water as it was rushing, what was it like 56 degrees the water was? Not to go white water rafting with Bob Buttress.

30:30 I learned my lesson. Alright? So, you know, I tell you what, it was like a, you know, it was like a... Here I am laying underwater. My left hand gets caught between two rocks.

30:41 Right? I'm looking up. I feel... The water is just rushing over me. It is cold.

30:46 Praise God it was cold because my wedding ring and my my finger was... The cold water caused my my finger to shrink enough to break loose of the wedding ring. Right? I called my wife. Good news, I'm not dead.

31:03 Bad news, I don't know where the wedding ring is. What was Nancy's perspective? You lost your wedding ring? And so so so I always thought drowning would be the horrible way to die. Now I kind of think being burnt alive would be the would be would be the...

31:26 I don't ever wanna... Yeah. Exactly. I don't ever wanna experience that. But But God is a consuming fire.

31:34 So you know what is it? Is it kind of cool to think that I can walk with Jesus, right? Yeah, I can. I can walk with God. But do I have that perspective that He is a consuming fire?

31:47 Right? Am I willing to sacrifice my life enough because I have enough reverence to God to sacrifice my life? Okay. Next one is intimacy. I is intimacy.

32:00 Philippians three:seven through eight. But everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ. More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in the view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of him, I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them as dung. Right?

32:25 I said once before what that word dung actually is in in Greek. My wife told me not to say it again, so I won't. And it says, so that I may gain Christ in intimacy. Everything give up so that I have an intimate relationship with Christ. You know, I'm I'm jealous of Jacob.

32:43 He wrestled with God. Can you imagine having a life so intimate with God that you wrestled with him? Shouldn't we want that? Shouldn't we want that? We want to have an intimate relationship.

32:56 I'm telling you, one way to get close to an intimate relationship with God is living a Romans twelve one life. Living a sacrificial life. Intimacy, intimacy with God. I've got... Again, told you I hang out with people, with with believers that are more conservative than us.

33:15 And you know, I've got a buddy that is so far far off the other side that I think Chris... Who's our bald headed friend? Schroeder. Chris Schroeder might even think he's crazy, right? Because he's you know he's so far extended on the charismatic side, but I love him.

33:32 And and I go to this I go to this prayer meeting, and what we do in this prayer meeting is we actually sit there silently. Have you ever sat silently in a prayer meeting? The women know what I'm talking about. That's a benefit that the women in this body has, that they could sit there silently and they can listen. What is God saying to me?

33:53 What is God saying to me? That's intimacy. When you can sit silently and find out what is God saying to me, Intimacy. Having a sacrificial life is is is intimacy. Fear.

34:06 Right? Fear. That is fear. Exodus thirty three twelve through 16. Okay.

34:14 Moses said to the Lord, look, you have told me, lead this people, but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. We we read this whole this whole chapter. How fearful was Moses to go out and do the work of God? He was fearful. Sacrifice...

34:37 Fear comes with sacrifice. You have told me to lead these people up, but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You said, I know you by name and you have also have found favor with me. Now I have indeed found favor with you. Please teach me your ways, and I will know you so that I may find favor with you.

35:03 Now consider this. Now consider that this nation is your people. And he replied, my presence will go with you, and I will give you rest. So God, my presence will go with you, I'll give you rest. If you're present...

35:16 Now listen to Moses. Alright? And I'm not I'm not being critical of Moses here, by the way, because certainly, I can't be. If your presence does not go, Moses responded to him, don't make us go up from here. Fear.

35:33 The fear is here. How will it how will it be known that I and your people have found favor with you unless you go with us? And your people will be distinguished by this form and all other people on the face of the earth. So Moses was fearful. Moses had a job to do.

35:51 He had a calling. Alright? He had a calling. He knew what his purpose was. Wouldn't it be great if God said, this is what your purpose is?

36:00 Wouldn't that be great? Not so sure it would. Because then you say, well, who's going with me? But we have to uncover what our purpose is in life through the leading of God. And we have to go out and do that work.

36:17 Is there going to be fear? Yeah. There's going to be fear. But the awesome thing is, is God is right there with us if we're doing what God called us to do. Right?

36:28 Being purposeful. Being purposeful. Committed to excellence. Okay. Sacrifice.

36:34 Inspirational. John twelve twenty six. If anyone serves me, he must follow me. Where I am, there my servant will also be. If anyone serves me, the father will honor him.

36:47 So two things here with ins... Isn't it in... Inspirational to know that if we serve Him, we're called to be a holy and living sacrifice, if we serve Him, the Father will honor us. If anyone serves me, the father will honor him. We should be inspired by that.

37:07 Right? Who cares about the cost? Who cares about the fear? Who cares about what other people say? Who cares what our parents said that we should be when we grow up?

37:17 Let's be inspired by what God calls us to do. And how is it... Wait. So so CT Stud, I've used him as an example. He sacrificed quite a bit to be to be the mission that he was, to serve the Lord.

37:30 But isn't it inspirational to watch these people who sacrifice everything to serve the Lord, and we sit back and go, man, that's kind of cool. Good for him. Right? We sit back down and put on so we can watch another episode. Right?

37:42 That's an inside joke because I watch psych every night, an episode of it. So... Right? So being sacrificial is an inspiration. It's inspiration to others.

37:56 Imagine dads and moms, if you show your kids a sacrificial life, how you can inspire them to live a sacrificial life. Alright. So Andy and I, you know, we get together every Thursday and we Apparently, not going to be able to do it the next two weeks, so I'll have to do it myself. And we go in the pond every morning. There's a reason why we do it, Thursday morning.

38:17 But we talk about life, and we talk about the Lord, we talk about health. And you know what? I want to live as long as I can. I've made a decision that I'm gonna get healthy, healthy, healthy, so that I can live a life as long as I can, so that I can help inspire these younger kids and lead them to be who God has called them to lead. Right?

38:50 How awesome is that? Okay. Inspire. We got two left here. C.

39:10 Alright. Continuous conversion. Sanctification. It's just sanctification, it's just a different way to say it. Sacrifice is continuous conversion.

39:20 Romans six nineteen. And this this verse, I think, does a great job of pointing it out. I am using a human analogy. I love that. I love that Paul's using a human analogy.

39:29 We try... That's the way that we learn. Right? I use human analogies all the time. Because of the weakness of your flesh, for just as you offered parts of yourselves as slaves to impurity and to greater and greater lawlessness, so now offer them as slaves to righteousness which results in sanctification.

39:47 So he using the word sanctification. Think of that. Alright. So a year ago today, I didn't ask to speak today. A year ago today I made a decision that I was going to change my life from a health standpoint.

40:00 I lost 50 pounds from 01/19/2019 to 07/04/2019. I've gained a few back because of the holidays, but I'm focused on losing that. Okay. It took me decades to get up to two fifty pounds. It wasn't easy.

40:20 It's hard work. All right? To get up to two hundred fifty pounds. So why would I expect to get down to two hundred pounds the next day? It was hard work.

40:32 It's the same thing here through continuous conversion. Right? We we start with this little grain, this bad sinful thought desire in our mind and before we know it, we're running away from our family, we're spending every penny that we have and we're leaving a life of drunken debauchery. That's what happens to people. But it started with a little seed and then your life's ruined.

40:56 Right? The highest the highest suicide rate are guys my age. Because they look behind them when they get to be my age and they say, where's my family? And they realized how they ruined their family. Now let's reverse that.

41:11 Right? And start with that little seed, Romans twelve one life. What does that look like today? Then build on it for tomorrow. Then build on it for the next day.

41:20 Then build on it for the next day. It's not going change overnight. You're not going to become that holy and living sacrifice over life overnight. It's going to take time. But it's got a to commitment to excellence.

41:32 It's got to be a focus that this is what I'm going to do. Continuous conversation. I do have a tribe of mentors, I call them. And I ran this by one of my tribe of mentors and he was okay with it. So I decided I would go ahead and use it to continuous conversion.

42:06 Matthew six nineteen through 21. Do not store up yourself treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves don't break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. So by doing this, by sacrificing, by living living a life... A sacrificial life, a Romans twelve one life, we're storing up treasures in heaven.

42:41 So the question is, where do you want your treasure stored? Do you want them on earth or in heaven? Now the interesting thing is, right after Paul goes through this, and I think it's in verse six, he starts listing some spiritual gifts. Okay? He starts listing some spiritual gifts.

42:59 Now let me take a second. If you don't know what your spiritual gift is, you need to figure it out. It's not a secret. If you don't know what your purpose in life is, you need to figure it out. It's not a secret.

43:11 Right? Christ on the cross said it is finished. He knew what his purpose in life was. He completed the task. God has a purpose for every single person in here.

43:20 You need to have an intimate enough relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ and the heavenly father and have enough reverence because he is a consuming fire to find out what your purpose is, what your spiritual gift is. Back to the sports analogy. In basketball, what do shooters do? Shoot. Shooters shoot.

43:41 Using that analogy, using some handful of the spiritual gifts. What should teachers do? Teach. Teach. What should leaders do?

43:49 Lead. What should givers do? Give. Give. So we need to practice what those spiritual gifts are.

43:57 We need to identify what our spiritual gift is and we need to sacrifice ourselves to use those spiritual gifts to the glory of god. That's one reason why we're here. Right? Are we doing that? Are we doing that?

44:17 Or are we just hitting, I'll watch one more episode of psych. I mean what are we doing? Right? I'm pointing the finger at myself. Again it's perspective.

44:25 Right? You guys know me, I'm all or none, right? Lose 50 pounds in what five months, six months? I starve myself. And I and I still do.

44:34 I still don't eat before five or 06:00. All right? But are you willing to do what it takes to worship God? That's a question. Are you willing to do what it takes to worship God?

44:57 Are you willing to do what it takes to worship god? Because our bodies, a living sacrament... A living sacrifice is true worship. That is worship. Right?

45:13 That is true worship. Let's pray. Lord, we come before you and we thank you that you love us. We thank you that you have grace. We thank you that you have mercy.

45:23 We thank you that you are an all consuming fire, but you've chosen not to consume us. Lord. So we just ask that you bless us to help us focus on what that is in our life that we need to move to as far as a as a gift, and and take this gift that you've given each of us, at least one spiritual gift, Lord, and make it better for your glory. And Lord, to come and find out what are... What is the purpose that you would have me do in my life, Lord, and do it for your glory.

45:51 We just ask you to focus... Help you to help us... We ask you to help us to focus on these so that we can live a life of sacrifice, which is true worship to you. What you've done for us, what you've done for us, we can't repay. But like CT Stud said, if you did that for us, the least I can do is give everything to you.

46:21 Let's pray in Jesus name. Amen.