Text:  Romans 12:1

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship

The NFL Football season is starting this week.  It made me think of the run up to the Super bowl last year.  I suppose you are tired of me talking about my NY Giants, but please allow me one more memory.  In that run-up of play off games, the Giants had a saying:  All in. As individual players, as a team, they were totally committed- All in.

In Petaluma, we are celebrating a fine group of young boys who won the hearts of so many these past few weeks.  There’s a parade for them today. The Little Leaguers who won their way to Williamsport, PA to take on the best teams in our country.  They too were all in.  But not just for a few weeks or months of games.  To play at their level, they had to devote years to practice.  They and their parents sacrificed all kinds of time they could have spent at home or with their friends.  Those boys and their families were all in for Little League baseball.

But today we’re not here to promote sports.  I want to talk about what it means to follow Jesus.  When I listen to Jesus describe it, I’d say pretty much the same.  You see, you can’t follow Jesus with one foot following him and the other foot following the world Jesus said.  We try sometimes don’t we. How’s that work?  To follow Jesus means that we are all in.

Yet no matter how devoted we are to Him, it does not come close to our Lord’s committed love for each of us.  That’s so clear when we stand before the manger bed of God’s own Son,.  when we stand before His cross.  It’s so clear.   By His living for us, by his bleeding and dying for us we see the Lord Jesus was and is all in for us.  All in that you might be God’s own.

That’s where the apostle Paul is taking us this morning.  Every religion requires that kind of worship and devotion to it’s so-called god.  But the Christian faith is unique in this important way.  Yes the Lord calls for our devotion, but first God inspires it by his love in Christ. So we say:

“All In” for the Lord!
I.  It’s about His mercies
II.  It’s the worship that fits.

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy…In view of God’s mercy.  You read that phrase all by itself and we hardly stop to think.  But Paul did not mean for us to read it by itself.  Eleven chapters come before it.  Eleven chapters that hold up before us the awesome mercies of God in Jesus Christ.  That’s where Paul has us look first.  God’s mercy.

It’s a mercy we desperately need.  I read the first two chapters of Paul’s epistle and see something in myself that I have in common with every one of you. I guess I would explain it this way.  Too often,  In my life,  where there should have been compassion there has been none.  Where there should have been patience, there has been impatience.  Where there should have been hard work there has been laziness.  Where there should have been loving concern there has been selfishness.

I need God’s mercy and so do you.  For what do we deserve?  Not a pat on the back but the back of God’s hand.  Not an invitation to the party but a door shut in my face.

But then I read on in Romans.  There I begin to see a beautiful picture come into view.  Chapter after chapter brings one brushstroke after another of God’s mercy.  I learn of an amazing and wonderful plan.  What we lack, what we so desperately need, God provided in his Son Jesus Christ..  ²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴ and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.  Think about it.  God looks at us just as if we’ve never sinned because Jesus has suffered and died to set us free.

What does that mean?  In chapter 5, we’re told this.  Through faith in Jesus and what he has done, we have peace with the most important person in the universe.  That means we can say to our fearful, worried or broken heart.  All is well. And we can know then when this short life comes to an end, we have a hope that will not disappoint us because of God’s mercy.  Mercy poured in Jesus Christ who has set us free.

And Jesus has set us free from more than our guilt and fear of death.  He has set us free from sin’s power to rule our hearts. We are no longer powerless victims of temptation.  We can push back against the lust, the greed, the anger and jealousy and live for God.

Yet Paul still saw in his life, the things we see in ourselves. In chapter 7, we remember his words as our own  For what I do is not the good I want to do…(19a)  We all live with that frustration. because we have this frustration.  We have this sinful nature which drags us down. So it would be easy for our hearts to condemn us and Satan to accuse us.  But once more God’s mercy comes to the rescue.  Thanks be to God-through Christ Jesus our Lord.

And that mercy does not fail us even when times are tough.  When we hear the word cancer, when we lose our job and can’t seem to find another, it might seem that God has turned away from us.  It might seem that he has taken away his love.  But what does he promise?  Somehow, some way, he will make all things work for our good.  Even the things that hurt.  And when it comes to his love, he promises this. There is nothing in all creation that can pry us loose from his love that is ours in Christ.

So think of the first word of our text.  Therefore. That’s a very big therefore isn’t it?   With that word Paul wraps his arms around all this mercy of God and holds it before us.   All in –for the Lord. Yes, It’s  about God’s mercy — for you.  Then he reminds us:  ‘All in’—It’s the worship that fits.

Mention worship and what comes to mind?  A building, a hymnal, maybe a choir.  a congregation who have come together to sing God’s praise and hear his Word.  That’s worship, isn’t it?  But the apostle Paul makes it clear.  God’s mercy is worthy of far more than an hour on Sunday. His mercy calls us to offer far more than some dollars in the plate.  He says offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God,  this is your spiritual act of worship.

What is he calling on us to do?  Usually when we hear the word sacrifice in the Bible, we’re thinking of an animal like a lamb that dies in the process.  But this sacrifice is not about dying.  It’s about living.  It’s about devoting our lives to our Lord who has loved us and laid down his life us.  All in — for the Lord. It is the worship that fits.

What does that worship look like?  We know what it looks like in here?  But what does it look like out there?  It’s going to be different for each of us. God’s Word says:  …Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. (1Cor 10:31) Whatever YOU do… So if you’re in school, it means you study hard and make good friends that won’t drag you down. On the job, it means you are a faithful employee who puts in a good day’s work. For God blesses you and others through your work.            If you are a mother or father, it means you love your children, and bring them up in the Lord.  Today we heard Paul us what it means if you are a husband.  It means you love your wife as your own body.  And If you are a wife, it means you support your husband as the head of the house.

And all of us are neighbors.  We are neighbors to the people around us.  We are neighbors who are to be salt and light in this dark world.  That’s the worship that fits. All in– for the Lord.

Right now, this is the worship that fits for me. This is one way I can offer my body as a living sacrifice.  By donating a kidney to someone in desperate need.  Paul wrote to the Galatians.  therefore as we have opportunity let us do good to all people…  The Lord has given me this opportunity that not everyone has.  For not everyone is healthy enough to take a kidney out of his body and give it to someone else. This is my offering, my worship.

And to some it might seem like a big thing.  But no, that’s not how I see it.  When I stand before my Savior’s cross, that’s the big thing!  What he has done for me!  No, what I am doing is very small.  A small way of saying thank you, Jesus.  For what we do for others, we do for him.

So ‘all in’ –the NY Giants said last year.  All in those Little Leaguers were who went so far.  That’s what Paul calls for us to give.  All in,– our hearts, our minds, our very lives.  It sounds like a lot.  But it really isn’t when we know the mercies of our God.  Amen.