Welcome to a new edition of the Weekend Sermon. I am grateful to the Lord for the opportunity that He has given me to post the blog this week. I hope that everyone is having a good day.
I want to thank the Lord for keeping things safe from the storms this week. Thank you for your prayers regarding this matter.
This was a good week in writing, and I thank the Lord for that. I had two job interviews this week. I am supposed to go for a second interview on one job, and I will find out about the other next week. Please pray that one of these jobs will come back with a positive result.
Please continue to pray that the fires in the western part of the United States will be extinguished. Pray for those who are working to put the fires out.
Continue to pray for peace in the trouble areas of this world. Please remember to pray for Syria, Afghanistan, Yemen and South Sudan.
For our prayer focus countries this week, let us pray for the nations of Bosnia and Mongolia. Pray that many will hear about the love of Jesus.
Over the course of the summer, we were engaged in a series of messages about Jesus. We were studying who Jesus is and His life and ministry. I had a lot of fun posting those messages, and I hope that you enjoyed reading them.
Starting this week, we will be beginning a new series of messages based on the last few chapters of the book of Romans. Lord willing, we will be studying most of Romans 12-16 to see what the Lord would have us to learn from these important chapters.
For today's message, I want us to concentrate our attention on just one verse and that is Romans 12:1. The verse states, "Therefore, I urge you brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God -- this is your true and proper worship."
The apostle Paul who is the author of the book of Romans, begins this chapter by urging us to reflect on God's mercy. I believe that all of us need to reflect on the great mercy that has been shown to us by the Lord.
The Bible is quite clear that everyone who has ever lived except for Jesus has committed sins. There is no one who is righteous. Because we have sinned and fallen short of the standard that God has established, we deserve to suffer the consequences of sin which is death and eternal separation from God.
In spite of the fact that we have turned from the Lord and gone our own way, the Lord has demonstrated His love and mercy to us. The Lord Jesus came and took upon Himself the form of a servant. He suffered and died on the cross. He took upon Himself the punishment for sins that we deserved. Jesus bore our sins in His body on the cross. Jesus then rose from the dead in order to overcome the results of sin. Jesus defeated death and the grave by His glorious resurrection.
Because of His mercy and love for us, Jesus offers us His forgiveness. He asks us to turn away from sin and accept Him as Savior and Lord. He offers us His marvelous light in place of our darkness. He offers us the opportunity to have new life in and through Him.
Many who are reading this sermon have come to know Jesus as Savior and Lord. You have turned from sin to the Savior. Now, we all have to ask ourselves as we ponder the mercy of the Lord, what is to be our response to the Lord's love and mercy.
Paul tells us that we are to offer our entire selves in a manner that is holy and pleasing to the Lord. We are to offer all of our live to the Lord.
Offering ourselves to the Lord means that we are willing to let the Lord lead us where He wants us to go. It means that we are willing to serve Him and do those things that He has called us to do.
When we offer ourselves to the Lord, it means that we are willing to live in a way that is pleasing to Him. We are willing to set aside the sins which can so easily beset us and live in accordance with the teachings and the commandments of the Lord Jesus.
Jesus has done so much for us, we need to be willing to give Him our all. Whatever form of service the Lord calls us to, we must say yes Lord. This is what is pleasing to the Lord. This is our reasonable service to the one who has done so much for us.
If you have never placed your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, I pray that you will do so today. If you have never placed all of your life in the service of the Lord, I pray that you will give all of yourself to the service of Jesus.
Next week, we will continue with our Romans series. I will be posting the verses on Tuesday this week as the library is closed on Monday for the Labor Day holiday. I will post the next chapter of the book about my friend Toby on Wednesday. May God bless you all. Amen.
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