I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

Therefore I urge you, brothers, on account of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service of worship (BSB).

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 (NIV).

Many people in life don’t mind having Jesus in passenger seat. they don’t mind having Him as a passenger in the car if something goes wrong; in case they have health or money problem or relationship problem, they can always ask Him for help. The challenge is when they have to surrender their lives to Him. The challenge is when Jesus has to drive, He is in control. He has to dictate to us our lives and our relationships and our feelings. When He is in charge and we surrender to Him everything changes.

This is an idea we find in Romans chapter twelve verse one. It is an idea of surrendering. That we are to live a surrendered life.

A surrendered life is motivated by God’s mercies. Paul declared this way, “in view of God’s mercy” or “on account of God’s mercy.” People in life are motivated by so many things. Some are motivated by relationships, others by fame, prestige or pleasing people. We are motivated by so many things like power, or the pride of life. I know a lady whose life is motivated by money. She dreams about it. She plans. Her goal is to make as much money as she can desire in life. But yet this scripture conveys to us that if we want to live a life God intended for us then we must be motivated by God’s mercies. This is the greatest pursuit we can have in our lives.

Notice the text, “Therefore”. When we see the, therefore, we have to ask ourselves, what is the therefore? It is in the previous eleven chapters revealed what God has done for us and now it is transition to what God expects from us. He urges us how we are to respond and how we are to live our lives. He pleaded with us how to live in view of God’s mercies. Let’s run through a list of God’s mercies shown us in previous chapters:

Chapter one, His love towards us.
Chapter two, His great kindness towards us.
Chapter three, we are not guilty by faith.
Chapter three, His grace is great towards us.
Chapter three, He has redeemed us.
Chapter four, He made atonement for us.
Chapter five, He gave us peace with God.
Chapter five, He has reconciled us back to Him.
Chapter five, He has given us eternal life.
Chapter six, He moved us from death to life.
Chapter seven, He has given us victory over sin.
Chapter eight, He has given us the Holy Spirit living in us.
Chapter eight, There is no condemnation for us.
Chapter eight, The Holy Spirit intercedes for us.
Chapter eight, We have been adopted as His children.
Chapter eight, We have been conformed to the image of His Son.
Chapter nine through eleven, we have been sovereignly chosen by God.

Over and over again the mercies of God has been surfaced by all what Jesus has done for us. And when the writer gets to this point, he declared, “in view of God’s mercy.” In view of all that He has done for us through Jesus, I beg you please, “present your bodies a living sacrifice.”

You and I need a mental picture every day of what God has done on our behalf and let that be our motivation.

So what does that look like? It means, we are to consider the mercies of God. We are to take a few moment each day to think about the mercies of God at work in your lives. Make a daily habit to just pause and consider, how much it means to me personally. In the midst of anything you are doing, may God give you a couple of moment to consider everything He has done on our behalf.

And not just consider but also we are to cherish the moments in our lives. It is easy to be so consumed by the work that we doing and forget who we are working for. We forget the significance it took place for us to be here.

Not only that but we are to also carry out the mercies of God. We get to live out that has been accomplished for us. You and I can never repay God for that He has done for us. The scale is high. We will never know how much it cost. We can never repay. We can only represent Him.

We carry the mercies of God by forgiving because we have been forgiven. We carry the mercies of God by loving because we have been loved, by caring because He cares for us. His service makes us serve. The mercies of God motivates us.

A surrendered life models sacrificial living. “that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.”

Back in the OT, a priest would place an offering on an altar. He would “carry” it, that means, to surrender. Here the writer pulled the sacrificial language in the Old Testament and applies to the Romans Christians. When people of God sinned were required to bring an offering. A substitute to be able to atone for the sins they committed.

Now Christ has come. We no longer need animal sacrifices. That means we are the best offering we can possibly bring. Bring your bodies. Bring all of you to be sacrificed.

God wants whole of us. Surrender your entire life, yield and give unrestricted access. Give God every aspect of your life. Offer everthing to Him. He wants our whole being and lives so that we can become instruments of righteousness for God.

Surrender your emotional life, sex life, relationship life, marriage life, single life, work life, financial life, thought life, parenting life—surrender it all to Him, a living sacrifice. He doesn’t want a portion. He doesn’t want left overs. He wants the best you can give. Surrender all your plans: family plans, school plans, future plans. We are to surrender our plans, our priority and everything.

Ask God to give you a perspective on how to honor Him with your time, you energy and your priorities. It is easy to get out of wack. We are to ask Him for help that we live a life that will bring Him glory. This is your spiritual worship. It is our way of honoring God.

We have mistakenly began to believe for too often that worship is about what happens on Sunday morning. This verse reveals to us, worship is who we are. Worship is not so much you gaining more of God but God gaining more of you. This is the picture he represent this offering is not designed for the temple courts, it is designed for our home life and work life and family life and financial life. It is your everyday ordinary life placed before God an offering.

Worship is a lifestyle. It is in our private life as well our corporate implications. There are no substitute. This is who we are every single day and in everything. It is who we are when no one is looking. It is who we are with our family and friends. It is giving God our undivided attention. Even when you are not in a gathering with other believers, worship can still take place. God can meet you in your bedroom, at a park, at a grocery store, at work and so forth.

The God we serve, worship is not defined by a place (John 4: 23) but it is defined by our surrendered heart. You can be at an assembly in person but you can still be disconnected. “If you do not worship God seven days a week you do not worship God one day a week” A.W. Tozer. A surrendered life is who we are every day of our lives.

When we give our lives to God, He gives it back much more better. He will do something with it in a way only God can do. Much more better, much more meaningful that we can never dream. Surrender your life, your kids, your goals, your city, your home, your leaders. Surrender them all.

Prayer
Lord, I come today and I thank You for Your word because in view of Your mercies, on account of what You have done for me, in view of the work You have committed on my behalf, I can now surrender all things to You. I surrender to You Lord because I know You can do much more than I can. I surrender to You because that is an acknowledgement of who You are and an act of trust, obedience as well it is an act that honors You. I surrender my own heart to You. I ask Lord that You make me more like You. I ask that You make my heart, mind and thoughts flow from Your mind, Your thoughts and Your actions. May Your holy scriptures be student of me and help me live them out more boldly everyday. I am committing my life to You in the name of Jesus. Amen.