• (Thanks for coming)

My name is steve doucette. I have been at Cornerstone for about 12 years. I have been on the elder board for that past eight of those years and have been on staff as a full time pastor for the past 3 years. I have not always been a believer, In fact I was raised in a non-Christian home with no religious background at all.

What to expect from this weekend

• Its not about me the speaker
• Its not about the event - although getting away can refresh
• Jesus did get away to pray
• Daniel did pray at his patio door
• It is to help you focus on your devotion to God

Lets begin by adoring who God is

 All nations whom You have made shall come and worship before You, O Lord, And they shall glorify Your name. For You are great and do wondrous deeds; You alone care God. Ps 86:9-10*

• All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, And all the families of the nations will worship before You. Ps 22:27
• “All the earth will worship You, And will bsing praises to You; They will sing praises to Your name.” Ps 66:4
• “And it shall be from new moon to new moon And from sabbath to sabbath, All mankind will come to bbow down before Me,” says the Lord. Is 66:23
• “Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy; For ball the nations will come and worship before You, For Your 1crighteous acts have been revealed.” Re 15:4

Introduction

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. Romans 12:1

Introduction

The Apostle Paul wrote the book of Romans Our passage begind with a "therefore". whenever there is a therefore you need to find out what its therefore. (hermanuetic principle) This therefore points us back to what Paul was talking earlier in the book of Romans. Turn with me back to Romans 11:33 this portion of scripture was just talking about God's mercy to His people. another words what God has done for us.

The passage that we will focus on is What now we are called to do for Him.

You are to give God your body (v1 Tells us what to do)

• I urge you, bretheren, by the mercies of God Paul is saying now that you know what God has done for you This is what you need to do foe him now!
• Why don't we as Christians feel the need of urgancy? How is it that we can go through life so laxi daisy? How can we know that someone, maybe a relative is destine for hell and yet not feel the need for urgancy. Why does procrastination find its way into so many areas of our lives? I will say that the things that are most important to us are the things that we will procrastinate the least on. so then that begs the question how real is our faith?
• The word urge carries with it a weight of something that needs to be done now
• To present your bodies
• This text is not saying that someone will do this for you, what it is saying is that the ownership is on you. I hear from so many people that they feel distant form God, and my first question is are you spending time with Him? red story
• the word present here means a "once and for all"
• Therefore do not let sin areign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on apresenting 1the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. Rom 6:12-13
• a living and holy sacrifice
• Contrast to the OT sacrifice, animals were brought, and the sacrifice was that they were killed.
• Living meaning ongoing - this is not a one time act
• Holy meaning set apart - do you believe that you are set apart - that God has a purpose for your life?
• the closes we get to a living sacrifice in the OT is Issac, but there again he was presented by his father
• Jesus is a living sacrifice
• acceptable to God
• a sacrifice that is pleasing to God is without blemish, your best before we were saved we lived by our own selfish desires read Eph. 2:1-10
• Did you let go of everything? Was there anything that you hung onto?
• Talk about Doug carring the bible in his back pocket in hard times.
• talk about religion, rules, check lists, non-personalizing
• talk about compartmentalizing a relationship with God
• which is your spiritual act of worship
• As a christian you are an ambasador of Christ. You offering yoursel, your entire self, is an act of worship. In the OT we had Priest that were the inbetweens for God, Christ came and broke down that wall giving us access. Do you ever think about the resposibility that comes with being a Christian. Our lives have to represent worship.       : reverence offered a divine being or supernatural power also : an act of expressing such reverence act active