Sunday message · RENEW series
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Message Summary
In the second message of the Renew series, Pastor Phillip Santillan continues in Romans 12, where Paul urges believers, in view of God’s mercies, to present their bodies as a living sacrifice and be transformed by the renewing of their minds (Romans 12:1–2). Last week Phil promised to discuss the two most powerful tools he has seen God use for lasting spiritual transformation. Offering ourselves as a sacrifice means intentionally offering all we are to God, and Paul explains it in the verses that follow.
In Romans 12:3–8, Paul tells believers not to think of themselves more highly than they should, reminds them that they are many members of one body, and lists gifts from serving and teaching to giving, leading and showing mercy. Phil warns that a person can call themselves a Christian and never grow spiritually. The writer of Hebrews rebukes believers who should have been teachers by now but still needed milk instead of solid food (Hebrews 5:11–14). Spiritual maturity is not automatic.
In a video, a kids’ ministry volunteer says serving alongside others is how a church becomes family, and that she serves from joy and gratitude, not duty, because the debt is already paid. Phil recalls Clarity’s first Sunday in September 2013, when 20 or 30 people helped set up and serving felt like an honor, because God was building his church. Most people are at Clarity today because someone set up, made coffee or said hello. Fourteen months earlier, Phil challenged the church to move from consuming to contributing, and he thanks all who signed up, showed up and stayed committed.
One of the greatest tools God uses to renew and transform us, Phil says, is serving one another, and God is not done yet. J. I. Packer observes that pleasure and happiness come as byproducts of focusing on something else, and that happiness grows best in the soil of service. So Phil asks everyone to take a next step in intentionally sacrificing their time to serve, not only for their own growth but so the whole church matures. Worship and children’s ministry both depend on committed volunteers.
Sign-up posters in the lobby list roles in production, kids and hospitality, and current volunteers are asked to recommit. If you call Clarity your church, Phil says, God is leading you; the question is whether you will respond. The nursery and elementary classes especially need more adults; no teaching gift is required, only a love for children and the gospel.
Phil admits he is not asking for something convenient or easy. Life is difficult, and lasting meaning comes not from pursuing happiness but from taking on responsibility, which believers call obedience. Jesus told his followers that the harvest is great but the workers few, to pray for more workers, and then to go (Luke 10:2–3). As the worship team leads, Phil invites everyone to respond from the heart rather than guilt by asking God what he wants from them, noting that God never asks people to pray for workers without also calling them to go.
Questions about being a living sacrifice
In Romans 12:1 Paul urges believers, on account of God’s mercy, to offer their bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, as their spiritual service of worship. Pastor Phil explains that this means intentionally offering all we are to God, in response to the mercy He has already shown. He calls it one of the main ways God transforms us.
One practical way, Pastor Phil says, is serving one another. Paul follows the call to be a living sacrifice with a picture of many members in one body, each using gifts like serving, teaching, giving, leading and showing mercy (Romans 12:3–8). Phil calls serving one of the greatest tools God uses to renew and transform us, and invites everyone to give time to serve so the whole church matures.
Hebrews rebukes believers who by this time ought to be teachers but still need milk instead of solid food (Hebrews 5:12). Pastor Phil uses it to show that spiritual maturity is not automatic: a person can call themselves a Christian and never grow. Solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained their senses to distinguish good from evil (Hebrews 5:14).
Pastor Phil quotes J. I. Packer, who observed that pleasure and happiness come as byproducts of focusing on something else, and that happiness grows best in the soil of service. Lasting meaning, Phil says, comes not from pursuing happiness but from taking on responsibility, which believers call obedience. Jesus told His followers to pray for workers for the harvest, and then to go (Luke 10:2–3).