Transformed | A Life on the Altar

Welcome to Reach KC, everybody, it's so great to have you with us, I just want to invite y'all to stand up and join in. I know who I am, cause I know who you are, the cross of salvation was only the start. Now I am chosen, free at the beginning. I have a future, and it's worth living. I was made for more, so why would I make a bed in my shame when a fountain of grace was running my way? I know I am used, and I was made for more. I know who I am, cause I know who you are, the cross of salvation was only the start. Now I am chosen, free at the beginning. I have a future, and it's worth living. I was made for more, so why would I make a bed in my shame when a fountain of grace was running my way? I know who I am, cause I know who you are, the cross of salvation was only the start. I know who I am, cause I know who you are, the cross of salvation was only the start. I know who I am, cause I know who you are, the cross of salvation was only the start. I know who I am, cause I know who you are, the cross of salvation was only the start. I know who I am, cause I know who you are, the cross of salvation was only the start. I'm not going back. Hallelujah. You called out my name, so I reached out your grace. Hallelujah. You buried my past. I'm not going back. I was invaded, beaten, and aggrieved. I was called by name. Born and raised back to life again. I was made for more.

So why would I make a bed in my shame when a fountain of grace is running my way? I know I am yours, and I was made for more. I was invaded, beaten, and aggrieved. I was called by name. Born and raised back to life again. I was made for more. So why would I make a bed in my shame when a fountain of grace is running my way? I know I am yours, and I was made for more. applause & cheers playing in bright rhythm playing in bright rhythm Is it a choice? Jesus is mine. He's my fourth man in the fire. Time after time. Born of His Spirit. Washed in His blood. And what He did for me on Calvary is more than you know. I trust in God. My Savior's the one who will never fail. He will never fail. Perfect's our mission.

All is at rest. I know the author of my story. Lord of my faith. So this is my story. And this is my song. I'm praising my risen King and Savior all the day long. I trust in God. My Savior's the one who will never fail. He will never fail. I trust in God. My Savior's the one who will never fail. He will never fail. I trust in God. My Savior's the one who will never fail. I trust in God. My Savior's the one who will never fail. I trust in God. I trust in God. I trust in God. I trust in God. I trust in God all the day long.

I thought you Lord, and you heard, and you answered That's why I trust Him, that's why I trust Him I trust in God, my Savior, the one who will never fail He will never fail, I trust in God, my Savior, the one who will never fail He will never fail I thought you Lord, and you heard, and you answered That's why I trust Him, that's why I trust Him I thought you Lord, and you heard, and you answered That's why I trust Him, that's why I trust Him I thought you Lord, and you heard, and you answered That's why I trust Him, that's why I trust Him I trust in God, my Savior, the one who will never fail He will never fail I trust in God, my Savior, the one who will never fail He will never fail All the saints, all the angels, who bow before the Lord All the elders pass their crowns before the Lamb of God and say You are worthy of it all, You are worthy of it all For from You are all things, to You are all things, You deserve the glory All the saints, all the angels, who bow before the Lord All the elders pass their crowns before the Lamb of God and say You are worthy of it all, You are worthy of it all For from You are all things, to You are all things, You deserve the glory You are worthy of it all, You are worthy of it all Oh, from you are all free, to you are all free, you and to you are all free. You and to you are all free, you and to you are all free, you and to you are all free. Day and night, night and day, the ancients all rise. Day and night, night and day, the ancients arise. Day and night, night and day, the ancients arise. Day and night, night and day, the ancients arise. You are worthy of it all. You are worthy of it all. For from You are all things, to You are all things. You deserve the glory. You are worthy of it all. You are worthy of it all. For from You are all things, to You are all things. You deserve the glory.

God, You are so worthy. God, You are so worthy of our praise, God. Let Christ be glorified right here in Your house today, God. Because even when we are tired and even when we are feeling unworthiness of ourselves, God, You are the one who is worthy, God. And so it is You to be magnified. It is You to be in place of our worries. It is You to be in place of those anxieties, God. Let You be magnified in Your house today, God. Let You be glorified not only through our lips, God, but in our hearts, Lord. So God, we pray over Your sons and over Your daughters right now, God. We pray for hearts to be softened. We pray for our life to be a worship unto You, God. Because I see You, Lord. I see You here. I see You in the reflection of my life, God. And I see what You are doing, God. You are working and You are worthy and You are great. We give You praise. We give You honor. Lord, we are so thankful for who You are and what You are doing, God. Amen. Amen. Amen. All of God's people in the church, they gave a mighty amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. You can have your seat. While you have your seat, poke your neighbor and say, you are welcome here. Is anybody excited to be in church this morning? I would hope so. You made it here, right? We said, poke your neighbor and tell them that you are welcome here because guess what? You are welcome. You are welcome if you are a first-time guest. It is not by happenstance that you are here. You have been prayed for diligently and the invite that was sent to you It was not just on coincidence But we pray that today as an unbeliever if there is something that goes on that does not be just an experience for you but there be some sort of prickling in your heart Through the proclamation of the word and through the worship where you would recognize That you are in need of a savior and for the weary saint that is in the room The one that has been bogged down we pray and we welcome you the one that is on pando right now watching We welcome you And for the one that is continuously involved in the community of believers we welcome you as well And we say god here is we believe that god is looking for unlikely people, right? From overlooked places to do what? Extraordinary To do extraordinary things and we see that all throughout the text We see that all throughout the bible and we see

Who god has chosen? And what he has done through them? Amen Now I think about this in my week I think about I am a a father of three. I have three beautiful children I have a 10 month old boy and I have eight-year-old twins And my son my oldest son messiah he is uh, he's a good boy, okay and He is going to school and there are some things that is happening in his life And he is uh, does any of us have any children here that can relate to me where they get a bad report from the teacher? Everybody else got saints. Okay. All right Hey, man Good god bless y'all man. Unfortunately, that's not the case And so here is my son, right? And here is my son and and and here he is as a young boy and he he knows the lord but he is wrestling with sin Because he is very human Just like his daddy who I am wrestling with sin, man Thank thank god that I am mature enough in my believing where I know what to do with that sin But here is my son who is going to school and he is influenced And he is influenced and he is wrestling and there is a tugging going on in his spirit where he believes one thing at home and then he goes to school and There's something else going on and there was a tugging going on and what is the result is disobedience That's the result Because the teacher is saying hey, and this is a public school thing here a teacher is saying this Uh, hey, we've given your son 12 reminders. We've set a goal for him to only do 10 And I had to immediately reply back that it's not okay If it's over a single reminder we need to correct that then right And I had a conversation with my son and I encouraged him and me and my wife We encouraged our son and we said hey You can do this and we believe in you and this is what it is And we encourage them to do these things, right?

And there was a time on monday when I came home from work dirty at six o'clock in the evening I opened up the garage and I could hear his little feet He comes and meets me every day and he ran his little feet down the stairs and he came to me and he was excited For the news that he brought right and the news that he brought was I got one reminder today daddy Okay And he said it's because you encouraged me dad right and so I thought about that and I said man He responds well to encouragement great, but can I tell you this i'm going somewhere so so follow me On wednesday, I gotta get a report again that the reminders had started to go back up And this is a representation of us in our walk with christ where we have these great moments with christ where we feel His holy presence in our entire life, right and then we start to do what again wrestle with that sin And I showed him I told you To do this because i'm asking you to obey me I'm asking you to obey me because why because you love me man Now I can take things away from you. I can take that switch from you I can pull that tv off your wall. I can take the xbox and unplug it. I can remove all of those things But if you only do that You only obey me because you are fearful of what I will take from you man. We have missed the mark And I will still take it though hear me i'll rip all that stuff out But I do not want my son to obey me because he is only fearful of what I will take from him And can I talk to the saint that's in the room right now that gives a pive only because they are fearful of what would Be tooken from them if they don't Here I reach we have a core belief that is we live to give and when I think that love I think that this when John in Jesus in the book of John when Jesus said that if you love me you will do what man he will obey my commands and I think about my life with Christ and I want to obey God and all of his commands not because I am fearful of what he will take I have a reverence for the Lord I know his sovereignty he could remove it if he wanted to but I want to do it out of an act of love now if my son were to do something different what I love him any different no but what our relationship be different yes and I want

to grow in my relationship with God I want to do these things because he sees that I do them because I love him man if I can get some ushers up here we're gonna take up an offering God we thank you so much for who you are God we thank you for the provision that you have provided in our life God and we thank you for your word that continuously guides us and transforms us and does a mighty work in our hearts Lord let us be open to that word and in your word there are commands and help us be receptive to those and help us act out of obedience and to obey because of the love that we have for you God help us in our weakness Lord we thank you for who you are God and as we give God we we pray a blessing over the giver we pray a blessing over the recipient we pray this all in Jesus mighty name amen hey it's Pastor Adam we are here at our new building we just wanted to do a quick tour show you guys what it was give you an update of how it's coming so that we can get everybody excited just like we are come on let's go hey so this is our brand new lobby it's gonna be amazing actually hold on check this out look at this this is gonna be amazing this is look at all of these stalls that we did this is just the men's you women are gonna be excited I'll show you in a second hey so this is our lobby right here right here is where we're actually gonna serve coffee this is gonna actually open up soon but I don't want to reveal too many details to you because I don't want to get ahead of the car so that's phase two but this is going to be where our our Connect Center is right here and so we'll have Connect Center our coffee this is just gonna be a wide hangout area here I know I know the ladies are excited for this look at this you don't have to wait anymore to just sit and juggle doors and stuff and so this is pretty cool this is just one of the bathrooms watch this come on I'm gonna take you to what it's gonna be the growth track classrooms now but actually on the way this is really cool it's actually full of carpet right now but this is gonna be our cry room so for all the mothers that maybe might have restless babies in the service or whatever we'll actually have a room where you can still see service there will be changing tables all kinds of

cool stuff it's gonna be exciting watch this is gonna be one of our growth track classrooms and so this will probably be 201 but 301 is gonna look just like this we'll have the TVs here and chairs it's gonna be cool this is gonna be a great opportunity to be able to actually learn about the fundamentals of faith and who we are as a church and so this is this is really cool I know you guys are excited for one of the rooms but I'm gonna make you wait till last let's go around to the back look at this wonderful flooring just such high-end great contrast with the white walls I feel like you can have nice natural light coming in sound like an interior decorator right now don't I come on let's go so this is actually our kitchen area it's not necessarily a commercial kitchen but this is gonna be right now where we make all of the coffee we're gonna have our nice commercial fridge I know this looks really cute in here but that's not where it's gonna land and so this is just a really nice kitchen area that we're gonna have but I mean look at this man we've got more bathrooms isn't this amazing I know people are just excited about that they probably don't care about anything else but that and so look more women's restrooms it's amazing and so I'm really excited about that one of the other cool things that we've got is Back here, this is actually more growth track classrooms. Let's look at this real quick. I mean, look at this, this room. This is gonna be where 101 meets. I mean, there is so much room for activities in here. It's amazing. I just love this place. And so, this is actually gonna be one of the kids' classrooms right here. This is gonna be the older kids' uptown. And so, they'll get to meet in here. It's gonna be a really awesome space for the kids.

We've actually got more kids' classrooms, and we're actually compromising our office space temporarily for that. But here's where the kids' check-in will be. Let's check it out. And so, you'll walk into here. There will be three kiosks to check in your kids right here. And then, when you get them checked in, they will go over here, which will be some of our office space. But these will be offices right here. But this will be one of the kids' classrooms right here. And so, this will be a great space for the kids to meet in right here. We actually have four of these classrooms. And so, as we go down this hallway, there is offices for our staff on the left side. But this is another kids' classroom right here. It's a decent-sized classroom. And so, this will be where some of the younger children get to hang out and have fun. And so, we're excited about that. We've got quite a few classrooms, and it's pretty cool. Because right now, we're just so limited space where we're at. And to think this is another kids' classroom, and to think that this is just a holdover, because we have a phase two of building program that we're actually gonna launch a brand new lobby and brand new kids' space

that has a big kids' auditorium, six classrooms. This is amazing. This is just our office space that we're gonna build out later into more offices. And so, that's pretty cool. Hey, come with me. I'm gonna take you into the auditorium. Let's check it out. Come on, let's go. Come on. And here we are. We're getting ready to walk in to the brand new auditorium. I know you've been waiting for this moment. Come on. This is where it's all gonna go down at. Look at this space. This is an auditorium that's gonna seat 1,000 people. We're gonna open it up with about 500 chairs into it and then grow into it. This is gonna be our new tech booth. I mean, this is just, I'm excited for this part. I don't know about you, but I really love the tech. I really love the sound. We just got a bid for the AVL, the audio, video, and lighting so I'm excited for that. But look at this stage. Look at this wall. I mean, this is, I mean, look at this carpet. You can't really see. We got a lot going on right now, but it's cool.

You may not think it looks like it makes sense right now, but Tyson knows that it makes sense and so we're good with that. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers. This is where the rubber meets the road right here. This is where lives will be changed. People will be impacted by the eternal God, welcomed into heavens and where you can invite your families and just come be a part of reaching the one that is far from God, helping them become passionate followers of Jesus. Hey, we're just so excited for what God is doing. We're excited for the money that you have contributed to the building fund. We're excited for just giving to Kingdom Builders and everything that God is doing. Hey, come join us as we help rebuild the city and see what you can do and what God can do through you. God bless you. And how it is, so even on Pando, if you're watching, get connected with the church. Don't just watch Pando, amen, but actually go to the chapel and be connected. Shout out to all of them on Pando. We got a favor to ask of the Lindsay unit. Come on, everybody, give it up for Texas and just one of the units down there. And so God bless you, but I just want to welcome you to the Lindsay unit. And one of the units down there.

And so God bless you, but I just want to welcome you here as Tucker just did, but I want to just jump right into this message. We just came out of a series called Blessed and then Miss Diane preached last week. Come on, how many of us enjoyed that? And then this week, we're going to jump back into the rest of Romans, but I've titled this sermon series Transformed. And we're going to look at discipleship through real community. Discipleship the real community, because if you look through the book of Romans, you actually see chapters one through nine talk about how to get saved, how this really works, one through 10, really, and then through that, from nine to 11, it really starts to talk about the children of Israel for a little bit, and then 12 through 16, you really see an application of how to walk out everything that one through 11 talks about, and so I wanna look at transformed, transformed, how to be transformed in discipleship through real community. We say discipleship the real community because discipleship happens in community. That are further along than you, they begin to rub off and call you higher. That's oftentimes why people will leave a circle because they don't wanna hang around people that's calling them higher.

They don't wanna be around the people that's saying, hey, that ain't good for you. Hey, that ain't good for you. Hey, why are you doing that? Hey, why are you with her? Why are you not doing this? Why are you doing that? And discipleship happens in the context of community. I can literally tell you your future, not by horoscopes or all of that stuff, not by all of these other fortune telling things, but by looking at your friend group. I can tell you your future by seeing your friends, and next week we got a big announcement that I'm excited for as we walk through a sermon next week titled transformed together. Transformed together, because we can do this thing all together. And so today we're gonna land in Romans 12, and we're gonna go through a part of Romans 12, your homework for this week. Come on, I sound like a growth track facilitator now, right? Your homework for this week is to read through Romans 12 as a whole, because I'm just opening it up, and this is gonna lay a foundation for you to understand the rest of this chapter. And so let's go ahead and look at Romans 12, one through two. If you've been around church for any time at all, you have probably heard or been familiar with this passage, but Romans 12, one through two says this.

And so dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you, this is Paul talking, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all that he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice, the kind he will find acceptable. This is the way you truly worship him. Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by what? Changing the way that you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. Now in the Old Testament, sacrifices stayed on the altar because they were dead, right? An altar in the Old Testament or in the Bible represents a place where there was repentance, a place where there was reconciliation to God, a place where there was a sacrifice made so that it would allow you to be in communion with God. It was something that would typically mark a memorial place with God that you could look back on. And so an altar was a very specific thing in the Old Testament in the terms of worshiping God. And so today I wanna talk from a sermon title, A Life on the Altar. A Life on the Altar. Paul says that we are living sacrifices. Our lives should basically be a continual offering, yet here's the problem, is we have the tendency to keep crawling off of the altar.

We surrender on Sunday, but then we take control again on Monday, right? We surrender everything on Sunday and then Monday comes back again and then all of a sudden we crawl off of the altar. That's why he says that we have to surrender daily. Here's the problem, the issue isn't whether God is worthy, the issue is whether we are willing. God is always worthy, but are we willing to do it? And we'll see in the coming weeks before Paul ever even talks about how we treat others, how we submit to authority. Come on, nobody wants to have that week of sermon. Submitting to governing authorities, submitting to superior authority above us, walking in unity. Before he ever does any of that, he starts right here. Why? Because transformed living always begins with surrendered worship. Transformed living always begins. ends with surrendered worship. Most of us genuinely want to honor God, right? Like we sing, we serve, we show up, like I'm here. Shoot, you lucky I made it. I called into work three times this week. I mean, I'm blessed to be at church today, amen? We should say worship matters to us. I mean, we would say that, right, and it matters to God, but scripture, if you look through it,

quietly expands our definition of worship because worship is not only what we offer, it is how aligned our lives are with the one that we're offering it to, alignment. See, Jesus said, worshipers, worship me in spirit and truth. That means worship is not just an expression, it's an agreement, agreement with his design, agreement with his order, agreement with his way. You can't worship him if there is out of alignment. If those things are out of alignment, if you don't agree with God's design, how can you worship the creator of that design if you are in misalignment with his order, with his way? This is why the story of Cain and Abel is so sobering to me because Cain brought an offering, but he was misaligned with the heart of God and misalignment turns sacrifice into something that God could not receive. He couldn't receive it because of the misalignment of his heart. Therefore, it reminds us that worship can be active, but yet still out of order. It can be happening. Alignment purifies our worship. Being in alignment with the father, it removes what contaminates it. Alignment does things like striving, performance-based religion, trying to perform for God,

trying to measure up, things like comparison or control. Way too many Christians want control of things. That's why we don't submit to governing authorities. That's why we don't submit to leadership. That's why we don't submit to our spouse. That's why we don't do some of these things. Listen, the closer our lives come into accordance with God's design, the purer our worship becomes. There is no, I mean, it just can't happen because worship is not just what we do on Sunday's church. It's how we run our businesses. It's how we treat people. It's how we steward our influence. It's how we obey when nobody is watching us. Worship is literally in everything that you do. It's how you do everything, how you manage your life, how you discipline your kids, how you discipline your kids, how you do things in life, everything, that maybe this is a moment, maybe this is a moment for us to gently ask ourselves, where might my life be busy trying to honor God, but quietly resisting alignment? Where might my life be busy trying to honor God, but quietly resisting alignment? I think a simple prayer would be, God, align my life with your truth so my worship is not just loud, but also pure. Let my worship be pure

because alignment is not restriction. Alignment is not FOMO, this fear of missing out. That's not what alignment is, but so often we think when we give our lives to God that all of the sudden we're gonna miss out on all kinds of stuff. Alignment is not restriction, it's reverence. See, alignment is literally an act of worship. Alignment with the heart of God saying, God, I honor you. I'm gonna fall in line with everything that you ask me to because I worship you. Worship isn't proven by what you sing, it's revealed by what you submit. If y'all ain't taking notes, I don't know what you even doing. Because I came with something that's gonna change our lives today. If we can grasp it, church, many people are giving God cane-like worship, offering activity without alignment, offering something that God cannot even receive. We do something that he cannot even do. True worship flows from a life ordered by God, not a moment performed for him. That's not what it is. You can praise loudly and still live out of alignment. Bet. Follow people when they leave here. Be like a stalker, but don't be like a stalker. You know what I'm saying?

But watch the way that people move. And I promise you that you will be able to see that people can praise loudly, but still live out of alignment. still live out of alignment, why? Because alignment removes what contaminates our worship. When we bring ourself into alignment with God, it removes what contaminates it. Worship is how you live, not just how you lift. It's how you live, not just how you lift your hands. Anybody can lift their hands. Come on, we've been doing that for years. Put your hands up. Ha, ha, ha. Ha, ha, ha. Wave them like you just don't care, you know? I mean. Really? Allegedly. Allegedly. But here's the truth, is that the closer that your life aligns with God's design, the purer your worship becomes. The closer you get to the heart of who God really is, worship becomes polluted when obedience is optional. Worship becomes polluted when our obedience is optional. What you refuse to align will always distort what you offer. What you refuse to align, what you say, God, I got this part, I got that part, I don't need to give you that, I don't need to give you

this, I don't need to do that, it will distort what you actually offer him. So your offering in worship is actually contaminated because of your refusal to come into alignment. You getting all this from Romans 12, one and two? How come I didn't see that? Well, I'm gonna keep breaking it down for a little bit because God is not impressed by a sacrifice that ignores his design. Worship, hear me, worship is not proximity to church. Worship is proximity to God's heart. That's what worship is. Worship becomes pure when alignment is restored. When we come back into the design that God had created us for and says, hey, walk in this way, walk in that way, I want you to do this. I don't want you to look to the left and to the right. I want you to put your hand to the plow and don't look back. Don't look back at the things that are behind you. Worship becomes pure when alignment is restored. And so today, I wanna talk about a life on the altar and I wanna look at three crucial points to living a life on the altar. Because if we're gonna have our worship be pure like this, if we're going to do what he said that it would do, that we could truly worship him, then we have to live our life on the altar and the first crucial point is this, if you're taking notes, is the call to surrender.

The call to surrender, Romans 12, one says this, I plead with you. Say, man, I'm begging you, would you please just hear me when I'm speaking to you? I plead, there's this connotation that it's exaggerated, like it's emphasized, there's something important to it. I plead with you to give your bodies to God because all that he has done for you, not because of a little bit of this, not because of that or not because of what Tucker said of out of obedience or just this, but because of all that he has done for you, let them be a living and holy sacrifice, the kind that he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Hear me, church, God doesn't ask for partial commitment. He asks for us to surrender our lives. He asks for us to do this all because of that, what he has done for you. I love that because it removes any category of person that don't think that that's for them because God has done something, it doesn't matter how much money you've got, it doesn't matter how much money you don't got, amen? You are in a category of somebody that God has done something for. Maybe you're in here today and you don't have a personal relationship with Jesus. Guess what, I'm telling you right now, because of everything that God is going to do for you,

everything that has brought you to this place, everything that has got you in this building, everything that he has done for you, you are to commit your life to him. If you are still hanging onto your pride or aspirations after all that he has done for you, you are absolutely, utterly out of alignment. If you are still walking in your ways according to your thoughts, according to your stuff, there is this doctrine of demons that is operating in a church right now, the big C, not just reach, but throughout the world right now throughout it. And it's not even the prosperity gospel. You want to know what it is? It's the popularity gospel. The prosperity gospel. told us this, you're only anointed as you are wealthy. So basically, if you broke, you ain't got no anointing. Come on, ain't none of us got no anointing in that gospel, amen? But the popularity gospel tells us you're only anointed as you are influential. So if you have no viral videos, you have no anointing. If you have no following, but honestly, our discernment is trash. We don't even know how to discern it. Can I sound the alarm for us for a moment, church? We no longer know how to tell the difference between the favor of God and the favor of man.

We don't even know what it is. Just because people applaud you does not mean heaven approves you. We've got it confused. Someone recently said to me, have you seen such and such? Man, this is just who God's on right now. I said, why? And they said, because they're just blowing up. Let me ask you this. Since when did numbers become the metric of God's anointing? When did numbers, since when did YouTube subscribers tell us who God favors now? Since when did conference invitations determine who God's anointed? Since when did Instagram's reach a following define spiritual authority? Come on now. I've preached in the ruins of Kansas City, Missouri for years. I've preached in maximum security prisons all across the United States with not a single camera following me. And the power of God was still undeniable in all of these places. That's just what it is. I've literally seen pastors in third world countries on fire for Jesus, probably seen greater miracles than any one of us have ever seen in Western society. So we can't say that obscurity equals lack of favor.

Come on. That's just not reality. The popularity gospel lies to our generation by saying visibility equals favor. Be popular, go viral, get all of this, do all of that. And now we've got young believers chasing fame instead of faithfulness. Building platforms instead of altars and calling it God's will. God never promised fame, church. He promised fruit. Hello. He promised that we was going to bear good fruit. A good tree will bear good fruit. A bad tree cannot bear good fruit. He never said, if you make it, God never said, follow me and I'll make you famous. No, he said, follow me and you're gonna kill yourself. Follow me and deny yourself, pick up your cross, follow me, get rid of everything. You cannot do that and do this. You cannot. He never once said, follow me and I will make you famous. Actually, a call to surrender is crucifying your flesh daily. Making a decision to live on the altar, to crawl off of it every time something gets tough is just pure out of alignment. Come on. I'm just tired of trying.

I've been going to church for six months. I've been giving like they said I should. I've been doing all of this stuff. And honestly, I think that they're just after my money. I think that they just want this and they don't even really know the best for me. I may not, but the Bible does. And if you are a part of a church that preaches strictly out of the Bible, then maybe you should heed the lessons that it is being taught to you and then inspect them for yourself so that you can test every spirit and prove what is honorable to the Lord and then be able to discern what it is. How are we offering spiritual worship while denying God access to the secret chambers of our hearts? We say we worship you, God, but you can't have this part of me. You can only have what I'm willing to give you. And then when you reveal it to me, I'll give it up. No, he said, bring me all of you, a living sacrifice, one that is continually killing yourself and laying yourself on the altar, bringing me your body as a sacrifice, making yourself worship to him because the incense of your life that is burning is roaming the presence of God in heaven.

He said, kill yourself on the altar. That don't mean physically kill yourself. It means to literally take down, lay down at the altar and quit picking it up. If you come down here and you lay cigarettes on the altar, quit smoking. If you lay vape with THC juice in it, quit picking back up weed. If you come down here with your spouse and you say, God bless our marriage, quit being selfish in your marriage. Walk away and be who God has called you. to be, be in alignment with who he said. Paul said present your bodies as a living sacrifice. In other words, don't allow Monday's failures to steal Sunday's faith. Because you have big faith. Big guy. I know that he wanted to do it. I don't even remember what it said. But Sunday you have big faith, but then when you walk out and Monday smacks you across the face like you a chump. I'm done with this man. Stand up. Say, I'm going to fight for mine. I'm going to fight for my Lord. I'm going to stand on something for mine. I ain't going to back down. I ain't going to keep doing it. I'm going to surrender my life. I'm going to be a living sacrifice. I'm going to pour me out like a drink offering Lord, pour me out God, because I am only here for you. I am here to further the kingdom of God. I am not here to build Adam's kingdom. I'm here to build his kingdom. And if I ain't got nothing in me to give you God, let me give you me more. Let me be a living sacrifice. He said, let me surrender everything in me. Surrender isn't losing your life. It's finally placing it where it belongs. God can't lead what you won't release. He can't, he can't take you. Well, I just don't feel like I've heard from him because you ain't been listening. You didn't respond to the last thing he said. See, God is not a dysfunctional mother that screams and yells at you 16 times to tell you to do something,

but never discipline you. God said, I'm going to tell you once until you do it. And then I'll speak again. I'll give you encouragement along the way. But until you respond to the last thing I said, well, I haven't heard from him. Go back, go back to what it is so that you can find that place that God spoke to your heart. And then you can do it. God can't lead what you won't release. The altar only works when we stop climbing off of it. That's the truth. God isn't asking for words. He's asking for open hands. He's saying, God, I will release this because surrender isn't saying, God, you can have it while tightly holding onto your grip. That's not what it is. Paul doesn't say feel surrendered. He says, present your body, a holy and living sacrifice. Surrender is visible. It's embodied. It shows up in what we release. You can't receive God's will while clinging onto your own. This is why we're called to surrender everything every single day. Point number two, the second crucial point to living a life on the altar is the cost of transformation. The cost of transformation, Romans 12 says this, don't copy the behavior and customs of this world. Don't do what everybody else is doing, but let God transform you into a new person. Well, how are you going to do that? By changing the way you think. Now, this ain't even in here, but this was just a free nugget that you can have if you stay in the room. See, people are going to miss their miracle by continuing to walk out. I'm going to go get some coffee. I'm going to go to the bathroom. See, you're missing an opportunity for God to do something in your life. But here's the reality. He said, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to transform you into a new person, but I need you to change the way that you think. I need you to respond by changing the way that you think. See, renewal requires resistance to the world and submission to God. You can't gain access in the kingdom of God modeling the methods of the world. It just don't happen like that. I have seen far too many walk away from accountability because it didn't feel good to be corrected. Come on, somebody. Walk away talking about, that's it. Facebook, Facebook mutilates you. You know, talk all kinds of stuff because they got a ministry on social media. Talking about babies. Come on, somebody. Me and my wife having a baby. But anyways, in other news, you know. There it is, I guess, but scripture actually tells us if we want something different then

we have to do something different, right? We can't get new results using old methods. That's just not how it works. Honestly, I'm done hanging on to the things and I'm done hanging on to the people that held me back and held me down. I pray God send me a circle, a circle that will help me become what he's called me to be. But if by chance, if I got to walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Not because my wife is with me, not because my fellas are with me, not because my circle is with me, but because my God is with me and God is making me better this year. I don't care what anybody's got to say. God is transforming me this year. He's making me into somebody that they didn't even know. I'm growing through my pain. I'm becoming somebody that he said I could be. I'm transforming through my trials. I'm not the person that I used to be, that would sit and wallow in my party of pity that nobody ever wanted to be invited to and whine and complain because nobody was ever there for me. I want to be the person because if none of y'all help me, God given me the power to pick myself up. He given me the power to help transform my thinking. He's given me the power to be who he's called me to be. Y'all ain't saying nothing today. Everybody better look down their aisle and say, you better pick yourself up. There was some lyrics right there, but I don't, I don't know. Gonna be somebody. Come on. How many of us know that there is a cost to our transformation?

Even though it's going to cost us something, you can't keep hanging around the same circle thinking God is going to elevate you. Sometimes the people you walked into this season with aren't the ones that you're going to be walking into the next season with. Not because they're always bad people, but because they don't have the capacity to get you where God is trying to take you. It's not because they're bad, but some people just refuse to level up. Don't be that person. Allow yourself to grow and go to the next place because sometimes to go to the next place you have to sacrifice things in the previous one. The way that the next season is going to require you to thank is far greater than what you've ever thought previously. That's why the, well, this is how I've always done it mindset don't mean nothing. That's why Paul said you have to change the way you thank King. You've got to change the way you thank Queen because this isn't who he has called you to be. How you've always done it isn't good enough. He's trying to take you to the next level. He's trying to take you to the next thing and his thoughts are higher than your thoughts. His ways are higher than your ways. That's why he needs to train you and teach you how to be transformed to get you to a place that you don't even know what it is right now. But your behavior now, your conduct now, your misalignment now will not allow you to get there. He's not calling you to do something the way that you've always done it. Maybe he's trying to elevate the way that you do things. If you read on in chapter 12 of the book of Romans, like I said, for your homework, there's plenty of people who it talks about who thought that they had it all figured out back then. And Paul actually told him, he said, Hey, don't thank so highly of yourself. Take an honest evaluation of yourself list.

You may fail too. He said, there are people who thought that and they fail. There's people who thought that too, and they failed and they went down. When people say they want to transform life, I think is what they typically imagine is new paint, better lighting, upgraded furniture, right? They always think material things. They think, Oh, well, if God is for me, then I'm going to get a better house. I'm going to get a bigger house, a nicer car. My bank account is going to be, but listen, real renovation doesn't start with decorating. It starts with demolition. That's the fact walls come down, floors get ripped up, dust gets everywhere, everywhere. The place looks worse before it ever looks better. I mean, there will be some points in the process where you're tempted to say, stop, trust me. I'm redoing a multi-million dollar building right now. Quit. Don't tear that wall out. If you tear that. wall out you're going to reveal something else behind it. I don't want that wall to be removed because I'm afraid there was a water leak previously and there's mold back there. Don't tear that wall out. Construction guys say we've got to tear the wall out because if we don't do it now then the structure won't be able to withstand what's coming next and when you guys have the building of what you guys are trying to do in there, pastor you don't want to compromise this wall. It's easy to rebuild this wall now but when you're running a thousand people every week in this sanctuary you can't rebuild that wall as easy. So let's tear it down now so that we can start to rebuild it. But God doesn't just improve us, he remakes us and transformation always costs something. Comfort gets disrupted, habits get challenged. Well that's why three years into your faith all of a sudden you're like why I don't want to quit smoking but I feel this conviction. Why do I feel this conviction? Respond to whatever conviction you may have because if you don't your heart will be hardened and then that conviction wanes and then the next thing you know you're not hearing God clearly

anymore. Transformation costs us something. Control gets surrendered. Paul doesn't say be improved he says be transformed. He doesn't improve yourself so that you look better when you show up to Sunday church. Improve yourself so that you could be that. No he says be transformed that means changed from the inside out. God's renovation removes what can't stay so what he designed can stand because that's what he came for. There is definitely a cost associated but renovation always looks better through the transformation process. You can't paint moldy walls. You have to fix the mold first but you have to trust the process in order for it to work and if you're taking notes my third and final point today is the choice we make daily. The choice we make daily. Romans 12 2 says be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Not the once renewed but the renewing of your mind. Surrender isn't settled once it's practiced continually. Paul isn't describing a one-time emotional decision that we're trying to make. He's describing a continual yielding to God's reshaping work. Why? Because he's the potter we're the clay and so if we want to be formed in how he wants us transformation isn't automatic. It requires personal participation. A participation that says it's not all about me God but it's all about you amen. Like it is all about you and then we choose to honor him in our daily lives. We choose to give him everything that we have in our lives because we want to be who he has called us to be. It's not enough to just continue. Transformation is not an event. It's a process. You are being shaped every single day no matter what. You get to choose what you're being shaped by because if you don't if you don't then what? You become something that you unintendedly decided to become because you wasn't even being conscious of what you was actually trying to become and that's not enough to me. I want to know what God has called me to be and I want to be what he has called me to be. Renewal isn't accidental it's an intentional. The mind you feed becomes the life you live. Whatever you feed in your mind to live a life on the altar requires us to make a choice to die to ourselves daily. You know what that means? That means I'm leaving the worries of yesterday behind me. That's why Paul says this in Philippians, I do not count myself to have apprehended it but one thing I do forgetting those things that which are behind me and reaching forward to the things that which are ahead. The devil and all of his minions should fear the moment that your feet hit the floor every single morning because he knows the mindset that

you attack every single day with. Do you do you think that mediocre Christianity is making the devil tremble? I don't. The enemy isn't intimidated by half-hearted Christians that's why you keep getting slayed by him. That's why when we wake up and we try to tackle the day with a half-hearted relationship with Jesus we get to the end of our day worn out ready to give up and ready to move on because the devil will slay you we have to take a stand church because he will lure you by the lust of your eye and the pride of your flesh he will lure you we have to make an internal decision one that says hey God I'm gonna honor you and everything that I do if it's my relationship then I will only be around those on a regular basis that honor you and everything that they do because I know what you're trying to take me God I'm not gonna keep being the thing that keeps me from who God has called me to be amen I'm not gonna keep being my worst enemy I don't know about you but we always say my best thinking got me there no your worst thinking got you there and we've got to change the way that we think so we can get where he's trying to take us if it's my fan of finances God I'm gonna give you the first 10% of everything that I got and I'm gonna leave enough margin in there just in case you call me to build a house in Burundi just in case you tell me to fund an outreach just in case you call me to do something different I'm gonna leave enough room in there if it's my marriage I'm gonna always treat my spouse the way that they should be treated and lay down my life like Christ did for his bride I'm not trying to model this other relationship in this world I'm trying to model the relationship that Jesus had with the church and I want that today is the day to make the decision hey I'm gonna live my life out loud I'm gonna honor God I'm gonna be a sold-out believer for Jesus Christ and I'm not committing my spirit to anything that dishonors my God I'm not living that way I'm not going back to that people don't live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God hear me this church transformation stops or starts when we stop crawling off the altar when we say God I'm gonna trust in you I'm gonna trust that you got this and I'm gonna let go of it Lord because I don't want to keep hanging on to the same things that's got me in this situation that's

why you have to become a living sacrifice because our old methods are trash our discernment is trash you will never graduate from surrender it's something that we have to continue to do yesterday's obedience doesn't cover it doesn't cover today's pride church Jesus said take up your cross daily laying your life on the altar isn't a one-time event it's a daily decision to choose who you will serve one where we're saying hey I'm gonna crucify my flesh and I'm gonna honor the Lord and everything that I do not some of the things but everything that I do how many of us would be willing to say that today to say God I want to worship and honor you and everything that I do come on if that's you could I just have you to stand your feet with me for just a moment and just say God I just honor you Lord hi thanks for watching us we're so grateful that you've been a part of our church we don't take it lightly that God is using unlikely people from overlooked places to do extraordinary things for the kingdom of God and you are a part of that