Beyond Yourself: The beauty of Offering your body as a Living Sacrifice

TALK IT OVER

Discipleship = moving from unbelief to belief in every area of your life.

Start by asking your group to share their highlight/take away from the message on Sunday. If anyone in your group was not there you may consider rewatching it together on YouTube.

Ps Kev shared out of Galatians 2:20

“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

What does this verse mean to you? How can you apply it in your life?

What are the pitfalls of conforming to the patterns of the world, and how does renewing our minds counteract this conformity? How do you renew your mind?

Reflecting on the message, how might embracing RISK as a spiritual act of worship transform our perspective on faith and obedience? What steps can we take to surrender control and embrace risk in our journey of discipleship?

What would it look like if EVERY follower of Jesus lived as a ‘living sacrifice’?

TRANSCRIPT

So this series Risk is really cool. It's really cool. The amount of movement that started to happen. Last week was a very big week and I Celebrate all of you for getting through all of it with me, because it was going to be two weeks, and then the Lord said, no, dump it all right now. Right now, they can take it, and throw all that vision out here, and then just let me work in people's hearts.

And it's been amazing, the amount of spaces that God's already moving in. Now, if you weren't with us for the last few weeks, you need to go back and watch that series. But we've been talking a little bit about the church and what's, what's kind of gone wrong in the Western church since 300 A. D. So I've got a diagram here that this is what happened in 300 A.

D. when Constantine. Became a Christ follower and he decided that it was not a good idea anymore for God to be mobile and for this thing to go everywhere. We need to put them back in a nice shiny building. So they built copies of the temple and then suddenly everything became a come see our wonderful building.

And then they reinstituted the Aaronic priesthood, our professional clergy, come see how wonderful Orators and we will explain the word of God to you because you are too dumb. to do it yourself. And then what happened from there is that then so everything's about that building and you come come, come see us, come see us and then we'll we're gonna put you in a little small group and we're gonna keep you safe and we're gonna keep you secure from the enemy from the devil and from the evils of this world which is a real problem when Jesus prayed that we should not be out of the world in here but we should actually be in the world.

So this happened at 300 AD. The pylons of the bridge, go back and listen to it, was shifted and what it was before that was this Next one. It started off first and foremost with missional villages families And people went everywhere taking the message of Christ and they shared faith with others and they loved each other and they cared for each other and it kept expanding and expanding and then these things would become like almost like little fractals all over the place.

And then what happens is they would then put a junction point. They called it a church plant, I called it a junction point. And it was designed to be there to support the ongoing movement of those Now someone very keenly said, where are we right now? last week because we're not really kind of in there anymore and I said no no we're not and not in the old one that old thing there come see our building has gone down to here it's becoming a servant not a master it's not an idol so we're already there but our villages still function predominantly like the old model inwards focused not missional so what I did after the Lord said, just add this to the villagers, what do I say to you?

You've all got to be living mission. You've all got to be going look at the rhythms and routines of your life and helping people on their journey. Listen to their story, share your story, help them discover Jesus story. So we put with the villagers the plus living mission. Which you can do that, but it's a slower model and it's not the original model.

When you get to the original one, it's really about you and your family being missional servants before God, going and sharing the good news of Christ and enabling people to come in. So we're kind of in between this, we're on the journey God's shifting the ponds, it's going to require risk. And so I thought it'd be very important for us to talk about something to do with risk to get the foundation right because I'm I'm a vision person, so, and some of you are too.

And when we get vision, we get really excited and then we get really excited and then we do what my dad used to say, Kev, you're always going off like a bull in a China shop. I didn't really understand what a bull would even be doing in a China shop, but I got the idea eventually because I would do all these things and I'd get all excited and I'd run out and I hadn't thought about anything and the whole thing had come crashing down.

And one thing I did in Ipswich, which was. A classic example is that the, the musicians in Ipswich were very disgruntled and they'd reached that place where the radio stations were of the devil and they wouldn't play their music because they were being persecuted unto Christ. I said, no, it's just because you're not writing good songs.

So therefore that's what it's really all about. You know, anyway, they wouldn't have it. So I thought to myself, I'm going to record some songs just to prove them differently. So I went ahead, and I found, worked with a mate, and we got four songs. And then I got in the studio, recorded all these things up, you know, sent them out there.

And then lo and behold, three of the four songs are getting played on radio everywhere. And then suddenly, I got invited to go and sing at all these places. And then suddenly, someone said, How can I get a copy of your music?

I don't really think that through. So I had to rush like mad to go out and get a couple of thousand cassettes made.

Chat TPT will tell you all about that. And I got these cassettes made and it took like a month, a couple of thousand dollars, that was a lot of money and by the time I got them out there, no one wanted me anymore. I was a has been before I even got started. And to prove it to you that that is actually real, here's a copy of the cassette cover.

Stack Tanner, and I can tell you now, I can tell you now, I came up with the name Stack because someone came in and says, Oh, it sounds truly awesome, Kev. I said, that's a good name. Stack will do. And then I did this. I did Tanner. You know why I did that? Because I went to Bible college and they taught me to mix and match the covenants and I need to get some Jewish stuff in there.

And that's the name of Jewish, Jewish scholars that interpreted the Mishnah, the oral law. Is it any wonder? I never got anywhere. But that's, that, that was how it was. And now I had this song, Spread Your Love Around. That was the hit. That was a complete disaster. Because they invited me to play. Should I share this story in?

They invited me to play. In the Ipswich Mall. Man, that was a big gig. And we're out there and I'm singing and the people, the crowds are loving it! And then I notice these people running around and they're handing out something that I thought was lollies. So they're handing them out and then by the time I got off stage and walked down there, you know what happened?

Spread Your Love Around had been picked up by the Family Planning Clinic and they were handing out contraceptives.

So here's the pastor in the church, now singing songs, promoting, it's, it was a disaster. It was a disaster. But this is exactly what happened. No, I'm not, I'm not singing it. But listen, you guys, come on, this is not me. It's not just me, is it really? Come on. You guys do the same thing. We get excited and we run around like chooks with our head cut off.

We've all got a flat packet sometime, haven't we? You got something from Ikea, you get a flat pack, we've all got them. And there's very detailed instructions in there about what to do. But we don't bother about that, do we? Instructions? Phooey! Who needs instructions? I'll just do this thing myself. And then you get up there and then you end up with this.

And you're going, I can't sit on that, you know, like. This affects all of us. Girls, I remember when I was younger and I was starting to date girls. That was a long time ago, at least ten years. Anyway I would meet these girls and I pay them a little bit of attention and they thought it was really novel.

And I think this is really good, this might be going somewhere, it's a great relationship. Two weeks later they turn up and they've got a scrapbook. And in that scrapbook it shows our wedding, where we're going to live, and our kids. And that was the end of that, relationship over, man, I wasn't ready for that in my early twenties.

That was crazy. But we do it with, we do it with businesses too. I had a mate, he had hit one of those smoking meat businesses. Fantastic. He, he, it went so good. When gangbusters, he went to another area, moved, he said, I'm gonna start my businesses again. He did that, got this thing up. Nobody bought it. The whole place was full of vegans.

So what I'm saying is, you've got to be careful. We don't get excited, so excited that you run ahead. Jesus said, I will build my church. He said, I'll build it. You're not building it. You don't save anybody. I will build the church. Your job is to go make disciples. Your job is to go help people move from unbelief to belief in every area of their life.

So the good news of the gospel affects every area of their life. That's why our top value around here is spirit led. Spirit led. That's what we're about. He leads, we follow. He leads, we follow. That's how it should be. He should lead in your marriage and you follow. He should lead in your singleness in your business.

It's about being conformed to the image of Christ So what I thought we'd do is just take a walk through a little portion of Scripture So we get the foundation of this right because in order to risk all you have for the kingdom So that God may do something significant, you've got to first risk trusting him and understanding what does that look like.

So I'm going to go to Romans chapter 12. Now Romans is a historical document that was written by the Apostle Paul and he wrote it to the church in Rome. Now the backstory of this is quite interesting. He's talking to the Jews and I'm sure it was a very popular message. He was telling them, hey by the way you guys missed the Messiah and because you rejected him he's cut you off.

He's finished with you now and now he's bringing in the Gentiles which was very offensive to them and they're coming in and there's this new thing going on and you guys got to get with the program and come in, which most of them didn't. They thought it was very offensive. They weren't gonna be a part of it.

So, but a few did. A few made the transition in. So this new community is being birthed of all nations. People out of every nation, tribe, and tongue. And some of these Jews are coming in there too. And it's causing some problems of culture. So he positions them to say this is risky. I know it's risky to build this new thing.

But you're gonna have to make some adjustments. So this is what he does. He goes to Romans chapter 12, verse 1 and 2, he says, Therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, offer your bodies. Offer your bodies. Offer your bodies. Now, if you've got a phone, take out your phone. We're going to go to Slido, and I want you to scan the QR code.

It'll be on the screen. You guys online. Now, I know whenever we do this, it's usually playful, and it's a bit of fun, but this time I want you to be serious. I want you to answer this question. What do you do with your body as an offering to God? What do you do with your body as an offering to God? What does that look like?

How do you offer your body? And what's it all about? And how big is it? I mean, like, what kind of things are we talking about here? So, serve others. What else we got up there? And I think it's also interesting when you look at this worship exercise. When you look at this, the thing about this, the very first part, he says, you offer your bodies why in view of God's mercy, in view of what Jesus has done for you and God's done for you.

And he took your sin. He went to hell on your behalf, took your punishment, and then rose from the dead to give you the opportunity of eternal life. So this is big. But God is saying, this is on you. I'm not going to do this for you. You have to offer your bodies. As they say, what have we got up there?

Demonstrate self control, serve others, street mission, feed people. Yeah, great. Abstain, keep healthy, control, serve. Yep. Excellent. Now, if you're still not sure about what you should ride up there, let me try, let me rephrase the question just to help you think about a bit clearer. What kind of things do you do right now?

What kind of things do you do right now that you do without your body? Anybody do anything without their body? So this is an all encompassing thing. This is massive. This is a whole life giving. He says, offer your body. Offer your body. As what? He goes on and says, as a living sacrifice. As a living sacrifice, when if you've been doing your soap devotions and reading with us over the last week, you'll see that we came to the book of numbers in the Old Covenant.

And there's a lot of sacrificing going on there. There's a lot of innocent animals that are dying and being cut to pieces. So a sacrifice is dead. But he says a living sacrifice. What's that about? So he's trying to say it's tied to in view of God's mercy. Jesus is referred to as the Lamb of God that was slain from the foundation of the world.

Jesus willingly sacrificed and embraced death. He offered his body as a living sacrifice. He sacrificed himself and then rose from the dead. So now he says, now you can have what I have purchased now, this resurrection power. So it's really, he's trying to help us understand you offering your body as a living sacrifice.

It's not a thing that you're going to do in your flesh. This is a work of the Holy Spirit within us. Paul really hit this home too in the book of Galatians when he wrote to the church in Galatia. He said this, he I have been crucified with Christ. What? He said, I have been crucified with Christ. He's identifying, he's saying, I actually have been crucified with Christ.

It's no longer I that live, but Christ that lives in me. He's picking up this whole thing of being a living sacrifice. When you receive Christ, and Christ comes into your life, you become a living sacrifice. You die to self so that Christ may live in and through you. This is the mystery of the gospel. This is the mystery of the gospel.

Jesus died on the cross and now through his resurrection power, you have the opportunity to actually transition with him, go beyond self so that Christ can move in and through you for the benefit of others. Romans chapter 12, it's dealing with the social aspect. He's dealing with the social aspect because the gospel in Australia has become very, and in the Western Church in general, very me centred.

It's become very personal. And it's not personal. When you become part of the body of Christ, you become part of the family of God. And we are all interconnected. It's not a me centered thing, it's a we centered thing. That was why early on, God switched our name to Our Church. And I didn't like it, because I could never separate the name Our from Church.

Like if I go to GLOW, I can say I go to GLOW. Or I can go to GLOW Church. Well, I go to our church. Well, actually, no, I just go to our. No, it doesn't work. It doesn't work. I go to Elevation. Or I go to Elevation Church. They can leave him either way. But we can never separate our from the dynamic of the church.

God did that very specifically. And he said, go study on the word our. And I went around and I studied on it. It's like, it's amazing. It's amazing just how much he actually is part of this. It's like. He's our God, it's our King, our Saviour, our suffering, our life, our love, our faith. My goodness! It's all about the collective and He's trying to help them here understand this is how you serve each other and this is how mission takes place.

When you offer your bodies as living sacrifices. And then He goes on and says this is holy and pleasing to God. It's holy and pleasing to God. Why is it holy and pleasing to God? Because it's counterculture to the world. It's counterculture to the world. This sums it up. Selflessness mirrors and reflects Jesus dying to self on the cross in order to bring eternal life to many others.

It reflects. It mirrors. And Jesus talked about this so much. Tim mentioned it over there before. Jesus said, you want to be my disciples? Deny yourself, die to self, take up your cross and follow me. And then he goes on and says, if you try and save your life in this world, you'll lose it. But if you choose to lose your life in this world, in me, you'll save it.

And he goes on and says, so what's the profit a person if you gain the whole world and let you lose your own soul? Man, he's being so pointy with them here, but he's trying to get this across to them. This is so important. This is so important. In view of God's mercy, what he's done, you offer your body, everything about you as a living sacrifice, and that's holy and pleasing to God.

Now this is, this is where it gets interesting. This is your spiritual act of worship. I thought singing was worship. I thought I'd just sing songs. No, no. He says this is your spiritual act of worship. Bunch of guys went with Ruth down there and they're picking up stuff in the community to show the community that we are for them, show the community that God loves them.

It's not beyond us to pick up pieces of paper. That's a spiritual act of worship. Nothing wrong with singing. I love singing. But in the West, again, and in the church, we've developed this subculture now, where we're writing songs that sound just like the world. We want to be in the hits, we want to have all that kind of stuff going on, and when you get to that place and you label it and say worship is songs and music, you now have made an idol out of something that is so awesome.

Because the expression of singing worship is so awesome. God does great things. But if you tie that and say that's my spiritual act of worship, it's not right. Your spiritual act of worship is everything that you do alongside that with your body. Anything you don't do with your body, you don't have to worry about it because it's not worship.

So it's whatever you do with your body. So if you've got some stuff going on that you can do without your body, well I guess that doesn't fit in. But I don't know too many people like that unless you astro travel or something. I don't know. You know, but, but that's a whole different message and that'll get you into a whole bigger mess.

So anyway, that's just saying what it is. So your spiritual act of worship. You know what it is? Spiritual act of worship. Here's some things you could do. You could smile at people. You could laugh. You could lend a hand, you could pat them on the back, you could mow their lawn, you could wash their car, babysit their kids, invite them over to dinner so they could see the evidence of Jesus love in your family that might spill over onto them.

You could shout someone a cup of coffee, shout someone a lunch. Everything that we do with our body either represents or misrepresents God. And if you're a living sacrifice, you'll be in the love and generosity camp, another value of ours. See, offer your bodies, living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, spiritual act of worship.

It's amazing. It's amazing. And this is the start of risk. This is the start of risk because it starts with you saying I'm gonna surrender my life to Christ. I'm going to let you have control. I'm going to die to self. That's risking all you have in this world. Now you're in a position to risk all you have in this world.

To see God and his kingdom come more in this world. Paul goes on and gives a little bit more application for him. He says, Don't conform to the pattern of the world. He said, Don't do that. In other words, whatever the world system's doing, don't you fall into that. Don't you try and imitate that. Don't try and mimic that.

Don't fall for the idols in this world. The idol of control. Control is the very same idol that was right around in the garden when Adam and Eve decided we will self govern. God we don't want you to tell us what's right from wrong. We'll decide for ourselves what's right from wrong. Six chapters later it didn't go so good.

Because God's wiping the whole human race out because of the fact that every inclination of the human heart was evil all the time and they had wrecked everything. Fortunately there was a family there that he could start again with, but unfortunately it happened all over again. And it's still happening now.

It's this idol of control. We think we can control our lives and we just can't. It's an idol. Comfort is an idol. Approval is an idol, particularly around your social medias and things like that. You know, I know people that as long as they're getting heaps of likes and dicks and whatever, it's like, Oh, next day, if someone doesn't like something, it's like, Oh, I'm going to die.

No, you're not going to die. You're just getting a bit of discomfort. That's all because you've got the idol of comfort up there. And then the idol of power, where we feel like we can control and manipulate people. And he says, don't do that. Don't conform to any of that. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

This is so amazing. How do you get your mind transformed and renewed to be counter cultural to the rest of the world? When you surrender your life to Christ, when the Holy Spirit comes in and begins to bring revelation to the teachings of Jesus, as outworked by the apostles, you start applying it. Now you move from belief to some unbelief to belief in every area of your life.

And the more you move into areas and more you redeem everything in your life, the more you start believing God. the more you're being conformed to the image of Christ. Oftentimes I say it to when people say, Oh, Jesus said you're born again. Yeah, yeah, that's right. He did use that terminology. And when you receive Christ, there is a birth and that takes place.

But he comes into the temple, your temple. And if you've ever seen pictures of the temple, they had lots of little nooks and crannies and funny little places and stuff they had going on. You're kind of like that. Jesus might, he comes in and he's in the lounge room or maybe he's in the front hallway and he's having a great time because I'd really like to come down and get in the bedroom.

Ooh, no, you're not coming down there. That's my area. Oh, let's talk to you about business. Oh, ah, no, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. See all those areas are what have to be redeemed and when you move from unbelief to belief, you move to blessing and the pressure comes off because then you discover it's not all on you.

It's not all on you. You're trying to be God within your own life. That's what it's about. That's why we use our soap devotions. Simple process. I didn't think it up. Pastor Wayne Guderia thought it up. And it's got a few chapters that you'll read about the Old Covenant so you can see how God dealt with things.

When he was raising up and founding a military nation to deal with the pagan nations. And then you'll have a few chapters that show what it's like for the all nations. That's Israel. This is us in the all nations. And you apply it to that, but it's done in community with others so that we get a collective revelation.

And I think Caesar Kalinowski, I sent some of the stuff out and I'll send you a couple more. I think he's got some things in there to help us understand. He teaches and uses something called the story of God. It's amazing. He tells the whole story of God from Genesis to Revelation in eight minutes. And he teaches people how to do it and then how to help people understand and see the gospel in every area and actually apply that to people's lives.

It's quite amazing what he does. And I think he's got something for us to learn in there. Yeah. Along the way, but the great part about this is that once you in view of God's mercy, offer your body as living sacrifice, holy and pleasing spiritual act of worship. Don't be conformed to the world that you know what you get out of that says, then you'll be able to test and approve what God's will is.

He's good and pleasing and perfect will. Now, we know God's will is for you to be holy as he's holy. He's already told us that. The call is for you to be conformed to the image of Christ and go and help someone else on the same journey. And you do it as a living sacrifice. Man, can you imagine what would happen?

What would happen in the church if every Christ follower actually lived as a living sacrifice? If we really surrendered our lives and said, God, everything that I do with my body, I'm gonna consult you, first and foremost, about what I do. That would change everything. We go, we would then move into those place of living sacrifices where we say like, Paul, it's no longer I that live, it's Christ that lives in me.

And then you know what happens? Then we go back to the very picture at the start. God goes mobile again. He's not relinquished. Well, you got to come to the building to find Jesus and that kind of thing. No, no, no. Jesus is being seen in and through us everywhere that we go. And disciples are being made everywhere.

So this whole RIS thing is an exercise that starts with us and our relationship with God. That's the prayer and fasting. The denying of self, get yourself to position, not to get out of God, but to be with him. God said to Abraham, our father of faith, way back, he says, Ah, I will be your very great reward.

We think our reward is in stuff of this world, it's not. It will never please. You will never be satisfied until you experience an intimate, deep relationship with God. Until you can trust Him in every single area. As living sacrifices. You know what? It would be appropriate for us to have communion this morning.

So I'm going to ask the guys that's handing out communion to come and share the communion. And I just want to talk to us a little bit about the good news of the gospel. Because I don't know where everybody's at, and I don't know, you might be on the journey, not on the journey, still thinking about it, whatever, but just in a nutshell, this might just help you, because we have to understand, it's going to be a bit hard for you to hear, we're really all unbelievers.

Even though we have faith in Christ, we're still unbelievers. Because I guarantee if I sat with you and I pushed on enough buttons, I'd find an area where, you know what? Well, I know God is saying that, and I know I should do that, but I'm not doing that. Well, why aren't you doing that? Well, it's because you really haven't moved on from unbelief in that area.

So it's still there. So here's the gospel. The gospel is the fact that we are broken. Over here, we're broken. We cannot fix ourselves. You look around the world, people treat each other appallingly. It's such a horrible thing for people to witness, because how can this all happen? And unfortunately, sometimes even the Christ followers are not behaving well.

But then every so often you see something that's just so incredible. It could be in the birth of a child, or a sunset, or you see a random act of kindness, and you go, what is this? Well, this is God's original design. That was his original design. And he said to the guys that he, Adam and Eve, we started there, he said, If you just walk with me, you know, we'll walk together.

You know, you know, we can, Paradise can expand over the whole earth. But they decided, no, no, no, we want to self govern. We don't want you to tell us what to do. So they chose to rebel against God. And then sin, and death, and brokenness, and darkness entered. And this chasm between here and here. And we're all trapped over here.

But you know what? We hate brokenness! We all hate it. So we do everything we can to get out of it. So I think, well, if I can just find the right girl or the right guy, then everything's going to be great. But that's a disaster. Well, if I can just make enough money, or if I can just get the best job, or if I can just find, get some more, if I can get more influence and power, and we, but we keep springing back into this brokenness, we can't get out of it.

We are stuck there. We're trapped, and we know that we're trapped. That's the position that humanity was in for about 4, 000 years. And everybody knows I'm not right with God. And I got a bad feeling what awaits me on the other side of death. And we're trapped and we don't know how to get out of it.

There's a conversation that happens between the Godhead, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And they're going, you know what? These guys are in real trouble down there. They can't get out. And the Son says, I'll go. I'll go. I'll sneak in. I'll sneak into their world as a baby born of a virgin. That's Christmas. And then I'll grow up, and then I'll become a man, and then I will show them what you're like, Dad.

I'll show them who you're like, what you're like as a good father. And then when the time's right, I'll pay the penalty for their sins. I'll pay for that, for the sins of the whole world. I'll take the punishment. But on the third day, I'll arise from the dead, and then they'll have opportunity to actually get out of brokenness.

And then he says, whosoever wants to can come. Now the door's open. You can get back into a relationship with God right now that is available to you. Right now. All you have to do is stop trying to fix yourself, acknowledge that you're broken and just. Turn to me, just believe in me, and my spirit will come into you, light will come in and replace darkness, death will be dispelled with life, and then over time, I will use my spirit in you through the teachings of Jesus and the apostles in conjunction with my family, the church, to help you make your way back.

to God's original design. It's a rescue mission, and that's the good news of the gospel. The question you have to ask yourself in the midst of this is, where are you now? We are on this continuum. Are you over here? Are you moving back towards God's original design? Or are you still trapped and broken as trying to figure this thing out and work it out for yourself?

And here's the deal, you have to decide this. You've got to decide this after you know where you are. The next question is, where do you want to be? If you actually like brokenness and go into a crisis attorney, don't do anything. But if you, if you'd like to be here, why on earth, what is stopping you from making the decision just to turn and believe and trust in God to get you back to his original plan.

What was hot? What is holding you back? That prayer or a form of that is something that I pray on a regular basis. Even though I know my sins are forgiven, I know my brokenness and my unbelief is still not. I've still got areas that I still am not fully trusting in, you know? So my prayer is, and I'm going to pray it now, and I'm inviting you, wherever you are, online or in here, if you've never started the journey of trusting God, to just pray it along with me.

You don't have to repeat it, you don't have to do anything like that, I'm just going to model it for you, but you can pray it in your heart as well. I pray this, I go, Father, I know that my sin separated me, and I couldn't make my way back, and I'm so grateful, I'm so grateful that while I was sitting in my brokenness, while I was there, Lord, You just, came down to this earth and you engage with the mess in order to set me free.

And you know what? I'm no longer going to try and fix myself. I'm going to trust you that you will fix me and bring me back to your original design over time in conjunction with your spirit within. Your scriptures that enable to teach me through your people. And father, I submit to that journey. And I say, Jesus, I don't want to be leader of my life.

Every time I'm leader, I wreck it. I want to trust you in every area. So I surrender to you again and say, You're welcome to have a little bit more of the space in my temple, my house. You're willing, you're able to talk to me about other areas that maybe I haven't fully got formed yet. And I will trust you with my eternity.

Father, we do, out of that space, offer our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to you. It's our spiritual act of worship. Not conformed to this world, but transformed. by God and Lord it's out of that space that we can risk everything that we have in this world to see you come so that people will once again see Jesus in the people and we become people of the way Which way?

The people that look the way that Jesus looked, that talk the way that Jesus talked, look the way He walked. Everything about us looks and feels like Jesus.

Okay, as you're holding the communion right now, just hold it in your hands. On the night that Jesus was betrayed, he, he decided to have a meal with his followers. Last thing he did. It wasn't like what we're going to do now. They had a meal together and they sat around and he'd been talking to them about this whole living sacrifice thing that's coming.

He'd been teaching them about how this is gonna work and then somewhere in the conversation, then they passed the bread. And he said, the bread. He said, this bread, it represents my body. He says, every time you eat it in the future, remember me, remember me. The picture that he was showing us was We would feed off his body.

That is how we would get our sustenance. So he said, as you remember, as you have the bread, remember my body broken and you're going to feed off it. We are referred to as the body of Christ. We need each other. God feeds us through each other. So right now, let's remember Jesus sacrifice of his broken body and let's eat together.

I don't know how much later it was in the, in the evening, but they, obviously the conversation that would have gone off in a different direction than trying to understand and get their head around what, what's this body thing, what's that about? And then a little bit later, the wine would come out and then he would say, this wine is the blood of the new covenant.

I can imagine Peter going, what did he say? Did he say the New Covenant? Is this the New Covenant? Is this the one that's going to replace what Moses did? Yeah, that's what he's saying. This is the New Covenant. The New Covenant where you won't have to sacrifice lots and lots of apples animals to try and cover your sin.

But a once off sacrifice that cleanses us from sin, past, present, and future. And that must have been like, must have been one of those moments like, Whoa, the new covenant is coming. He says, yeah, he said, and every time you drink remember that I Shed my blood for your sins He knows you're still gonna muck it up He still loves you It covers past present and future It enables you to continually come to him when you struggle with areas of unbelief and You need help in So let's just remember and let's drink.

This is the blood of the new covenant, the new covenant in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins,

you can pass your glasses to the end,

you guys online. I just need to apologize. I'm really sorry. I didn't tell you to go and get some elements. So please, in your own context, wherever you are as a group there, just come around those, those elements together.

Now you understand where the risk part comes from. It comes from us being close to him. And then out of that is where we'll be able to risk everything else. And that's why the foundational verse of the adjusting of the pylons was they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching. No mention of Moses in there, the apostles teaching and the breaking of bread.

And then out of that. Supernatural things started to happen. I have an expectation that as God makes these adjustments and as we are willing to risk and go and I, I have an expectation we will see more of the miraculous again because God will be able to entrust us to allow this to go through the body where he gets all of the credit and he gets all of the honor out of it.

And then every day they met in a junction point, every day they had something like this where they'd go hang out and they'd talk and they'd encourage, but then also every day they had the communion like that, the communion around a meal, and they'd invite people into their homes and they would love people and they'd help them see the love of Christ in them, it's just amazing, and out of that favour came with everyone, and then the Lord added to their number those being saved, who added?

The Lord. It's not our job. Take that pressure off. We don't get people saved. He does that. He produces the revelation. Our job is to live our lives so well that when they look at us, they can see Christ because we're just living sacrifices unto him. I've asked the team just to sing an old hymn for us. For some of you guys, this will be brand new.

For others, it will be a trip down memory lane, but I want you to hear it. I just want them to sing over us because this whole thing of risk, don't go out like a bull in a china shop and wreck what God's trying to do. There's no rush here. We do our due diligence. And as long as we sacrifice. Everything that we have and we're ready and available.

God will do what he wants to do, but there are some really neat things that God's already beginning to do. So let the Holy Spirit speak to you now, and this will be a great transition into our series next week, which we start on miracles.