The message builds from a simple opening observation—“I will hasten” (to God)—into a full-hearted call to put firebehind our worship and discipleship. The pastor frames the midweek gathering as more than a placeholder between Sundays: it is meant to strengthen, encourage, sharpen, and sober God’s people for real relationship with Him. From that tone of urgency, he moves to teach a practical pattern of prayer and then settles into a single, piercing verse: Romans 12:1—present your bodies a living sacrifice. The sermon urges believers to exchange casual, leftover religion for a whole-life, embodied offering to God that is “holy, acceptable,” and—strikingly—“reasonable.”

1) The Spirit of the Service: Put “Haste” and Weight Behind Worship

The pastor uses “I will hasten” to challenge a casual approach to God. He notes there is a place for comfort in daily life, but God’s house should feel notably different—not for show, but to stir earnestness. Even modest external choices (like attire) can reflect and reinforce an intentional heart posture: we are here to meet with the Almighty, not to punch a spiritual time card. That mindset shift—coming ready to hurry toward God—changes how we sing, pray, listen, and obey.

2) Prayer That Reorders the Heart: ACTS

Before opening Romans 12, the pastor commends a simple but searching prayer framework that keeps us from treating God like a vending machine. Using A.C.T.S., he calls for daily, private prayer that places relationship before requests:

• Adoration — Start with praise: tell God who He is and how great He has been.
• Confession — Be honest about daily sin: laziness, pride, crossed spirit, careless words, and more. God promises cleansing when we confess.
• Thanksgiving — Don’t sprint past gratitude. We would consider it rude if our family only asked and never thanked; God deserves better.
• Supplication — Only after adoration, confession, and thanksgiving do we present needs with a humbled, grateful heart.

This simple order can “revolutionize” prayer by resetting the soul’s priorities and softening it to God’s will.

3) The Theological Setup (Romans 11:36): Everything Is Of, Through, and To God

Before Paul asks for our bodies in Romans 12, he bursts into doxology (Romans 11:36):

“For of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things.”

The pastor unpacks that line plainly:

• Of Him: All we have—money, abilities, opportunities, health—originated with God. If we say “I worked for it,” then who gave the strength, the mind, the breath?
• Through Him: As believers, we can do nothing of lasting value apart from Christ; God’s purposes must run through His enabling.
• To Him: Our work, home life, media intake, and private habits are not “ours.” We were bought with a price. Everything returns to God as worship.

This sweeping frame reframes “ordinary life”: tomorrow’s job and tonight’s choices are unto the Lord, not just for a paycheck or personal downtime.

4) The Demand of Mercy (Romans 12:1): Present Your Bodies—A LivingSacrifice

Paul “beseeches”—begs—the church, “by the mercies of God,” to present their bodies as a living sacrifice. The pastor stresses three emphases:

1. Bodies means bodies. God cares what we do with our physical frame. Stewarding health and energy matters because we have one body with which to serve God.
2. Living, not dead. A dead sacrifice gives its life once; a living sacrifice gives itself day in, day out. Students, parents, singles, seniors—no one is exempt from daily offering.
3. All, not leftovers. A sacrifice is total. Modern Christianity often gives God “what’s left”—time, attention, money, or service scraped from the margins. But the logic of mercy demands all.

To expose half-measures, the pastor turns to Malachi 1. Israel offered blind, lame, diseased animals, keeping the best for themselves—an insult masked as worship. Translated to today: giving God our unusable hours, leftover strength, or discarded things, while reserving prime energy for ourselves, is the same spirit. God would not take that from a governor; how can it be fit for a King?

5) “Reasonable Service”: Not Extra, Not Heroic—Expected

Paul labels this total-life devotion “reasonable service.” The pastor underscores that God is not impressed by ministry résumés—the years, the titles, the church launches. He is honored by faithful, all-in obedience that flows from the mercy we’ve received. Christians shouldn’t expect applause for doing what is expected. Mercy received requires life returned.

6) Diagnosing Soft Faith: Where Casual Christianity Shows Up

The pastor names patterns that keep believers from Romans 12:1 devotion:

• Leftover Time: “I’m too busy to serve” becomes the norm; worship and service are optional, if convenient.
• Religious Outsourcing: Expecting “staff” to do the work of the ministry while remaining spectators.
• Convenience Giving: Treating offerings as disposable or second-rate, and treating church needs as a dumping ground for what we no longer want.
• Unexamined Priorities: Spending the best attention on self (work, screens, hobbies) and bringing God the dregs.
• Underused Gifts: Gifts and skills stay idle rather than being offered to build up the body.

By contrast, the pastor commends the quiet heroism of members who notice needs and step in—repairing, building, fixing, teaching, and bringing their skill set to God. That is what a healthy church looks like: people presenting their bodies.

Importantly, the pastor refuses to launch new ministries without people willing to own them. The church should pray for workers rather than piling more on a few. God’s pattern is not overworking a handful but calling many to say, “Here am I; send me.”

7) Honest Self-Inventory: What Percentage Belongs to God?

The sermon’s probing application is a simple, unsettling question:
“What percentage of your life is actually on the altar?”
At work? At home? In thought life? In service? In school? With media? With money? Many might discover a number far below what they’d assume—perhaps 20% or less—because we instinctively hold on to “our life.”

But the pastor makes a practical observation: we aren’t even good at satisfying ourselves. The more we try to “make life good for me,” the more we trip into want. Only under Christ’s shepherding—“The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want”—does the soul rest and flourish. The issue is not that God is a “genie in the sky,” but that He is a loving Fatherwho wants His children to grow, to become their best in Him, and to receive the blessings that attend total surrender.

8) The Binary of Devotion: All-In or All-Out

The pastor ties the church’s theme (“All In”) directly to Romans 12:1. There is no workable middle between self-rule and God-rule. If our life is not wholly yielded—body and all—then in practice we are all-out, no matter our language or labels. Paul’s plea (“I beseech you”) confronts the middle and calls for a decisive act: present your body.

9) The Take-Home Assignments

• Pray with ACTS this week. Let adoration, confession, and thanksgiving prepare your heart before you ask.
• Do a Romans 12:1 audit. Name concrete areas not yet on the altar—time blocks, habits, resources, skills—and lay them down.
• Engage your body. Steward health and energy as ministry assets.
• Offer your craft. Identify one skill you can bring to the body (teaching, building, tech, mercy, organization, music, administration), and volunteer it.
• Give God your best. Replace “blind/lame” leftovers with first-rate offerings of time, attention, and resources.
• Reframe daily life. Walk into work, school, and home conscious that everything is of, through, and to God.

10) Closing Exhortation

Because of mercy, the only sensible response is total surrender. God gave His only Son—not a spare—for our salvation; He does not ask for applause but for our bodies. Presenting ourselves as a living sacrifice is not extreme; it is reasonable. Anything less slips into the soft religion that withholds what belongs to God.

The final invitation is simple and searching: What part of me have I not laid on the altar? Place it there—today—and live the Psalm 23 life under a Shepherd who removes want by owning all of you.