Europe Olivet Center Members offered Sunday Service on June 28th, with the message from Romans 12:1-2. Pastor Jeremiah exhorted the congregation to be transformed by the renewing of their minds.
God’s mercy is free, but he asks for an offering, and this is related to the spiritual act of worship we ought to give. In Exodus 34:20 it is said to not come empty handed before God, but to offer the firstborn. The first born symbolizes the best and the whole. God does not need anything but he asks us to offer our bodies first as living sacrifices. This talks about the heart, according to each person’s heart God decides whether He will accept the offering or not.
God requires a repentant heart, a mind that is being renewed by keep moving toward God. This is not easy, people tend to stay in their comfort zone, where everything is in their control. But moving towards God, we come to know Him more and more and then we are able to approve His will and to contain it in us.
Making offering is like preparing the container to receive the will of God. Because if we just receive the will of God, do we have the ears to hear and the eyes to see? We need to be connected to God first, making offering is our preparation to understand His good and pleasing will.
If we cannot understand the reason is within us not God. We should not conform to the pattern of this world any longer, because the world cannot understand God’s will. We need to seek God and deny ourselves. Keep laying down oneself is not easy, where does the strength come from? It comes from Jesus.
The cross seems powerless but behind the cross there is resurrection. The strength does not come from us but from the cross. Jesus went this path first for us, even though he did not commit any sin, he showed this path to us. Whether we can also walk this path depends on whether we connect with Jesus. He already showed us the life after the cross, there is resurrection. Following this, we also offer first.
Great grace came down as members meditated on the the path that Jesus took and the meaning of giving the body as a living sacrifice. May we be able to renew our minds and to test the good and pleasing will of God by seeking Him more.