Romans 12:1-8
August 23, 2026
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at Lakeshore Avenue Baptist Church, Oakland, CA.
We sacrifice dining out at the House of Prime Ribs in San Francisco when your child’s school tuition comes due. Sacrifice in our daily usage usually connotes something disappointing.
Parents of Olympic athletes make economic sacrifices for the training of their children in the hope of a medal. Employees are asked to sacrifice raises or benefits when a company falls on hard times. When rising inflation and the costs of living not keeping pace with our salaries, putting food on the table leads to sacrificing adding more to your retirement. We sacrifice tasty snacks for more staple foods.
A heroic soldier sacrifices his life to save his comrades. This example is one of the few involving physical body, and in that case, sometimes sacrifice means death or severe injury.
“Living” Sacrifice
Paul’s message to the Roman church calls on believers to present their bodies as “living” sacrifices. This does not seem to suggest that we take up the cross and die physically in the course of our discipleship. But as we know in the history of the Christian journey that the cost of discipleship has led to dying for our faith.
Instead of actually dying and no longer being a part of this world, Paul is discerning that sacrifice is living out the will of God. In addition to our mind, heart, and soul, sacrifice also includes our body to live out our discipleship in God.
Paul indicates that this may mean that we actually do things that will put us outside the norms of behavior for our society. It means wrapping our minds around what we do day to day in our lives that expresses God’s will.
We tend to think that on Sunday is the only time we worship God—it happens at Lakeshore from 10:00 to 11:15. But worship to God is all the time—24 hours a day, 7 days a week. When you rise in the morning, in the activities you do during the waking hours, and when you retire at the end of the day. We worship God in the ways we think, dwell, and act. Worship is our lifestyle, our way of life.
In the times of Paul, he was pushing against the imperial control of Rome that was powerful, pervasive and cunning. Rome was able to claim devotion and demand sacrifices from its subjects. Rome’s total domination made idolatrous claims on the lives of people.
Paul said, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (12:2) Comparing and in contrast to this imperial power, Paul is calling for resistance and an alternative society. It’s counter-cultural. It was literally a sacrificial life as Christians in the face of the Roman empire.
True Church
Today, without argument, we can say that our country’s influence in the world particularly in its market economy is global domination. When our family traveled to China last month, we saw how pervasive market competition was.
We avoided WeChat and only used Apple text because we didn’t want China to spy on us. We marveled their bullet trains and wish that Amtrak can travel faster. Already in our minds, we were being influenced by how their transportation was superior than ours.
We heard about the “Silk and Belt Road” filling the vacuum when the US abandons foreign aid to other countries in the world. Unlike the Roman empire that dominated the world in might, the US is dominating and competing in the world for economic influence.
Our country’s market economy is made evident on how we watch the Dow Jones numbers several times a day. This reveals how our investment portfolios are doing better or not is more important than whoever political leader may be living in the White House today. It is in the face of this society’s idols that demand devotion and sacrifice. We worship our investment portfolios that distracts us from God.
So, what is true worship? Worship of the true God can be no other than the giving of one’s total self as a “living sacrifice.” This is true worship or spiritual worship that one must offer. The offering of one’s whole self is the only holy and acceptable worship.
We do not and must not worship our country regardless how powerful it may be. We do not and must not worship the almighty dollar to think that it would bring us everlasting happiness.
What would true worship look like at Lakeshore?
In 8 short verses, Paul shares the truth about what the faithful must do in order to not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of our minds. True worship entails that we become “living sacrifices” to mean that we give 100% to God and not only when it’s convenient or when we have a few minutes still to play before the game clock runs out of seconds.
We are called to make a radical commitment to God and the church. It’s between choosing whether you are paying your membership to a country club or you tithe to the church to proclaim Good News in the world. It means that while everyone else on your street are sleeping in on Sunday morning, you get up to come to Lakeshore because if you don’t, we will miss you and so will God.
We are called to sacred mindfulness to act on behalf of Christ when we notice the homeless who needs a home, the hungry who needs a bite to eat, the prisoner who needs forgiveness and a warm welcome back to fellowship. We are always mindful of who may need a helping hand.
We are called to offering transformative grace because in Christ, we don’t have an eye for an eye or a tooth for a tooth. If we did that, very soon, none of us would be able to see or be able to chew that prime rib at the House of Prime Rib! Any vengeance is for God to do and our response is to offer love. Grace means that second chances and new beginnings are always available to us and to others.
We are called to intentional community building toward a unity that can only be experienced in Christ. Think about this—if we were to leave it up to chance or randomness, this group of people wouldn’t necessarily be together. Instead, we may be more secured in our own little tribes. But we intentionally, deliberatively come together so that we will be a closer resemblance to becoming the beloved community in the sight of the world and God.
We are called to recognize and to value the many gifts and abilities that we have so that we may use them not for our own personal gains, but to integrate them with one another to become an effective Body of Christ, the true worshiping community in Oakland. When we are together, we are greater than the sum of the parts.
Holy Spirit
When we are not conforming to the world; when we are swimming upstream and not just going with the flow of things, what would empower us to reclaim and embody an identity as an alternative community to the rest of the world?
When we build a roaring and ongoing campfire like we did at the church retreat, it requires a free-flow of air. We would stack the tinder of small twigs and then the medium size branches, and finally the bigger logs on top. But through the stack of wood, there would be gaps for the free-flowing air to keep the fire going.
In the church, this would be the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit, we would only have conforming churches; we would only have churches with respiratory failure. The church campfire would quickly burn out. If churches are not inspired by the Spirit, they will eventually expire. Without the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the church will have a date of expiration.
When the Holy Spirit dwells in us at Lakeshore, we will have new vitality to be together and work together and serve together. Soon, we’ll have a new way of seeing things that perhaps have been hidden by our default and traditions. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, our fellowship will stand in contrast to the ways of the world.
People who walk by our church will no longer only see a beige building that has just become a part of their daily scenery, but rather they will begin to see that LABC is an alternative reality inspired by God and it won’t expire.
One Body in Christ
How are we going to become this alternative reality from the world? How are we going to not naturally and so ever-tempting to conform to this world? How are we going to be transformed when there are just so many challenges facing our church today?
The answer is found in Paul’s letter to the Romans. “We who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another.” (12:5) We are to work together.
While there are certainly church members who may think a bit highly of themselves (You know who you are!), there are also those with obvious gifts and skills who may not think highly enough of themselves, assuming that they are not “good enough” to contribute. Paul challenges us that everyone—every member of the body of Christ in the church—has a gift to contribute to the fully functioning of that body.
This means that everyone’s gifts are not only present, but needed for the living body of Christ to function in the world, as it seeks and discern and live out the will of God. This is what we mean by being a “living sacrifice!”
As some of you know, I like baseball because my father took my brothers and me to Fenway Park in Boston to watch the Red Sox. By the way, the Red Sox are playing the Giants right now! The score is: So, when the team needs to advance the runners on base or even score another run from third base, the batter hits a sacrifice fly ball. The batter sacrifices his hit so that his team would stay alive and maybe even win the game. Are we willing to hit sacrifice flyballs so that our church can continue to play and win the game?
Dancing Bigger
A couple of weeks ago, I confessed that I don’t know how to swim. Today, I have another confession! I don’t like to dance! I used to do the cha cha cha or the do-si-do, but with today’sfreely moving of the body types of dancing, I am a bit self-conscious!
Now imagine what dancing might mean to being a “living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God; not be conformed to this world, but be transformed.” I am willing to sacrifice my inhibitions and over-self-consciousness, to learn how to dance with you.
The legendary dancer Judith Jamison once said, “Dance is bigger than the physical body. Think bigger than that. When you extend your arm, it doesn’t stop at the end of your fingers, because you’re dancing bigger than that; you’re dancing spirit.”
When we are dancing together in our discipleship at LABC, the Spirit of God utilizing our many and different gifts, connecting us as members one to another, we are living sacrifices for the Lord at this corner of Oakland, to begin transforming the world in the name of God.
Let us pray.
Lord, we want you to lead us to become dancing spirits of your transformed and renewed community in the world. Lead us in our dancing steps to be living sacrifices in order to be an alternative way of life from this world where people may find hope, joy, and love. Lead us to reach out beyond the shadows of this church to proclaim the year of the Lord is here. We pray with our earnest faith and convictions. Amen.
Benediction
God renews our energy and confirms our gifts.
In Christ, we are drawn away from conformity to the world.
In Christ and the Holy Spirit, we are transformed to be living sacrifices,
To be in community with one another. Amen.