Romans | Week 6 | Hunter Perry | Echoes Church

The big idea

The gospel should reorient everything in your life around itself — offering your body as a living sacrifice and letting God transform your mind, rather than living out of guilt and performance.

Because of everything God has already done for you, you don't have to earn His approval — you get to respond to His grace. There's a better way than being shaped by the world's performance-driven customs: offering your whole life to God as a living sacrifice and letting Him transform how you think, so your life reflects Jesus instead of just copying the world around you.

Point 1 of 7

Pastor Hunter points out that Paul begins with the word 'therefore,' which points back to everything God has done in Romans 1-11: saving us, breaking sin's power, giving His Spirit, and adopting us into His family. Romans 12 asks what we're going to do in response to that grace.

Point 2 of 7

Using the illustration of two fish swimming, one unaware of the water he's in, Pastor Hunter warns that we can be shaped by the world's customs without noticing. He unpacks the Greek word for 'copy' as an outward act that doesn't reflect what's inside, and describes the world's message as 'your value is earned, so perform,' which leaves people exhausted and never satisfied.

Point 3 of 7

Pastor Hunter clarifies that we don't offer our lives to earn God's favor; Jesus already lived the perfect life and paid for sin, so surrender flows from grace already given, not guilt still owed.

Point 4 of 7

He explains that Paul says 'offer your body' because your body — your mind, words, desires, habits — is where worship becomes visible to others. He gives five practical areas: affection, attention, words, actions, and direction, and compares daily surrender to putting on sunscreen — yesterday's surrender doesn't cover today's temptation.

Point 5 of 7

Pastor Hunter notes the tension in the phrase 'living sacrifice' — Old Testament sacrifices died once, but now we die daily to the areas we try to control that only God can. He warns that whatever we keep off the altar will end up keeping us from God, but surrender opens up freedom and peace on the other side.

Point 6 of 7

Drawing on 2 Corinthians 10:3-5, he explains that every action starts as a thought, and lies we've believed become the lens we see life through. He shares his own story of a panic attack after a sermon he felt was terrible, and how God met him in that despair to remind him that his inadequacy was the point — he needed God, not self-confidence.

Point 7 of 7

Pastor Hunter walks through a series of 'if Jesus says' statements — new creation, chosen, no condemnation, sufficient grace — insisting that only the Creator gets to define His creation. He ties this back to the practical steps of finding the lie, speaking the truth, and writing it down.

Take it into your week

There's a better way than earning your worth — put it on the altar and let God have the final word.