Living Sacrifices

Good morning. Everybody have a good fourth? Enjoy your freedom. We are truly free indeed in Christ Jesus. Let's bow our heads in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank You that we have this opportunity to look into Your Word.

And Father, You will supply us what we need, Father, in Christ. You are the vine. all sorts of life comes from you. And we're so thankful for who you are and how you've revealed yourself to us in this body. We praise you and thank you for your written word that reveals yourself to us. We praise you in Christ Jesus' name. I'll have you turn to Romans 12.

I thought this would apply to our hearts as Andrew's been going through Ephesians. It has kind of the same rhythm that Ephesians has from Ephesians 4 as these imperatives are displayed to us. and so in Romans 12 we'll start reading in verse 1 through 13 I appeal to you therefore brothers by the mercy of God to present your bodies as living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God which is your spiritual worship do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that by testing you may discern what the will of God is, what is good and acceptable and perfect. For by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us. Let us use them if it's prophecy in proportion to our faith if service in our serving and the one who teaches in his teaching the one who exhorts in his exhortation the one who contributes in generosity the one who leads with zeal and the one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness. Let love be genuine.

Abhor what is evil. Hold fast to what is good. love one another with brotherly affection outdo one another in showing honor do not be slothful and zeal be fervent in spirit serve the Lord, rejoice in hope be patient in tribulation be constant in prayer contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality verse 1 what's it look like to be a living sacrifice the Puritans brought into play that it's every aspect of our life it's everything you do throughout the week and the pinnacle of it is here this is where we come together all our hardships, all our suffering, all our heartaches, all our weaknesses, and we find strength in the gospel. We have to be reminded what Romans he's displayed already.

The power of the gospel that's saved also sustains us and gives us strength throughout our week. And work is worship. the Puritans really pushed that from a woman changing diapers to taking kids to school to a man on the shop at Honda to her teachers. I'm looking at all this room and the beauty of Christ's church is we're so different and yet we have one goal and it's grounded in the gospel of Christ which is the power of God as He revealed Himself to us.

In that chapter 1 It's a display of what is going on. That we were once that way. We never gave thanks. We thought we knew God. We pretended maybe in our religious walking, maybe under our mother and father's care to just, mm, Jesus. Yep.

We never gave thanks. We may have gave it with an outward appearance, and you know that familiar passage? Although they knew God, they neither glorified God as God or gave thanks to him, but became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. And it goes on to the depravity that we could still be in. and he reminds us of this bond we have in the spirit of God.

I love that song by R.C. Sproul, A Secret Place. That is only obtainable as a relationship with Christ grows and through hardship and difficulties, just, you know, he understands us and knows us more than we know ourselves. we call out to the father and by faith and faith is the pinnacle of this but we're reminded devotion and worship are all tied in this so paul says i appeal to you therefore brothers by the mercies of God Understand these mercies What are they?

That he's redeemed us out of darkness into his glorious light. If we were a peasant working for a king, he would call us into the king's table. He would adopt us as his own. And he would treat us as his own. That was Christ's done. We were actually objects of wrath.

And God redeemed us into this glorious place to be a living sacrifice. That passage that they related to was in 1 Corinthians 10.31. whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God, whether you eat or drink, whatever you do. So this is the living sacrifice. The Old Testament required a sacrifice, but it was dead, wasn't it? It was dead. This is something we can present to God, our very being.

Amen. in knowing all these gifts that He has given us, friends, family. And this is wholly acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Now, I don't know if you ever thought about this. I'm sure you have. About your devotion in your job being worship. Now that's, I'm a hog farmer.

And the only way a hog displays the glory of God is being a hog. But we're the ones that have all the brilliance and yet we don't glorify God. So where am I going with this? This is our spiritual worship. and everything we do on a personal level is coming to a head here and ultimately, as we celebrate the table later, to the consummation. It's always ahead.

It's a life filled with hope. We are hope-driven because of the gospel. The gospel makes us know and understand by faith that we are acceptable to God, that because he is pure and holy that Christ had to go to the cross to make it reconciles to God. And we read in the scriptures what was it like for Enoch to walk with God? What was his character like that God accepted him and he didn't face death?

Have you ever meditated on that? What? He was fully consumed with who God was. everything that that god does we should desire more to do and that's that's the this whole not conforming to world and i'm thankful sam for your sunday school lesson because those are the attacks of christianity in our culture the subtlety in your workplace in your families there's things that disturb us and we're disturbed to a point of not resting in Christ holy not resting in his what he promises in John that I am the true vine and apart from me you can do nothing he is a source of our very life that we were we were wanderers it should trouble us in our unbelieving family and friends and our co-workers that they're wandering through this land with no hope they're wandering because they don't have a purpose they have no purpose Christ came and redeemed the people for himself and now we have this purpose and it's not just for self And the battle of self is evident.

The battle with our own indwelling sin is evident. I wanted to read something from Puritan's Act. It's a little lengthy, but just hear me out. It's a prayer to the Lord. He says, O Lord, bend my hands and cut them off, for I have often struck thee with wayward will. when these fingers should embrace thee by faith I am not yet weaned from my created glory honor and wisdom and steam of others for I have a secret motive to eye my name in all I do let me not speak the word sin but see the thing itself give me to view and discover sinfulness and know that though my sins are crucified They are never wholly mortified.

Hatred, malice, ill will, vain glory that hungers for and hunts after man's approval and applause. All are crucified and forgiven. But they rise again in my sinful heart. Pride then dwells that discourages us. Christ says, come, come. Be supplied by me. because your pride has taken you to a place, that indwelling pride, you think you're so self-sufficient.

But God brings us to a place where we know there's no other way. There's no other way. I rest in you. I want that secret place in God own heart Our spirit that he has given us for the believers it gives us such hope Look back in chapter 8, and we're reminded of these in Sam, your wife's favorite verse, 8-1. No condemnation. That should strengthen us by this gospel. to be living sacrifice look what it says in verse 5 for those who live according to the flesh set their minds on things of the flesh but those who live according to the spirit set their minds on things of the spirit which is the kingdom of Christ for to set the mind on the flesh is death but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace the mind is set on the flesh is hostile to God.

It does not submit to God's law. Indeed it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. So there's our there's where we're reconciled to Him. We're confident in Him. And we find at the end of that chapter that we are more than conquerors in Him if we're resting in Him.

Confiding in Him. let's move on this this renewal of our mind that by testing you may discern the will of god as good and acceptable and perfect it is a devoted it is a devoted anticipation what the kingdom of christ is all about it does not seek others approval or it's it's thinking of others more highly. He goes in verse 3 that kind of ties all together. This testing must be with God's word.

But it must be attached to obedience. That cold word, obedience. No. No, it's not. You're walking as Adam walked with the Lord in the garden. The world is like the total eclipse. did the sun lose its heat during the eclipse did everybody see the eclipse raise your hand if you saw the eclipse it's pretty awesome wasn't it the sun shone just as bright but it is covered for a moment satan's task and we're we're his enemy he's our accuser he wants to deceive and attack everyone in here that's in christ jesus if you're not in christ for your he's not going to bother you.

He wants to cover the glory of God. So we don't find this what he's promised here. Being devoted in worship. The psalmist go to this time and time again. May the meditations of mine and my heart be pleasing in your sight, O God. If If Christ hadn't come, we couldn't stand before God and it'd be pleasing.

Everything in the old was just looking forward to the time we live in. We live in a blessed time of redemption. At times we get disheartened and discouraged. But that will that David says in Psalm 34, I will extol the Lord at all times. My praise will always be on his lips. in the ESV. I always memorize it from the NIV.

But it's the same thing. I want Christ to be magnified in my life. As I go to work, as I'm interacting with people, I want his name to be known by the grace and the kindness. I'm carrying this treasure, as Paul said in Corinthians. We're weak vessels. We can crack. but it's a aroma to Christ and to God our Father but it's to the ones who will believe I'm pulling out, I messed that up it's a aroma to those that will be saved but it's a stench of death to those who are perishing we want we want this sacrifice that is living in us to be acceptable to God.

So we must be Christ-centered. In obedience, we've got to be reminded and have some biblical imagination of what it will be like looking ahead, walking with God in the garden. Our minds can't wrap around it, can they? Worship will be complete. But this is the task ahead for us as he goes on in this. The to-do list to guard our hearts.

We have to move away from self and rely on the Spirit of God in confession and asking forgiveness to others, in our families, in our co-workers, whether they understand it or not, they need to see Christ displayed in vessels that are unworthy, but worthy only in Him. So he says this, be transformed by this renewal of your mind is a process of sanctification, testing that you may discern what the will of God, What is good, acceptable, and perfect? And we know that that will is displayed as he proclaimed the Sermon on the Mount.

Let your yes be yes, your no be no. Your word means a lot You know our society used to be my great would trade farms from a buggy because the word meant something Value your words as ambassador of Christ and let your yes be yes and no be no. No, I'm not going to be involved in crude joking. I think of our youngsters and what they're around in the schools.

And are adults also in your shop places? No. And yes, to the will of God, what I want to live. These are a... It's a beautiful thing that God accepts us because of Christ. And he goes on in verse 3, This grace has been given to me, I say to everyone among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think but to think with sober judgment each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

For as in one body there are many members and the members do not have the same function so you know I look around this room and there's so many different servants. We all serve and we're able to serve but you all serve in a different manner. To be in leadership is not any different. It's different in a sense of our duties but my wife's looking at me. Can she hear me?

She's going to... Now that wiped my train of thought. But we're all different in our purposes. how do we learn to serve? How do we know our gifts? We just dive in. We dive in and we love Christ.

We love His church. I've done everything here. I miss being a deacon. That was fun. Fixing things. there's many tasks to do, but we're all different. And we're all the same.

See, we're the same. You know, Paul says that early on, there's no one righteous, not even one. We're all sinners that's been redeemed in this beautiful body that someday, someday, we will be the bride going to our Redeemer. That's breathtaking. But to be a part of it, it calls us. And it's not a hard task, is it?

If we love Christ, we should be asking at a young age or even our new members here that, what's my place in this body? And I'm thankful for some evangelism coming on. That excites my heart. it's just great to see people serving Christ we're strengthened by it our worship as we serve one another is this is what this living sacrifice is all about it's the body and it's always a concern of the leadership uniting everybody being one in Christ it's one spirit one in Christ We look for the weeds to creep up.

It's like a garden. You don't want weeds in a garden. You want it clean. You want the fruit of the gospel to nourish the church. So we have these imperatives and these gifts. They differ according to the grace given to us. let us use them if it's prophecy in proportion to our faith if service in our serving let me just talk about prophecy there's no prophecy now I'm not going to tell you the future we know the future and the word of God tells you it's coming the Lord is coming that's the prophecy we proclaim Christ is proclaimed to the proportion of faith and service we can all serve in our serving the one who teaches in his teaching the one who exhorts in his exhortation the one who contributes in generosity and the one who leads with zeal and the one who does acts of mercy in cheerfulness and then one of my favorite I have a lot of favorites in verse, you ever have a lot of favorites That's my favorite.

No, that's my favorite. It's powerful because it shows our hearts. He said, let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil. Hold fast to what is good. Christ showed us what love looked like.

It was genuine. It was genuine. As Christ wept upon Jerusalem, we should weep upon the lost and I know my own heart I don't weep enough there's areas in my heart that I know I need be more genuine loving one another it's pretty easy in this church because we do because the word of God has been displayed over the years we know what brotherly affection is.

Outdo one another showing honor. This is the same, Christ gave the Spirit of God to indwell us, to humble us, because we are needing humbled. We need the same Spirit to testify, to show us our weaknesses, because we need sanctified. because if we truly see the holiness of God, we would be like Isaiah and fall on our knees and say, Lord, I'm a man of unclean lips.

Depart from me. But no, He brings us into this place so we can grow and that we would bring glory to God. That the unbelievers in this place would know that we love one another. because we care for one another with not just words, but actions. Be fervent in spirit. Serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope.

Be patient in tribulation. Be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and to seek to show hospitality. You know our deacons, they show a lot of goodness in this community. That's what we're called to do. But we're not only called to do it as a church, but as you're in your families, in your workplaces, being kind and genuine. not like the bud light love I love you man that's the world the world the world is passing away what we have in Christ look how David looked in the psalm look at psalm 34 in way of bringing these things in place in your life we see this act of the will that David has It's a personal devotion.

It starts with him. Yes, this was a hymn for the gathering of people of God, but this was out of the very heart that seeked after God Himself. and see it's similar to Romans 12 in a sense in view of God's mercies he understood God had delivered him from the king he was facing death and we get this foreshadowing of the gospel okay it's fulfilled in Christ he says I sought the Lord he answered me and delivered me from all my fears Those who look to Him are radiant. Their faces are never be shamed.

Remember Adam and Eve when they were first shamed in the garden? This devotion to God. David's confident for who God is. His very life was at stake. He says, this poor man cried and the Lord heard him. He saved him out of all his troubles. and we know there's many troubles in this life but if the Lord is on our side we are more than conquerors we are wrapped in the cover of His wings He says taste and see the Lord is good I know there's some people in here that haven't accepted Christ and have tasted to see the Lord is good and if you refuse that it's not a good thing.

Young people, today is the day of salvation. Older people, today is the day of salvation. You can meet anybody in this church that knows Christ and we will take you aside and talk to you and pray with you that we don want anybody to not hear the message of the gospel The gospel keeps us in the loving arms of God. We can't pretend religion. True religion, James says, is the one who looks after orphans and widows. true religion that walks with God.

He says, Fear the Lord, you His saints. Those who fear Him have no lack. There's no lack. There might be things in my own heart that I want and desire and that's where I need to be conformed. But we lack nothing because He will supply us with all we need. Devotion.

Worship. Everybody's going back to work tomorrow? Who's going back to work? Raise your hand. Real excited, aren't you? Now you're going to devote your day.

I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise will always be with me. it's not like you're going around and you're preaching yourself. You're meditating on how good God is. I've got this job because I can supply my family. And more than that, I can give to the church. I can help the needy.

I can do what God's called me to because of Christ Jesus. He's fulfilled everything. He is our hope. that your very life would be moved by this renewing of our mind our thought, our prayer room we would take more time in prayer we would take more time confessing our weaknesses the Puritan says the memory of my great sins my many temptation my falls bring afresh in my mind the remembrance of thy great help of thy support from heaven of the great grace that saved such a rich as I am.

There is no treasure so wonderful as that continuous experience of thy grace towards me which alone can subdue the risings of sin within. Give me more of it. Give me more of that. Grace would abound and sin would leave. Someday, someday, as we celebrate this table today, we are a people of hope. And hope will motivate you.

For it's the love of Christ, the love of Christ that compels us we no longer live for ourselves but for him who was raised him who bore the wrath that was due us sits and awaits us how great a God we serve let's bow in prayer Heavenly Father we are We are privileged in Christ. Help us, Father, to serve you this week, to serve the church, to pray for one another, to help our love be genuine. Lord, we are vessels for your glory, and at times we don't feel like vessels.

We feel like empty pots because we have not sought you as we would. Father, help the unbeliever in this room to seek you, to cry out to you. It's only in Christ Jesus you will answer that prayer. And we thank you and praise you in Christ Jesus' name. Amen.