"Give Yourself"

March 19, 2023

FBC Baxley

am service

*Annie Armstrong, Joyce Tillman

Welcome radio and online guests…

*It’s ok if you’re broken, unfaithful, lost, we are too and we are here seeking God’s will and way and plan.

We are all prodigals here…

Some rescued….Some Not..

All Loved…

*Acts 4:12

*John 3:16

Sermon Title: “Give Yourself”

Scripture Passage: Romans 12:1-9

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

3 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.

4 For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function,

5 so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.

6 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith;

7 if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; 8 the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.

PRAY

Three Points:

1. How is Your Doctrine

2. How is Your Dedication

3. How is Your Devotion

Focal Text: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service” (Rom. 12:1).

Introduction

Here in chapter 12 in Romans, we are at the the divide of this letter.

There is, in Canada, a place where you can see the Great Divide, where a person is on the “roof of the world” so to speak—from here water flows in opposite directions.

Our text today is like that. When Paul said, “Therefore,” he looked back at the first eleven chapters of his letter, where he had stressed a systematic theology that presents all of the essential facts about man’s relationship to God from a doctrinal standpoint.

When Paul said, “I beseech you . . . that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice,”

he looked at the practical side of religion, the true test of one’s orthodoxy.

Not what we say we believe, but what we do proves the genuineness of what we say we believe.

Unless we put into practice in daily living what we profess to believe, we do not truly believe it!

I. How is your Doctrine?

Doctrine- (A belief or set of beliefs held by the church or other group…)

Paul began the Roman letter by making a clear outline of man’s depraved condition before God.

After some introductory words about himself, the Roman church’s reputation, his changed plans to come to them, and the nature of the gospel he preached, he tackled the sin problem.

In the latter part of chapter 1, he dealt with the gentile world. Although they did not have the Mosaic law, they had a law within their own hearts, which they had violated, failing to live up to the truth they possessed.

For that reason, the Gentiles stood as sinners before God.

In chapter 2, Paul dealt with the Jewish people who had religious privileges but failed to realize their possibilities, violating God’s law and refusing to live up to the light that had been revealed to them.

Paul tied all the strings together in chapter 3, climaxing with the great statement that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (v. 23).

Chapter 4 deals with salvation by faith.

Man has always been saved by faith, even in Old Testament days—it was Abraham’s faith that God counted for righteousness.

In chapter 5 the glorious results of faith are outlined; and in chapter 6 Paul made clear the obligations of one who has been justified by faith, concluding with the timeless declaration that “the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (v. 23).

Chapter 7 pictures the struggle between the old man and the new man in the life of the believer.

Chapter 8 shows the victory that comes to those who are in Christ and the security they enjoy because of his constant presence and unfailing power.

Paul concluded chapter 8 with a glorious statement that nothing is able “to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (v. 39).

How is your doctrine I ask…

Chapters 9 through 11 deal with the Jewish people and are, in a sense, a transition between the doctrinal section and the practical section.

Take note, however, that God loves Israel and stands ready to receive the Jewish people unto himself when they come to Jesus Christ for salvation.

II. How is your Dedication?

Notice the expression “a living sacrifice,” which Paul used to express his concept of dedication.

The people he was writing to—Jewish Christians who had accepted Christ on the day of Pentecost probably made up most of the group—were steeped in the Old Testament Scriptures.

They understood the sacrificial system whereby an animal was slain as an offering to God.

Paul suggested that Christians do not bring dead sacrifices to the altar but rather bring themselves as “living” sacrifices.

Most people do not like the word sacrifice.

To them it suggests abusive self discipline, negativism, and narrowness.

Paul, however, put the word living in front of it and so removed the stigma of Jewish law and set forth an innovation.

Someone translated it, “Put your bodies at God’s disposal as a living thank offering.”

Our bodies are to be made available for God’s service.

He alone knows best how to use them to his glory and to our growth.

In this context, the word body means the total person.

Our hearts, minds, and physical energies should be brought to God for him to use as he sees fit to accomplish his redemptive purpose in the world.

III. How is your Devotion?

We will never be any more dedicated to God than the measure of our love for him.

Matthew 22:36-40

36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Whether we wish it, seek it, or realize it, God loves us.

Even when we devote our minds, hearts, and bodies to selfish ends, he still cares deeply for us and makes his sun shine on the just and unjust.

When we refuse to love God, we are cowardly and selfish. No shame is equal to that of refusing to love the one who loves us so greatly.

Stewardship is more than the giving of money.

It involves a proper attitude toward our material resources and giving a proper share to God.

A person can give without loving; however, a person can never love without giving.

What a revolution would take place in Christian work if God’s people would, first of all, love him and then support God’s work in this world.

When Paul said that the presenting of ourselves to God is our “reasonable” service, he used a word that can best be translated “spiritual.”

Of course, supporting God is reasonable and rational, but Paul meant even more.

We serve God because our spirits are in tune with his Spirit. Even as God’s Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God (8:16), so our spirit testifies by our devotion and dedication that we have been transformed by the Holy Spirit of God.

Conclusion

“Show me a person’s checkbook and I’ll tell you a person's God they love…”

Pastor once preached… A christian needs 3 books; Him book-Bible, Hymn book-worship, and their checkbook.

The work of the Lord involves two things—men and money, people and purses!

It takes both to do the Lord’s work—someone to go and someone to “hold the ropes” while the other serves.

How we serve, however, goes back to what we believe about Christ, about sin, about salvation, and consequently about service.

Paul wrote later in this same chapter about the church being one body in Christ and everyone being a member of the others.

He pointed out that since we have gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, we should exercise those gifts in harmony with God’s will.

How is your doctrine? How is your dedication? How is your devotion?

Each of the three is important! Each one builds on the other; but the climax, the top rung of the ladder, is our devotion to God based on our love for him.

Action Steps:

Take the 20 challenge...Begin to give something…offering envelopes (help our counters and accounting)

Look what $20 can do. (60 families, $1200/week, $4800/month, $57,600/annually.

2. tithe…some of you have been consisitently giving but not tithing or giving a true offering....

3. Give yourself…say yes to the nursery, yes to VBS, yes to teach an adult class, yes to serve...

PRAY

Invitation

“Are you born again?”

Is your name written in the Lambs Book of Life?

“Have you surrendered/repented to Jesus?