The kingdom life (Romans 12:1-2)

INTRODUCTION

The moment we are born we are being trained, taught, swayed to one side or the other in this life.

Either being filled with the things of God and his ways.

or

being saturated with the ways the world has deemed right and normal.

we are literally like sponges everything we take into our lives will shape us and change us into the image of the things we follow.

So the question of the night is what image have you been being made into.

what is leading your life?

who or what is your teachers?

who or what do you belong to?

what are you following day in and day out?

we are going to see tonight what kind of life God calls us to live.

what motivates us to live that life

how we successfully live out the life Gods calling us into.

Romans 12:1–2 (CSB)

1 (a) Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, (b) I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.

The new life is a sacrifice (vs.1b)

(b) I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship.

Paul is urging us!

Pleading with us!

Exhorting us!

Present, offer, give

your bodies, your ways, your life, your behaviors

your everything!!

as a living sacrifice to God.

offer yourself to God as a sacrifice?

what is Paul saying?

That we need to build altars and sacrifice our lives.

Like Abraham was going to do to Isaac in the old testament?

Or like the bulls and rams God called Israel to sacrifice?

What is this sacrifice and what is it for what does it do?

Is it to gain Gods favor?

Is it to gain salvation or forgivness?

I thought Jesus was the only sacrifice i needed?

Hebrews 10:1–4 (CSB)

1 Since the law has only a shadow of the good things to come, and not the reality itself of those things, it can never perfect the worshipers by the same sacrifices they continually offer year after year. 2 Otherwise, wouldn’t they have stopped being offered, since the worshipers, purified once and for all, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? 3 But in the sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year after year. 4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

the blood of bulls and goats could never take away sins, neither could our own blood,

but we see that these sacrifices were to make the people conscience of their sin to recognize it. (could this be apart of our sacrifice? take note) vs 3.

In our sacrifices there is a reminder of our sin.

Hebrews 10:9–14 (CSB)

9 he then says, See, I have come to do your will. He takes away the first to establish the second. 10 By this will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all time.

11 Every priest stands day after day ministering and offering the same sacrifices time after time, which can never take away sins. 12 But this man, after offering one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God. 13 He is now waiting until his enemies are made his footstool. 14 For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are sanctified.

This sacrifice Jesus made for us seals us once and for all.

one sacrifice was sufficient once and for all forever.

vs. 14 By Jesus's offering we are perfected in him, God doesn't require any works on our behalf for salvation.

but he does say he perfected those who are being sanctified.

what is sanctified, in short its the life change through Gods power. its the process of God changing you into his image.

This is the link back to our text.

The sacrifice Paul is talking about is directly linked to our sanctification our life change.

so what exactly does offering our bodies as a living sacrifice mean.

we give our external lives to God.

not just your heart

not just your spiritual side

not just the unseen

but the physical.

we are being called to offer all we are to God.

not just our inside but our outside.

To sacrifice means to have loss, so that tells us when we are a living sacrifice it potentially is going to be physically hard.

we may be called to get rid of things in our lives

which would look like

weighing out everything we do in our lives

examining it and asking the question does this thing i do draw me away from Christ or make me love God more.

also who or what is directing the things i do, who am i following ?

Are your actions influenced by your love for God and His word.

or

is your actions influenced by your wordly understandings, the culture, your own personal desires, your feelings.

so to offer yourself to God as a living sacrifice is to lay yourself down before God.

putting to death anything not growing you in Christ, and anything pulling your affections away from Jesus.

whether it be

the things we watch, play, and listen to saturating our minds with the ways of the world pulling us to crave the sin that the world celebrates.

it may not be something that leads to sin you may be called to sacrifice good things in some seasons.

like sports, band, ap classes, volunteer work,

all these things are good in themselves but if they are negatively impacting your relationship with Jesus the call is to sacrifice them and cut them out or limit your time with them.

thats only half the call subtraction but what do we add to our lives.

we add on righteousness

we add on prayer

we add on reading Gods word

we add on confession

we add on being a servant

we add on good works

we add on whatever is going to grow your affections to God

we add on all the things of Christ, and live them out.

But what motivates that way of living why do we live out this hard sacrificial life and not one that would be comfortable and easy.

a new life's motivation vs 1a

lets go back to the beginning of verse 1.

1 (a) Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God,

The first 11 Chapters scream out these mercies of God.

specifically Chapter 6 turn there starting in verse 4.

Romans 6:4–14 (CSB)

4 Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of his resurrection. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be rendered powerless so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin, 7 since a person who has died is freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him, 9 because we know that Christ, having been raised from the dead, will not die again. Death no longer rules over him. 10 For the death he died, he died to sin once for all time; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11 So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey its desires. 13 And do not offer any parts of it to sin as weapons for unrighteousness. But as those who are alive from the dead, offer yourselves to God, and all the parts of yourselves to God as weapons for righteousness. 14 For sin will not rule over you, because you are not under the law but under grace.

now we know what God has called us to do.

offer our bodies as a sacrifice

we know why we should do it and what is our motivation

but how do we do it practically?

How to Live out the new life vs 2

Romans 12:2 (CSB)

2 Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.

Kirby video super smash bros.

what he takes in changes his abilities and his appearance

it changes who he is.

we are no different than him what we take in will 100% change us into the image of what we consume.

if we fill our minds with the mantra's of the world in music and shows soon we will look like what we listen to and watch.

Paul says do not conform to the ways of this world.

do not allow the world to shape and guide you through this life.

don't let the worlds point of view depict how you live out your youth they scream.

YOLO live as wild and fast as you can while your young you dont want to miss out on all the fun giving you FOMO.

it screams out live your life based on your emotions whatever makes you happy if your not happy its not right.

it says you have to be wealthy to be successful stepping over whom ever and doing whatever it takes to get to the top.

it says as long as you live a relatively good life it doesn't matter if you do a few wrong things, as long as the good out weighs the bad your fine.

it says you can focus on your spiritual life when your older nows not the time for that you have plenty of time later.

but all of those things a simply not true and Gods word would reject them all.

so as we said before evaluate the things in your life and pinpoint who or what is guiding your ways.

when you find them and see that they are of the world Paul says do not conform to those ways.

which means do not become like the world. don't follow their ways, don't fall in line with how the world lives.

But instead

RENEW YOUR MIND ON THE THINGS OF GOD

AND

YOU WILL BE TRANSFORMED

in doing so you will be able to discern, understand what is good and is bad,

you will know how to please God

you will know Gods will for your life.

you will understand what the sacrificial life looks like.

so brothers and sisters flood your mind with Gods world.

surround yourself with Gods people.

renew your minds and hearts with Gods word.

the best example of this is apex all week renewing your minds. Elaborate.

-thats easier said than done but it is a discipline to renew your mind to be in Gods word and pray, to be a disciple of Jesus to follow him wont be easy.

but its worth it. this is what we do.

2 Corinthians 10:3–5 CSB

3 For although we live in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh, 4 since the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but are powerful through God for the demolition of strongholds. We demolish arguments 5 and every proud thing that is raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to obey Christ.

we do whatever it takes to take every thought captive and make it obedient to christ.

step one of renewing your mind is to know whether or not you belong to king Jesus or you belong to the world.

have you surrendered your life to him or are you holding back?

step two if you belong to christ identify what strongholds the world still has on you. identify what in your life is pulling your affections away from Jesus and leading you towards sin.

step three repent lay down those old ways at the feet of Jesus and he is faithful to forgive and also redeem you to heal you from the ways of the world and make you new.

step four counter the world with Gods word consume scripture specifically for your struggle. (gotquestions.org) (openbible.info)

step five confess your struggles to fellow believers for prayer and support.

step six repeat continue to grow in Christ along side fellow believers.

Its important to remember this thing God is calling us to do is literally Impossible in our own strength we can Only do it by his power and provisions.

but also its impossible to live this out alone to be a disciple of Jesus means to be lead by more mature believers and have open community with all believers.

so heres the challenge.

who are you following?

if your not following Jesus but following the world nows the time to repent of that and turn towards the king.

maybe you need help navigating whats right or wrong

maybe you admit you need help living out this life Gods called us to.

if that's you i urge you to pull one of us leaders to the side have a conversation.