Romans 12:1-8

Introduction

As we build to our real kind of public launch we are spending some time in passages that show us the gospel and then show us in light of it that it is in everyone coming together as a church that we live it out

That is Romans 12 today

Probably in its clearest form

In it is a verse that means alot to Morgan and I

When most couples spend a date night early on in their relationship going to a movie we went to a tattoo shop in Georgia spur of the moment

I got Galatians 5:1 on my arm and she got a passage we are in today Romans 12:2

that has no theological significance to the message today just tells you a little about us

Anyway we are seeing the gospel on display, how it changes us and how that change is lived out and is what we need as a church as we enter into a new season of life

We are going to see 2 things today- The Essence of the Christian Life, and We Run Our Race Together

The Essence of the Christian Life

Romans 12:1–2 CSB

Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship. 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.

This comes after all of Romans 1-11 the greatest survey on the Gospel ever written

If you believe what I have told you for 11 chapters then what?

If you really believe Romans 5:8

Romans 5:8 CSB

But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

If you really believe Romans 5:1

Romans 5:1 CSB

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

If you understand and Believe Romans 8:28

Romans 8:28 CSB

We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.

Then live like it is everything

John Stott says there is no greater incentive to holy living than a contemplation of the mercies of God.

Move from Mercy that should blow your mind to a life that blows the worlds mind

Verse 3 He says become a living sacrafice

And this is weirder then how it sounds

The word in the greek means killing of an animal as a sacrafice

They would have all known about animal sacrafice to God from the Old Testament or Roman Temples

So to say a living sacrafice is an absolutley paradoxical statement

What does mean how do we make sense of that

He uses three adjectives to describe the sacrafice we are supposed to be for the Gospel

First Living -

The Old Sacrafices were bloody.

Sin was being atoned for. In the Old Testament they were ways of getting right with God

That is not true of Christian living

Religion says perform and maybe God will love you and forgive you

Pay it forward at chic fil a because you flipped someone off in traffic

That is how so many of us were taught to be a christian

Paul is saying you are saved by Christs sacrafice

Ours is an offering of life and living in gratitude and praise for the scandal of the Gospel making you alive when you were dead

A living sacrafice means every day every hour deliberately and consciously offer yourself to Him

Its intense

But it is like a dying sacrafice in that something is killed

To live the christian life means we have to put to death the idea that you have a right to live however you want in light of His grace if you are His

There has never been a culture more adverse to this then America in 2024

You put to death to the right you think you have to live how you choose if you have been saved by grace

You put to death the idea that you belong to yourself

You put to death the idea that you know best what should happen in your life

That is dying everyday if you are an American or if you were chasing the Roman Dream 2000 years ago

This life is a life of Dying to yourslef and dying to the narrative of culture that tells you there are better ways to be happy

It is a living sacrafice because it is a daily war to put the Jesus way on the throne of your life

It feels like a death to say I know this is what you say in your word but I don’t like it but I am going to trust you and obey

I know this is how you have told me the way to life is but i want sex and money and power how I want it

To deny yourself and trust His way to what you long for feels like dying it really does

But that is when you come alive

I have a picture on my office wall that says Psalm 16:11

Psalm 16:11 CSB

You reveal the path of life to me; in your presence is abundant joy; at your right hand are eternal pleasures.

To remind me he holds the road map to what I long for

Not the world

In doing things the way he made them to be is Joy

Joy means the absence of fear and regret and what if’s

And at your right hand is what I long for forever not some fleeting pleasure the world offers

That is a daily war to die for

Second Holy-

“holy” denotes something set apart and dedicated to God as opposed to something common

Does your life look just like the culture?

Is it common with every other life in Greenville and Easely?

Or is it showing a different way

Is it a life that says to a hurting world I was just like you and look what I have found in Jesus

Is it a life that says I long for the same things you do let me show you ways to flourish that aren’t self defeating

Is it a holy life that is uncommon among your single friends or your dating friends or your married friends that makes them long for the wholeness

Third Pleasing

Pleasing to God is the result of the first 2

Michael Bird says “pleasing to God” expresses the result of sacrifices that are “living” and “holy,” in that they receive divine favor

Think back to Psalm 16:11

Psalm 16:11 CSB

You reveal the path of life to me; in your presence is abundant joy; at your right hand are eternal pleasures.

If you follow the path to life that you long for the way He says to get there what is the result

Some poor consolation prize of lonliness and emptiness feeling like you missed out on the party

No what does it say- you get abundant Joy and Pleasure forever

He loves when His kids love Him in response to the Gospel

The end of verse 1 says all of that is your worship

that word means service

that is your mission to do He is saying every hour of every day

Because here is the war ….

We always at our heart level say I will do this God IF….

Don’t we?

Whatever is on the other side of your IF is what you are really sacraficing for and it’s not God

I’ll obey you with money God IF…and whatever is on the other side of that IF is what you are really sacraficing for

A living Sacrifice is free of that slavery

A living sacrafice is free to chase after the Gospel with all you have

Grateful people dare to do great Gospel things because they are free among people that are slaves to the culture

Cornelius Plantinga says People tethered to God by faith can let themselves go because they know they will get themselves back

Do you long to live an epic life that matters …make your life a living sacrafice and trust that you can let yourself go because you know you will get yourself back and more

The point of this message is for us in a new place to see the purpose of why we are here

And the purpose Paul just laid out is to light a fire under us to make us get after the christian life in the everyday of where we are

The people you meet at work and at the gym and on your kids sports teams are dealing with the same amount of emptiness and fear and funerals and cancer we do ….and they are longing for the hope you have in the face of it

Get after this life

How do we anchor ourselves in the fight

Verse 2

Romans 12:2 CSB

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.

If you heard all of that and think I am not a slave to anything

I would challenge you that you are a sacrafice for something

You are laying out your lifes pursuit on something you think will bring you the good life

Don’t kid yourself every body lives for something

Whatever you are living for you are sacraficing for

You aren’t free you are a worshipper of something

Even if you are here and you are like I don’t believe that you are actually a slave to your own independence and that is a lonely life

Do you have the intellectual integrity to admit that ?

that is why Paul goes to the mind in verse 2

Are you willing to do the hard work when you leave here and take a self inventory and ask yourself what am I living for?

What do I worship?

What do I think will make me whole?

Where is my hope coming from at a funeral?

I mention this often but Jesus uses the word repent alot

and the greek word he uses is the word Metanoia

And that word means to change the way you see

That is what Paul is urging us to do so that we know freedom and wholenss and purpose in this place

do not allow yourselves to become like your surroundings

Understand the ways the world is telling you to be happy and look at how you are following it

Then change the way you see the path to what you long for

This is one of the things I hear the most from intelligent people who have walked away from the faith

They say the bible has nothing to say about the intellect or reason or science

And i admit to them the christianity they knew did a poor job at connecting the 2

Paul is saying it has everything to do with science and reason and art

Paul is saying what Michael Bird says Fill your head with Scripture, hymns, novels, art, and songs which will strengthen your cerebral capacities to understand and articulate your faith. Christian faith cannot bide intellectual laziness

that is why I quote and pull from Lord of the Rings and other stories so much

It is why Jude in his letter appeals to Jewish Pop Culture story so much

Get gospel eyes to change the way you see

Why?

Because the people you encounter everyday are longing to see

When Morgan and I were up here working this week 2 times people came to visit graves next door

One wife just held her husband as he cried

Why do the work of transform your mind and change the way you see?

Because that man needs the hope of the gospel

And if you only offer what the world has to offer you sell cheap hope

Well everything happens for a reason

I have something better-

Through art and story I found Lord of the Rings

In it at the end of the epic the great line comes from Sam is everything sad going to come untrue - the christian answer is yes everything sad will come untrue and will somehow be better for having once been broken

that is the hope the world around you longs for

And when you see it and find it you live for it

That is Romans 12:1-2

And as we enter a new season where everyone is needed the cool thing about where Paul says we do this is in the church

We need everyone doing this and playing their part

We Run Our Race Together

Romans 12:3–8 CSB

For by the grace given to me, I tell everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he should think. Instead, think sensibly, as God has distributed a measure of faith to each one. Now as we have many parts in one body, and all the parts do not have the same function, in the same way we who are many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another. According to the grace given to us, we have different gifts: If prophecy, use it according to the proportion of one’s faith; if service, use it in service; if teaching, in teaching; if exhorting, in exhortation; giving, with generosity; leading, with diligence; showing mercy, with cheerfulness.

He just said be transformed by renewing your mind so he continues here don’t forget to think rightly about yourself

Romans Don’t Get Full of Yourself (12:3)

Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought

Because when you do you miss the epic role God has for you in his great redemptive story

Verse 3 think sensibly, as God has distributed a measure of faith to each one.

Michael Bird says here In applying Romans 12:3–8 to our own context and congregations, we are to exemplify a humble faith that makes much of others rather than ourselves. We should engage in regular humility self-checks to keep our priorities in order, and make a concerted effort to value the giftedness of others and their contribution to the church’s corporate life.

This is all about how to be a healthy church and it starts by being a spiritually healthy person

Romans Don’t Get Full of Yourself (12:3)

Paul wants believers to cultivate humility as a way of pursuing unity

The unity of this church depends on our ability to be humble and use the gifts we have been given not critisize others when they are using theirs or tear them down when they are trying something new

Verses 4-8 speak to this unity among diversity we have to have as a church if we are going to be missional

Here is how it all connects

If I am thinking of how to die to myself I am thinking about how to be a living sacrafice in this place

Have you ever taken a spiritual gifts test?

Well you won’t here

Because we all lie

We all think we are what will give us the most spotlight

No one ever says I am gifted to lock up the building …unless you are Lakon thank you for your honesty

What it means is I am to really think where I can be used even if It means no spotlight and dying to my own ambitions

The church is the spiritual gifts test

You try one area and if you realize it aint where you are gifted you try another spot

Never doing it out of selfish ambition but to see the mission of this church accomplished

If you have a heart for Kids volunteer to help back there

If you have a heart for kids and don’t want to do it because you would rather be in here die to yourself and use your gifts and help

If you can sing help

If you are blessed financially give sacraficially so we can keep the lights on

Give of who you are as a living sacrafice to what God is doing

The people passing this building everyday live in a world that isn’t how its supposed to be

They are lonely and afraid sad and anxious

Don’t conform to the pattern of the world but be transformed by the Gospel and get after a Gospel life in this church

Lets Pray