45 Preaching/Teaching Romans 12

Jesus take the Wheel!

EOT-Paul urges the readers to live a life of spiritual worship

EOS-We must live under Jesus’ lordship because:

3. Because it is what we were created to do (Worship)

Romans 12:1 NIV84

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.

Illustration-

December 6, 2003 was the greatest day of my life. One of my vows was…. I was not saying that because I had to I wanted to love her with everything I have.

Just because someone is married does not mean they are a good spouse or a bad spouse.

I have a choice everyday in marriage, am I going to love my wife or am I not. Some days I do well at this, some days I fail 100%. But on those days that I know it out of the park as a husband I am no more her husband than the days that I fail. The days I royally blow it as a husband I am still heather’s husband. I have a choice each day on being a great husband.

Every day I wake up and I can love Heather like God calls me to or I can not.

In the same way as a believer in Christ I have a choice I can live and make Jesus Lord or I can live for myself.

Today Paul is talking to believers in Jesus Christ.

Notice who he is writing to here. Believers. What this means is only if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ do you even had the privilege to make this decision.

What keeps you from living as Jesus as Lord?

Is it a secret area of your life you do not want to hand over to him?

Is it laziness?

Is it selfishness?

Is it fear?

As one preacher said, Jesus is either Lord of all or he is not lord at all.

Jesus does not want to be our co-pilot, he wants to be the pilot of our life.

Will you give him the reigns.

Romans 6:10–11 “For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”

Today I want to inspire us to live under the Lordship of Jesus.

I have one application for all of us today, it is that we will memorize this verse this week.

Three reasons why we must live under the Lordship of Jesus.

We must live under Jesus’ Lordship because:

1. it is commanded (URGE or Appeal).

THEREFORE. When we see a therefore we have to ask why is it there fore. After 11 chapters of the Paul breaking down the gospel-He breaks down the perfections of God and the imperfections of man. Then he shares the solution with us that we can be made right with God because what Jesus has done on our behalf and that by accepting his gift and believing in him we can be saved and not just kind of saved. We can be saved from our past, present and future because of Jesus. THIS is ELEVEN Chapters worth of material now he says THEREFORE.

Romans 1. Among Believers (12:1–21)

The “therefore” in v. 1 refers back not simply to the previous argument about God’s mercy in bringing salvation to Jew and Gentile but to everything that Paul had been teaching from the beginning of the epistle. It marks the transition from the theology of God’s redemptive act in Christ Jesus to the ethical expectations that flow logically from that theological base. We come now to what is usually called the “practical” section of Romans.

a. This is serious.

He urges and Appeals to us.

THE ESV says-I appeal to you brothers.

The NASB says I urge you.

The NLT says I Plead with you.

The NET bible says I exhort you.

KJV says I beseech you. I don’t know what beseeching exactly is, but it is serious.

Romans 1. Among Believers (12:1–21)

Cranfield says that it is a technical term for Christian exhortation, which he defines as “the earnest appeal, based on the gospel, to those who are already believers to live consistently with the gospel they have received.”

How we live our christian life is serious business and it matters.

We take sports seriously in this country. I just watched a video where coach K said Kobe Bryant and Lebron James are so great because how they prepare. He said Lebron learned from Kobe on how to prepare for greatness. Lebron will spend millions of dollars on his body every year so when it is game time he can perform at the highest of levels as a basketball player.

If we can take sports this serious how much more serious should we take our walk with Jesus Christ and making him Lord.

Jesus is not just wanting to be our co Pilot he wants to take over our plane.

b. The basis of the request-The Mercies of God.

The Bible Knowledge Commentary 12:1–2

God’s compassion has been described in detail in the first 11 chapters of Romans.

When we see the mercies of God.

God loved us even in our worst. This week I went over to my neighbor Carlos house and I asked him can you earn the love of God or is it only received.

But romans tells us that God loved us even at our worst.

Isn’t this grace that not only did God love us at our worst but he also loves us now and that nothing can separate us from his love and that he will finish what he started.

Lamentations 3:22–23 NIV84

Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

The Love of God is so great that we have the privilege of saying the same thing. I have served a lot of masters in my life: and none of them

We must live under Jesus’ Lordship because:

2. it is pleasing to God (Holy and Pleasing).

Let’s say our verse again:

Romans 12:1 NIV84

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.

I have spent most of my life living for the approval of so many other people even some good people. But it is not fun. As a believer we have the honor to live for an audience of one.

a. Living sacrifice

A sacrifice has always been part of the people of God. In the Old testament God’s people would make sacrifices all the time.

Many times they would be called to offer their very best, a healthy male. When they offered it what they were really saying is that they were going to give their best in full anticipation that God would continue to provide and give them something better. But at times the people of God would not give their best in their sacrifice. Sometime they would give a weaker or a maimed animal instead of their best.

Aren’t you glad we no longer have to offer cows. I don’t have a cow but could you picture if I had to offer my dog to God as a sacrifice.

We can not replace what Jesus has already done for us. We have to give something greater. Ourselves.

But just like in the OT they would at times bring their lesser sacrifices, we do the same thing. When we don’t offer our bodies we are bringing a maimed offering to God.

Do you remember the story of Cain and Abel. One of the offerings was acceptable and one was not.

When I don’t make time to spend time with God and connect with him, I don’t offer my body as a living sacrifice.

When I don’t love those around me I am not offering my body as a living sacrifice.

I have a friend who says let me see your calendar and your check book and I will tell you your priorities.

When I don’t trust God with my time, treasure and talent I am holding back giving myself fully to him.

David Livingston reminds us why we need to give ourselves fully to God!

“If a commission by an earthly king is considered an honor, how can a commission by a Heavenly King be considered a sacrifice?”

― David Livingstone

b. Already/Not Yet Tension

There is this tension in the bible. It is called: Already/Not Yet .

Here is what I mean. The day you receive Jesus the Bible says you are completely forgiven and you are in right standing with God. It says we have every spiritual blessings in the heavenly realms. This is true, but at the same time we are still fragile people who struggle with sin in a real way. So positionally we are holy and pleasing to God but we don’t always live out of who we are. In others words we do not always live our identity.

c. Holy and Pleasing Offering

In a sense we are holy and pleasing to God. But how do we practically live a holy and pleasing life to God. We offer our bodies as living sacrifices to him.

God has made us alive to himself.

Romans Exegesis and Exposition

Rather, the word “living” denotes the spiritual state of believers. They are now “alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 6:11, 13; 8:13). It is precisely those who are alive in Christ who are called to give their lives to him as a sacrifice.

We offer our whole body to God and say it is yours, for your service and glory. Do with me what you will.

Now we do not offer our bodies to him in a way that says God I am offering my body to you so that you love me. We offer our bodies in response as a way to say thank you Jesus. Thank you, I am not repaying you, I could not repay you. You saved my life and I want to say thank you for saving me.

Because of the mercies of God we can give ourselves fully to God!

We must live under Jesus’ Lordship because:

3. we were created to worship.

Romans 12:1 NIV84

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.

We were created to worship. This is why people will do so many weird things.

Think about how crazy we are about certain things.

Politics

Sports

Entertainment

When we take something and even a good something and we make it Lord of our life we will do some weird things.

When we give ourselves completely to God we are worshipping him.

Conclusion:

Throughout history slavery is a reality. In our country we saw the evilness of it because it was based on skin color. But in much of history you would become a slave to someone if you owed them money that you did not have. Well in the Old Testament some slaves would have a master that was so good that after they had paid off their debt they would say I don’t want to be a free person I want to serve you the rest of my life and they would have their ear pierced as a sign that I am serving my master.

Exodus 21:6 NASB95

then his master shall bring him to God, then he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost. And his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him permanently.

Church God wants his own people to serve him permanently.

Matthew 6:24 NASB95

“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.

Most of my life basketball was my master. What is the master of your life?

Is it a thing (Basketball), work, a hobby?

Is it a person?

Is it yourself?

What I have found out about other masters is that they may fulfill you for a little while, but it will always let you down.