A Living Sacrifice

Main Point: When we view our lives as a living sacrifice, all of life becomes worship.

Spiritual worship flows from the inside out—true heart change (v. 1).

Paul made an earnest appeal to the Roman Christians.

This appeal was made in light of what had previously been taught throughout Romans.

Paul’s teaching on the gospel in Chapter 1-11 led to an earnest request and call for the Romans to respond.

App: This is why I always try to bring application into my sermons and teaching. We don’t just need to be drilled with a bunch of head knowledge. We also need obedient, thoughtful, and genuine response to what we learn from the Word of God.

This is also why I always aim to preach the gospel.

Paul’s appeal was rooted in the gospel.

Notice his wording in verse 1:

English Standard Version Chapter 12

I appeal to you therefore, brothers,

At the heart of Paul’s message to the Romans was the gospel. And at the heart of Paul’s appeal to obedience was the “mercy of God”.

In other words, Paul says, “I’m urging you to live a certain way, but the only way to live this way is through the compassionate, care of God.”

What had Paul said about the gospel?

Romans 1-3: All people are sinful and deserving of God’s wrath—both Jew and Gentile.

Romans 4: We are justified by faith, not works of the Law.

Romans 5-8: We are set free through the gospel from: wrath, sin, bondage to the Law, and condemnation

Romans 9-11: The gospel is for God’s chosen people: both Jew and Gentile.

Application: We desperately need the mercy of God.

From front to back, the Bible is filled with gospel truth. We don’t get saved and then move on from the gospel. Rather, we get saved through faith in the gospel message and then we continue growing in deeper knowledge, appreciation, and worship through the gospel.

As we look at Paul’s appeal to the Romans, we see a command to give your whole life as worship. We can’t do this apart from God’s grace and mercy.

If you’ve never believed the gospel…You deserve the wrath of God as Paul laid out in Romans 1-3. We all do! But if you’ll turn and believe in Christ, God has mercy waiting for you. He sent His Son to die on the cross to pay the penalty for your sins. When you should’ve been worshiping God and chose yourself or idols, God sent His son to die and rise again if you’ll beleive!

If you’re a prodigal… Don’t keep running! God’s got mercy for you! Israel was like the prodigal son. They had squandered the gifts of God and chased after idols of the flesh. But God welcomed them back with open arms when any Israelite came back to Him in humility and repentance!

If you’ve been saved a long time… Don’t think this message is for everybody else. We need to remember that Paul was writing to believers when he said “by the mercies of God”. Everything we do is by the mercy of God or we can’t do anything at all! Keep the mercy of God always at the forefront of your mind!

Transition: Now that we’ve seen the backdrop of Paul’s appeal, let’s look closely at exactly what he appealed to the believers in Rome and to us today.

Spiritual worship is laying down our lives in service for God.

English Standard Version Chapter 12

“…present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”

lllustration: Have you ever noticed that good authors and speakers will sometimes use certain words and phrases to signal to you that they’re making a connection to something you already know. For example, if I say “One man had a dream, and if you look around this room you’ll see that we are free at last, thank God almighty, we are free at last”, your mind might be drawn to Martin Luther King Junior.

If I say, “Through prayer, the Jericho walls will come tumbling down” or “We need Jesus to slay our Goliaths” your minds are probably drawn to Old Testament history where God showed up and rescued His people.

Similarly, that’s what Paul is doing here in Romans 12 when he says, “present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God”.

Sacrifice was central to the worship of God in Israel.

Old Testament sacrifices had to be holy and pleasing to God.

It was a way for them to fellowship with God despite their sin—they were granted temporary forgiveness. Also, giving offerings was also a way to show that God was worthy of their praise their best gifts.

When the people brought animals to the tabernacle or the temple to be sacrificed, they couldn’t just bring any old animal.

Repeatedly, they were called to bring animals without blemish. Further, for the sacrifice to be acceptable to God, the priest had to lay his hand on the animal to make it acceptable to God to cover the person’s sin.

This is a two-fold reminder: Christ was the spotless and unblemished sacrifice for our sins. And in Christ, we are made pleasing to God and are being made to be without spot and blemish through the gospel and the work of the Holy Spirit.

We were made acceptable to God through Jesus, the Great High Priest.

Sacrifice is central to the worship of God today.

New Testament sacrifices must also be holy and acceptable to God.

Instead of sacrificing animals to be forgiven on a temporary basis, God gave us a once-for-all sacrifice to make us one with God—Jesus Christ, His Holy Son. He is the High Priest and the Lamb of God which takes away sin!

We still worship and fellowship with God, but the sacrificial offering we bring is something deeper and more costly—our lives.

Instead of a dead animal laid on an altar, God calls us to be living sacrifices. At first glance, this phrase would be jarring. Living and sacrifice don’t go together. Sacrifices are slaughtered animals. They aren’t living.

The New Covenant is all about life. Our sacrifice is alive. We, too, are living while dying to self and giving up our whole lives to God’s Kingdom. The life-giving Holy Spirit is in us, making us holy and acceptable to God. It’s all about life.

All of life is spiritual worship.

The Greek here can literally be translated “reasonable service” or “reasonable worship”. However, there are times in the NT where the Greek word for “reasonable” can also mean “spiritual”. In other words, laying down our lives is the reasonable or spiritual service we do for the Lord.

1 Peter 2:4–5 ESV

As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Worship: Giving glory to God by making His worthiness known through our words and our actions.

Worship, by definition, includes giving glory to God.

Ascribing and praising God doesn’t not exclude singing, but it’s FAR MORE than just singing church songs or praising His name.

Worship, in the biblical sense, includes service to God and His people.

We may not serve in the temple with sacrifices and festivals and feast days. But we serve God with our lives every day.

The worship leaders of Israel served God, but their work also served and helped others worship God.

Worship implies a devotion to God more than anyone or anything else in the universe.

Devotion means saying no to other things to say yes to God. It’s a lifetime commitment.

Worship is our response to God as we encounter and enjoy His presence in everyday life.

Application: What does it mean to lay our lives down as a living sacrifice?

We must stop loving the world and the things in the world! Those things are passing away.

We have to be willing to lose our reputation for the Kingdom of God.

We must be willing to give up our worldly aspirations and dreams to follow God’s call in our lives. We may not be able to have the American Dream, but we will inherit the earth!

This doesn’t mean give up aspirations. It doesn’t mean we will all be missionaries somewhere in a foreign country. It certainly doesn’t mean all will be pastors. But it means you may have to shift your plans to follow God’s plans.

We have to give up the comforts of being liked in this life to embrace spiritual warfare and the worlds hatred.

We have to let things go so we can love and pursue the Lord. We’ve been talking about discipline and devotions in this series. When we view life as worship, we give up things that the world holds dearly. What things are keeping you from pursuing God right now?

We must be willing to love and serve other Christians. Worship of God also requires that we serve His bride and love His body. We can’t disconnect our service for God from our service in the local church.

Christ connection: Jesus exemplified serving others as worship for God by laying His life down for us. He said He didn’t come to be served but to serve and lay down His life as a ransom for many. And what was laying down His life called? Sacrifice! He was the Lamb of God. In response to His mighty serving, He call us to serve others. The greatest of all is servant of all. The good we do for others, we do unto Him.

Spiritual worship requires holy living and transformed thinking.

Illustration: Did your teacher ever have a caterpillar in class? When I was a child, I remember watching a caterpillar over a period of a few days go from a little caterpillar to a cocoon. Then from the cocoon, the caterpillar would transform from the inside of the cocoon and turn into a butterfly. We call this metamorphosis. That’s what God is calling us to as we grow in our faith. True worship comes from and also leads to this deep transformation in our hearts.

The negative command first: Don’t be conformed to this world

This world (or present age) is passing away. The ideas, doctrines, and notions of this present world will also pass away.

The god of this world has blinded the eyes of men, and we can’t let this world form or mold us.

Illustration: As kids, we used to play with Play-Doh and mold it into whatever we wanted them to be. That’s what the world does to people. As Christians, we can’t let the world shape and mold. We are God’s workmanship. He is the potter who is molding us into the image of Christ.

The world seeks to conform us to its ideas, values, visions, and plans. From self-help to extreme ideologies.

The world wants to shape our thinking, believing, and living. We can’t sit back and let the world conform us to its thinking.

The positive command next: But be getting transformed by the renewing of your mind.

This refers to an inward change that brings forth outward results.

This inward transformation reminds us of the importance private or personal worship.

The Spirit works in individual Christians and brings us together to work as a church to praise and magnify the glory of God.

Before we come together to worship God out loud and in public, we should be cherishing and magnifying God in our hearts and in our prayers privately.

A renewed mind doesn’t just mean right doctrine.

It doesn’t just mean studying theology. It points to a mind that has been turned from reprobate (as we saw in Romans 1) to a mind that loves God. It’s a mind that loves what God loves and hates what God hates.

The result: Discernment and obedience to God’s Will

Through this renewal of our minds, we will love God. We will see His will revealed in Scripture, and we will discern what is right from wrong as we navigate life in this fallen world.

We will know when we are following His will, because we will discern what is good, perfect, and acceptable according to His Word through His Spirit.

The World is unable to discern or approve what is good. They have no eyes to see or ears to hear.

As Christians, we know right from wrong.

We know it’s wrong to be divisive and right to fight for unity in our church.

We know it’s wrong to sin in our anger and right to show mercy and grace to others.

We know it’s wrong to gossip and slander and right to build up others with our speech.

We know it’s wrong to fornicate and right to pursue a God-honoring marriage.

We know it’s wrong to steal and right to earn a living and pay for what we need.

We know it’s wrong to commit adultery and right to keep the marriage bed pure.

We know it’s wrong to neglect our duties as parents and right to raise our childre in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Application: How is all of this tied to worship?

What we worship shapes us.

If we worship the world, we will be molded and formed into worldly people. If we worship God, we will be transformed into His image from glory to glory.

Pursuing renewed minds is essential in our worship.

Jesus says that true worshipers will worship in spirit and in Truth.

If we don’t have renewed minds we will worship a god of our own imaginations rather than the God of the Bible.

Obedience to God is the true test of our worship.

If we love and trust God, we will ascribe glory to Him through our words and our actions.

While we won’t do it perfectly, shunning all idols and giving every aspect of our lives to God is true worship.

This means we will sing songs to God in our homes and at church.

We will talk about the gospel and the glories of God at home, when we come and go, and everywhere in between.

We won’t forsake gathering together to worship Him on Sunday mornings.

We will give willingly and generously as an act of our worship.

We will serve one another to build up the body of Christ and expand the Kingdom of God.

We will ascribe glory to God to the world around through evangelism and godly conversation.

We will work hard at our jobs and in our ministry because our diligent work is also worship to God.

Conclusion: Our private worship of God flows into public worship and service for God.

Do you love God? Do you delight in God? Do you desire God? Do you enjoy worshipping Him in private and in public? These questions reveal a lot about our hearts.

All of life is worship. From the time we wake up til the time we fall asleep, we can worship God with our lives. How will you use your life?

I’ll leave you with a question and a challenge.

The question: If someone filmed your life outside of church services, would they say you worship God or something else?

The challenge: Spend some intentional time thinking about the fact that your whole life is worship. Think about what a day would look like for a true worshiper of the Lord. Plan how to align your life with that biblical vision of true worship.

The Lord deserves our worship. He deserves all of our lives. 100%