Living Sacrifices

Introduction

Story of Jeff - Running an iron man - paid price, bought the equipment, running an iron man

or me - making no changes in diet or exercise - no practice, no endurance training.

Romans 12:1 ESV

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.

Today - we get to reflect on that middle section - “to present your bodies as a living sacrifice”

Present

This is something you actively do. So much of the Christian life is a recognition of what God through Christ has done - he has made us, he has saved us, he has paid for our sin. Beyond that, we have the role of the Spirit - as Christians, we believe that we are given the Spirit as a gift - to instruct, lead, convict. Much of our lives as Christians then becomes a matter of yielding, submitting, allowing.

Here though, Paul urges us to get active - to do something about all that God has done. And so, in doing this he uses the word “present” or “give.” It almost carries with it the connotation of showing up at the altar.

He did use this same word earlier in the book of Romans - only in the negative.

Romans 6:12–14 ESV

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

Notice his language - he talks about sin as having a reign - or a rule - in our lives. It’s as though we get to choose whether we will vote sin into office of authority over us. Once it’s in authority, then we must obey. And yet sin is a horrible ruler.

So as people of God, we already have a ruler - that is God.

So rather than presenting our bodies as instruments of unrighteousness, Paul urges us to present our bodies to a different master, a different ruler.

Your bodies

There are people who think that religion, faith, spirituality, ____ are all about mental ascent. I’m going to change the way that I think. I’m going to change the way that I view things. There is a part of that in our faith. It is a whole new way of thinking - but it’s more than that. We can’t just think all day. We need to act. And so, part of Paul’s argument here is that we present the only thing we have to truly offer - our bodies - our very lives - our existence - not simply our minds. You see, what we read in scripture gets to be lived out. It doesn’t work very well to think about “loving our neighbor” if we never take the opportunity to get past ourselves and love them. Our natural inclination is not to give up or to love, but to take and to receive.

When we think about our bodies - this is every element of our physical selves -

our eyes - what we see, read, watch

our brains - what we think about, ponder, learn

our mouths - what we in-jest, but also what we speak

our hands - how we touch or help or serve

our feet - where we go

our stomachs - what we put in there

Our lungs - what we breathe in

Living Sacrifice

So often, when we think about sacrifices, we think about dead things - things that are killed, burned as an act of worship. Sacrifices were sometimes offered as a picture or reminder of our sin.

But Paul puts two words together here that help us see that the sacrifice that we’re supposed to be is alive. A living sacrifice - this will cost you something.

A literal sacrifice dies to life itself.

A living sacrifice dies to things, but not life.

Pulling it together

So if we think about putting this all together, we get this privilege of presenting - offering up to God as an act of worship, our bodies - the things what we do in the flesh, in our brains, with our eyes, mouths, as a living sacrifice - a sacrifice to the things that I might want to do, for the things that please God.

Closing Story

12 years old - wrestling with God

afraid I wouldn’t have stuff

surrendered and got baptized

God allowed me to go overseas multiple times

He has given me talents and abilities that in music and other things that I’m working to give to him.

It’s still a daily struggle - I want stuff, I want my time, I want to be selfish.

You see the challenge with being a living sacrifice is that we can walk off of the altar. Will we stay and honor God not just with our singing or Sunday worship - but with every part of our lives?

Eugene Peterson, a Christian author and Pastor who has now graduated to eternity, wrote a paraphrase of the Bible called the Message. He uses some interesting language at times. Listen to how he translates this verse.

Romans 12:1 The Message

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.

Lt’s pray