Part 1 - Our Reasonable Service
Notes
Transcript
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
Dr. Bob Jones Sr. said, “Every great Christian who did anything for God, at some point in their life came under the dominating power of a Biblical truth.”
If we really want to do something great for God, then we must allow biblical truths to transform our lives.
16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
When we grab hold of an individual truth, it has the power to transform our lives.
We begin a bible study series tonight concerning some of these truths, and my prayer is that you will listen to the Bible and allow these truths over the next several weeks transform you.
Our text verse tonight contains some of the most life changing truths found in the Bible. We learn from these verses what it means to surrender our lives totally to the Lord.
It’s only through total surrender that a person will find true satisfaction, joy, and peace.
It’s for that reason that Romans 12:1-2 holds one of the truths that transform.
1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
It’s amazing to me, in China, Olympic athletes are chosen as young as six years old. After being chosen, they are put in special schools where they are trained intensely for the Olympics. They rarely see their parents, or anyone else as their lives will revolve around training for the Olympics.
Let me put it this way, these people will be totally surrendered to Communist China. They are living sacrifices for the country.
God calls us to be living sacrifices for Him, and my friend, He calls us to something much greater than sports. If these people I just talked about in China can commit their lives to work for a medal, how much more should be as Christians be able to commit our lives to Christ?
Let’s take a look for a little while this evening at the transforming truth of being a living sacrifice...
THE MEANING OF BEING A LIVING SACRIFICE
THE MEANING OF BEING A LIVING SACRIFICE
This thought of living sacrifice is interesting because most of the time, a sacrifice is dead…right?
I preached this past Sunday morning on “The Blood” and how the children of Israel would sacrifice and kill those innocent animals, and then how Jesus, being the perfect lamb of God, laid down His life to pay for our sins!
But this verse says to be a LIVING sacrifice. What does this mean?
The Living
The Living
11 But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building;
12 Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.
13 For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh:
14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
15 And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
22 And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.
One Jesus sacrificed Himself on the cross, He had fulfilled the law of the Old Testament, meaning, there was no more need to sacrifice the blood of animals.
But what Christ has asked us to do is to give our lives to Him as a living sacrifice.
When you and I live in obedience to Christ, we are identifying with His death and living in the power of His resurrection.
We choose to deny our fleshly desires, and instead embracing the desires Christ has for us.
20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
The Sacrifice
The Sacrifice
To present our bodies as a living sacrifice is an act of worship! - Remember what I spoke of Sunday morning in the introduction - Leviticus 17 is all about worship…the sacrifices back then were worship to God...
This is what true worship is about…Sacrificing something for someone or something.
Here’s an example, when we praise the Lord, we are offering a sacrifice of praise.
15 By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.
Not all sacrifice is an act of worship, but all worship requires sacrifice.
THE MOTIVATION OF BEING A LIVING SACRIFICE
THE MOTIVATION OF BEING A LIVING SACRIFICE
What is our motivation for being a living sacrifice?
Our motivation to serve Christ comes from our relationship and gratitude, not by religion or guilt.
Let’s think about it…Why is it so many Christians devote their entire lives to complete devotion to Christ, even though they know they’ll still get to Heaven without doing anything great for God?
It’s a simple answer - they love their Savior!
When we understand what He has done for us, we are motivated to present our bodies as a living sacrifice to Him!
That thought we just had also brings to mind one of the biggest criticisms of Christianity.
That is, that we don’t believe in earning our way to Heaven; instead, even though we sin, we still get to Heaven if we’re saved.
It can be tough to think that we can do whatever we want and still get to Heaven if we are saved. If we have trusted Christ as Savior; there’s absolutely nothing we can do to make Him break His promise of eternal life.
Here’s the thing though; there’s another side of the answer there.
After we are saved - and I mean truly saved - we are no longer under the control of sin!
We have been freed from it by the power of Jesus Christ!
17 But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.
18 Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.
Here’s the thing. Grace is not freedom to do wrong, it’s freedom to do the right thing!
We are no longer in the bondage of sin!
For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.
This s telling us that there are men that have crept into the church and are actually encouraging people to use grace as an excuse to sin!
As Christians, we believe that we were in a hopeless battle against sin, trying to fight in our own strength, but it was never good enough, we were never strong enough, and no matter how hard we tried, we were still on our way to hell.
But then we met Jesus, who in His righteous state literally took our punishment for us by dying on the cross.
There was a debt we owed that we could never pay, but because of Jesus’ selfless love for us, He died to pay that debt!
That is our motivation to be a living sacrifice!
Sacrifice was made for us, so sacrifice is asked of us...
Yes, as Christians, we can do what we want, but knowing what Christ did for us causes us to desire to please Him!
1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
A person that claims to be a Christian who uses grace as an excuse to sin doesn’t understand what grace is all about!
Because of what Christ has done for us, we have the grace to NOT sin! Sin no longer has control of us because we are saved from that!
So we have the Meaning, the Motivation, look now at:
THE METHOD OF BEING A LIVING SACRIFICE
THE METHOD OF BEING A LIVING SACRIFICE
So how do we, as the Bible says, present our bodies as a living sacrifice?
Basically, it means that you surrender your life to the Lord, but what are the consequences of surrendering your life to Christ, and what’s the difference between this surrender and trusting in Christ for salvation?
I want us to understand that:
It’s a specific event
It’s a specific event
Have you ever met anyone that said they ask Jesus to save them every day? There are a lot of people that don’t understand that being saved is a one-time even that changes your entire life!
Here’s what I’m getting at…We need to have a specific day that we trust Christ for salvation, but we should also have a specific day that we present our bodies as a living sacrifice.
There’s some that do this the day they get saved, but most of us didn’t have a deep enough understanding of Christ at that point.
Here’s an example: I was saved at 8 years old…back in 1993 at the White Plains Christian School teacher’s lounge - In January of 2016 at Amazing Grace Baptist Church, I presented my body as a living sacrifice to the Lord.
It’s not only a specific event, but:
It’s a significant event
It’s a significant event
The greatest day in my Christian life was the day I trusted in Christ as my personal Savior, but after that moment, there are many other decisions that you’ll make, but the day you surrender your body as a living sacrifice to the Lord is one of the most significant.
My life changed in 2016 and since then, God has been working and transforming me into something - I don’t know what, but what I do know is that when I got saved, it changed my life - and when I presented my body as a living sacrifice and told God with everything that was within me that I was willing to do anything for Him that He called me to, my life has never been the same!
When we as Christians make the commitment to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, that single decision will impact us for the rest of our lives.
CONCLUSION
CONCLUSION
If we surrender to God, He can take our lives and use the surrender to make us come through trials as gold...
A life entirely surrendered to God is the only reasonable life which a Christian can live. It’s the secret of usefulness...
