(Romans 12:1-2) A Life Spent Wisely [New Years]

“At first, when I read it I thought it might be a joke. A spoof on the American Dream. But it wasn’t. Tragically, this was the dream: Come to the end of your life—your one and only precious, God-given life—and let the last great work of your life, before you give an account to your Creator, be this: playing softball and collecting shells. .... That is a tragedy. .... Over against that, I put my protest: Don’t buy it. Don’t waste your life.”

When I started preparing this sermon, I started with some cliche references to New Years and New Years Resolutions.

- It is true that a New Year is a natural time to reflect on the last and makes changes.

- It is true it is a great to consider are goings … and make resolutions.

But here is why it all matters!

One day, I will stand before God and give account.

2 Corinthians 5:10 ESV

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

And my great fear is that Am I going to stand before God, as a saved believer in Christ, and say … I have wasted my life.

I wasted my life on trivial pursuits that don’t matter.

Instead, I want to stand before God and hear those wonderful words Matthew 25:21 … “Well done good and faithful servant”.

This morning, I would like to share a text that I often use as a measuring stick for whether I am living my life in a way that matters.

ILLUSTRATION:

My Wife likes to sew.

- In her sewing room is a yard stick.

- She uses the yard stick to know what she needs to cut out and what she needs to keep.

I would like us to use this text to measure our lives

> Are wasting our lives on trivial pursuits?

> Are we living our lives in a way that matters and is faithful to God?

It is not the only passage, to measure your life by.

But it is a good one.

Romans 12:1–2 (ESV)

A Living Sacrifice

12 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. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Paul has given us a measuring stick here.

A measuring stick for determining whether my life is set apart for God.

I ask you from God’s Word,

Are you spending your Precious God-given life wisely?

And according to Paul, there are two ways that we can measure whether we spending our lives wisely or not.

******Let us pray ********************************************************

The first measure of our life - is Our:

1. Devotion to God (Romans 12:1)

The first measure of whether we are spending our life wisely is what we are devoted to.

What are you devoted to?

You see … one of the greatest ways to measure our life is what we are devoted to.

And devotion is mostly clearly reflected by what we invest in.

What do we spend our time, money, and energy on?

What do I exhaust myself with?

And now you know your true devotion.

Take a moment, and write down the three top things -

You spend your

extra time,

extra money on,

and my left over energy on.

And Now ask the question - Is my devotion worth spending my life on?

Now consider, the true test of Godly devotion:

Paul tells us -

Romans 12:1 (ESV)

12 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.

Paul gives an incredible challenge here.

Paul comes out and tells us -

(a) The Test of Godly Devotion: You are to be the Sacrifice to God.

Paul tell us we are to present our bodies as living sacrifices.

The picture that Paul gives us is one that would have been familiar to the pagan Greek world.

In fact,

many of those he had been writing to had either personally offered sacrifices or observed sacrifices being offered to idols.

It would have been apart of their culture … just like formations and 0500 PT are part of Marine culture.

So to say that they are to present their bodies as living sacrifices would have resonated with them.

Instead of blood, or money, they were to present their own bodies as sacrifices to God.

Because of these mercies,

they were to present themselves, all that they are, to God.

He is telling us that -

The ultimate sign of devotion and loyalty to God: Is that you are the sacrifice to God.

That is a far steeper price than most people spend.

Most people,

are happy to give some of their time, some of their money, and some of their energy to serving God.

The Couple we talked about … perhaps gave some of their time, money, and energy went to God.

But their life as whole were spent on trivial pursuits.

There own testimony is they devoted themselves to

Sea shells

Softball

and Boating.

But rare is the Christian … who willing to give everything they are .... their very life to God.

And this isn’t a one time event either.

This is to be the pursuit of your life.

Consider,

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(b) The Kind of Devotion: holy (consecrated), pleasing, and living Sacrifices

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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.

According to our text,

(1) We are to be “holy” (consecrated).

This does not simply mean sinless.

Paul has already told them to not present their bodies as tools of sin.

Romans 6:13 (ESV)

13 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.

But Holy often means dedicated, devoted, consecrated to God.

>>>>That is what Paul means here. <<<<<

We are to be devoted to God.

Further,

(2) We are to be “acceptable” to God.

This is the idea of pleasing to God.

What kind of offering is pleasing to God?

A pure offering.

- It should not be mixed or married with sin.

As we just read,

we are not be dominated by sin,

but with the new life that comes from God.

Further,

- It should not be mixed or marred with other or competing loyalties.

God should be the reason, purpose, and focal point of our lives.

Loving and be loyal to anything other than God is idolatry.

Colossians 3:5 ESV

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

Instead, we personally should be dedicated sacrifices to God.

And Paul gives us one more description.

(3) We are to be a “living sacrifice”.

He says, a “living sacrifice” which of course is an oxymoron.

An animal cannot be re-sacrificed … but Paul says you are to be a living sacrifice.

In other words, Paul is saying -

Don’t just give one day of your life to God.

Instead, give up every single day

Every day wake up - and sacrifice yourself to God.

I every single day, wake up, and say.

God - here is my life … I sacrifice it to you.

My devotion and worship … is that I give you everyday of my life.

Paul teaches us … that we are to be holy, acceptable, living sacrifices.

ILLUSTRATION:

But this kind of Christianity is rare.

To many of us waste our lives on trivial pursuits.

That is why missionary stories are often so challenging.

Because often they are people who could have lived successful lives do something else,

but instead sacrificed their days to God by becoming missionaries.

If you recall a few months back, I shared the Journal entry of David Livingstone.

On David Livingston’s 59th birthday, he made this entry in his journal:

"19th March, 1872. Birthday. Lord, send me anywhere, only go with me. Lay any burden on me, only sustain me. Sever any ties save the tie that binds me to Thy heart. My Jesus, my King, my life, my all, I again dedicate my whole self to Thee."

At age 59, David Livingstone is rededicating his life to God.

I wonder how many people - rededicate their lives to Christ when they are 59?

Have you rededicated your life to Christ?

Paul tells us - We are to sacrifice our lives as consecrated, living sacrifices to God.

I ask,

Does your life reflect that you are devoted to God?

> The first great measure of our life .... is whether we are dedicated to God.

> A life spent wisely … is a life dedicated to God.

The second great measure, is our -

2. Dependence upon God (Romans 12:2)

A life spent wisely … is a life focused upon the things of God.

One of the great challenges of living in this world

- is learning to navigate competing ideas.

Scripture as a whole presents two antagonistic and competing systems of thought.

{{{{The system of the world and the system of God. }}}}

> The Worlds System of thought - is opposed to God, and lost in sin.

> God’s system of thought - is different, good, and life giving.

And thus, Paul challenges us to be careful which system of thought I depend upon.

While Romans 12:1 tells us to be living Sacrifices,

Romans 12:2 tells us how to be living sacrifices.

Romans 12:2 (ESV)

2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Paul tells us we must evaluate what we are feeding our minds with.

The World

God.

First, he warns us not follow the thinking of this world.

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(a) Our source of dependence should not be the World.

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Conformity is the idea of becoming like something.

We are imitating something.

ILLUSTRATIONS:

In the Marine Corp,

we conform to all kinds of standards.

We conform to uniform standards.

We conform to a code of conduct.

We conform to an oath and creeds.

We conform to fitness standards.

And a host of other standards.

While conforming to military standards is a good,

Paul tells us not conform to the world.

We are not have the same goals, interests, values, wisdom, or passions as the world.

We are to be different … or even by some standards … a good kind of weird.

CAVEAT:

This does not mean if you like guns you can’t have guns,

if you like sports you can’t like sports,

and if you like fine dining you can’t eat at a nice restaurant.

This doesn’t mean we are to be ignorant or not in the world,

but that we are not to choose the ethics, morals, and wisdom that is opposed to God.

The world tells us it is ok to tell a white lie.

The world tells us we are justified in being angry.

The world tells us that we should only care about profit.

The world tells us to only worry about what I want - selfishness.

On the other hand- God says:

Thou shall not lie.

We are to put away anger and malice.

We are to prefer others and serve others.

Like I said,

- The world has a system of thought.

- And God has a system of thought.

And Paul says:

Romans 12:2 (ESV)

Do not be conformed to this world

Negatively

We are not make the world the source of our dependence.

But Positively,

We are to make the Gospel the source of our dependence.

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(b) Our source of dependence should be the Gospel.

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Romans 12:2 (ESV)

2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

We are told to be transformed by the renewing of our mind.

This portion of the text requires to think through what knowledge we are being renewed and transformed by.

Paul in Romans 1-11 has primarily been concerned with the Gospel.

Paul is telling us that our source of dependence should not be the world, but the Gospel.

For example -

Romans 3:20–25 ESV

For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.

In fact, Romans 12:1 says:

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.

What mercy is he talking about?

The Gospel.

Paul is teaching is that there two competing systems of thought.

If you spend your life .... depending on the foolishness and sinfulness of this world … you will waist your life.

Sin always has destruction.

Sin always costs people more than they bargained for.

Sin always robs of God’s blessings.

Proverbs 14:12 ESV

There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.

If you don’t believe me … go take a walk down at the local prison or the Brig in Charleston.

They are filled with people who found out sin costs.

ILLUSTRATION:

Even of the case of the couple featured in Readers Digest.

The world says … go find the American Dream.

I mean … how many of us are a little envious of that couple.

The world tells us they have it all.

But in reality they are wasting their God given life.

A person who depends upon the world … waists their life.

BUT -

A person who spends their life depending on the Gospel …

is a person who spends their life wisely.

It is a second great measure of whether you are living a life worth living.

CONCLUSION:

So,

How does your life measure up to Romans 12:1-2?

In the passage, Paul gives us two great measurements to consider whether I am wisely using the life God gave me.

He tells us -

To be Devoted to God

And

To be Dependent Upon God

How does your 2021 measure up to Paul’s standard?

I challenge us,

Spend your God-Given life wisely.

Just like 2 Cor 5;10 promises -

One day, every believer will stand before God.

At the end of your life … what will God say?

> Will God say, your wasted your life on trivial pursuits.

> Will God say,

You are good and faithful servant.

Remember, you only get one life.

So spend your God-given life wisely.

I hope you prayer this morning is the same as David Livingston’s on his 59th Birthday.

“My Jesus, my King, my life, my all, I again dedicate my whole self to Thee.”

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Reflective Response:

(a) Why is Paul’s call to be a sacrifice hard to live? What area’s do you need to work on?

(b) Do you dedicate yourself to Christ everyday? How does your life show this?

(d) Are you spending your God-given life wisely? How does your devotion and dependence reflect this?

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