Living Life To Its Fullest Series

Romans 12:1-8

Getting on the Same Page as God about How to Live Life to its Fullest

Introduction

A. It is not over yet!

B. What is not over yet, your life, if you are hearing me speak right now, your life is not over

C. Why is your life not over? Because of God’s Mercy!

D. WE deserve death, we deserve to have our life ended, but it is not

E. Why? Because of God’s Mercy

F. So what are you going to do with your life?

G. Many people will respond with “I am going to live my life to its fullest”

H. That is not a bad answer in and of itself, but how? How are you going to live life to its fullest

I. Many people have found that Money does not guarantee a full life, drugs do not offer a full life, how can we live life to its fullest

J. Today we are going to see how to live life to its fullest

K. We are going to look at

a. How to live your life

b. What to avoid in your life

c. What to do with your life

I. How to live your life (1)

A. Explanation

1. I like the way that this verse starts off, talking about in view of God’s Mercy

a) Quick review what is Mercy – God not giving us what we deserve

2. WE have to keep God’s Mercy in mind

3. Because of God Mercy we should… and then the verse continues

4. Offer our bodies as living sacrifices.

5. Offer our bodies; that might not mean much to us today as it would have meant to the first readers of Romans, Why?

6. Because today we do not practice animal sacrifices. However back in the time that was written animal sacrifices were common

7. So why does Paul say to offer our bodies? Animal Sacrifices are not a real sacrifice, so we have to give up an animal, do we care that much about animals?

8. But Paul tells us to offer our bodies as sacrifice, not to use the animal, but our bodies, ok now we are getting personal

9. The good news is that Paul said LIVING sacrifice; otherwise we could be in trouble.

10. Why do we offer our bodies as worship? Because of God’s Mercy

11. Worship is our expression of love for God

B. Application

1. How do we do this?

2. This takes a conscious effort.

3. This is not something that comes natural or easy

4. But rather, as a sacrifice

5. You want to know what real worship is?

6. Real Worship is the offering of everyday life to God.

7. That is how to live your life

8. Here is the good news, your life is not over yet

9. I do not care what you have done in the past

10. God does not care what you have done in the past

11. Forget about that, The guy who wrote this book used to persecute Christians all the time, God forgave him

12. But every morning you wake up, you have the opportunity to offer real worship

13. It does not matter about what happened yesterday, it matters what happens today

C. Illustration

1. I have told you before about a guy who I look up to as a Spiritual Mentor, Grandpa Lumis. Grandpa Lumis is 82 or 83 years old. He has the title of Ground Keeper. You would not think of that as an opportunity to serve God.

2. But he does. Every morning at 5 that guy is up. He is up offering his body as a spiritual sacrifice

3. When I was working with him for 2 solid wonderful weeks, I was humiliated. This 80-year-old man out worked me everyday. I was stronger, I was healthier, but he out worked me

4. He did not do this to show me up, he did not do this to impress his bosses at the camp, He works hard for one reason

5. To offer his body as a living Sacrifice to God

6. That’s real worship!

II. What to avoid in your life (2-3)

A. Explanation

1. Verse 2 starts off with telling us not to be conform any longer to the pattern of this world

2. Understand something, this verse in no way is saying that we should live a separated life

3. It is not saying that we should avoid things such as cars, TV, Computers

4. That is not the stuff that we are talking about, we are talking about ideas and thought

5. We live in a society that is suppose to be tolerant. We are suppose to accept everybody’s different believes and different attitudes

6. That is not the case, it is impossible to accept that there are other ways to God other then through Jesus Christ, It is impossible to say that it is ok to live a lifestyle that God tells us not live