My Personal Sacrifice Series

THE MARTYR’S OATH

My Personal Sacrifice

Romans 12:1-3

INTRODUCTION: This is the last sermon in this series on the Martyr’s Oath, and the most demanding of us personally. If you have looked ahead, you have seen the rest of the oath filled in. Daunting to say the least! Daunting , yes, BUT still achievable. In our lifetime, we can accomplish so much more. And the best part about this is that the number of years we have left does not matter, it the quality of those years that is at issue. How will I spend them, and for what purpose and goal.

So great is the task, so awesome is the effort, that Paul urges us. Not commands, but urges. We must be willing to give ourselves wholeheartedly to something that can REALLY make a difference in our community and in our world.

I THE UNDERTAKING OF URGING – 12:1a

Romans 12:1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship.

Romans 12:1 (MSG) 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.

A Undertaking the urge is a response

1 “Therefore” is a word that encourages us to look back

a The fact that we live in a world that DESPERATELY needs to get right with God

b The fact that the way for the world to get right with God is through Jesus Christ and what He did

c The fact that each and every believer has been sanctified (set apart) from this world

d The fact that we have been commissioned with the task of sharing God’s message

WE NEED TO ACCEPT PAUL’S URGE FOR OUR LIVES!

2 God is worthy of our service now!

a There has never been a better time

b There has never been a more urgent time

B The basis for responding

1 God’s mercy

2 God’s mercy put us in the position of being tellers, and not hearers

3 God’s mercy put us in the responsibility of being tellers

a Hearers cannot hear without a teller

b Hearers need a teller to tell

Romans 10:14 (MSG) But how can people call for help if they don’t know who to trust? And how can they know who to trust if they haven’t heard of the One who can be trusted? And how can they hear if nobody tells them?

God’s compassion on our lives made us immune to the eternity of hell, but responsible for the message of heaven.

The surest way of communicating the message of salvation is through accepting the urge!

II THE EXTENT OF URGING – 12:1b

Romans 12:1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship.

Romans 12:1 (MSG) 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.

A The Offer

1 Word means to present or yield

2 Give up control

3 Ultimately the first step is deciding who has ultimate control of my life.

B The Offering

1 The offering is my body

2 The totality of myself – everything that makes me me

3 A release of claim to myself

4 God wants us now

C The Quality

1 Living – an offering that continues to living – so as long as I am living I am God’s

2 It is something that is pleasing to God

a Our actions can cause God pain

b Our actions can cause God pleasure

2 Corinthians 5:9 (NIV) So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.

3 Directed to Him

a Not offering myself to me – that’s a resolution

b Not an offering of myself to others – that’s slavery

c Not an offering of myself to things – that’s idolatry

4 Change of my lifestyle

a My offering is with respect to my worship

b Literally anything I perform for God

c What things do we do that are performed for God?

d EVERYTHING!

III THE POWER OF THE OFFERING – 12:2

Romans 12:2 (NIV) Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.