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.
Romans 12:2 (MSG) Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
A Offering myself BREAKS the power of conformity
1 Conformity means to “put on a fashion show”
2 To change clothes with the trends
When we were down visiting my brother-in-law and his wife Pateu, we went out to the mall to do a little shopping. Sherry, in particular was looking for a new purse. Well, she found one – a back pack style one. She commented on how “new” the style looked, to which my sister-in-law replied, “Oh, they have been out for a while.” She the quipped, “Well, I guess I am a day late.” My sister-in-law, who is French, and does not know our saying said, “No, Sherry, you are a year late!”
In other words, my wife was behind the fashion trend in pocketbooks!
B Conformity with the world is no longer my goal or desire
1 Dropping a lifestyle
2 Not following the newest thing the world has to offer
3 I no longer change with the crowd
MY CHANGE IS NOT EXTERNAL AND FICKLE, BUT INTERNAL AND CONSISTENT
C Transformation by renewing my mind is my focus
1 This is a word that means to keep on being transformed – a process that is ongoing in my life
2 Transformation is an inside change, not an outside change. Transformation does not change with the crowd.
3 Our minds are the center of our thoughts, attitudes, and feelings!
1 Corinthians 7:31 (NIV) those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away.
4 Information brings transformation
D Transformation allows me to test and approve
1 Literally to find and to follow
2 To find God’s good will
3 To find God’s pleasing will
4 To find God’s perfect will
IV THE ACTIVATION OF URGING – 12:3
Romans 12:3 (NIV) For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.
Romans 12:3 (MSG) I’m speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you. Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it’s important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.
A Step One – Choosing the right judge
1 Judge your self by God’s standard, and not your own
2 Judge yourself by God’s stand and not that of someone else
B Step Two – Be sober – balanced in your judgment
1 We often only look at one side
2 Or we give too much weight to one side
3 Paul says be balanced
4 The part we miss
a God has given each – all of us a measure of faith
b Notice we all got a part, nobody has the whole thing here
c End result is that none of us are “super spiritual” according to God
5 The faith God has given us is a “working faith”
a The spiritual capacity to carry out our sacrifice to Him
IT ALL COMES DOWN TO IF WE ARE GOING TO DO IT
• God has done it all for us
• God asks us to do for Him
• We have been asked to be transformed for the benefit of the kingdom
• Transformation begins with information
So, you have a full Marty’s Oath in from of you. And I am going to ask you – if this is you to sign it to look on the back and choose a day to start. Then give me the sheet. No questions, no excuses. Starting on each of those days at 7pm, right here and for 7 weeks, I am going to give you the tools for transformation. At the end of seven, you can decide to give it up and walk away, or remain for another 6 weeks.
The choice is yours
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