Note: As noted in the message I used The Preachers Sermon and Outline Bible for Romans.
Title: The Perfect Will of God
Theme: Show how to figure out what the will of God is.
Text: Romans 12:1-2
Introduction
I have been pastoring for over 18 years now. One of the most common questions I get is, “How do I know the will of God?”
Sometimes people even come and ask me, “What is the Lord’s will for my life?” They want me to tell them yet I refuse because I know that if I tell them then they will always depend on me.
This morning I would like to answer this question, How to find the will of God?
We will be looking at Romans 12:1-2. I will read the scripture first and then I will work backwards from verse 2 to verse 1.
Rom 12:1-2 I beseech (beg and plead, this is important) you therefore (based on what you have just read, the doctrinal side of the Christian life), brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. (2) And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Verse 2
that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Prove – test, examine, discern, process
We have a choice just as Cain had a choice in Genesis 4:6-10
Genesis 4:6-10 So the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it." 8 Now Cain talked with Abel his brother; and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him. 9 Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is Abel your brother?" He said, "I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?" 10 And He said, "What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground.
Description of the Will of God
Good - right(agathon): beneficial, rich, bountiful, suitable, moral.
Acceptable - well-pleasing, approving and extremely satisfying to God(euareston): pleasing, satisfactory, welcomed.
"Wherefore we labour, that whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him" (2 Cor. 5:9).
God’s Standard
Pro 14:12 There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.
Perfect – wholeness, integrity, complete well trained, growth without error or mistake, flawless, complete, absolute, free from any need, short of nothing, completely fulfilled.
The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his master. Luke 6:40
"Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things" (Phil. 4:8).
"Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ" (2 Cor. 10:5).
Will of God – purpose, determination, decree, volition, desire, pleasure.
Verse 1
Beseech – plead, beg
Therefore
When you see this word you know that Paul is connecting to what is going on between this chapter and the previous chapter or thought.
Another thought to remember is that in Paul’s writing he usually has a doctrinal part and a pratical part. After teaching about the doctrine of the matter he would usually spend the next chapters show how we are to live it out.
Chapter 12 for Romans is the transition from the doctrinal to the practical. So he pleads with them to make an application.
“by the mercies of God”
That which God has given to us that we don’t deserve –
1Co 2:9 But as it is written: "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him."
PRESENTATION of our lives
That you present yourself
Rom 12:1-2 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. (2) 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 living sacrifice **From The Preachers Sermon and Outline Bible on Romans 12
A living sacrifice means at least four things.
• A living sacrifice means a constant, continuous sacrifice, not just an occasional dedication of one's body. A person does not sacrifice his body to God today, and then take his body back into his own hands and do his own thing tomorrow. A living sacrifice means that a person dedicates his body to live for God and to keep on living for God.
• A living sacrifice means a sacrifice of a person's body wherever the body is.
• A living sacrifice means that the body sacrifices its own desires and lives for God. The body lives a holy, righteous, pure, clean, and moral life for God.
• A living sacrifice means that the body lives for God by serving God. It means that the body sacrifices and gives up its own ambitions and desires, and it serves God while upon this earth.
"For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's" (1 Cor. 6:20).
b. The dedication of the body to God is the believer's reasonable service.
⇒ The word "reasonable" (logikēn PWS: 3172) means rational, intelligent, logical. It is an act of the mind thinking and figuring out what and how to do something.
⇒ the word "service" (latreian PWS: 3472) means worship, ministry.
The idea is that the believer is to use his mind in dedicating his body to the service of God. He is to study the Scriptures, and intelligently think about how to best serve God as he walks through life day by day.
Be not conformed to the World-directed by, shaped by, similar to
See The Message on Romans 12:2
3. (12:2) Conformed— World— Worldliness: the believer is not to be conformed to this world.
1. The word "conformed" (suschēmatizō PWS: 718) comes from the root word schema which means fashion, the outward form, the appearance of a man. It is the appearance of a person that changes from day to day and year to year. A man dresses differently for work than he does for an evening out. A man looks different as a young man than he does as an older man. His schema, his fashion, his outward appearance differs.
2. The word "world" (aiōn PWS: 4433) in the simplest of terms means the world itself and everything in it, for it is all corruptible. The world, including the heavens and earth and all therein, is aging, deteriorating and dying; and it will pass away. The world is not perfect: not in being, order, morality, or justice.
Note two significant facts, facts that desperately need to be heeded by the world as well as by believers.
a. The world itself and everything in it shall pass away.
"While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal" (2 Cor. 4:18).
"And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever" (1 John 2:17).
b. The believer is not to conform, that is, fashion himself after the world...
"Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty" (2 Cor. 6:17-18).
"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world" (1 John 2:15-16).
TRANSFORMATION of our minds
Be transformed
4. (12:2) Transformed— Mind: the believer is to be transformed (metamorphousthe PWS: 4032). The Greek root of the word is morphe. Morphe means the real being of a man. It is the very nature and essence, the inseparable part, the unchanging shape of a man. The man in evening clothes looks different than he does in work clothes, but he is still the same man inwardly. The elderly man is the same man inwardly that he was as a young man.
What the Bible is saying is clearly evident: the believer must undergo a radical change within his inner being in order to escape the world and its doom. The believer must be transformed and changed inwardly. His real self—his very nature, essence, personality, inner being, his inner man—must be changed.
How? By the Renewing of your mind
1. How is a man transformed within his inner person? The Bible declares as simply as can be stated, "by the renewing of your mind." The believer's mind is to be renewed (anakainōsis PWS: 3249), which means to be made new, readjusted, changed, turned around, regenerated.
b. The mind is renewed by the presence and the image of Christ in the life of the believer. When a person receives the Lord Jesus Christ as His Lord, the man is spiritually...
• born again (John 3:3-8; 1 Peter 1:23).
• made into a new man (Ephes. 4:24; Col. 3:10).
• made into a new creature (2 Cor. 5:17).
• given the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16; cp. 1 Cor. 2:9-15).
• changed into the image of Christ (2 Cor. 3:18; cp. Romans 8:29; 1 Cor. 15:49; Col. 3:10; 1 John 3:2).
I love this thought from the Book The Resolution for Men pg. 208
PRESENTATION of our lives
+
TRANSFORMATION of our minds
=
REVELATION of His will
We find the will of God when we present ourselves to God as living sacrifices (even before discovering His will for our lives) and are transformed by the renewing of our minds (by turning away from the world and staying in God’s Word). Then we will know the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.
Conclusion
Let us close with a place of surrender. We offer up a sacrifice and let the Lord transform us.
