Three Secrets of Being an Effective Believer
CHAPTER 12:1-2
Living-Sacrifice. Now those two words, living sacrifice, compose in English what is called an oxymoron. An oxymoron is a combination of two seemingly contradictory words. It seems contradictory to say a living sacrifice. When we think of a sacrifice we usually think of something that is dead.
A living sacrifice means that we are dead to sin, and alive to God.
Fifty-six men signed the United States Declaration of Independence.
five were captured by the British and tortured and killed.
Twelve others had their homes ransacked and burned.
Two lost their sons as they fought in the Revolutionary Army.
Another had two of his sons captured.
Nine of the fifty-six fought and died from wounds or hardships of the war.
One, Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships sunk by the British navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts and died in poverty.
At the battle of Yorktown, British General Cornwallis took over Thomas Nelson’s home for his headquarters. Nelson quietly asked General George Washington to open fire on his home. It was destroyed and Nelson died bankrupt.
John Hart was driven from his wife’s bedside as she was dying, leaving their thirteen children to flee for their lives. His fields and mill were destroyed. For over a year, he lived in forest and caves, returning home only to find his wife dead and his children vanished. A few weeks later, he died from exhaustion.
In America there are nearly 100,000,000 people who claim to be church members, and that’s a good thing. The problem is that in more ways that we want to think about we are not making the moral and spiritual impact on our nation and in our world that you would think we would be able to make. Have you ever wondered why that is? I have. I wonder why it is that Sunday after Sunday churches are only partially filled?
When I survey the wondrous cross..Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all’.
MAX LUCADO: Procedure to wake you up spiritually. Turn in your Bibles to 1 Cor 13:4-8 Love is patient, love is kind, love is not jealous, love does not brag, love is not arrogant…love does not seek it’s own…love never fails’.
Replace LOVE with your own name. Guy is patient, Guy is kind, Guy is not jealous, Guy does not brag, Guy does not seek his own, Guy never fails..’ ENOUGH
PUT JESUS’ Name there: Jesus is patient, Jesus is kind, Jesus is not Jealous….JESUS NEVER FAILS’.
• THEREFORE: Follows the first twelve chapters: Defines our lostness and then directs us to Jesus as our only hope. READ 11:33-36.
How could we do anything else but give our lives to Him?
• Basis for our surrender: I urge you, my brethren, by the mercies of God, to present…. TWO REASONS TO SURRENDER OUR LIVES
1. God’s Request Through Paul:
a. Concerned about God not answering our prayers, have we answered His.
b. Believers actually living unsurrendered lives? Pleading that believers get serious about their walk with God.
2. God’s Reason:
a. Because of what God has done: His mercies….You have been bought with a price and you are no longer your own.
b. If you think it is a big deal to surrender your life to God then you don’t understand mercy.
c. Complain that God is a disruption to your schedule, time, finances, relationships.
Change in church life in the mid-1960’s. I was a young child but I heard a man describe how the change of one simple word emphasis came in the mid-1960’s.
It was a change from the word SURRENDER to the word COMMIT.
Language began to center around committing your lives to Jesus, committing your giving to Jesus, committing your time, your service. SOUNDS OK? NO
It is a completely different concept to surrender your life, to surrender your giving, surrender your time and service. HE OWNS IT and it is HIS TO CONTROL.
Many people in churches who may have committed a Sunday morning to God, committed themselves to study the Bible or pray from time to time, commit to serve somewhere in the life of the church but JESUS IS LOOKING FOR THOSE WHO ARE SURRENDERED TO HIS WILL.
• Definition of Surrender: Present your…..(place at another’s disposal’
Aorist tense(past action with present effect) ‘do once for all’ The rest of life
is set by this one time decision.
20 YEARS IN CHURCH before surrender became a reality in my life. At point of surrender God’s will came into a sharp focus. Could have wandered the rest of my life or surrendered to His purpose. John 7:17 PLACE WHERE THE ISSUE BECAME SETTLED
Chicago Union Station mark on floor: Lord I am here, I am yours, The rest of my life, whatever you want me to do, if you will show me and convince me that is what you want. I will do it.
Here I am Lord; you do with my life as you want.
Every time you reach this spot you think about and are reminded of it.
A Christian who fails in life is one who has first failed at the altar, refusing to surrender completely to Christ.
PRESENT YOUR BODIES: Present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
1. Bodies represent who we are: first response is God you don’t realize how bad I am. This body is prone to weakness, susceptible to temptation. God wants us just as we are but bodies also represent all that we are: thoughts, actions, attitudes, deeds, behavior, motives, goals. Temple of the Holy Spirit
a. Sacrifice: Offered up to God. All that I am is consumed in His will.
b. ULTIMATE SACRIFICE is not death but life. 24 hours a day surrendered to God’s will. That is the Biblical definition to dying to self and this world.
Worship is putting yourself on the altar and letting God consume you.
2. TWO DESCRIPTIONS of Sacrifice: Living & Holy
a. Living means daily If anyone wishes to come after Me let him deny himself and take up His cross daily and come and follow me.
General Booth: asked by an evangelist the secret of God using him in such an effective way. Other people have greater minds, more talent, greater resources but God has gotten all there is of me!
b. Holy means sanctified, set apart. One purpose in life and not divided loyalties. Course of my life is charted towards holiness, lordship. Placing every area of my life under His command.
FLESHOOKS ON ALTAR: Hold the sacrifice in place.
Two that hold living sacrifices in place are devotion and discipline.
People come to church to be amused, entertained, or informed.
Not join, ‘don’t want to be tied down’, ‘don’t teach, don’t want to be tied down, may go to lake, other priorities for Sunday’
double-minded man, don’t think that you will receive anything from the Lord.
GOD YOU ARE NUMBER 1. Nothing will be allowed to challenge my affection for you
3. TWO OBSERVATIONS: sacrifice, acceptable to God which is your spiritual service of worship.
a. Acceptable ‘in agreement with God’s plan’. Obviously what God has in
mind for your life. A life which is pleasing to Him.
YOUNG BABY IN PARENT’S ARMS, BRAND NEW, all the dreams that go thru your mind about your desires for the future of this child. GROW UP and fulfill all those ACCEPTABLE
A life in agreement with God’s plan and not a weekend hobby.
c. Spiritual service of worship reasonable, rational. It is that which makes sense. Logica it is only logical. Not just for a few but for all believers. Surrender, sacrifice are who we are to be.
1. IT JUST MAKES SENSE: Because of what God has done for us, because of the power God has provided to us, because of the calling God has given to us IT JUST MAKES SENSE that we surrender our lives completely to Him.
2. Utter irrational, unreasonable foolishness to live a self centered life.
Many of us talk the same, live the same, watch the same TV, go to the same movies - nothing supernatural about us. Makes no sense!!
d. Every day we worship: Not just Sundays but how we live our life is our worship to God. When we present/surrender ourselves to God we worship.
Queen Mary made it her practice to visit Scotland every year. She was so loved by the people there that she often mingled with them freely without a protective escort.
While walking with some children one afternoon, she went farther than she had planned. Dark clouds came up unexpectedly, so she stopped at a nearby house to borrow an umbrella.
“If you will lend me one,” she said to the lady who answered the door, “I will send it back to you tomorrow.”
The woman didn’t recognize the Queen and was reluctant to give this stranger her best umbrella. So she handed her one that she intended to throw away. The fabric was torn in several places and one of the ribs was broken.
The next day another knock was heard at the door. When the woman opened it, she was greeted by a royal guard, who was holding her old, tattered umbrella. “The Queen sent me,” he said. “She asked me to thank you for loaning her this.”
For a moment the woman was stunned, then she burst into tears. “Oh, what an opportunity I missed,” she cried. “I didn’t give the Queen my very best!”
