THE DEEPER WALK PART II: A LIVING SACRIFICE
ROMANS 12: 1-21
AUGUST 3, 2003
INTRODUCTION: JUDGE NOT . . .
A small-town prosecuting attorney called his first witness to the stand in a trial -- a grand-motherly, elderly woman. He approached her and asked, "Mrs. Jones, do you know me?" She responded, "Why, yes, I do know you, Mr. Williams. I’ve known you since you were a young boy. And frankly, you’ve been a big disappointment to me. You lie, you cheat on your wife, you manipulate people and talk about them behind their backs. You think you’re a rising big shot when you haven’t the brains
to realize you will never amount to anything more than a two-bit paper pusher. Yes, I know you." The lawyer was stunned. Not knowing what else to do, he pointed across the room and asked, "Mrs. Williams, do you know the defense attorney?" She replied, "Why, yes I do. I’ve known Mr. Bradley since he was a youngster, too. I used to baby-sit him for his parents. And he, too, has been a real disappointment to me. He’s lazy, bigoted, and he has a drinking problem. The man can’t build a normal relationship with anyone, and his law practice is one of the shoddiest in the entire state. Yes, I know him." At this point, the judge rapped the courtroom to silence and called both counselors to the bench. In a very quiet voice, he said with menace, "If either of you asks her if she knows me, you’ll be jailed for contempt!"
Contributed by: Dru Ashwell
“Falling Out of Bed”
A little boy constantly fell out of bed. No matter what his parents did, the boy couldn’t sleep without rolling out of bed. An uncle came to visit and in the middle of the night the usual thump and cry was heard. In the morning the uncle teased the boy and asked him why he fell out so often. The little fellow thought for a moment and then said, “I don’t know, unless its because I stay too close to the place where I get in.” Contributed by: Bruce Howell
TRANSITION THOUGHT: Today I want us to continue to think about what it means to go deeper in our walk with the Lord. I believe you cannot read any of the Bible and not sense God’s desire for us to go deeper. The problem we face is that we often stay too close to the place where we get in. Remember, God loves us so much that HE will accept us wherever we are. BUT, HE loves us too much to leave us there! One other thought here, do you remember last week when I told you about how John Wesley viewed the Christian life. He viewed the front porch as repentance, or the place where we turn to God. The doorway of the house was salvation, the place where we meet God. The house itself, namely the interior was the deeper walk which scripture calls sanctification, or the place where we live with God. Today we are going to talk more about this deeper walk and what it looks like in the real world.
THESIS SENTENCE: THE DEEPER WALK IS THE RESULT OF A LIVING SACRIFICE
I. A LIVING SACRIFICE IS BASED ON GOD’S MERCY: THEREFORE (VS. 1)
A. MERCY IS GOD’S CHARACTER
1. Moses said it this way in Deuteronomy 4:31, “For the Lord your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your forefathers, which he confirmed to them by oath.”
2. The Prophet Nehemiah adds to this, 29 “You warned them to return to your law, but they became arrogant and disobeyed your commands. They sinned against your ordinances, by which a man will live if he obeys them. Stubbornly they turned their backs on you, became stiff-necked and refused to listen. 30 For many years you were patient with them. By your Spirit you admonished them through your prophets. Yet they paid no attention, so you handed them over to the neighboring peoples. 31 But in your great mercy you did not put an end to them or abandon them, for you are a gracious and merciful God (CHAPTER 9).”
3. You see, God doesn’t react the way we do! Praise the Lord! Our God shows mercy. He demonstrates love in the purest form: He does not treat us as our sins deserve (Psalm 103:10)!
4. Remember the difference in Justice and Mercy: Justice is getting what you do deserve and Mercy is not getting what we do deserve!
B. MERCY IS GOD’S RESPONSE TO US: “THEREFORE” VS. 1
1. Mercy is our justification through faith (5:1)
2. Mercy is our being set free from sin (6:18)
3. Mercy is our release from the Law (7:6)
4. Mercy is us made alive in Christ (8: 10)
ILLUSTRATION: A mother once approached Napoleon seeking a pardon for her son. The emperor replied that the young man had committed a certain offense twice and justice demanded death. "But I don’t ask for justice," the mother explained. "I plead for mercy." "But your son does not deserve mercy," Napoleon replied.
"Sir," the woman cried, "it would not be mercy if he deserved it, and mercy is all I ask for." "Well, then," the emperor said, "I will have mercy." And he spared the woman’s son. Luis Palau, Experiencing God’s Forgiveness, Multnomah Press, 1984.
TRUTH: BECAUSE OF GOD’S MERCY WE ARE CALLED TO A DEEPER WALK
II. A LIVING SACRIFICE IS BASED ON A SPIRITUAL ACT OF WORSHIP VV. 1
A. A SPIRITUAL ACT OF WORSHIP IS A BODILY SACRIFICE
1. Because God has shown us mercy, it should be our natural response to want to “OFFER” something back to HIM. What the Apostle points out is that God doesn’t just want “something” He wants “everything”!
2. Dr. Dennis Kinlaw adds that we are now enabled to worship God with all that we are because of God’s mercy revealed to us in Salvation!
3. You see, the issue now is not what can be gained, but what can be “offered”!
4. Formerly we were bound for hell, we were lost and our lives were in chaos. But now, in Christ, we are set free to worship God. We have gained all of heaven! Now in response to God’s amazing grace, we offer ourselves as “LIVING SACRIFICES.”
5. One other note about this word “Body” as in “to offer your bodies as living sacrifices,” the word doesn’t just speak of our flesh and blood, but to all that we are: our will, our attitudes, our desires, ultimately our very way of living!
B. A SPIRITUAL ACT OF WORSHIP IS HOLY AND PLEASING TO GOD 1. This idea of a Holy life, therefore, it is not a requirement for salvation; it is an expression of salvation. It is not salvation by works; but an act of worship in which one who has found Jesus as Savior now “offers” all that he or she is as an act of adoration to the one who has revealed HIS love to us through HIS incredible mercy.
2. Bud Bence, an IWU professor, writes, “Paul takes us to the Temple in Jerusalem, and beyond to the Old Testament Tabernacle, where the people offered God a choice animal from their livestock. There were many different offerings, but Paul is no doubt referring to the burnt offering – an animal brought to God as an expression of devotion, and which was totally consumed by fire on the altar… But the burnt offering was a total gift to God, holy and pleasing in HIS sight, just as our offering of ourselves to God must be”
3. The issue is worship and real worship is an offering of ourselves, not a let’s see what I can get, but let me see all I can give! THIS IS HOLY AND PLEASING TO GOD!
ILLUSTRATION: During the tenure of the great orator Henry Ward Beecher, a visiting minister (Beecher’s brother) once substituted for the popular pastor. A large audience had already assembled to hear Beecher, and when the substitute pastor stepped into the pulpit, several disappointed listeners began to move toward the exits. That’s when the minister stood and said loudly, "All who have come here today to worship Henry Ward Beecher may now withdraw from the church. All who have come to worship God keep your seats!"
Today in the Word, April 1989, p. 22.
TRUTH: TRUE WORSHIP IS GIVING OUR ALL TO GOD
III. A LIVING SACRIFICE IS A TRANSFORMED LIFE VV. 2
A. A TRANSFORMED LIFE IS ONE OF NON-CONFORMITY
1. Now to the nuts and bolts of it all!
2. Paul gets down to the details.
3. Once we have “OFFERED OURSELVES AS LIVING SACRIFICES,” our lives should look different.
4. No longer should we “be conformed to the pattern of this world”!
5. Here, the Apostle Paul is not speaking of the world as God’s creation, but as an ideology, a way of thinking. This term for “world” is often translated “AGE”.
6. Paul states here that our World View, our mind set must be that of God, not this current ages world view or mindset. The mindset of this age is not on the things of God.
7. This is why Paul talks about “the renewing of our minds”!
8. Only when we allow God’s thoughts to dominate our minds will we be able to know HIS will for our lives. As long as we think like this world, we will not understand the perfect will of God.
9. The awesome thing about this word “Transformed” is the Greek word from which it is translated. The word is metamorphousthe. It is the word from which we get metamorphesis. This is the word we use to explain what happens when a caterpillar evolves into a butterfly! This is what God wants to happen to us and will happen to us when we “OFFER OURSELVES AS LIVING SACRIFICES”!
B. A TRANSFORMED LIFE IS ONE OF LOVE
1. Now, if you are anything like me, you might be saying about now, “Okay, Lord, I am with you so far, but what does it look like to be a Living Sacrifice? What will it look like on Monday morning and what will it look like when I get home today?”
2. The Apostle Paul knew what we were thinking when he wrote to this church in Rome! This is where the rubber meets the road. This is where the “LIVING” part of the sacrifice is revealed. We are not to be a dead sacrifice, which we would prefer, but a living, acting, being sacrifice!
3. I could spell it all out for you, but The Apostle Paul did it for us in the next 19 verses. Verses 3 through 21 are a picture of just what it looks like to be alive and yet a sacrifice.
4. The overall view here is of loving other as you love yourself.
5. A Pharisee, one who was an expert in the law, asked, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments (Matthew 22:34-40).”
6. Verse 9 draws our attention to this word as the meaning of why we do what we do, “Love must be sincere.”
7. The scope of all this love goes from how we deal with each other in the church to the extreme issue of how we deal with our enemies. The conclusion of our text sums it all us for us: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” 8. This can only happen when we “OFFER OUR BODIES AS LIVING SACRIFICES TO GOD.”
ILLUSTRATION: The father says, "You better get ready. The bus will be here in a minute to pick you up and take you to Sunday school." The Boy asked, "Did you go to Sunday School when you were a boy?" The father replied, "Yes I did."
The boy said as he was getting dressed, "It probably won’t do me any good either!"
Contributed by: Jimmy Haile
TRUTH: ONLY A TRANSFORMED LIFE REVEALS THE PERFECT WILL OF GOD FOR OUR LIVES
CONCLUSION: Today we talked about the deeper walk with Christ. What did you hear the Holy Spirit saying to you? Is your life on the Altar of God? Are you a living sacrifice? Have you removed yourself from the Altar? Did you allow God to completely consume you? What are you holding back from the Lord? Will you offer Him all that you are today? YOU pray while Ron sings for us!
BENEDICTION: I THESSALONIANS 5:23-24
