Sacrifice

Sacrifice Romans 12:1-8

• Saint Catherine Maximinus ordered her death on the wheel but it broke. She was then beheaded because of her Faith in Christ.

• Joan of Arc felt led by God to set her people free, in the Hundred Years’ War she was called a heretic and burned at the stake.

• Mark, who wrote the Gospel of Mark, founded the Christian Church in Alexandria. an angry mob tied a rope around his neck and dragged him through the streets behind a chariot for two days without interruption. The dragging continued even after his death, until his bones were showing

• Jesus died for our sins the extreme sacrifice for all

1. Paul calls for a sacrifice. present your bodies as a living sacrifice,

• The readers in Paul’s Day this was a well-known image

• They saw the shedding of blood on an altar set aside for sacrificial purposes.

• The blood of a lamb, calf or bullock was shed for the tolerance of sins.

• This practice was routine in the lives of the Hebrews for millennia.

• The rituals are still available to us in the books of Moses, the Pentatuech or the first five books of the Old Testament.

2. This sacrifice involved a death or all in living, A willing-ness, A Surrender. Old hymn I surrender all

• Paul believes the followers of Jesus Need to be all in

• Paul doesn’t just say our lives should be a sacrifice They are a sacrifice

• A Theologian said, “He suggests that we present our bodies as living sacrifices, that is, sacrifices that do not die! Living deaths!”

• Consider those who are all in and their lives are given entirely to their music or their sport (like golf or tennis). They do not surrender their lives; they offer their lives. They give up almost everything else. They live for it. It is their life. (

• Paul said “for me to live is Christ for me to die is gain”

3. Paul believes sacrifice is renewal or renewing our minds Change transformation

• Paul points to a transformative mind set self-denial, humility, serving others and seeking the success of others.

• a passion for improvement, radical change, an unwillingness to accept old habits and conventional thinking.

• Purpose of growth involves transformation 2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world there is another outline for one’s life it’s the high way

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4. Sacrifice also is worship offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship.

• True worship is The sacrifice, the blood, sweat and tears, the self-denial, the transformative mindset, the relentless-ness of trying to live the right way — it’s our worship

• Sacrifice is seeking to figure out how will we bless the world?

• How will we serve Jesus in our church, our community, among our friends, among neighbors, co-workers, the lost and needy, the lowly and downcast? This is sacrifice are we willing?

• For the apostle Paul, bringing his letter to the church at Rome. He encouraged : Don’t think to highly of yourself ,use your gifts such as prophesying,. 7If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; 8if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, give generously; if it is leadership, lead; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.

• Therefore I urge you sacrifice, surrender all, Renew transform, worship by serving

• knew then that the world needs Jesus, The world needs people who are all in, who will sacrifice for success — the kind of success that reconciles and connects people to God