The Perfect Will Of God

Alba 4-24-2022

THE PERFECT WILL OF GOD

Romans 12:1-2

Have you ever received a “sweepstakes” offer in the mail? For years magazine companies like Reader’s Digest, Good Housekeeping and Publishers Clearing House have sent out mailings offering a sweepstakes where a lucky winner could win substantial prizes if they’d just send in the paperwork.

In 1997, American Family Publishers had a mailing list that included the “Bushnell Assembly of God” in Bushnell, Florida.

The computer somehow twisted the name of the church so that the sweepstakes notice was addressed to "God of Bushnell" and was sent to the church’s address.

The letter read, "Dear God. We're searching for you. You've been positively identified as our $11,000,000 mystery millionaire! What an incredible fortune there would be for God! Imagine the looks you'd get from neighbors. But don't just sit there God, come forward now and claim your prize!”

They were searching for God! They promised God a huge blessing, if only He would respond to their offer. Well they have a lot to offer, but I don't think that God, who owns the cattle on a thousand hills, needs what they can give.

On the other hand, it would be good for everyone to truly seek God and His will, because He has an even better offer with a huge blessing for everyone who would look to Him and respond to His offer.

For there is the perfect will of God that if followed would bring about changes in people, and in the world, that is desperately needed today.

Would you like to know God’s Will for your life? Of course you would! So, if you are searching for God’s Will for your life and if you want His blessings you need to look no further than Romans chapter twelve verses one and two.

1 I beseech you therefore, 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.

Now, what Romans 12 is telling us is that God has offered a huge blessing. And not just for one lucky winner.

Have you noticed how they are able to insert your name in their sweepstakes offer to make it look like it is a personal letter? Well God makes His offer personal as well.

Do “you” see it? The scripture says “I beseech YOU.” God is speaking to “you,”... actually to each one of us. And it is a message about our body and our mind.

To respond to God's offer of the blessing of living in His will begins as we:

Present Our Bodies (verse 1)

Our bodies are to be “a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God.”

That is God's will. We are urged to present ourselves, our whole selves, as a living sacrifice to God as a response to God’s mercies.

We’ve been programmed to think that our bodies belong only to us. So we hear such slogans as: “It’s your body, you have the right to choose,” and "If it feels good, go ahead, do it.” That’s basically the attitude of the world.

But God’s Word teaches that our bodies don’t belong to us alone. Not only are we God’s creation, but I Corinthians 6:19-20 says, “19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.”

It’s not just with our spirit we serve the living God, but also with our bodies as a holy sacrifice. A simple study of the word holy reveals its meaning: to be set apart; sanctified, it also means pure.

God expects that the people He sets apart for Himself will live set apart lives. Remember what it says in Romans 6:12-14.

“12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. 13 And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”

The pleasures of sin are real. But how long does it last? A short time. Therefore it is not very valuable. The pleasures of sin last a short time, but the pain of sin can last a long, long time.

The problem is, our spiritual lives can take on a façade. What is a façade? It’s a superficial appearance or an illusion of something that it is not.