Totally His!

INTRODUCTION

 Would you describe yourself as rich or poor? Would you describe yourself as spiritually rich or poor?

 When I first became a Christian at age 20, there were many days of discouragement for me in my walk. I would look around and see a lot of Christians who seemed to have it all together; while I was struggling along the path. I wondered what was different about me.

 As I have grown in the Lord, I have come to realize that many people go through the same battle that I did. The sad thing is that some never seem to recover from it and their whole walk with the Lord is not what they thought it would be when they were immersed into Christ.

 It saddens me when I see brothers and sisters in Christ not reaching their full potential in the Lord. It pains God to see that also.

 We have to choose whether we want to enjoy spiritual riches or spiritual poverty.

 When we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savoir, God intends for us to have all of the wonderful blessings that He has in store for us. God wants us to enjoy spiritual riches!

 God has never promised us that we will live a life without pain and sorrow, but He has promised us that He will always be with us through it all.

 Today, I want to share some thoughts from God’s word that will literally transform your walk with God if you will put them into practice. This passage will help us to understand what we need to do to grow in the Lord. I want us to turn to Romans 12:1-2 today.

 The passage today will tell us what we need to do to be TOTALLY HIS.

SERMON

I. THE REASON TO MAKE YOURSELF TOTALLY HIS!

A. Why should a Christian give themselves totally to Jesus?

1. The little word “THEREFORE”.

 Throughout the book of Romans, Paul has been explaining all that God has done so that we can enjoy the gift of salvation.

 Paul tells us that since God has done all that He has for us that we need to give ourselves totally to Him.

2. By the mercies of God.

 We are encouraged to give ourselves totally over to Jesus because of the mercies of God.

 The mercies of God are all of the things that God has done so that we can have the gift of eternal life and all the countless ways He shows His love and provision for us.

 John Calvin said that men will never worship with a sincere heart or respect and obey God with zeal until we properly understand how much we are indebted to God’s mercy.

 This is why many times you will see a person who has had a rough life who comes to Jesus be so zealous for Jesus, they understand the debt they owe to God. They understand the debt they owe God for sending Jesus to die for their sins so that they can have eternal life.

 We are being urged to give ourselves over fully to God so that we can enjoy spiritual riches!

II. HOW TO MAKE YOURSELF TOTALLY HIS

A. Verse one of our text calls for a decisive commitment on the part of the Christian to do something. Spiritual growth does not happen by accident, but it happens in the proportion in which we are able to present our bodies to God, to be totally His.

1. The presentation is a one time decisive past act. We are being asked to make a definite surrender of our will to God’s will once and for all. Have you ever reached the point in your walk where you knew you would never turn back? A time when you told yourself that you were going to do your very best to serve and live for Jesus?

2. We are to make this presentation to God out of gratitude for what He has done for us, the mercies that He has extended to us.

3. The Holy Spirit will help us as we make this commitment, but He will not force us to conform, that is a choice that we make.

4. We decide that we are going to let our bodies be used as an instrument for God instead of Satan. Listen to a couple of these passages

 ROM 6:19 I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.

 ROM 6:13 and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.