FBC Daily Devotional – February 25, 2022

Well, a good Friday morning to you. We are again at the end of another week, looking forward to the weekend and the Lord's Day on Sunday. I hope you are. I hope you're planning to gather with God's people.

Join in for the Sunday Bible study time at 9 .30 at our church at Faith Baptist if you're in the area. Then the morning service at 10 .30. These are good opportunities to grow in grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And then, of course, this Sunday we'll be having an afternoon service, going to be a special afternoon service this week, going to be watching the documentary of David Brainerd. Maybe somebody you don't know, maybe you're not familiar with, but David Brainerd was an interesting young man who, in the mid -1700s, was a missionary to the Native American in the New England area.

He kind of established a pattern for missionary endeavor from then on out, but he died at a young age. He was 29 years old, I think, when he died. One of the individuals that most highly respected him was Jonathan Edwards.

Jonathan Edwards, of course, was a man of immense importance in the history of the church in New England and in the United States ever since. He was one of the greatest theologians of our shores. So anyway, we're going to be looking at this video and learning about David Brainerd this Sunday afternoon, starting at 1 o 'clock.

I encourage you to join us for that time. But for today, in our Bible reading, we're in Romans chapter 12, and this chapter is just jam-packed with good application stuff, isn't it? And we should pretty much expect it.

Now, if we know how Paul writes, he spent chapters 1 through 11 of Romans with a lot of application, but he's really been teaching doctrine in those 11 chapters. The other day, we concluded that section of the doctrinal section of his letter with that doxology, that the depths of the riches of both the wisdom and the knowledge of God, how unsearchable his judgments, his ways past finding out, et cetera.

But now he says, he begins this next section with that word, therefore. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, let's put into life the implications of the doctrine. The first implication is that we need to present our bodies as a living sacrifice to God.

That is our logical, reasonable service. Given all that God has done for us, if you are in Christ Jesus, then God in his grace has called you to himself. We talked about this doctrine of election, and Paul makes it clear that this is God's work.

He's chosen you for himself. What wondrous grace is this? What marvelous grace. He says, therefore, I beseech you, by the mercies of God, respond in this way. Present your bodies a living sacrifice to God.

This is your reasonable service. It's a logical outcome of what God has done for you. There's so much more that can be said about this. In the next verse, he challenges us about not being conformed to this world, but by being transformed through the renewing of our mind so that we may prove, we may demonstrate what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

How do you go about presenting your body as a living sacrifice? One of the things that you can do is you can sing the hymn that is in our hymnal, Take My Life and Let It Be, consecrated Lord to thee. A lot of times in my devotions, I end up going back to that hymn.

It just comes to my mind. When I think about this daily need to present the body. Another thing you can do is just think through aspects of the body that need to be committed sacrifice to the Lord. In my own personal devotional time, I kind of go through this every day where I say, Lord, I give my heart to you that I might love you as I ought to love you.

I yield my hands to you that I might do what you would have me to do. I offer my legs to you, my feet to you that I might go where you would have me to go. I offer my ears that I might listen to your spirit as he uses his word to direct my paths and my actions.

I offer my eyes to you that I would set my eyes, focus my eyes on Jesus and turn away from anything that would be sinfully distracting. I offer my lips to you that I might speak today in a way that is edifying to others and pleasing to you.

I offer my mind that I might think on things that are true and lovely and just and praiseworthy and excellent and so forth. I might set my mind on things above and not on things of the earth. You just kind of go through the different aspects of your body and present them to the Lord as a living sacrifice.

This passage goes on talking about so many other ways of application. The fact that as a Christian, God in his grace has gifted you for service and however he has gifted you, verses 3 through 8 tell you, this is the area where it's not the only area where you should serve, but you want to use that giftedness.

If God's especially gifted you to be hospitable to other people, be sure you use that gift and maximize that gift. Or if he's gifted you to teach, then do so, do so faithfully. If he's blessed you with resources that you can give, then give with liberality and generosity and gifted you with mercy showing, then do so with cheerfulness and so forth.

However God has wired you and gifted you, use your giftedness for his glory. The next section is just like a rapid fire succession of exhortations regarding behaving like a Christian. Don't be hypocritical in your love, abhor what's evil, cling to what's good, and then be kindly affectioned.

Here's the exhortation, here's the command, be kindly affectioned toward one another with brotherly love. And then there are a bunch of participles that show, well, how do I do that? How do I show kind affection toward my brothers in Christ?

By giving preference to one another, by not lagging in diligence, but with fervency of spirit serving the Lord. When I serve the Lord, I'm serving my brothers. By rejoicing in hopes, being patient in tribulation, being steadfast in prayer, and distributing to the needs of the saints and so forth.

And then he goes on to other things, rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. There's so much packed into this one chapter. It's not a chapter that really I think we should rush through, rather I think it's one that we should meditatively read through slowly.

Read each one of these things. For example, I just read, rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Okay, pause there. Who do you know is weeping right now? Take some time to weep with them.

Maybe in prayer, maybe picking up the phone and giving them a call, maybe dropping a line in a card. But just connect with them, sending them an email, a text, letting them know, hey, I feel your pain, I'm praying for you today.

Weep with those who weep, but rejoice with those who rejoice. Sometimes that's hard for some people to do because someone's rejoicing, that means something good has happened to them and they're happy about it.

And if you're not experiencing some reason to be happy, you know, some good thing happening to you, you may find it difficult to be happy for that person. Well the exhortation is you rejoice with them, just because they are rejoicing and God has blessed them.

Rejoice in other people's blessings as well. So I encourage you to read through Romans chapter 12 again and do it slowly, meditatively, thoughtfully, and see what the Lord doesn't bring to your mind. All right, Heavenly Father, we do thank you today for this passage of Scripture and just the challenge that it is to us.

We need this kind of challenge. We need to come back to this chapter in Romans over and over again. So much there is very practical for everyday living. So bring these things to our mind, we pray, and we ask it in Jesus' name, amen.

All right, well again, have a good rest of your Friday and I hope you have a wonderful weekend gathering together with God's people. Good day. God bless.