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Today, I want to challenge you. We don't need flashy lights or amazing things on stage to challenge people. I want to challenge you with the most challenging thing, which is the Word of God. As you all probably know, God has called us to higher standards than those around us.
But did you know that He has, in fact, called every single aspect of a Christian's life to be holy, to the point where our bodies are no longer our own, but a living sacrifice? We're extremely blessed to live here in America where persecution is at a minimum, and compared to other countries or even other times in history, we're very blessed.
So, how do we still shine as a light in the darkness where it seems pretty easy for us today? How do we reach this calling? Well, today I'm going to ask four questions designed to challenge your daily living as a Christian.
We're going to find these four questions in today's text, which is Romans 12, verses 1 and 2. As you're turning there, I think it's important to give you a little bit of background for this book. This was a letter written by Paul.
He wrote this book of Romans around 57 to 58 AD, and he was in Corinth during the writing of this letter. Now, throughout this book, Paul's talking about justification a lot. That's one of his main points that he's driving home to the church here in Rome.
As we come to our text in chapter 12, Paul's beginning to discuss how our lives should look as a result of this salvation we've found in Christ. Basically, verses 1 through 11, Paul's saying, look, God's given you all these great blessings.
You've been justified. You've been saved. Now we come to chapter 12, and he says, look, this is how you should live as a result of all this stuff that I was just telling you about. How should our Christian lives be?
This leads us to our text, which reads, I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
Do not be conformed by this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. It's Romans 12, 1 and 2.
So that leads us right into our first of four questions designed to challenge your daily living, which is, are you presenting your bodies as a living sacrifice? Are you, congregation, presenting your bodies as a living sacrifice?
In verse 1, Paul says, I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Now, what's interesting in this verse is that Paul is really wanting to help his brothers.
He calls them brothers, and he's not reprimanding, it's more so coming alongside. It's almost as if Paul puts his arm around the church at Rome and says, hey guys, listen up, I have something important to tell you.
It's not so much a negative command, but more so an encouragement, a loving command, or an exhortation. He calls them brothers, it's a term of affection, almost endearment. And, he's not coming down on them, but he really wants to lift them up with what he's going to say.
Chapters 1 -12, he's talking about justification, he says, therefore, brothers, listen up, I have something to tell you in light of all that we've just discussed. What's also interesting about this verse is that Paul appeals by the mercies of God.
Now, when we think of the mercies of God, we often think about some of his great attributes like his love, forgiveness, mercy, things like this. And Paul's appealing to these great attributes of God. He's saying, because of all this that you've received from Christ, I have something to tell you.
All these good gifts, listen up, brothers. Paul's saying we must present our bodies as a living sacrifice. Now, this sacrifice that he's talking about is actually Old Testament sacrifice language. Just like in the days of the Levitical priesthood, we have to present our bodies as living sacrifices for God.
This is worship, as Paul says later in the verse, and just like they had to present sacrifices, we now have to present sacrifices. But our sacrifices are not animals like they did back in the times of the Levites, but our sacrifice in our form of worship is our living bodies devoted to Christ.
So, as a living sacrifice, are you willing to give up everything? Persecution as I mentioned earlier is at a minimum here in America where we're extremely blessed, but we still have blessings that we can easily lose.
Are you willing to give up your job for Christ? Are you willing to sacrifice monetary worth, your money, your house, things of value to us? There's even points where you could be put to death. Maybe not here in America, but throughout the world, people are being persecuted for Christ and since they've been changed, they're willing to have their lives be a sacrifice continually, day in and day out.
They're not worried about themselves anymore because as a Christian, their lives have been changed and they are a living sacrifice. 322 Christians are killed each month and 214 churches and Christian properties are also destroyed every month.
Persecution is out there, folks, and we have to be ready for it. I like to think of Job in this instance who, he was a man of the Lord and God allowed Satan to take almost everything from him, but he stayed faithful to God.
He knew where his priorities were and he was devoting his life as a sacrifice. Well, that leads us to our second question to challenge your life found in Romans 12, 1 and 2. First we just looked at, are you presenting your bodies as a living sacrifice?
And now that leads us into question two, are you letting the world conform you? Are you letting the world conform you? In verse two, Paul says, do not be conformed to this world. This could not be more clear.
It's a command. We did say that Paul was loving and referring to these Romans as his brothers, which is true, but yet he still has something important to say to them and to say to us today. Do not be conformed to this world.
The word conform here is talking about an outward appearance. It's almost as if Paul's warning the Romans to not look like the world around them. It's not only talking about the culture, but also, and even more importantly, world views that are coming at us from all angles, such as hedonism or naturalism, which were prevalent in Rome at the time and still exist today.
Now, the average person's attention span is only eight seconds long. If you have not caught their attention in the first eight seconds, their brain has moved on to something else. That's startling in this crazy culture that we live in, but it is true and it is a reality.
Paul is saying here, look, so many different outside things are going to try to conform you. They're trying to shape your mind and shape your actions, but you as a Christian cannot let this become how you act.
The world's music or media or ideas and world views, it's like an ocean of pagan ideas that are pushed on us every single day. Even more so in modern culture where we have technology that we're being influenced by this every single waking moment of our lives.
So Paul's saying, look, you have Christ in you. You're not going to let this world cave you in. You're not going to look just like the world. You're not going to think like the world. You need to be set apart.
It goes back to what we were saying, you need to be a living sacrifice. Lindsay Lohan first made her film appearance in an incredibly cute and sassy twins in the 1988 film, The Parent Trap. But following this stellar performance and this hit, she became an even bigger star over the next few years.
But Lohan was on a hot streak in her prime and her career took a turn for the worst. Seemingly everything started to go wrong. Between drugs and alcohol use, Lohan's actions led to some very notable and public arrests.
Few could predict her actions and her level of sobriety and the directors started to avoid working with this former child star at all costs. With addictions and attitudes, this highly talented star lost her fans and the ability to work, a common tragedy and a fall from grace in Hollywood.
This was one of countless examples that I could have given you. The world is an evil place. We know that and it is always trying to conform our thinking. If we're not constantly on guard, we have the temptation to fall prey to the world.
We know that we're supposed to put on the full bodily armor of Christ. We need to be prepared for these worldly attacks. Do not let the world conform you. In the book, earlier in the book of Romans, which is where we're looking, in chapter 1 verse 16, Paul says, For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first the Jew and also the Greek.
I'm sure this is a verse that many of you are familiar with, but what I wanted to highlight is that Paul says, For I am not ashamed. I am not ashamed. We can't allow outside ideologies to make us ashamed of our faith.
As Christians, we need to be bold and do not let the world conform you. God wants us to continue to be sanctified while avoiding worldly temptations, which leads us to our third point. First, we asked, are you presenting your bodies as a living sacrifice?
Second, we saw, are you letting the world conform you? Now third, as we get into our third of four points today, are you letting the Holy Spirit work in you and renew your mind? Are you Christian letting the Holy Spirit work in you to renew your mind?
In verse 2 of Romans 12, Paul says, Be transformed by the renewal of your mind. This is a continuation of how he was giving this loving command or exhortation. Remember, he says, brothers, this is something I want to share with you in love.
And we saw that first he said, do not let the world conform you. And now, later on in verse 2, he kind of says the flip side of what he said. He said a do not, and now he kind of says a do. You can't just say don't let the world conform you because you leave the church at Rome and now us as the readers with no course of actions.
There's only a negative. But now Paul comes over here and he says, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. Just like being conformed to the world is an expression of our outward actions, if our minds are renewed, we'll show signs of a renewed life from the inside out.
Just like how we were saying you can't let outside ideologies creep in because it will affect your outward actions, similarly, if we're filling our minds and our hearts with godly input, reading the Bible, spending time in prayer, listening to good preaching, all these things that are going to renew our minds, give us energy and passion as a Christian, these are the kind of things that will then lead to outward signs of a Christian.
It'll lead to a godly life and it'll renew our minds. What's most important to note here is that the Holy Spirit is active and at work in Christians' lives. The Holy Spirit is the one who's going to renew your mind.
In 1 Corinthians 6 verse 19, it says, or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price, so glorify God in your body.
Clearly, the Holy Spirit is in us and the gospel can transform lives. The word repent literally means you're going one direction towards sin and you turn around and you now desire everything else that you didn't.
What used to be foolishness to an unsaved person is now riches in their desire and what they used to desire now looks like trash to them. The gospel can transform your life and that only happens once the Holy Spirit indwells you and you then show outward signs of a changed life and a renewed mind.
By renewing your mind, we continue to become more and more sanctified and we can continue to do God's work better in our Christian lives. God calls us to be set apart and we need to let our minds be renewed.
And this is not a passive thing. The Holy Spirit isn't dwelling you, but you can't just say, oh, that's good enough. I have the Holy Spirit. I'm all set. This is an active work by a Christian who spends time, like I said, studying the Bible, memorizing the Bible, praying, seeking wise counsel.
There's ways that we need to renew our minds, which Paul is commanding us to do right here in Romans 12. Well, that leads us to our fourth and final question for today. So far we've seen, are you presenting your bodies as a living sacrifice?
Are you letting the world conform you? Are you letting the Holy Spirit work in you and renew your mind? And fourth and finally, are you discerning the will of God? In verse 12, or chapter 12, excuse me, verse 2, later on Paul says you have to, by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what's good and acceptable and perfect.
Now this ties into point three, because you can only discern the will of God with a renewed mind. You can't discern the will of God as an unsaved Christian, or excuse me, an unsaved, unregenerate person.
You have no desire for the things that are the will of God. But once our minds are renewed, we can discern the will of God. Once again, Paul's tying into Old Testament language. We're just like the Levitical sacrifices had to be perfect and acceptable.
Once our minds are renewed by the salvation found only in Christ, we also ought to perform and complete the perfect work of God. We no longer sacrifice animals, but our lives are a sacrifice. And just like how these Levitical sacrifices had to be perfect and without blemish, so should our lives reflect Christ.
And we need to be changed and presenting our lives as holy, set apart, because that's what we are called to be. Now we're called to discern the will of God here in verse 2. Well, what is the will of God?
Some things are clearly the expressed will of God. It's His will that we worship Christ. He calls us all to be Christians. Some things like we've discussed earlier today, He calls us to renew our minds.
Some things like that. But there's other instances where there might not be an expressed will of God for your exact situation found in the Bible. So what do we do in these situations when we're looking to obey what Paul, and therefore God, is telling us here in Romans?
Well, there's a few steps. When trying to make a decision and discern what the will of God is, always, always be in prayer. That's going to be your most important aspect of making this decision. Prayer is us talking to God, and that's going to give us the reassurance that we are making a decision pleasing to God.
Also, seek wise and godly counsel. This can be from your parents, elders, or pastors at your local church. Things like that. There's wise counsel everywhere, and individually your thinking might be skewed.
You might want to get other opinions, especially when those opinions are wise and godly. So when making a decision, also go look there. Of course, we're going to always want to be spending time in the Word.
So to discern the will of God, be spending time in the Bible. And then do something. Make a decision. It's that simple. You've spent this time praying, seeking godly counsel, you're in the Word, you're studying what God has to say for your life, and now do something.
Make the decision that's going to please God. So, in conclusion, the commands that are seen in Romans 12, 1 and 2, clearly must be followed for the Christian lifestyle. However, before a person can live this godly lifestyle, that person must be a born-again Christian.
In fact, putting saving faith in Jesus Christ is the most important thing that any person will ever do in their life. Jesus Christ was the Son of God, fully God and fully man. He came to earth. He was born through the Virgin Mary and lived a perfect life, fully pleasing to God.
He took the punishment on the cross of Jesus for our Christian sins. God's wrath was poured out on Christ because only He could satisfy the punishment that all Christians deserve for sin. Just like we were talking about how sacrifices have to be perfect, well, our bodies as a living sacrifice can't be perfect.
We're flawed. We're never going to live up to God's standards. But Jesus did. He was the perfect sacrifice. And so, for anyone here who's not a Christian today, your sins, for your sins you deserve the wrath and judgment and punishment of God.
But I have the best news for you that you could ever hear. Jesus, the perfect Son of God, lived the perfect life, died and rose again after His crucifixion to prove that He conquered death and took Christians' punishment.
And for any not saved, I call on you today that you have to repent from your sin and believe on Jesus Christ. Only then can you discern and answer these questions that we were talking about today. So I ask you, are you presenting your bodies as a living sacrifice?
Are you letting the world conform you? Are you letting the Holy Spirit work in you and renew your mind? Are you discerning the will of God? Let's pray. Dear God, thank you for this time together today and for all the men who have been preaching.
And I pray that you would help us to take to heart what we've heard and help us live lives that are pleasing to you as living sacrifices and only what's good and acceptable and upright. Transform us and renew our minds as we seek to honor you in everything that we do.
In your name, Amen.