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Please turn with me to Romans chapter 12. Romans chapter 12, and while we turn there, I remind you of something I was supposed to remind you of earlier. We have a special called members meeting right after this to do one thing before the missions meeting.
So again, right after this, right after service, we have a special called members meeting. I forgot about that earlier. Romans chapter 12, verse one and two. Romans chapter 12, verse one and two. A passage that might be familiar to some of you, but I hope today that God, the Holy Spirit, speaks to your hearts again afresh.
Romans 12, one and two says this. I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. This is your spiritual worship. And don't be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good, acceptable, and perfect.
Let's pray. God, as we're here today, every heart in this room, starting with my own, help us to deny ourselves to hear your word and commit to applying your word in our lives today. It's in your name we pray, amen.
Romans 12 tells us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice. In this church, we try to teach people proper hermeneutics. Can anyone tell me what hermeneutics means? Yes.
It is rightly fighting the word of God through a preset number of laws and rules of logic and discernment as interpreted by Scripture.
That's exactly right. They are the rules for interpretation. They're how you interpret the Bible, the rules for that. One of them, and the simplest, is to use Scripture to interpret other Scripture. You may be in a passage and not know what it means, but another Scripture can shed light on what it's talking about, yes?
Another is to know the context. So I ask you, as you read this verse, what would Paul's readers have thought of when they heard the word sacrifice? That word is thrown around so much today, I'm afraid it's been lost in our modern day of what the original intent of this passage was.
What did they have in mind when he said that your body is to be offered as a sacrifice, but a living one? When I answer that, what I'd like you to do is I wanna real quick look at what the old sacrifice would've looked like.
Can you go with me, keep your finger there, to Leviticus chapter 22? This is Leviticus chapter 22. Yes, this is the book of the Bible that when all of you in January start your read the Bible through in the year, you get here and you stop.
Dead in its tracks and never pass on from this book. When we talk about the Pentateuch, that's the first five books of the Bible, like Pentagon, right? The first five books of the Bible. Three of those books are answering this simple question.
How does God want to be worshipped? That is what it's about. The second half of Exodus is about them building a tabernacle to show how God wants to be worshipped. The book of Leviticus is laws about holiness and how we are to walk to show how God wants to be worshipped.
The first part of Numbers is continuation for how the priests and the pastors are to carry on that holy living in the congregation to show how God wants to be worshipped. You see, God doesn't want to be worshipped any way you want to.
He has a specific way He doesn't just want to, He commands all people to worship Him. And let that be known, ladies and gentlemen, not just the children of God, but every human being on this planet is created in His image.
So He commands. He doesn't beg, He doesn't plead, He commands every human being on this planet on this planet to worship Him and to do it in the way that He said to, not whatever way we make up, yes? Well, the book of Leviticus, He is teaching a new people, a new people that didn't grow up in church, a new people how to worship Him.
He's teaching them how to do that. And He does it through types, through symbols, through what the Bible calls shadows. See, they're shadows because they're not the real thing. The real thing will come later.
But they're shadows casting an image of what the real thing will look like. Okay? Well, Leviticus 22, verse one, he says what? Speak to Aaron and his sons so that they abstain from the holy things. See, the things that were to be sacrificed were holy.
What's holy mean? They are set apart for that purpose and that purpose alone. That purpose and that purpose alone. You see in chapter 23, verse 10, just one page over, it says that when it comes to the sacrifice of the harvest, it had to be the first fruits of what you had to offer.
The first. And you know why the first? Because they didn't know how the rest of the harvest was going to go. It wasn't see how it goes and then on the back end, okay, I can afford to sacrifice to God.
No, the first one. And you have no idea how the rest is gonna go. The first one is set apart as holy to God. We see from Leviticus so far, the sacrifice you offer to God, whether animal, whether plant, was to be set apart for only that purpose and it was the first one you had to offer.
And then it says in chapter 22, verse 20 through 22. Chapter 22, verse 20 through 22, it says this. You're not gonna offer anything that has a blemish for it will not be acceptable to you. And when anyone offers a sacrifice of peace offerings to Yahweh to fulfill a vow or a free will offering from the herd or from the flock, to be accepted, it must be perfect.
There shall be no blemish. Animals that are blind or disabled or mutilated or have a discharge or an itch or scabs that you offer to Yahweh or give them as offering as food are not acceptable. What's he saying here?
When you come to give me an offering, you give me the best of what you have. Not the animal with a cough or three legs or about to die anyway or can't bear children. You give me the best of what you have.
Number one, a holy sacrifice. One that has set apart the first fruits of what you have and the most perfect, pure, pleasing that you have to offer. That's what will be acceptable to God. Now, we know that this is a shadow for a sin offering to come.
This is a shadow for the only blood that can actually wash away sins for good. Not one that you have to offer each time you mess up as was in Leviticus. Not one you had to offer for the sins of people once a year as in the book of Leviticus, but one offering that will for all time wash his people clean.
For all time. See, without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. It's what the Bible says. Brother Christian on Wednesday night, I really, really am sorry for anyone that missed that. Brother Christian taught on that atoning work on Wednesday night.
And the teaching coming from that is this, the atoning, the blood sacrifice, it's what atonement means, it's a blood sacrifice for sins, the atoning work of Jesus for all time cleansed his people. That was radical because they were used to offering sacrifices every time they messed up.
Every time they messed up. But Jesus' one sacrifice, one sacrifice purified his people for all time because that blood is the most pure, the most holy, the most acceptable, the most unblemished blood that has ever existed in this universe.
And then Paul tells us, Paul tells us, back in Romans 12 where we're returning, Paul tells us, this is what it looks like now. See before, I wanted the best you had to offer of your outward means. Everyone following me on that?
I wanted the best financial, the best most costly thing to you. So the animal, the first fruits of the harvest, that which hit them the hardest, yes? Paul says, the sacrifice you offer now, Christian, the sacrifice you offer now is not external merely, and it's not for payment of sin.
That's already been done. This sacrifice is for a life of gratitude of one who has been bought by Jesus. Read it again. I appeal to you therefore, brothers, and I'm sorry for those of you in this room that are not believers, that this passage is not for you.
We'll get to you in a minute. This is for believers. This is for children of God who have been bought by the blood of the Lamb. It says right here, I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, which is the only way you are a brother and sister, is by the mercy of God.
That's the only way. You see, you could offer the greatest cattle you have, all the grain you have, all the world's riches, but the only way you are a child of God is by the mercy of God. To present, wait for it, your bodies as a sacrifice.
Now, now that hopefully we have an idea of what a sacrifice would sound like to them, that is a radical sentence, isn't it? Offer your bodies as that sacrifice, not the goat, not the bull, your bodies.
But this sacrifice is different. It's living. How many times can you sacrifice a goat? One, because it dies. Yes? How many times can you sacrifice a bull? Once, because it dies. Grain, once, because you burn it up.
The difference between the sacrifice we're called to offer now, is it's living, so it can be offered again tomorrow, and the next day, and the day after that. So Paul is telling us what type of sacrifice we are to offer now.
And he says to present your bodies as a living sacrifice. The reason this passage is directed to believers is because the unbeliever, which either is or was every person in this room, the unbeliever, cannot offer a pleasing sacrifice to God.
Romans chapter eight says, no matter what they do, they cannot please God. They cannot please God, because they're coming to Him with something other than the blood of Jesus. The only sacrifice acceptable to God is, wait for it, God.
That's why He had to become the Lamb to die. That's the only thing worthy of appeasing Him. That's the only thing acceptable to Him is Himself. So we now, having been washed, approaching the throne by the blood of Jesus, are to offer our bodies as a sacrifice to Him.
And when we offer that body, what's it say in verse one? It's to be what? Holy. You recognize these terms from Leviticus. Acceptable, pleasing. This is our service, our reasonable, rational service, our spiritual worship.
This is how God commands to be worshiped. And if you worship Him any other type of way, you're not worshiping Him. This is how, what's it say right here? This is your service. This is your worship. This is how I want to be worshiped.
And anything else is unacceptable to me. Anything else is like the lamb that has three legs, has a cough, has a scab, is maimed, is blind. It's unacceptable. I will not accept it. The only thing acceptable to God is all we have.
It's all we have. It says, present your bodies as a living sacrifice. Holy. Holy. Set apart, church. Our bodies set apart for a purpose and only that purpose. Yes? When they set apart the goat, when they set apart the bull, it was set apart to be sacrificed and only for that purpose.
Not any other purpose. Not any other purpose. It had no other purpose than to be a sacrifice to God. Same language is used of our bodies. We are set apart. We are to set ourselves apart as holy to God.
To offer this body to God and only to God. Only to God. Acceptable, it says. To offer an acceptable sacrifice on our bodies. God demands the very best we have. So we are to offer our bodies as the purest, most holy, most clean, most pleasing, most lovely, most glorifying sacrifice we can offer to God in our bodies.
The most holy, the cleanest, most pure sacrifice we can offer to God. And the beautiful thing, church, is where you have failed in that, where you have failed in that, your sacrifice remains alive so you can do it again tomorrow.
See, your sacrifice is living so it can be ongoing. So that tomorrow I can offer an even holier, more pure, more clean, more refined sacrifice than I offered yesterday or today. That's the goal. And it's still woefully short of being good enough for God.
It's still woefully not acceptable enough. Not acceptable enough. The sacrifice of my body does not come close to acceptable or pure or lovely. And that's the beauty of it, is He's helping make it that way.
He's helping to make it that way. More acceptable, more holy, more pure. And how does that happen? By helping me to kill, by helping me to slay, by helping me to destroy that which in my body is unacceptable to Him.
That's how. By killing it so that tomorrow that sacrifice is a little more pure. It's a little more clean. It's a little more holy to my God, which is what He demands. He goes on to say, This is your spiritual worship, your reasonable service.
We need to stop asking, how does God want to be worshipped? What's His will for my life? The Scripture says right here, to give it all, to sacrifice your entire body. You put your body on that altar. You don't get to put someone else's life on that altar, on that table to be sacrificed.
You don't just put a goat. You don't just put a bull. You don't just get to go to the land and pull some grain. Your body is the one on that altar, and you're the one sacrificing it. You put your body on that table.
You sacrifice yourself, and you present, since you're the one presenting it, the most holy, the most clean sacrifice you can put on that table every day. And then it doesn't stop there, because it's not just outwardly with our bodies.
He says in verse 2, Do not be conformed to this world. Don't be conformed to this age. But instead, don't you love that the Bible is not just a book of do not. It tells you what to do instead. See, sometimes we focus so much on I don't need to do this, I don't need to do this, I don't need to do this, that you miss the whole point.
It's not doing that. It's so you can do something else. The Bible, every time, find it faithful. When it says do not do this, it tells you what to do instead. Yes? Don't be conformed to this world, to this age, to this present state.
But instead, let me give you something else to do. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. See, we had the body, now we have the mind. So that by testing, you may discern what is the will of God, what is good, acceptable, and perfect.
When it comes to spiritual worship, you can sing. You can sing praises all day long. But the acceptable worship to God is a heart of obedience that longs to please Him. That loves the things He loves and hates the things He hates.
If you were taught, we've been over this before, not to hate, you were taught an unbiblical principle. The Bible tells us to hate. It just tells us what to hate. We are to love the things that God loves and hate the things that God hates.
That's what we're to do. And you will find, you will find, the more sanctified you become, the things that displease God, you'll see them in greater than yourself than you will in somebody else. That is the command of this verse.
It doesn't say present someone else's body as a sacrifice, ladies and gentlemen. It says your body, your mind, that's what's laid on that altar. And this is the worship of God. That that is laid on the line, that's laid on the table, that's laid on the altar, and a heart full of worship that results in a changing of action and of mind.
That is God's will for your life. That's what the Scripture says. If you are caught, if you are caught up in the categories of this life, and you say things like this, Well, I didn't spend much time with Jesus this week because I didn't read or pray.
I was so busy with work, with school, with whatever, that I didn't make time for that. I can understand that mindset a bit, but I think this would be a far more godly approach. That you don't think of spiritual life as a box over here, work as a box over here, school as a box over here, and then how much time did I put into this box over here this week?
That's not the biblical mandate. That's not what this verse says. This verse says that in whatever you do, in word or deed, due to something done for God and not for men, do not let your spiritual life be measured on the amount of numerical times you read or prayed this week, but how much did you obey God in all aspects?
In all of those, in all of those, was it to glorify Him and not yourself? To glorify Him and not you? That's the mandate. That there is no aspect of your life that's not for the glory of God, even if it's turning a wrench, even if it's filling out an expense report.
It's all for His glory. Verse 2 is a perfect example of sanctification. It says, do not conform to this age. For a number of years, I was a public school teacher for Memphis City Schools. And I remember this one year, I was teaching, and one of my students informed me that, Coach Shipley, I am a trendsetter.
You ever heard this term? I set trends. I'm a trendsetter, Coach Shipley, he said. And he told me that because of what he was wearing. He had some Jordans on, he had some True Religion jeans, and he had a Thrasher t-shirt.
And he said he was unique. He was a trendsetter. That he didn't conform to whatever else. He was his own person. He was going to do him. He was his own person. He didn't need nobody else's opinion. He didn't think about other people's thoughts.
He was his own dude. And I said, okay, class of 35 kids, raise your hand if you have a pair of Jordans. Every one of them raised their hand. A pair of True Religion jeans. Thrasher t-shirt. And he looked around and realized that he had the same clothes that everyone else did.
And the point of that is not that that was wrong in and of itself. It's that he claimed a uniqueness. He claimed that he was his own dude. But he was just doing the same thing everyone else was and calling it unique.
Right? The Bible says, don't conform to this age. Don't conform to this age. But what? Be transformed. You see, this is the great irony that I wish I could tell him. The great irony is this. The only way to find your true identity is in submission to the God that created you.
The only way to find your true identity, your true, unique purpose, is in the God who created you. And that is the only way you'll ever find your true identity of who you really are and who you were created to be.
A worshiper of God. Be transformed. Metamorphosis. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. See, that's not just internal. A metamorphosis we can see externally, can we not? We can see a caterpillar change into a butterfly, can't we?
With our own eyes. A metamorphosis is a changing of the inside that results in a change of actions on the outside. And if there is no change of action on the outside, there is no change on the inside.
That's what a real metamorphosis is. And that is the command Scripture has for us right here. Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed. Metamorphosis by the constant renewing of your mind. By the constant renewing of your mind.
Can this be said about you now? Don't talk to me about 30 years ago when you were converted. Right now. Is there a metamorphosis in your life? Right now. A changing of the heart and the mind in tune with a changing of external behavior towards godliness and away from selfishness.
Can that be said of you right now? Is that true? Is that true? It happens by a sacrifice of yourself on the altar of God. Don't be conformed to this age, but instead be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Please note in verse 2, this renewal is a constant process. By the renewing, by the constant renewal of your mind. That by testing you, not your pastor, not your husband, not your wife, that by testing you may be able to discern what is the will of God.
Stop right there. I don't know what God's will for my life is. To obey Him. To obey Him. There is God's will for your life. To obey Him. And wait, there's more. If you want it deeper than that, look what it says.
When you offer your body as a living sacrifice, when you transform your mind, when you are renewed, you can discern what is the will of God, what is good, acceptable, and perfect. You see, it hasn't changed.
It hasn't changed. He told the people of Israel when they offered their sacrifice to offer the most holy, the purest, the most acceptable, the most lovely sacrifice they could. He commands us to do the same way, but this time it's our bodies and minds on the altar.
That's our command. And to be transformed, but this time the sacrifice remains alive so it can be offered again and again and again. The result is you yourself being able to test, to discern what pleases God.
As you continue to learn to love what He loves and hate what He hates. Why our minds and bodies? Why our minds and bodies? Why our minds and our bodies? Why is that what we're sacrificing? Because that's what's most precious to us.
Because that's what's most precious to us. My time. My body. My thoughts. My, my, my, my. That's what's most precious to us. The Bible says where your treasure is, there is where your heart is. You can do this all day long.
You can do lip service. You can honor Him with your lips, but your hearts are far from Him. The Bible says where your treasure is, that which you treasure, there's where your heart is. That's what you're loyal to.
That's when there's any ounce of persecution, when there's any ounce of having to pick, you will pick that. The Bible teaches us a result of obeying this book. It says this, in Matthew 13, verse 44, it says that a man looking for the kingdom of heaven found a treasure buried in a field.
And when he found that treasure, he sold all he had and bought that field and did it with joy. And the purpose is this, the more you offer that sacrifice on the altar and learn and change and metamorphose to love what God loves and hate what He hates, the more you'll learn to do it with joy because it's a good trade.
Everything I have in exchange for an acceptable sacrifice to God is worth it all and far more. Because He is worth all the riches of this world, all the cares of every heart and mind in this room, all the desires of everyone on planet earth combined do not come to a tenth of how much He is worth.
And we will learn to love to please Him because in that He still will say, Well done, good and faithful servant. Faithfulness, faithfulness, faithfulness church. The ability to offer that sacrifice again tomorrow that you did it today, to purify it, to make it more lovely.
Last point on this, the music people can come up. Paul is begging people who are already Christians that they do this by the mercies of God because that's what it takes. Let me just briefly remind you that he is speaking in the plural form.
Brothers, by the mercies of God, present your individual bodies because he does not have in mind that someone can do this on their own separated from the other brothers and sisters. That is not what Paul has in mind.
He addressed this letter to the church in Rome, to the believers in Rome, and said all of you, all of you, present your individual bodies. You know why? Because I need Artie's help to do it. Because I need brother Christian's help to do it.
Because Johnny needs Anthony. Because Tim needs Bruno. Because Lisa needs Christy. Because Ashley needs Katie. That's why. That's why. And if you think you don't, if you really think you don't, I have a question for you.
Why did Jesus pick 12 disciples? Not just because He needed the support, but when He left, they needed each other. And they would have failed. They would have failed. As they did. And the others were there to pick them up.
How much is your life a metamorphosis? And how much are you helping someone else to do that? And this is a reminder, ladies and gentlemen, sometimes we need to help each other see that. Because we can't see that in ourselves.
Ladies and gentlemen, the truth is not always nice. But it should always be kind. Let me say that again. The truth is not always nice. Being nice is not the command of Scripture. But it should always be kind.
Kind. You know what the difference is? Nice makes someone feel good. Kind is the right intentions of the heart. That's the difference. Forget about being nice. I don't care about being nice. Be kind. And the way you show that kindness to each other, the way you show that love to each other, is to tell them the truth.
So that they will tell you the truth. And that not just individually, but as a whole, we, the church, can offer the most acceptable sacrifice to God. A living one that can be offered again and again. Let that Scripture ring in your hearts.
Memorize that Scripture. Obey that Scripture. A more pure, a more holy, a more lovely, a more glorious sacrifice in your mind and body than you offered today. And I challenge you to discern those areas that are not the most holy.
Not the most pure. Not the most lovely. Not the most glorious. Lay them on the altar. Get the sacrificial knife. Kill them. Set them on fire. So that tomorrow, we can offer an even more holy sacrifice.