Will You LIVE for God?

Rom 12:1-2

During the Korean War, a story is told of a time when the Communists occupied a small village. It happened on a Sunday and many of the villagers were at worship in the village’s only church. The soldiers burst into the church and rounded up all the members. One of them tore down a picture of Jesus and threw it to the ground. There they lined up the entire congregation and told them to spit on the picture or die. The first several did. Then a 15 year old girl came. Weeping and scared she knelt down and wiped the spittle from the picture with her dress. The soldiers marched her out and shot her.

This young girl was willing to die for Jesus. I believe most of us here would be willing to die for Jesus. What I wonder, is how many of us are willing to LIVE for Jesus? That’s a lot harder to do, because it takes a lifetime commitment, not a momentary one.

PRAYER

I. Sacrifices

A. Understanding Sacrifice

1. Most of you know what a sacrifice is, so I am just going to refresh your memories.

2. Sacrifices were items dedicated to a deity.

3. For our purposes, we are going to look at the sacrifices offered to Jehovah.

4. When a sacrifice of an animal was done, the person would bring their animal, usually a lamb to the priest at the Temple. Standing at the altar, the priest would remind the person of their sins and the innocence of the animal about to be sacrificed. He would tell the person that the blood shed by the animal was a substitute for the blood of the person. Then the person would hold the animal’s head ask for forgiveness of sins he had committed and confess those sins. The priest would slit the animal’s throat and the sinner would watch as the priest caught the blood in a bowl and the eyes of the sacrifice animal dim in death for him.

5. It was a powerful and solemn moment.

B. I urge you

1. Paul speaks to these Christians with an attitude of love for family.

2. He could command them, but he doesn’t he urges, or beseeches them as brothers to do the right thing.

3. He wants them to live lives of sacrifice to God, not to gain God’s mercy but BECAUSE of God’s mercy.

4. This is important for us to realize today.

5. There are a couple things I want you to remember after you leave here and the first is that what you do in service to Christ is done BECAUSE of what he has done for you.

6. Not as a sense of obligation, but unmitigated joy in the mercy of God.

C. Present yourself

1. The NIV says “offer” yourselves, but that word doesn’t capture the picture of what Paul is showing these Jewish Christians by referring to the temple sacrifices.

2. A better word would be “present” yourselves.

3. In bringing the sacrifice to the temple. The person would point the head of the animal to the West of the Temple where the Holy of Holies was. This of course was the dwelling place of God for the Jews. It was symbolic recognition that you were bringing this animal to God and he accepted it.

4. We are to bring our bodies to God so that God will find us acceptable.

II. Living Sacrifice

A. Living as a sacrifice

1. Paul urges these Christians and all Christians to present their bodies as living sacrifices.

2. Given to God, dedicated to God in totality.

3. All that you are is offered to God.

a) When you work, you do it in a way that brings honor to God.

b) When you are with your family you act in a way that brings honor to God.

c) When you play, you do so in a way that brings honor to God.

4. When you live totally dedicated to honoring God, your life becomes worship to Him.

B. Do not conform

1. How do we become a living sacrifice?

2. Paul gives us a two part equation.

3. He tells us in verse 2. “do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world”

4. What I find heartbreaking is that the world has influenced the church instead of the church influencing the world.

5. We are more concerned about being like those around us rather than showing them why they need to be like God.

a) We tend to be living sacrifices for work.

b) We tend to be living sacrifices for sports or other activities.

c) Everything seems to take precedence over our commitment to God.

d) If we are too busy in life to offer our bodies as living sacrifices to God, then we are a sacrifice to busyness not God.

e) We are conforming to the pattern of the world.

C. Be Transformed

1. The second half of Paul’s equation is to be transformed.

a) We send wire hangers to Malawi. Their first purpose to hold clothing in a closest. That’s what hangers are for. Yet, when they get into the hands of Malawian children, they are transformed from hangers for clothing to galemoto’s. A child’s toy car made from those hangers. They will no longer hold clothing in a closet, they will be a toy.

b) Transformation

2. We are worldly people.

a) We get caught up in worldly things.

b) We focus on what matter here on earth.

c) We enjoy the sinful self-centered things of this world.

d) We want to be like all the other people around us.

3. But God calls us to be transformed from that worldly person to a spiritual person.

a) Instead of focusing on worldly things, focus on spiritual things.

b) Instead of enjoying the pleasure of this world, enjoy the pleasures of God’s world.

c) Instead of trying to be like all the people around us, transform into being what God calls us to be.

d) Christians living in the world, but not living LIKE the world.

D. By renewing your mind

1. Paul then tells us how to transform. We need to renew our minds.

2. There must be a hundred Sci-Fi movies that deal with robots gone wrong. They were created by their creators to think and act a certain way, but then something goes terribly wrong and they go against their original programming. The only way to say the day is to destroy them or get them back to preprogram them to what they originally were meant to be.

3. Wow, sounds a lot like mankind doesn’t it. God created us to think and act in a certain way, but something went terribly wrong and sin entered into the world and messed up what God had created us to be. The only way to fix what had gone wrong is to bring people back to God and renew their minds or allow them to be destroyed.

4. God in his incredible love, is doing everything within his power, short of taking away our free will, to bring us back to have our minds renewed.

5. But a day will come, if we continue to reject his pleas to return, that we will be destroyed. That’s the only other option left to us.

6. Seems like a stupid one to me, but one that far too many people choose.

E. Invitation

1. Will you choose to be the living sacrifice God calls you to be or will you take the stupid option?