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Become
a Living Sacrifice
by CSM Tim Taylor
from Romans 12
We have to live in this world; we really don't have much
choice! But as Christians we should have different values than
the world's values, we should try to live our lives in a godly
way, but this is often difficult. There's a lot more to being
a Christian than just attending a church service every Sunday!
God wants you to renew your body, soul, and mind and I'm going
to give you three easy steps that will get you well on the way
and change your life forever!
Romans 12:1- 2
NKJV: I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of
God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy,
acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do
not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the
renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good
and acceptable and perfect will of God.
NLT: And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to
give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you.
Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find
acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. 2 Don’t copy
the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform
you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you
will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and
pleasing and perfect.
But what does it mean to give our bodies to God? And what has
he done for us? Why is God asking us to sacrifice our bodies
to him?
In the Old Testament there were animal sacrifices made to God
and they always sacrificed the best animals because they
wanted to give God the best of what they had. It was important
for the people to know that they were giving God the best of
their labors. Are you giving God your best? He's not asking
you to burn it on the altar, but he still wants our best. More
than anything God wants us to obey. Even in Old Testament
times it was clear that obedience to God was more important
than any kind of animal sacrifice, such as in first Samuel
15:22: Samuel is telling Saul why God has rejected him and
Saul is saying that he did everything properly, meaning that
he did the proper sacrifices and followed the proper rites:
So Samuel said:
“Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and
sacrifices,
As in obeying the voice of the Lord?
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,
And to heed (obey) than the fat of rams.
Even in Old Testament times it was more important to obey God
than to sacrifice. We live in New Testament times now where we
no longer sacrifice animals, but it's still important to learn
to obey the will of God.
Here in Romans Paul is warning us not to copy the behavior and
customs of this world, but what are the benefits of
sacrificing ourselves to God?
In Romans 8:5 and 6 Paul states "Those who are dominated by
the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are
controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please
the Spirit. 6 So letting your sinful nature control your mind
leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads
to life and peace.
There's a choice here, God always gives us a choice. We can
follow our sinful nature and die spiritually, or let the Holy
Spirit control our mind and have peace.
What exactly is sin? The Greek word translated "sin" in the
Bible is an interesting term. Hamartano, it literally means,
"to miss the mark." If we go beyond the will of God, doing
things God has said not to do; if we fall short of the will of
God by not doing things commanded by God; if we move away from
God's will, we "miss the mark" or SIN.
What are the values of this world? The dominant values of the
world include wealth, power, pleasure, revenge, fame, vanity
and status. Worldly values promote jealousies, resentments and
conflicts among people. Paul talks about this very thing in
Galatians 5:19 -21 where he writes:
"When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the
results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful
pleasures, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling,
jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension,
division, 21 envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins
like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that
anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God."
I see not much has changed in the 2000 years since this was
written! Notice how this verse ends with "and other sins".
This is certainly not the whole list of sins!
In Timothy Paul warns: "For people will love only themselves
and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at
God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will
consider nothing sacred. 3 They will be unloving and
unforgiving; they will slander others and have no
self-control. They will be cruel and hate what is good. 4 They
will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with
pride, and love pleasure rather than God. 5 They will act
religious, but they will reject the power that could make them
godly." And Paul's advice: "Stay away from people like that!”
Do we worry too much about what other people think of us, do
we need to make more money, and have more toys? I recently saw
a sign which said "he who dies with the most toys wins". I'd
like to disagree with that! You can't use those toys when you
are dead, I even heard of a guy being buried on his Harley!
In God's word in Matthew 6: 20 it says: Store your treasures
in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do
not break in and steal”. But how do we store treasures in
heaven? We do it by following what God wants for us, by
learning to listen to the Holy Spirit and let the Holy Spirit
transform our lives and our minds.
I used to follow worldly values, and sometimes I still get
caught up in it. More more more, I need more money, a better
this, better that. Have you ever seen my car? Sometimes I
wonder about my own obedience to God. But I do my best to
store up treasures in heaven. I've been sober long time now
but I used to use lots of drugs and drink a lot, and I used to
believe that I had to be high all the time in order to cope
with the world, and that the more women I chased the more
victories I had, but in the end they were always hollow
victories and they always caused me nothing but trouble! I had
to have more of everything and I wanted to be a winner in
life. But I was such a loser! I never had anything, and when I
did get something it turned to crap in a big hurry!
When I became a Christian I knew I had to make some changes
but I had no idea how I was going to do it. My values were
completely messed up! I started by attending a cell group
(brigade) in my church. It was there that the transformation
of my mind began. Verse two says "let God transform you into a
new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know
what God wants you to do and you will know how good and
pleasing and perfect his will really is". I didn't know what
God wanted me to do but I was ready and willing to make some
changes. At first I thought if I was going to live my life for
God I needed to become a pastor, but I've since learned that
there are lots of ways to serve God. The renewal of my mind
began in that cell group, where I spent time with godly people
and learned how to follow God by listening for the Holy Spirit
and letting the spirit figure out what I was supposed to do.
Here we call our cell groups brigades.
Which Brigade you belong to? There's one almost every night of
the week, there's really no excuses!
God also wants us to be accountable and being accountable
really leads to changing the way you think!
I joined the Christian bikers. It was there that I began to
learn how to minister to people, but what I learned more than
anything was accountability and having that patch on your back
certainly lends to accountability! You have to act in a godly
way when you're wearing a big crest that proclaims you are a
Christian! I learned to listen for the Holy Spirit and be led
by him instead. But it was still easy to get off base. I had a
friend that I would talk to about how I should act in certain
situations, (sort of like a Spiritual Sponsor), and he still
helps me out today. Who is your Spiritual Sponsor? If you
don't have one, find one! Pick somebody you admire or somebody
that you want to be like, but make sure you pick another
Christian! There are plenty to choose from!
For accountability here we have DisCo, a discipleship covenant
with other like-minded people where you can be accountable for
whatever you want. Are you in a DisCo group? You should be!
There are DisCo groups springing up all across the world so
why not try it out?
God wants what is best for you, but it's not often easy to
figure out what is best. I'm kind of hard headed so it took me
a long time and I tried a lot of different things before I
finally ended up joining the Salvation Army. I was coming here
off and on for seven years while I was "looking for what God
wanted me to do"! Little did I know that the Holy Spirit had
already led me to it, I just had to wake up and smell the
coffee! Now I'm doing what God wants me to do, ministering to
those less fortunate than me, being a spiritual sponsor,
taking part in and leading a brigade and being in a DisCo
group. What kind of plans does the Holy Spirit have for you?
Believe me, it's more than I ever thought it would be! Giving
up what the world wants for you is not easy but when you do it
your life will be transformed. I have an awesome life now, I'm
able to share my life with a beautiful woman that I am proud
to call my wife, and a face things differently than other
people would. When I was recently diagnosed with cancer and
given a 20% chance of living, it was quite a shock, but I know
that God has a plan for me. People often ask me how I can be
going through something like this and still have a good
outlook on life. It's because I have Jesus Christ in my life
and so if I die, I still win! If I live I get to be here and
spend time with all of you, but if I die, then I go to heaven!
I enjoy life now, sure, there are times when I get down and
when I get frustrated, but when I remember the plans that God
has for me, as in Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have
for you," says the LORD. "They are plans for good and not for
disaster, to give you a future and a hope." Then I know all
will be well.
Earlier I mentioned three steps that would help bring you a
lot closer to God and help you become a living sacrifice, holy
and acceptable to God. It may or may not happen overnight, it
certainly didn't happen that way with me, but it will happen.
1.
Join a Brigade.
You will be spending time learning about God, through his
word, and by other means as well. We want to get to know you,
and joining a brigade is a great way to make friends and get
to know God better.
2.
Get a Spiritual Sponsor.
Spiritual sponsors don't know everything, well at least I
don't, but having someone to talk to about pretty much
anything can't hurt. A Sponsor is someone you should be able
to trust, someone that you can bear your heart you, and
someone to help pick you up when you fall. It's not someone to
give you advice or tell you what to do, but it is someone to
perhaps offer a different way of looking at things, a godly
way, and to offer support.
3.
Join a DisCo group.
Can DisCo change the world, I believe that it can. DisCo
stands for discipleship covenant, and all it means is that you
join a group of people that help you with accountability. God
wants us to be accountable to each other, and the great thing
is that you can pick what you want to be accountable for! One
of the things on my list is walking the dog twice a day! It's
great to be able to get together and talk about what God is
doing in our lives.
And it all begins with sacrificing yourself to God and letting
the Holy Spirit transform you into a new person by changing
the way you think. Earlier I asked "what has God done for us?"
The answer is that he sent Jesus. We no longer sacrifice
animals, Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice and he did it for
you. He gave his life so that you could have forgiveness from
your sins and he also sent the Holy Spirit to minister to you
and to help you transform your life. If you don't know this
Jesus character, now is as good a time as any to meet him!
It's easy, you just have to admit that you been a sinner,
which really means that you have not been following God, or
that you are "missing the mark" as I explained earlier. You
have to confess that you believe that Jesus is the Lord, and
that you're turning your life over to his care and turning
away from your sin. If you want to change your life, please
talk to someone wearing the uniform or to come to the mercy
seat where our team will be glad to pray with you. The mercy
seat is also open for anyone who wishes to pray or have
prayer.
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