A Living Sacifice

You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Welcome to the broadcast ministry of Finding Purpose with Russ Andrews, where we seek to glorify God by making Him known and guiding others towards their true purpose in life.

No one is here by chance. God put us here for a reason, and the most important thing we can do is discover His plan for us and commit ourselves to it. Keep listening as we learn from the Bible how to live wisely in God's world, which is the first step towards finding your purpose.

It's message is entitled, A Living Sacrifice. We're going to be looking at just two verses. We're going to look at Romans chapter 12, verses one and two. But if you will, take your Bible and turn to Philippians chapter three. Here's what Paul writes in Philippians three, and I love these verses. It's a great challenge to me, and it should be to you.

He says, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ, Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish. That word skubalon, I can't hardly pronounce it. It means dung. It also can refer to garbage or waste that was thrown to dogs. So listen to what he's saying.

He's saying that I consider them rubbish. That is all the things that He had, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God, and it's by faith. Doesn't that sound like we're still in Romans right there? I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death.

Did you hear that? Becoming like Him, and so somehow to attain to the resurrection for the dead. So let me ask you, is that the way you feel about your life?

Is that the way you feel about all your possessions, even your reputation? Is it dung compared to knowing Christ and being found in Him? You see, this is what Jesus is calling us to do. He wants us to be, He wants us to turn away from the things of the world, to follow hard after Him and to be a living sacrifice. And the question for us is, are we willing to be this living sacrifice?

Because the world is telling us to do the exact opposite. It's telling us to, as the old beer commercial goes, grab all the gusto you can, because you only go around how many times? Once. One of my favorite heroes, and y'all have heard me talk about him before, Jim Elliot. On January the 8th, 1956, Jim Elliot's life came to an abrupt end in the jungles of Ecuador. Y'all are probably very familiar with the story, when he and four of his missionary friends were speared to death by the Alca Indians. He was only 28 years old, and yet his life had been one of the most influential lives of the 20th century in the Christian world. And if you want to read about his life, get Elizabeth Elliot's book, Through Gates of Splendor.

It's a page turner. Jim Elliot attended Wheaton College. It's a small liberal arts college about 25 miles west of Chicago. And the motto of Wheaton College is, For Christ and His Kingdom. So when Jim went there in the fall of 1945, his objective was to prepare himself to serve the Lord as a missionary when he graduated. Therefore, he eliminated everything that would distract him from this objective. Dating being just one example.

And you guys eliminate dating? I know I didn't. Furthermore, he made a habit of getting up early in the morning in order to have uninterrupted time for prayer and Bible study. But it was not until his junior year that he began to keep a journal as a means of self-discipline. He forced himself to articulate something on paper, and that helped him to concentrate. And he gave direction to his devotional times.

And here's what he recorded in that journal one day. He recorded this prayer. God, I pray Thee, light these idle sticks of my life and may I burn for Thee. Consume my life, my God, for it is Thine.

I seek not a long life but a full one like You, Lord Jesus. He was just 27 years old when he prayed this prayer. And little did he realize that his life would be short, that it would come to a brutal end just seven years later. So what did he leave behind? He left behind a 29-year-old wife, Elizabeth, and a 10-month-old baby girl named Valerie. He also left a lasting godly legacy, which we're still talking about in 2024.

After his death, Elizabeth said, Jim left little of value as the world regards values. However, for me, he left in memory and for all of us in his letters and diaries the testimony of a man who sought nothing but the will of God. And he prayed that his life would be an exhibit of the value of knowing God. And then she said this, his death was the result of simple obedience to his captain.

Simple obedience to his captain. So tonight from Romans 12, verses one and two, I want us to consider how you and I can both leave a godly legacy that will last for our family, our friends, and those who watch us. So look at verse one. Paul writes, therefore, I urge you, brothers in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This is your spiritual act of worship. I want you to notice that Paul begins this with the word therefore. And when you see the word therefore, what should you do?

It's a transitional word. And so these two verses are basically transitioning us from chapters one through 11 where Paul told us what we are to believe about God to the last five chapters in which he reveals how we're to live before God. So in essence, we're moving from biblical theology to biblical sanctification. Let me ask you something. Have you ever considered the mercy of God? For a moment, I want you to look backward. I want you to review your life as it passes through your mind. And I want you to remember all the many times when you sinned egregiously against God. I want you to think back because we don't forget about them.

They're still there. And I think there's sometimes reminders that to keep us humble and to keep us in a state of repentance. But I want you to remember all the times that you rebelled against God and did things that you're now ashamed of. In Romans 3, Paul made it clear that we're all sinners who deserve God's what? Judgment.

Instead, what does God show us? Mercy. Malachi 7 18 says, who is a God like you who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever, but delight to show mercy.

He delights in showing mercy. After King David committed adultery with Bathsheba and then was confronted by the prophet Nathan, hopefully you're familiar with the story. He cried out in Psalm 51 verses one and two, which he wrote after his affair.

He said, have you ever cried this out? Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love, according to your great compassion, blot out my transgressions, wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. When are God's mercies new? So what did God do about David? He showed this repentant man mercy.

Moreover, God said this about him, which I love, I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart, because he will do everything that I ask him. So let me tell you this, if you sit here tonight and you're in Christ, you sit here only because of God's incredible mercy. So Paul says, I urge you brothers in view of God's mercy to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God.

This is your spiritual act of worship. So I want you to think about what Jesus did for us. He left the glories of heaven and he came down here confined in a human body.

He lived a perfect life. And then he went to the cross and died in your place and my place so that we might have eternal life. That's what he did for us. He was a living sacrifice. He gave his body literally for us. It was tortured. It was beat.

Why did he do that? Because he came into this world full of grace and mercy. We are facing a coming day of judgment. Do you hear that talk about much in our society?

How about in church? Did they ever mention the day of judgment that's coming? Do you think it should be mentioned more often? Did you talk about it more than anybody else in the Bible?

Jesus, I looked it up. He talked about it more than anybody else in the Bible. Why did he warn so much about the coming day of judgment? Because he wants to save us from it.

He wants to protect us from it. In Matthew 12, 36, Jesus said, but I tell you that men will have to give an account on the day of judgment. And then Hebrews 9, 37 says, just as man is destined to die once and after that to face what? Judgment. There's only one man who can save us from this judgment.

And what's his name? Jesus. Paul says in view of his mercy and also consider the fact that Jesus offered his body for us. So in view of that and in consideration of that, this is what Paul is saying. We should be willing to offer our bodies back to him as a living sacrifice. So what exactly is a living sacrifice?

Paul describes it using three adjectives. First, he uses the word living. Living simply means that as you live out the rest of your life, you continue on a daily basis, really an hourly basis to sacrifice your life to God. So it's an everyday, it's an every moment commitment because the word is always pulling you away from that. Don't sacrifice your life.

Live for your life. Second, the word holy. What's the word holy mean? Set apart unto God.

Set apart. Another word, it comes from the word, the Greek word agias. And what other word comes from agias? Saint. So saint and holy both come from that word. And so saint means that you've been set apart. We're saints if you're in Christ.

We've been set apart. So to live a holy life, men, you must separate yourself from the world. It's talking about the world system, not the people of the world, but the world system. Who controls the world system?

Satan. 1 John 5.19, the whole world is under the control of the evil one. And this world system is constantly pulling you away from God. And so you must separate yourself from the world system, but you also must offer yourself completely to God to live for the approval of how many?

One. His approval and nobody else's. See, if you die to the world and the applause of the world, then you will be set free to live for His applause only. You've got to get to the point where you don't care what anybody thinks about you. It doesn't mean you don't care about them, but you don't care about what they think about you and you're willing to lose friends over it. I've lost some friends because of my stand for the Lord.

And I hate that. 1 Peter 1 14 and 15 says, as obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. Good to catch this now, but just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do, for it is written, be holy because I'm holy. Now, would He tell you that if He didn't think you had it within you to begin to live holy, not perfectly, but remember it means set apart, but it also means that you're becoming more sanctified every day and more holy every day.

So how is it possible to live a holy life in this evil world that's always coming after us? Well, first of all, you have to have the God spirit living in you. And second, you have to spend time in His word to guide you.

And then third, you need to pray so that God will give you strength and comfort and help. Living a holy life is the most pleasing thing to God in this world that you can do. Living a holy life is the most holy form of worship. That's how you worship God.

You live a holy life. So we looked at living, we looked at holy, and now we're looking at spiritual. The Greek word used here is logikon.

Can y'all think of a word that sounds like logikon? Logical, but it's according to Douglas Muth, it's one of the most difficult words to translate that, and you see that in the translations. The NIV says this is your spiritual act of worship. The King James Version says it's your reasonable service. And then the Christian Standard Bible says this is your true worship.

So here's what Muth says. He says the best translation is the word true. It's your true worship. And so it's important to understand what it means by true worship.

So the word true has the meaning of both spiritual and reasonable, or logical. Before anyone can worship God, this is what it means by spiritual. You have to be enjoyed by the Holy Spirit. If you don't have the Holy Spirit in you, it's impossible to worship God, because He is what?

Spirit. And He can only worship in spirit. So if you've been going to life for 80 years, and you've got all those, they used to get all these pins for perfect attendance, and you've got them down to here, can you worship God if you've never been born again?

No, what are you doing? You're playing church, and that can't save you. Should you go to church?

Yes. But what kind of church? A biblical church, one that teaches the truth. Romans 8, 9. Again, if you ever want a technical definition of what defines a Christian, it's Romans 8, 9.

Look at what it says. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to who? Christ. So how would you define a Christian? He is what? According to Romans 8, 9. He is indwelt by the Holy Spirit, okay?

Indwelt's the key word. He lives in you. So true worship is spirit worship. You must have the Holy Spirit in you, but it's also reasonable or logical. So what does He mean by this? Well, again, it goes back to in view of God's mercy, that is in consideration of what Jesus has done for us, it's reasonable, it's logical that we surrender our lives to Him completely.

Look what He's done for us. So what does it mean to be this living sacrifice? John Chrysostom, who was an early church father, said, and how is this body to become a sacrifice?

The body, it's so much this body of flesh that includes your mind and your heart. He said, let the eye look on no evil thing. Anybody done that last week? Don't raise your hand. Probably you have. I don't even want to have a show of hands. It's almost impossible not to, guys. I shouldn't say that.

It's difficult not to, because you've got these cell phones. It's always there, is it not? Always tempting you. He says, let the eye look on no evil thing, and it has become a sacrifice. Let the tongue speak nothing filthy, and it's become an offering. Let the hand do no lawless deed, and it's become a whole burnt offering.

Don't you love that? So here's what I'm going to ask you tonight. Are you willing tonight to say, I'm willing to offer myself to the Lord as a living sacrifice for the rest of my life? Do you need to realize it's a very difficult commitment, and you're going to need the Lord to help you do it, but if you do that, guess what the Lord will do? If you will offer yourself as a living sacrifice, and guys, He'll reveal what that means to you as you surrender your life to Him. You just pray, Lord, show me how to live for you today. Let me be a living sacrifice, and He'll help you, but it's a daily thing, guys.

You've got to give Him the morning and ask Him. I tell you what He'll do, though. He will use you, perhaps in a very mighty way, to advance His kingdom right here in Raleigh. He used 12 men to turn the world upside down.

Do you think you could use 200? Look at John 12, 24 through 26. Jesus says, I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed, but if it dies, it produces how many seeds?

Many. Y'all get in the picture? The man who loves his life will lose it. Who is the man who loves his life? He just can't wait to make more money, to get a new car, to take a vacation, to whatever. See, it's all about who?

Him. He loves his life, but guess what he says? He will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world, that doesn't mean you hate yourself. It means you died yourself, will keep you for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me. Are you willing to be that seed that falls to the ground and dies?

Are you willing to lose your life? This is the hard part, to follow Jesus. Nor then in so doing, you're gaining eternal life and reward in heaven.

Look what he promises here. If you do that, what does he say his Father's going to do one day in heaven? Honor you. Plus, don't you want to hear when you step through the doors of heaven, Jesus looks at you and says, well done, my good and faithful servant.

Don't you want to hear that? We should actually live every day with that thought in mind. Lord, I want to live for you, so that you're well pleased with what I'm doing. Now, I've got to go to verse two. It says, do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Now Paul gives us two commands here. First, do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world. So what does he mean? He means that with God's help, because you cannot do it without his help.

That's why you have to be indwelt by the Holy Spirit. With God's help, we have to pull away from the world that's trying to mold us and shape us into its image and its pattern of evil behavior. And all you have to do, men, is open your eyes and you will see that the world around us is growing darker and more evil by the day. Do you all not see that? And we as a nation have become a culture of death.

I hate to say that, but we have. William Crystal, who's a conservative, just yesterday wrote an article entitled, It's Abortion, Stupid. He wrote, it makes it clear that the number one issue driving millions of people to the polls is abortion. Y'all remember in Romans one that we looked at the downward spiral of sin. God gives it a natural sin, then the unnatural sin, and then to what? Total depravity. We're a totally depraved nation because we can no longer distinguish between good and evil and that's it.

It's good and evil. And at the very end in Romans chapter one, verse 28, he gives this sad indictment, which is true about our country. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things, but they also approve of those who practice them. He said that they celebrate evil. You ever seen a gay pride parade? They are celebrating evil. They're taking a rainbow flag that they have, in other words, they're mocking God. Douglas Moose says, listen carefully, that the purpose of our being transformed by the renewing of the mind is that this state in Romans one might be reversed.

Don't you want that reversed in your life? That we might approve and agree with what God wants of us, with a view of putting it into practice. So to be this living sacrifice, we must separate ourselves from the world.

And then the Bible says that if you're in Christ, guys, this is so helpful. This is not our home. Hebrews 11 says that we are aliens and strangers, and we're just with soldiers, we're passing through.

Your house, you're just renting it. This body is a tent. One day this tent will collapse and you'll get a heavenly body. And so we're headed towards a better country, just like the people of the Old Testament, a heavenly one.

Now here's the second command. We have to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Our sanctification in men. By the way, when you pull away from the world and you begin to renew your minds, which is an ongoing process, that leads to our personal sanctification. So remember, we're justified, we're being sanctified, and one day we will be what? Glorified. Did you know that your personal sanctification is God's highest goal for your life?

That's His highest goal for you. Romans 8 29 says, for those God foreknew, He also predestined. So God foreknew us as belonging to Him in eternity past, and He chose us, and then He predestined us to be what? Conformed into the likeness of His Son.

Do y'all see the stages there? So the more you're sanctified, listen, here's what I want you to understand, men. The more you live a holy life, the more you become the man that God created you to be.

Did you know that? I'm 70. But I feel like I'm more the man today that God created me to be. Listen, in becoming the man God created you to be will bring you the greatest joy in this life. I've never been so full.

My wife thinks sometimes I'm manic because I'm so full of joy. Where did you get all that energy from? Well, I've been in my Bible all morning.

I get tired around three o'clock though. So how do we renew our minds? You have to be enjoyed by the Holy Spirit. And then as you read and study God's Word day in and day out, guess what will happen to you? You will begin to take on the mind of Christ. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians 2.

So guys, when you begin to take on the mind of Christ, here's what will happen. First of all, you will gain wisdom. Do you remember what Solomon asked for? Wisdom.

Greatest thing you can ask for. And James says if you ask for wisdom, he will give it to you. But you got to help him out. He wants you to pick up the Bible and read it. And you'll begin to see the world from God's perspective. And you'll begin to think like God.

And when you come to a fork in the road, you'll know which path, which way to go. Now look at 1 Corinthians 2 beginning with verse 6. In these verses here, beginning with verse 6, he explains how we take on the mind of God. Verse 6 says, 1 Corinthians 2, one of the greatest chapters in the Bible on wisdom. We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or the rulers of this age who are coming to what?

Nothing. No, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. Verse 10 is key, but God has revealed it.

What is it? His wisdom. If the whole passage is about God's wisdom, he's revealed it to us by what? His spirit. Look at verse 12. We have not received the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God.

Why? That we may understand what God has freely given us. What's he freely given us?

Right here, his word. He's given it to us freely. Did you pay? Well, you had to buy the Bible, but did you really pay anything for it?

No. Somebody probably gave it to you. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom, but in words taught us by the spirit. Who wrote this book? The Holy Spirit. This is a spiritual book. It's a supernatural book.

It's a powerful book. You can literally change your life, and it expresses spiritual truths through spiritual words, which God inspired. Look at verse 16. For who is on the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?

But we have what? The mind of Christ. Hey guys, if you study these 66 books, you don't need any other book in the world. You don't.

You'll gain some knowledge, and it's good to have good commentaries, but this is all you really need. Now look at verse two one more time. Be transformed by the...

I can't believe I won't make it, guys. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then, look at this, you will be able to test and approve what God's will is.

What kind of will? His good pleasing and perfect will for your life. The New American Standard Bible says, so that you may prove what the will of God is.

That is proof to yourself. Guys, this is why in this Bible study, we're not studying a book written by C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, which is a great book to study, but it's not the Bible. This is the Bible. I don't want to go to something that's not the Bible. So look, the more time, guys, you spend in God's word, the wiser you will become, and with this godly wisdom comes something very special, and here it is. You will know the will of God, and this will change the way you live. I want to close with two more great quotes.

C.T. Studd, another great missionary. He was a star athlete in England, and he gave up his fame, and apparently he came from a very wealthy family, and he took all of his wealth and gave it away. That's called dying himself, and he became a missionary in Africa and later in India, where he died serving the Lord. He left a poem entitled, I wish I had time to read the whole thing, but it's just, I want you to think about this. This is why we should be a living sacrifice, because it's his only one life to assume to be passed.

Only what's done for Christ will what? Last. This morning I discovered this quote from, I can't even hardly pronounce it, Heraclitus. Heraclitus. Heraclitus. That's a harmful guy from Bethel. Heraclitus. He was a Greek philosopher.

How did you know that? Oh, it's in my outline. Jeff, come on. You're not supposed to cheat in a Bible study.

Listen to what he says here. Time is like a river. By the way, he lived 500 years before Christ, approximately. Time is like a river.

You cannot touch the water twice because the flow that has passed will never pass again. Is that not a great quote? I personally believe that our time is short.

Therefore, we must not waste the precious time we have left because it will not pass this way again. So I want to leave you with this challenge. In view of God's mercy, let's all commit to offering our bodies, our very lives as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. And this will be our highest form of worship. You've been listening to Finding Purpose with Russ Andrews. This broadcast is made possible because of the prayers and financial gifts of listeners like you. If you want to learn more about our ministry or support us as we reach others with God-centered Bible teaching, please visit us at findingpurpose.net.