Living Sacrifices
Text: Romans 12:1-2: “(1)Therefore, I urge you brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer yourselves as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – This is your spiritual act of worship. (2)Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
Today we are going to understand how to get a better grasp on God’s will. Let’s look at Romans 12:1-2. (Read passage). Okay, so what in the world did that mean? Transform your mind? Living sacrifices? Let’s look at this backwards because I believe the answer will show itself better this way. Take a look at verse one. “Therefore…” Now, therefore means “because of this then” or “In light of that…” We need to turn back to see what he’s thereforeing about. In Romans 11:34 Paul, who is writing this letter says, “Who has the mind of the Lord?” Paul is getting across here that no one knows exactly what the Lord wants, and no one is in tune with God’s mind. Therefore we must do what he’s about to tell us to get even close to that. Wouldn’t it be nice to know exactly what God wanted you to do? Let me tell you right now, I don’t think we will get there on this earth, but we can get closer every day, and wouldn’t that be nice? A little less anxiety and hesitation?
Look at the middle of verse two “But be transformed by the renewing of your mind” I wonder if this ever happens to you… I have a radio in my kitchen, and I will tune it so the station I want is coming out so clear and perfect. It’s just right. Then, I’ll go across the kitchen to do the dishes and it will get so fuzzy I can’t even decipher the words anymore, so I’ll walk back over there and it will come through crystal clear again, so I’ll try to tune it a little off so that when I walk across the room it will be clear, but that never works, so I’m stuck with a fuzzy radio unless I’m right next to it.
The world knows that we are out of tune. It realized our minds are messed up. Many philosophies and religions claim that if we could just think differently and not desire anything for instance (as in Buddhism), if we could just tune ourselves to the harmony of nature (as in Taoism) we could be happy and live renewed lives. God says we need to change our minds too, but not to think in a different worldly way. We need to think more like God. We need to be in tune with God. Our minds to be transformed and renewed. Not only do we need different minds, but we need new minds all together! 2 Corinthians 4:16 says “Though outwardly we are wasting away, inwardly we are being renewed day by day.” God can and will renew our minds. We can never be perfect here on earth, but should be slowly getting more and more perfect every day.
How do we transform and renew? The beginning of verse two says by not “Conforming to the pattern of this world” Now when the bible uses “world” here it really means “current age”, or the “current way things are done.” Do you ever notice that when your friend says something you don’t agree with you might make your opinion sound a little more close to theirs? I did that all the time when I was a teenager. I cared about how I looked to other people, what they thought of me, and I did all sorts of things I didn’t really like or that wasn’t really me to fit in with them. When the bible reads “Don’t conform to the pattern” it also means “Don’t conform to a mold”. We don’t want to change ourselves to fit into whatever the world is doing. The world has always been contrary to what God wants for us. Paul wrote this to the church in Rome 2000 years ago! The world back then was filled with idolatry, sexual immorality, drunkenness and countless other sins, and the people of the church then had to not conform to it, just as we have to not conform now. Be a non conformist! Be your own person, be the person God wants you to be.
Now, this does not mean you have to stop doing anything that does not involve going to church. It is perfectly fine to go to the movies, play basketball, watch Heroes, or anything else you like to do that is not in direct opposition to proper Christian conduct. What do I mean by that? It is not okay for you to have sex before you are married, to steal, to lie, to gossip, to do drugs, to get drunk, and a whole list of other things I’m sure you can recognize as sins. However, it is not a sin, to enjoy non-church related activities. You do not need to lead a boring life of constant prayer to transform your mind and be a non-conformist. Exercise your conscious and think, would I be proud if my parents walked up right now and saw what I was doing? Would I be proud if Jesus saw me? If you feel uneasy, you may have to rethink your actions.
Okay, so we’re renewing our minds by not conforming to the pattern of this world. There is one more step to help with this non-conformist process. Verse one tells us to “offer our bodes as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship” First off, we need to offer to be living sacrifices. We have to want to be in a relationship with God. If you think you are a Christian just because your parents are or because you are dragged to church every Sunday, you are wrong. You are only a Christian if you love Jesus and have a genuine relationship with him. That doesn’t mean that when things suck you go running to him, or that you check in with him twice a year on Christmas and Easter. That means an ongoing relationship with him just like you have a relationship with anyone else in your life.
What about the sacrifice part though? That sounds really scary. In the Old Testament times, the Isrealites or the Jews offered sacrifices to God, usually an animal or some grain. This was to say, “I’m sorry for any willful sin that I’ve done.” It showed God that we were truly sorry, and wanted to move on and get back into a right relationship with him. When Christ died and was resurrected he became the last sacrifice. He is now the way we say “Sorry” to God, and start over. So if our bodies are living sacrifices we need to understand that part of being in relationship with God is coming to him with our mistakes. We need to repent and truly mean that we want to try again and do better. We need to be living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. To be “holy” means to be set apart. We need to be set apart from sin, set apart from the world so that we can be pleasing to God. Lastly, this whole process is our “spiritual act of worship” Here the bible means “a ministry”, or “a service to God”. This is how we pay him back for taking away our sins, and also how we minister to others. If other people see that we are set apart and holy, then they will wonder what it is and perhaps start seeking for what we have which is a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Okay, so we need to be living sacrifices by being holy and set apart, not conformed to this world. As we do this, our minds will be renewed so we can see how God wanted us to see. Remember the radio? When we are away from God, we can’t hear him properly, and there is nothing we can do to adjust it, so that we can be away from him and still hear his voice. We need to be in a relationship with him to be in tune with him, and we do that by living as sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God.
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