Romans 12:1–2True Worship = A Living Sacrifice

Transcript

Every single time we open our mouth, we're worshiping God or we're stealing worship from him. What is worship that's pleasing to God? And he actually tells us in the Bible, and I can think of no better verse to go to than Romans 12. In it, Paul writes, "I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship."

And did you notice what Paul doesn't say here? He doesn't say your worship is one hour of singing songs and listening to a sermon on Sunday morning. No, he says to present your bodies as a living sacrifice. Now, to understand what Paul is getting at here, there's one key word that's so easy to overlook. He starts out Romans 12 by saying, "Therefore," this means Paul is saying, "Because of everything that comes in chapters 1-1, now we can live in a manner holy and pleasing to God."

So you have to ask yourself, what did Paul write about in chapters 1-1? And he writes that the righteous live by faith. That it's always been about those who believe in the promise and are counted as righteous because of faith. In chapter 11, he talks about how everyone has been grafted in. Meaning that the mercies of God have resulted in salvation for anyone who would believe. So because we have been saved, redeemed from our former way of life in which we could not help but to sin, we now are able to serve God holy and righteous before him.

In Romans 6, Paul says it another way. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. So every day is a living sacrifice. We're to come to God and be used in every area of your life. You don't just worship God on Sunday morning.

You worship God on Monday morning when you drive to work, when you obey your bosses, when you pay taxes, when you use your spiritual gifts in a way that builds up the body of Christ. And if all of that sounds familiar, I just paraphrase Romans 13:14 and 15 in which Paul tells us, "All right, be a living sacrifice." And here are some practical ways that that sacrifice is to be lived out.

Let's keep going in verse two. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. So if you want to know what worship is, it is doing the will of God every single day in every single moment. And this testing is active and intentional because we as people can so easily determine what God wants as his worship.

If you seek for yourself pleasure now, Jesus says, you have your reward. But if instead you put to death the things of your flesh, there's abundant life waiting. Jesus looked out at the crowd and said, "If you're going to follow me, you have to count the cost." And this is so much more than just a monetary amount of money you're going to give up. Jesus uses the example of a construction project, saying if you're going to start building a tower, you sit down first to see whether or not you can complete it.

And counting the cost means looking today to see where all of your actions and your life are heading towards. So, we're going to talk about all the benefits of following Jesus, but then we're also going to talk about everything that's required for us to give up to follow Jesus. So, in counting the cost, you look towards what it means to believe in Jesus and follow him. You become a citizen of heaven in which you spend your life looking forward to all the good things that God has waiting for you when you get to spend forever worshiping him and learning from him.

But we're not left as orphans. Now it tells us that we get the Holy Spirit that seals us. We get peace. We get understanding. We can read the Bible and actually understand it. But when and if you decide to follow Jesus, your world completely changes. All of your motivations go towards that. The cost of following Jesus is in this world you will have trouble. Jesus said he did not come to bring peace on earth but a sword.

That the enemies that we're going to be facing are those of our own house. The people we care about who reject the truth, who reject salvation, and ultimately reject us because they want no part in the God we serve. And it's going to result in ridicule. It's going to result in broken friendships. And people you thought cared about you were really only in it for themselves. It's going to be a complete shift of your affections.

Jesus uses such strong languages. If you do not even hate your own life, you cannot be his disciple. And what he's getting at is that if you do not love Jesus so much more than your own comfort, your own desires, you're not truly his follower. Because when you follow Jesus Christ, you change, meaning repent of what you want to do and seek to please the savior of the world, your own personal savior, your God. And you order your life around serving him.

It means bearing your cross daily, dying to my own desires, and seeking what honors and glorifies God. And that's going to require a sacrifice of our money, our time, and our own comfort. Because we know that the perfect rest comes from Jesus. So counting the cost does mean you have to be willing to give up everything, but it also keeps in mind where everything is going. Do you feel like you've messed up too many times for God to forgive you?

Think about Paul. Before he wrote half the New Testament, he was actively hunting down Christians. Yet, God completely transformed him and he saved him. There is no sin too great for Jesus to forgive. So, the question's not can God forgive me for what I've done. It's will I turn and trust him. Scripture says, "Behold, now is the favorable time. Behold, now is the day of salvation."

We aren't promised tomorrow. Don't wait for the greatest gift you can ever receive. Believe in Jesus today and receive salvation. Ever felt like God went completely silent and there was something wrong with you? If so, you're not alone. In Psalm 42, the psalmist compares his soul as a deer who's dying for thirst. He goes on to write, "My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, where is your God?"

He's exhausted, hurt, and feeling distant from God. So, what does he do? First, he looks back. These things I remember as I pour out my soul. How I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise. He recalls God's faithfulness in the past to steady his heart today. Then the psalmist challenges how he's feeling his own emotions.

Why are you cast down, oh my soul, in why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God for I shall again praise him my salvation in my God. And when the psalmist can't trust his own feelings, he look towards the future, his hope, knowing that God is going to do what only God can do. So we see two things here. When you feel that God is far away from you look at the past to see God's faithfulness there and you look towards the future to see his faithfulness tomorrow.

And it lets you know that today God is faithful. So if today you feel far from God, don't trust your feelings, but instead bring your feelings to God through prayer. Because remember, Psalm 42 is both a pray song and a prayer. And in doing this, it pleases God and he will remind you of his truth and who he is.

Transcript from YouTube's automatic captions, lightly tidied. Watch the full video on YouTube.