{"id":177,"date":"2012-10-14T21:11:01","date_gmt":"2012-10-14T20:11:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/?p=177"},"modified":"2012-10-14T21:11:01","modified_gmt":"2012-10-14T20:11:01","slug":"living-sacrifices-in-the-church-romans-123-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/?p=177","title":{"rendered":"Living sacrifices – in the church Romans 12:3-8"},"content":{"rendered":"

12\tTherefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God\u2019s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God\u2014this 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\u2019s will is\u2014his good, pleasing and perfect will. <\/p>\n

We looked at these verses three weeks ago. In response to the grace which saves us on the basis of Christ\u2019s atoning death on the cross, in response to the free gift of eternal life, in response to God\u2019s love which never lets us go, in view of all God\u2019s mercy we should offer ourselves to God to be living sacrifices. Our lives should be a continuous stream of loving actions continuously offered up as our worship to God. We should let God change us to be like Jesus, so that we will be different and stand out from the crowd as our thinking is reshaped.
\nJ.B.Phillips Don\u2019t let the world around squeeze you into its own mould, but let God remould your minds from within.
\nIn this way we will live according to God\u2019s will, following God\u2019s perfect plan for each of our lives. This is our appropriate response to God\u2019s love \u2013 to become living sacrifices. Now in Romans chapters 12 to 16 Paul spells out in practical terms what it means to be a living sacrifice. He begins with our life together in the church \u2013 how should we behave and relate to each other as fellow believers?
\nEACH BE HUMBLE
\n3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.
\nBeing a living sacrifice becomes much easier when we get rid of any misguided ideas we may have about how important we are. We are loved by God and precious in His eyes \u2013 but that doesn\u2019t mean that any of us are important in the church. It certainly isn\u2019t the case that God NEEDS us!
\nHave you noticed that in all of the Psalms he wrote, great King David never once mentions his victory over Goliath? Not once! We live in an age of superlatives \u2013 the greatest evangelist, the greatest preacher, the greatest theologian, the greatest minister. In the world people chase after dignity and position and title and celebrity. And this attitude can creep even into the church. Contrast that with the apostle Paul who called himself and saw himself as \u201cthe least of all the apostles.\u201d
\nA young American student visiting the Beethoven museum in Bonn was fascinated by the piano on which Beethoven had composed some of his greatest works. She asked the museum guard if she could play a few bars on it and for a large tip the guard agreed. The girl went to the piano and played out the opening of the Moonlight Sonata. She said, \u201cI suppose all the great pianists who come here want to play on that piano.\u201d
\nThe guard shook his head. \u201cThe famous Polish pianist Padarewski was here a few years ago and he said he wasn\u2019t worthy to touch it.\u201d
\n\u201cDo not think of yourself more highly than you ought.\u201d It was the sin of pride that got Satan thrown out of heaven. Pride is the deadliest of the seven deadly sins. So Paul urges the Christians at Rome to be humble \u2013 to view themselves as God does. In C.S.Lewis\u2019s Narnia books, Aslan says to Prince Caspian, \u201cYou come of the Lord Adam and the Lady Eve \u2013 and that is both honour enough to erect the head of the poorest beggar and shame enough to bow the head of the greatest emperor on earth.\u201d
\nHow do we avoid pride? I came across a little article entitled \u201cHow to be perfectly miserable.\u201d It listed a few things we can do which will not only make us miserable but keep us that way.
\n1. Think about yourself.
\n2. Talk about yourself.
\n3. Use \u201cI\u201d as often as possible.
\n4. Judge yourself entirely by what other people think about you
\n5. Listen greedily to what people say about you.
\n6. Expect to be appreciated.
\n7. Be suspicious.
\n8. Be jealous and envious.
\n9. Be sensitive to slights.
\n10. Never forgive a criticism
\n11. Trust no one but yourself.
\n12. Insist on consideration and respect.
\n13. Demand agreement with your own views on everything.
\n14. Sulk if people are not grateful to you for something you have done for them.
\n15. Never forget a service you may have rendered.
\n16. Be on the lookout for a good time for yourself.
\n17. Shirk your duties if you can.
\n18. Do as little as possible for others.
\n19. Love yourself supremely.
\n20. Be selfish.
\nLet that be a checklist of sins to avoid! \u201cDo not think of yourself more highly than you ought,\u201d Paul warns us. Be completely humble \u2013 that is just the first step in being a living sacrifice in the church. Next we should
\nTAKE CARE OF EACH OTHER
\n4 Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.
\nPaul will expand on this later in Romans 12 and in Romans 13 he will talk about loving your neighbour as yourself as the fulfilment of the law. In Romans 14 Paul will explain how this should work out in practice when Christians disagree and how loving each other will mean not judging each other. Everything Paul will say about loving each other rests on his understanding that together as Christians we form Christ\u2019s body here on earth. \u201cEach member belongs to all the others\u201d in the Body of Christ, says Paul. We will learn much more about loving each other in weeks to come, but for tonight here is a simple question. Here in North Springfield Baptist Church how true is it that \u201ceach member belongs to all the others\u201d? Do we really see each other as parts of the same body?
\nIf I cut my hand my eyes look to assess the injury. My feet take me to the first aid box. My other hand applies the Savlon and Elastoplast. In the church how successful at caring for everybody? Are any neglected? Do some fall through the net? At the same time \u2013 are we all prepared to belong to one another? To open up and share our lives with each other and allow other people to help carry our burdens? Taking care of each other in the Body of Christ is another part of what it means to be living sacrifices in the church.
\nEACH PLAY YOUR PART
\n6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given us.
\nGod gives every one of us natural talents and spiritual gifts. That gifting may change over time but we are all accountable to God for the ways we use the gifts He has given us and to make sure we do not waste them. Sometimes people say, \u201cIt must be nice to be a minister.\u201d Some people spend lots of time and energy wishing they had different gifts and different roles in the church. But it is God who chooses what we are good at and what He wants us to do for Him. So we should each get on and play the part God gives us to play, serving in the ways He has chosen for us, which all depends on the gifts God has given us.
\nIf a man\u2019s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith.
\nGod still speaks to His church today in prophecy, words of knowledge and words of wisdom, in pictures and dreams and visions. Sometimes we don\u2019t recognise God\u2019s words to us. On the other hand, sometimes people think God is speaking to them when in fact it is only their own wishes and ideas. So with prophecy we always need discernment – let him use it in proportion to his faith.
\n7 If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach;
\nSome people think that teaching is more glamorous or important in the church than serving. Paul puts them together and in fact neither is more or less important than the other. Both teaching and serving are equally vital for the life and growth of any church.
\n8 if it is encouraging, let him encourage;
\nEvery church needs its encouragers, its Barnabas, its Son of Encouragement. Some churches have more than their fair share of sons and daughters of DIScouragement. Some Christians believe they have been given a ministry of discouragement and criticism. But I am delighted to say that we are spared from such people here!
\nif it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously;
\nGenerosity is not about large amounts. The widow\u2019s mite was a generous contribution. But parts of being a living sacrifice are sacrifices from the wallet or the purse or the bank account.
\nif it is leadership, let him govern diligently;
\nThe responsibility of leading a church shared by Minister and Deacons demands our best efforts and continual diligence.
\nif it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully. <\/p>\n

Sometimes people can help others in a grudging or resentful or grumpy fashion. Every church would benefit from an outbreak of cheerfulness among the people of God!
\nWe all have different gifts and different jobs to do. God calls each one of us to play our part in the Body of Christ \u2013 because if we don\u2019t the body will stop working properly. And there are so many ways in which a body can go wrong!
\nMost of you know that I enjoy doing things with computers. Not just programming them and creating websites but also taking them apart and fiddling with the electronic bits inside. Taking a computer apart is very easy. Anybody can do it. The tricky bit is to put them back together again so they are working better than they were before. That\u2019s the fun part! Because if just one component is not working properly the whole thing is useless. It\u2019s the same with cars. With just one bit not working the car rattles or screeches and it can become extremely dangerous, or just stop working at all. The human body is so much more complicated than a computer or a car, and so is the Body of Christ the church. God calls us to work together as living sacrifices, to be completely humble, to take care of each other and to use the gifts God has given us for His glory. But we each have to play our part!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

12 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God\u2019s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God\u2014this is…<\/span><\/p>\n

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