Living Sacrifice

I’ve never seen an actual sacrifice of an animal, but I watched a bull get slaughtered once. I was a teenager and some friends lived on a farm. They called me one day and asked If I’d ever seen it. When I said no, they invited me over. It was bloody and gory, much like Temple sacrifice must have been like. Today, Paul is going to speak about sacrifice and what it means.

Look at the Book

Romans 12:1-21

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.

³ Because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning: Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us. ⁴ Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, ⁵ so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other.

⁶ In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. ⁷ If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. ⁸ If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly.

⁹ Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good.¹⁰ Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other. ¹¹ Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically.  ¹² Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying. ¹³ When God’s people are in need, be ready to help them. Always be eager to practice hospitality.

¹⁴ Bless those who persecute you. Don’t curse them; pray that God will bless them. ¹⁵ Be happy with those who are happy, and weep with those who weep.¹⁶ Live in harmony with each other. Don’t be too proud to enjoy the company of ordinary people. And don’t think you know it all!

¹⁷ Never pay back evil with more evil. Do things in such a way that everyone can see you are honorable.¹⁸ Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone.

¹⁹ Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God. For the Scriptures say, “I will take revenge; I will pay them back,” says the Lord.

²⁰ Instead, “If your enemies are hungry, feed them. If they are thirsty, give them something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals of shame on their heads.”

²¹ Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good.

Living sacrifice (1) – A joke I love is, “The problem with a living sacrifice is that it keeps crawling off the altar.” It’s funny because it’s true, but it does highlight the incongruity of a “living sacrifice.” Sacrifices, by their nature, have to die. However, I learned something new this week. Someone might bring a sacrifice to the Temple and have it accepted by the priest as spotless. Later, it might be found to have a blemish (maybe the priest missed something, or it was injured in some way in the interim). It can’t be returned because it is dedicated to the Lord, and it can’t be killed because it’s blemished. Instead, it becomes a “living sacrifice” and lives the rest of its natural life with the Temple flock.

This is how Paul describes us. We have been offered and accepted, but we are not blameless or pure. What is left to us is to live out our days as part of the Temple flock, as servants of the King. We don’t belong to that world we left behind when we come to present ourselves. We can’t go back. But we don’t come without spots. We can’t be ritually slaughtered either. We are the in-between people, sacrifices that still live. It is about the blood, but it’s not about our spilled blood. Our blood, and our lives, have a different role to play.

Spiritual service (1) – “This is the way we worship Him.” “This is our spiritual service of worship.” We are destined to die. Death and separation from God are the result of our sins. “The wages of sin is death.” That is the sacrifice for our sin…except that it’s not about OUR spilled blood. The blood of Jesus is the sacrifice, and so we get to be LIVING SACRIFICES! We should be grateful, and spiritual service should be our natural response. Through baptism, we put our old lives to death, and we are resurrected to live a life of service to the one who saved us!

Don’t copy/transform (2) – As you read verse two, I want you to think about raising a child or being raised as a child. Children do not have to be taught to do wrong. They are born selfish, lying, with no self-control. We have to teach children what is right. We have to teach them how to live right. Marilyn and I raised three children who are all following Jesus. Why? Because we strictly conformed them to the image of Christ. We helped transform them. We got a lot of crap over the years about what we did and did not allow them to do. We homeschooled them so that a Christian worldview would be the loudest voice in their lives. We didn’t avoid letting them see the patterns of this world, but we worked to form them into the pattern of Yahweh.

We are called to do the same thing. It is easy and natural to fall into the patterns of this world. Revenge, anger, hatred, strife, gossip, sexual immorality, and a long list of other things come to all of us naturally. That is the pattern of the world. God wants us to change the way we think, which will change the way we act. When we do this, we begin to discern and know God’s will, which is good, pleasing, and perfect… but it won’t be easy. Let me give you an example. I used to play a game on the computer called “Command and Conquer.” It was fun and I enjoyed it. There were two formats. You could play as the good guys or you could play as the bad guys. Playing as the bad guys involved killing innocent people and missions that were designed to wreak havoc. I started playing that mode one time and I had to stop. It may sound silly, but I couldn’t stomach doing evil… even in a game. God had renewed my mind. It’s why I cannot play games like GTA.

The rest of this passage is basically a list of what a transformed life looks like. It’s not rocket science, but the reality is that Paul has to say it because we miss it, don’t we?

Know your place (3-8) – You are not special. Neither am I. I need to remember that God loves the person next to me just as much as He loves me. By His “measure”, or standard, we are all equally in need of grace, and all equally sons and daughters. We all have a place in the Kingdom of God and a mission here on Earth. Others may look like they are more, or less, important; but everyone’s contribution is equally important.

Really love others (9a, 10) – What did Jesus say? “Your love for each other will prove to the world you are My disciples.” How’s that going for you?

Hate evil. Embrace good. (9b) – Of course, this means knowing God so we can discern evil… right?

Rejoice in our hope (12) – Which allows us to be patient when things seem bad and allows us to pray.

Help other followers of Christ in their need (13) – Sort of like I do when I create and mail this newsletter. It costs a great deal of money yearly… follow my example as I follow Christ’s.

Bless those who hate you (14) – This one is hard, right? I struggle with this one too.

Join others in their sorrows and joys (15) – The old saying goes that a burden shared is a burden halved, and a blessing shared is a blessing doubled.

Live in harmony and humility (16) – One of my favorite lines comes from here, “Don’t think you know it all!”

Don’t return evil for evil, and live in peace (17-21) – Returning good for evil shows how honorable you are, and Christ who lives in you. Chris shared his story a while back about the person who stole all his things, so he responded by giving them the rest of his stamps as well. We may never know the effect of this, but people clearly saw the difference in him!

The evidence that we are living sacrifices, that we have been transformed, is when we live differently than the rest of the world. It's difficult to live holy lives in this society. What can we do? Change the way you think so you can know God’s will for you. Don’t let evil conquer you, but overcome evil with good. Be the light in the darkness that you want to see. Build the Kingdom of God right around you, one person at a time. In the name and power of Christ, create the conditions you want to see. May the peace of Christ dwell in you as you abide as a living sacrifice.

SONGS FOR SUNDAY

Glorious Day

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gklJ2XZwDHc

King of Kings

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Of5IcFWiEpg

What A Beautiful Name

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5L6QlAH3L4

Nothing Else

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAZd3EWu8tg