Being A Living Sacrifice

Romans 12:1, "I beseech you, therefore, I implore you by the mercies of God," Underline that. The mercies of God are chapters 1 to 11 of Romans, based on what God has done for you. Based on salvation, sanctification, justification, and based on your eternal destination. Based on being adopted as a child of God, and to the family of God. Based on Him paying your sin-debt in full, based on you not being able to reach the glorious standard of God and you've fallen short. Based on Christ coming down from heaven and exchanging your wretchedness for His righteousness.

"I beseech you, therefore, brethren,” I beg you, I implore you, by the mercies of God. Ready? “Present your bodies a living sacrifice”. Did you get that? Why should I present my body a living sacrifice, based on what Christ has already done? Here's your duty: 1 Corinthians 6 says, “Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit”. If your body is the Temple of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit lives inside of each of us.

It then says in verse 20 of Chapter 6, “You were bought at a price,” and if Christ bought you, then is it not his prerogative how he spends you, how he uses you? See, it says you were bought at a price, therefore glorify God in your body and spirit, which are God’s. That's what it says. Your body and your spirit; presenting them on the altar as living sacrifices.

Note this. Mark this. Write this down.

Now, the challenge of maintaining and sustaining a lifestyle of obedience as a living sacrifice: When you place yourself or surrender or submit on the altar, it's still alive. And because it's still alive, you, based on your will, can choose to leave the posture of submission.

What? Yeah. We come to Christ, we give him our life. And maybe for a season we're on fire, we're serving Him. And then that light goes dim or goes out and we take ourselves off of the altar of submission, and we begin to live for self. How many of us would be willing to admit “I'm not exactly where I should be,”? Yeah, me too.

Consider financially supporting us so we can continue furthering the ministry of the Gospel by making free Biblical resources for people & pastors.

See, only as a living sacrifice can you be what He wants you to be, only as a living sacrifice can you do what He wants you to do. Now watch this, this is what you become: “a living sacrifice, Holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.” Translation: This is your logical service. This is reasonable.

This is not asking too much of you: to give your life to Christ who died, to give you His life. This is a reasonable ask. Logical is the actual Greek word. 
Some translations say this is your spiritual service, that's applicable. Some say this is your worship. I like that one. Let me say, if service is not worship, “I’m a living sacrifice, and I’m doing so serving the body from a posture of worship.” 

How many people do you know, and maybe it's you, we get serving and we get burnt out. We're not a living sacrifice. We're a burnt sacrifice. It's because we're not worshiping while we're serving. And serving can become exhausting. I can tell you the truth, people are exhausting, unless it's done unto the glory of God, from a posture of worship. I've seen people come in on fire and they begin serving, they begin cleaning the church, they begin serving in the children’s ministry, and over time they turn up missing, and you go, “What happened?” Oh, they're burnt out.

You see what happened there? So, I'm not asking anyone to just serve.
I'm asking you to worship because here's the next thing I want you to know: 

And sadly, serving without worship will keep you from worship. Serving can keep you from worship. Worship will keep you serving, absolutely. And sometimes serving can keep you from worship. We have to find the proper balance where we place our life, our bodies, it says. “Every member of our being”. Eyes, ears, mouth, mind, heart, feet, hands on the altar as living sacrifices. When you give your life into God's hands, you become a wonderful servant. Would you agree?
 
Now, conversely, when you take life back into your own hands, if you're being honest, you know you become a terrible master. I mean, that's just the battle between flesh and spirit. What happens when you place your body on the altar as a living sacrifice? You're ultimately asking for the Holy Spirit to occupy your temple and the Spirit of God within you dictates your emotional man or woman. That's your soul. And a lot of the time, your soul controls your body, in that order. Spirit, Soul, Body. On the altar, “Use me Lord,” and you become a wonderful servant in the hands of God. However, when you mix that up, and you lead with your body (your fleshly man or woman), that affects your soul (your emotional/mental man or woman). And of course, that’s what causes us to quench the Spirit. And if you’re being honest, when you took your life back into your own hands, your flesh was a terrible master.

My whole testimony is built upon that entire quote. When I finally gave my life to the Lord, becoming a wonderful servant, asking Him to use me. My entire past was built upon the premise of taking life into my own hands, and it became a terrible master. Oh, it's possible to be a slave to your flesh and yet come in on a Sunday morning and put a smile on your face as if everything is in its rightful place. And the Lord is not asking us to put makeup on our messes. He's asking us to come in broken and transparent and open so that as a body we can come together, and with harmony, and unity, and diversity and interdependency, move and live and have our being as one body and one Spirit and one faith and one baptism and one Lord, and His name is Jesus.