Sermon: Living For Jesus

You probably have noticed that over the last couple of weeks we've, we've taken a little pause in the second Samuel series, and so this morning we're gonna hear from God's word in Romans 12. And I thought it would be a passage that is fitting, fitting for, uh, the occasion today of welcoming new members to the church before we hear it read and preached. Let's pray and ask for the Lord's help and blessing

Our Father in heaven. As we open up our bibles, we pray that you would open the eyes of our heart, that you would open our ears to hear, so that as we hear your word, we may receive it as it is your inspired truth kept for us. And we pray that you would give us your help so that we would not be hearers only, but that we would be doers of it and give your servant help this morning to preach boldly, to preach faithfully by your spirit.

We ask all this in Jesus' name. Amen. Romans chapter 12 verses one through eight. Listen carefully for this is God's word.

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. 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 for by the grace given to me, I say to every one of you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think,

but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned for, as in one body, we have many members and the members do not all have the same function. So we though many are one body in Christ and individually members one of another, having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us. Let us use them if prophecy in proportion to our faith if service in our serving, the one who teaches in his teaching, the one

who exhorts in his exhortation, the one who contributes in generosity, the one who leads with zeal, the one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness.

Well, this morning we had a number of individuals join the church in order to join the church of Jesus Christ. You, you must be able to make a profession of faith in Jesus Christ, to acknowledge that you are without hope. Save in the sovereign mercy of God and that the spirit has enabled you, has helped you to reach out in faith, to grab hold of Christ, to save you from your sins. And some have done that this morning for the very first time publicly.

We give thanks and praise to God and some have joined this morning having made this profession of faith publicly for the 10th time, 20th time, maybe even more. And we praise God for that too, that God is keeping his elect. You noticed, I think that they also made commitments to God. They did not just say, I have faith in Jesus Christ, but I am going to live my life for him. And they made commitments to the church as well,

to serve the church. And this morning I thought it would be good to take us to one passage where we find all of this in the scriptures, one passage that instructs Christians, that we are to live for God, we are to live for his church. And Romans 12 is one of those passages where we find Christians being directed how to live for Christ and how to live for his church. So this morning, as we hear the word, I have three points,

three points to, to bring to you. First is our life in Christ, our life in Christ, which is by the mercies of God. Secondly, we will see that we are to live for Christ, we are to live for him. And then thirdly, we will see that we are to live, to serve the church, to serve Christ's body. So we begin this morning with our life in Christ. This is the, the first place to begin. It's the most important place to begin because our life, dear believers, is through

and by the mercies of God. Christianity and Christian living is not first about what you do for Christ. Christianity. Christian living is about what Christ has done for you.

In Romans 12 verse one introduces a, a new section of this letter, a letter written to Christians in Rome, in the city of Rome. And it's, it's a section from here to the end of the book that is all about Christian living. But you see that it begins with the mercy of God. That's where we start, that's where the Christian's life starts. And living for God starts the, the link, the the theme link between this section and the one that precedes it from the beginning

of the book is God's mercy. If you have an opportunity to look through, uh, the chapters that proceed this nine through 11, later on, you'll see even up to nine times where God's mercy in Romans nine through 11 is, is mentioned as spoken of. And here we see it again, the beginning of Romans 12.

Do you know this about yourself? That you are a recipient of God's mercy? Every person, every person is a recipient of God's mercy to some degree for some length of time. But as Christians, as Christians, we are those who recognize that we are recipients of God's mercy and owe everything to God's mercy.

When you receive mercy, it means that you haven't gotten, you have not received what you deserve. That's what mercy is. You have not received what you deserve. And fundamentally for believers, God's mercy to you is that you haven't received and you won't ever receive God's condemnation.

We find that most clearly in Romans eight verse one, that verse that we love. There is n now, therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. The condemnation that your sins deserve is not given to you. Instead, it's given to Christ. Christ was condemned instead. So you have not received what you deserved, dear Christian Christ did. And that's God's mercy toward you who are in Christ. Now where this passage begins to go is

how this mercy makes us all owe everything our lives to God and to his mercy. Your life is owed to God's mercy. Your spiritual life is owed to God's mercy. And what we see here now is that your ongoing life in Christ is to be lived by the mercy of God, to be lived in light of God's mercy. Mercy is a motivator for living. Mercy is a motivator for Christian living. In the gospels, we read an example of, of this principle

that mercy is a motivator for living. There's a Pharisee who couldn't understand why Jesus would let a sinful woman come anoint his feet and he's rebuking Jesus. Why would you let her come anoint your feet? And Jesus says to him, he explains to him that he who is forgiven of much loves much. Do You, do you see that mercy motivates love, it prompts love, gratitude, thankfulness. Those who have received mercy ought to be motivated

to give thanks and to live a life of thanksgiving. I'm sure I don't need to tell you this, but there is a holiday coming up this week called Thanksgiving. And I want to encourage you as you have plans that you are making for this week to set aside time to eat, to be with family, encourage you to set aside some time to meditate on God's mercy to you, whether you're a believer or an unbeliever, how has God been merciful to you?

If you are a believer in Christ, take some time, especially to meditate on God's mercy toward you spiritually, that he, he gave you new life.

God's mercy is where Romans 12 starts. It's where we start. It's where we always start. And so now in light of God's mercy, what is proper? What is the proper response? And we find in verses one and two that the proper response is to give our whole selves to live wholly for God that's holy with a W, holy for God, Holy for Christ. You notice that living for Christ here in Romans 12 is described in sacrificial language, says in verse one, present your bodies

as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. If you were a believer in the Old Testament, the sacrifice that you would bring to God would be an animal. You'd bring an animal with you and the animal would be your sacrifice. It would take your place, it would atone for your sin. You, you would give this sacrifice to God as an act of thanksgiving. You would give it to him as an act of worship. And nowadays, believers are not

instructed to give animals as a sacrifice, but to give their own bodies as a sacrifice by bodies. John Calvin writes, he means not only our skin and bones, but the totality of which we are composed. We are to offer our whole selves everything we have, everything we are after all as we sometimes confess together we belong to Jesus Christ in body and soul. And because we belong to Him, Christ by His Holy Spirit makes me wholeheartedly willing

and ready to live for him.

When you give your body as a sacrifice to God, a living sacrifice to God, this is not the sort of sacrifice where you keep back a little bit for yourself. There's no keeping parts of our lives away from God. Apart from God. We offer everything to him, our time, our talents, our treasures. And you see, dear believer, when you do this, when you offer your whole self to God in worship, you are following Jesus.

You are following Jesus who offered himself holy to God his whole life. He lived to God as a living sacrifice, holy undefiled by sin acceptable to God. And this is done as an act of worship. We see in the end of verse one,

Remember, worship is always a response. Worship is always a response to God, a response to his initiative, a response to his grace and mercy. And the appropriate response to God's mercy toward us is to dedicate ourselves completely to him, not just on Sunday morning 24 7. We live for God wholly and acceptable. So on Mondays at work, we live for God. Tuesdays while parenting the children live for God. Wednesdays at school you live for God.

Thursdays in athletic competitions, you live for God. Friday nights when you are with your friends, you live for God. And on Saturdays when you have free time to use, you live for God. All of life, all of life is for God. And all of life is to be used in worship as worship to God.

Now you might ask, is this radical? This seems it. It is, it is. I think this is a better question for you to ask though. Is this not reasonable? Is it not reasonable to dedicate yourself completely to God?

There's a psalm about there, the mercy of God in the Psalm Psalm, writer's response to God's mercy, it's found in Psalm 116. And they, that Psalm writer asks a question that I think we should want to ask as well. It would be appropriate for us to ask as well. After meditating upon the mercy of God, the Psalm writer asks, what shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me? What shall I give you, Lord for all of your mercy

and benefits to me? Don't you wanna ask the same thing?

The Psalm writer answers his own question in that psalm and he declares, oh Lord, I am your servant. You have loosed my bonds.

I'm your servant. You have freed me. You have shown me mercy. And then he says, I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving.

The sacrifice of thanksgiving that we bring as believers to God for his mercy to us is our very selves, our whole selves. And verse two tells us more about what it looks like to be wholly devoted to God. It says first that we are to resist being conformed to the world's patterns.

The world in this present age is opposed to God. It is opposed to living for God. Now to some the, the the way of the world, the world's patterns may seem less harmful or maybe less influential than that.

But you see these patterns as we're reminded here in Romans 12. These patterns can become our patterns. We can be conformed to them. And so the the world's ways can threaten even those of us who belong to Christ if we are not resisting them. These are great verses here for young people. You are facing the world all the time, School, social media, your friends.

But this instruction here to not be conformed to the world is not just for young people, this is for believers, whatever age you are, because the world has its own patterns. No matter what age or stage of life you find yourself in, if you're post-college, the way of the world is to get an awesome job and make a ton of money. The way of the world when you're raising kids is to live for your kids happiness, to make them successful

and do whatever it it takes to make them successful and happy. The way of the world in retirement says, enjoy yourself. You earned it. You worked hard.

But you see, to live for Christ holy for Christ, we must not be conformed to the world. We must instead be transformed by the renewing of our minds. This is a, a constant continuing inward transformation. This is sanctification where we are becoming more like Christ. I want you to know, uh, notice these verbs here in verse two. Notice that both verbs conformed and transformed are passive. You, you see that with the little word. Be before them.

Be conformed, be transformed. These things can happen to you. But these verbs are also imperatives, meaning they are exhortations to do something. And so you are not completely passive when it comes to inward transformation. It is the Holy Spirit who is primarily ultimately at work to bring about transformation, renewal in the life of the believer. But you are to put off and to put on as Colossians three says. And you are to work out your salvation

with fear and trembling. Philippians two, this might seem hard. How, how do I even wrap my mind around that? Let alone live this, this passively active. How do I let these things happen to me and yet also do them? I think first the place to begin is to pray. Pray for the Holy Spirit to do his work in you. Pray that he will make you willing and ready to live for Christ. Now, the renewal of our minds, the continuing transformation

of them, it leads to an end. It, it leads to discernment and approval of God's will, which is good and acceptable and perfect. And I want you to make sure you note this true transformation, true renewing of the mind is never contrary to God's will. It always leads more and more to discern and to approve God's will to pattern our lives after it. To live out God's will.

And you see, there's good news. God's will is not hidden as some might think. It's, it's you don't have to wait for God to reveal his will for you in writing in the sky. Because you see God's will has been revealed to you in the writings of the law. And the gospel has been revealed in the pattern of life of the perfect son of God. God's will is not hidden. So living for Christ is, is done most basically by living like Christ.

Living for Christ is done most basically by living like Christ, living your life patterned after his. Remember that Jesus said, I came to do the will of him who sent me. He was always about his father's work. He was wholly dedicated to God to serve him and to worship him in everything. All the days of his life. He was resisting conformity to the world. He was living by the spirit. And so that's how you live for Christ.

Dear believer, you live like Christ.

We find in this passage that there is one particular way, one practical way that Christians ought to live for Christ. And that's by dedicating ourselves to serving Christ's body, the church. That's the exhortation in verses three through eight. That's our final point this morning, living to serve Christ's body. I want you to take a look at verse five with me. You notice those two words In Christ. In Christ. That is one of the most frequent ways

that Christians are described in the New Testament as being in Christ united to him by faith. This is true of all Christians, all believers, you are in Christ. What's interesting in verse five Is that you see some words before in Christ, we are one body in Christ.

Dear Christians, you are not only united to Christ, but in Christ you are united to one another. You are united to Christ's body. The church you are members of one another. So these 30 or so individuals who joined the church, they're not just members of the same church as you. You are actually members of one another. It's that close that strong.

The church here is compared to a human body as compared to a human body, which is a a really helpful analogy because we can get this, We understand it, we can see it. Even our youngest kids here can understand this analogy, right? We have a body and our, our bodies have different parts that make up our body. So we have two eyes, you have two ears, one nose, one mouth, two hands, two funny bones. We have parts that make up our body

and that's what the church is like. There's one church, there's many members. There's not two bodies, just one. There's not a few members, but there are many. And just like the parts of our bodies have different functions and do different things, your eyes see, your ears hear, your mouth speaks your hands touch and hold. So it is with the various members of the church. We do not all have the same function. It says in verse four, and we have gifts.

Verse six says, that differ

the same God who designed our human bodies to work in this way, to function in this way is the same God who designed the church to work in this way. One body, many members, different gifts. And here's the key that we find in Romans chapter 12. We all have a function. We all have a part to play. Everyone has a purpose, gifts to use for the benefit of the church. The passage here reaches its, its climax in a way in verse six, having gifts that differ according

to the grace given to us. Let us use them before sort of focusing in on that last phrase of using our gifts. I I just want to further try to press this in to you to emphasize that every one of you has a gift to, to be used for the church.

It says simply at the beginning of verse six, having gifts, having gifts. It's simple, it's assumed. The section is written to all believers. I say it to every one of you in verse three. One way that we can air in the church is to think of ourselves too highly. To think of our, our function, our place in the church as too important, our gifts in the same way. And Paul addresses that error. He does. So in verse three, verse four,

God gave you those gifts. They are gifts and that strips us of pride. But you see there's another error. If one error is thinking too highly of ourselves. The other error is to think too lowly of ourselves that we have nothing to offer, little to contribute. We have no useful function in the body of Christ. And that too is an error. Each one has a function, gifts to be used. Notice where the if is placed in this passage,

if is not at the beginning of verse six, if you have gifts, then use them. No. If is in the beginning of verse seven where the list of gifts begins. If prophecy is your gift, then use that.

Now perhaps as someone here is thinking, wants to say, I, you know, pastor, I, I do want to serve the church. It, it's not that I don't want to serve the church, but I just, I can't identify a way to contribute. I can't identify a gift that I have to be able to give to be able to put to use.

If that's you, then I want to encourage you, please come find a pastor. Come find an elder, find a fellow church member. Ask them to help you to speak into your life. We need this kind of help in all sorts of different ways in our lives. And we need this sometimes as well to be able to identify what God has given us to be able to contribute. You see in the church, dear friends, no one should think of themselves As the appendix.

The appendix is that little part of the body that you take it out and it affects nothing. You just go on living the same way. No one should think of themselves as an appendix and no one should think of someone else in the church as the appendix either that you have nothing to give or nothing to offer. God has given gifts, gifts that are to be put to use for the benefit of the body. And each one of us has gifts to be used.

Young people, kids, there is no minimum age for you to begin serving the church.

So will you serve the church? Will you serve the church with the gifts that God has given you? The church needs them. And you know what? There's no retirement age either. There's no age where you retire from service to the church.

So seniors, will you serve the church? The church needs you, your gifts to be used.

Now, you might see your gifts in verses six through eight in this list. Or maybe not. Maybe say I, I don't, I don't see myself here. Well this gift list in verses six through eight is not exhaustive. It's a representative list of gifts. If you go find some of the other places in the New Testament that speak about spiritual gifts, there are different ones added in some of these other gift lists. This is representative.

And the point here in Romans 12 is to use your gifts to use them. If your gift, if something you can contribute is serving, then serve. If it's teaching, then teach. The church needs servants, the church needs teachers. But you see here at the end of our passage, we're urged not only to use our gifts, but we are urged as well to be mindful of our attitude as we serve the church. We're to be mindful of our heart's posture

as we use our gifts in service to the church. We're not to serve with reluctance, we're not to serve begrudgingly, we're not to serve proudly. We're not to serve with self-interest. Why? Well, we wanna benefit the body, but we also want to serve the church like Christ serve the church. And this is how Christ served the church. He gave himself for her, not with reluctance, not begrudgingly, not proudly, Not with his own self-interest in mind.

That's how Christ served the church. And so when you serve the church, you are also patterning, patterning your life, your service to Christ's service, to to the church just as you do when you live for Christ.

So in summary, dear church, you are called to live holy for God, to live in service to his church. And you are called to this service because of God's rich mercy toward you in Jesus Christ. And so therefore, in view of God's mercy to you as an individual, you all as a corporate body, the church, live for Christ, serve Christ, serve His church for the good of Christ Church and for the glory of our head, the Lord Jesus.

May it be so both in this age and in the one to come. Amen and amen. Join me as I pray, Lord, we pray that as this word has gone out, has been cast as seed, that it would land on soil that is ready to produce fruit. So Lord, we pray that you would make your Holy Spirit to water this seed, this seed of your word, and to bring the growth so that we are living for Christ. We are being transformed evermore to live for him and like him, that we would

give ourselves in service to you and to your church. So would you help these dear saints, oh Lord, to continue practicing this word? May it bear fruit in their lives for the good of your people. And we pray, oh Lord, that you would do all these things in the name of Jesus our savior. Amen.