Day Sixteen

Romans 12:1-8

1.) 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.

2.) 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.

3.) For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among 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.

4.) For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function,

5.) so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.

6.) Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith;

7.) if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching;

8.) 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.

         It has happened to me twice. Once when I was in Christian college and once when I was working for a funeral home as staff clergy. Decades separated the two events. The first event, Marsha and I walked into a small country church in the Tennessee mountains. A man came back to greet us and asked who we were. Not the pleasant “How are you folks? My name is Bobby Ray. What’s yours?” It was more like, “Who are you?” I answered for both of us. “You a preacher boy from that college?” His voice just oozed distain. I told him I was. “Well, boy, let’s see what you got! You’ll be preaching this morning.” In class the Friday before we had taken apart a passage of Scripture, so I was actually as ready as much as a 19 year old kid can be ready. The second time I was headed out the door on a Sunday morning when my phone rang. Working at the funeral home I had no responsibility on Sunday morning except just going to church, and I had found out I really liked going to church and worshiping without being the pastor. When the phone rang I assumed it was the answering service for the funeral home since I was on call that weekend. I was really disappointed. But when I saw the number I saw it was the pastor of the church we went to. “Hey, Pastor! What’s up?” “Hey, Larry. I’m on the way to the hospital right now. Severe stomach pain. I need you to preach.” “Not a problem. I’ll check on you later.” Nothing prepared, no time to get ‘prayed up’ and a much, much bigger church than that little country church from years before.

          But it wasn’t a problem because I had two secret weapons. One, I had forty years of experience. And, two, I knew the most sermon rich place in the Bible. Not Psalms, as some would think, But Romans chapters ten, eleven and twelve. It’s like the sermons are begging to come forth. Such power and grace and urgency and joy.

         There isn’t enough room here to fully look at all eight verses, so we are just going to look at the first two verses. 1.) 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. 2.) 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.      

         There is a lot to point out here. Paul uses the word ‘appeal.’ It means to beg. Imagine, the apostle Paul begging for these Christian brothers to listen and heed. Then we are to present our bodies as a living sacrifice. Something that is sacrificed gives its absolute all. Paul is saying to give your all as a sacrifice to the service of the Lord. And then the phrase is used, which is your spiritual service. The word translated ‘spiritual’ is the Greek word ‘Logikos.’ You look at the word and you see the word ‘logic’ and it also has ‘spirit’ in it, so it could read, and in some versions it does, as your logically spiritual service. Since God gave His Son for us, He expects us, logically, to be living sacrifices for the Lord. Oh, man, that is rich stuff for a preacher!

           But verse two is what we will focus on. 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.

         It came to me years ago as I read this, that there are three levels of God’s will. At the end of the verse we read of the good will. You know, go to church and give a tithe and do things around the church. The good will. The acceptable will would be the one going the next step, checking on the shut-ins and maybe teaching a class and heading up projects. The acceptable will. And then the perfect will. I believe the perfect will is always a goal but I believe it is a goal we should always be working for. Doing God’s will before our own in every instance. The perfect will.

          How do we get there? The road map is right there; 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,

         If we allow ourselves to be like the world, then we are conforming. A CHRISTIAN SHOULD NEVER CONFORM TO THE WORLD. If a soldier goes over to the enemy, thus conforming, we call that soldier a traitor, and rightly so. If we Christians conform to the world, which is run by Satan, then aren’t we traitors as well? And, it is not our judgment of our actions, but God’s judgment. Obviously, we all will sin. But if that becomes a way of life, if you find yourself rationalizing your actions, then you are conforming. But, we are to be transformed by changing our thinking. When we really start to do that, WE WILL KNOW GOD’S WILL. Until that time, our lives and His will is just hit and miss.

         Today, let’s pray that we become transformed. Transform ourselves, our churches, our nation. It is our logically spiritual service.