A LIVING SACRIFICE
Romans 12: 1-3

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text for this mornings is recorded in Paul’s letter to the Romans, chapter 12, verses 1 through 3, particularly these words, “So, then my brothers, because of God’s many mercies to us, I make this appeal to you: Offer yourselves as a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to his service and pleasing to him. This is our text.

 

In the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, dear Christian friends. Paul, in our text for today, offers some good advice to the Christians who lived at Rome in the first century. But his advice to them, is also good advice for you and for me today.

 

Paul tells the Romans, “Offer yourselves as a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to his service and pleasing to him. This is the true worship that you should offer.” This is also, the true worship that you and I should offer. NOT just on Sunday mornings, but everyday of our lives should be a “living sacrifice, dedicated to God.”

 

Paul himself was a good example of what a “Living Sacrifice dedicated to the Lord,” should be. He spent his entire life after his conversion, spreading the Gospel message of Christ Crucified throughout the world of his day. He was beaten, thrown in prison, run out of town, and stoned in so many different place it is hard to remember them all.

 

And after setting this example himself, he then tells others to sacrifice their lives to the Lord. This advice of Paul’s echos the psalmist who says, “Serve the Lord with gladness, come before his presence with singing.” As Christians we are to joyfully serve the Lord. We are to dedicate our lives to his service — and Paul TELLS us in our text WHY we should give our lives over to God. Paul says, “Because of God’s many mercies to us, I make this appeal to you.”

 

Paul did not say, sacrifice yourself because God told you too. He did NOT say sacrifice yourself because if you don’t you are going to hell. He did not say sacrifice yourself in order to appease an angry God. INSTEAD, he said, “Because of God’s many mercies to you, sacrifice your life in God’s service.”

 

Service to God is not a law we have to follow. It is not something we do out of fear of God’s punishment or judgment. But rather, service to God is a response of love from us to a God who loved us first. “We love him, BECAUSE he first loved us, and gave himself for us.”

 

Can we possibly list all the mercies which God has shown to us? These mercies include living in a free land. They include our families, our jobs, our health, our friends, our neighbors, our church Word and Sacrament, EVEN LIFE ITSELF!! The list of God’s mercies shown to us is endless. But the greatest mercy of all — is the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, on a Cross for the sins of all men. The Bible reminds us, “No greater love has any man than that he lay down his life for his friend.” And that is exactly what Jesus Christ did for us. That is the greatest mercy God showed to us, even in the midst of mercies which we cannot number.

 

And Paul tells us, “Because of all the wonderful things that God has done for you and for me, we are to present ourselves as living sacrifices, dedicated to his service and pleasing to him.”

 

Being a Christian and doing the Lord’s will is not always an easy thing to do. Paul of all people surely knew that the Christian life was not an easy one. That is why he chose his words very carefully. Paul said to “Present yourselves as a LIVING SACRIFICE.” Indeed, serving God will mean that in some cases we will have to make a sacrifice on our part. The sinful world around us presents us with so many alternative activities — we just don’t have time any more for God and his church. We don’t have time for Bible Study any more. Instead, we have baseball, and softball, and football games on Sunday mornings even, so we can’t come to church. But IF being a child of God, IF being redeemed by Jesus Christ, means something to us in our life — Then God must take first place! We joyfully and without reservation give up other things — and put God in first place. That is what Paul means by being a LIVING SACRIFICE. Each and every member of God’s church has been given talents and abilities which are to be used “for the common good” of God’s church. Each and every one of us must offer not only our offering, but also ourselves, as Living Sacrifices, dedicated to God’s work here on earth.

 

How can we do any less? Our life is not our own. We were bought and paid for, not with Gold or Silver, but with Christ’s precious body and blood. We are now HIS servants, set free from sin, so that we are free to serve him who gave himself for us.

 

But being a “Living sacrifice to God” won’t be easy in our world today. Christian children in school will be kidded by their playmates and called, “old-fashioned”, or “goody-goody”, or worse. Businessmen will be called crazy or un-American just because they would rather help the customer than to make a quick buck. You will be talked about behind your back because you won’t talk about someone else behind their back. Indeed there is strong pressure from the sinful world around us to follow in their footsteps and do just what this sinful world does. Paul warns us of this in today’s text. He says, “Don’t conform outwardly to the standards of this world, but let God transform you inwardly by a complete change of your mind.”

 

The standards of this world have sunk so low, there is no longer a “right or wrong”. People seem to be proud of things for which they should be ashamed. Sinful life styles are looked at as just alternative life styles. Some even look to living together before marriage as a cure for the divorce problems — that’s like saying that cancer is a good cure for tuberculosis. The world looks at right and wrong — and says, “if it feels good, do it.”

 

But Paul says in our text, “Do not conform to the standards of this world, but let God transform you by a complete change of your minds.” How does one become “A living Sacrifice” to God? As Christians we listen to the Word of God, and let God transform us, let God “change our mind,” We let God give us our direction for life — not this sinful world. We want to do what God wants us to do — we want to serve him alone.

 

When God’s will becomes our own will, then the SACRIFICE of serving him vanishes. Because it is NO SACRIFICE to do the things we really want to do in the first place. And as Christians, redeemed in the blood of Jesus Christ, we want to do the will and the work of God.

 

We are to be a “Living Sacrifice dedicated to his service and pleasing to him.” On our own we could never accomplish such a tremendous task. But through Word and Sacrament, God himself strengthens the faith which we need to be living sacrifices dedicated to him. As God himself, transforms our minds and our hearts, he shows to us “what is good and is pleasing to him and perfect.” With God’s help we can be “Living Sacrifices, dedicated to his service.” Amen.

 

May the peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting. Amen.