Latest / The Daily Word / May 31 – Living Sacrifices
Transcript
- Cory Barnes: Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, good we hours of the night, whenever you are joining us. Welcome to the Daily Word podcast from Lakeshore Christian Fellowship. My name is Corey Barnes. I pastor our Kataba campus, and I am excited to be sitting down with you for another Daily Word episode where we're going to be doing a devotion from today's New Testament portion of the reading plan that we are following along with as a church family. Today we are diving into Romans chapter 12. And in Romans chapter 12, Paul is kind of shifting gears. He's he's been in heavy teaching mode. He, if this is a sermon, this is where at the before Romans chapter 12, he has been laying down all of his text, all of his thoughts, all of these things. And now he's shifting gears into practical application. This is how you take the rest of what he's taught and start bringing that into. Into your normal everyday life. And he does that by starting this chapter with something that I've heard Pastor Gill emphasize time and time again. And that is in verses one through two, where he tells the Romans that in light of everything that God has done for us, the most reasonable, the most logical thing for us to do is to present ourselves to God as a living sacrifice. And that would have been a huge head scratcher for the first century world. See, everybody that Paul was writing this letter to would have been very familiar with sacrifices. In fact, that's where most of their meat would have come from. ⁓ most of the meat from in the first century was actually purchased at like the temple's, I don't know, butcher department. But it would have come from sacrifices and they would have taken that meat home. And eaten it. So Paul's Gentile audience would have been very familiar with sacrifices, and they would have recognized that one of the basic requirements for an animal to qualify as being a sacrifice is that it had to give up its life. You can't eat something that's alive. I mean, I I guess you can, but that would be yucky. So, how is it that that we're supposed to understand this concept of being a living sacrifice? Well, this is actually one of the core foundations of the Christian life, and it's something that Jesus had already spoken to before Paul ever pinned this letter. Matthew 16, 24 through 25, reading from the New King James today. Then Jesus said to his disciples, If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. See, we're all so quick to share the benefits of being in a relationship with Jesus, and they are many. We have access to his peace, to his joy. To his unending, unmerited love and grace. There are so many benefits that we walk in in relation to our connection with Jesus. But one of the things we aren't all as quick to share about, I'm guilty of this just as anybody else may be, is the fact that all those benefits they come at a cost. The cost of laying down our lives, our Natural preferences, our urges, our desires, and living our lives according to the will of God. In other words, ⁓ of dying to ourselves and living lives ⁓ as a living sacrifice. And that's basis ⁓ for all the other things that lists in this chapter. And while we don't have time to dive too deeply into all those things here in Romans chapter 12, there's a lot of quick statements that could be a whole sermon, a whole hour's teaching out of each of those things that Paul lists. I do want us to take a quick look at verse 10, because I think it really ties into this functional family series that we're in as a church. Romans 12, 10. Be kindly affectionate. To one another with brotherly love and honor, giving preference to one another. One of the ways that we live as a sacrifice is by showing one another love and giving preference to one another. Now, this isn't the only time that we see Paul touch on this theme or this thought. We also see it in Philippians chapter 2, verse 3. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself. Now, what I don't want you to hear me saying is that the Bible teaches that we are supposed to be a doormat that just allows other people to walk all over us. That's not what Paul is saying. What Paul is saying. Is that we make the choice to lovingly allow other people's preferences to take the priority when those preferences get in the way of loving one another. When when you arrive at a juncture where where preferences, I'm not talking about needs, I'm not talking about emotional needs, I'm talking about preferences. When those things get in the way of love, we should be the people who choose to take the back seat so that love continues to grow in the body of Christ, so that our church family can continue to grow. And if we're all people who are willing to esteem one another more highly than ourselves, then everybody's needs are gonna end up being met at the end of the day. In a perfect world. But when we start living our life that way, it allows for the righteousness that God has put in us to flow through us. And it helps to establish this body of Christ and it helps to strengthen us so that we can continue advancing the gospel and living in a spiritual community that thrives and accomplishes what Jesus intended for us to do. When he established the church in the first place. So that's all scripture and observation tied in together there. What's our application? Well, I'm asking myself the question: Am I, Corey Barnes, willing to live my life in a way that recognizes that scriptures demands that I submit my own preferences to the preferences of others? Am I willing to when we walk into church ⁓ ⁓ the service, the the worship pastor ⁓ a song that isn't my favorite? Am I okay to be okay with that and to worship God in it ⁓ of making a stink and like sending them my own Spotify playlist? Am I willing to do that? I know that's kind of a silly example, but that's that's a basic level one. ⁓ am I willing to submit my own preferences to one another? It's a good question and it's something to pray into. Father God, I just thank you that every time we come to your scripture, you open our eyes and you start revealing who you are and who Jesus is, and you start showing us who we should be becoming. I thank you, Lord, that none of these things that we read in Scripture, none of your demands, none of your commands. ⁓ none of those come without grace. It's the grace that does come with those demands that enables us to actually do them. So, Lord, we ask for your grace in the area of laying down our preferences to one another and esteeming others as more important than us. Lord, I thank you, Jesus, for strengthening us, helping us to live together as a functionality. family and helping to Lakeshore to bloom and blossom and bear fruit as the church you have intended for us to be. I thank you for everyone listening today. I pray that you would bless them and you would strengthen them, that you would make them the head and not the tail, above only and not beneath, that everything they put their hands to today would prosper. We love you, Jesus. We really do. Amen.