Latest / Reflections On The Word With Richard Kay / Living Sacrifices For God's Use | Episode #425 | Encore Episode #096

Transcript

Living Sacrifices For God's Use | Episode #425 | Encore Episode #096 · Reflections On The Word With Richard Kay

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Great is Thy faithfulness. Great is Thy faithfulness. Morning by
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: morning new mercies I see. Great is Thy faithfulness. All
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: I have needed thy hand hath provided. Great is thy faithfulness, Lord,
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: unto me.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: Welcome to today's edition of Reflection on the Word with
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: Richard Kay. I'm Chuck Christie, and today we are asking
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: you to spend a few moments of your time with
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: us each day as Richard shares from God's Word notes, quotes,
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: and stories, along with some of his own personal experiences,
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: to confirm for you God's great love for us, that
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: his compassion for us never fails, and that he has
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: a great faithfulness toward us in every regard. Now, if
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: you miss a portion of today's broadcast or would like
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: to recommend it to a friend, you can hear this
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: program anytime online at TalkNetworkRadio.com. Well now, here's Richard with
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: today's reflection.
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: Dear four brothers, by the mercies of God, Romans chapter 12.
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: verses 1 through 2. We are talking about a portion
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: of the scripture that is outlined in a heading referred
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: to as the living sacrifice. You see, in many of
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: the religious cultures of the day when the Bible was
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: being actually recorded, there were people who who believed that
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: they had to do sacrificial offerings to their particular gods.
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: And in reference to that, they would make those types
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: of sacrifices in a form of idolatry. But in many cases,
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: that type of sacrifice was certainly costly. It could have
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: been that they sacrificed an animal, or they may have
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: sacrificed something other than that. It could have been what
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: they may have produced in the plant life or ground.
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: But it's also possible, and it was not uncommon, for
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: people to sacrifice their own children as a means of
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: appeasing the gods. In our belief in Christianity, we find
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: that the sacrifice is not what is required. sacrifices of
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: animals or sacrifices of other forms are not what is
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: actually required by God. But what is required is our
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: own personal sacrifice, our sacrifice of ourselves. It is through
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: this means when we are actually living sacrifices, that we
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: are able to be pleasing to God. We just read
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: in Romans chapter 12 and verses 1 and 2 that
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: the Apostle Paul is encouraging the brethren, and he says
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: by the mercies of God, that we present our bodies
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: as a living sacrifice, that they are to be holy
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: and pleasing to God. And this is your spiritual worship.
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: In other words, this takes the place of other forms
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: of sacrificial offering. And then it says, do not be
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: conformed to this aid, but be transformed by the renewing
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: of your mind so that you may discern what is
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: the good, pleasing and perfect will of God. And then
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: he goes into explaining the diversity of the body. And
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: in earlier segments, we discussed the diversity of the body
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: of Christ. We talked about how the body actually is
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: made up of many members, and each of those members
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: have their own important function. Because each of those members
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: have their important function, none is of lesser importance to
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: the other. And these are all illustrated as it is
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: continued going through those particular references. But we also need
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: to understand that we have within our own body, our
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: physical body, we have the capacity to do things that
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: are not pleasing to God. And so submitting ourselves to
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: God as a living sacrifice requires something on our part.
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: And this is the part that we are discussing now.
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: It requires that we die to our self-will. You see,
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: the scripture says, do not be conformed to this age
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: and don't be conformed to this world. Be transformed by
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: the renewing of your mind. How do we renew our mind?
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: We renew our mind through application of Scripture. We renew
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: our mind by studying the Word of God, by being
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: constantly available for the Holy Spirit to guide and direct
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: us so that it is his will that is performed
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: and not ours. And these are interesting in being able
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: to describe how our bodies are as is referred to
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: the temple of the Holy Spirit. I just want to
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: take a moment so that we can look at what
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: this actually means. If I were to take a particular vessel.
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: Let's just say it could be a pot of some
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: kind that would have been formed, and it has a
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: capacity to hold something. Let's just say that this particular
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: pot is referred to as a vase. And because it's
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: a vase, it actually could hold flowers. It could hold liquid,
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: such as water. It could provide for the means of storage,
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: or it could actually be something that would be used
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: on a consistent basis, such as it could hold oil
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: that could be used to light lamps. It could be Water,
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: as we had mentioned, which could be used for food preparation,
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: it could be used for drinking, could be used even
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: for bathing. But regardless, all of those aspects come from
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: the use of that particular container. Now, what I'm trying
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: to illustrate is that the container has many uses, but
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: the container itself won't do any of those things. It
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: must have some other action upon it in order for
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: that to be achieved. In other words, something has to
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: be placed in the container. Are you beginning to see
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: what we're talking about now? Our bodies are the temple
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: of the Holy Spirit. Let's go back to our container
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: once again. And have you ever heard the expression that
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: oil and water don't mix? Well, it's true. You can
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: fill a container with water, and then you can pour
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: oil into that same container, and what do you think
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: happens to the oil? It floats on top of the water,
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: so it will not mix with the water. Well, think
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: about that in reference to the Holy Spirit. Let's say
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: that our bodies, which are the temple of the Holy Spirit,
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: are filled with some other form of whatever we could think.
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: In this particular example, it could be that we are
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: filling it with the wrong type of food. In other words,
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: we could be eating something that would be unhealthy. Now,
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: that doesn't necessarily mean that we're just talking about eating,
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: but I'm talking about now function of the body. We
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: could also have our minds in the wrong influence. We
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: could be looking at all of the self-help gurus and
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: the things that are supposed to make us better persons.
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: And I'm not saying that some of these things could
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: not be utilized, but I am saying that it is
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: for us to have a transformed mind. We need to
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: be transformed. And so if we are transformed, we will
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: be by the renewing of our mind. Because if you
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: ever heard the expression, as a man does, thinks, so
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: is he. That expression is biblical. If we think constantly
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: on things that are strictly earthly, if we think strictly
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: of the things of this world, our minds are going
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: to dwell on those types of things. We will become
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: more and more consumed, if you will, by those types
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: of thoughts. In another segment of Reflections, We discuss bringing
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: into captivity every single thought, making it subject to the
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: Lord Jesus Christ. In a way, we're to take those
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: thoughts and we are to present them to the Holy Spirit.
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: And we are to say, is this of you? Are
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: you leading me into this particular thought pattern? And if
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: the Holy Spirit shows us that this is the direction
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: that he is leading us, then we can pursue that direction.
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: So we must be able to discern what is the
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: good and pleasing and perfect will of God. And the
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: only way we're going to do that is if we
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: have complete communication with the Holy Spirit, because the Holy
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: Spirit will lead and guide us into all truth. He
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: will lead and guide us into the perfect will of God.
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: Anything other than that is a self-will. There's no other
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: way to phrase it. It's kind of like being oil
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: and water. I don't care what you think about if
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: it is not about the Lord. If it is not
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: directed by his word, then it is not of God. Now,
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: a lot of times people will say, well, wait a minute.
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: What about history? What about philosophy? What about things that
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: have been written about for ages, all types of contributions
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: that man has made. I'm not saying that they don't
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: have value. I'm saying that the most important value is
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: for us to pursue the will of God. And so
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: we continue to look as this scripture allows us to
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: see how we actually do transform our mind, transform our
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: position with the body of Christ. How do we do that? Believer,
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: it is important for us to do this continually. We
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: must continually feast on the Word of God. We must
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: continually have fellowship with other believers and be in guidance
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: by the Holy Spirit. We must be continually in prayer
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: and intercession, and we must continually praise God for everything
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: that he is, regardless of what he has done, just
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: for who he is, because he's a good God. He
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: loves his children, and he provides for his children, not
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: just in the way sometimes that we may desire that
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: his provision be made, but that He makes provision for
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: us that covers our every need.
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: Richard will be right back in a moment to wrap up.
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: But if you just joined us, you've been listening to
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: Reflections on the Word with Richard Kay. You can hear
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: this message in its entirety again online, as well as
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: Richard's entire archive at talknetworkradio.com. We would like to acknowledge
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: our theme song, How Great is Thy Faithfulness, from the
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: America's 25 Favorite Hymns album And let's otherwise express, scriptures
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: are read from the Holman Christian Standard Bible, which is
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: published by Holman Bible Publishers in Nashville, Tennessee. Additional resources
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: used for Reflections on the Word with Richard Kay include
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: Great is Thy Faithfulness by Our Daily Bread and printed
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: by Discovery House Publishers. Again, here is Richard to wrap
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: up today's message.
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: We want to be able to understand that this process
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: of transformation requires that we sacrifice ourselves. We become the
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: living vessel that he can fill. We become the containers
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: of the Holy Spirit. Because of that, he can use us,
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: he can fill us, He can fill us to overflowing.
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: He can tip us over in a way so that
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: we spill out, if you will, on others. He can
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: help us to move in the direction that he chooses
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: if we are submitted to him. And that is where
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: the sacrifice of ourselves rests. It is the ability that
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: the Holy Spirit has. living in us that will continually
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: transform us into the image of the Lord Jesus Christ.
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: And that is today's Reflection on the Word.
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: Thank you, Richard. Join us again tomorrow when we continue
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: with the next edition of Reflections on the Word with
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: Richard Kay. For Richard and the entire team, this is
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: Chuck Christie saying thanks for listening to this edition of
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: Reflections on the Word.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me. Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord,
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: unto me.