Are You a Living Sacrifice?

[00:00:19] Welcome to Become A Competent Biblical Counselor. I'm Dr. Dave Jones and today's episode is entitled, Are You a Living Sacrifice?

[00:00:29] Now, I realize that's an interesting title, but I think it's something that you're going to really identify with and learn from today.

[00:00:36] So, let's get started.

[00:00:38] Your bodies, plural, are to be a sacrifice, singular.

[00:00:45] Each one of us, of course, is a part of the whole, but here's the whole body that ought to be a flaming, glorious sacrifice for God.

[00:00:55] But as each one uses his life and his body and his skills and what God has given to him in the way of gifts,

[00:01:02] then the whole body becomes a glorious sacrifice.

[00:01:06] Each individual has a sacrifice making up one marvelous sacrifice of the whole body presented to God.

[00:01:15] Now, you notice there are some other things mentioned about this sacrifice.

[00:01:21] It has to be not only living, but holy and pleasing to God.

[00:01:26] The word holy means separated or consecrated or committed.

[00:01:31] That's what it's speaking about there.

[00:01:34] There's something that is holy.

[00:01:35] Something that is holy is something that is set apart from everything else.

[00:01:39] You know, if you had lost your frying pan back in the Old Testament times and you decided you wanted to fry some bacon and eggs,

[00:01:46] and you went down to the temple and you said to somebody down there,

[00:01:50] I need a frying pan.

[00:01:52] You fellas have some frying pans down here at the temple?

[00:01:55] Will you let me use one of your frying pans?

[00:01:58] They would say, no, these pots and these pans in this temple are holy.

[00:02:05] You cannot use them, especially for bacon.

[00:02:08] But you can't use them for anything.

[00:02:11] You can't fry anything in these pots and pans because they are holy.

[00:02:16] They're set apart for a particular use in the temple and in the temple alone.

[00:02:23] So holiness, we need to get clear in our minds, does not mean, first of all, some kind of a way of living that is righteous or a super saint's life or something of that sort.

[00:02:35] It means separation.

[00:02:38] Pots and pans can be holy.

[00:02:40] Not just persons who are to be thought of as holy in the Bible, but also pots and pans, things can be holy.

[00:02:49] That is, separated for special use.

[00:02:53] These, perhaps, the word special is the best way to translate holy in some senses because these were very special pots and very special pans.

[00:03:03] They were for a special place and special use at a special time.

[00:03:07] They were not common pots and pans for any use, anytime, anywhere, by anybody.

[00:03:13] And that's what God says you are to be.

[00:03:17] You are to be his holy, his separated, his special people who are unlike other people.

[00:03:25] Other people, you see, people going around in this world here have no desire to commit themselves to God.

[00:03:31] They have no desire to say no to their own wishes and will.

[00:03:37] They want what they want.

[00:03:39] And even if what they want is socially good, it's still wanting what they want because they want it.

[00:03:46] The Bible says that even the plowing of an unsaved man is sin because he always does it for the wrong motives.

[00:03:55] He never does it for God.

[00:03:57] But you are to be God's special people.

[00:04:00] You are to do what you do day by day.

[00:04:04] And even it's the same action of a person next to you is doing for a different reason because you have consecrated, dedicated, totally committed, sacrificed yourself and your body to God.

[00:04:17] You are special.

[00:04:18] You are to be different.

[00:04:20] You are to be God's unique people, his holy people who are peculiar to himself, not peculiar in the sense of weird or strange, but those who are his special people, his own people.

[00:04:35] And this is how you become more and more what he wants you to be than the total commitment of your life to him in that fashion.

[00:04:43] Now, probably this pleasing or sweet smelling sacrifice is not so much the picture of a propitiatory sacrifice, but it's more the free will of the Old Testament.

[00:04:55] Possibly even this very passage in Psalm 110 was in mind when Paul wrote these words.

[00:05:01] In the 110th Psalm, you have a Messianic Psalm.

[00:05:05] And it says,

[00:05:06] The Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.

[00:05:13] You all recognize those Messianic words.

[00:05:15] The Lord will stretch forth your strong scepter from Zion, saying, rule in the midst of your enemies.

[00:05:23] Again, those words are very familiar.

[00:05:25] But how about the next verse?

[00:05:27] Your people will be free will offerings in the day of your power.

[00:05:32] That's what it literally reads.

[00:05:34] Your people will be free will offerings in the day of your power.

[00:05:41] The people of God are willing, out of their own desire, out of their own gratitude, out of thanksgiving, becoming offerings to God, offering the members of their body for his use and for his service.

[00:05:55] All Christians are concerned in this matter.

[00:05:59] All Christians are to serve him.

[00:06:01] Well, that is, he says, the reasonable way for you to serve him in worship.

[00:06:07] This is your reasonable service, your reasonable worship.

[00:06:12] The idea that Sunday is the worship service, those words, worship service, has obscured the truth of this verse.

[00:06:19] And that is one of the great tragedies of our time.

[00:06:23] We think of worship and the service of God as being a meeting that we attend.

[00:06:29] And so often it's a spectator sport where we sit down and watch somebody up there performing, a preacher or a choir or some soloist.

[00:06:38] And we get involved only in minimal ways by giving our money and singing a few songs and reciting a creed.

[00:06:46] But it's largely something that's going on here up front that we're watching.

[00:06:52] That's tragic.

[00:06:53] That's very, very tragic that we have reduced the idea of worship to such concepts.

[00:07:00] I know of some churches.

[00:07:01] You walk into the vestibule of the church just outside the sanctuary.

[00:07:05] And people are out there talking and it's noisy and it's just routine and chattering going on.

[00:07:10] Nobody is coming into the church prepared to worship.

[00:07:15] Nobody is coming to church prepared to think about coming and worshiping God with other Christians in his house on his day.

[00:07:27] We show up to be entertained.

[00:07:29] I always wanted to stand out in the vestibule after the church service and just ask people what the sermon was about.

[00:07:39] And I could just imagine kind of responses that I would get.

[00:07:42] And so the point would be, well, if you didn't get anything out of the service today, what are you going to do on Thursday that you may have needed something that was in that sermon but you had nothing to rely upon?

[00:07:54] Anyway, just a thought.

[00:07:55] Let's continue.

[00:07:56] Now, sometimes it's much better than that.

[00:07:59] People do understand more and do enter in more fully.

[00:08:03] But the idea that worship is purely beating together and doing things together at a particular hour on a particular day is a very limited view of worship.

[00:08:15] It is only a part of the whole.

[00:08:17] In Exodus 25 verse 5 where we are looking at the commandments, two key words stand out.

[00:08:23] Now, you shall not bow down to them or serve them.

[00:08:28] Bow down to them has to do with what we do together in praise as we sing God's praises in a meeting and as we come together in prayer in a meeting.

[00:08:38] And so there is an aspect of worship that has to do with our meeting.

[00:08:43] But to call this the worship service is what's wrong.

[00:08:47] Because service is a daily thing that we do.

[00:08:50] And God calls that worship also.

[00:08:53] Every day out there, the way you live ought to be worshipped.

[00:08:59] We've talked about a world and a life view.

[00:09:03] But a real world and life view in Christianity is worshipping Jesus Christ at work.

[00:09:09] Worshipping Jesus Christ in the home.

[00:09:13] Worshipping Jesus Christ in the school.

[00:09:17] And worshipping Jesus Christ not through some kind of a religious ceremony,

[00:09:21] but through the very way that our hands and our feet and our eyes and our whole body is used to serve Him.

[00:09:30] Service here is a special word for service.

[00:09:34] Latria, L-A-T-R-I-A.

[00:09:36] That means divine service.

[00:09:38] Work done for God.

[00:09:41] And what he's saying here, then, is that worship is work-ship.

[00:09:47] That's what it is.

[00:09:48] Worship is work-ship day by day as we say no to our own desires,

[00:09:55] and as we say yes to Jesus Christ living for Him wherever we are.

[00:10:00] So it's daily.

[00:10:02] Not just on Sunday.

[00:10:04] Your life should be a song of praise that you sing to God.

[00:10:08] Daily.

[00:10:09] Not just as the offering plate goes by.

[00:10:11] The use of your money ought to be an offering to God.

[00:10:15] Daily.

[00:10:16] Not just in the words of some sermon priest by some preacher,

[00:10:20] but in the way that your lips speak for Jesus Christ.

[00:10:23] You are to be a sermon to people out there who know nothing of Christ.

[00:10:28] I remember something a professor in seminary told us once,

[00:10:33] that he would much rather see a sermon than hear one any day.

[00:10:37] So that's what this means.

[00:10:40] Now, all this that we're saying, does it sound reasonable to you?

[00:10:45] Given God's mercies to you, upon which this week I have called you to be reflecting,

[00:10:51] and if you've been reflecting upon what God has done for you in Christ,

[00:10:55] the enormous grace of God in sending His Son for you,

[00:10:59] is it really reasonable?

[00:11:01] Isn't it logical that you should give yourself totally in commitment to Him?

[00:11:06] This is the sensible way to view life.

[00:11:09] Surely, if we really understand what the mercies of God have been to us,

[00:11:15] how can we but withhold our bodies?

[00:11:17] How can we do anything but climb upon the altar and say,

[00:11:21] Take me, Lord. Here I am.

[00:11:24] This is the worship that reason renders.

[00:11:27] It's intelligent worship that grows out of a logical conclusion

[00:11:32] that we reach as we look at all that God has done for us.

[00:11:36] We can only say, Lord, you did so much for me in response.

[00:11:42] This little I do for you.

[00:11:44] And it is a chosen way of life, not a drift that we fall into,

[00:11:49] but a matter of choice, habits, and patterns of life,

[00:11:53] deliberately chosen and cultivated as we commit ourselves,

[00:11:58] giving the time, expending the effort,

[00:12:02] learning the skills, developing the patterns and habits of life,

[00:12:07] and understanding and desiring all that God wishes for us.

[00:12:11] So in conclusion, be a sermon.

[00:12:16] Don't just preach it.

[00:12:18] Have a great day.