Lesson 8
Six Rules for Practical Christian Living
Rules 1 and 2
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The remainder of Romans represents a huge shift from doctrine to practical living, but Paul uses one of his three bit THEREFORE’s to make this shift.
· God desires to show mercy on us all
· THEREFORE, we should live a life of personal transformation
In preceding chapters, everything was ultimately focused on God. His work for us so that we may be saved. The focus was upward on him, which is why Chapter 11 appropriately ended with a Doxology.
In the first part of Chapter 12, we will see an inward focus. We saw a hint of this inward focus earlier as we say the tension between the flesh and the Spirit. That tension can only be resolved and we can only succeed in living by the Spirit, when we experience nothing less than total transformation.
I. The Urgency of Transformation: God’s Mercy
In light of that mercy, there should be an urgency to no longer live by the sinful nature, but allowing the Spirit nature to control and transform us.
Question: Why do you think this plea from Paul is so “urgent”?
Answer: God’s mercy is not to be taken lightly
· Paul has already told us that none of us deserve grace that God has bestowed upon us
· Paul has already told us that God is Sovereign and can do precisely as he wills
· Paul has already told us that because of God’s Sovereignty, he can harden anyone that rejects him so that they never see the truth
· Paul has already told us that God is willing to cut off any people group that repeatedly rejects him
God’s grace is a VERY SERIOUS thing
II. The Prerequisite to Transformation: Total Surrender
A. Surrender involves being a living sacrifice
1. Sacrifices always require a death.
All of the blood sacrifices required a death of the animal being sacrificed.
Question: What is it that we are putting to death?
Answer: Our sinful nature.
Romans 8:12-13
We died to Sin but we are alive in Christ
Therefore, we are living sacrifices
2. Sacrifices were to the Lord
In the sacrificial system, the sacrifice was brought before the Lord and presented to him – to be dedicated to him. The Hebrew word used literally means “to draw near” to the Lord. James 4:8
In the OT, the normal person could not really draw near to God. They could only come to the tabernacle or temple to present their offering. Even the priests were limited in how they could draw near to God – only the High Priest could enter the Holy of Holies and then only once per year. Jesus, however, changed all that… Hebrews 10:19-22
We must present ourselves to Christ as a living sacrifice, by drawing near to him dedicating ourselves to him by foregoing our own interests
3. Sacrifices were the first-born and the unblemished
The sacrifice was required to be the best of the best… firstborn and unblemished. The problem is that we do not honor God enough to give him our very best. Instead, we give him our leftovers. Malachi 1:6-8
We must offer Christ our very best, not our leftovers
We can only be a true “living sacrifice” if we fully surrender to God.
B. Surrender is an act of service
This concept of being a living sacrifice is really saying that you give your life in service to God.
Joshua 24:15; Malachi 3:18; Luke 4:8; 1 Peter 4:10
By contrast, do we not tend to do only what is convenient?
Do we not limit our “offering” of our time and talents to that which is “left over” after we’ve served all our other masters and then after we have served ourselves?
Luke 16:33
C. Surrender (and service) is an act of worship
Some translations will actually say “worship” here, but the truth is that our service is essentially how we worship God.
Question: What is worship?
Answer: To ascribe worth
There is a sense in which we ascribe worth through our singing and our music, but…
Question: How do we really demonstrate that we think something is worthy?
Answer: we dedicate our time and our talent to it
If you truly want to worship God – DO SOMETHING
Not to earn his favor; not out of guilt; but because you truly think that God is worthy of your life.
III. The Call to Transformation: Do not conform
Question: What does it mean to conform?
Answer: To make something look like something else.
One of the biggest threats to the American Christian witness is that unsaved people look at us and don’t see anything different in us. We look just like they do. We are conforming to the world!
The bible uses the word “world” in one of three ways
1. The physical cosmos (earth, sea, sky, etc.)
2. The people
3. The system of laws, moral practices, etc.
John 1:10 (contains all three)
Question: What is the world as referenced here?
Answer: The moral practices and habits of this age.
Question: So how do I keep from conforming to this world?
Answer: I transform
We now see Rule #1 stated clearly in the text… BE TRANSFORMED
So how do I transform? That is the next point beginning in verse 2…
IV. The Means of Transformation: Renewing of mind
A. Renewing our Mind requires us to imitate Jesus
Question: So how did Jesus think?
Read Philippians 2:1-8
1. Imitate Christ in action
i. No Selfish Ambition
ii. Consider others better than ourselves
iii. Look out for others’ interests
2. Imitate Christ in attitude
1. Willingness to be lowered to a place of service
2. Willingness to be obedient
B. Renewing our Mind requires a heavenly focus (Read Colossians 3:1-2)
Like Romans 12, Colossians 3 is all about practical Christian living.
1. Desire heavenly things (3:1)
2. Think about heavenly things (3:2)
V. The Result of Transformation (knowing God’s will)
Conclusion: We can begin to live by the Spirit when we allow ourselves to be Transformed!
Rule 2: Live a Life of Service! (Romans 12:3-8)
As you can see, there is a lot of similarity between Rule #1 and Rule #2…
According to Rule #1, to be transformed, we need a mind of a servant.
Rule #2 is about carrying out that mentality and living the life of a servant.
Question: Why are you a member of this church?
If we were honest with ourselves, most of us are a member of a particular church for one of a couple of reasons:
1. We have always gone to the church, our family goes to the church, we essentially call it home.
2. We have evaluated the church and have made an assessment that this church best suits our needs.
We should be members of a church for one and only one reason: Because we believe God wants us at that church serving others. Reference foot-washing during Last Supper and Read Luke 22:24-27.
Read Romans 12:3-8
I. Service requires a proper perspective of Self (vs 3)
A. Have a healthy (but not proud) self image
· Do not think too highly of yourself
· Have sober judgment of oneself
Have you ever met someone who thought they were too good to do a particular task?
· That’s just not dignified
· People would not think well of me if they saw me doing that
Is this person you?
On the other hand, have you ever thought that you would never be good enough to do something in the church?
· Some may feel that certain tasks are “below” them.
· Others may feel that certain tasks are “above” them or they feel they may never be good enough to accomplish what God would have them accomplish in their lives.
Both views are wrong. God will enable us to do the tasks he has called us to do.
B. Have a healthy measure of Faith (vs 3)
Our ability to serve depends upon how much faith we have in Christ
Question: What happens when we try to serve in our own strength?
Answer: We burn out
We must rely on God to give us the strength we need to serve. This requires faith.
II. Service requires a proper understanding of the Body (vs 4-5)
A. The body is made up of diverse members
B. The body requires a diversity of functions
C. God has provided his body with the diversity of capabilities necessary to function properly
III. Service requires a proper application of one’s Spiritual Gifts
Three primary passages listing the Spiritual Gifts
Romans 12:6-8
1 Corinthians 12:8-10, 28-30
Ephesians 4:11
Classification of Spiritual Gifts
There are numerous ways to classify the gifts… this is just a suggested breakdown
1. Activities (leadership, administration, miracles, healings, etc.)
2. Manifestations (Wisdom, knowledge, Discernment, etc.)
3. Inspired Utterances (teaching, tongues, prophecy, etc.)
4. Service (see below)
Some gifts may fall in more than one category.
Paul is focusing here on the gifts of service.
Service-oriented Gifts
1. Prophesy
2. Serving
3. Teaching
4. Encouraging
5. Giving
6. Leadership
7. Mercy
Conclusion: The only way the body of Christ will function correctly is when each of us are performing the tasks that God has specifically called and gifted us to perform.
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