October 30th– “Does Your Life Please God?” – Romans Chapter 12
- Give Yourself in Worship – Romans 12: 1-2
- Use Your Gifts – Romans 12: 3-8
- Love Your Fellow Christians – Romans 12: 9-16
- Treat Enemies with Kindness – Romans 12: 17-21
Welcome to this week’s lesson. Today we will be looking at Romans chapter 12 and seeking to draw closer to God through total submission. I know as a Christian I often claim I have given everything over to God, but how true is this? Do I or anyone else really give every single aspect of our lives over to God? The most likely answer is no.
Even we Christians often get so self-absorbed that there are parts of our life we won’t even think of handing over to God. We often think we know what’s best or that we can do something ourselves. We divide our lives into sections of what we are willing to turn over to God and what we horde for ourselves. We need to realize that this division of our lives is not pleasing to God.
Time and time again I have taken tasks that I have accomplished and told myself or others that “I” did a great job. But, is this really my success? No. My success is that God gave me the tools and knowledge to do the task well. As a faithful Christian I should give the glory to God, not praise myself.
Or worse yet, I blame God for my own failures and short comings. How often, when something goes wrong in our lives, do we point the finger toward heaven as if to shake it in God’s face saying “Why have you let this happen?” or “But I have been a faithful servant!”. But how faithful are we if we point the blame instead of leaning on God’s wonderful grace and support.
You see, Christ sacrificed His life for each and every one of us. Is it really unfair for God to ask us simply to lean on Him and trust Him no matter what our sufferings? No, of course it is not unfair. It’s actually fair, loving and simple. A life pleasing to God is one that relies on Him for everything!
Romans 12:1 asks us to “present your bodies as living sacrifice holy and pleasing to God; this is your spiritual worship” (HCBS). A “living sacrifice”, now that seems like a tall order to fill, but let us examine those words just a bit closer. Living – to be alive – in actual existence or use. Sacrifice – the surrender of something of value for the sake of something else. We are to sacrifice our lives while we are still living and we are to do this in worship! Spiritual worship!
Verse 12:2 goes on to tell us not to be “conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind”. We can resist this conformity of this age by not blaming God, but relying on Him and going to Him in constant prayer and study. This is part of spiritual worship. When we resist temptations in this age we also show glory to God because He is the one who provided us the strength and courage to overcome and not conform.
Sometimes when we resist temptation we fall blindly into another sin of accrediting ourselves with the strength and courage. This should not be. Paul stated in verse 12:3, “I tell everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he should think. Instead, think sensibly as God has distributed a measure of faith to each one.” God has given us gifts, or abilities, and because these gifts have been given by Him we should not accredit the glory to ourselves, but rather to God. We should use our gifts but we also need to remember where those gifts come from.
So let us review so far. In order to live a life pleasing to God we need to follow some pretty simple steps. 1.) Rely on God. 2.) Give your life in spiritual worship. 3.) Give the glory to God, not to ourselves. And 4.) Use the gifts He has given us to give honor to Him. These steps are fairly simple especially if we remember that Christ died for us and we owe our eternal life to Him, however Paul was not finished with the requirements to live a life pleasing to God. There are two more steps in verses 12:9-21 that are a bit more difficult. Love without hypocrisy and live in peace with everyone.
Loving without hypocrisy can be a tall order for some. We are supposed to love our neighbors as ourselves. But let’s think about that for a moment. Both love without hypocrisy and love our neighbors as ourselves means to show the same caring, respect, concern and provision that we do ourselves. This type of love can sometimes be difficult to show. We get angry, frustrated or even hurt by others and it can be difficult to turn the other cheek and still love someone in this manner. However, we are to live in peace with everyone. This includes those who have hurt us. As Paul stated, “Do not repay anyone evil for evil”. Just as much as we would not want someone to hold a grudge or repay us for our mistakes we cannot repay others as well. Forgiveness is something that we have received in the blood of Christ. This same forgiveness should be extended to others. Christ died for everyone, not just you or I. Wrapped around that forgiveness is the type of love we are to show others. If Christ could show this love even to the lowest of creatures, we surely can do everything possible to show this type of love also.
God has given us the gifts and talents we need in order to make our lives pleasing to Him. Through grace we have been redeemed of our faults and short comings. It is not too much for God to ask us to pass this grace and forgiveness on to others and not to conform to this age. Let us go out this week and lead by example, love one another, and give the glory to God for all He has given us.
Thank you for allowing me to share the word God has laid on my heart. If you like this lesson please share it with others by clicking one of the links below.
In His Service,
The Faithful Geek