God’s Expectations of Us (November 13, 2022)

The most common cause of failure in the church world is lack of understanding of God’s expectations of us. So many believe that God is a God of so much love that He really don’t care how we act or what we do. The fact is that God loves us SO MUCH, He sent His Son to die for us … therefore He cares what happens in our lives and He has an expectation for how we act and what we do.

How wonderful that God never fails to let us know what He expects of us as we live the Christian life.

Romans 12:1 “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”

• What does this verse mean?

• The body must be surrendered because only in that way can it be demonstrated that the will of our life has been surrendered

• A sacrifice is something given to God as an expression of homage or thanksgiving

• What is the manner of this verse for our lives?

• This is put in the form of a request – “I appeal to you”

• Surrendered living is always an optional matter

• We may pay a price if we make the wrong decision, but we are giving the opportunity of making the decision nonetheless.

Are there additional requirements from God for our lives?

• BROTHERS ~ this is an appeal pointed to the saved alone

• LIVING ~ God wants us to be living in a living Christian Community

• HOLY ~ word has the meaning of WHOLE and PURE and both are valid for this verse

• We are to give Him the totality of our lives

• We are to give Him the purity of our lives

• ACCEPTABLE TO GOD ~ well-pleasing, giving of satisfaction.

Is there an exhortation in this verse that must be heeded by Christian believers?

• The believer is to “present your bodies as a living sacrifice .. to God”

• God is not only interested in man’s spirit, but our whole body

• The believer is to present his body to God – this shows dedication. The dedication …

• is not to be made to self: living as one wishes; doing one’s own thing

• is not to be made to others: living for family, wife, husband, child, parent, or employer

• is not to be to something else: houses, land, property, money, cars, possessions, profession, recreation, retirement, luxury, power, recognition, fame

• The body is to be offered to God and to God alone; God wants all of us to be sacrificially living for Him

What is meant by a living sacrifice?

• A living sacrifice means a constant, continuous sacrifice, not just an occasional dedication of one’s body. A person does not sacrifice to God today and then take back into his own hands and do his own thing tomorrow. A living sacrifice means that a person dedicates his body to live for God and keeps on living for God.

• A living sacrifice means a sacrifice of a person’s body wherever the body is … place is not important. Wherever you are at, wherever you live, wherever you shop, wherever you work … you can live for God.

• A living sacrifice means that the body sacrifices its own desires and lives for God. The body lives a holy, righteous, pure, clean and moral life for God. The body does not pollute, dirty, nor contaminate itself with the sins and corruptions of the world: neither the lust of the flesh, nor the lust of the eyes, nor the pride of life. The believer’s body is sacrificed for God and dedicated to live as He commands.

• A living sacrifice means that the body lives for God by serving God.

What is the reasons God wants these requirements from our lives?

• “ … therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God …”

• Therefore looks back to what has come before in the book

• We can trace the mercies of God chapter by chapter in Romans and discover a perfectly good reason for God’s request

• Romans 1:18-3:20 tells us that the world desperately needs to get right with God

• Romans 3:21-5:21 tells us that the way the world is to get right with God is only through God’s Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The way is justification which is believing in the Lord Jesus Christ and having God count one’s faith as righteousness

• Romans 6:1-8:39 says that the believe in Christ can be sanctified and set apart to God and set free from sin to life eternal by the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Holy Spirit.

• Romans 9:1-11:36 says that the believer, not Isreal, is now God’s choice to carry the gospel of His Son to the whole world.

• “ … which is your spiritual worship.”

• Means something which has been carefully reasoned through

• Just think about what God has done for us. God has …

• met our desperate need to get right with Him

• provided the power to be set free from the terrible bondages of this life and to live eternally

• given the most glorious purpose to life: proclaiming the new of God’s Son, of how to be set free from sin and death and to live eternally

• Therefore, in light of the mercies of God, of all this that God has done for us, why not devote ourselves to God?

• We should surrender to Him because that is what good reasoning tells us we should do