God’s Plea

Therefore!! What a little particle in the English language. He bases his plea on everything that he has said to this point. He built up his argument and then gives his appeal. If God is going to ask that you give yourself totally to Him then He, first, had to give Himself totally to you. He did. Jesus, willingly, sacrificially, gave Himself fully in body and mind and soul to you so that you would be God’s child. You would be forgiven and healed from all your soul-pain and that you would be certain of life on earth and life in heaven because Jesus gave His life for you. Therefore is a great word. It tells us about Jesus and what He has done.

Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost 

August 23, 2020

“God’s Plea” 

Romans 12:1-2

Rev. John R. Larson 

Ascension Lutheran Church  Littleton, Colorado

 

            I have something to say to you today.  It’s important.  Please listen.  Give yourself to God today.  That is my plea to you today.  Give yourself to God today – totally, without reservation, in every area of your life.  Today, give yourself to God.

            That is not just my plea, that is God’s plea.  “I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual worship.”  (Romans 12:1)  For every Christian who is listening to my words today I can tell you without any reservation I know what God wants us to do – God wants us to give ourselves to Him.

            The idea of a sacrifice comes with all the thought of the Old Testament where something was either dead or going to be dead soon – given to God as a payment for sin or as a gift to Him.  But Paul in these words asks for a living sacrifice.  You and I are His.  We don’t belong to ourselves.  We are not the ones who are in charge, who have the final say, who determine how we are going to live our lives.

            When we were baptized, God put His name on us, and we declared that He was our God.  We are living sacrifices.  I have heard that baloney when someone will say, “This is my body, I can do with it what I want”, or, “No one is going to tell me what to do.”  Such words, such attitudes, are not Christian.  Paul, this same writer, is consistent when he says in another writing, “You are not your own.  You were bought at a price.  Therefore honor God with your body.”  (I Corinthians 6:19c-20)

            Give yourself to God today.  Look at your body and ask how each part will bring honor to God today.  What will your hands do today?  What will your mouth say today?  Where will your feet go today?  What attitude will you exhibit today that will be pleasing to Him and help others in their life?

            The sacrifice you make is in your daily living.  It will come through your thoughts and your actions – mind and body.  Listen to God’s directive to us, Paul says, “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.”  (Ephesians 4:1)  In Corinthians, he writes, “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”  (II Corinthians 10:5)

            But how does this happen?  What gets in the way of obeying this plea from God?  Verse 2, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”  Conformed – shaped, molded, squeezed; or transformed – changed, bettered, empowered.  How is your life right now?  Conformed or transformed?

            We have one of our folks who came up to me and said, “You have no idea how bad it is in this world.”  And he is probably right.  He is involved in the court system and sees parental neglect and abuse, children who have no one who really loves them.  He has witnessed alcohol and drug abuse, children, and youth who in their youngest years have little hope and no direction.  I’m glad that I haven’t seen a lot of that crap.  But I’ve seen too much and I bet you have too.  I’ve had to witness the pain of a suicide or a family that is no longer a family, and the kids living in distress, because of the disemboweling of a marriage.  I have seen drugs take over a person’s existence and alcoholism ruin a perfectly good life.  I have counseled individuals who gave up their soul because they couldn’t stop their sexual addiction.  I bet you have too.  It stinks, doesn’t it?  Or maybe that list of evil is what you battle on a daily basis.  Remember Peter’s wise word?  “A man is a slave to whatever has mastered him.”  (II Peter 2:19b)

            God has a plea.  I have the same one.  Give yourself to God today.  Be a living sacrifice.  “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

            So, how do you do this?  Is your failure and mine because we simply didn’t try hard enough?  So we’ll solve this if we just try harder, right?  No.  Our reading, in the first few words of that chapter, tells us about doing this, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies…” 

            Therefore!!  What a little particle in the English language.  He bases his plea on everything that he has said to this point.  He built up his argument and then gives his appeal.  If God is going to ask that you give yourself totally to Him then He, first, had to give Himself totally to you.  He did.  Jesus, willingly, sacrificially, gave Himself fully in body and mind and soul to you so that you would be God’s child.  You would be forgiven and healed from all your soul-pain and that you would be certain of life on earth and life in heaven because Jesus gave His life for you.  Therefore is a great word.  It tells us about Jesus and what He has done.

            Listen to some of what Paul has written which makes up his “Therefore”.  Romans 3, “But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.  This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.  There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”  (Romans 3:21-24)  “Therefore, in view of God’s mercy…”  Now, there’s mercy!!

            What about Romans 6?  “Don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may have a new life.”  (Romans 6:3-4)  Our Baptism is pure mercy – all from God.

            Last week we sang “My Hope is Built on Nothing Less” in worship.  I’ve been humming it all week (second tune, by the way).

 

            My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;

            No merit of my own I claim But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.

            On Christ, the solid rock, I stand; All other ground is sinking sand, All other ground is sinking sand.

 

            Give your life to God.  Turn your life over to Him.  It can only be done because He first chose you.  You probably know the account in John 8 of the woman who was caught in adultery.  She was in bed with someone that she wasn’t married to.  She is brought out in front of a bunch of angry guys who were going to stone her to death.  You know the line of the mercy of Jesus, right?  “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”  (John 8:8)  Everyone slowly left.  Oldest ones first.  I want you to see what this act of mercy meant for her life.  After all the accusers were gone with their stones unused and piled up, Jesus speaks to her, “’Woman, where are they?  Has no one condemned you?’  ‘No one, sir,’ she said.  ‘Then neither do I condemn you.  Go now and leave your life of sin.’”  (John 8:10-11)

            In view of God’s mercy life changed.  She could give her life to God.  She could turn it all over to Him.  She could leave her life of sin.  And so can you!  And so can I!  God’s mercy transforms people.  Paul to the Corinthian congregation would say, “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with every-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”  (II Corinthians 4:18)

            “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship.  Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing, and perfect will.”

            Give yourself to God, today.  Amen!!   

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