Reasonable Service

Romans 12:1

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

And be not conformed to this world: but you be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what [is] that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

Transformed means a metamorphosis

I. Paul’s address to the Romans

Here in Romans chapter 12 we see that Paul is pleading with the Romans by the mercies of God, that they present their bodies a living sacrificing, holy, acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service.

In Lamentations that it is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not and that they are new every morning.

It would be awful if God had no compassion for us. The reason we are not consumed is because we are made in God's very image and likeness.

God is full of mercy and compassion toward us. His loving-kindness extends from everlasting to everlasting.

We are saved through God’s grace alone and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ precious blood. The shedding of His blood paid the price for us on Calvary and must present our bodies as a living sacrifice.

We must lay down our lives to what we deem as important and be living examples to the unbeliever. We must be holy and acceptable to God.

God is holy and therefore we all must be holy. He will not accept anything other than holiness.

Holy means to be set apart for the service and worship of God; hallowed; sacred; reserved from profane or common use. We should not use our bodies for profane things.

We all have at some time abused our privileges God has bestowed upon us..

The reason why most of us do not present our bodies as a living sacrifice is that we are just ignorant of what God’s expectation or we don’t take the time to find out what the assignment is for us, we spend no time communing with God and are not interested in Kingdom work.

Paul says this is our reasonable service, in other words what would be, the natural thing to do. We spend excessive amounts time doing the unnatural thing; we ignore the multiple warnings of God.

II. Conforming to the Image of God

We are created in the very likeness of God.

In Romans 12:2 Paul warns us not to be conformed to the world, but to be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, perfect will of God.

God commanded us who have accepted Him to come out from among the world and be separate from the world’s customs

Paul before his conversion on Damascus road conformed to the very image of the world

He was conformed to the ideology of murdering Christians in what he thought was his own reasonable service to God.

Jesus said, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest me? It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. Paul’s very conscience and thinking condemned him

Today we as believers kick against the pricks, struggling with worldly passions and lusts, the ones that we have personally taken a liking to.

The things that if we look at it with a natural perspective looks harmless, but from a spiritual perspective has the potential to destroy us.

To have a desire for being a part of the status quo in wanting to be how someone else is. We want so badly to fit into the image of worldly success. The world is not happy as it appears, with all its tragedy and unrealistic expectations put on us daily.

Some tend to think the grass is greener on the other side.

We want God on Sunday morning, but when it comes weekly living we cash in our bibles and hymn books as if they were a cheap lottery ticket.

The reason why some of us think the same way we used is because we simply do not allow God’s word to permeate our hearts.

We must realize that it will help direct out thoughts and our actions.

Psalms says “Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee another says that we keep the word as frontlets in front of eyes

III. The Perfect Will of God

The perfect will of God is the completed work which God expects us to walk in

We must prove to ourselves through the dedicated study of Gods’ word.

We have all made excuses of not knowing what His perfect will is. His perfect will is that we introduce Jesus and convert the sinner man by making them disciples and teaching the mysteries of God.

Satan is busy!!! He wants you to kill you; he wants to destroy your life if you allow him to. He wants you to walk off the cliff. Some off you are standing at the cliff’s edge even right now! Carefully examine what you are about to get yourself into.

Jesus said only an unworthy man puts his hand to the plow looks back.

We must count up the cost. I believe some us are dis-interested to be in line with the Will of God, scared that we should and could be. We’ve been poisoned by what we’ve been exposed to. We should willfully submit to the will of God and resist the devil. Some of us have been playing possum, Stop playing possum. Some of us are scared to take a stand against sin. Take a stand some have been desensitized by his schemes. The bible says not to be ignorant of his devices.

The Holy leads us into all truth

God’s teaches through us how to defeat the enemy and live a victorious life. Develop those things which the Lord has given. He did not save you just to sit on the pew. Spend time on your knees in prayer in the secret place.

Jesus said “Not my will, but thy will be done. Our will must line up with His will, not the other way around. Jesus was in tune with the Father wanted accomplished in the earth. It is time to stop sleeping in church, time-out for passing the babies around church, time to stop the spiritual hopscotch and get on board. If the pastor asks us to do something or needs us in a particular ministry, we should come running to help where are needed in ministry.

We all have a responsibility toward God, he expects us to read our Bibles, to witness to the unsaved, and be an example for other Christians. We must renew our minds. Saints we need to change what we are thinking, or watching on television what we allow ourselves to exposed to. We can longer think the same way we did before we got saved, Our first priority should be, needs to be towards God. Our priorities need to change immediately