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Application.
Need to.
Present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, and the service that's associated.
With.
Providing for the body of Christ. And so our God and Father, we just looked at you this morning for a blessing as we consider these things, and we just count on thee for thy help. In the name of my beloved Son, our Lord Jesus, Amen. Amen.
We thought it might be nice to start at verse two in Romans 12 and maybe go back to verse 8.
Romans chapter 12, starting at verse 2.
And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
For I say through the grace given unto me to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office, so we being many, are one body in Christ, and everyone members one of another, having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy let us.
Prophecy according to the proportion of faith or ministry. Let us wait on our ministering. Or he that teacheth on teaching, Or that he or he that exhorteth on exhortation. He that giveth, let him do it with simplicity. He that ruleth with diligence, he that showeth mercy with cheerfulness.
We spent quite a bit of time on verse one yesterday, but after meeting the question was asked.
Can you give some practical examples of giving her bodies a?
Living sacrifice unto the Lord, and might be good to do give some very.
Real life practical examples. Sometimes we, you know, talk about these things in a little bit of an abstract way, but maybe that would be helpful, especially for the younger ones.
Which one of the keys to that answer be found in the understanding of what sacrifice really is? Sacrifice costs us something.
And so.
If we were to lay our lives down on the altar of sacrifice, that means ultimately that.
There's going to be some sort of cost that I'm going to incur.
As a result of that.
Might be my time, could be my money, could be a whole number of things in my life that I have to maybe part with for the benefit of the Lord and His people, His service, whatever it might be.
And lastly, lest we consider that all of these examples are just.
Focused directly on what we would maybe consider to be spiritual things. One of the greatest sacrifices that I can think of that would fall under this would be motherhood. Mothers that take their children under their wing and seek to raise them in the nurture and ammunition of the Lord. I don't, I can't think.
Just purely practical level of many more sacrifices for an individual gives up about which would be for their own.
00:05:04
You know, enjoyment or whatever for the sake of another.
Others give up a lot to sacrifice a lot for the sake of their children.
You know, we we have the.
Reading meetings and it's it's not just the US brothers that ought to be taking heart to what is said.
Young sister should also because if the Lord blesses and there's motherhood, they're the ones that teach mostly at home, especially in the younger and the younger years. And being grounded in the foundations of Christianity is not just a brother thing.
Sisters play a big part and in motherhood especially so while not teaching vocally, there is teaching at home and.
Older sisters teaching younger sisters, maybe even sister to sister ministry where you're encouraging, seeking to to draw where a brother couldn't, or a more public sphere. It couldn't be. Things can't be brought out, so that's important. I was thinking of the sacrifices in the Old Testament, and they were to be without spot and blemish.
And we can think of perhaps there's heredity. Maybe our old nature has spots.
But could it be also what the animal is feeding on? I'm not much of A shepherd guy, but could it be what the animal is feeding on could affect how they appear on the outward, which of course comes from the inward. And so how do we apply it to ourselves? Now? What are we feeding on really?
The inputs that we have in our minds.
Whether it's in our years or our eyes or what we are, allow ourselves to experience.
If it's the things of this world, if it's the things of the eyes, the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life, if it's those things, can it be a sacrifice acceptable to the Lord? No.
We we need to, as it says in first John, confess those things to the Lord and he is the one that cleanses us from that unrighteousness and we can be acceptable unto him. All that old, old man stuff and the things that please have have pleasure to the old man. That's that doesn't make the living sacrifice that's acceptable to the Lord.
And he deserves a living sacrifice.
He deserves us to be.
For us to take the time and consider.
Is the thing I'm seeing, Is the thing I'm listening to acceptable to the Lord? Does it please Him? Does it honor Him? And if it doesn't, it's bad food.
And I should seek before the Lord to put in good food, which is ministry.
Of hymns.
And just a the wholesome things, not the things of this world.
To consider again another practical example, as Mark was just mentioning.
The other one I can think of.
Very distinctly as spiritual fathers.
The apostle Paul said, though you have 10,000 instructors in Christ, you have not many fathers. Why don't we have many spiritual fathers? Because it costs a great deal. It requires an enormous amount of investment. Thankfully I can count a number of the brothers that are here with us in this room is spiritual fathers have taken the time and invested and.
Cultivate in a relationship with me because it's not possible.
Really to be effectual and shepherding, maybe there's a necessity to come alongside and offer a bit of excitation on some things that there may be in my life that need adjustment if there's not previously a relationship and in order to develop that relationship, there has time and energy associated with that.
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A tremendous sacrifice and I speak this to myself, but there are a lot of younger.
Kind of middle-aged brothers in here that have the potential to be great. Greatly used of the Lord as spiritual fathers to a lot of the younger ones here and I would just encourage you that the sacrifice is worthwhile.
I'll give another practical example that we.
So Beth and I have been enjoyed having some of the young couples in our home on a monthly basis and a little over a month ago we took up the topic of.
Of hospitality and hospitality is a very practical.
Example of what we have here, A living sacrifice, so as we all know.
Us guys are it's a little bit easier for us. We we invite somebody over to the the house.
To spend some time together and.
You know, we might need to.
Do a little extra digging so that we have something to share.
From Scripture. But it's a real sacrifice on the parts of our spouses, our wives.
Especially if we haven't really planned ahead and.
There's been lots of times that I've been the recipient of someone. In fact, we were just talking about it.
Earlier in this camp.
They've left now but the Arlington's were we were talking over a meal and they were planning to reach out to one of the families in Aberdeen and the last time we were in Aberdeen we showed up for breaking of bread and Sunday school a relatively unannounced we were headed to.
Morningstar.
And between the breaking of bread and Sunday school?
We had several invites to go to lunch.
At somebody else's home.
And that means a lot.
And in the the case that that we experienced they completely changed what they were serving because they heard a little mention that we enjoy halibut and they had some in their freezer and so they completely changed the menu and and invited us over for a lovely meal on our way up to Morningstar.
That's a sacrifice.
That is well pleasing. We are commanded.
To be hospitable, and the blessing flows both ways when we do that.
And I think that's the beautiful thing of sacrifice, if I might put it this way, that we may look at it and we may recognize that there is a cost.
To us, and I'm not minimizing that cost, but I will guarantee that the blessing will far out far outweigh the cost in every single situation.
Perhaps I'll just mention too that yesterday a young brother and I were visiting.
And a particular older brother came up in the conversation and he, this younger brother said to me, I hope that that young older brother keeps on going on because he's been a lot of help to a lot of the younger ones.
So may that encourage each of us that are older.
And all of us are older than somebody.
So there are younger ones looking up to you and are they learning from you and from each of us a life of self sacrifice?
Because we make choices every day, all day long. What are we going to do with our time and our other resources?
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And if we're just going to live for ourselves, it's going to manifest itself in certain ways. But if we're in the habit, because we know the Lord delights in that, of using what we have, our time and the abilities we have, like there's a pipe leaking over in the main bathroom over there. And maybe there's a plumber here that'd be interested in looking into that, for example.
There are a million other things, ways that we can deny ourselves.
Taking time that we want to do something else and spend it for others and there will be blessing in that. And from the standpoint of sacrifice, I just want to give an example.
And most of you know that I like ice cream, and if I gave myself to eating a lot of ice cream, I could become overweight pretty easily.
Now, if I got myself 40 or 50 lbs overweight and I went into the doctor because I was having issues, he might tell me you have to lose some weight and quit eating ice cream. Now, if I give it up at that point, there's not much sacrifice in that. But if along the way I can see, you know what, I really shouldn't be eating this much, it isn't honoring to the Lord. And so I give it up. That's a sacrifice and there is benefit. The Lord appreciates that if we're doing.
Others appreciate it if we do it for them. So yeah, I was going to go here, but I'll take you to the store. A million things we could be that way, where we're thinking of others and esteeming others better than ourselves so that we give whatever we can to help them out in their situation. It's a very simple thing, really.
I'd like to give a couple examples, more relevant in particular to the young people.
We know that as as you grow up, you become a little more independent and able to make your own decisions, has been mentioned.
And a decision that is worth making is making sure that you attend the assembly meetings. There's entertainment options out there, there's work that can get in the way. All sorts of things can cause you to.
Have some other thing to do than to to be at the meetings. And so in that sense, attending the meetings when you have other options in your life can be a sacrifice, but it's a worthwhile sacrifice. And then also as you're a young person.
You're normally thinking ahead what you might do in your life and perhaps schooling, things like that.
I know there's been more than one young person who has been offered a free ride through university or college scholarships and things like that. But what came with it was a time commitment that was going to take them away from the meetings. And I know that there have been those that have turned that down so that they could make sure that they were at the meetings.
It's been said that you can kind of.
Capture those things that we're talking about as far as sacrifices and time, talent and treasure, and at different stages of our life we have more of those.
Resources than others, right? I mean, as a young person maybe don't have a whole lot of treasure. They have time and talent. I know a young lady that's here with us that tries to make it a point. I can't remember the exact how how often she does this, but she goes to a nursing home to play piano.
The nursing home for the older folks there and.
The some time and some talent, right, maybe not treasure, but there's a sacrifice. She could have been doing something else. And the cool thing is it's not only is she doing that, but she bring somebody else with her which extends that and so but then maybe we get a little bit older in our life and.
Have less time, maybe a little bit of monetary resources. And so maybe there's there's always that opportunity, regardless of where we are in our lives, where one or two, maybe those resources would be available to be sacrificed to the Lord.
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Nathan that's attending the assembly meetings.
It's not a a form.
It's not something to do.
Just because you're encouraged to, it gives an opportunity for the Spirit of God to bring one more thing before you.
I don't know how it is with anybody else, but for me, I haven't regretted going to an assembly meeting. There's always something more the Spirit of God wants to draw our thoughts and our hearts and affections to. And it can be.
And we're missing out.
It could be that needed thing in our lives to as it were, you're at a fork in the road and could be that extra word that is needed the Spirit of God wants to bring before you. And as our our brother brought out, you know, even when you don't feel like reading the word of God, read it.
What? What more could God give?
That's a treasure.
He's given us everything that would pertain to life and godliness.
And the We're not asked to do anymore than what the Lord Jesus did.
He walked the walk perfectly.
And he wants us to be in the spirit, walking in the spirit, be in his word, be in prayer to the Father and, and all those things. So it's just an extra I, I look at it.
Source of blessing to be at the assembly meetings.
It's interesting if you read in Luke chapter 12.
With respect to servants.
Just reading verse 36 and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord.
And then verse 37 blessed.
Are those servants whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching.
Then verse 43 bless it.
That servant whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing.
All to be waiting, watching and doing. And there's a blessing that is associated with it.
And that's what has been brought out here generally that.
There is a joy, Steve was saying, that far exceeds the loss that we might experience ourselves by giving up time, resources, I.
Whatever it is in our life for the benefit of the service of God.
We the Lord turns around and he pours a blessing into our lives by by giving up whatever little we choose to give up, and we become the.
We benefit far more I guess, but as what I'm trying to say.
In the end, there's a blessing attached.
A sinking of an example in.
Of this brought out very practically.
And my dad, There probably isn't very many people that are older in this room that didn't experience my dad working on some of their equipment in some form or another.
Back 20 years ago or more and.
That's a talent that was distinct to my dad, that he understood mechanical things probably better than anybody that I've ever known.
Unfortunately it's not genetic and the the good thing was I was talking to a couple of the brothers about this. I spent a lot of time with at the home of another family growing up as my dad went over there to work on equipment and things like that. I was joking with one of the brothers that.
I think my dad and the other brother that would ask him for assistance.
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Maybe we're making up.
More problems than they they're actually we're just because they enjoyed being together and we talk about the large things together. I spent a lot of time over at that home because of that. And then so there was a huge amount of blessing that was associated with that sacrifice and you know what the Lord.
There's no man's better.
My dad very rarely.
Would take money for those things.
You know now mom and dad are not extremely well to do and the Lord has provided them medical insurance through.
The assembly.
Paying for that the Lord is no man is better.
That sacrifice back then the Lord took notice of, and he's been taking.
Very good care of my mom and dad about sucking.
Yeah.
There was alluded to that they had many teachers, but not many fathers and the apostles.
Paul in that second epistle would say, I would very gladly spend and be spent for you. And so he is quite the example of a living sacrifice at the end of his life in Second Timothy.
Chapter 3 and verse 6.
The new translation says for I am already being poured out and the time of my release is come.
So the end of his life he could look back and see, I believe this is a thought of the drink offering being poured out. There is no reserve left. Everything had been spent in his life for the care of the Saints.
So the Lord has outfitted each Christian with a certain line of service.
This chapter goes into.
Into the gifts.
This is not an exhaustive list of gifts that he's committed to the church, but.
Just a few that are listed.
But you know, we've been speaking about, in general, our lives should be put on the altar of sacrifice. It's our intelligence service. It only makes good sense, given what the Lord has given up for us, that we now turn our lives over to Him and let him use us as He sees fit. And it's been said this morning that there's many facets to that in our life and we need to be willing to.
Our our our bodies, our minds, our time to what whatever that might take in, but but in particular, the Lord has given us each one something to do very specifically, and that is something that we need to.
Be before Him about and exercised about, so that we might prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will God.
For our lives, you know. Matthew 25.
It says.
That.
Speaking about the talents.
We might liken this to suppose the spiritual gift, verse 15. It says, And unto one he gave 5 talents, to another two, and to another one, to every man, according to his several ability. We find that what happened is that these ones who received the talents, and again some had left, some had more.
But they traded with it, and they exercised.
And they produce more than what they have received.
And I think.
What this tells us is that we need to exercise the exercise about what the Lord would have us to do and.
And to trade with that gift, if you will.
But you know, to do so, we need to be in the right frame of mind, right state of soul. And we've been considering some of these things where it starts out with an appreciative part that would then.
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Work in in our in our lives to want to give ourselves over to the Lord.
But then we also need that separation from the world. We need a change of thinking that we've had in verse two. And then we then we're prepared and and you might say to to be ready for his service, but maybe somebody could.
Explain to us then.
At the end of verse 2, how do you prove?
What is that? Good and acceptable and perfect, full of God? How do we do that?
I'll just point out something in in the portion that you just turned us to in in Matthew 25. I'd just like to note verse 21.
His Lord said unto him, Well, well done, thou good and faithful servant, Thou hast been faithful over a few things.
I will, I will make the ruler over many things. Now into the joy of thy Lord.
In learning the what the Lord has given us to do, I believe that there's a principle that starts with whatsoever thy hand findeth, do it with thy might. And so it may be something little and I want to encourage especially those of you that are maybe.
In your late teens, early 20s.
Be willing to.
To take up the exercise of of teaching a Sunday school class.
And and pour yourself.
Into something like that, there's immense blessing there and it's it's something you might say that it's relatively small.
You know, maybe it, it's the the toddlers are, are just, you know, the very young and you're you're teaching them the basic principles of the word of God.
It's it's sad and and interesting to me that often times.
I In the different assemblies that I've been in, it's hard to find Sunday school teachers.
I be faithful in that which is least and that little thing and the Lord is going to give you something.
More something greater to do it may be something as simple as recognizing that there's some service that needs to be done there is an immense amount of joy in service and it's one of the reasons why we we run camp the way we do we could rent A camp that.
Has staff and and the meals are all provided and we just.
Wake up in the morning and we come down and sit down to a nice meal.
But if we did that.
All of us would be the the losers because we would be trading money.
Instead of the joy of service and, and I hope that each one of you young people have experienced a little bit of the joy of service of, of lending your efforts to the to the good of of the rest.
And.
If I can say from experience Josh and your the answer to your question.
That you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God, as we do those things that the Lord has asked us to do, whether it's something small.
We find out.
Later on generally.
That it was that good and that perfect will of God and and we find out the Lord.
Is so gracious to give us a little glimpse.
Of the blessing of the benefit.
That comes from our little efforts.
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And we won't know the the full tally, you might say the full blessing until the coming day. But often times the Lord gives us a little insight into some some blessing that has resulted when we have been willing to sacrifice and to do what He's asked us to do. And I can tell you from experience.
It's far beyond what we can imagine.
There's a principle in scripture, and I know I've mentioned this multiple times to multiple people, but.
Couple years ago.
Dave Mertens had a had a meeting that was really impactful in my life and he titled that meeting Faith Anticipates Blessing.
And the beauty of it if you trace it through scripture.
Each individual that had faith and and obeyed whatever the Lord gave them to do.
The blessing that resulted is far, far greater than what they anticipated. I'll just give you a little example, Ruth.
Ruth left her family, her kindred.
And she said Naomi.
I want to serve your God.
I want to go with you to your land.
And where you live, I'll live. And where you die, I'm going to die.
That was faith anticipating a blessing.
She had no no comprehension.
That she was going to be in the line of Christ.
That she was going to be married to Boaz.
No comprehension. And the same thing is true with us.
If we step out in faith and we're willing.
To be obedient to the word of God and and to do whatever He asked us to do.
There will be blessing that's far beyond what we can imagine.
I've proved that over and over over again in my life.
And young people.
Prove it yourself. I believe that.
This verse that we're looking at.
Is just that that ye may prove.
What is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God?
I think it helps to to answer that question to see that.
Verse two is one whole. It all goes together sometimes and we get the question. I want to do something for the Lord. That's first one. That's dedication. I don't know what it is. We talked yesterday about verse two a little bit where it speaks of not being conformed. That's being separate from the world and then being transformed.
And that's by being occupied with the Lord Jesus. Now, the more we do that, the more clearer we'll see the path that the Lord asked for us.
The more we're conformed to the world, the more we lose spiritual discernment and we think of Abraham.
When the famine came, he went to Egypt.
And he became conformed to the world for that part of his life, and he started thinking things that didn't make any sense at all in the sight of the Lord.
That when he went back, he regained spiritual discernment, there was a transformation going on. And we talked about sometimes that needs to happen over and over in our lives. And so God has a will for us and it's perfect and it's acceptable.
For us to see what the world wants us to do, there needs to be that separation from the Lord and transformation from the inside out to see that. And so every step we take, we might say that is with the Lord, our path to what He wants us specifically to do in our lives will become more clear. And so it's an active thing. It's proving it. It's not sitting and waiting until you hear a voice saying this is what you need to do. It's not going to happen.
But if you are occupied with the Lord, you will, he will give you delight for that Dave, for that week, for what he wants you to do. And so, you know, it's good to go through the three sections of the verse, but they all work together. Separation from the world, transformation by occupation with the word will lead to him revealing to us His will for our lives. And then like we said.
00:40:15
Too, We're getting close to the end of the meeting here when we do all these things.
Were prepared for service. Consecration comes next. We have one more thing in verse 3, which is humiliation. We need to do all this with lowly thoughts of self. But then and only then the Lord is ready to give us something to do, which is consecration. But then we'll find out too that we're not alone in that we're part of this greater whole. In verse four and five that speaks of being members of one body. So wouldn't it be beautiful if in that body all the members have gone through these first.
Verses now prepared now for service of the Lord that body will be strong and be like an Ephesians for where all the members they add to it. They compact it together, they build it up for us to be a helping dad or or you know, we can only be a little help, but we want to be more of a help. We want to be doing more in the Lord's service. We have to go through these first three verses. It's individual preparation for service.
That then will lead to us being able to work together with other members of the body.
You know, sometimes speak of lack of power. Well, maybe that's this might be part of it. There's very little dedication to the world. There's very little separation from the world. So there's very little power. But if we all went through that.
In dependence upon the Lord will all be very valuable members within the bond. It will be to the blessing for the whole.
So I think the, as you say Mark, kind of occupation of Christ is key and maybe get a little bit of this in John 21 where we have Peter in verse 21 Saying Peter say seeing him.
That is John, sayeth Jesus Lord, and what shall this man do?
Jesus said that to him, if I will that he tarry till I come. What is that to thee? Follow thou me.
Peter was occupied with.
Somebody else's service. What shall this man do? The Lord saying Peter.
Get your eyes on me. Got something for you to do? Follow me.
So I think this injected just practically speaking, Simply put, we need to be following Christ. And I think it was Mary, was it not? And said, whatsoever he shall say unto you, do it.
It's obedience, so it's not.
I think young people struggle with what is it that the Lord wants me to do? Well, we do need to know it's we need to prove it by knowing it, but we need to be doing it and it's I would just, it's always been a help to me.
When it comes to this this question as to the will of God and especially with respect to services, we're talking about it here and an exercise of gift is that we just need to follow the Lord be obedient to what he has asked us to do and whatever if he's placed something on your heart, just do it. You don't need to worry about I'm well, what is my gift? Don't worry about that. Just if the Lord has laid something on your heart.
Do it.
And if he's done that, you'll be.
Your gift will manifest itself overtime. The Lord has outfitted us with with what we need for His service. We just need to be obedient, follow, and the rest can I say, will take care of Himself.
Another Canadian put it this way, Gordon Hayhoe. You don't know what your gift is. Devotedness will tell you.
Just go on with the Lord.
And it will become manifest to you, but you have to go to the Lord about it. Your brethren might be a little help to you, but just go and be yourself before the Lord and you'll find things for your hands to do and maybe your other talents like we've been speaking to. And I just want to add this at the end.
The only one who was ever in the world who deserved to be served came here to serve.
I am among you as he that serveth the Lord, Jesus said. Let's imitate that.
The second of those verses in Philippians that say, For does God that worketh in you both the will and to do his good pleasure? And like has already been said, we may not know what that is, but we do know one thing. There isn't any description of idleness here. Think of that vineyard.
00:45:14
The The Parable of the Vineyard in Matthew chapter 20 and.
Verse six that says, in about the 11Th hour he went out and found other standing idol, and said unto them, Life standing here all the day idol.
We know for sure that that isn't what we're asked to do. And when we talk about proving, maybe. Maybe.
Maybe it's going to take a process of kind of figuring out, but it isn't. But we're not like you guys will never hear me start a hymn. I figured out the hard way that that's not my gift. And so maybe it's a process of elimination sometimes, but be doing that which.
The Lord would call us to do put on our heart will the Lord will direct our hearts as to what specifically He has for us to do, and it may be more than one thing.
That's another thing when we talk about these gifts, I think we, like Josh, brought out the talents. There was some that had one talent, some that had three and some that had five. That isn't what matters. What matters is that we're actually exercising those talents and not standing all the day idle.
Spread the God and Father, we just thank you for what's been before us this morning, and we pray that we might be exercised to occupy until that has come, Lord Jesus.
Pray that for our young people here, and the younger ones especially, that they might.
Have taken away something this morning. Their hearts and things might have been made clear to them as we know they're in times in their life where they're trying to figure a lot of this these things out. And we just pray that they'll just leave them alone. Help them and all of us too, Lord Jesus, to follow after thee and to be consumed with what would concern thyself.
And that all of us, Lord Jesus, might be willing to lay down our lives for the benefit of others and for thy glory in this world, until thou just take us home. Thank Thee that thou has committed unto every one of us something to to do, and we pray that we might do it faithfully. Lord Jesus, independence upon thyself, and in humility as well, that we might.
Seek to honor Thee in our lives and bring glory to Thyself. So we look to Thee for Thy rich, rich blessing upon Thy word.
And we ask you for thy help for the day going forward, asking this in thy name, Lord Jesus.