Participants:
Series Code: BOL
Program Code: BOL000648A
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00:00 (Breath of Life Theme Music)
00:05 Sermon #B648 - All In 00:20 Pastor Byrd: Romans Chapter 12 and we're going to verse number one, one verse, one verse. 00:26 Alright.The word of God says, "I beseech you, therefore, brethren," by the mercies of whom? 00:33 [Congregation: God]. 00:34 That you present your body as a living, what everybody. 00:36 Holy and acceptable unto whom which is your reasonable what everybody. 00:41 Father, we thank you. God, we praise you. We lift you up, we magnify your name. 00:45 For the next couple of moments, Lord, I pray that you would illuminate our minds, 00:48 give us receptive hearts. As God, we seek to hear a word from you. 00:51 We read this text. We recited this text many times, 00:54 but make this text come alive today. 00:55 We pray in the name of Jesus, let everyone say "Amen." Amen. 01:00 You may be seated as you're being seated. 01:01 Now, when Paul says in the New Testament, present your bodies a living sacrifice. 01:06 He says this against the backdrop of the Old Testament sacrificial system. 01:10 You'll remember that in the Old Testament, the priests would come, 01:14 put an animal on the altar and the offering, 01:17 whether it was a sheep, a lamb, or a goat, it would be slain. 01:22 The offering would be dead. In the Old Testament, priests would offer dead sacrifices, 01:28 not living sacrifices. Are you hearing what I'm saying? 01:32 Because Jesus had not come yet. 01:34 They were offering dead sacrifices that foreshadowed the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. 01:41 Jesus Christ who was to come had not come yet. 01:45 But who wants to come and die paying the penalty for our sins? 01:49 But in the 21st century, we are not to offer dead sacrifices. 01:57 That system is gone. It was dismissed when Jesus died on the cross 02:05 and the temple veil was rent in two with the sacrifice of Jesus, 02:11 the Lamb of God, which taken away the sins of the world. 02:16 The Old Testament sacrificial system, the sacrificial system of dead animals has gone away. 02:25 God doesn't want anything dead now. God wants something alive. 02:33 So, in the New Testament, there's a new kind of sacrifice. 02:38 It's not an animal, but it's you and me. 02:43 God is calling us to place ourselves on the altar as an offering to him, 02:53 but not as a dead offering, but rather as a living sacrifice. 02:59 Are you hearing what I'm saying? 03:01 So, a woman asked her Pastor one day, she said, "What does it mean to be a living sacrifice?" 03:09 So, her Pastor held up a blank sheet of paper 03:13 and he said, a living sacrifice means that you just sign your name at the bottom of the sheets, 03:21 but you let God fill in what he wants. That's a living sacrifice. 03:27 That's what it means to be all in. Everybody say all in. 03:32 Too many people think that God is always going to do what they want, when they want, 03:36 where they want, and how they want, 03:38 and when God doesn't perform in the way they think God ought to perform, they feel cheated. 03:42 That God isn't good enough. That God is not in loving God. 03:47 He's not a good God, that he's in a prayer-answering burden, bearing God, 03:51 but God is not a vending machine. God is God. 03:54 God doesn't have to do another thing for us. 03:59 And I'm learning in my life that sometimes you have to let go of the life you pictured in order 04:05 to have the life that God has planned. 04:09 But let's get back to the text quickly. 04:11 The text begins with the word, therefore, 04:13 everybody say, "therefore." Paul says," I beseech you, therefore." 04:17 Now, anytime you see the word therefore in the Bible, 04:20 you should always ask what it's there for. 04:24 Somebody go get that in a minute. And so when we come to Romans Chapter 12 04:29 and Paul begins with the word, therefore, Paul is making a shift from doctrine to practice. 04:35 He's saying, you've got the theory, now get some application. 04:39 You got the book sense, now get some common sense. 04:43 He establishes doctrine in the first part of Romans 04:45 but then moves to application in the second half of Romans. 04:49 Paul is saying, based on everything that I've said earlier in this book, 04:54 this is what you now need to put into practice. 04:58 Because theology must always have a practical application. You all hear what I'm saying. 05:03 And so, therefore, in Romans 12 is a therefore of surrender. 05:09 Paul is saying that even though we have sinned, even though we have messed up, 05:15 even though we are guilty and deserve to die, 05:18 we have been declared righteous through Jesus Christ. 05:22 And so based upon the entire argument of Chapters 1 through 11, 05:26 we should surrender our lives to him fully in Romans Chapter 12. 05:31 In other words, Paul is saying, based it all God has done, 05:36 I urge you, brothers, even though Paul could've used to command here, 05:40 he begins and uses a word and makes an appeal with the word beseech, 05:44 and he refers to the people he's speaking to as brothers, 05:46 pointing to his affection for them as members of God's family, 05:50 which means Paul's begging believers, not unbelievers. I wish I had a witness in his place. 05:55 I beseech you, therefore, brother and I beseech you, therefore, brothers, 06:00 by the mercies of God. 06:02 Now, I wanted to skip this part, but I have to do this part right now. 06:05 He says the mercies of God. 06:08 Now notice Paul does not say in light of God's grace, 06:15 I beseech you brethren by the grace of God. Paul doesn't say that. 06:20 Paul says I beseech you brethren by the mercies of God. 06:23 Why does Paul talk about mercy and not grace? Well, don't understand. 06:28 You have to understand the difference between grace and mercy. 06:33 Grace and mercy are not the same. Grace is when we get what we don't deserve. 06:42 But mercy is keeping us from what we do deserve. Let me say that again. 06:49 God's grace is getting what we don't deserve. 06:53 God's mercy keeps us from getting what we deserve. Somebody still not getting this? 07:01 I'm seeing that you're looking at me. Let me try this way. 07:04 It's like the man, I told this story before. 07:06 It's like the man who stormed into a photo studio complaining 07:10 about the quality of his photographs. He slammed his fist on the counter 07:15 and he said to the photographer, "Man, these pictures don't do my looks justice." 07:22 The photographer said, "Sir, with a face like yours, you don't want justice, you want mercy." 07:29 Do I have a witness in his face? So, be careful about asking for justice 07:35 because you just might get it. 07:37 And we're just like the man if we received what we deserved, we ended up in hell, 07:45 but it's because hallelujah, of God's mercies, that we are not consumed the mercies of God. 07:55 That's what Jeremiah said are new every morning. Do I have a witness in his place? 08:02 Thank God for mercy. [Congregati on: Amen] 08:04 Mercy woke me up this morning. [Congregation: Amen] 08:07 Mercy started me on my way. Mercy put food on my table and clothing on my back. 08:14 Mercy kept my heart beating while I was sleeping through the night. 08:19 Mercy kept you from getting in a car wreck on your way to church. 08:23 Mercy! We're living in an age where people don't, they think they don't need mercy, 08:30 but somebody knows you wouldn't be here right now if it weren't for the mercy of God. 08:34 Somebody ought to thank God for God's mercy 08:37 and what I love about Paul is Paul does not reduce God to one mercy. 08:43 He says mercies, plural, morning by morning, new mercies. 08:50 I see people like to preach that God is a God of a second chance. 08:55 No, God is not a God of a second chance. 08:57 God has given you chance after chance after chance after chance. 09:02 Oh --- yall don't feel like it today. 09:05 Some of you all on the balcony looking at us like we crazy. 09:07 Let me bowl down your alley. Some of you all are in school right now because of God's mercies. 09:14 Bad grades. Preach Pastor Byrd, I'm doing the best I can. Money low, but God's mercy. 09:26 You're living in mercy. You're going to school in mercy. 09:31 Somebody you're driving in mercy. Your apartment is mercy. 09:36 Your house is mercy. Your marriage is mercy. Nothing but the mercy of God. 09:42 Somebody should be in jail right now. 09:45 You should have had a nervous breakdown right now, but God gave you mercy. 09:51 He gave you life. He gave you health. 09:54 He gave you straight, so don't sit there and act like you all cute. 09:58 You can't worry about what other folks say about you. 10:00 You're just praising God for God's mercy. I will bless the Lord at all times. 10:06 And His praise shall continually be in my mouth. 10:10 Praise God for his mercy. Praise him. 10:20 Just ought to be glad you're not in the hospital somewhere. 10:23 That needles aren't hanging out of your arms. 10:26 I beseech you, therefore, brothers, 10:29 by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living words, 10:36 but a living sacrifice sounds like an oxymoron 10:42 because how can you offer your body a living sacrifice? Aren't sacrifices dead? 10:52 How can a sacrifice be living? To sacrifice means to slaughter. 11:00 The compund term, living sacrifice is somewhat a contradiction in terms. 11:08 Animals that were sacrificed were always killed first, then they were burned, 11:14 and then they would either cook, they were cooked and eaten. 11:17 So, because animal sacrifices were killed, they weren't living sacrifices. 11:23 So, then what does Paul mean when he says living sacrifice? 11:30 Living implies life, not death. 11:34 So, to help us understand what Paul is trying to say, 11:37 there are two living sacrifices that are recorded in the Bible. 11:41 And these two examples give us a clue as to what Paul was trying to say. 11:46 The first example was Isaac. Everybody say, Isaac. The second example is Jesus. 11:51 Everybody says, Jesus. Alright, quickly, I'm gonna say these two things 11:54 and I'm gonna sit down. Let's talk about Isaac first. 11:58 You will remember that Abraham, Isaac's father, was told to take his only son, Isaac, 12:06 and offer him up as a sacrifice on Mount Moriah. 12:10 You remember that? Now, remember, when Isaiah, Isaac rather, was offered up to be a sacrifice, 12:17 Isaac wasn't a little boy. He was not a little kid. 12:23 Understand? Abraham and Sarah had Isaac at an old age, 12:29 which means then Isaac was old enough and strong enough to take Abraham out. 12:35 You all hear what I'm saying? But because Isaac became obedient unto death 12:41 because he had to be a type or a foreshadow of Christ, 12:46 not somebody who was taken against their will, but somebody who would be obedient unto death. 12:52 Y'all ain't getting this. Somebody who was all in and what becomes a living sacrifice. 13:00 So, here comes Isaac, climbing up the altar of sacrifice, 13:06 and he says to his father, "Daddy, I see the knife. 13:10 Daddy, I see the woods, but Daddy, where is the sacrifice?" 13:16 Because remember, he didn't know that he was going to be the sacrifice. 13:21 Abraham says, "Son, don't worry. God will provide." 13:26 And there Isaac is, laid up on the altar as his old father begins to strap down his son. 13:35 A living sacrifice. Isaac is tied to something that's killing him. 13:45 So, that's what it means to be a living sacrifice. 13:47 That if you walk with God, if you're all in with God, sooner than later, 13:53 sometime in your life,the will of God will tie you to something that's killing you. 14:01 What am I talking about? Somebody is tied to a child who won't obey. 14:09 And you're loving a child who won't love you back. 14:14 You can't separate yourself from your child regardless of how bad your child is 14:19 because you're tied to it and say whatever you want. 14:23 But if it weren't for your child, you wouldn't pray like you pray. 14:28 You wouldn't fast like you fast. 14:31 And so maybe, God is using that disobedient child to make you a living sacrifice. 14:42 Somebody else is in a marriage. That was supposed to be a match made in heaven, 14:49 but it seems like a nightmare on Elm Street. 14:53 And every day you go home, you're going home to be a living sacrifice. 15:01 You're on your way home and you're driving and you drive as slow as you can 15:06 because you know when you get to that house, you're about to be a living sacrifice. 15:10 Don't say Amen too loud because the sacrifice may be sitting next to you. 15:13 Come on, say, "Amen." [Congregation: Amen] 15:15 Isaac was put on the altar. 15:17 He was tied to something that was killing him, 15:21 but he was willing to die in obedience to God's will. 15:24 But God, just in the nick of time, stopped Abraham from killing him 15:30 and sent a ram to take his place. He's Jehovah-Jireh. 15:35 The Lord will provide, but Isaac died just the same. 15:43 He died to self, yielded himself to God's will. 15:48 So, when he stepped off of the altar, Isaac was a living sacrifice. 15:55 He became an offering of one's life, even unto death yet he was still living. 16:04 And this is what Paul is talking about when he's talking about living sacrifice. 16:07 He means the full commitment of somebody's life to God, even if it means death. 16:14 I gotta hurry up. I gotta throw this in. It's not popular to talk about sacrifice anymore. 16:21 People just want to talk about success. 16:24 But I'm here to tell somebody, young people, listen to me good. 16:26 Pastor Byrd 47 years old, I sat where you sit. 16:30 You can't have success without sacrifice. 16:35 You got to sacrifice. 16:38 The second living sacrifice was Jesus, but Jesus was the perfect living sacrifice 16:47 because Jesus actually died as a sacrifice in obedience to his father's will. 16:54 Jesus did what his father told him to do. 16:56 Jesus became the perfect lamb, the perfect sacrifice for our sins. 16:59 Jesus died that we might live. Jesus shed his blood so our sins could be forgiven. 17:05 In the Old Testament sanctuary, a live animal, remember, it was brought to the priest 17:10 and the sin barrow would lay his hands on the animal's head, 17:13 the sin offering to symbolically say, "This animal takes my place." The animal was then killed. 17:22 Blood was spilled because remember, 17:25 there could be no forgiveness of sin without the shedding of what everybody. 17:30 But Jesus. When he went to Calvary, he took our place. [Congegation: Clapping] 17:37 His blood was spilled. Our sins were forgiven. 17:44 |
Revised 2019-10-10