In Romans 12:1 we read, “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.” God wants us to present all parts of our bodies as a living sacrifice. This is the will of God for us. By presenting ourselves as a living sacrifice we can make ourselves useful to the body of Christ. In verse 2 we read, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” This has to be done every day in our lives.
In the book of Leviticus we see how God instructed the Israelites about the different offerings. In chapter 1 we see the instructions given for offering a burnt offering. God emphasizes that the offering should be one without defect. The animal or bird is offered as an atonement on his behalf. It is a symbol of offering ourselves to God. God also specifies that the offering must be cut into pieces, all blood drained and burnt. The smoke was a sweet aroma for the Lord. This is a symbol of how we are to offer our bodies as a living and holy sacrifice to the Lord. We have to present each part of our body as an offering. We have to present our eyes as an offering; we see many things with our eyes – many things that are defiled. It is time for us to repent and put our eyes on the altar. We may have an attitude to judge others; we have to put it on the altar. We must repent and only judge ourselves each day. Judging others is a very serious sin. We have to submit our ears to the will of God. We accumulate a lot of information in our minds based on what we hear each day. And we pass judgment and make conclusions about people and situations. We need to put our ears also on the altar. Our hands – we used our hands to do what we wish; but let us choose to put them on the altar today and use them as per God’s will. Each part of our bodies has to be on the altar. We need to allow the Holy Spirit to put all our members to death. When our bodies are offered as a sacrifice, it becomes a sweet aroma to our Lord. His heart becomes happy when we do His will. Our tongue is another member that we have to sacrifice. We may hurt others with our words, we may have spoken evil things; but today let us repent and place our tongues on the altar. We read in the Bible that our words must always be seasoned with grace. Allow the Holy Spirit to work with your tongue to be sensitive to the words that we speak. Let us correct ourselves and repent before to take part in the Lord’s Table. Let the fire come down on our offering to the Lord and burn away any chaff. Let us offer sweet aroma to the Lord this morning. We have a short time on this earth, let us use it to put to death the passions and desires of our bodies and do the will of God. In Galatians 5:24 we read, “Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” You are God’s child and not your own. So your flesh can’t have its way.
This world has many things that can slowly creep into our lives. It is up to us how we control the passions of the world from entering into our lives. The urge in us to buy things in this world, to spend money in ways that is not in God’s will and to expose ourselves to the lust of the flesh – we have to be careful in all these areas. We have to transform and renew our minds to turn away from the passions of this world. There has to be a 180 degree change in the way that we lived earlier. By doing this, we can fulfill God’s perfect will in our lives.
In Mathew 5 after the beatitudes, Jesus mentions about anger in our hearts being equivalent to murder. Are we careful to remove this sin of anger in our life? Let us seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit. If we have hurt our brother or have something against him, it needs to be reconciled before an offering is given to the Lord. If we have spoken words without grace, we need to repent and ask for forgiveness. Repent and act quickly. Our lives are very short. In verse 23-25 we read, “Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering. Make friends quickly with your opponent at law while you are with him on the way, so that your opponent may not hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the officer, and you be thrown into prison.” If we don’t repent, we bring ourselves under judgment. Let us judge ourselves. We read in 1 Corinthians 11:31, “But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged.” Let us do this as we come to take part in the Lord’s Table. In 1 John 1:9 we read, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Let us be quick to repent and come to the Lord and be righteous. May God bless us all!
