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Love Involves Sacrifice – Sermon on Romans 12:1–21 by Pastor Colin Smith

Mar 19, 2024
Well, please open your Bible to Romans and chapter 12. This is the last week of our growing in

love

series. We have set a priority to intentionally pursue growing in

love

individually and together. We began with the question why we must grow in love and We saw that we must grow in love because love is our distinctive calling. Jesus said that with this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another, the natural response to the growing anger and hostility in the world will be a growing anger and hostility in the churches that is the natural response but now you see Jesus calls us to something very very different this is our distinctive calling that we will be marked as those who belong to Jesus because we love Love by this all people will know that you are my disciples who love each other so we must grow in love because It is our distinctive calling and then we saw that we must grow in love because love is our greatest need without love all our gifts all our achievements and all our

sacrifice

s would be of no value and we saw that love is like a tree that is full of good fruits grow in love and you will be more patient and kinder and you will love Envy you grow in emotional intelligence, wisdom and indiscernment and we saw it grow in love is of supreme value because love lasts forever when everything else passes faith the hope and love will remain so a desire has awakened in our hearts we want to grow in love love for God love for family love for God's people love for neighbors and friends and colleagues we love even enemies those with whom we do not agree I agree more deeply and then we asked how can I grow in love and we looked at the first answer to that question last week: you can grow in love because you are loved and This is wonderful good news that love is not something we need to find in ourselves and get it out from within.
love involves sacrifice sermon on romans 12 1 21 by pastor colin smith
There is no love. God is love and love comes. John says of God and we love because he first loved us. God poured out his love for us. us in and through his son whom he sent to be the propitiation for our sins that is how the love of God was poured out and then we saw that the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the presence of the Holy Spirit When You Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ the spirit of God Himself comes to live in you and we laugh at the incongruous thought of what it would be like if the spirit of Mick Jagger lived in me but think how wonderful this holy spirit of God Himself is The God who is love lives in sinners like us that is amazing wonderful glorious the presence of the spirit of God which is love makes it possible for you to grow in love it is when the love of God flows into us that then flows out of us and if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ Today you can truly grow in love thanks to the spirit of God that lives and dwells in you, so the first answer to the question how can I grow in love is you can grow in love because you are loved and we are loved more deeply than you can ever imagine.
love involves sacrifice sermon on romans 12 1 21 by pastor colin smith

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love involves sacrifice sermon on romans 12 1 21 by pastor colin smith...

We love because he loved us first today we are going to see two more answers to the question how can I grow in love? We're going to look at several different scriptures today, but we're going to start in Romans and chapter 12. And this chapter is more like 1 Corinthians 13 and 1 John and chapter 4 that we looked at last time, it's an exposition of love. Love is the theme that runs throughout the entire journey. So, for example, in verses three through eight, the Apostle explains how we serve with our gifts and how this is a wonderful expression of love.
love involves sacrifice sermon on romans 12 1 21 by pastor colin smith
Then in verse 9, Paul says let love be genuine. Verse 10, love one another with brotherly affection and then expounds. what a life of Love looks like verse 13

involves

contributing to the needs of the Saints or practicing hospitality verse 14 blessing those who persecute you verse 15 mourning with those who mourn rejoicing with those who Rejoice verse 16 living in harmony with one another or Verse 20 Feed your enemy when he is hungry and give him something to drink when he is thirsty, this is what a life of Love looks like, but here is the question, where does it begin? So, if you look at the beginning of this chapter, verse one, I have the answer.
love involves sacrifice sermon on romans 12 1 21 by pastor colin smith
I call you there for brothers for the mercies of God to present their bodies as a Living Sacrifice holy and pleasing to God, which is their spiritual worship and you see what He is telling us from the beginning, love, which is the theme of this entire chapter, implies

sacrifice

. If you want to grow in love, you have to put your life on the altar of God. That is what he is saying. Jesus said it this way. Greater Love no one has done. The love of friends always implies sacrifice and a life of love is a life in which we learn to say no to ourselves in order to bring help and blessing to others.
This, of course, is what our Lord Jesus Christ did so wonderfully, by far the easiest and By far the most comfortable option for the Lord Jesus Christ would have been to remain in heaven and enjoy the love that he had always enjoyed there with the father, but if he had done that, we would have lived and died without hope, we would have been completely lost forever and ever and that is why Jesus did not cling to what was easiest and most comfortable for him he took the form of a servant the Bible tells us that he was made in the likeness of men he left heaven he came to earth he loved us and gave himself for us Jesus said no to his own comfort to bring us blessing and Life love involved a cross for the Lord Jesus Christ and love will involve a cross for us also remember that Jesus said if anyone would come after me if you are going to be my disciple he said let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me love always

involves

sacrifice always involves saying no to oneself in order to bring help and blessing to others and you know this can happen in the The simplest way in the most common things in life is that love chooses to get up and help instead of just sitting on the couch.
Love gives more weight to other people's needs and even feelings than to our own. Love is everything. put yourself in someone else's shoes and ask yourself how can I bring help and blessing to him or her now when the apostle Paul describes a life of love in Romans and chapter 12 this is where it begins. I ask you there for brothers by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a Holy and acceptable Living Sacrifice to God that is your spiritual worship now you read a verse like that and of course it says that we all say how I should do that and I want you to notice that the The key word in this verse is the word, therefore, I call upon you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a Living Sacrifice.
Clearly, that refers to something that was said earlier in the previous chapters of Romans, we must introduce ourselves. as living sacrifices in the light of something, there is something in the earlier chapters of Romans that, when fully understood and accepted, makes it possible for you to give yourself for the blessing of others and present yourself as a living sacrifice to God, now, what? what is it? What makes this possible? But, of course, there is a sense in which what Paul is referring to here is everything in Romans chapters 1 through 11. But there is a truth in these chapters that is presented repeatedly in the New Testament as the key to grow in love and that is because in Christ you have already died and risen.
This is said more clearly in Romans chapter 6 and verses 3 and 4. Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized? in his death we were therefore buried with him by baptism into death so that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the father we too could walk in newness of life now very simply when you became a Christian you came to be in Christ and because you are in Christ what was true for Jesus is also true for you Jesus died and Jesus was resurrected and when you are in Christ the same is true for you also for the person you were before the person who lived for himself. or she herself died and you have been resurrected to a completely new life, that is what Paul is referring to here, that you can walk in newness of life and, of course, all of this is expressed beautifully in baptism, descending into the water, it is a sign that the person you are wearing has died and you have come out of the water is a sign that you are now walking in new life in Christ, you have already died and risen, that is the beginning and what I want us to see today is how it works in the practice. first you can grow in love because having died you are no longer a slave to yourself now what a wonderful truth this is because in Christ you have already died you are no longer a slave to yourself and for that reason and how you can love you see this very clearly second from Corinthians chapter 5 and verses 14 and 15. notice how Paul speaks of love Here Because the Love of Christ controls us because we have concluded this that one has died for all therefore all have died and he died for all who live now Live not for yourselves but for him who died and rose again for you now what a wonderful statement This is the love of Christ controls us who wouldn't want to be able to say that the love of Christ controls me what would that mean that the love of Christ prevents me from speaking? a harsh or hurtful word would mean that the love of Christ moves me to care, bless and support others a love controlled by a life controlled by the love of Christ would be energized, moved, directed, active love would reach out and touch the lives of other people to the extent that we are controlled by the love of Christ now, how does this happen?
That is Paul's purpose in these verses, how does a person come? be controlled by the love of Christ well, look at what he says, the love of Christ controls us because we have concluded that one has died for all and therefore all have died, you will see that you are capturing the same wonderful truth that we just saw in Romans. In chapter 6, if you are in Christ, you have already died and what is the effect of the person you carry having already died? Well, it says this: having died, he will no longer be able to live for himself, he will no longer live for himself, so you see. living for yourself is actually the default life that's how we all start that's who we are by nature the Bible says this very clearly in Philippians in chapter 2 and verse 21 everyone seeks their own interests not those of Jesus Christ each one seeks your own interest and unless something changes, we all live for ourselves now, living for yourself may sound attractive but actually if you think about it, nothing could be more miserable, think about this to live away from yourself, if you live for yourself, you are the one doing it. the living and you are the one they live for, so if you live for yourself, you are actually both the boss and the servant, you are like both sides of the ledger, so to speak, the demands you set are the demands you must meet and that's why you are always in conflict with yourself if you live for yourself you will constantly find yourself in this very strange position of beating yourself up you are going to look at your life and yourself as a boss is going to say well you should have achieved more and from time to time the servant gets beat up for his poor performance and that goes on until at some point you say well, this is it, I'm not happy, this isn't working, I need to lighten up, that thought will occur to you.
I'm being too hard on myself. I need to give myself a break, so now you lighten up, except you still have a problem because the servant goes off. hook and now the master doesn't get what he wants to live for yourself it's an absolute nightmare when you present him as the master you end up crushing yourself as a servant and when you relax as a servant you end up after being let down like me, the master, you can never win now, What Paul is saying in this wonderful verse is that when you come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are actually freed from the miserable existence of living for yourself that you are now in. your Creation in Christ you have been freed from this misery you have been brought to a new Freedom of living for Christ who loved you and gave himself for you and the good news is that a life of saying no to yourself in order to bring blessing to others it goes with the essence of the new creation that you are in Jesus Christ some of you will know the name of Eric Little uh his story is told in the movie Chariots of Fire Little was an Olympic athlete and he once said God made me fast and when I run I feel his pleasure in seeing that running was going with the flow for Eric.
Little was made for it. No doubt, training was as hard work for him as it would be for anyone else, but God made it quick. God did it. to run now when you are in Christ you can say God made me to love and when you love you will feel his pleasure the last thing you want to do as a Christian believer is live for yourself, you died to that when you were born in Christ you have been resurrected to a whole new life in the power of God's holy spirit and when you love love you go with the flow of the new life that you now enjoy in Jesus Christ when you say no to yourself in order to bring blessing to others, you are who you are and that is why you will experience peace and joy when you seek a life of love.
So how can we grow in love? You can grow in love because, having died, you are no longer a slave to yourself and then the second thing I want us to see today is this and it is very wonderful thatyou can grow in love because having been resurrected you enjoy an endless life now it is the apostle John who records the scene of the Last Supper the night Jesus was betrayed when Jesus wonderfully washed the feet of his disciples it was a surprising expression of humble love and helpful how did Jesus do this especially at night? he knew he would be betrayed the coming night for all he suffered especially because his disciples when they should have known better were getting into a silly argument about who was the greatest and What the Lord Jesus Christ does is not think about himself.
He gives himself to this wonderful expression of humble service of love towards his own disciples how John did it well John tells us in John chapter 13 and verse 3. Jesus says knowing that he had come from God and to God Rose returned After supper, He laid aside his outer garments and, taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Now you see what Juan says. Jesus knew what awaited him, he knew that he would return to God, he knew that the infinite joy of life in the presence of the father was what awaited him and knowing this he was free to serve, put yourself for a moment in the shoes of someone who It does not have eternal life.
I want you to think about this. Your life in this world is the best you will ever know and your life in this world is short and that is why you are always worried that it will slip away if the only good you are going to enjoy is what you get. here and now you will live with the constant fear of losing yourself and with so little life, if something were to happen in your experience that would damage or shorten this small life that you have, you will feel a sense of definitive loss, all I have is this small stretch of life and Now everything has been ruined without eternal life.
You will be drawn to one of two alternatives: either you will throw yourself recklessly into a life of indulgence, try everything, eat, drink and be happy because tomorrow we will die, just live it or you will live with a feeling of constant fear clinging to what you have desperately trying to Don't let it slip out of your hands, but brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ we have eternal life Inexhaustible and endless eternal life Pleasures far greater than anything we can know in this life and in this world at its fullest, are stored forever and ever for you in the presence of the father and knowing this puts you in a completely different position throughout the days, months and years of your life in this world when you know that you have eternal life you can offer yourself as a Living Sacrifice you can give yourself to service of others you can offer yourself into the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ and knowing his love for you that is precisely what you will want to do when you know that having been resurrected you enjoy an endless life, you will be freed from the disturbing fear of missing out on something and if the life you expected enjoyment is somehow damaged, spoiled, or unexpectedly shortened, you will grieve, but you will do so knowing that you have an infinite life of cloudless joy that stretches eternally in front of you and that makes all the difference in the world.
How can I grow in the love? Well, as we saw last week, we can grow in love because today we are loved. By adding these two wonderful additional answers to this question, you can grow in love because having died you are no longer a slave to yourself and you can grow in love because when you are resurrected you enjoy an endless life. Some of you may know the name Amy Carmichael. wonderful lady who served the Lord Jesus Christ as a missionary in India for 55 years an extraordinary life of love Amy Carmichael wrote an extensive meditation on what she called Calvary love, which is love that sacrifices itself, that is what Jesus did when he gave his life on Calvary. let me read just seven sentences of what Amy Carmichael wrote if I have no compassion on my fellow servant just as my Lord had compassion on me then I know nothing of the love of Calvary if I can easily discuss the shortcomings and sins of others then I don't I don't know nothing of the love of Calvary if I can write an unpleasant letter, utter an unpleasant word, think an unpleasant thought without pain or shame, then I know nothing of the love of Calvary, if my thoughts revolve around myself, if I am so busy with myself same as I rarely have a heart. free of itself then I know nothing about the love of Calvary if I do not give a friend the benefit of the doubt but instead put the worst interpretation instead of the best about what is said or done then I know nothing about the love of Calvary If I am easily offended if I am content to continue in cold hostility even though friendship is possible then I know nothing of the love of Calvary if I say yes I forgive but I cannot forget as if the God who twice a day washes all the sand in all the shores of the whole world I couldn't erase those memories from my mind so I don't know anything about the love of Calvary our Series is titled growing in love so I want to close it by saying it this way grow in love and you will be patient grow in love and you will do be kind grow in love and you will always have hope grow in love and you will be freed from resentment grow in love and you will be able to forgive grow in love and you will deny yourself grow in love and you will take up your cross grow in love and You will be a disciple of Jesus grow in love and you will shine like a light in this world let us pray together Our Father we thank you for the love of the Lord Jesus Christ who loving us gave himself for us grows within us by the power of your spirit a faithful reflection of his great love for us so that we too may grow in the life of love to which you have called us and may it be for your praise, your glory and your honor for these things that we ask of you in the name of Jesus, amen

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