A Yielded Life

(#10, Yermo, Big Bear)

Read Romans 12:1-2.

Yielding indicates a change of controls, in this case, from self to God.  It means letting God keep your life for you.

The meaning of the yielded life.

ƒ    We are to present our entire self.  We yield our bodies, not just an arm or a leg but all of us.  It's easy to yield to God the things we care little about, to cut off the tip of the branches and keep the trunk.

ƒ    We are to present ourselves voluntarily.

ƒ    We are to present ourselves as a living sacrifice.  The self is slain and then made alive by God (Gal. 2:20).

ƒ    We are to present ourselves as a holy sacrifice.  In the Old Testament God's people were forbidden to offer anything that was deformed, blind, spotted, etc. 

ƒ    We are to present ourselves to God as an acceptable sacrifice.  Only the presentation of our bodies, without reservation, is acceptable to God.

The basis of the yielded life.

ƒ    The mercies of God.

I gave my life for thee,

My precious blood I shed,

That thou might'st ransomed be,

And quickened from the dead;

I gave, I gave My life for thee,

What hast thou giv'n for me?

ƒ    The reasonableness of it.  We have been bought with a price.  We are not our own.  The yielded life is rational and proper.

The results of the yielded life.

ƒ    Separation.  Through the yielded life we will not be conformed (put on the form of another) to this world (the age of men).  Through the yielded life we are transformed, from the inside.

ƒ    The will of God.  A yielded life is the only life that is able to know the good, acceptable and perfect will of God.

I bring, I bring rich gifts to thee,

What hast thou brought to me?