The training wheels, his security, gone. He climbs up on the bike, his dad holding it, and away they go as fear and anxiety build, then dad lets go and the bike is now under the command of this youngster, and he’s free, and a grin spreads across his face from ear to ear, and while his palms are sweaty he cries out victoriously – "I can do this!"

It's some years later – they have grown up into adulthood. He’s standing at her side as she is giving birth to their first child. As the labor intensifies, the pain increases, the doctor encouraging pushing, the nurse saying, "You can do this…" the baby is born. With squeals and tears of delight the new mommy and daddy, hug each other and carefully do a group hug, for the first time with their baby. They look at each other, they are not just husband and wife, but they are parents, and they say in unison as they hold this fragile package of eternity – "We can do this!"

You and I were called by God. We probably remember it like it was yesterday. We confessed the name of Jesus, and were baptized into Christ. And we wondered, "Can I do this? I really want to do this dying to myself and living my life for Him.

As we take a glance at our text– the enemy is going to say – "Impossible! You can’t do it. I know you and you don’t have what it takes!"

The enemy is wrong! And like our first steps, our first bicycle ride without training wheels, and like our first child – this is something we can do.

Our text is Romans 12:1-2:

12:1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-this is your spiritual act of worship. 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is-his good, pleasing and perfect will. (NIV)

"Are you sure we can do this?"

Yes, I’m sure. We have in Jesus Christ everything it takes to live these verses. But there are several things that we must do. Let me share two of them that, after you hear them, I believe you too will say – "I can do this!"

First we must make:

This is the kind of a decision that is life changing. It is soul altering, and time consuming.

What is this decision? It certainly could be one you’ve already made. It may be you have never spent time with this verse and so it’s a new challenge. Or, it may be that you have lived it before but dropped the ball along the way.

We are called by God to make the decision to offer our bodies as living sacrifices to God.

But wait… not just as sacrifices, but the best sacrifices we can be: Holy and Blameless!

"My goodness, I don’t remember ever reading this passage. What in the world does it mean? We are to be sacrificed? Maybe this isn’t for me."

Simply put, it means we who serve and love Jesus will - wherever we are, whatever we are doing, whatever conversation we’re engaged in, whatever activity we are involved with - we will offer that to God as a living sacrifice.

Whether it’s our hours at work, our drive to and from work, our time at school or our time at home with our family – we are committing to God that while we are doing this, we are offering it as a sacrifice.

While the word sacrifice has often meant giving up something, or spending more time doing things we would rather not even consider, this type of sacrifice means that whatever it is we are engaged in – we are doing it to please the Lord. This type of sacrifice isn’t as easy as dying because its not a one time thing. We are we are committing our living as a sacrifice to Him.

In the Old Testament, the bull, the goat, the lamb, the turtledove, whatever the required sacrifice, it had to be without defect.

God wanted the best, the very best, only the best. Then the animals were slain and that was it. They were dead.

Today, God wants you alive! But more than just alive – He wants you alive in Him!

You know what? You can do this! I can do this! We can do this. We can become living sacrifices for Jesus Christ.

Here are four things that being a living sacrifice means:

It’s 24-7-365 – when we want to and when we don’t!

I’m not going to talk about where you should and where you should not be hanging – I will leave that for another time. However if you cannot be a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, where you’re hanging, then maybe you shouldn’t be hanging there.

This sounds so difficult. It seems so restrictive. But it’s far easier than you might think - for the closer we draw to Jesus, the more it seems natural to allow his desires to become ours.

When we commit our life to Jesus it becomes no longer just about us, but about Him.

If we could sum it up in just a sentence it might read something like this: Sacrificing to God is translated in every act of the human body.

We can now see why we’re calling this a decisive decision!

It’s a decision that once made will cause us to pause occasionally to see if we need to pick up the pace or if we’re lagging behind.

For many of us it may be a great challenge to be a living sacrifice for Jesus in our own homes - living for him, growing in him, making decisions that please him. In our homes we help mold and shape the eternity of another person.

This is something we can do! We can be living sacrifices. No one is going to be perfect at it, but I know all of us can do it.

With the help of the Spirit of God that dwells within us, often referred to as our Helper, our Comforter, and our Counselor – we can do this. Praise God!

Pray this prayer daily: God, this is my goal. I want to be a living sacrifice for You. I want to holy and pleasing to You in all that I say and all that I do. I don’t want to be a grumpy old person, but a spiritually mature old person. I want to go from being an employee to being the best employee, from being a parent, to being the best parent I can be. I can do this Lord by the Power of the Holy Spirit that lives in me. Show me my weak areas that I might improve, show me my strengths that I might improve.

Did I mention that by making this decisive decision we are performing what is our spiritual act of worship? That’s what our text says: "… Offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-this is your spiritual act of worship."

Worship, is more than singing and praying in church - way more. Worship is living. Worship is an attitude about God that should affect every hour of our day.

Let me share with you the next verse of counsel from the apostle, who has challenged us so thoroughly, who now helps us understand how to take the decision we’ve made and translate it into daily life. We might refer to it as…

My dad wasn’t a great man. I suppose the only two times his name was in the paper was when he was arrested for a DUI, and the other time when he died. As times passes and those who were his peers join him in death, few will remain who knew him, and within another few years, I suppose he will be largely forgotten.

But something I will always remember about Dad was the day he accepted Jesus as His Lord. My dad was a drinker. His last beer was on a Saturday night before going to Church on Sunday. He drank for most of his then 62 years. Dad, smoked for over 50 years, working his way up to 3 packs of Chesterfield unfiltered cigarettes a day. He quit. It was hard. Within a month he had a heart-attack and was in the hospital for days – on oxygen.

Now don’t misunderstand me – dad still had some problems, some things to work on, but I was impressed that the Ol’ Man decided not to live like he used too. He traded the bar stool for the church pew.

Verse 2 is good counsel. If we were to continue to conform to the pattern of the world – we would find ourselves in a spiritual rut. We could and probably would fall back into thinking and acting, as well as reacting like we did when we lived for ourselves rather than for Jesus.

So here we find a new word. It’s a word describing a life no longer is in that rut.

The word is "transformed." God wants us to be transformed.

The best way to describe this word is by reminding you of the "transformers" our children used to play with. They would be a toy airplane or some such thing, but moving this piece here and by folding that over there, it would become something else completely.

As another means of understanding, I might have you ponder the ugly little critter that builds a cocoon around itself. It is unable to fly, with a face only a mom could love. If the caterpillar could somehow be crossed with a chicken, then there would be plenty of drumsticks at the next potluck. But once the cocoon opens, out comes a butterfly. What has happened is metamorphosis, which means a transformation.

Or I might say when I went to Europe I had to purchase an item that would transform their current of electricity into the current we use here in the USA so as not to burn up my razor and hair-dryer. The electrical current would go in as 220 and come out as 110.

When the Spirit of Almighty God gets a hold of you there is a transformation in your life. Jesus comes in, and the ruts of life are kicked out of the way.

In this transforming process that becomes a daily choice, I need to keep my mind "renewed" and focused. Perhaps like you, my mind can wander and go places it should not.

My wife always suggests to me not to let my mind wander and I ask her why, and she reminds me that it’s too small to go out by itself.

As we renew our minds daily, the ruts are filling in more easily, the transformation is taking place one level at a time, and we’re beginning to resemble our Father more and more.

We can do it!

Every time our choice is to grow closer to Jesus, to pick up the Word of God, to pause and say "thanks Jesus" we are being transformed.

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world. I’m still working on that.

Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Every day I’m moving in that direction a little bit more.

Offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and blameless. Only because of Jesus Christ’s grace and patience can I do that, but that, too is happening.

Can we do this? Yes we can! Of course we can!

Just like when we pulled ourselves up from the carpet on the coffee table, and with grim determination and our jaw set – we stepped out, first tentatively with our right foot, and then our left and we were to the surprise of our parents, walking.

Now our heavenly parent is just as excited and pleased as our Mom and Dad were all those years ago.

Bless you this week as you live for Jesus Christ – saying yes to Him, and being a living sacrifice.

We can do it!

Copyright © 2005. Alan Walker is minister of the Arcata Church of Christ in Arcata, California. Used by permission. Permission is granted by the author and by The Preacher's Study to use this document in total or in sermon preparation in the context of the local congregation only. Publishing it in a book, on the Internet, or any place beyond the local congregation is prohibited.