August 03, 2025

ROMANS 12: BODY BUILDING

August 03, 2025

Matt Willmington

Did you look at the title and immediately think exercise? This week’s sermon from Romans 12 will be a great lesson on building the body—but perhaps not what you would expect. Today, we will emphasize how to build not only your own body in its relationship to God the Father, but we will look at the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, as well as the body of believers, i.e., the church, and our relationship to everyone who is our brother or sister in the faith. In the past weeks, we have studied the doctrines of the church found in chapters 1-11 of Romans; today we will begin the duties discussed in chapters 12-16 for those whose lives have been saved by Jesus Christ, as they walk in newness of life.

Focal Passages: Romans 12.

Your body:

• Read Romans 12:1-2. As Paul opens this section on the duties of a believer, what is his first reminder of our responsibility? Many outside the church would not understand the exhortation to be a sacrifice; what does he mean? What are some ways we can daily be a sacrifice to God? Why is this our reasonable service? What are some services we perform in our mind as we look at God’s faithfulness? How is this a way to worship?
• Explain this sentence: ‘You don’t believe the right things [about your salvation] if it doesn’t impact your behavior’? Read Luke 22:19. What did Jesus mean? Do you think it is any coincidence that Satan, the father of lies, has put forth the main idea of those seeking an abortion to be the phrase ‘this is my body’? Yet, are we free to do anything we want with our body? If it hurts someone else, how is that a not judgment against ourselves?
• Read vs. 2. There is one command within this verse, with a two-part answer and subsequent action; what is it? What happened to our minds in the Garden, and what must we do to reform them? When the Holy Spirit comes in, how does He renew our mind? If we wish to know the will of God, how will a reformed mind bring that about?
• You are awake perhaps sixteen hours a day; what amount of that is bound up with things of this world (social media, television, worldly movies, books)? How can you avoid “garbage in, garbage out”? Would you give place to any of these if Christ in the flesh was sitting next to you? Do you remind yourself that God the Holy Spirit dwells within you?

His body:

• Read Rom. 12:3. How are we to think about ourselves? Are some people better than others? How does each one get the gifts or Spirit they have? So—if we are jealous of another’s abilities to serve God, are we in our mind complaining because He did not give us what He has given another? (See the Close).
• Read Rom. 12:4-8 and James 3:14-17. Where does our faith come from? (Read Heb. 12:2a). Why does God give differing amounts of faith to His people? Have you ever asked God to increase your faith? Are you using what He has given you?
• What did God give you gifts for? Can you share yours, and tell how you use them to edify other believers?
• Why is it so important that we offer our body to God for His use, and our gifts to each other as we serve others?

Our body, the church:

• Read Rom. 12:9-12. What is the common thread running through these exhortations? When there is someone you have a difference with, how do you love them without hypocrisy? Abhor here is to have a horror; is there anything you have a horror of? Tell how you are to reflect that same horror of things that God does not approve of (and you may or may not take part in it). How can we show a preference for letting others ‘go before us’?
• Read vv. 13. These service gifts are sometimes easier to do than the ones that call for our renewed mind; why? Read vv. 14-16. When is the last time someone cursed you and you did not retaliate? Why should we let God avenge us? Do you treat everyone the same? Why or why not?
• Why should we never seek praise? How does God feel about our personal pride, when it rears itself? How can we learn to squash it until it is dead? Has anyone here been able to do that? Can you share? Read 1 Cor. 16:14, James 4:17, and 1 Cor. 10:24, and 31. Why are these verses so important when it comes to Paul’s instructions for us in this passage?
• Read vv. 17-21. What would your family be like if this ‘code of conduct’ were implemented in your home? What would change the most? Think which child would be a different individual if you had done this from the time your children were born; would it have made a difference?

Close:

In 2006, Andy and Linda Barrick were hit by a drunk driver going 80 mph, wrecking their van so badly neighbors who passed by did not recognize their friends’ vehicle. All four family members were victims of enormous personal body damage, so much so they thought perhaps their fifteen-year-old daughter would not make it.  After months of treatment, Mr. and Mrs. Barrick and their son, Josh, were healing; however, the daughter Jen would need help much longer.

After the wreck was sufficiently in the past that the family could function again, news of their near-fatality turned into invites to churches far and wide to hear of God’s mercy and grace to this family. Over the coming years, now heading for the twentieth, the Barricks have often lived out of suitcases as they have traveled the globe to give their testimonies. Their lives became a “living sacrifice” as they spoke up to several times a week in order to exhort people to give their lives to Jesus, as no-one knows when the moment might come that their life on earth will be over.

Many may have wished their own lives could have resulted in the number of salvations the Barrick’s will have surrounding them when they are at the feet of Jesus. At the same time, would anyone be willing to go through the chaos, turmoil, anguish, pain, and resulting discomfort found in their experience? Yet their reward will be incredible. Would you say, “I will go, send me”?

By Sandy Day
August 03, 2025