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Colin Smith: If only I didn't have this illness. If only I had a believing wife. If only the circumstances of my life were different, then I could be so useful to God. And it's all an illusion, because the only life that you have to offer to God is the life that he has given to you right now.

Steve Hiller: Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. And Colin, while you did share with us the truth at the end of that phrase, we're tempted to buy into those lies that we heard at the beginning.

Colin Smith: Yeah, it really can. And there's only one life that I can offer to Christ, and that's the life that I'm actually living now. And no human life is perfect. No life is as a person would want it to be this side of heaven.

So it's this life with all of the problems that you're facing, all of the difficulties that are on your plate today, this is the life that you're able to offer Jesus Christ. Not some ideal life that you'd like to have but don't actually have, the real life with all of its troubles. That's what Christ is laying claim. I find that really helpful. This is what I have to offer to Christ.

Steve Hiller: And he's going to accept that? Some of us have some pretty messy lives.

Colin Smith: He certainly is because he's the redeemer. He takes us as we are, and he leads us in the difficulties that we face, and we offer ourselves as we are to him now.

Steve Hiller: And that's what we're going to continue to look at in today's broadcast. If you can, open your Bible and join us in Romans chapter six as we continue the message, "Giving as Much as You Know." Here's Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: Romans chapter six and verse 13. And that verse will be our focus throughout this morning. Romans chapter six and verse 13. "Offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life."

Now I want to draw your attention to something I've found fascinating and I think is very significant in this verse. Look at it from the beginning of verse 13. "Do not," here's the negative, "offer the parts of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness." Now Paul here is talking about your abilities, your capacities, what you can do with the skill of your hands, the power of your mind, and so forth.

This is the negative dimension of repentance, and now Paul is going to go on and state the positive. So the negative is "do not offer the parts of your body to sin as instruments to wickedness." So if that's the negative, you would expect him to say as the positive, "instead, offer the parts of your body to God as instruments of righteousness." That would be the natural parallelism, wouldn't it? "Do not offer the parts of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer the parts of your body to God as instruments of righteousness." That would be beautifully parallel.

But notice that is not what he says. There is something else that you have to do first before you offer your abilities, your capacities, your talents, and your gifts to God. Notice the verse carefully. "Do not offer the parts of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and offer the parts of your body to him, that's to God, as instruments of righteousness."

Now you see the very important point that's contained in this verse. Before you offer your gifts, you have to offer yourself. It's a critical principle, and if we do not grasp it, we will come to grief at some point in the Christian life. You offer yourself before you offer your gifts. And only when you've offered yourself is it safe for you then to offer your gifts. It's the only way in which we can serve the Lord effectively individually and together.

Here's the second thing this morning: offer yourself in your present circumstances. Now I think the best way to get at this is to look at some examples from the Bible together. Take the story of Joseph in the Old Testament. Now what a gifted guy he was. And God had remarkable purposes for Joseph.

Joseph knew that right from early in his life because God gave him a vision that indicated that he would have a special calling and a very special ministry indeed. But what happens to him? Well, he ends up getting beaten up by his brothers and being left for dead in a pit. He's carted off to Egypt where he gets a job and works hard and pursues integrity.

But in the course of pursuing integrity, he ends up with a woman telling lies about him and so he finds himself in the end in prison. But you see what Joseph did? He offered himself to God in the prison, just where he was. And Joseph was used to save his entire family. You see the pattern? You offer yourself to God in your present circumstances.

Think about Moses. Here's another very gifted and godly man. And he has a vision. He has a burden. He has a passion for the oppressed people of God, and he is one of them himself. What happens to him? The man with a vision gets betrayed by his own people, finds himself looking after sheep in the backside of the desert. That's Exodus chapter three and verse one.

But Moses offered himself to God in the desert. He honored God as a shepherd. Nothing much happened for 40 years. And then God steps in, and Moses in the last years of his life becomes the shepherd of God's people.

Think about the New Testament. John is called to be an apostle serving the churches of Asia. What a task, what a calling. And what happens to him? He ends up on an island called Patmos, essentially imprisoned there. What kind of ministry can you have to the churches when you're stuck on a little island?

Well, John offered himself to God. He was in the spirit on the Lord's day. And God gave to him a vision of heaven which became the last book of the Bible, which has brought strength and hope and comfort and courage to the churches across the world for the last 2000 years. Offer yourself before you offer your gifts. Offer yourself in your present circumstances.

Thirdly, offer yourself in all that you do. Now let's take a quick look at the regular routine of a typical day. Yours may be somewhat different, but it'll be framed something like this. 24 hours in a day and let's suppose you spend eight of them sleeping. I know many are saying, "I wish I did spend eight of them sleeping," but let's just take that for a start.

And let's suppose that you spend eight of them at work. And some of you are saying, "I wish it was only eight that I spent at work," but let's just take that for a start as well. That's 16. Now let's suppose that you eat three meals a day and that with one thing and another you take an hour with each of them—a lunch and a breakfast and so forth—that's another three hours of eating.

Suppose that you have an hour's commute, and so that's two hours of travel, which gets us up to 21 hours, which leaves you with three. Hopefully, if you have a family, you'd be spending a couple of hours with them, which leaves just one hour and then you're tapped out for the day, right?

Now many people have the idea that offering yourself to God means getting involved in a ministry in the church, which is a wonderful thing to do. The work of the church only happens because people give themselves to ministry. But if what you offer to God is limited in your mind to being involved in some ministry in the church, then what you're offering to God is only going to be a tiny fraction of your life.

And when Paul says offer yourselves to God, he clearly is not referring to a small fraction. He's referring to the whole of your life, which has to include the sleeping, the eating, the working, and the traveling. The principle here is clearly stated in first Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 31 where Paul says, "Whatever you do, do it to the glory of God." It's a wonderful principle. Whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God. First Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 31.

We're talking here about a pattern of faithfulness and obedience and a thankfulness and of praise that runs throughout life and glorifies God in all things. Now think about this. Jesus spent three years in the public ministry of preaching and teaching and healing. Before that, he spent 20 years thereabouts as a carpenter. And during that time, we know that he cared for his mother.

Now I want to affirm as clearly as we possibly can today that Jesus Christ offered himself to God as much in his carpentry and caring for his mother as he did when he preached the gospel and performed the miracles. Do you believe that? Or you're not sure, or you're asleep.

Do you believe that Jesus Christ offered himself as much to God in his carpentry and in his caring for his mother as he did in his preaching and in his teaching and even in his dying and in his rising? Do you believe that? See, you've got to believe that because otherwise Jesus didn't live a perfect life.

If you don't believe that, what you're saying is that he lived a perfect life for three years but not for 30 before that. And the Scripture makes it absolutely clear that Jesus Christ lived the perfect life and in him was no sin. What that means is that he offered the totality of himself to God throughout the entire course of his life. That's encouraging for all the carpenters and for all the people who are looking after a mother and everything else that goes into the ordinary routine of life.

We had someone from the church here—I won't mention his name—but we had someone from the church do some electrical work in our house recently. And when I got the bill, I noticed that at the top it had the contractor's name and at the bottom it said, "A company desiring to bring honor to Jesus Christ through service." See, that's what Paul is talking about here. You can install lighting to the glory of God. You offer yourself in all that you do, and in this way you live for and honor the name of Jesus Christ.

Steve Hiller: You're listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith in a message called "Giving as Much as You Know of Yourself," one of the seven messages in our series called "Repentance: The Hidden Path to a Transformed Life." You know, a lot of us want to change, but making real and lasting, meaningful change is a struggle.

How do you make that happen? Well, repentance might be the key you're looking for. And if you want a copy of this entire series on CD, ask about Repentance when you call us at 1-877-673-6365 or you'll find ordering information online at openthebible.org. That's also a place to go if you ever miss a broadcast in our series. You can stream the program or download an MP3 for free.

Another way to listen is through the Open the Bible app. You'll find that for free at your app store. And we have the daily radio program on there, the weekend broadcast, our daily devotional that you can read and listen to, and a lot more. So again, look for the Open the Bible app for free at your app store or come and you're going to find all that and a lot more at openthebible.org. Back to the message. Here is Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: So we're trying to get a handle on what it really means to offer yourself to Jesus Christ. You offer yourself before you offer your gifts. That's crucial. You offer yourself in your present circumstances. You don't spend the rest of your life saying, "Oh, if only it was different how useful I could be." You offer yourself in the position God has placed you right now. And you offer yourself in all that you do.

The last thing is simply this: that you offer yourself just as you are. Now let's come back to the definition of repentance one more time today. Repentance means turning from as much as you know of your sin to give as much as you know of yourself. And what we're learning in this series is that the Christian life is really a life in which we continue to learn more about our sin, more about ourselves, and more about God. That's what growing as a Christian looks like.

Now that reminds us of something that we can easily forget, that actually knowing yourself is a very difficult business. It was Calvin who said that all true wisdom is really in two parts. It's all about knowing God and knowing yourself. And he said you can never know the one without the other, which is very fascinating to think about. You see, if you want to understand yourself, you really have to know God because you're made in his image. And if you don't know the one in whose image you are made, how can you possibly know who you are?

If you want to know yourself, you have to know God. But on the other hand, if you want to know God, you have to know yourself because you will never draw near to him in repentance and faith until you come to humbly see your own need of him. So these two things always go together and the way that we have light on both is of course as we saw last time through the Word of God.

Knowing yourself is a difficult business, and it is a lifelong journey to discover the strange movings of one's own heart. Keep taking you by surprise. Jeremiah said the heart is deceitful above all things, and who can understand it? Who can understand his own heart? Psalm 19, David cries out, "Who can discern his errors?" Psalm 139, David prays, "Lord, you need to search me and know me."

And why does he pray like that? Because he knows how difficult it is for a man or a woman to know their own heart. You see, only God can fully understand the heart. Know God more and you will come to know yourself more. One day, of course, you will know even as now you are known by God. And then, when you know yourself fully, you will be more grateful for God's grace than you ever have been before.

But what you can do right now is to offer yourself to God just as you are. And because he is gracious, he will receive you. I think it is caught well in the hymn that's familiar to many, the hymn "Just as I Am" that expresses how we come to the Lord. And one of the verses says, "Just as I am, though tossed about with many a conflict, many a doubt, fightings within and fears without, oh, lamb of God, I come." With all the stuff and all the struggle that's going on within me, I come just as I am to you.

It's the only way you can come to the Lord and look to him to work by his grace in your life to move you forward in a way that otherwise just would not be possible. You offer yourself as you are. And the reason you can do that is that as a Christian believer, Paul says you've been brought from death to life. Isn't that a beautiful statement in verse 13? "Offer yourself to God as one who has been brought from death to life."

You may have all kinds of struggles and fears, but you belong to Christ and his resurrection life is in you. His spirit is in you. So give yourself to him because you are his. That's what he's saying.

One man who struggled to know himself perhaps more than most was Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Bonhoeffer was one of the German Christian leaders who stood against the Nazi regime. It took great courage to do what he did. As a result, he was imprisoned and eventually was executed. He became a martyr for his faith. Bonhoeffer was an inspiration to many and still is through his writings today. People admired him for his courage. People looked to him for the strength of his testimony. This man was a leader.

But when Bonhoeffer looked into his own heart, he wasn't quite so sure. And he wrote a wonderful poem with which I want to conclude this morning and it's simply entitled, "Who Am I?" And in it he struggles with how people see him on the one hand—they think he's such a marvelous, strong person—and then when he looks into his own heart he has all of these struggles.

And he writes these words: "Who am I? They often tell me that I would step from my cell's confinement, calmly, cheerfully, firmly, like a squire from his country house. Who am I? They often tell me I would talk to my warders freely and friendly and clearly as though it were mine to command.

Who am I? They also tell me that I would bear the days of misfortune equably, smilingly, proudly, like one accustomed to win. Am I really all that which other men tell of? Or am I only what I know of myself? Restless and longing and sick like a bird in a cage. Struggling for breath as though hands were compressing my throat.

Hungry for colors, for flowers, and for the voices of birds. Thirsty for words of kindness, for neighborliness. Trembling with anger at despotisms and petty humiliation. Caught up in expectation of great events, powerlessly grieving for friends at an infinite distance. Weary and empty at praying and thinking at making. Faint and ready to lay farewell to it all.

Who am I? This or the other? Am I one person today and another tomorrow? Am I both at once? A hypocrite before others and before myself, a contemptibly woebegone weakling? Or is there something within me still like a beaten army fleeing in disorder from a victory already achieved?

Who am I? They mock me, these lonely questions of mine. Whoever I am, thou knowest, oh God. I am thine." Now you see, that's where he finds his peace in the middle of this extraordinary struggle. Whatever you are facing right now, here is the one thing that matters: you belong to Christ. So offer yourself to God as one who has been brought from death to life.

Steve Hiller: What a way to wrap up today's message. Being reminded that if you belong to Christ, we're called to offer ourselves fully to God wherever we are, just as we are. You've been listening to a message entitled "Giving as Much as You Know of Yourself." It's one of seven messages in our series entitled "Repentance: The Hidden Path to a Transformed Life."

You know, a lot of us may want to change, we're just not sure how to change. But real and lasting change happens in our lives by the grace of God. And in this seven-part series, we're looking at exactly how that works. If you want a copy of this series for yourself, ask about Repentance, the hidden path to a transformed life, when you call us at 1-877-OPEN-365. That's 1-877-673-6365. Or you'll find ordering information online at openthebible.org.

Open the Bible depends on your generosity to bring you Pastor Colin's teaching, and we're grateful for your support. As you give a gift of any amount this month, we want to say thank you by sending you a copy of Pastor Colin's new 30-day devotional book called "Grow in Faith." And Colin, what is one thing that you want people to take away from this book?

Colin Smith: Well, this is a book for ordinary Christians. You talk about "Grow in Faith," someone might think, "Well, I'm no giant of the faith, so that's probably not for me." Well, Jesus spoke on five occasions about people with little faith. "Oh, you of little faith." And that's where we start in this book, "Grow in Faith."

If you feel that your faith is small, this is exactly for you. It's a place from which you can begin to grow. And there are two wonderful things about little faith. One is that little faith is saving faith if it is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the other is that little faith, because faith is a living thing, is faith that really can grow. I think that this book will help people to grow in faith. That's our hope and our prayer as we've been working on it and preparing it. I hope that it's going to be a real blessing to you.

Steve Hiller: Well, we'd love to send you a copy of this new book from Pastor Colin. Again, it's called "Grow in Faith," and it's our thank you for your financial support this month. You can give when you call 1-877-OPEN-365 or online at openthebible.org. Again, our phone number is 1-877-673-6365 and the website is openthebible.org.

For Pastor Colin Smith, I'm Steve Hiller. Thanks for listening and I hope you'll join us next time. This program is a listener-supported production of Open the Bible.

"Fly Through the Bible" is a short, simple, and shareable book that you can use with a friend, a neighbor, or a loved one who needs to know Jesus. It's also freely available online. "Fly Through the Bible" will introduce you to five people in the Old Testament, five events in the life of Jesus, and five gifts God gives to every believer.

You could ask a friend to read "Fly Through the Bible" with you. The book has 15 chapters. You could read a chapter and meet together over coffee and discuss the questions. "Fly Through the Bible" is designed to help you open the Bible with others. It will give you a better grasp of the Bible's story, and most of all, it will help you to grow in your love for Jesus Christ. For more information, visit openthebible.org/fly. That's openthebible.org/fly.