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Colin Smith: Some of us were perhaps brought up with a version of Christianity that majored on the negative—that it was about certain things that you should not do. "I will not smoke or drink or chew, I will not go with girls who do."

Steve Hiller: Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. And Colin, I'm going to guess that there are some listening today who were brought up with that version of Christianity. In fact, I kind of was, even a little bit—a conservative Christian household. And for a season of my life, I think I thought of Christianity as much of what I don't do as opposed to the things that I should be doing.

Colin Smith: Right. And here's the issue with that—that it is possible, actually, to end up living a moral life in which you stay within boundaries and end up absolutely miserable because the only reason you stayed within the boundaries was out of a sense of fear of consequences if you broke outside of them. And so you end up with this sort of sadness and this kind of misery.

That's the difference, you see, between morality on the one hand and Christianity, which is what we want to talk about here, in which we actually offer ourselves to God. That's where we are today in Romans chapter six and verse 13—that you're to offer yourself to God as someone who has been brought from death to life. And it's that offering of myself, that offering of the heart, that giving of the life into the hands of a Savior who loves me and gave himself for me—that's the thing that makes the Christian life rich and positive and joyful, because it's not lived out of fear. It's lived out of love, and it's lived out of this relationship that's been forged with Jesus Christ.

Steve Hiller: Well, it is a great message, as Pastor Colin just said, from Romans chapter six. So grab a Bible and join us there as we begin "Giving as Much as You Know of Yourself." Here is Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: Now we're continuing our series entitled "Repentance: The Hidden Path to a Transformed Life." And we're learning together a definition of repentance given by Dr. J.I. Packer: that repentance is turning from as much as you know of sin to give as much as you know of yourself to as much as you know of your God.

And as we've been learning this from the Scriptures, we've seen, therefore, that repentance really begins with knowing God. You know God a little, you will change a little. You know God much, you will indeed change much. And we saw this illustrated from the life of Job, a man who clearly knew the Lord, but when he came to know God more, his repentance moved to another level. And he said, "I've heard of you, Lord, with my ear, now I've seen you with my eyes; therefore, I repent in dust and ashes."

Now today, I want us to focus on the positive dimension of repentance. It is turning from as much as you know of sin—that's obviously the negative—and it's turning to give as much as you know of yourself to God—that plainly is the positive. And it's important for us to recognize that repentance always involves both the negative and the positive—always what we turn from and, at the same time, what we turn to. It is not, in other words, just that we stop doing certain things. That is not repentance; it's only half of it. It is also that we start pursuing certain other things.

Now let me give you some examples, because this is a pattern that's found all the way through the Scriptures. It's just what repentance is. If you look at 1 Thessalonians chapter one and verse nine, where we have a wonderful description of what repentance is. 1 Thessalonians chapter one and verse nine, you'll see that when Paul preached the Gospel in Thessalonica, there was a wonderful response, and it is both negative and positive. It's stated in verse nine there, when he preached the Gospel, he says, "You turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God." 1 Thessalonians 1:9. Now that's repentance.

You see the negative and the positive? You turned away from idols—that's the first thing. But it wasn't just that you dropped the idols; it's that you gave yourself to serving the true and living God. It's not just that you stopped doing certain bad things; it is that you started pursuing certain other things that are glorifying to God.

Now, I think it's worth just pausing on this for a moment, because some of us were perhaps brought up with a version of Christianity that majored on the negative—that it was about certain things that you should not do. "I will not smoke or drink or chew, I will not go with girls who do." Where's the positive vision of a life that impacts the world for Jesus Christ in that? It is an inadequate concept of repentance, merely that there are certain things that we will not do.

Repentance cannot be confined to the negative; it must turn to the positive. This was the problem for the rich young ruler. Think about that story. This man, who's been very successful, has an encounter with Jesus Christ. He wants to know how to inherit eternal life. Jesus engages him in a conversation about the Ten Commandments. Don't lie, don't steal, don't commit adultery. And the man said, "Well, these are the very things I've been doing ever since I was young. I have avoided all of these things." He's done well on the negative, you see. He has avoided the things that God has said a person should not do.

And so what does Jesus do? He turns to the positive. He says, "Well, now, here's where we go from here. You sell all that you have, and you give it to the poor, and then come and follow me." You see what Jesus is saying? You're telling me that you have avoided certain things. I'm asking you what good you're doing in the world. I'm asking you what you're doing about helping the poor. I'm asking you what you're doing about alleviating suffering in this world. I'm asking whether you are willing for sacrifice that's involved in coming and actually following after me.

And that is where the rich young ruler parted company with Jesus, because he was comfortable with a life that was moral. He wasn't ready for a life that was sacrificial. There's all the difference in the world. See, there is a huge difference between morality and Christianity. Don't confuse the two. Don't think because you're moral, you're Christian. That's only half the definition of repentance. Morality is about avoiding certain things that are wrong. Its focus is on the negative dimension of repentance. But Christianity is about the pursuit of that which is right. It is about leaving sin in order that we may pursue righteousness as followers of Jesus Christ.

And Packer catches this, I think, very helpfully in his definition when he reminds us that repentance is turning from all that you know of your sin to give as much as you know of yourself to God. See, there's the positive, and that's our focus today. Now let's look at it in its biblical expression in 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 if the negative is, "Do not offer the parts of your body to sin as instruments of righteousness," then 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 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've 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.

Steve Hiller: You're listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith, and a message called "Giving as Much as You Know of Yourself." It's part of our series, "Repentance: The Hidden Path to a Transformed Life." Now we're going to pause here, but we'll get back to this message in just a moment.

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Back to the message. Here is Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: 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.

Now, you see this in the very beautiful hymn by Frances Ridley Havergal: "Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee." And Havergal goes through the various gifts and abilities that a person might be able to offer to God. You know the verses in the familiar song: "Take my voice and let me sing," "Take my hands and let them move at the impulse of your love," "Take my silver and my gold, not a mite would I withhold." So it goes through all that we might offer to God. But where does it begin? "Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee." You have to offer yourself before you offer your gifts.

Now why is that important? For this reason: that if you start with your gifts and your abilities, then your focus will always be on how your gifts and abilities are being used. And if that's your focus, I promise you, it is a formula for frustration. If the focus is always, "How am I being used?" you will find an experience of recurring frustration in the course of your Christian life. You have to offer yourself before you offer your gifts.

I enjoyed last week sharing some time with one of the elders from the church that I served for many years in North London. He was passing through Chicago, stayed with us overnight, and we got reminiscing together about many things. And you know how these conversations go. I've no idea how we ended up here, but we got somehow onto the subject of a lady in the church who liked to sing.

Now, I'm going to try and describe this delicately. She was well past her prime and had what I might describe as a somewhat optimistic view of her own talents. One of the first letters I received when I became pastor of the church was an anonymous letter asking me to invite this lady to sing. Over the years, I gathered a large collection—I kept them in a shoebox—a large collection of these letters, all of them anonymous. Some of them actually specified which songs I should ask this particular lady to sing, and others even specified who should accompany her on the organ. The funny thing was that, of course, every one of these letters came from the woman herself. I knew her handwriting very well and had been warned about her by the previous pastor, who also had a shoebox full of her letters.

Now, at one level, this is really quite comical. But at another level, it really is rather sad. Because what you have here is a woman, perhaps in this case somewhat eccentric, but nonetheless, a woman who really is looking for a platform for her gifts. And the bottom line is that is not offering yourself to God. Offering yourself to God means putting yourself at his disposal. That means leaving him to assign the task. And I've got to tell you, that is spiritually liberating. Because if my focus is all about, "Now, what is the opportunity for my gifts?" I will end up very, very quickly in frustration. My responsibility is to offer myself to God and to say, "Here I am, I'm available, and I want to be useful as you will direct. And I'm willing to place myself at your disposal." There is peace, and there is freedom, and there is joy that is found in that.

It was interesting, you know, talking with this elder last week. It was a long, long, long, long time before his gifts were ever recognized in the church. In fact, it was only in the last year or so of my own ministry there, after 16 years, that he had any kind of leadership position at all. And we got onto talking a little bit about that as well—the importance of offering yourself to God. When we came to the election of leaders in the church, this man's name was invariably on the list. And I tell you, year after year after year, others were elected. His name was the one that came in just below the cut, and he was thanked for his willingness to serve. You know that deal?

I said to him when we were driving down to O'Hare taking him back, I said, "You know, I've got to tell you something. I often felt deeply embarrassed that your name was put up so many times for leadership and so many times you never got elected." And he admitted to me that it hadn't been easy. But then he told me something that was quite fascinating. He said that it was through the delay that he had found out what God wanted him to do. And you see, the reason that he was visiting here passing through Chicago is that he now serves as the director of an international mission that is focused on outreach in the Middle East—an extraordinary responsibility. And he said this: "If I had gone into leadership at the local church level earlier, I would very probably have missed the calling of God."

Now you see what that is? That's a man who has understood that the most important thing is to offer yourself to God and to place yourself at his disposal, not to be focused on, "Where's the platform for my gifts?" And the Lord has given him that avenue of opportunity. Offer yourself before you 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. And 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.

Now you try and put yourself in Joseph's shoes, as I've tried to put myself in Joseph's shoes this week thinking about it. I am absolutely sure that I would be saying to God, "Well, if you've got a great purpose for my life, why am I here? And what kind of ministry can I have while I'm in a prison? Where's your plan in all of this?"

But you see what Joseph did. He offered himself to God in the prison, just where he was. He exercised faith in the prison, he pursued integrity in the prison, he ministered to the men who God placed around him in the prison—the butler and the baker. Nothing much happened. But then God stepped in. And Joseph was used to save his entire family. You see the pattern? Imagine if Joseph had been focused on how his gifts are going to be used in the prison.

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 2,000 years.

Now you see the principle. You offer yourself to God in your present circumstances. Because there's the great danger—I wonder if you've found this in yourself—of saying how useful I could be to God if only my circumstances were different. If only I didn't have this illness. If only I had a believing wife. If only I lived in another place or perhaps even in another time. 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. So offer yourself to God in your present circumstances and leave your future usefulness in his hands. God knows what he will do with you in the future. Your responsibility is to offer yourself to him as one who's wholly available right now.

Steve Hiller: Great challenge today to offer our entire life into God's service. You're listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith and a message called "Giving as Much as You Know of Yourself." It's part of a series called "Repentance: The Hidden Path to a Transformed Life." And if you ever miss a broadcast in the series, come and listen online at openthebible.org.

Well, Colin, the idea of offering every part of our day to God is something that many of us struggle with. It's easy to just forget about God during the demands of the day.

Colin Smith: Yeah, it really is. And you know, Steve, I've been convinced one of the reasons that we struggle with that is that we find it hard to believe that God is really interested in what I'm doing in any given day. We kind of feel that he might be interested when we're particularly praying or when we're worshipping or when we're in a Bible study or whatever. But is God really interested in the ordinary stuff that you do every day?

And the answer is yes, he is. He is the God of creation as well as the God of redemption. And what you do during the day is part of his purpose for you, and he wants that to be brought into his purpose and for him to be part of what you are doing. And I have found, Steve, that simply to grasp that truth has helped me. God cares about this issue that I'm struggling with at work. And when you see that, you will find that your mind is drawn to him—to asking for his help, to thanking him for his help—and it will lift the level of what you're doing during the day.

Steve Hiller: Well, thanks, Colin. It really is helpful to hear that and to be reminded of it. Well, it's Friday, and the weekend's coming.

Colin Smith: Yeah, and I want to encourage you to get to church on Sunday. You know, across the country, people who love Jesus will be gathering to praise him. And if you love Jesus, that's something you'll want to be part of. So find a church where the Bible is opened. And if you live in the Chicago area and you don't have a church home, I'd love for you to join us at The Orchard. There are six locations in the northwest suburbs. For more information, go to theorchard.church. That's theorchard.church.

Steve Hiller: Well, thank you, Colin, and thanks for listening. I'm Steve Hiller, and I hope you'll join us next time. This program is a listener-supported production of Open the Bible.

Colin Smith: Jesus said, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God." God's Word is the food that will nourish your soul. You need it every day. And Open the Bible Daily is a daily devotional that will open the Word of God and lead you to Jesus. It's available for free on our website, openthebible.org. For more information, visit openthebible.org/daily. That's openthebible.org/daily.