What is a Living Sacrifice?
10 Oct 2022 · 16 min
In this solo episode of the Student of Life podcast, Tim Pratt Jr. explores the biblical concept of a "living sacrifice" as presented in Romans 12:1. He begins by contextualizing the verse within the broader epistle, then defines a living sacrifice as a whole‑body devotion to God that replaces the Old Testament animal offerings now fulfilled in Christ. Tim uses vivid analogies—comparing spiritual dedication to the disciplined training of athletes like The Rock and LeBron—to illustrate how believers should zealously care for their bodies and lives for God. He shares his personal testimony, recounting a past marked by criminal behavior, promiscuity, and near‑felony status, and how surrender to the Holy Spirit transformed his life. Tim discusses the practical reality of sacrifice, emphasizing that true sacrifice feels like inconvenience (e.g., fasting, resisting profanity, submitting to authority) and must involve the entire body, not just parts. He offers concrete steps for living sacrificially: saturating oneself with Scripture, daily meditation, mind renewal, and continual reliance on the Holy Spirit. The episode concludes with a heartfelt invitation for listeners to share the podcast, connect via his website, and apply the teachings in their own lives.
Hey, this is Tim Pratt Jr. and I want to welcome you to the Student of Life podcast. Listen, we're going to get into so many transferable truths throughout the content of these episodes that I believe God is going to use to help you apply, because he's going to reveal what's already been there the entire time. Enjoy.
Yo, what's up? So episode 3, and we're gonna kind of conclude this discipleship Deny self, and now living sacrifice. What is a living sacrifice? What does that even mean? So episode 3, Living Sacrifice, or what is a living sacrifice? And I'm gonna jump right out the gate with Romans 12:1. And I've read this so much, and it's so much substance in this verse, man. This is a verse that I believe you probably can do a mini series or whatever off of it. And, uh, it's Romans 12:1. And it reads— and I'm reading the New King James Version— uh, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. Reasonable service. Listen, right out the gate, Paul is giving us— he— well, let me see, let me back up. Right out the gate, he's making a transition because Romans 1 through 11, you know, he's given us doctrine and so on and so on. And so he's now giving us this, this— okay, like, I'm gonna give you some practical application now, is what I'm trying to say. I'm going to give you some practical application on what you need to do because I've given you all this doctrine now. And so now we're going to switch gears to really get in the practical side of it. And so he said, I beseech you therefore— that's why he's He's, he's coming out this thing, giving the context and making the assumption that we have read Romans 1 through 11. And so, for by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies, that we present our bodies as a living sacrifice. Now look, to keep this in context, a living sacrifice— we don't need a death sacrifice anymore because of what Jesus has done. You know, I believe we hit on it a little bit in the last two. We don't need a, a, an atonement anymore because Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice. He was atoning for our sins. But he is calling us to be a living sacrifice. And what— so what is that? What, what is that in a practical way? Well, in a practical way, it's basically a body, a body that's truly devoted to God. It's our posture, our heart posture, soul, mind, body devoted to to the things of God. This is what it truly means to be a living sacrifice. And he's saying that we can do this being in this world. So we have to be— we're not, we're not dead or anything like this. We are living, we're very much alive, we're present in the body. And so he's saying, while you're here on this earth, I want you to be a living sacrifice. Because truthfully, our bodies and everything that we do should be pointing to Christ. People should be able to look at us and say, man, there's something different about them. They have to be connected to someone that's allowing them to function like this, especially if people know your past or your story. Uh, it should be a difference when you are truly come into the things of God. And so this is why she's saying present your body as a living sacrifice. Present it. And so think about it in this context. When you look at some of the most, the, the most stellar athletes or performers in entertainment, you know, you look at The Rock, you look LeBron, and so on and so on. Man, the way that these guys take care of their body and the, the just the investment and the attention, how devoted they are, you see the results of it. You literally see the results of it because they have devoted their bodies to a certain thing. And so in a spiritual sense, man, just imagine if we was doing the same thing, if we were being a living sacrifice and truly devoting our bodies with that same zeal. Because a lot of us, man, like You know, when it comes to like, say, athletes or whatever, or entertainers, they— and we look at a person work out, it's very much evident. If a person say, man, I'm really working out, I'm really working out, then, you know, over time you're going to see like, man, okay, yeah, their body is— their body is an example. Their body— I know that they've been working out because I'm looking at the transformation of their body. And so that's how we got to think in context of our lives when we, when we are truly presenting ourselves as a living sacrifice. We have to, we have to come into this understanding. And so I apologize for that background noise, I'm kind of switching something around. So, um, when we see these things, when we come into this understanding and understanding what Paul was writing here, is that with me, starting with myself, I understand that I didn't get to where I'm at on my own. But it's been due to the yielding of the Holy Spirit. It's due to like, okay Lord, I present myself as a sacrifice, a living sacrifice unto you. Because if we look at the different type of sacrifices back then, if the things that people had to do because it really should have been us there, or you know, whatever reasons, like in the Old Testament, you know, you get into the burnt offerings and so on and so on. Things had to be sacrificed, animals, things had to be sacrificed because that's what God— it was the holiness of God, man. People were living in sin or unintentional sins and so on and so on. So now because Jesus has died. He said, no, just live for me. Live in a sacrificial state of living for me because I've already taken care of that with my son's blood. But what I am calling you to do, kind of like the, the last two episodes with discipleship and, uh, denying self— I do want you to live sacrificially. I want you to live for me and present your whole body. Your body. He didn't say— the scripture doesn't say that you present part of your body as a living sacrifice. They say present your bodies. Holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. He's, he's saying, bro, this is reasonable. Like, I'm not asking for too much. I paid the price. You've been bought with a price. So now, if you say that you're my— if you say that you're my child, you say that you're a disciple of me, and you're denying yourself, this is a reasonable act. It's a reasonable service that we can carry out through the power of the Holy Spirit. But see, this is the beauty in it. It's not a sacrifice if it doesn't feel like it. Just like I said, and you know, this is something else, like when I was talking about submission at one point, submission don't feel like submission until you have to submit. I deal with that all the time. Like, it's leaders that I have been under, or people that I— not just in work, but just people that have been the authority in a certain situation and going into another ministry, working in another department or whatever, and I struggle. I wrestle with it sometimes because I don't want to, you know. But it's like, submission don't feel like submission until you have to submit. So same thing, sacrifice don't feel like sacrifice until you actually feel the inconvenience of it. If I don't like— let's just say this, like, if I don't like salads and water and— I mean, I'm sorry, I'm tripping. Let's say it's like I don't like— like, you know how some people just don't really drink pops, like they don't like them, but they could love sweets, they could love cookies. If they say, well, man, you know what, I'm fasting this week and I'm gonna just give up pops, that's no struggle for you. Yeah, that's no struggle for you. The struggle is going to be like, man, I eat a cookie like almost every day, every other day, and I'm gonna give up these cookies. And you start feeling to the point where you want it, where it's like you're worn. It might not be like Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane where the sweat was so intense it was like blood, but like, it's like you feel, feel it. You, you feel it. This is a sacrifice. So now it's like, you know, like, look, I am sacrificing something. I am truly sacrificing something. So there are things that, because I maintain this heart posture of the power of God, or we collectively speaking maintain this heart posture, there are things that I definitely be like, man, I'm just not doing them because I'm, I'm being obedient to the word of God and I'm presenting myself as a living sacrifice. I can't sit up there and be like, I'm saved, but I can still cuss somebody out.
No.
Like, now it could happen, and trust me, I, I have been saved and I have cussed, like went off on certain situations, but I don't want to practice that because when I yield to it and I give to it, man, I'm convicted. I'm really convicted. In a moment it feels good, like it really feels good in the moment because it pleases the flesh. I'm like, I got them, I got them back, I talked to them the way I want to talk to them, whatever, whatever your context may be. But if you truly in the presence of God, when you get your, get your back or lick back or go off on them or whatever, and you're like, man, I got them, I'm telling you, you're going to be convicted. Because it's like when you go back to the word of God, he said present your body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. And you find yourself asking, Lord, why did I do that? Why did I give into that and not present myself as a living sacrifice to you? Why? I don't find any joy in this. Because I'm telling you, man, like, it's times I can go off, and my wife knows me like a book, and she's like, oh, just sit with it for a little bit, just sit with it. Because she knows that, like, that she knows— and not just her, but other people, you know, that's close to me, they know that, like, man, God's gonna deal with him. It's a heart posture. But at the same time, I want to get to that point, point where my heart posture is so in tune with living as a sacrifice, where I'm like, I don't even have to come back and repent for that. If that makes sense. Because it's like I'm just— I'm in a constant state of presenting my body. That's my desire, and I believe that it's obtainable through the power of God. It is. It truly is. And so now when certain people look at me, it's because of this decision, because I'm walking in this. It's like, man, like, bro, bro, that's not the same Tim I remember. The same Tim that literally almost was a felon. It's not that I have good parents. I think I got in college, got in some trouble, got to doing some things I didn't supposed to be doing. And was supposed to be locked up for 7 years. Legit, almost was a felon. And you know what I'm saying, like, I— and I'm not gonna go into that right now, but probation, bro, like, it was bad. Like, I was trying to live that life out here, bro. Like, I grew up in Pine Bluff. I, you know, in high school I kind of snuck and was in some areas I didn't need to be. And, you know, and this stuff took a part of my identity because of what I was trying to do, but I wasn't never comfortable with it. Then I got up here and got mixed up with the wrong crowd and almost became a felon, man. And, and literally probably would have just had a relationship with my oldest son at 7 or 8 years old. But now when I come into those same people, like, bro, you, you say you preaching the gospel now, bro? You in technology? Like, you, you here? Like, you doing this? Like, you like, bro, like, man, God is faithful, bro. God, thank God is faithful, bro. There's one point, and I'm just gonna keep it real with you, I never thought I would be able to stop cheating. 'Never, never thought I would be able to stop living a double life. Never.' And then turned around and got married. Like, and so it's just— but God, like, it's God. Because I lived a promiscuous lifestyle for a season. Like, for a season. I was never the type that— I don't have a lot of stories that other people have, but I did live a promiscuous lifestyle for a season. And that opened the door to some things that just didn't need to take place because why? I wasn't in the will of God. And I wasn't presenting my body as a living sacrifice. In other words, I was letting my body do whatever it wanted to do. It didn't feel like a sacrifice. So this is what God is saying, it's an inconvenience. So like, if you out there and you single and you have a desire, be like, man, ain't nothing wrong going back to sex. Just use example. No, no, no, you have to sacrifice. So if I would have been sacrificing myself in that promiscuous life, because of the promiscuous lifestyle and I would have been in true will of God and being led by the Spirit, yes, I would have felt it because my body would have really wanted to do it. But I'm saying no, because this is not holy and acceptable to God. It's not— this is not pleasing to him, whatever it be. So like I said, if you cussing folks out, if you— whatever you're doing that's in the flesh, you have to ask yourself, am I— am I presenting myself as a living sacrifice? Like I say, so notice in the text, notice in text, he did not say part of your body. So we have to stop compartmentalizing the word of God. We have to stop compartmentalizing basically the areas that we really don't want to face. He said, present your bodies, our entire body. So like I said, man, there are plenty things that I did not want to stop doing out there. I trust me, even to this day I have to war with some of those things. But because God said it and I know he's equipped me and empowered me to do it, my heart posture is to do it. But if I do fall, not looking forward because I don't want to do it. But if I do, I'm telling you right now, just repent, truly repent, and keep it moving. You don't have to start all the way over and go ABC, 1, 2, 3. So we do this— how do we do this? What's— you know, I like to live with the practical handles, practical application. Well, we do it by starting off primarily with the word of God, saturating ourselves with the word of God, because this is what transforms us. And then we meditate, we feed on his scripture, we feed on the word of God, being renewed, being renewed daily, renewed, transformed, transforming our mind, man. So this mind may be in Christ, so we can continuously live in this heart posture of a living sacrifice. No matter what's done to us, no matter what we go through, no matter what we face in this world, is saying, no, I'm going to use my body to point to Christ because this is what he asks of me. This is the same Savior that died so I may have eternal life. And God is saying it's reasonable for you to live in a sacrificial state because hell was all of our destination. No matter how good we think we are, we all deserve hell. But because of Christ and what he did on the cross and gave up his life and rose with all power in his hand, and he's always had authority, but the power that Adam relinquished— now he's saying, I want you to live in a sacrificial state that's holy and acceptable to me. Live according to my will. Be ye holy. And he's empowered us and equipped us to do it through the power of his Holy Spirit. So once again, man, just dig in his word. Just renew the mind, because we live in this world and it's always going bombarding us. It's always hitting us. Like, bro, everywhere you look, it's just— you remind of the word, you remind of this, you remind of that. So just saturate yourself in the word of God. Like I said in one of the previous, I mean, start with 15 minutes a day for a week and then build on it. Don't make it ritual routine that you're just doing it, but actually allow your heart posture to desire, because what I want to be in your presence, I want to feed on your, your word. And then I'm telling you, over time, staying consecrated, dedicated and consecrated, you will be able to present your body as a continuous state of a living sacrifice, no matter what you're faced with in this life.
Hey, what's up? I want to thank you for taking the time to listen to the Student Life Podcast today. If this content has impacted you in any kind of way, please take some time to share it on your social media feeds. And also, if you want to connect with me or just learn more about me, go over to www.timothypratt.org. Once again, thanks.
