Flip Your Lid

Flip Your Lid

January 1, 2006

Romans 12:1-2

Video: What is Worship? I can think of no better way to start the New Year than to set our hearts and minds on honoring God. To make a decision to Flip our Lids for Jesus!

Story: A few months ago, we had some guests from the Netherlands. While here, one of the guys was overwhelmed w/ God’s presence but was unable to articulate it. He told one of our members – I want more of God, but I don’t know how to flip my lid.

Trans: Those words have raced through my mind many times since I heard them. As we look to a New Year, I want to lay before us a new challenge – to FLIP OUR LIDS for God in 2006 – to move to a new level in our relationship w/ Him, w/ our families, w/ our ministries, and w/ our church. But how?

Text: 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. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, then you’ll be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will. Rm.12:1-2

Trans: In this passage Paul offers (2) principles that are juxtaposed to one another, but are essential to flipping our lids. Verse 1 is the positive side – something to do, while verse 2 is the negative side – what not to do. As Christians we are to offer our bodies to God, while separating ourselves from the schemes of this world.

I Let’s SACRIFICE to God

Trans: If you want to make a total commitment to Jesus, then you first must make a sacrifice. Now many of us flinch when we hear the world “sacrifice” b/c we think, “What’s it going to cost me? How is it going to hurt my wallet?” But we’re not talking about giving up some thing; we’re talking about the giving of self.

A Make a PERMANENT Sacrifice OFFER Your Bodies

Word: offer (paristasis) It is the same word used in the O.T. of the priest who’d go to the altar, take an animal, lay it down, and sever the animals jugular. He did this to make atonement for sin. Then he’d cook the animal and eat it - this was part of the Jewish sacrificial system. The same word is used here. Paul says, “Offer yourself”

Trans: Now, I want you to pay close attention for a moment, b/c this is why preachers learn Greek, so we can read it in the original language. It would make more sense to me if I told you that offering yourself is something you should do all the time – daily. But the word is in the aorist tense, meaning it is a once-for-all transaction.

Story: Most of you know of Dr. Glen Weekley – pastor at FBC Hendersonville. Dr. Weekley is recovering from a kidney transplant. His daughter donated her kidney to give him life. This was a once-for-all commitment on her behalf – there’s no going back. She didn’t tell her dad, here is my kidney, but I’m going to want it back in a year. She gave of herself to give life to her dad knowing it required her surrender.

Insert: As believers, total surrender is always better than repeated re-dedications.

Trans: I think one of the problems we have today in church is that people think they can dedicate themselves today only when it’s convenient, but once they’re faced w/ putting their commitment to the test, they bail thinking they can rededicate later.

Insert: Missionary in China – baptism (from IMB Devotional) This is flipping you lid!

Note: If you’re the kind of person who continually rededicates yourself, then you don’t understand the true nature of dedication. There are times we need to reaffirm our commitments, but this idea about continually rededicating goes against this verse. This verse says, “Once and for all, God, here I am. I surrender my all to you.”

Trans: I like some of Ray Stephens songs b/c they make me laugh. One of my favorite is the “Mississippi Squirrel Song.” It’s about a kid who takes a squirrel to church:

Song: I was sit’in way back on the very back pew, I was showing him to my good buddy, Hugh, when that squirrel got loose and went totally berserk. What happened next was hard to tell. Some thought it was heaven and some thought it was hell. But the fact that something was among us was plain to see. As the choir sang, “I Surrender All,” That squirrel crawled up Harv Newman’s coveralls. Harv leaped to his feet and said, “Something’s got a hold on me!” As he fell to his knees to plead and beg, The squirrel ran out of his britches leg, Unobserved to the other side of the room.