INTRO.- ILL.- After Lee’s surrender, Lincoln spoke to a large crowd from the balcony of the White House. He told them about the policy he had in mind for the South. At the end of his speech, Senator Harlan asked, “What shall we do with the rebels?”
The vindictive crowd shouted back, “Hang them!” Tad then turned to his father and said, “No, no, Papa. Not hang them. Hang on to them!” “That’s it!” replied Lincoln joyfully. “Tad has it. We must hang on to them!”
At the time, Tad was only eleven. He must have acquired his compassionate spirit from his father! Amen.
Brothers and sisters, many people are in the hanging business. They would rather hang someone for whatever they consider to be wrong in their lives rather than to hang on to them and try to help them.
Galatians 6:1-2 “Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”
The people of God need to learn to demonstrate mercy toward one another instead of hanging one another or crucifying one another.
If we are truly spiritual or like Jesus, we will try to restore people to a right relationship to Jesus rather than hang them or write them off. We will pray for the people who are living in sin. We will continue to demonstrate love in order to win them to Jesus.
Jesus is our ultimate example of demonstrating love and mercy.
John 8:1-11 But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. 9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”11 “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
Jesus demonstrated mercy where others wanted to hang that woman. We who are in Christ need to learn to demonstrate mercy, love and forgiveness. Instead of criticizing people and condemning people or writing people off.
ILL.- I heard about a preacher in Missouri whose wife was in the hospital, dying from cancer. The elders from his church came to visit them. The preacher was thinking they came to pray for them and minister to them, instead they came to let him know that he was fired. How unmerciful can you get?
But God is different than us human beings. His ways are higher than ours and His thoughts are higher than ours. Way higher! (Isa. 55:8)
We humans can sometimes be very unkind and cruel but God is rich in mercy! (Ephesians 2:4) It’s a good things that God is rich in mercy or none of us could be saved!
PROP.- In view of the fact that God is rich in mercy what should we do?
1- Become a living sacrifice
2- Don’t give in to the world
3- Change our thinking
I. BECOME A LIVING SACRIFICE
1Therefore, 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. In the OT sacrifices were killed. They were dead sacrifices. But we are supposed to be living sacrifices. We are supposed to give our bodies to God as living sacrifices.
ILL.- Ken and Jennifer Witt are new people to our church and they are lovely people. Ken is a Staff Sergeant in the US Army, now working at the National Guard Armory in Newport. He’s served two hitches in Iraq. One time he was shot in the chest but of course, he wasn’t killed because his body armor. But he told me that if the bullet had been two inches higher it would have killed him. Nevertheless, the force of that bullet hitting him in the chest was so strong that it knocked him to the ground. He said it was like being hit with a sledge hammer in the chest. And to this day when he does pushups he can hear some cracking noise in his chest. I BET.
Would you like to trade jobs with him? I wouldn’t and yet, he told me that he likes going to work every day. He likes his work. Of course, he now works from 7:30 in the morning to 3:30 p.m., five days a week. Sounds good for now, but it wasn’t pleasant in Iraq.
Ken did tell me that if it wasn’t for his faith in the Lord he would never have survived the war in Iraq. It was his faith in the Lord that kept him going. Because of his faith in Christ, Ken is being a living sacrifice for Christ whether he realizes it or not. WE ALL ARE or should be.
What are you living for? What is your ultimate goal in life? Are you living for you, for yourself, for your own pleasures in life or are you living to please the Lord? That’s what a living sacrifice does for Christ.
Philippians 1:21 “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”
I Corinthians 10:31 “So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”
Matthew 6:33 “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness....”
Ephesians 5:8 “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light.”
Ephesians 5:15-18 “Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.”
These scriptures and many more tell us how to give our bodies to God as living sacrifices. Basically, it means that we live for Him in all ways and not for ourselves.
When we are faced with decisions in life where we have to chose His way or our own selfish way, WE CHOOSE HIS WAY! That’s the only way that will bring Him glory instead of glory to ourselves. This means that we choose purposely to obey His Word. But blessings always come to those obey Him but even when we feel we’re not blessed, we still choose His will and way over our own way.
II. DON’T GIVE IN TO THE WORLD
2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world
ILL.- There are thermostats and there are thermometers. What’s the difference? One registers the temperature and the other regulates the temperature. We are supposed to be regulators of the world’s temperature. We are supposed to thermostats in this world of evil.
The way of the world is opposed to God and Christ. This should be obvious to us. That is, it’s the thinking of the world. It’s carnal, it’s sinful, it’s the way of sin and pleasure.
ILL.- James Engel summarized the belief system and the presuppositions that commonly prevail among what he calls modern man: “God, if He exists at all, is just an impersonal moral force. Man basically has the capacity within himself to improve morally and make the right choices. Happiness consists of unlimited material acquisition. There really is no objective basis for right and wrong. The supernatural is just a figment of someone's imagination. If a person lives a "good life", the eternal destiny is assured. The Bible is nothing other than a book written by man.”
Sounds like humanistic thinking to me.
ILL.- Addressing a national seminar of Southern Baptist leaders, George Gallup said, "We find there is very little difference in ethical behavior between churchgoers and those who are not active religiously. The levels of lying, cheating, and stealing are remarkable similar in both groups. Eight out of ten Americans consider themselves Christians, Gallup said, yet only about half of them could identify the person who gave the Sermon on the Mount, and fewer still could recall five of the 10 Commandments. Only two in ten said they would be willing to suffer for their faith.”
John 3:19 “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.”
John 15:19 “If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.”
Galatians 3:22 “But the Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.” And there is only one escape!
I John 2:15-17 “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.”
We must not give in to the world or worldly ways! The world is a killer to our faith! Instead, we must lights in this dark world. We must be thermostats regulating the temperature instead of letting it regulate us!
III. CHANGE OUR THINKING
2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Instead of being conformists, we must be transformists! But this won’t happen until we are personally transformed by the mind of God! And the key to all action in life is in the mind.
ILL.- A man had bought a new gadget-unassembled, of course, and after reading and rereading the instructions he couldn't figure out how it went together. Finally, he sought the help of an old handyman who was working in the backyard. The old fellow picked up the pieces, studied them, then began assembling the gadget. In a short time, he had it put together. "That's amazing," said the man. "And you did it without even looking at the instructions!" "Fact is," said the old man, "I can't read, and when a fellow can't read, he's got to think."
Proverbs 23:7 “As he thinks in his heart, so is he.”
ILL.- I heard Paul Butler, professor at Ozark Christian College, many years ago say in a sermon, “The doing will never be right until the thinking is right. Our thinking has brought us to where we are today and our thinking will take us to where we will be tomorrow.”
The thinking has to be right for us to do right in life. And the thinking will never be right unless the human mind is saturated with scripture, the Word of God.
Psalm 119:9 “How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word.”
V. 11 “Thy Word have I hid in mine heart that I might not sin against thee.”
Matthew 16:23 Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”
When we don’t keep in mind (or in our minds) the things of God we can get out whack and betray Jesus! This incident was when Jesus predicted His own death but Peter rebuked Him and said, “Never! This will never happen to you.” And Peter was on the wrong side of fence of the will of God. And this can happen to us as well if we don’t keep in mind the things of God as revealed in scripture.
And, of course, Jesus lowered the boom on Peter and said, “You are thinking like men, not like me. You are playing the devil’s advocate.” If we don’t want to play in the devil’s ballpark then we need to keep scripture in our hearts and minds and allow them to dominate our thinking and our lives! We must allow scripture to change our thinking and our ways!
CONCLUSION-----------------------
1Therefore, 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.
In view of the fact that God is extremely merciful toward us there are many things that we should do that we might not normally do. You see, that’s the point. Because we believe and we’re in Christ and we trust in God’s mercy for our salvation, we don’t always do normal stuff.
We go beyond the norm of what most people do and live the abundant life. We go beyond the norm of the way most people live and live better lives. We go beyond the norm and live for Christ! We owe Him. We owe Him everywhere so we give our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God.
Steve Shepherd, Cape Girardeau, MO
shepherd111@hotmail.com
