Read passage and pray.
For the month of January, we’re preaching on the theme of Collide. The idea is that the ways of God often collide with the ways of the world. How do we conduct ourselves to align with God and point the world to Him? Last week, Jeff shared how to stand firm, today, I’ll be sharing how to be transformed.
When my daughter Hannah, saw the scripture for today, she leaned over to tell me how she remembers this verse as the theme for when we were first starting with the youth group here. Our logo had the face of a Transformer, edited to include a cross on his face to remind our young people that we need to be transformed to be more like Christ.
When I think of the idea of transformation, my mind goes to the home makeover shows that my family likes to watch. There are several where these people buy these rundown houses at auction so they can flip them. Throughout the episode, we’re shown the various obstacles they run into as they often tear the building down to the studs and transform it into a beautiful home into which people can’t wait to move.
I don’t often get the opportunity to brag on my sister Kelly. She’s the wife of a preacher in Illinois, works with the school district, and in her free time, between getting her teens to their events, she takes on painting jobs in people’s homes. She does a great job and regularly posts the before and after pictures of the transformation that takes place with her work. So how are we transformed?
You’ll notice that our passage begins with a “therefore”. As Dave Broad shared in communion last week, I also learned in Bible college that when you see the word “therefore” you need to look to see what it’s “there for”. To do so, we need to look at the end of Romans 11, particularly verse 36 (read)- the Him is referring to God. This verse establishes the foundation for why we need transformation. All things are from God, all things are through God, all things are to God. God is the Creator, God is the Sustainer, God is the Glory. Paul’s words in Romans 12 give us the response to this fact, the therefore.
Paul begins with the result of the transformation. We need to present our bodies as living sacrifices. Because God is all these things, we should present ourselves as a sacrifice for Him. Read Hebrews 10:3. The author is referring to the annual sacrifice made by the Jewish high priest for the people of Israel under the Old Covenant. God introduced this idea of the scapegoat in Leviticus 16. He gave instruction for the high priest to take two goats, one he offered on the altar as an atonement for sin, the other he laid his hands on its head, prayed, then sent it off into the wilderness to carry away the sins of Israel. But this had to be repeated every year.
Read Hebrews 10:10. In contrast to the Old Covenant, this verse tells us that under the New Covenant, the sacrifice of Christ atoned for sin once and for all. All sin in the past, present, and future was forgiven when Jesus died on the cross and resurrected three days later. We no longer have to offer animals on an altar to pay for our sins. Our sins are already forgiven, we simply have to go to God in prayer and confess our sins for forgiveness.
Instead, we now offer our bodies as living sacrifices. What is a living sacrifice? It’s the good works or deeds that we do to help people so that they can see the love of Christ. Now, let me clarify something here. We don’t do these good works to earn God’s approval, but to show gratitude for the love He already gives us. This topic actually came up in our youth group meeting this week. I asked our teens how many of them have a mother. Of course, they all raised their hand. I then asked them if their mother has ever asked them to do something they’d really rather not do. With a few groans, most of them kept their hands up. So I point out, while it may take a while, eventually you go and do it, why? It’s because you love her and want her to know it. It’s the same way with God- you do good things, not to earn His love, but to show Him your love for Him.
Let me put it this way. All other world religions spell out achieving salvation, whatever that means to them, in terms of D-O do. You have to do enough good to outweigh your bad to reach the next level. Christianity spells out achieving salvation D-O-N-E done. Christ has already done all the work, you simply accept what was done for you and live accordingly.
So, how do we become the living sacrifices that Paul is describing here?
It starts by no longer being conformed to this world. When you were baptized, you got rid of the old ways and put on a new self. This word conform can mean to pattern after, to be shaped by, or to be pressed into a mold. One preacher compares it to a family making Christmas cookies. I have fond memories of making Christmas cookies. My mom would make the sugar cookie dough, flatten it out with a rolling pin, then give us the cookie cutters to choose which shapes we wanted to make. We’d put the cookies on a cookie sheet and, after they cooled from baking, Mom would make frosting and we’d decorate the cookies (sneaking some of the extra frosting when she wasn’t looking, of course). Those cookie cutters made the cookie dough conform to the shape in which it had been made.
In the same way, the world is trying to make us conform today. I believe the biggest thing the world is doing is to sell the idea that happiness is the ultimate pursuit. Whatever makes you happy is what is desirable, so you should go after it at all costs. Live and let live, what’s true for you doesn’t have to be true for me, love whoever you want because nobody, not even God, can tell you it’s wrong.
It goes all the way back to the garden, when Satan was tempting Adam and Eve. When Eve told the serpent they weren’t supposed to eat from the one tree, he asks, “Did God really say that? Is that really what He meant?”
When you become a follower of Christ, you have to stop following the world, you can no longer conform. When we need guidance for a choice we need to make, we need to turn to His Word, not to the world. Read 2 Corinthians 5:17. When you were baptized into Christ, you buried the old ways of the world and you put on Christ. You have a new start.
Next, you need to be transformed by the renewal of your mind. We became new, babies if you will, when we were baptized into Christ. However, Paul uses the word “renewal” in Romans 12:2. It gives the idea of an ongoing process. The world is constantly throwing bad ideas at us. Whether it be through friends at work or school, TV shows or movies you’re watching, songs playing on the radio, things you’re viewing on social media, even the video games that are being produced, the world is constantly throwing bad ideas at us, trying to draw us back down.
One piece of advice that I give new believers is that as they work to stop bad habits, they need to replace them with good habits. If you don’t, it becomes a lot easier to fall back into your old ways. Jesus addresses this in Matthew 12:43-45 (read). The unclean spirit leaves the new believer, doesn’t find a place to rest, then decides to come back and brings even worse spirits with it. When it returns, it may find that the person has cleaned house, but if they haven’t filled the space with the good things of God, we’re told it resumes residence with these other spirits and the person is worse off than they were before. So lose the bad habits and replace them with good things like time reading the Bible, praying, finding encouraging friends to hang out, and seeking opportunities to do good for others.
I’ve seen this prayer shared off and on- Dear Lord, So far I've done all right. I haven't
gossiped, haven't lost my temper, haven't been greedy, grumpy, nasty, selfish, or overindulgent. I'm really glad about that. But in a few minutes, God, I'm going to get out of bed. And from then on, I'm going to need a lot more help. The struggle is real, we need to face it by continually being transformed by the renewal of our minds.
We need to continually fill our thoughts with the things of God, let your mind be consumed by the pursuit of God. Read Joshua 1:8. God instructs Joshua to meditate on His law, day and night. By knowing what’s in God’s Word, you’ll know how God wants you to act in a situation. He promises Joshua, and I believe it extends to us, that by doing so your way will prosper and you’ll have good success. Now, I don’t think that means all Christians are destined to great earthly wealth nor that you’ll never have problems or struggle. I do believe it means that you’ll know how to navigate the trials and tribulations of this world and ultimately will enjoy eternal life. So get into the scriptures, not just to mark a check on your to do list, but to dig in, meditate, consider how it impacts you and guides you in life- your mind will be transformed.
When you stop conforming to the world and begin to be transformed by the renewal of your mind, you’ll be able to test and discern the will of God. It starts with discernment. There are plenty of fake preachers out there teaching heresy- live your best life now, your faith should be enough to bring you healing, because God is love you can love whoever you want as long as you’re faithful to that person. They put self-improvement over humbling ourselves before God, reinterpreting passages to justify their desires.
We need to take the teachings of all preachers and compare them to scripture. Even Paul expected people to confirm his teachings, commending the Bereans for getting into the scriptures to make sure he was teaching correctly. We preachers are merely men and can make mistakes, so you need to confirm that our teachings align with God’s Word. God will not contradict Himself, put it to the test, His Word will prove true.
Here is the thing- when you have discerned God’s will in your life, you must act on it. Seek the opportunities that God has given for you to put your faith into action, be a living sacrifice. Our church has several ministries with opportunities for you to get involved and serve. One of the things I like about our elders is that if you see a need that could be met, they encourage you to develop a plan, present what you need, and they will do what they can to support you in that endeavor.
That is how you become a living sacrifice. You stop following the world. You be transformed by the renewal of your mind. You discern God’s will and put it into action.
Allow me to close with one of my favorite stories. Back when I was living in St. Louis, the church we planted first met in our house. Chris lived across the street with his girlfriend and two small children, all of who started coming over on Sunday for worship. Chris was a gangsta rapper who wrote his own lyrics and created his own beats and was on the verge of signing on for a national tour with a popular rapper. He smoked a lot of weed to "help his creativity". He was baldheaded and was always mean-mugging people (constant scowl). Stuff happened and his girlfriend took their kids and moved back to California. Chris moved to a different neighborhood and I lost track of him for a few months. Then one day after we had moved the church into a storefront, we came home to find a man standing on our porch, his eyes wide open and a big smile on his face. It wasn't until he called out, "Hey, Mr. Scott!" that I realized it was Chris. He began to tell us how just a few weeks before, he was in his car getting ready to light up a blunt, when he felt a prompting that he shouldn't do that. He started to drive past a small church and felt another nudge to go inside. When they offered an altar call, he went forward and his faith finally became real. He never touched marijuana again. He went to the contract signing for his national rap tour, told them he'd have to rap about Jesus, and they told him they only wanted his gangsta rap so he walked away. He got connected with others who rapped about Christ and did community ministry. Eventually, he began starting a variety of service businesses, providing jobs to young men and women who were trying to overcome a variety of hardships in life, sharing his testimony and encouraging them to live for Jesus. He is still serving the Lord over 15 years later.
Invitation
