Let me start this morning by asking a question. How many times have you heard someone say, “I going to do my own thing.” I don’t want any part of church, I don’t want any part of Christianity, and I don’t want any part of Christ, because I want to live my life the way that I want to. So many people say they don’t want any part of Christianity because they are afraid that somehow, someway, it will prove to be too confining for them. I remember when I was a teenager in high school. I know it’s hard to believe but one day I was there. A very well known musician named Bob Dylan wrote and recorded a song entitled, “You Gotta Serve Somebody”. The lyrics went something like this: You may be an ambassador to England or France, You may like to gamble, you might like to dance, You may be the heavyweight champion of the world, You may be a socialite with a long string of pearls. You may be a construction worker working on a home, You may be living in a mansion or you might live in a dome, You might own guns and you might even own tanks, You might be somebody’s landlord, you might even own banks. But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed. You’re gonna have to serve somebody, Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord, But you’re gonna have to serve somebody. There’s a lot of truth in this song. You see, you will never be able to do your own thing. John 8:34 Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.
Our world tends to view serving Christ as being too restricting, and too limiting. The truth is that being without Christ is that which binds you and limits you for if you are not serving Christ, you most certainly are serving three entities, self, sin, and Satan. These three entities will control your life, box you in, put you in a mold, and limit your potential for truly enjoying life. In Romans 12:2, the apostle Paul writes to this Roman church and tells them to “be not conformed to this world”. Paul uses a Greek word that is translated conform. It literally means to “to shape by placing in a container, or mold”. That is exactly what the world or age, desires to do. It attempts to place us in it’s mold, so it can corrupt us and rob us of becoming truly what God desires for us to become. God desires for us to be free, complete in Christ, and enjoying the riches of the blessings of Christ. The thing about being placed in a mold is this, not only are we limited by the confines of the mold, but we wind up loosing our individuality. If you are not a Christian, you have been conformed to this world. While your outward appearance may differ, inwardly you are motivated by the same things that motivate other non-believers, greed, lust, and selfishness. This is why I say, if you are not yielded to the Holy Spirit of God, if you are not under His control, you are capable of doing just about anything in the right circumstances. You may be a good moral person, you may consider yourself to be kind, compassionate and just, but without the influence of the Spirit of God, under the influence of the flesh, if you found yourself in the right circumstances, you are capable of just about anything. This is why Paul said in Romans 7:18 For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh (NRS).
God does not desire that you be molded by the world. Here Paul uses a word that means an age, or a world order. We have already stated that this age, or world order, desires to be the shaping influence in your life. You can be certain that you will feel the pressure to be shaped and molded by the world. All the while you may think that you really are in charge, but you find that you are much like a sail boat, just pushed by the worldly currents of sin, self, and Satan.
Here in Romans 12, verses 1-5, Paul shares three truths, or really steps, with the Roman church. These three steps are given to help the Romans not be shaped by the processes of the age. If we will but follow these three steps, we will find ourselves breaking out of the world’s mold.
I. RESIGN YOURSELF TO GOD.
1. Paul writes in verse 1, that the Roman church needed to present their bodies to God, as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God. What he is saying to these Romans, and I believe to us as well, is that we are to give ourselves to God as a gift, for His use and disposal, to resign yourself totally and completely to the will of God.
2. One of the disturbing trends I see today is that some people are willing to give God just about anything, but themselves. People will sit down and write a check for huge amounts of money and give it to the church for missions, or building projects, but fail to understand that God is interested in more than just money. Some think that if they give tithes and offerings to God that is enough, nothing else is required. I amazed at the people who, when you question them about their relationship with God, the first thing they say is "I’m a member of such and such church. I attend there, and I give and support the church." The greatest thing you can give to God, is not your check book, but yourself.
3. Before Christ came, under the law, a man would come to the temple, or the tabernacle, bring his sacrifice to God, present it to the priest, and then leave, possibly not to think of God for another year. As long as he offered the sacrifices required by the Mosaic law, his outward obligation to God was fulfilled. What had happened was something that God had not intended with the sacrifices. They became a license to sin.
Isa.1:11, To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto Me? saith the Lord: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. (12) When ye come to appear before Me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread My courts? (15) And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide Mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.
4. There are many that feel the same way today. They think if they do this one great thing for God, then God will be satisfied with them. I recently heard an advertisement that advocated this belief, that if you went to hell, it was because you needed to be a better person, thus what you need to do now is to donate money to this particular charity being advertised and the insinuation was you would then be allowed to go to heaven.
5. May I tell you this morning, you can possibly give every thing you have away, and still be conformed and shaped by the forces of this world.
1 Corinthians 13:3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
6. True freedom, life without limits, involves giving yourself completely and totally to God. In 1900, in Bangor, Ireland, a group of Salvation Army youth were conducting a street meeting. A young man named Billy Nicholson who had desired to do great things for God passed by. Several of the ones in the Salvation Army troop knew that Billy professed Christianity so they invited him to stand with them. Amid the cat calls from the by-passers, Billy stood bashfully, hoping that no one would recognize him. As he stood there, however, several close friends and family members happened by. Billy felt the pressure to conform, to step down. One of the troop suggested that they kneel to prayer. Billy stooped to pray, no doubt thinking to himself to slip off in the crowd. However, as he prayed, something happened. He determined to give himself completely to God and as he stood up after prayer, all fear of rejection was gone. Billy, or W.P. Nicholson as he came to be known, was one of the great evangelists of the early part of last century. He, along with his peers and friends, Billy Sunday, Dr. Torrey, and Charles Finney, won hundreds of thousands to Christ. He made ten trips around the world, preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
6. How much do we hold back on God? How many times do we say we want God but we don’t want God to inconvenience us? This means that you are being shaped and molded by the cares of this world, rather than enjoying the freedom that is in Jesus Christ.
7. Notice that Paul calls this “your reasonable service”. It is only reasonable, if we invite God into our lives, that we give Him everything, ourselves included.
Romans 6:13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. 15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. 16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? 17 But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. 18 Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. 19 I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. 20 For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.
8. Life without limits involves giving yourself or resigning yourself wholly to God.
II. RENEW YOUR MIND TO THE TRUTH.
1. Notice that in verse 2, Paul makes mention of the mind being renewed. As a college student at the University of Nebraska, I took a class which covered cognitive psychology, and one of the topics covered was that of memory. Did you know, that every thing that you have ever experienced in your life, is stored on what is called a memory trace in your mind? Every color, every scent, every picture, and every sound you have experienced in your life is stored within the recesses of your mind.
2. The problem that most of us have with memory is not that it’s not there, for it is. The problem is in the retrieval of what you’ve experienced. Psychologists determine that we arrange memories in our mind in certain ways that supposedly help us to retrieve them. The reason that we can’t remember our birth experiences is not because that experience is not there, but rather because we were not old enough to properly store that information. Sometimes, all it takes is just the right experience to trigger up an memory from the past. Just a couple of nights ago, as I was laying in bed, I was listening to a song that sounded a lot like some songs that we first heard when we moved to Montana. It brought back very vividly and very clearly the time when my father passed away, when we had first moved to Montana. All it took was just a couple of notes that sounded familiar, to trigger that entire experience again.
3. Now, you are saying, that’s all well and good, but what has all of this to do with breaking out of the world’s mold? Here what I want you to understand, the mind is carnal. What this means to us is that every bad thought you’ve ever had, every dirty picture you’ve ever seen, and every profane word, that you’ve ever heard is stored within the traces of your mind. Wouldn’t it be great, if, when God saved us, if He erased all of these things from your mind? But we know it doesn’t work that way. All it takes is just the right experience, and those things can come flooding back to your mind.
4. This is why Paul said that we must be transformed by the renewing of our minds. As Christians, God’s plan for us is that we be transformed. He doesn’t want us bound by the world’s mold. However, even our thought processes are corrupted by sin.
Romans 8:7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
Isaiah 59:7 Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths.
5. How can we transcend the world’s limits if the thoughts of our minds keep pulling us down? We do so by the renewing of our minds through the truth of God’s word. It is God’s word that works within our minds, confronting us with the truth, correcting our thoughts and transforming us to be like Jesus.
John 8:31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; 32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
Colossians 3:10 And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:
Eph. 4:20-24
But ye have not so learned Christ; 21 If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22 That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; 23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
6. It’s no wonder that Satan does all he can to keep you from the word of God, if you become slack concerning God’s word, it won’t be long until all those sinful thoughts began creeping back into the forefront of your mind. Strong Christians are those who are strong in the Word of God, they have learned the important of the truth in helping them to break out of the world’s limits. The word of God brings our thoughts into the line of God’s thinking.
7. Truth is a powerful weapon, and there is no greater truth than God’s word. The world would tell you that you can’t help but follow the crowd and be defeated, but God’s word says you are more than conquerors. The world says you have no hope, but God’s word says, “Now abideth faith, hope and charity.” God’s word will help you transcend worldly limits.
8. Peter stepped out of the boat on the Sea of Galilee and walked on the waves. Didn’t someone tell him that was impossible? Didn’t he know about the forces of gravity? Didn’t he know he was limited, that he wasn’t supposed to do something like that? Yet he did it because Jesus said e;rcomai erchomai {er’-khom-ahee} which is translated as “come” and Peter transcended his limits because he trusted in the Word of the Lord Jesus Christ.
III. REALIGN YOURSELF TO MINISTRY.
1. Notice that the apostle Paul, in verses 6-8, talks about the important of ministry. He says that we have been given different gifts, according to God’s grace. Some prophesy, others have gifts of service (ministry), others teach, others exhort, and others rule or have administrative gifts.
2. I believe what Paul wants the church to see, is not so much the different gifts, for the New Testament is filled with passages relating to spiritual gifts, but rather on the important of using them. Ministering to other people. The Revised Standard Version says in verse 6, Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them:
3. One reason that so many people are bound, one reason that some people are miserable, is this, they have never learned of the joy that comes from serving others.
4. Several years ago, a Stanford University professor named Abraham Maslow, developed what he called his theory of self-actualization. Maslow determined that life is a series of steps toward reaching a state he called self-actualization, or the highest level of human potential that exists. He stated that humans have basic needs that must be met on each level in order to reach the next level. For a person to fully be self-actualized, they must learn the importance of helping and serving others.
Mark 10:43 But so shall it not be among you: but whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister:
5. It is interesting that this word great is the Greek word megas, which means large, great, intense, extraordinary, or exceeding the limits. If we want the blessing of God upon our lives, we had better learn the importance of service and ministry.
6. God is calling you to ministry, everyone of you has a place and a part to play in the body of Christ. You will never, never reach your full potential, you will never be all that you can and could be, until you learn the importance of service in the body of Christ.
7. The world desires to shape you and mold you, but God desires to transform you. Relinquish yourselves to God, renew your minds in His word, and realign yourself to ministry. Note I used the word, “realign”. You see, the carnal mind does not want to serve others, the carnal mind is self centered, it only looks out for self. We must realign ourselves to following the example of Jesus and be instruments of service for God.
Colossians 4:17 And say to Archippus, Take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord, that thou fulfil it.
