THE PASTOR’S POINTS
sermon ministry of
CEDAR LODGE BAPTIST CHURCH
Thomasville, NC
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May 9, 2004 (Mother’s Day)
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1Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 2And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:1-2 (NASB)
During the “gold rush” in California’s early history, miners hoping to discover the “mother load” would mark off a section of wilderness with stakes and signs. It was called a claim. The claim would be recorded at the land office, and all the rights of the property then belonged to the one who had staked the claim. The hope was that there would be gold in “them hills” and the riches within the claimed property would bring forth a life of riches for the owner.
Think about this idea of “prior claim”. It is a legal concept – the first one to stake a claim owns the property.
Then consider this sentence:
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Genesis 1:1 (NASB)
Now, the meaning should be quite clear about Who has “prior claim” over everything in the universe. God’s claim is that undeniable “first and prior claim”. Man’s problem, since the Garden of Eden, has always been the struggle between accepting God’s “staked-out prior claim” and wanting to be a “claim-jumper”!
Self-promoting is the essence of jumping God’s claim on you. A woman lived in a big city neighborhood that was going downhill very fast. The area was becoming increasingly overcrowded, noisy, and dirty. It was a bad situation. The woman decided something would have to be done about it. She knew that money would be required to change the situation. Consequently, she started a fund-raising drive. She called people. She sent letters. She got some financial support from a private foundation. She finally raised eighty-five thousand dollars and then she used the money to move to another neighborhood. [1]
The opposite of “claim-jumping” is respecting God’s claim on this universe, including its inhabitants! About a year ago our Southern Baptist Convention began an emphasis entitled “Seven Pillars of a Kingdom Family. [2]
You can see by our bulletin insert that there are seven weeks ahead of us during our Christian Home emphasis [from now until Father’s Day] for looking closely at our family life and how we can be Christians who are more pleasing in the Father’s family. It is, after all, His Kingdom, His claim!
Let’s begin our emphasis by reading together the statement of…
Pillar #1: Honoring God’s Authority
God, as sovereign creator and sustainer of all, holds ultimate authority over his creation. By establishing the family, God has provided a unique setting in which each individual should come to properly understand and respect authority. I will glorify God by surrendering every area of my life to Him, and by offering godly respect in all my earthly relationships, starting in my family.
If you will, notice please how the last sentence begins, I will… For each of the seven statements connected with these seven pillars of a kingdom family there is an “I will”.
I imagine it is only fair to issue the disclaimer first here. An “I will” statement implies the applying of integrity to what follows, in that when you say it, that means you’re then going to do it. The disclaimer here is that I want you to know these pillars are not easy.
• These pillars are hard!
• These pillars, if they become the standards by which we conduct our daily lives, will change most things about most of us.
• But these pillars are also the kinds of things that please the Father most…and are at once the best things for you and your family.
In our text this morning there are three phrases which call us to honor God. The sum of these three “callings” adds-up to our lives. They are what define the lives we lead as Kingdom people:
Phrase #1.
present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice
When you say “I will” to Kingdom Family Pillar #1
You are Promising to Honor God with Your Body
There is a lot of “body talk” these days. Magazines promote making this part smaller or that part larger. Do the diet, exercise or pills, but don’t just sit there and couch potato – get with the program! It’s all in the name of buffing-up, slimming down and showing off!
And, if it all seems too difficult, you can always go on “Extreme Makeover” or become the next “America’s Swan”. They will bring in a team of experts…surgeons, dieticians, hair and skin consultants, and an ego coach. In no time at all you go from poor ugly you to glamour-puss 2004!
We have a whole culture willing to cut, pierce and punish their bodies, just to be beautiful and different. Funny, how you’ve got to be doing the same as everybody else to be different.
That is so different than what God says is important. The world says your body and your appearance is the most important thing; Paul says presenting that body as a holy sacrifice to God is the real deal.
Now, it’s obvious that God’s ways and 21st-century worldly culture are in serious conflict here. So, what does it mean? To “present” something is to give it over to someone else’s ownership or care. God created us; there is no one better equipped to take care of us than He.
Now, many people today would agree with that, but instead of honoring God by submitting to His authority, we want to make our own decisions in spite of His prior claim. The person who lives like that cannot establish a “Kingdom Family”. To be a genuine Kingdom Family there must be surrender, a sacrifice to the authority of God.
Authority is easy to figure out when you’re little. I always knew when Mom or Dad was asking me something, or suggesting I do something…they only used my first name. When it came down to being called, RUSSELL JAY BROWNWORTH, I knew the suggestions had modulated…authority was not in question!
But, what does it mean to present your body as a living and holy sacrifice? Essentially a sacrifice is offered – you give up what you want and do what the other person wants. A living sacrifice is daily choosing to give up your own will.
What makes the living sacrifice holy is that you do those things that will honor God. You submit to His authority. Jesus did that in the Garden of Gethsemane; He prayed, Not my will, Father…yours!
Sacrifice, in a family setting, is like the young man who saw an elderly couple sitting down to lunch at McDonald’s. He noticed that they had ordered one meal, and an extra drink cup. As he watched, the gentleman carefully divided the hamburger in half, and then counted out the fries, one for him, one for her, until each had half of them. Then he poured half of the soft drink into the extra cup and set that in front of his wife. The old man then began to eat, and his wife sat watching, with her hands folded in her lap.
The young man decided to ask if they would allow him to purchase another meal for them so that they didn’t have to split theirs. The old gentleman said, "Oh no. We’ve been married 50 years, and everything has always been and will always be shared, 50/50." The young man then asked the wife if she was going to eat, and she replied, "Not yet. It’s his turn with the teeth." [3]
Presenting my body as a living sacrifice has to do with commitment to living God’s way in His will. Commitments are hard to come-by these days. Many people will make a decision – you see it all the time on the Billy Graham crusades. People walk the aisle and make a decision for Christ. It’s almost like pulling the lever in the voting booth…crunch…and you have voted; you made a decision. A monkey can also pull a lever.
The question is not one of decision, although decision is a necessary thing. The question is more of commitment. Commitment is the hard work that follows decision. I can make a decision to replace our ailing car. Making the payment every month afterward is the commitment part.
How is your commitment level?
• Are you giving God the respect He is due with your body?
• Is that body conditioned to pray, give, worship, and witness?
• Are you keeping that body pure from unwholesome influences?
For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body. 1Corinthians 6:20 (NASB)
Phrase #2.
do not be conformed to this world
When you say “I will” to Kingdom Family Pillar #1
You are Promising to Honor God in Your Relationships
We each will have many relationships throughout life. We start in the womb; Moms know that relationship can be strained from the first bout with nausea! By the time a child is born he is already in debt to his parents for nine months of room and board…and he comes into the world complaining about it!
Relationships build throughout our lives with family and friends, classmates and business working careers. The idea of Kingdom Family is that in the midst of all relationships we seek to be consistent in maintaining a life and a heart that honors God with all we do.
• In the context of church, we honor God by consistently worshipping, working and witnessing…all the while respecting each other.
• In the context of home we honor God by considering the members of our family and doing the very best to support and love.
• In the context of school, work or acquaintances we remain children of God, and act like it, no matter who is present, or who is not.
• In every context we are fiercely committed to honoring God, no matter what turns relationships may take. Even if our friends desert us, cut and run, we remain true to God. Even if our friends tempt us to turn from God, we remain true.
One of the Star Trek spin-off shows had a character called “The Shape Shifter”. This being – neither male nor female – took whatever appearance best suited the circumstances. This is so like our culture. Do whatever seems best to fit the circumstances. God says: “Don’t do that! Stand firm…have an identity…be the same all the time.”
In short, we do not allow this world – the culture of the 21st-century secularism, postmodernism, heathen godlessness to control and squeeze us into its mold – rather we stay true to what God has said about the way we should live and conduct our relationships. That is what the Bible tells us:
5“You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. Deuteronomy 6:5 (NASB)
Tom Eliff is a Southern Baptist pastor and denominational leader. He told in a Kingdom Family publication about a man who didn’t have a clue about honoring God with his relationship to his spouse:
Some years ago, I sat listening as a man, caught in immorality and unfaithfulness, spilled out what was obviously a carefully crafted confession. There was no remorse, no tears, and no real desire to be reconciled with his wife. It was obvious that he had made some critical choices and did not intend to turn back. Visiting with the pastor was just the final stage in accommodating his wife’s desperate attempt to put their marriage back together. It was his final words that got me somewhere deep inside and provoked a visceral reaction which shocked us both.
"I know what you’re thinking, preacher," he said with a slight nervous grin. "You’re thinking I’m probably not a Christian and that I don’t love the Lord. But you see, I really do love the Lord with all my heart."
"No, you don’t love the Lord with all your heart," I replied tersely and in a tone so loud it had surprised us both. "Time will tell if you’re a Christian because if you are, God will treat you like one of His kids who is deserving of discipline. But one thing is certain, you don’t love the Lord."
"You see," I continued, "if you love the Lord, you do what He says. But what you are saying is that you do not intend to do what He says. You are bent on leaving your wife and family and living in an immoral relationship. Say what you will, but you do not love the Lord." [4]
Loving the Lord with all your strength, everything that you’ve got, is not about grabbing for what feels good, or what will “fulfill” you. Loving the Lord with all you’ve got sometimes means sticking it out through the tough times.
Do you remember the story of Joseph? Joseph had been sold into slavery by his brothers. He was faithful with his life in serving the Lord, but this was an unfair thing that happened; it was the kind of thing that makes people question the fairness of God.
Joseph could have done that, but he stayed faithful to God. He worked hard and was trustworthy. His master, Potiphar, a very rich and important politician in Egypt, saw Joseph’s faithfulness. He promoted Joseph to head slave.
Now, Mrs. Potiphar had an eye for young Joseph, and one day when her husband was away she seized an opportunity to have Joseph all to herself. She used her authority to demand Joseph have sex with her. Do you remember what the young godly man said? Let’s let Genesis speak for Joseph’s character:
Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance. 7It came about after these events that his master’s wife looked with desire at Joseph, and she said, “Lie with me.” 8But he refused and said to his master’s wife, “Behold, with me here, my master does not concern himself with anything in the house, and he has put all that he owns in my charge. 9“There is no one greater in this house than I, and he has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do this great evil and sin against God?” Genesis 39:6-9 (NASB)
The Bible tells us that Mrs. Potiphar didn’t give up; day after day she kept trying. Finally she grabbed for Joseph physically. Now Joseph knew he was risking the revenge of a woman scorned; he knew it would mean he would probably never work his way out of slavery, and it might possibly cost him his life, but Joseph refused and stayed pure before God.
This young man, treated unfairly by life, tempted unmercifully by those in power, could have given-in to self and pleasure – but he chose to honor the authority of God. Here was a Kingdom Family man who loved the Lord with all his heart, all his soul, all his might! How the church and the world need more Josephs; there are enough “shape-shifters”!
Phrase #3.
The Result of saying “I will” to Kingdom Family Living: A Strengthened Life
be transformed by the renewing of your mind
Minds are always crowded and besieged by what’s going on in our lives. Many people today are more upset about what’s going on in their lives than they are content with what God has placed before them. God says he wants us to have an “undivided” mind…a contentedness that
• more money can’t buy,
• a new job can’t provide, and
• a better body won’t win.
Even in the church we see it clearly…folks struggling to get more so they will be happier. People change their:
• appearance with hair dye, and plastic surgery,
• their clothes and cars with the newest fashion or fad,
• their spouses with regularity
• their church membership because the last preacher or Sunday School class didn’t meet all their needs…
…all the while failing to see that a renewal of mind was the entire need.
Renewal of the mind, and the subsequent transformation of life, is the result of giving up on this world’s system and allowing God’s way to be your way.
• It is a decision;
• then commitment follows;
• then transformation happens.
I knew a man once who made a decision to accept Christ when he was a little boy. That decision was not followed by commitment to live honoring God’s authority. His life was marked by insecurity, inability to make good decisions, and in a real sense, inconsequence as a member of society.
Then there was a time when he became a young man, of renewal, and a calling to commit. The young man did so, committing his life to living as a Kingdom Child. Ever since that time of commitment, the Lord has been renewing, transforming, and changing that young – now older – man.
Slowly, through the years there have been successes and failures, but always building on the inside to take care of what’s happening on the outside.
The man isn’t perfect now, but when he looks back over what the Lord has done these past 29 years he sees that commitment has led to renewal and transformation – that he is God’s, and God is his.
There is providence, joy and all good gifts in his life…even the difficulties are opportunities, every ache and pain, success and rejection…all of it marks of the love of God, and the assurance of heaven’s welcome at the end of the journey.
It’s a great way to live, honoring God’s Authority.
It’s the Kingdom Family way to live.
There’s no better way to live.
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[1] James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 1988), p. 450.
[2] http://www.sbclife.net/Articles/2004/02/SLA5.asp Copyright © 2004 Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee SBC Life is published by the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention
901 Commerce Street, Nashville, Tennessee 37203 Tel. 615.244.2355 Email us: jrevell@sbc.net
[3] Elwood Brownworth, The Printer’s Wink, (passed along from Anne Mehrling)
[4] Tom Eliff, Honoring God’s Authority, Principle #1 of Building a Kingdom Family, SBC.net
