Transformation
Romans 12:1-2
"The secret of a good sermon is to have a good beginning and a good ending, then having the two as close together as possible." –George Burns
Romans 12 (Living Version)
12:1
And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice – the kind he will accept. When you think of what he has done for you, is this too much to ask?
12:2
Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is.
OUTLINE
Illustrate: It is said that no person will give up anything (and change) until they realize that the reward is worth the cost. That is, what they are giving up is far less than what they are gaining. Sometimes we have to move on faith, that God will provide a better reward than our current cost of change.
WHO IS IN CONTROL?
1. The Make Up of Man
a. Spirit, Soul, Body
i. Spirit – where man communes with God.
1. Is born dead
2. Everyone has one
3. Dead doesn’t mean non-existant – just not able to access God.
a. Occultists, “Crossing Over”, Witches,
4. Dead –broken relationship, separated
a. Body dies when it is separated from its source of life, the spirit.
b. We are spiritually dead b/c we are separated from our source of life, God.
5. God’s desire is to for the Spirit to control our Soul
ii. Soul – mind, will and emotions.
1. Soul wars with the Spirit (Rom 7)
2. Soul must be transformed, to transfigure the person.
3. MIND – will be discussed in detail in a few minutes.
iii. Body – the outer man, is in charge of the unregenerated person. This is what we are urged to give to God first.
iv. Romans 8:5-8, “Those who living according to the sinful nature have their MINDS set upon what that nature desires, but those who live in accordance with the Spirit, have their minds on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but he mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace.”
b. The Spirit Filled Person is actually the Spirit Controlled Person.
i. You will never get more of Jesus than you God when He first saved you Romans.8:9-11
However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. IfChrist is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
1. You got all of Him…but does he have all of you? That is one of the questions for today!
2. Are you more married now than 10 years ago? But you are more alike. You look alike, act alike, finish each other’s sentences and each others meals when you go out to eat. Why? You are giving more and more of yourselves to each other.
WHY AND HOW DO WE GIVE GOD CONTROL?
(Truth is, are you REALLY in control of your life?)
2. Sacrifice – No worship without sacrifice
a. Ie. OT giving the first and best
i. Eg. Your best breeders (cattle, rabbits)
ii. Offering – in churches – no offering, reduces act of worship.
b. Our Lord is declared (1 Peter 1:20) "to have been foreordained" as a sacrifice "before the foundation of the world," (Revelation 13:8) "slain from the foundation of the world."
c. Just as Christ offered his body for us, now we must offer ours.)
3. Reasonable Service
a. When you think of what he has done for you!
b. Examine what He has done for you. Max Lucado’s Easter reading.
4. Renew the Mind
a. nous [nou’"] (meaning mind, reason, intellect, understanding, "worldview").
b. Mind/Reason That part of the human being in which thought takes place and perception and decisions to do good, evil, and the like come to expression.
c. Renewal of the Mind.
i. Ephesians 4:23 ("be made new in the attitude of your minds")
ii. Col 3:10), is the prerequisite for reaching an understanding of God’s will
“and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him—“
iii. 2Co 4:16 -
Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.
d. DIGRESSION: Thinker or Feeler (see how the “soul” is wired)
i. Feelers couch their needs in “when you ___ I feel ___” Feelings can’t be argued but beliefs and ideas can be disputed.
ii. Feelers are percepters
iii. Thinkers work in the logical part of the mind. Conceptual.
iv. Thinking and Feeling INFORM our Will.
e. The TRUTH is essential for proper information to our Will.
i. Devil is the author of lies (John 8:44)
ii. I am the Way, the Truth and the Life (Jn 14:6)
iii. The Truth shall set you Free! (John 8:32 )
iv. We base decisions on what we believe to be truth (in our feelings and thoughts)
1. You feel as if people don’t like you…but it is far from the truth because of experiences and lies from your youth…now you can’t believe you are likeable. It causes you to ACT according to what you believe…even if it is Wrong.
2. You believe that you everyone doesn’t need Jesus to be saved…as a result, you never share your faith, because the lie has informed your will.
3. “I am so stupid”
4. “I’m no good”
5. “I can’t change”
v. Counter the lies with the truth – promises of God’s word, “There is now no condemnation ..”
TRANSFORMED/TRANSFIGURED
He was transfigured before them (metemorpwqh emprosqen autwn). The word is the same as the metamorphoses (cf. Ovid) of pagan mythology. Luke does not use it. The idea is change (meta-) of form (morph). It really presents the essence of a thing as separate from the schma (fashion), the outward accident. So in Romans 12:2 Paul uses both verbs, sunscematizesqe (be not fashioned) and metamorpousqe (be ye transformed in your inner life). So in 1 Corinthians 7:31 schma is used for the fashion of the world while in Mark 16:12 morph is used of the form of Jesus after his resurrection
Do not be fashioned in your form, behavior and outward actions to those of the world, but Be changed (metamorphasis) in your inner essence or life. Same greek words used to describe Jesus’ transfiguration but translaters used the Latin Transfigured b/c of the association of metamorphasis with pagan beliefs.
vi. God desires to change us into His likeness, and he does so from the inside out. These next three verses:
vii. Eph 1:2 “according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead…”
viii. Mt. 17:2 “And he was transfigured before them” (same word as transformed)
ix. 2 Cor 3:18 “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord, are being TRANSFORMED into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
f. We are to have a RENEWED mind. (anakainosis -a renewal, renovation, complete change for the better-
i. 1 Cor. 2:16) “ But we have the mind of Christ.”
ii. Col 3:10 - and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him--
iii. Eph 4:23 – “and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, “ (That your human spirit be made young or new again)
iv. Renewed mind begins with the TRUTH
v. We play the old tapes over and over, the tapes from before we were saved or of lies we were led to believe.
vi. We erase those tapes with the truth.
vii. Fill our minds with the Word of God, eg. Promises of God.
g. WAR for the MIND.
i. Ro 7:23 - But there is another law at work within me that is at war with my mind. This law wins the fight and makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me.
ii. Ro 7:25 -Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.
iii. Ro 8:6 - If your sinful nature controls your mind, there is death. But if the Holy Spirit controls your mind, there is life and peace.
iv. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, 4 for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. 5 {We are} destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and {we are} taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, (2 Cor 10:3-5)
RESULTS OF GIVING GOD CONTROL
5. Know God’s Will.
a. Logos – (Greek word for written word of God)
i. wwjd – obvious will of God. Love your neighbor.
b. Rhema – (Greek word for personalized word of God)
i. JLTM (Jesus live through me)
ii. The still small voice of God, the prompting of the Holy Spirit.
iii. You won’t hear the Rhema if you don’t have the obvious Logos obeyed.
iv. It is those AHA moments. (you read the same passage over and over, but one day it takes on a personal meaning to you?)
1. Quitting smoking
v. Ie. Should I buy this house? Should I marry this or that person? Should I give money to this or that cause or person or need?
vi. Wasn’t your first experience hearing HIS voice when He called your name to have a rel. with Him…to abandon all for Him?
YOUR DECISION:
1. Perhaps you have been feeling as if God has spoken directly to you today, you are experiencing and hearing His voice…you feel like squirming, because you know He is dealing with you.
2. Is your body a living sacrifice? Have you GIVEN it and all of its appetites to God for His use?
3. Is your body still in control of your life? Surrender today!
4. Has your mind and emotions been believing lies that have kept you from experiencing the LIBERATING AND TRANFORMING truth that will let you know God’s will? Decide today to choose the truth…if that means reading your bible in a brand new way, or getting counseling for hurts you experienced years ago, or offering forgiveness for pain you suffered.
5. You cannot know freedom until you know and ACT UPON THE TRUTH.
Max Lucado
God, I may be stepping out of line by saying this, but I need to tell you something that’s been on my mind.
“Go ahead”
I don’t like the verse, “My God, My God, why have you abandoned me?” It doesn’t sound like you, it doesn’t sound like something you would say.
Usually I love it when you speak. I listen when you speak. I imagine the power of your voice, the thunder of your commands, the dynamism in your dictates. That’s what I like to hear.
That’s why I don’t like this verse…
Look at the sentence. There is a why at the beginning and a question mark at the end. You, God, don’t ask questions…
As long as I’m shooting straight with you, I don’t like to see the word ABANDON either. The source of life, abandoned? The giver of love…alone? The father of all…isolated?
Come on, Surely you don’t mean it. Could diety feel abandoned?
Could we change the sentence a bit? Not much, just the verb?
“What would you suggest?”
How about challenge? My God, My God, why did you challenge me? Isnt’ that better? Now we can applaud. Now we can lift banners for your dedication. Now we can explain it to our children. It makes sense now. You see, that makes you a hero. History is full of heroes.
And who is a hero but someone who survives a challenge?
Or if that is not acceptable, I have another one. Why not afflict. My God, my God, why did you afflict me? Yes, that’s it. Now you are a martyr, taking a stand for truth. A patriot, pierced by evil. A noble soldier who took the sword all the way to the hilt; bloody and beaten, but victorious.
Afflicted is much better than abandoned. You are a martyr. Right up there with Patrick Henry and Abraham Lincoln.
You are God. Jesus! You couldn’t be abandoned. You couldn’t be left alone. You couldn’t be deserted in your most painful moment.
Abandonment. That is the punishment for a criminal. Abandonment. That is the suffering borne by the most evil. Abandonment. That’s for the vile, not for you. Not you, the King of kings. Not for you, the Beginning and the End. Not you, the One Unborne. After all, didn’t John call you the Lamb of God?
“Who has come to take away the sins of the world.” Wait a minute. “To take away the sins…” I’d never thought about those words.
I’d read them but never thought about them. I though you just…I don’t know, sent sin away, banished it. I thought you ‘d just stood in front of the mountains of our sins and told them to begone, just like you did to the demons, just like you did to the hypocrites in the temple.
I just thought you commanded the evil out. I never noticed that you took it out. It never occurred to me that you actually touched it – or worse still, that it touched you.
That must have been a horrible moment. I know what its like to be touched by sin. I know what it’s like to be touched by sin. I know what its like to smell the stench of that stuff. Remember what I used to be like? Before I knew you, I wallowed in that mire. I didn’t just touch sin, I loved it, drank it. I danced with it. I was in the middle of it.
But why am I telling you. You remember. You were the one who saw me. You were the one who found me. I was lonely. I was afraid. Remember? “Why, Why me”? Why has all this hurt happened?
I know it wasn’t much of a question, it wasn’t the right question. But it was I all kknew to ask. You see God, I felt so confused, so desolate. Sin will do that to you. Sin leaves you feeling shipwrecked, orphaned, adrift, sin leaves you ABAND….
Oh my!
My goodness God. Is that what happened? You mean sin did the same to you that it did to me?
Im sorry. I didn’t know, I didn’t understand. You really were alone weren’t you?
Your question was real, wasn’t it Jesus. You really were afraid. You really were alone. Just like I was. Only I deserved it, and you didn’t’.
(You took my sin and my abandonment so I wouldn’t have to be lost and alone anymore?)
