Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye
I said that I would post my sermon from Graduation Sunday so here it is. Shalom.
Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye
Romans 12: 1-2
“Therefore, 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. Do not conform any longer to the patterns 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.
Paul begins the 12th chapter of this letter to the church in Rome with these two verses. The first question that we must ask ourselves about this text is what is the mercy that Paul is talking about? We must understand this first in order to understand the rest of the passage. So let’s take a quick look at what God’s mercy is.
The first 11 chapters of this letter are devoted to the explanation of what God’s mercy is, or in other words, the Gospel or “good news”. Paul writes, in detail, about what the good news is and what it means to the church in Rome. He wants to make sure that they understand the basis of their beliefs and that they won’t forget it. If you were to read these first 11 chapters you would find several verses that tell the good news in themselves.
Romans 3: 23-24 says, “…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”
Romans 5:8 says, “But God demonstrated his own love for us in this: While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Now the we understand the context of the first 11 chapters, Paul’s first phrase about God’s mercy says something like this, because God sent His son, Jesus, to die on the cross for our sins, I urge you, brothers to respond in these few ways.
Paul urges us “to offer our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God.” What Paul means is this…our lives should be unselfish worship to God. In all that we do, our lives should be worship to God: at work, at school, at home, in every place and in every situation we are to be in at state of unselfish worship to God. Countless times in the Gospels, Jesus says to his disciples, “The first shall be last and the last shall be first.” Meaning this, what Jesus wants from you in the way that you live your life, in the way that you worship Him, in the way that you do all things…it should be done with an attitude of service. God’s word is telling us that if we are to worship God, then we must be a servant to all.
In the second verse of this passage, Paul urges us “to not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our minds”. When we conform to the pattern of this world we end up not with God’s will for our lives, but with our own will. There are so many ways in which we are tempted to conform on a daily basis,
1. Living a me-centered life! Just as Paul urges us to live a life of unselfish worship, the world is telling us that life is all about me, myself, and I. We are to look out for ourselves, we are #1 in our lives, no one is more important than our own individual self.
Bill Hybles, Pastor of Willow Creek Community Church shares in his book Too Busy Not to Pray that almost every month at least one person shares with him that they are feeling “led” to leave their spouse. Pastor Hybles goes on to say that the bottom line is “people want to divorce the spouses to whom they were joined in holy matrimony in order to marry others who seem more attractive”. Pastor Hybles is seeing first hand the self centered attitude that when a relationship gets to hard, when it requires more than we want to give, we are going to seek something that is going to gratify our wants, needs and desires regardless of what we promised and who we hurt in the process.
This isn’t the only example of how we live “me centered lives”. Careers, money, friendships, and relationships with our own family members are all places that the ugliness of self-centeredness will tempt us away from thinking about living unselfishly in worship to God.
2. There is no absolute truth! As Christians we are seduced by the world into a life of suppressing absolute truth. We have the freedom to choose and believe in whatever we want. But we live in a culture that gives us a counter message. That once what we believe enters the way we conduct our work, our political choices, our time management, our interaction with others, and in all the ways that we live our lives. Then we are told that it has gone to far and we need to “keep that truth to ourselves”.
In a research study, by George Barna, called the Barna Report; What Americans Believe, it says that an estimated 74% of Americans strongly agree that “there is only one true God who is wholly and perfect who created the world and rules it today”. At the same time, an estimated 65% either strongly agree or somewhat agree with the statement that “there is no such thing as absolute truth.”
This shows the dilemma that there are conflicting messages of absolute truth. We want to believe in our heart of hearts the truth of the Gospel because it is absolute truth, and at the same time we are tempted to take on the message that absolute truth is ok as long as it stays private. Once we say that absolute truth is the only truth, then we are told that we are wrong.
If we don’t believe in an absolute truth then there is no point in worshiping God. We worship God for who he says he is, what he has done, is doing, and will do. To say that there is no absolute truth is to say that God is not who he says he is. To say that there is no absolute truth makes Jesus out to be a liar and a foney. This is a major area of conformity in our world today. Is this something you really want to conform to?
These are overwhelming issues that can seem impossible to overcome by ourselves. The Romans may have been feeling this same way, but Paul gives us hope in the last point of this passage, instead of conforming we are to “be transformed by the renewing of your minds.”
Today’s culture points to a me-centered life style, but when you transform your mind, you end up with a Christ-centered life style. Christ desires our hearts and minds. When asked what the greatest commandment was, Christ said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”
When you renew your mind with the things of God, you begin to think differently, act differently and feel differently. In order to transform your mind, you must develop your relationship with God and get to know Him.
At this point in my sermon I invited one of my volunteer youth workers, Jeff, who has been volunteering with our youth group for the past six years, to come and share his testimony with the students. This group of Seniors was his first Sunday School class when they were in the 7th grade. What he basically shared was that he was a Christian when he was in High School, but when he got to college he began to live a me-centered life style and drifted away from God. He looked for happiness and fulfillment in relationships with other people than with God. After he graduated from college God began to tug on His heart more. He began to study God’s word, talk to God, look to God for guidance in his life. God turned Jeff, from a conformer into a transformer who is now being used by God to create transformers.
My point in having Jeff come up and share his testimony is because I wanted you to see how God turned Jeff into a transformer. And I would like to point out two things that Jeff did that allowed God to move in His life and make into the transformer that he is.
First, Jeff studied God’s word. The Bible is our way into God’s mind and heart. If we do not know the Bible we do not know Him. So I encourage you to develop a time in your day when you are able to study God’s word, meditate on it and learn about the heart and mind of God. Along with a personal quiet time with God, I urge you to be involved in a small group Bible study. When you are a part of a group of people who can struggle over the Holy Scriptures together and allow each other to be stretched and grown everyone learns more about God and their relationship with each other grows and more importantly their relationship with God grows.
Secondly, Jeff was in conversation with God. When you are praying with God you are having a two way conversation. It is easy for us to just talk at God when we pray and to tell Him all our cares and worries, but when we allow some time to calm and silence ourselves we are able to listen to God and hear His voice. God calls us to pray continually and have Him constantly in our thoughts. When we begin to do these two things, God becomes more real in our lives and we are able to renew our minds.
I think the coolest part of this passage is the end of it. When we offer our bodies as living sacrifices and when we transform our minds we end up knowing what God’s will is. How many of us have ever wondered what God’s will is for our lives. When we are in tune with God, it is easier for us to know His will. We don’t have to search as far or worry about it as much; if we are in tune with God then we will know His heart and His mind and know His will for us. As graduates you are starting a new phase in your life, you are entering a time in your life that may bring uncertainty. When you graduate from college you are going to have to find jobs and begin a time of searching. Remember that if you are in tune with God you will know His will—“His good pleasing and perfect will”.
So may you live a life of worship to God, may you know that Jesus is the absolute truth in this world, and may you be in tune with God so that you will know His good pleasing and perfect will in your lives. And may you become the transformers that God wants you to be. Amen
Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye
Romans 12: 1-2
“Therefore, 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. Do not conform any longer to the patterns 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.
Paul begins the 12th chapter of this letter to the church in Rome with these two verses. The first question that we must ask ourselves about this text is what is the mercy that Paul is talking about? We must understand this first in order to understand the rest of the passage. So let’s take a quick look at what God’s mercy is.
The first 11 chapters of this letter are devoted to the explanation of what God’s mercy is, or in other words, the Gospel or “good news”. Paul writes, in detail, about what the good news is and what it means to the church in Rome. He wants to make sure that they understand the basis of their beliefs and that they won’t forget it. If you were to read these first 11 chapters you would find several verses that tell the good news in themselves.
Romans 3: 23-24 says, “…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”
Romans 5:8 says, “But God demonstrated his own love for us in this: While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Now the we understand the context of the first 11 chapters, Paul’s first phrase about God’s mercy says something like this, because God sent His son, Jesus, to die on the cross for our sins, I urge you, brothers to respond in these few ways.
Paul urges us “to offer our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God.” What Paul means is this…our lives should be unselfish worship to God. In all that we do, our lives should be worship to God: at work, at school, at home, in every place and in every situation we are to be in at state of unselfish worship to God. Countless times in the Gospels, Jesus says to his disciples, “The first shall be last and the last shall be first.” Meaning this, what Jesus wants from you in the way that you live your life, in the way that you worship Him, in the way that you do all things…it should be done with an attitude of service. God’s word is telling us that if we are to worship God, then we must be a servant to all.
In the second verse of this passage, Paul urges us “to not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our minds”. When we conform to the pattern of this world we end up not with God’s will for our lives, but with our own will. There are so many ways in which we are tempted to conform on a daily basis,
1. Living a me-centered life! Just as Paul urges us to live a life of unselfish worship, the world is telling us that life is all about me, myself, and I. We are to look out for ourselves, we are #1 in our lives, no one is more important than our own individual self.
Bill Hybles, Pastor of Willow Creek Community Church shares in his book Too Busy Not to Pray that almost every month at least one person shares with him that they are feeling “led” to leave their spouse. Pastor Hybles goes on to say that the bottom line is “people want to divorce the spouses to whom they were joined in holy matrimony in order to marry others who seem more attractive”. Pastor Hybles is seeing first hand the self centered attitude that when a relationship gets to hard, when it requires more than we want to give, we are going to seek something that is going to gratify our wants, needs and desires regardless of what we promised and who we hurt in the process.
This isn’t the only example of how we live “me centered lives”. Careers, money, friendships, and relationships with our own family members are all places that the ugliness of self-centeredness will tempt us away from thinking about living unselfishly in worship to God.
2. There is no absolute truth! As Christians we are seduced by the world into a life of suppressing absolute truth. We have the freedom to choose and believe in whatever we want. But we live in a culture that gives us a counter message. That once what we believe enters the way we conduct our work, our political choices, our time management, our interaction with others, and in all the ways that we live our lives. Then we are told that it has gone to far and we need to “keep that truth to ourselves”.
In a research study, by George Barna, called the Barna Report; What Americans Believe, it says that an estimated 74% of Americans strongly agree that “there is only one true God who is wholly and perfect who created the world and rules it today”. At the same time, an estimated 65% either strongly agree or somewhat agree with the statement that “there is no such thing as absolute truth.”
This shows the dilemma that there are conflicting messages of absolute truth. We want to believe in our heart of hearts the truth of the Gospel because it is absolute truth, and at the same time we are tempted to take on the message that absolute truth is ok as long as it stays private. Once we say that absolute truth is the only truth, then we are told that we are wrong.
If we don’t believe in an absolute truth then there is no point in worshiping God. We worship God for who he says he is, what he has done, is doing, and will do. To say that there is no absolute truth is to say that God is not who he says he is. To say that there is no absolute truth makes Jesus out to be a liar and a foney. This is a major area of conformity in our world today. Is this something you really want to conform to?
These are overwhelming issues that can seem impossible to overcome by ourselves. The Romans may have been feeling this same way, but Paul gives us hope in the last point of this passage, instead of conforming we are to “be transformed by the renewing of your minds.”
Today’s culture points to a me-centered life style, but when you transform your mind, you end up with a Christ-centered life style. Christ desires our hearts and minds. When asked what the greatest commandment was, Christ said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”
When you renew your mind with the things of God, you begin to think differently, act differently and feel differently. In order to transform your mind, you must develop your relationship with God and get to know Him.
At this point in my sermon I invited one of my volunteer youth workers, Jeff, who has been volunteering with our youth group for the past six years, to come and share his testimony with the students. This group of Seniors was his first Sunday School class when they were in the 7th grade. What he basically shared was that he was a Christian when he was in High School, but when he got to college he began to live a me-centered life style and drifted away from God. He looked for happiness and fulfillment in relationships with other people than with God. After he graduated from college God began to tug on His heart more. He began to study God’s word, talk to God, look to God for guidance in his life. God turned Jeff, from a conformer into a transformer who is now being used by God to create transformers.
My point in having Jeff come up and share his testimony is because I wanted you to see how God turned Jeff into a transformer. And I would like to point out two things that Jeff did that allowed God to move in His life and make into the transformer that he is.
First, Jeff studied God’s word. The Bible is our way into God’s mind and heart. If we do not know the Bible we do not know Him. So I encourage you to develop a time in your day when you are able to study God’s word, meditate on it and learn about the heart and mind of God. Along with a personal quiet time with God, I urge you to be involved in a small group Bible study. When you are a part of a group of people who can struggle over the Holy Scriptures together and allow each other to be stretched and grown everyone learns more about God and their relationship with each other grows and more importantly their relationship with God grows.
Secondly, Jeff was in conversation with God. When you are praying with God you are having a two way conversation. It is easy for us to just talk at God when we pray and to tell Him all our cares and worries, but when we allow some time to calm and silence ourselves we are able to listen to God and hear His voice. God calls us to pray continually and have Him constantly in our thoughts. When we begin to do these two things, God becomes more real in our lives and we are able to renew our minds.
I think the coolest part of this passage is the end of it. When we offer our bodies as living sacrifices and when we transform our minds we end up knowing what God’s will is. How many of us have ever wondered what God’s will is for our lives. When we are in tune with God, it is easier for us to know His will. We don’t have to search as far or worry about it as much; if we are in tune with God then we will know His heart and His mind and know His will for us. As graduates you are starting a new phase in your life, you are entering a time in your life that may bring uncertainty. When you graduate from college you are going to have to find jobs and begin a time of searching. Remember that if you are in tune with God you will know His will—“His good pleasing and perfect will”.
So may you live a life of worship to God, may you know that Jesus is the absolute truth in this world, and may you be in tune with God so that you will know His good pleasing and perfect will in your lives. And may you become the transformers that God wants you to be. Amen
posted by Paul at 1:53 PM
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