October 15, 2017
Morning Service

The last few weeks, Paul has walked us through some very deep theological truths.   He wrote to us about the sovereignty of God and how that applied to the Jewish nation rejecting Christ and the “engrafting” of the Gentiles.  To look at God, as Paul suggested, as the potter and we are His clay really gives you something to chew one.  He is in control.  This world we live in is His world not ours.  That fact is a whole lot easier to grasp knowing that God loves us and has promised that “everything” will work out for those who love Him for the “Good.”  Paul begins to bring our feet back to the ground as he explains some practical, doable, yet very challenging advice for us who are committed to following Jesus.

Romans 12:1  I beseech you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God, which is your reasonable service. 

·         This is certainly one of the most clear and challenging scriptures that explain to us the attitude and commitment we should have as a Jesus Follower.   A sacrifice in the OT was always to be an animal “without spot or blemish.”  It was taken to the altar and sacrificed to God in its entirety, given totally to God.  Paul here asks us to do the same, only we do not die upon that altar for Him, but we leave to live for Him. We “present our bodies as a living sacrifice” to Him.  We place ourselves upon that altar laying aside our desires choosing  to follow Him.  We make all our energies, resources, and talents available to Him for His use.  We surrender our heart, mind, body and soul to His care and for His purpose.   Look at how Paul explained this way to the Corinthian Church.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit in you, whom you have of God? And you are not your own, (20) for you are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.

·         See how it all fits together.  He is the potter and we are His clay.  We belong to Him and should be using our body and spirit to glorify God.  We are His hands and feet upon the earth.

·         By doing this we become holy and pleasing to God which he says is your “reasonable service.” (verse 1)  Some other translations state this as this is your “act of worship.”  In every instance that we surrender our will to His, it becomes our act of worship to our Lord. 

·         This temple of our body is not one that stays at a single address, but it goes where we go.  Paul is asking us to make our lives and the many tasks that each day holds into an act of worship.  As we go to work for the day at school, at the shop, the office, in the kitchen, on the construction site, at the grocery store, in the garage, driving a bus or at the mill we can offer it as an act of worship.  It is through the ordinary things in life that we are to do service or worship our Lord.  Doing the dishes or laundry, filling up the bread shelf, checking the oil, talking to a customer, fixing a computer becomes unordinary when we do it as an act of worship.

·         True worship (and God’s will for our lives) is offering our everyday life and the mundane tasks we do to Him.  It is much more than something we do only at church on Sunday.  We make our lives a “living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God.”  This takes a yielding to the Holy Spirit on our part and also a radical change in our lives.  What does that look like?  Here is what Paul told the Colossians.

 

Colossians 3:23-24 And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men; (24)  knowing that from the Lord you shall receive the reward of the inheritance. For you serve the Lord Christ.

·         “Whatever you do” covers a lot of ground.  We are not to be men pleasers, but we are serving the Lord.  There is our motivation for doing all this; we serve the Lord Christ.  It is the love and gratitude for our Savior that makes us want to be pleasing in His sight.  Paul now takes us to the second part of this challenge.

Romans 12:2  And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, in order to prove by you what is that good and pleasing and perfect will of God.

·         We often struggle to search for the “perfect will of God for our lives.”  Here Paul tells us that God does have a plan for us; a “will for our lives.”  It may be a grand plan that leads to some miraculous moment of realization as in the life of Ester or Joseph who God used in mighty ways.  But Paul explains to us that it is also in the small things that His will applies to us.  He wants us to be transformed with renewed minds living each day to honor and obey Him.  That is the life He desires for us that will lead to true happiness and contentment.

·         Paul says we are “not to be conformed to this world,” we are to be different than those in the world around us.  Conformed means to resemble look like or be in agreement with.  There needs to be a difference in the things we do, the things we say, the places we go, and the attitudes we display.  It is far too easy to fall in line with how everybody else does things.  How many times as a parent have you heard; “everyone else is doing it?”  How many times have we thought that? 

·         To copy the attitudes of this world would to be selfish, corrupt, and evil looking out for you alone.  We as Christ followers must place ourselves at a higher level of accountability than that.  We must decide what actions and attitudes would please God and which ones won’t.  We must draw a line and refuse to take the easy road accepting the things the world says are okay, but God says are not.  That is not the popular path to walk.  Jesus said this 

Matthew 7:13-14  Go in through the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in through it.  (14)  Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.

·         We do this by changing the way we think, “Renewing our minds.”  He will use the Holy Spirit to change the way you think.  You can seek to avoid the world’s customs and still be filled with pride, arrogance and be covetous.  The change that is needed comes from the inside; it is a new perspective.  We accept the fact that we are His temple and we are the clay to be used by Him for His glory.  We are not just trying to change our actions, but we change the motivation for those actions.  We have been made a new creation in Christ.

2 Corinthians 5:17 So that if anyone is in Christ, that one is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

·         We have been made into a new creation and part of that is that we stop conforming to this world’s standards and allow God to transform our minds.  We put off the old and put on the new.  Paul explained it this way in the Ephesian letter.

Ephesians 4:22-24  For you ought to put off the old man (according to your way of living before) who is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, (23) and be renewed in the spirit of your mind.  (24)  You must display a new nature because you are a new person, created in God’s likeness; righteous, holy and true.

·         What a challenge for us as Jesus followers!  It is not the easy road we have chosen, but really it is the only road that takes us where we want to go.  Heaven will be worth it.