Becoming a Romans 12 Church
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Laying a Solid Foundation For Living
There can be a place where dreams come true, and no one has any unmet expectations, and everyone is sold out to a common cause.
There could be a community called Romans Twelve.
It is the place that I long for our church to be at.
In this place serving Christ passionately comes without question.
In this radical contemporary place people live out their entire lives sold out to the sole vision and purpose of serving a risen savior.
Radically obedient believers who here from the Lord continually and do His bidding no matter how ridiculous the request.
In this place on any given day, you can take part in inspiring worship services that draw you into the very presence of God.
There you will meet Him in the Holy of Holies, and you will fall to your knees in reverent submission before your creator.
After worship each day powerful preaching takes place.
The word spoken penetrates your body and you are once again drawn to Him who sits on the throne.
These words are living and active and move about your soul with a swiftness that compels you to move.
On any given day you can see people leaving this place.
Their heads held high they are on a mission.
They have been so inspired and blessed and motivated that they are going out to start another Romans Twelve community.
Into every nation, into every part of the world they carry their radical obedience making sure they tell everyone about HIM.
I APPEAL to you therefore, brethren, and beg of you in view of [all] the mercies of God, to make a decisive dedication of your bodies [presenting all your members and faculties] as a living sacrifice, holy (devoted, consecrated) and well pleasing to God, which is your reasonable (rational, intelligent) service and spiritual worship.
Do not be conformed to this world (this age), [fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs], but be transformed (changed) by the [entire] renewal of your mind [by its new ideals and its new attitude], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His sight for you].
For by the grace (unmerited favor of God) given to me I warn everyone among you not to estimate and think of himself more highly than he ought [not to have an exaggerated opinion of his own importance], but to rate his ability with sober judgment, each according to the degree of faith apportioned by God to him.
For as in one physical body we have many parts (organs, members) and all of these parts do not have the same function or use,
So we, numerous as we are, are one body in Christ (the Messiah) and individually we are parts one of another [mutually dependent on one another].
Having gifts (faculties, talents, qualities) that differ according to the grace given us, let us use them: [He whose gift is] prophecy, [let him prophesy] according to the proportion of his faith;
[He whose gift is] practical service, let him give himself to serving; he who teaches, to his teaching;
He who exhorts (encourages), to his exhortation; he who contributes, let him do it in simplicity and liberality; he who gives aid and superintends, with zeal and singleness of mind; he who does acts of mercy, with genuine cheerfulness and joyful eagerness.
[Let your] love be sincere (a real thing); hate what is evil [loathe all ungodliness, turn in horror from wickedness], but hold fast to that which is good.
Love one another with brotherly affection [as members of one family], giving precedence and showing honor to one another.
Never lag in zeal and in earnest endeavor; be aglow and burning with the Spirit, serving the Lord.
Rejoice and exult in hope; be steadfast and patient in suffering and tribulation; be constant in prayer.
Contribute to the needs of God’s people [sharing in the necessities of the saints]; pursue the practice of hospitality.
Bless those who persecute you [who are cruel in their attitude toward you]; bless and do not curse them.
Rejoice with those who rejoice [sharing others’ joy], and weep with those who weep [sharing others’ grief].
Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty (snobbish, high-minded, exclusive), but readily adjust yourself to [people, things] and give yourselves to humble tasks. Never overestimate yourself or be wise in your own conceits.
Repay no one evil for evil, but take thought for what is honest and proper and noble [aiming to be above reproach] in the sight of everyone.
If possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.
Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave the way open for [God’s] wrath; for it is written, Vengeance is Mine, I will repay (requite), says the Lord.
But if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals upon his head.
Do not let yourself be overcome by evil, but overcome (master) evil with good.
If you go outside and look around, you will notice that we are in a very rural setting.
Hayfields, cornfields, wheatfields woods and streams dot the horizon.
Cars zoom up and down the road outside and nobody looks twice at the little old church tucked into the countryside along Church Road.
We can feel like we are isolated and insignificant when we take in our surroundings.
We can feel like we do not matter in the greater scheme of life and the world.
Sometimes we can feel like we are looking out into the chaos and evil and we want to stay safe in our little church, not ruffle any feathers, not become a target for the enemy.
Sometimes we don’t even want to leave our homes because it’s safer.
We want to pretend that it doesn’t matter.
We like to pretend that we cannot make a difference.
Slowly we begin to believe that we have nothing to offer, we believe a lie.
We start to believe that nothing we do will make a difference and our light fades.
Then the questions start:
Who have we become?
What have we become?
Can we begin to make a difference?
I want to tell you a story.
Once upon a time… Don’t those words begin to fill you with awe?
I love stories that start out that way.
Because you know that something magical is about to happen as you turn the pages of the story and experience words woven into the tapestry of their world as we make it our own.
A good story draws you in, makes you want to be a part of what is happening.
I don’t know if I am a good storyteller or a good story writer – Probably not.
But I am a good story reader.
I love to ready Stories.
This isn’t a magical story, it doesn’t have the ending I like but it is true.
Once upon a time there was a Hero who wore a red bandana.
It is said that his family used to dress up for church
One such week, our young hero asked his father for a handkerchief to put in the breast pocket of his jacket.
His father then handed his son a handkerchief to put in the jacket “for show” and a red bandana to keep in a back pocket “for blows,”.
He kept the red bandana in his back pocket for years to come as a way to connect to his father.
He was a young man just 24 years old at the time of this story.
I don’t know what went through his mind that day.
I really don’t know what he was thinking.
I don’t know what his morning routine looked like, did he have coffee, a donut?
Was he happy or sad? Looking forward to the day?
His mom once said “he was full of adventure, always leaping from the highest places,”.
“But he was also kind of like a guardian angel.”
At age 5, he followed his 3-year-old sister after she ran into the street and pulled her back to safety.
This would be the role he would play on the day of our story.
The Role of the Guardian the role of Hero.
Bravery and sacrifice beyond measure.
The hero’s name was Welles Crowther
Crowther was an equities trader who worked on the 104th story of the World Trade Center’s South Tower.
After the plane struck, Crowther helped 18 people escape the wreckage and get out of the building before it collapsed.
He had been identified by many people as simply “the man in the red bandana” (which he wore to protect from the smoke and debris).
Many reported that Crowther gave firm directions to those who were still stunned from the impact and assisted the injured.
He ushered several floors of office workers to safe exists, even carrying one woman on his back at one point.
After clearing those who could move, Crowther went back into to search the more floors.
His face covered, the man in the red bandana saved at least 18 people by showing them a way out of the South Tower of the World Trade Center.
In the 2017 documentary “Man in the Red Bandana,” survivor Ling Young recalls hearing a young man say he found stairs to escape the tower and followed him along with several others.
After that man led Young and others out of the South Tower, he ran back up the stairs.
The towers collapsed and his body was found with the firefighters.
Ultimately, he gave his life to help others until the very last seconds before the building fell.
His impact was so great that many of those he saved remain connected – bonded by being saved by the same person.
In his office before the attacks Welles kept the bandana folded on his desk.
One day, a woman who worked in the office approached him and asked about the bandana.
“Welles picked up the red bandana, turned around and held it up and said, ‘With this red bandana, I'm going to change the world,’ ”.
How many people died that day including our hero? 2,977 - 2,996. Depending on who is telling the story.
We know for sure that 1 person made a difference in 18 lives.
He could have said, I cannot save everyone, I am just going to get out of here.
But he didn’t.
Why did I tell you this story?
I wanted to show you that I person can make a difference
I wanted us to make this our spiritual story –
Wearing the Red Bandanna
Leading people out of chaos and evil
Showing them the way
Leading people to Jesus
We need to believe that we are significant in the kingdom of God.
We are not a little nameless church in the middle of rural Ohio.
We are New Creation Fellowship Destined to Amazing Kingdom Work one person at a time.
We can be a Romans 12 Church.
How will we do that?
I feel like more than anything else God is calling us to work together to empower each other to share Jesus within our sphere of influence.
Building community within NCF to share Jesus with the world!
People are hungry to know that you care, people want to know that they matter.
I want to start out this year by asking us to make Romans 12 the foundation for the year.
So want to take us on a journey through Romans 12 for several Sundays to Help us begin to lay the foundation of how this works for real in our lives.
When we come to faith in Christ Jesus, what’s supposed to change about our lives?
That’s the subject of Romans 12.
Romans 1-11 is that portion of the Bible that sets forth in logical and theological terms the doctrine of being justified by grace through faith.
The remainder of Romans—chapters 12-16—explains to us the changes that should occur in our lives once we have accepted the message of the first eleven chapters.
Since we have been justified by grace through faith, here is how we should then live.
Notice how chapter 12 opens: 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 pattern 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.
These are the two verses that link Romans 1-11 with Romans 12-16 and tell us about our changed lives.
Romans 12 deals with three of these changes.
Because of Jesus:
A Life of Giftedness (Romans 12:3-8)
Our very self-image is now based on the fact that, as new Christians, we have a new reason for living;
and we’ve been given a set of gifts with which we can serve God.
Paul summarizes the spiritual gifts we have in seven different categories:
He indicates that when our lives are transformed by grace through faith, we become gifted people.
Called to serve God in humble ways wherever we are, and every moment in life is an opportunity for service.
Because of Jesus:
A Life of Goodness (Romans 12:9-13)
In terms of our habits and attitudes, we begin turning from what is evil and clinging to what is good, loving others, being devoted to one another, honoring one another, practicing hospitality, and letting the goodness of our Lord Jesus Christ be a live streaming video feed through us every day.
Because of Jesus:
A Life of Graciousness (Romans 12:14-21)
Christians should be easy to get along with, pleasant, gracious, forgiving easily, and personable.
There may be some who won’t get along with us, but if we are gracious to people.
If we don’t get mad and stay mad at others and don’t let a root of bitterness spring up, we’ll have a much easier time in life.
Jesus has always demanded a-persons-all in following Him.
He never made an exception.
If He ever did, it would have been the time a rich young man came to follow Jesus.
Outwardly the man had all the trappings that would make for a great follower.
Inwardly, however, he was holding back.
Jesus recognized that.
He will not accept a partial commitment.
He didn’t then; He doesn’t now.
The apostle Paul provides a theological framework for what it means to follow Christ totally and the consequential changes it makes in a person’s life.
Offer Ourselves To God Because Of His Mercy (v.1)
Paul presents God’s mercies as his strongest argument for giving ourselves to God.
“I urge you,” Paul said, “by the mercies of God . . . to present your bodies” (Rom. 12:1).
When we recognize what God has done for us through his son Jesus Christ, the only response is to give ourselves completely to him.
Jesus is the grace-giver.
The dead-raiser.
The one who saves us.
We are sinners.
That sin has deathly consequences.
But while we were still sinners Christ died for us.
He took our place taking upon himself the consequences and punishment of our sin so that now there is no condemnation for us.
We are saved from the fires of hell to the eternal presence of God.
That is an act of grace and mercy.
It is the ultimate gift. Never forget it.
That should be motivation enough for us to give our whole lives to God.
If reflecting on God’s mercies doesn’t move us, then we are in trouble?
Where would we be without God’s love and forgiveness?
Where would we be without God’s presence in our lives?
What kind of hope would we have without him?
Let’s think for a moment about our situations.
Consider our family, our friends, our job, and our church.
Do we deserve those on merit alone?
If we are honest with ourselves suddenly we begin to realize the wonder of God’s mercies.
Peter says it this way:
Once you were not a people [at all], but now you are God’s people; once you were unpitied, but now you are pitied and have received mercy.
What he was saying is that once you had nothing and now you have everything because of His mercy.
But God—so rich is He in His mercy! Because of and in order to satisfy the great and wonderful and intense love with which He loved us,
Based on the mercy of God, in view of his grace, Because of his Love we give ourselves to God.
That is reason enough.
2. We offer ourselves to God as a living sacrifice.
Paul said “... to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God” (Rom. 12:1).
The expression “living sacrifice” is set against the backdrop of the Old Testament sacrifices.
While the Old Testament worshiper offered an animal, the New Testament worshiper is to offer himself or herself.
Just as the people of Israel presented their animal sacrifices to the priests we are to hand over our bodies to God.
Out of celebration for what God has done for us through his Son, Jesus Christ, we give ourselves to him.
When Paul uses the term body he is implying the whole person, or the physical means whereby the whole person is expressed.
This presentation can be seen in much the same way that a defeated general of an army would hand over his sword, thereby demonstrating the surrender of his whole being.
In this act of consecration we give not our dead bodies, but rather we make a living sacrifice.
A “living sacrifice” sounds like an oxymoron.
A living sacrifice is more difficult to give than a dead sacrifice.
A living sacrifice means something to us.
It has intrinsic value.
Dead sacrifices have no value.
They don’t mean anything to us.
Living sacrifices cost us something.
Dead sacrifices cost nothing.
Jesus was a living sacrifice for us.
He was the perfect “living sacrifice,” because he actually died as a sacrifice, in obedience to God’s will.
The Writer of Hebrews tells us this:
then how much more the blood of the Messiah, who, through the eternal Spirit, offered himself to God as a sacrifice without blemish, will purify our conscience from works that lead to death, so that we can serve the living God!
As Paul finished speaking doctrinally in the previous chapters of Romans, he now appeals to doctrinal application.
It’s where the truth being taught is applied to life — where the rubber meets the road.
Those who believe, putting their faith and trust in Jesus, are strongly encouraged to become a “living sacrifice.”
Believers are to live an uncommon life.
We are called to offer up a life that is alive, holy, and pleasing to God.
With Jesus conquering death, defeating Satan, and overcoming the world, believers are, however, left with a problem — basically only one problem.
Living sacrifices can crawl off the altar.
Because we are faced with that temptation every day, we must stay focused on keeping the proper mindset to win that battle.
We are no ordinary people.
We have the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit helping us be transformed to become a pure spiritual offering to God, knowing and enjoying his perfect will.
We are a chosen people called to worship God.
Becoming a living sacrifice is both at the heart of worshiping God and obedience.
3. We offer ourselves to God all the time.
Living implies life.
Life is an everyday experience.
Offering ourselves to God is not something that should be contained within a sixty-minute worship.
A living sacrifice is a sacrifice that is alive and continuous in action.
This means worship occurs not just in the sanctuary but in our whole world.
This means that worship moves away from just this hour to all the hours of our lives.
And it moves away from one activity of coming to worship to all of our activities:
each relationship, each task, each opportunity, each problem, each success, each failure.
True worship is our personal linking of faith and works, the offering of everyday life to God, and it isn’t something that takes place only in church.
Real worship sees the whole world as the temple of the living God and every common deed as an act of worship.
Real worship is the offering of everyday life to God.
A person may say, “I am going to church to worship God,”
but he or she should also be able to say,
“I am going to the office, the school, the garage, the garden, the field, to worship God.”
To truly know who and how you worship, let me see you in your office,
let me hear you speak in your business affairs, 3
let me know how you treat your neighbors,
let me know how you earn your money, how you save it, and how you spend it.
Worship should affect everything we do and everywhere we are.
It never ceases to amaze me that we have developed a kind of selective Christianity that allows us to be deeply and sincerely involved in worship and church activities
and yet almost totally pagan in the day in, day out business of our lives.
And what is even sadder is that most of us never realize the discrepancy.
Worship is not just a church activity; it is a life activity.
Worship is not a sometime thing; it is an all-the-time occurrence.
Worship is not a once-a-week event.
A. W. Tozer wrote, “If you will not worship God seven days a week you do not worship him on one day a week.” (John Blanchard, comp., More Gathered Gold, Welwyn, Hertfordshire, England: Evangelical Press, 1984, p. 344.)
Sometimes we mistakenly think that we must always withdraw to a church building to worship.
Too often we have sought to protect our spirituality by developing a ghetto mentality and a greenhouse environment.
But that is not always healthy.
Let’s not interpret worship as isolation and separation.
True worship is offering God one’s self, and all that one does every day with it, wherever we might be.
The Writer of Hebrews tells us:
Through Him, therefore, let us constantly and at all times offer up to God a sacrifice of praise, which is the fruit of lips that thankfully acknowledge and confess and glorify His name.
Colossians shows us how this works in our lives:
And above all these [put on] love and enfold yourselves with the bond of perfectness [which binds everything together completely in ideal harmony].
And let the peace (soul harmony which comes) from Christ rule (act as umpire continually) in your hearts [deciding and settling with finality all questions that arise in your minds, in that peaceful state] to which as [members of Christ’s] one body you were also called [to live]. And be thankful (appreciative), [giving praise to God always].
Let the word [spoken by] Christ (the Messiah) have its home [in your hearts and minds] and dwell in you in [all its] richness, as you teach and admonish and train one another in all insight and intelligence and wisdom [in spiritual things, and as you sing] psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, making melody to God with [His] grace in your hearts.
And whatever you do [no matter what it is] in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus and in [dependence upon] His Person, giving praise to God the Father through Him.
This type of continual offering to God only happens when we allow the words of Scripture to have their home in our hearts and lives continually.
When the Word of God becomes alive in our hearts it turns into continual worship and spills out of us in singing psalms, hyms and spiritual songs as we create a melody pleasing to God.
This happens through Number 4.
4. We offer ourselves to God through transformation and renewal.
We demonstrate our commitment by refusing to conform to this world by being transformed through renewed minds.
Paul stated, “Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God” (Rom. 12:2).
When we give ourselves to God it is reflected in how we live.
Believers stay in the secular world without being trapped by it and molded by it.
We live as holy people.
People who are distinct, separated from the ways and the wiles of this world.
We live as nonconformist people.
People who are not chameleons, that is, people who do not take its being and likeness from its surroundings.
We live as transformed people.
People who have been metamorphosed on the inside.
Worshiping people are changed people.
It is reflected in their walk, their talk, and their personality.
When we give ourselves to God we live, not as self-centered, but a Christ-centered life.
The world seeks to pressure our mind from without, but one who has given themselves wholeheartedly to God allows God’s Spirit to release his power from within.
This happens when Christ comes into a person.
She becomes a new person; her mind is different, for the mind of Christ is in her.
Rather than allow the world to squeeze us into its mold; we allow Christ to shape us into his likeness.
Worship is a molding process.
We are to be to Christ as an image is to the original. .
For example, I don’t do the things Jesus would have done; I find myself wanting to do them.
I don’t go around trying to do right things; I become the right sort of person.
The primary goal of worship is transformation.
The only way transformation can occur is to give ourselves totally to God so the mind and power of Jesus Christ can indwell in us.
And when that happens, every moment, every activity of life, we are like Jesus.
Like Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “The simplest person, who in his integrity worships God, becomes God.” (Ralph Waldo Emerson, “The Over-Soul,” Essays, first series, 1841, Cited in The Treasury of Religious and Spiritual Quotations: Words to Live By, p. 635)
The Ephesian Church was challenged to Renew their minds
You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts,
and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds,
and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
Isaiah said it looks like this:
But those who wait upon God get fresh strength. They spread their wings and soar like eagles, They run and don’t get tired, they walk and don’t lag behind.
Having a renewed mind isn’t just about changing our minds about something.
A renewed mind encompasses our whole being which will be renewed.
Long before our NT writers came along to explain things to us Isaiah had figured it out.
He knew, experienced, lived out and felt the results of staying focused on God and how that not only impacted the world around him but impacted him in his body as well.
Watch this video about what the Church is:
So to Recap:
To Recap:
We offer ourselves to God Because of His mercy
We offer ourselves to God as a living sacrifice
We offer ourselves to God all the time
We offer ourselves to God through transformation and Renewal