Stop Being Like the world!

1. Christians are called to be different.

I had trouble with this message this week, not because I didn’t know what God was giving me to preach with you, but because this is a difficult message. I have preached, or taught youth lessons on this subject and this main passage before, but this week, God was opening my eyes to a new way of looking at this that I had not considered before.

Also today’s subject is going to hit on one or several hot topics in our country today, that typically I have steered away from preaching on just because it’s clear to me what the Bible says, and it can come across to some as controversial.

I want you to understand this morning, my aim is to not avoid being controversial, but to avoid keeping any part of scripture away from you. My calling as pastor is to give you the meat of God’s word as you are ready for it. This morning we need to push past all possible distractions as we look into God’s word and see what it really is showing us.

You may have never heard me speak so strongly as I will to you today.

Please understand I am not speaking out of hatred this morning, or even with a certain political motive, but strictly on what God has given me to give to you.

Please stand with me this morning as we read in Romans chapter 12 verses 1-3.

Romans 12:1-3 “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.”

Romans 12:1–3 KJV 1900

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.

The main focus of our message and of this section is that Christians are called to be different then the world.

We already know that, that is basic Christianity, but if so many know that, why do we choose to live like the world?

A recent study done by Arizona Christian University concluded that 58% of Americans that claim to be Christian do not believe that the Bible can give the standard for what is right or wrong.

Listen to that folks 58% of the American Christians that where surveyed said that the Bible can not tell them what is right or what is wrong.

I don’t know how that number changes if they surveyed more people, but still that is an incredibly alarming number of people.

We may not be able to see these test results or see who was surveyed, but we see the effects of people believing this way every day.

We are seeing an astounding number of people who want to live life their way, and do things the way they want to do them.

Because of this we have seen a rapid degrading of morality not only in our country but in the world.

People are choosing to live their way, and forsaking the things of God, and as a result our world continues to become more and more evil.

In Romans chapter 12, Paul is writing to the Roman church, advising them how they as Christians should be living.

He starts in verse 1 by giving us this clear command. “by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

Paul mentions “by the mercies of God”, because we can not do this on our own. Not only can we not do it on our own, for the most part, most of us don’t even want to do this outside of God giving us the desire to become more like Christ.

Pushing past our desires to follow what God wants for us goes against everything in our mortal body, hearts and minds.

Remember that we where created in the image of God, but because sin entered into the world through disobedience in the garden, we are all born with our hearts tuned to sin.

No one taught you how to sin, it was in your nature because you and I descended from Adam and inherited the curse of sin.

We truly where born with sin in our hearts.

Isaiah 53:6 “All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned every one to his own way; And the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

Isaiah 53:6 KJV 1900

All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned every one to his own way; And the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;”

Romans 3:23 KJV 1900

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

1 John 1:8 “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”

1 John 1:8 KJV 1900

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

We are all born with sin in our hearts.

I want to explain something to you this morning. There are certain types of sins that we hear about on a more regular basis. I’m thinking of some of the sexual sins that are being perpetrated, but also the things that the LGTB community will stand for.

I told you there are parts of this that may seem controversial this morning, but if we follow God’s word there is no controversy.

A lot of people in that community or that support that community will use the phrase “I was born this way, or even God made me this way.”

I want to be very clear this morning, God did not make anyone that way, and God did not make anyone sin.

I also want to be clear when I say this, each of us struggle with different sins in our lives. Some people are prone to abusing alcohol, drugs, some people are drawn to sexual sins, others to language that doesn't bring honor and glory to God.

All of us struggle with certain sins. Our personalities draw us to certain sins, but God did not make you to fall into those sins. Just as each of us struggle with our personal sins, each of us have been given the opportunity to be delivered from the sins through Jesus Christ, and it is a daily fight for some of us to overcome the temptations and sins that are given to us.

Just as we would never say that God made someone a wife beater, or made someone a cheater, or made someone a habitual liar, we should not say that someone was made by God to be a homosexual or transgender. They may be more drawn to those sins then we are, but they are still sins, and they must fight against those sins. They must overcome those sins through the power and mercy of God just as you and I must overcome the sins and temptations we are given.

Just because we are born in sin and drawn to those sins, does not mean God made us to keep sinning. In fact here we see in Romans that we are made to overcome those sins.

It is our personal responsibility to recognize the authority of God over our lives, and give ourselves up as living sacrifices.

The word Sacrifice is found 332 times in the King James version Bible.

The majority of these uses are focused on a gift being given, or forgiveness being requested on behalf of the sacrificer.

Here in Romans it is referring to the giving up of something important. Paul was writing here to the Romans, and sacrifice was very important in Roman culture as well as the Jewish culture.

The Roman idea of sacrifice was different from the Jewish law in that Romans would sacrifice something less important in hopes that something more important would be given to them. Jewish Law was quiet different.

Turn with me to Leviticus 1:1-3 “And the Lord called unto Moses, and spake unto him out of the tabernacle of the congregation, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, If any man of you bring an offering unto the Lord, ye shall bring your offering of the cattle, even of the herd, and of the flock. If his offering be a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish: he shall offer it of his own voluntary will at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord.”

Here we have Moses being given the Law about sacrifices, this specific form of sacrifice was to be voluntary and had to involve a male animal without blemish.

This in light of the passage in Romans teaches us what it means to be a living sacrifice. First it must be voluntary. This is something you choose today, because you love God, not because you are going to get something out of it, not because you are wanting to look good, but because you love God so much and and you want to bring him glory, praise, and honour.

You want to be pleasing to God. A sacrifice requires something dying, in the old testament, and in roman culture it involved an animal dying.

When that animal is sacrificed, you no longer have access to it. You can’t interact with it, you can’t play with it, there is nothing you can do to still be with that animal. This is how we need to look at being living sacrifices, we are sacrificing our old selves, we are dying to who we used to be before Christ, we are losing access to the person we used to be.

We need to give up our old way of thinking and give our minds,hearts and bodies completely over to God for him to guide, direct and use us.

We need to think about this seriously, as we need to cut off the person we used to be. We where like the world because we were born with Sin in our hearts, but because of Christ that all changes.

2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

Ephesians 2:10 “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”

Ephesians 2:10 KJV 1900

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Galatians 2:20 “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”

Galatians 2:20 KJV 1900

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

2. Christ is what creates the difference.

We’ve read those previous Verses, Christ is what makes the difference in our lives. He gives us new desires. But we must die to our selfish desires every day.

Luke 9:23 “And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.”

Luke 9:23 KJV 1900

And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.

This is a daily choice for us to deny ourselves and become more like Christ. When we choose to follow Christ he forgives us, but we still have to fight against our old nature. We have to fight against the sin that we are drawn to and tempted by.

Hebrews 12:1 “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,”

Hebrews 12:1 KJV 1900

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

We have to endure the race that is given to us, and push past our sins that do trap us and bring us down.

Romans 12:2 “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

We have to stop being like the world. We have to many worldly Christians. We have to renew our minds with Scripture, with the blessings that God has given us, and with regular church attendance, spending time in God’s word and with God’s people.

1 John 2:15-17 “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.”

What does it mean to love not the world?

It’s not talking about the world as in creation. We should love the creation that God has given us, It’s not meaning the people of the world, because Christ clearly called us to love others, what it is talking about is to Love the worldly systems.

The things in the world that displease God.

The worlds systems are no longer based on God's laws, but for the most part based on human feelings and desires.

The world says do whatever makes you feel good, God says do what he says is good.

The world says you do you, God says you do as he commands.

The world says there is no definite truth, God’s word says There is truth in Christ Jesus.

The world says follow man, Jesus says Follow me.

Titus 2:11-14 “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.”

Paul reminds Titus that we must deny ungodliness and worldly lusts. We need to put aside the things of the world, and we should soberly, Righteously, and Godly, and that we can do this through Christ.

Folks if there is any part of your life that is still following after worldly things, you must put those aside today and follow Him.

Give Christ your old desires, ask God to give you strength to defeat the sins and temptations in your life, and fight to resist the devil

James 4:7 “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”

Friends, today we must submit or give our lives totally to God, resist the things of the devil, and he will flee.