Misc. - “It Only Makes Sense” - Romans 12:1-2

“It Only Makes Sense”

Hailey and I spent last week in Florida with family for Christmas. it was a wonderful time, as it always is.

One of the activities we were able to do as a family was celebrate our son Baylor’s birthday.

He turned three years old on Friday the 29th, and we had a wonderful time celebrating the gift of God that he is. It was a joy to see him smile as he looked down on a cupcake, and even cuter to see how his eyes lit up looking down on the candle.

He was so excited!

Sure, he was excited to be around people he loved. He was pumped to see a few gifts. He talked in his deep voice to his older brother.

But you know what I think he was most excited for?

“I growed up daddy!”

“I getting bigger daddy”

“I want to grow bigger”

Since he said those words with his sweet little nose scrunched up, it’s like the Lord used them to ask me, “Hayden, do you want to continue to Grow?”

Ask the question……

What will lead you into spiritual growth in 2024?

Main idea: Christians are called to a life of transformation by being renewed in God’s Word each day.

Introduce the passage:

I believe Paul answers this question and unpacks truth for us in the two verses we will read today.

Read Romans 12:1-2

Romans 12:1–2 KJV 1900

1 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. 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.

Ask the question…

The Spirit of God, illuminating the Son of God from the Word of God, transforming the child of God into the image of God.

…

1. There is a Motivator for Growth

Motivation is something we likely all feel today or tomorrow.

Motivated to save a little more.

Motivated to eat a little better.

Motivated to change behaviors.

Motivation comes easy when goals are established, but it three days in motivation seems to slip away.

Notice this:

a. Paul Approaches this Subject with Truth

“Beseech” - encourage you

parakale

He is humbly imploring believers.

This is a mild term but one that appeals to the emotions or sensitive areas. A way to influence someone without controlling them.

Paul “beseeched” Philemon over Onesimus (Philemon 8,9)

Why would Paul go about it this way?

He was allowing TRUTH to be the authority, not charisma.

Kite String

Let truth be the string. Let truth be the thing that causes you to make decisions.

letting that truth be the foundation of their Christian practice

b. Paul Appeals to the Saint with Truth

“… brethren...”

This word is so powerful because it speaks to the believer’s new family!

Let’s talk about what Paul is teaching.

We are called to live sacrificially.

In View of God’s Mercy

“therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God...”

another way of saying, “I’m encouraging you brethren in light of the cross.”

therefore goes back to everything Paul had just talked about.

What are some of God’s mercies?

What are the mercies of God?  Think with me of them. 

Love, God's love is shed abroad in the heart, it says in Romans 5.  Nothing can separate us from the love of God it says in Romans 8. 

Grace: Romans 1, Romans 3, Romans 5, Romans 6, all the way through, grace, grace, grace, another of the mercies of God.

The Holy Spirit, chapter 5 tells us that the Holy Spirit has shed abroad in our hearts.  Chapter 8 tells us we have received the Holy Spirit to dwell within us.  It says it in chapter 8 verse 2, verse 4, verse 9, verse 11, verse 14, verse 16 and verse 26.  The Holy Spirit is a mercy given to us by God, an undeserved blessing.

How about peace?  Chapter 1 verse 7, chapter 2 verse 10, chapter 5 verse 1, chapter 8 verse 6 and elsewhere it says we've received peace.  That's a mercy of God. 

And faith, over 20 times, and

comfort - Romans 1:12

Romans 1:12 KJV 1900

12 That is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.

power, Romans 1:16

Romans 1:16 KJV 1900

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

hope, Romans 5:2

Romans 5:2 KJV 1900

2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

Romans 8:20 KJV 1900

20 For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,

Romans 8:24 KJV 1900

24 For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?

chapter 5 verse 2 and chapter 8 verse 20 and 34...and 24, rather. 

And we've received patience, chapters 9 and 11. 

And kindness, chapter 2 verse 4. 

Romans 2:4 KJV 1900

4 Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?

And we have received glory and honor and righteousness and forgiveness and reconciliation and justification, all of those are the mercies of God.  And in chapter 5, verse 10, we have received security, and eternal life in 5:21, and freedom in chapter 6 and chapter 7, and resurrection in chapter 8, and sonship in chapter 8, and intercession in chapter 8.  These are the mercies of God.

And what he is saying is, "Look, you who have received all of these marvelous things, you to whom God has given them, and they are mercies."

2. There must be Participation in the Growth

How??

a. Participation Requires Sacrifice

“present your bodies...”

Moment by moment.

But Paul is also drawing a contrast here between the physical sacrifices of the Old Testament and the spiritual sacrifice of the New Testament. The spiritual act of worship which Paul is encouraging is one that springs from the inner man, the realm of the mind (see v. Heb. 12:2). It is therefore a reasonable as well as spiritual form of worship.

Christ has obviously fulfilled the sacrifice for sin once for all (Heb. 9:26; 10:10, 12, 14), and there is nothing that the believer can add to that sacrifice. But living sacrifices of gratitude and praise are the appropriate (reasonable, spiritual) sacrifices to be made by those who live only by the mercy of God. These sacrifices are as much the act of worship of the believer today as the sacrifices of dead animals were the act of worship of Old Testament Israelites

Boa, K., & Kruidenier, W. (2000). Romans (Vol. 6, p. 363). Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers.

sacrifice means offering to God. it does not necessarily imply something hard or costly.

Even thanksgiving is a sacrifice.

Full dedication (Lev 1 - burnt offering)

Thanksgiving through peace offering (Lev 7:11-17)

Holy - separation from sin and righteous

b. Participation Recognizes the Cost

What should I notice here?

a. Denying Conformity

A man dialed a wrong number and got the following recording: “I am not available right now, but I thank you for caring enough to call. I am making some changes in my life. Please leave a message after the beep. If I do not return your call, you are one of the changes.”

That ole boy wasn’t playing around, right? he made the decision to separate himself from some people.

Now, look back at verse 2 - “and be not...”

This is some strong language here! No playing around at all.

notice this: “and be not” is Paul saying, “be separated.”

In the Septuagint (the earliest full Greek Bible.) this phrase is also used in Genesis 12:1. What’s in Genesis 12:1? God told Abraham to separate from his own country and move!

Separation in the Bible is two fold:

from whatever is controversy to the mind of God

unto God himself.

Separation from evil implies:

separation in desire, motive, and act from the world.

separation from false teachers

2 Timothy 2:20–21 KJV 1900

20 But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour. 21 If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.

separation rewards us with fellowship with God!

b. Defining Conformity

what is conformity?

J.B. Phillips translated this passage like, “don’t be squeezed into the world’s mold.”

Conform - is being shaped into a certain mold.

it’s becoming a clone.

It’s being fashioned.

What are we warned to be conformed into?

The patterns of this world or “age.”

“Age” carries with it a sense of the:

beliefs -

the philosophies

the methodologies

and the strategies of the fallen world in which we live.

It is not just the world and its people in their fallen state. It is the worldviews and practices that derive from the fallen state that define the age in which humans live at any time in history.

what did Paul say about the world/age?

Galatians 1:4 (KJV 1900)

4 Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father:

2 Corinthians 4:4 (KJV 1900)

4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

1 John 5:19 KJV 1900

19 And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.

Why would we ever want to align ourselves with the evil world?

Because it’s attractive to the flesh.

c. the Danger of Conformity

Evidence of a false regeneration

1 John 2:15–17 KJV 1900

15 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. 16 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. 17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

You really aren’t changing.

It adjusts your standard of holiness.

Someone locally had been murdered and my mom told me about it. My response was something nonchalant3. Growth Produces

c. Participation Runs to the Word

God’s Love Language is Obedience.

Doctors Avi Karni and Leslie Ungerleider of the National Institute of Mental Health did a fascinating study asking subjects to perform a simple motor task—a finger-tapping exercise. As subjects tapped, the doctors conducted an MRI to identify what part of the brain was being activated. The subjects then practiced the finger-tapping exercise daily for four weeks. At the end of the four-week period, the brain scan was repeated. In each instance, it revealed that the area of the brain involved in the task had expanded. That simple task—finger-tapping exercise—literally recruited new nerve cells and rewired neuronal connections.

When we read Scripture, we are recruiting new nerve cells and rewiring neuronal connections. In a sense, we are downloading a new operating system that reconfigures the mind…

When we read Scripture, we engage in spiritual tapping. Our brains are rewired in alignment with the Word, and we develop the mind of Christ. We think His thoughts.1

3. There is Satisfaction in Growth

Romans 12:2 KJV 1900

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.