Romans #20

Rom

Romans #20 Slides to be highlighted in Green  Romans 12:1–8 (ESV)

12 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Gifts of Grace

3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. 4 For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, 5 so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 6 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; 7 if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; 8 the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerful

Reading of the passage: Romans12:1-10  - Sarah Vincent 

Thank you Sarah. My name is Jamey Mills, I’m the lead pastor here at Northside! It’s always a blessing to be with you guys. 

Today we are diving back into the book of Romans… we’re in ch. 12 which is one of my favorite chapters in scripture. 

And it marks a shift… 

The first 11 chapters largely deal with our vertical relationship… with God. 

Things like: We are all sinners, hopelessly stuck in sin on our own. 

And our

Failure to acknowledge our sinfulness is the failure to embrace Jesus and acknowledge our need for Him. 

The clearer you understand the depth of your sin, the deeper you understand your need for Jesus… the power of the cross, and the hope of the resurrection.  

We have this in common… 

You are a sinner, loved by God, and in need of His grace, tha comes through faith in Christ.  That is a fact. What you do with it, is up to you. 

We’ve also talked a lot about self-righteousness…  

There is nothing you can do to be good enough… or earn what gives. 

The gospel is NOT a story about your goodness… but a His. 

Chapters 12-16 talk about living that out in life and in relationships. 

And we’re supposed to see the order… our vertical relationship with God has a huge impact on the way we live and on the relationships we have… 

Romans 12:1 (ESV)

12 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

It actually starts with the word, therefore: in this case it means… Becasue of this dumfounding, amazing truth about God’s incredible love and grace over my sin… given by the mercy of God… 

The JB Phillips translation says it this way… “therefore, with your eyes wide open to the realities of God’s mercy:... 

What is Grace? 

God giving you what it is you do not deserve.

What is mercy?  

Not getting what it is your sin deserves. 

And that’s a big deal… 

In Romans 6… Paul reminds us that the wages of sin… sin earns death… That’s what our sin brings.

And Paul takes us there… saying Brothers! I BEG you with your eyes WIDE open to the incredible goodness and mercy… 

When was the last did you did that? 

Sat down and contemplate what God’s mercy really means for you and to you? God’s restraint and patience, not giving you what it is you deserve. 

What are the ways you’ve experienced God’s mercy?

God withholding what you deserve… 

I think of my wife, my kids, my parents, this Church, the team I get to work with, my house… today… 

All of those things scream of God not giving me what I deserve. If I got what I deserved I’d have none of it. 

And yet… none of them top the reality of God’s presence in my life… or the free gift of grace that comes through faith in Jesus…

That brings Fullness and Freedom. 

And Paul is really trying to help us go there… 

With our eyes wide open to the incredible, powerful, unthinkable, unmerited, life-saving, life-changing, salvation providing mercy… 

The actual language is something like this… 

What should our logical response to God’s mercy be? 

To willingly and joyfully in view of this incredible mercy, offer our bodies as a living sacrifice. 

This idea of a living sacrifice… 

If that statement is tough, your not alone. 

Everything they knew of sacrifice… doesn't coincide with the word… living. 

In the OT they didn’t come before God empty-handed. It often involved bringing a sacrifice… this substitute… for the wages their sin had earned… which was what?  Death. 

All of that was a shadow… the points to the ultimate sacrifice which was Jesus… who paid for our sins, on the cross once and for all. 

Paul purposefully uses the word body here… to offer your body… 

This is how Paul puts in 

1 Corinthians 6:19–20 (NLT)

1 Corinthians 6:19–20 NLT

Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.

19 Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, 20 for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.

It talks about how your body is a temple, 

not to you, not to your lust, not to money, not a destructive behavior, 

but it was created, knit together, formed… To be a temple of the living God of mercy who saves you. 

The Old Testament temple was the place where they believed the presence of God dwelt. 

Paul is teaching us here that you are that temple… that God, through His spirit, dwells in you. 

And that the sacrifice God desires… is actually a life that is surrendered to Him… head, heart, soul, and hands.

It would be a mistake to think that there was no death involved in becoming a living sacrifice to God.

But it's a different kind of death… 

It involves dying to ourselves, dying to our way, to our desires, to what seems right in our flesh, laying down our rights…

It's a reminder tha for new life to begin, the old life has to die. 

There is a sacrifice involved… and it's something we often miss. 

And many times I’ve had people come to me and say, but Jamey, you don’t understand, I really want this, but Jamey God made me this way (Which, I don’t know that I believe) but even if that’s true, scripture makes that argument void.

The Bible teaches that we are all born with a sinful nature, we’re all born with desires, preferences, and urges that rage against God, His truth, His will, and His way…  

Part of what God calls us to is putting those things to death, to lay them down so that we… by His mercy… can grab hold of Christ. 

Don’t make the mistake of thinking you’re the only one who struggles with desires that don’t line up with what God teaches. 

The language of a living sacrifice… 

Not my way but yours. Not my truth but yours, not the identity I made, but the one you came me, not what I think is right and true, but what you do, not my life, but yours.

While you live your life… it is a sacrifice to God… 

One of the authors I read this week talked about this idea of spiritual dualism, and how prevalent it is in our culture.

It's a form of Gnostic heresy, 

I don’t know any Christians who say they believe it, but sometimes our lives tell a different story. 

It’s this man-made, flesh-driven, false religion that suggests our spiritual life is incredibly important, but that has no bearing or meaning on our physical life whatsoever. 

It absolutely flies in the face of what the Bible teaches and totally depraves the Gospel of its life-changing power. 

What kind of Savior would Jesus be if He knew your condition and left you exactly where you're at? 

Knowing Jesus well, knowing his Mercy well, leads us to this idea of being a Living Sacrifice… that helps us understand it impacts every area of our life.  

Do you know what the biggest issue with a living sacrifice is? 

It keeps crawling off the altar. 

This tendency to struggle… with going back to our will and way… 

Romans 12:2 (ESV)

2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Paul gives us two options.

To either be conformed to the pattern of the world

2. To be transformed by the renewing of our mind

These two things turn out and radically different places.

At least, this idea of being conformed to the pattern of the world is like this default, it's where our lives will slowly drift into the mold of our culture if we're not living with intentionality..

And this is rough, but the truth is if we just sort of start going through the motions… start putting our head down, waking up going to work, coming home eating dinner going to bed…  the lack of intentionality results in this drifting toward being conformed

JB Phillips is it this way, 

Don't let the world squeeze you into its mold.  And it will try. 

And it's a question I think we're supposed to ask. 

Are there areas of my life where I’m still conforming to the patterns of this world and what if values, worships, and holds dear? Where I am using culture, to justify my view, my behavior, my belief, my theology…  

It's alarming, it feels like there are spiritual forces at work that are constantly fighting to cram us into the world’s mold…

It is a spiritual attack… that to me feels worse than it’s ever been… 

Being pushed on us and especially your kids… coming from every angle. 

Media, politics, social media, news, music, reels, the shows that we watch, even the commercials in between the shows that we watch, marketing, in some of our schools, I had breakfast with a friend yesterday that reminded me that is also in some churches and bible colleges too.

Doing its best to mold the way that we think, what we value, and what we hold as good, right, and true. 

Blurring the way we view God, our identity in Him, our idea of love, marriage, sex, sexuality, gender, and immorality. 

I spent over half of my life in youth ministry and I remember this feeling of terror when my students would tell me that they were heading off to a secular university because I’d seen way too many of them come back in the mold. conformed to the pattern of the world.

This idea of being conformed, it's not an overnight kind of thing. it's a day by day, loosening our grip, going through the motions with my head down, not living with intentionality, forgetting God, forgetting His mercy,

It’s this slow decent into conformity… often, not realizing just how far you’ve wandered from Hima nd His truth. 

It’s the story of a sinner who needs saving but has began to lean on their own understanding… and has lost sight of where real truth and real saving come from. 

It’s a common theme in scripture. 

we see it in Romans chapters 7 - 8,

we read about it in James chapter 3 this contradiction of how fresh water and salt water can't come from the same spring. 

The Bible literally paints this picture as a battlefield In Galatians 5. between our sinful nature and the spirit of God that dwells within us. And it says that none of our choices are free from the fight.

 Do you know who wins the fight? it's the one that you feed.

To me at least, this seems completely related to the idea of conforming to the pattern of the world, which mirrors our sinful nature or the renewing our minds the the God’s spirit within us. 

But Paul tells us about another way.

To be Transformed = literally means metamorphosis… 

Our lives change as our minds are made new. 

It's far more important than we often make it out to be, I feel like this is one of those areas of  Non-Stop spiritual attack.

Sometimes as adults, I think we make the mistake of thinking that this is just for our children somehow.

But I do believe that it's been proven over and over again.

You cannot continually put trash into your head and expect it to produce treasure.

To me, it seems pretty connected to this idea of conforming to the patterns of the world. Just going with the flow, doing what the world does. 

What you put into your mind matters. It does impact the way we think and live. 

It’s been proven over and over… 

Porn, violence, music, shows, we we read… 

How will our minds ever be renewed if we are on a consistent diet of that stuff? 

It's a hard but honest question, have you surrendered that part of your life to the Lord?

Here's an example I've been into music my whole life. To this day, I can recite several songs that I listened to in high school word for word. 

Some are embarrassing… others are pretty gross in what they celebrate and glorify. 

This idea of renewing our minds… of being a living sacrifice

Seems to carry the idea of waking up every day with the intention of committing, all over again, our hearts, minds, and bodies… to God as living sacrifices… that they’d be places where God is glorified and made known. 

This continual investment in thinking differently. and how do you do that?

If you want to think differently, you’re going to have to feed your mind differently. 

So how do we do that?

 I think it means making time for God

 diving into his word daily, not as a checklist, that is a way of getting to know him and drawing near to him

 I think it means time and transparent prayer before the Lord

Making time to enjoy his creation and reflect on his goodness in your life.

 meditating on his mercy and his grace.

 I think it means battling the counterfeit definitions of cultural conformity with the very tools that God has given you to do battle with. his word, prayer, Christian community, and repentant heart

Battling the ideas of the culture  when it comes to love, marriage, what it means to be a godly man or woman, a husband, a wife, a single person, the child, a friend,

Things like love, marriage, what it means to be a godly man, woman, husband, wife, single person, kid, friend…  

This idea of renewing our mind… sounds like this daily process of feeding our minds with the truth that leads to life.

Renewing Your Mind does not happen without intentionality.

And then Paul answers one of the most asked questions I've had as a pastor which is…

How do I know what God's will for my life is?

Paul connects it to this idea of Being transformed by the renewing of our mind.

Renewing your mind on the reality of God, on the truth of God, on the priorities of God, on the values of God is so critically important.

Knowing Him makes his will known to you.

In walking with God, we begin to think what He thinks, to see people the way He does, to love like him, serve like him… the more your life reflects HIM. 

There’s no better way to have your mind transformed than diving into the word of God.

Romans 12:3–8 (ESV)

3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. 4 For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, 5 so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 6 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; 7 if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; 8 the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.

Paul reminds us of the importance of humility…  

Don’t cherish exaggerated ideas of your own importance.

-JB Phillips

The gospel is a statement of God’s goodness and not our own.

Pride is a deadly sin in fact it was Satan’s sin.  It often leads to self-worship. 

It can be the place where our will and our way begin to overtake the will and way of God in our life. It can cause us to disengage with God on his truth, and even the ways that God would use us.

It was interesting, but as Northside was getting off the ground, humility was the word that God continued to put on my heart. Talk about it, and we pray about it as a staff and Elder board often.

Humility is knowing your place in view of God's place.

One author uses this example.. 

if a surgeon does surgery in the operating room with his assistance, all the right tools, all the right sterilization, the right lighting… That is an incredible thing.

But if that same surgeon travels to the outskirts of Africa, and is forced to do the same surgery with a dull pocket knife… with only the sterilization of fire, no lighting, none of the right tools or support… thats something else altogether. 

And no one in that situation would stand back and give praise to the dull pocket knife.

Humility understands that God is the surgeon, you are the dull knife. 

Stay humble.. but know that you're gifted. You are gifted by God. Don't waste it.

Lists of the different spiritual gifts:

Romans 12, 

1 Cor 12, 

Eph 4,

1 Peter 4 

All give lists of spiritual gifts and I’m not sure they are exhaustive… 

In many places, God talks about how we are one body, with many different parts, that are gifted to work together by the power and organiztion of His spirit. 

That each and every one of us who are in Christ is given a spiritual gift for the purpose of serving the Body. 

It's a gift to you in that God uses you, allows you to be a part of the amazing work that he is doing.

 but his gift was the church and others in mind:  it's aimed at serving and building up his kingdom. 

Here's a slide of a spiritual gift inventory that you can take, 

I'm often reluctant to give out spiritual gift inventory stuff only because I'm not sure that they're always accurate. they are designed by humanity.

But sometimes I think they can be really helpful for us to kind of narrow in on what our spiritual gift May be.

You think it would be a good idea for you to take it, and if you'd love to talk more about it let's set up an appointment.

Says, I beg you Brothers and if you have God's outrageous Mercy to offer your bodies as a Living Sacrifice that is Holy and pleasing to him.

You were created and designed to be in this loving relationship with the creator of all things.  Which means you were designed for worship.

But the question is, what will that be?

What is it that you think about when your feet hit the floor in the morning? what are the things that get most of your time and attention? What is it that your life most glorifies? What is it that your heart aches for?

It is easy to loosen our grip. To become complacent in our faith. where we stop renewing our minds on the things that God gave us, and find ourselves being conformed to the pattern of the world and everything that it worships.

Blurring our view of god, the identity he gave us, our definition of love, manhood, womanhood, marriage and so many other things.

There's no substitute for remembering the mercy of God in your life. for Renewing Your Mind with the things that he gave you. it helps to discern God's will in your life.

 When it comes to being a living sacrifice, how's it going?