812 Rom.12.1-2 Become What God Has Made You To Be
Romans • Sermon • Submitted
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· 12 viewsThe apostle has given the church teachings about the wonderful things God has done and brought about for the church. The church is now to live and act in such a way that is consistent with that change. In light of all that God has done in Christ, Christians are to offer themselves to the service and mission of God. But with this, there has to be a fundamental change in thinking. A rejection of the world's perspectives on life and an acceptance of God's perspective. Not a conformity to the world, but a transformity consistent with the nature & purposes of God's good will.
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- The apostle Paul never gives an “OUGHT” without first giving an “IS”
Date: 04-11-18 812 Echuca
- The apostle Paul never gives an “OUGHT” without first giving an “IS”
- That may sound confusing, but basically it means that he never tells you what to do, without first telling you what God has already done
- He never tells you to shape up without first telling you what shape you have
- This is the structure of Paul's letters
- He always talks about the foundation first, before he gets to practical changes to a Christian's walk & life in the Lord
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- Having a building background I have often used buildings as analogies
- Again, it will be appropriate here
Q. Who would dare consider constructing a unit or home on the ground without a foundation?
- Now you could do that & get away with it – but for how long?
- Sure, there would be short term savings
- All the digging, the steel and concrete could be dispensed with, & you could save a packet
- You can, therefore, take a 1/3 of the cost off the house
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- Get this – you wouldn't have to be so bored with seeing nothing happen other than men digging around in the dirt
- Not very appealing is it – when really, all you want to see is the frame going up & the roof going on; & the plaster, the kitchen, the fittings
- Now that's exciting
Q. Who needs all that boring & “nothing-to-show-for-it-work” under the ground?
Q. How on earth does that contribute to my personal experience?
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- Perhaps, you can tell a little sarcasm here - & you would be right
- What is apparently boring & with “nothing-to-show-for-it-work” underground is absolutely indispensable to the survival of that building
- If you want that building to last, the foundations are indispensable
Q. What's the point of saving a third of the cost of the building, if in 12 mths to 2 yrs, the building is condemned & needs to be demolished
Q. That doesn't make good sense, does it?
Q. We need to realise that the foundations are, for all there boring, “nothing-to-show-for-it-work”, are the most important part of the building
- No ladies, it's not the kitchen - & guys, it's not the garage
- It's not all the play rooms where the TV's go or the lounge or even the flashy en-suites
- The most important part is the foundations
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- When our house was being build, we had a massive termite infested tree out the front & it had to be taken out & the ground re-compacted
- The estate owner got that organised but when we started digging the foundations to the front of the house, the back-hoe operator – who I happen to play Squash with – said, “Dave, this ground around here is really soft – it comes out too easy
- He suggested they drop some piles down 6 ft into solid ground & said that they would add to the cost of the house
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- No doubt, you know what I would have said, right
- “I don't care how much extra it costs – in fact, I want you to go the extra mile”
- As a past building inspector, I have seen many scenarios where houses have come down from inadequate foundations
- If you want the building to be secure & to last, foundations become the most important facet of the project
- Jesus makes this plain as He talks about His word
24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 “And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. 26 “Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 “The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall.”
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- Now we should know this is true, but do we apply that same logic to the Christian life?
- So many Christians are only interested in Rice Bubbles – things that go “pop, pop, pop” when the milk touches it
- All they ever want is the milk so they get to go “pop, pop, pop” & not have to think too much, labour in the word too much, or have to contend too much with flat emotions
- They want the froth & bubble – “what do we want, froth & bubble, when do we want it, now” - that is the modern, western, church
- And people wonder why our nation is falling apart at the seems; why a number of churches support homosexuality & abortion; why Christians struggle so much with so-called “mental illnesses”
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- And all along, what dominates many churches is the pursuit of personal experiences
- They copy the current cultural trends of froth & bubble; of making experiences the test of truth & of allowing the idolatry of self worship to shape their persona
- No wonder they battle in the Christian life; no wonder they cannot gain victory; no wonder they feel lost in a sea of relativism & no wonder they feel a failure
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- The apostle Paul is meticulous in his writings
- They are not simply random thoughts he's jotted down during the night as he is dreaming
- His Epistle's are well thought-out & reasoned treatise'
- He has structure & in our passage today, we see that structure take a turn
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- He has spent 11 chapters on what “IS” - on what God has done for us in Christ
- It has been heavy theology explaining the implications of God's actions in Christ so that we can have a good foundation so that we can not only live our lives for Him, but that we can be a positive example & influence upon the lives of others
- That happens when we digest the things he has written about so that we understand the truth about who we now are in Christ
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Q. Are the Jews higher than you Gentiles on God's radar?
Q. Are you able to live under law & be a fruitful Christian?
Q. What was the purpose of law & how does that figure now in Christ?
Q. What happen at the cross? What impact has the resurrection of Christ made upon the world?
Q. When did the new age of God's kingdom begin & what are the powers of this new age & kingdom of God?
- These are just a few pickings of what he talks about over 11 chaps.
- You have plenty to sink your teeth into & you have plenty of reason to go through those 11 chaps of Romans again
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- But here, we reach a change in the apostle's direction
- He has spent 11 chaps on what “IS”, now he changes to what “OUGHT”
Q. Now he tell us, in light of all these wonderful things that God has done, what is your response?
- Here is the “OUGHT” - here is what you “OUGHT” to be
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- But this “OUGHT” is founded on what “IS” - don't forget that!
- You “OUGHT” to become what God has already made you to be
- Don't get confused here – what the apostle tells us to do, fits with what changes God has already made IN US!
- You are redeemed, so you can live as a redeemed person
- You are forgiven, so you can live as a forgiven person
- You have been given the enormous power of God's Spirit, so utilise that in your life
- Bow wow says the dog, meow says the cat, quack quack says the duck
- BECOME, WHAT GOD HAS MADE YOU TO BE
- Animals act according to nature, you act according to your new nature
- BECOME, WHAT GOD HAS MADE YOU TO BE
1. A Living and Holy Sacrifice
1. A Living and Holy Sacrifice
- Change is never an easy process
- I have often said to people that I believe God is like a divine panel beater
- He takes the damaged person & beats the dint's out & repairs the scratches; he straightens the wheels, repairs the radiator – all so the person can be re-made
- Often times, when those panels are being pushed out & the wheels straightened, it is not a pleasant experience, but later, you will see how God had brought healing & wholeness to your life
- But not only to your life, you are being equipped to help others in this process & journey towards wholeness
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- The apostle now explains how this ought to happen & in light of what God has done, the renewal, the transformation, the change - on the basis of His plans & purposes in the cross of Christ, His resurrection, the coming of the Spirit – this is now what you “OUGHT” to do
- Starting with THEREFORE – therefore, in light of all that you have now understand about God's saving plans...
1 Therefore I exhort you, brothers, through the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, which is your reasonable service.
—1 Therefore I exhort you, brothers, through the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, which is your reasonable service.
- Or “spiritual service of worship”
- I prefer to use the word “logical” service
- The sense of this Greek word is that this service is to reflect what is true to what exists in reality
- This reality is God's actions in the cross & resurrection of Christ & the renewal through the Spirit
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- A living sacrifice is the fitting response to the reality of Christ's sacrificial offering for you
19 And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”
—19 And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”
- Jesus became a sacrifice which ended in death
- Jesus became a sacrifice which ended in death
- We are a living sacrifice in the same way
- There are a couple of points to reflect on here
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- Firstly, in the OT system of sacrificial offerings, the animals were slaughtered & then burnt on the altar of sacrifice
- These were terminal
- You could say that although we are to present our bodies as living sacrifices, we are, in fact, offering ourselves to God's service & it may involve the terminal in the pursuit of Christ's will
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- Secondly, the sacrifice is an unblemished sacrifice & hence one that is “acceptable” to God
- We need to bear in mind the ethical & moral OUGHTS here
- Whilst, through the cross, we have been made acceptable to God, there is a command here to lay ourselves down on the altar as an offering to God
- This is along the lines of what Paul says to the Corinthian men who were still living out the pagan moral ethic of their peers in the world
- They were frequenting brothels & did not consider such things to be too much of a problem
18 Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? 20 For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.
—18 Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? 20 For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.
—18 Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? 20 For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.
- There you have another reference to the temple & the sense that all that is a part of the temple is holy – in other words, all that is a part of the temple has been set apart to be exclusively for God's use
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- When I use to teach biblical studies at River City here, I used the analogy of a wooden spoon from a kitchen in relation to the same spoon coated in gold & dedicated for its exclusive use in the temple of God
- Both spoons are made of the same composition except one is coated with gold & the other is not
- But one is set aside for God's exclusive use & the other is for common use whereever & whenever it's needed
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- The gold-coated spoon for an exclusive use in the temple is designated as a “holy” instrument
- The plain, common, ordinary spoon is designated for common use & is called “profane”
- One is “holy” - set apart for a special purpose & one is “profane” - used for common purposes
- Here you have the difference
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- When you offer yourselves to God as a holy & living sacrifice to God, you are offering yourself for His exclusive use
- To honour Him & to serve Him in your life
- That doesn't mean that you have to be a full-time missionary or pastor
- But it does mean that you are consecrated to His service & have become His – if you like, His property
- You have been bought with a price, bought with the precious blood of Jesus
- Designed for glory, designed for continual transformation
- Designed to be conformed to the image of His Son
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- But remembering all along the foundation – it is by the mercies of God
- His mercy has brought about a new creation in Christ, where the old has gone & the new has come
- You have been bought with a price & with that price, God has delivered you from the penalty of sin & the power of sin
- Sin shall not be your ruler – become who you are
- There are people who make things happen, there are people who let things happen & there are people who don't know what happens
Q. Which one are you?
Q. Do you understand that in coming to Christ, you are now owned by Him? You belong to Him!
2. What You Think So You Will Be
2. What You Think So You Will Be
. What You Think So You Will Be
- If you didn't know it before, you will now, that I thoroughly enjoy watching the Three Stooges
- I know that they are quite out-dated, but it is hard to put aside good, clean humour of any time
In one episode, Moe says, “As I was saying, keep your cotton- pickin fingers off the orbit button.” Joe says, “What, do you think I'm dumb?
I don't think, I know” & Moe says, “Well, I don't think you know either.”
- They were always clever when it came to playing with words
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- But here we come to an important statement from Paul
—2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
- Throughout the NT, you have, without fail, an emphasis upon the mind & heart
- But even when it comes to talking about the heart, the emphasis is not on the emotions, as it is in our present day culture, but upon the mind
—6 Do not eat the bread of a selfish man, Or desire his delicacies; 7 For as he thinks within himself, so he is. He says to you, “Eat and drink!” But his heart is not with you.
6 Do not eat the bread of a selfish man, Or desire his delicacies; 7 For as he thinks within himself, so he is. He says to you, “Eat and drink!” But his heart is not with you.
—18 A heart that devises wicked plans, Feet that run rapidly to evil,
—18 A heart that devises wicked plans, Feet that run rapidly to evil,
18 A heart that devises wicked plans, Feet that run rapidly to evil,
Q. How do emotions or feelings devise wicked plans?
—18 “But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. 19 “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.
18 “But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. 19 “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.
- So the heart shares quite an overlap with the mind
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- What we need to understand is that “what you think, so you will be”
- If you follow the dictates of the world, you will fall foul with God
- Because the thinking of the world is not the thinking of God
—1 What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? 2 You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. 4 You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
1 What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? 2 You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. 4 You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
- Notice here, James talks about quarrels & conflicts in the church
- That person you don't get on with; that person who competes with you to be top dog, that person who grates on you because you find them annoying
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Q. What is this murder you commit? Why are they called adulteresses?
- James is reflecting the teaching of Jesus: “If you hate your brother in your heart, you've murdered him
- If you look with lust toward the opposite sex, it's as if you've committed adultery with him or her
- Jesus goes to the core of the problem & exposes all the shallow & bankrupt thinking of man
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- For James, to hate your brother is to commit murder
- To be an adulterer is to be an idolater
- One who goes after the things of the world – the very things that caused the undoing of Adam & Eve
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- In our contemporary society, we have been taught in the workplace, in our school, at our sports club, to "think" with our feelings.
- People make a huge mistake by confusing the work or leading of the Spirit with how they “feel” about a matter
- This would have to be in line with one of the greatest deceptions of all time
- Emotions & feelings do not equate with the work of the Spirit & too many people have been seriously mislead by believing they do
- I say this with a very sober heart
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- There is nothing wrong with emotions & feelings – my family would testify that I am an emotional person & sentimental
- May be you don't see that from the front here, but I can assure you, that I can “feel” something as acutely as the next person
- Emotions move like the waves that are tossed about by the wind
- They vary from day to day & from mood to mood
- When a person is led like that, they can be an unstable person
- Emotions are great servants, but make lousy masters
- They will keep you from the truth & will promote every hungry pleasure sensation in your body
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- This is precisely where our culture is at the moment
- It is so immersed in postmodern relativity that it lives from one pleasure moment to another
- Getting all emotional about a gay person coming out or a transgender male winning an all women's event is nothing but full on emotional junk
- Life is empty for them – they have no hope in the world & they have no Christian values in society to give them any light
- They only have to live for whatever worldly pleasure they can obtain
- It is so sad & as believers in the Lord, we do need to step up to help them escape their estrangement from God
- Of course, Christ is THE only answer for them
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- But if we think like the world & live like the world, then what hope has the world to see or know the Lord of glory
- So the OUGHT today is to change your thinking – be transformed by the renewing of your mind
- With a change of thinking comes a change in living
- Not conformity but transformity
- When we decide to transform our thinking to the biblical pattern of thinking, then we will come to understand the will of God
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- Christians often struggle over this very aspect of knowing the will of God
- Perhaps, the first step in this is to STOP thinking like the world & start thinking like Jesus
- Stop applying the rules of the world to your thoughts
- Let me give you an example
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- There are many Christians who promote Santa to children & make that the emphasis for Christmas
- It gives everyone a tangible thing to look at – a jolly man in a red suit & it gives a lot of emotional pleasure to both adults & kids
- Ros & I both wrestled with this early in our marriage as this was the diet we grew up with
- I experienced all that, as a child & when I grew up, I endured the grim reality that the things I had been told during Easter, Christmas & when I lost a tooth – that none of those things that had given me hope & something to look forward to, were in accord with reality
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- That all came crashing down around me as I realised, that all that was left in the world was all that there was, in life
- Those joys for me turned to despair as I grew to realise that the very things I believed in & what brought me so much joy & hope – yes, hope – for there was something otherworldly about Santa Claus – something ethereal, something mystical, something that was nice, apart from all the emptiness in the world – were merely promoted for the sake of an experience
- The problem is that when I finally had to question these icons, I also had to question the issue of God, of Jesus – because they all came to me as one truth, one reality & you cannot expect a child to discern the difference
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- For the Christian, changed thinking will cause you to live differently
- You will lay yourself down as a living sacrifice to God
- When Jesus forgave the woman caught in the act of adultery, he says:
10 Straightening up, Jesus said to her, “Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?” 11 She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on sin no more.”
—10 Straightening up, Jesus said to her, “Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?” 11 She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on sin no more.”
- Now the worldly approach to this would be something like this...
- Now the worldly approach to this would be something like this...
- “I do not condemn you either, go, register your new relationship”!
- People in the world & more than a few in the church cannot bring themselves to enforce moral imperatives
- Jesus forgave her, but she was to leave her life of sin
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- The church rejoices in it's diversity of gifts; it's diversity of maleness & femaleness; it's diversity of personality
- However, the church is not to be diverse in it's teachings
- Wherever possible, we are to be of one mind striving together for the truth of the Gospel
- That will happen when we are committed to a transformation of thinking – moving away from the thinking of the world & the dominance of emotional dictates to true Christlike thinking
Summary
Summary
- We are the recipients of God's generous mercy & through this mercy, we name the name of Christ
- We have moved out of the world & into the future age
- The present age is not compatible with what is coming
- But God has transformed you to live in the future age
- That age is here; that age began with the resurrection of Christ
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- You have been made a child of God, therefore, you no longer belong to the world
- BECOME, WHAT GOD HAS MADE YOU TO BE
- Bow wow says the dog, meow says the cat, quack quack says the duck
- Animals act according to nature, you act according to your new nature
- BECOME, WHAT GOD HAS MADE YOU TO BE