Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

I subscribe to the magazine Christianity Today, which is sometimes interesting and other times irritating.

This week, an article from the new issue caught my eye.

Ligonier Ministries asked Americans a set of 34 theological questions.

One was “Must churches provide entertaining worship services if they want to be effective?”

People could respond that they agreed strongly, disagreed strongly, agreed, disagreed, or were unsure.

Among people who attend evangelical churches at least monthly, that is churches that believe salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus alone (“evangel” means “gospel”), 34% of people either agreed or strongly agreed.

40% of male evangelicals said the same.

Ladies, only 31% of you checked “yes.”

That’s certainly better, but still not particularly encouraging.

Forget about the general population - a large portion of people who go to gospel preaching churches think that their church should entertain them to be effective.

Does that seem like a strange definition of success to you?

There is little that is entertaining about repenting of sin, feeding the hungry and clothing the naked.

There are not many tickets sold to holding the hands of the dying or of crying alongside the broken hearted.

The heart of who churches are called to be is decidedly un-entertaining.

But, I really think those numbers are too low.

If we included all of us who want to hear something “deep” which does not challenge our lives and those who want the feel-good experience of checking the box of self-righteousness, I think the number of people who come to church looking for what they can get is much, much higher.

We look for victory in our Christian lives like that.

We struggle with sin and try to get everything from God that we can to answer our problems and clean up our messes.

But this is not the way that the Christian life works.

If we want 2019 to be the year that our Christian life advances the most, it must be not about what we can get from God, but what we give to God.

We have all been to T-ball games, where the little boy swings with all of his might, knocks the ball into the air and then runs to third base.

The wrong goal or the wrong priorities can undermine all of our effort.

It doesn’t matter how hard you hit the ball if you run the wrong direction.

It doesn’t matter how much you do as a Christian or we do as a church if those are the wrong things.

At rock bottom, having the right mindset is key to fruitful behavior.

And in 2019, there are countless people trying to change your mindset.

Some for your good, like your employer having you contribute to your 401k by default.

Some not for your good, like the commercial trying to convince you that the real hangup in your dating like has been drinking the wrong kind of soda.

These press on your mind consciously, but others do it without even realizing it.

When all of your friends start eating at the same restaurant, watching the same TV show or listening to the same music, your ideas about what is good and bad are subtly - but genuinely - shifted.

If your mind if shifted to the wrong thing, what you can get instead of what you can give, running in that wrong direction is a whole lot worse than a lost point for a five year old in a ballcap.

The cost can be your family, your joy or even your soul.

And I want to point out our big idea this morning right away:

Big Idea: Your mind will be shaped by something.

You are not a brilliantly rational person.

Neither am I.

We buy more because there is music in the store, eat more on a bigger plate and - for better or for worse - take on the characteristics of our friends.

All of these pressures mold us - so let’s make sure we are being molded by the right ones.

Let’s open our Bibles to Romans 12, verses 1 and 2 this morning to see how God says we ought to posture our lives, so that we can avoid those kinds of mistakes.

As you are turning there, let me jog your memory about where we are.

This passage is resuming our series through the book of Romans.

Chapters 1-8 laid out a theological basis: that we are all sinners, who have through corrupted minds, turned from God to ourselves, but that God became a man and died on the cross to be punished instead of us.

Because of this, whoever will place their faith in Jesus will be made a new creature.

Yes, the old temptations will still be there, but the new life of God inside of you begins to turn things around.

It is a journey that ends in total victory, with new bodies in eternity, free from sin, sickness, disease and death.

The natural question of “Where does that leave me now?” is answered in two phases.

First, he lays out in chapters 9-11 the implications for God’s Old Testament people, the Jews, and Gentiles.

But of much more pressing concern to us, in chapters 12-the end of the book, he introduces us to the practical ways that these truths should change our everyday lives.

So, as we get ready to dive into this, would you stand with me if you are able in honor of the reading of God’s Word?

And the people said “Amen.”

You can be seated.

I want to immediately draw your attention to the sacrificial language in this text.

“Present” is the word used for bringing an animal and laying it on the altar.

Of course, the word “sacrifice” is itself right there in the first verse.

That word “service” is not like “public service,” but refers to the service of the priests.

It is the work of worship.

Good, acceptable and perfect are all terms used to describe the fitness of an offering.

God wants to change your mindset from “What’s in it for me?” to “Here I am!”

Let’s look at that first verse in a little more detail.

Explain

Paul tells us that he “beseeches” us to be a living sacrifice.

The word “beseech” in English means to beg, but the word here has a little more force than that.

Somewhere between a request and a command, it is like your mom saying “I thought I asked you to pick that up?”

So, he is instructing us that this is the thing we ought to do.

Be a sacrifice.

Sacrifice is obvious a weird concept for us, but for the ancient world, whether Jewish or pagan, it was a vivid part of everyday life.

Obviously, the Jewish sacrifices are primarily in Paul’s mind, and even that was a complex subject.

There were 5 different kinds, some were animals, some were plants.

One signified asking for forgiveness, one symbolized gratitude, one pure worship.

There was a drink offering, which was wine poured on top of another offering - kind of a side dish.

But they all held one thing in common: they had to be perfect.

You could not pick the sickest cow, who was one tip from the grave, and bring it to God and call it good.

God deserves the best, and offerings were required to reflect this.

Now, in Christianity, we no longer practice those animal sacrifices.

It is self-evident that the blood of bulls and goats could never really take away sins, they were just signs of the need for a sacrifice.

They all pointed toward the One Sacrifice which truly would take away sin .

Jesus could die for our sins because He never sinned, in word or action.

He was acceptable as a sacrifice because he was flawless.

God Himself come down.

Unlike Him, we are naturally unfit as sacrifices for God, because we are not perfect.

You understand what I mean: it is not that I wear glasses or that you have high blood pressure.

We are unfit as sacrifices because of our sin.

This verse begins with the word “therefore,” because it is the natural culmination of everything that has come before.

All of that talk of “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God,” and “the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life” comes to a head here.

But, here is the incredible part, when we are saved, God makes us acceptable.

He takes away our sins and makes us fit to be His children, and fit to be His offering.

I think this is the best way to take “by the mercies of God.” Present your bodies as living sacrifices, made holy and acceptable to God by His mercy.

God makes us beautiful, and we give that beauty back to Him.

The one perfect sacrifice of Jesus enables all of us to become sacrifices.

Not of animals, laid unwillingly on an altar, but as the next point in your notes says: living sacrifices.

Be a Living Sacrifice

The fundamental Christian attitude is of continually giving our lives up.

Saying to God, I do not just die for you, I offer up my life itself for you.

Every part of my life belongs to you, here on this altar.

This, the end of the verse declares, is your reasonable service.

That phrase is a difficult one, and other translations render the word “reasonable” as spiritual, true and proper or acceptable.

It is worshipping with our minds and is the way that makes sense.

We are not dumb animals being led to the slaughter.

We are human beings, who recognize what Jesus has done for us and respond by choosing to give ourselves to Him.