Mercy Received. . . Now What?

Romans 12:1-8

Introduction

·         Wile E. Coyote catches the Roadrunner. A historical moment of utmost importance. Favorite second only to Taz. Scheming away. Great intelligence.  Summarize cartoon clip. Holds up a sign: “Okay wise guys, you always wanted me to catch him.” Then he holds up another sign: “Now what do I do?”

·         La 3:22-23 (NRSV) The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

·         God’s mercy is amazing—always fresh—never ending.

·         A few minutes ago Susan read the first 8 verses in Rom. 12. Now get this . . . Paul’s been writing about mercy throughout the entire book of Romans up to the point where chapter 12 begins.

·         God’s mercy is HUGE. We’ve caught it, now what do we do with it? Well, Paul helps us with that in 12.1-2. Our challenge:

1.     To give ourselves as sacrifices

a) Living, not dead

• It's not "wanted, dead or alive." God doesn’t want us dead, he wants us alive—ready for action. Typically when we think of the offering of sacrifices in the Bible, we think of dead animals. Goats, sheep, bulls, etc. It’s not just our bodies that God wants—oh, he wants that. But more he want all of us—the kind of sacrifice God desires is our lives. He wants us! All the time. Not just here on Sunday mornings. Not just for a couple of minutes during our daily prayers. He wants us during every minute of every day.
• And deep down we want to respond to God’s mercy in that manner. He loves us and we long to love him back.
• Time and time again we say, Hey, God, I give myself to you. I’m gonna do things your way instead of mine—my life is yours to do with what you choose.
• Biology lab—organisms responding to stimuli. Cold worms from Canada. A series of simple tests on the worm. Touch with a toothpick.  Put near a heat source. Now, suffice it to say that when you put a group of sadistic 10th graders in such a situation, they’re gonna find ways to extend the tests far beyond what is required. When the heat is turned-up, the worms will wiggle.
• Funny thing about living sacrifices as opposed to dead ones—living sacrifices are always trying to crawl off the altar. Especially when things get a little hot.
• We give ourselves to God only to turn around a short time later and not necessarily defiantly or maliciously we ease ourselves back off the altar.
• Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing: Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.

b) Holy, not common

·         Not too difficult for us to get to the placed where we feel small, insignificant, ordinary. That’s not reality. Fact is, as we give ourselves to God and his work, we are far from small, insignificant, and ordinary.

·         General meaning of the term "holy" in the Bible is that of separation. Being set apart. And that's the basic idea here. We're not for common, everyday use. We're instead marked--set apart by God himself to do his work--to be consecrated for his service.

·         Do you really get what I’m saying here? Look, the God who exists beyond time and space. The One who created all we know. The most amazing being in existence. Our Savior and Lord. When we give ourselves to him and his work—when we present ourselves as living sacrifices, we’re joining hands with Almighty God! We receive a stamp if you will that marks us as the King’s Kids. Now that some radical stuff!!

c) Accepted, not rejected

·         Terri. Wanted to romance her. She wanted to be friends. Ouch!

·         Rejection comes in all forms—Dear John letters—phone calls where the interviewer says we selected another applicant—divorce decrees—children too selfish to visit that dear parent in a nursing home, the person who sacrificed so much to give those children what they needed. On and on . . .

·         I hate rejection, don’t you? Of course! All sane humans would prefer to be received with open arms. But life’s just not like that. No one stands alone in the arena of rejection—we’ve all been there. Maybe you’ve been there recently—turned down for something—heard these words: “you’re not exactly what I need.”  And it hurts no matter how thick our skin.

·         There’s one person who’ll never say no to you as you offer yourself to him—God. Maybe this is sounding a little cheesy, but the truth is that for some of us we get to the place where it seems that all have rejected us. God always accepts us—period. And at the place where the rubber meets the road, he’s the one who matters most.

·         To others we may not measure up. To others we may be lacking what they’re longing for but . . .

·         God accepts us-as we are-as we give ourselves to him. He is pleased with our sacrifice.

d) Reasonable, not unreasonable (based on the word logikos)

·         Logikos. What word do you hear that? Logic. Sure! Logical!!

·         Epictetus (1st century stoic philosopher): "If I were a nightingale, I would do what is proper to a nightingale, and if I were a swan, what is proper to a swan. In fact I am logikos (a rational being), so I must praise God." [From Stott-Romans]

·         Does this whole idea of giving ourselves to God make sense? Paul says, “Yes!”

·         This whole idea of offering ourselves to God as living sacrifices isn't just some lofty, ivory tower concept—it’s clearly the rational, right action to take.

2.     To get our minds right

·         Strother Martin in Cool Hand Luke: “Luke, you’ve gotta get your mind right.”

·         Ohio Burger King worker fired for bathing in sink

XENIA, Ohio (AP) — Burger King Corp. said Tuesday it had parted ways with an employee who was recorded taking a soapy bath in a utility sink in one of its restaurants in a video that ended up on his MySpace page. The nearly four-minute video, which was posted online Thursday, shows the man taking the bath to celebrate his birthday. In the video, shot by another worker, the employee refers to himself only as "Mr. Unstable" and appears to be naked. Timothy Tackett, 25, told WDTN-TV in Dayton that he is the sink-bather and that he made the video for his MySpace page. The video had been removed by Tuesday night. Tackett said he regretted taking the bath because it led to the firing of the employee who did the recording, as well as the restaurant's shift manager. Burger King spokeswoman Denise Wilson said earlier Tuesday that two employees involved in the incident were fired and a third quit. She declined to identify the employees or say whether the man who took the bath quit or was fired. Tackett said he was fired. A message left by The Associated Press for a Timothy Tackett in Centerburg was not immediately returned.

Greene County Health Commissioner Mark McDonnell said he dispatched an inspector to the restaurant, but workers had already sterilized the sink, which is used to clean large pieces of equipment. Mr. Unstable is right—he doesn’t have his mind right!

·         How do we get our minds right?

a) Don't conform, be transformed

• It’s so easy to simply conform to the world around us—to do as nonbelievers do—to model the behavior of the world apart from Christ.
• Saddleback Civil Forum. Rick Warren addresses worldview. But what is worldview?

·         James Sire: "A worldview is a set of presuppositions (or assumptions) which we hold (consciously or subconsciously) about the basic makeup of our world."

·         Walsh and Middleton: "A world view provides a model of the world which guides its adherents in the world."

• So our worldview is something like the lens through which we see our world. Now behavior follows view—we live in response to our worldview.
• My glasses. I was supposed to start wearing glasses in the 2nd grade, but I hated them. I’d wear them until I got on the bus and then took them off—that way my mother wouldn’t know. By the time I got in the 9th grade, I surrendered to the inevitability of being called “four-eyes.” Now, I love my glasses. Transition lenses. Thinline—light. Bifocal but without those ugly lines. But most importantly, with them I can see! Without them, I’m pitiful. Without them in the dark, I’m worse than pitiful. I couldn’t find my way to save my life. My lenses are distorted—I don’t see right—so I can’t get anywhere. My glasses correct the way I see the world around me.
• We tend to emulate that to which we’re constantly exposed. I have to tell you, I’m like a kid in a candy store when it comes to this so-called information explosion within which we’re so completely immersed. Info at the fingertips—television—internet. Constant exposure to the unhealthy stuff available in media will warp our worldview. Our worldview becomes worldly—we model the lives of the ungodly.

·         Obviously Paul is calling us to have a different worldview—to see life through a different lens. To see the world around us through the lens of God—real vision correction.

·         The Greek verb translated “transformed” (metamorphousthe) is seen in the English word “metamorphosis,” a total change from inside out (cf. 2 Cor. 3:18).

·         But how does that happen? How are we transformed?

b) How? By mind renewal

·         Pet peeve—faith, Christianity, etc. a matter of the heart. Yes, but not to the exclusion of the brain! In fact, God’s challenge to us is to expand our minds to the best of our ability—to think well and think hard. The mind matters and . . .

·         What you fill your mind with matters—we’ve already established that. Now if we’re going to engage in mind renewal, we’ve got to go to the source of the good stuff.

·         We renew our minds by filling them with good things—the things of God.

·         Php 4:8 (NRSV) Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

·         We need to focus on the good stuff. We need to find more time to dwell on the things of God (found primarily through studying his word and prayer) than to dwell on the things of this world. More Holy Word and less Hollywood. More time talking with God and less time with the television. More truth and less trash.

c) Why? To discern God's will which is . . .

·         Why this transformation? To find God’s will—his good, pleasing, and perfect will.

·         BKC— As a Christian is transformed in his mind and is made more like Christ, he comes to approve and desire God’s will, not his own will for his life. Then he discovers that God’s will is what is good for him, and that it pleases God, and is complete in every way. It is all he needs.

·         Each of us is after God’s will for our lives. (At least, I hope we are.) We want his will to be done. And we want to know what his will is. Our lives.

·         But there’s more. We need to think more broadly. In other words, we need to be seeking his will not just individually but corporately. We desperately need to know God’s will for MUMC. What would he have us do? Not what do we want, but what does he want? In what direction would he have us go? That should be the all-consuming goal—and every person here needs to be involved in discerning God’s will for this church.

·         Important—it will be difficult if not impossible for you to offer insightful input on this matter if you haven’t first allowed God to transform you by the renewing of your mind—if you haven’t made progress on the path for determining God’s will for you own life. What I mean is this: make sure you have your own spiritual ducks in order before you lend a voice in the matter of finding God’s will for the church.

Conclusion

·         So, let’s give ourselves to God and get our minds right. Then we’ll be on the right track to finding God’s will not just for ourselves but for this church.

Hymn:  #672—God Be with You till We Meet Again