Because God Worship Series: A Change for the Best Romans 12:1-8
I have a strange admission to make…I am an odd duck of sorts. I sit outside the norm. I’m not ashamed of it, it’s just the way it is.
From an early age, I have despised sports. I can watch them on occasion, but I am not an eager participant. I am not one to whoop and holler at sporting events (…but Karen makes up for it!)
I remember being talked into going to sign-ups for little league. There were so many kids when we got there that we were told that we’d have to come back the next day. I never went back
In middle school, I’m sure kids avoided getting too close to me in gym. I never hurt anyone intentionally but I whacked two different kids in the head – one with a floor hockey stick and one with an aluminum baseball bat! Neither were seriously injured but they had goose eggs to show for our encounter.
No matter how hard I tried, I have never, ever completed a layup in basketball.
To say the least, I wasn’t the first one chosen for playground games. I tended to be more toward the tail-end of those chosen. I don’t remember it bothering me a whole lot. I just didn’t like sports-oriented things.
A big question that has a major impact on us all is, where do we find ourselves in life? Are we on top of the heap? Or do we feel that we are on the “last chosen” list?
Maybe it’s just because I’m on that side of the calculations but I would dare to say that a majority of people feel they are on the “last chosen” list. It’s easy to flashback to our school days and feel even today how we felt then. Now some may count themselves as “top of the pile” people, but overall, even there it is a constant battle to not lose one’s footing and end up sliding to the bottom.
It’s interesting that I seem to be dipping into this area of thought quite frequently in recent days. My reading, my writing, has all touched on it.
So, in God’s eyes where do you feel that you land? Well, today we are going to do some searching. Together we are going to help solidify our understanding of where God places us.
Our text today is from the Book of Romans.
Verse three of Romans 12 NIV introduces humility.
“Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought.”
Think about that for a moment. Doesn’t that go against the overriding mindset of our culture? We are all about self-esteem, about building up. “I’m worth it,” purrs the woman touting the expensive hair care products. And why not? We are worth it. We are of immeasurable value. Esteem is a biblical concept, to be sure. Hear the words of Psalm 8,
what are human beings that you are mindful of them,
….mortals that you care for them?
Yet you have made them a little lower than God,
….and crowned them with glory and honor. vs.4-5
You can’t get more esteemed than that, can you?
Luke 12:7 reminds us; Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. (regardless if that number is decreasing in recent years!) and Jesus goes on to say, you are worth more than many sparrows.
I realize that hairs and sparrows aren’t up there with glory and honor, but we get the point. We are valued, we are worth it.
So, if that is the case, why does Paul seem to deny it…a least at first? We don’t like being put in our place, hearing the line “more highly than you ought.” Our world likes to push us to think we are high, and no one is higher. Paul isn’t really denying what the psalmist and Jesus said. He’s just saying that we ought to remember that those things weren’t said to us individually, but to us collectively – as a whole.
The problem we have with the self-esteem emphasis is that we usually turn it into a “top of the pile” / “last chosen” mentality. It becomes an “I’m better than…” rather than a simple “I am good” mindset.
Paul is driving home the point that it is not a competition; it is a state of being. All are good in God’s eyes, and we all have a role to play in God’s Kingdom – in that image of the kingdom we call the church. So, step up and join the party. Step up and take an oar. Step up and bring the piece you’ve been perfecting. However you want to envision the invitation, it is to be a working, rejoicing part of the community.
So, the worst thing for us to do, then, is to go to the party unprepared and that’s what Paul is doing in these first two verses. For this party, we need to be prepared to serve. Chapter 12 begins, with a call for commitment to the whole. And all it takes is…everything – body and soul.
Read it with me, won’t you?
1 And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. 2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. Romans 12:1-8 NLT
Just a quick reminder, you realize that all of Scripture is the word of God. That’s why we call it that! In this book are the words God spoke to the authors. He inspired them to write what they wrote. And we are to take those words seriously.
In verse one we are given our first task “give your bodies to God”. Jesus needs us to do our faith, not just think about it.
Our commitment to Christ comes out in our hands and our feet, as well as our thoughts and words. It’s how we live each and every day. And it is a sacrifice, a gift given away; it isn’t about what we get out of it; it’s not about making us feel good.
That it does make us feel good is just a bonus. But if the feeling good part becomes the goal, we might not work when we don’t feel like it. That is where we lose the sacrifice part. Give your bodies.
But Paul says Jesus doesn’t want mindless robots doing manual labor. Instead, he says, “let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.”
When we try to understand thinking, we naturally think of our brains. But Paul is talking about more than just our intellectual capacity. Paul means all that makes us the unique creatures that we are. It is our essence, our being, the inner real us. That is what Jesus wants us to offer. It is that through which he wants to work. We might understand it to be soul. Jesus wants us, body, and soul.
One of the biggest arguments against following Christ is that people are afraid to give up things in their lives…they don’t want to have to change.
The things we do in our lives, the things that fill our time, and take our energy, did we do very many of them when we were children? Probably not. They are things that we grew into, or things that we learned to enjoy. Some maybe even were thrust upon us, not because we wanted them in our lives but because they just happened, or we took them on because we didn’t have a choice.
There is not one person in this room who can say they are the same person now, that we were as a child.
None of us are the same person we were 10 years ago!
We have changed. The world has changed us. Sometimes we went along willingly…other times we were drug along kicking and screaming!
We may not think so, but we will change yet again…and again…and again. Something is going to change us – either the world…or Christ. So…why not make that choice ourselves?
Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.
We are to search for the will of God at work in us. Paul warns us to stay alert, stay tuned to what God wants to do in and through us, or we’ll drift into patterns of thinking and behavior that fit into the world in which we live. If we’re not careful we’ll discover ourselves thinking thoughts and engaging in behaviors that are far from the person we want to be…the person God created us to be. Paul says. “Pay attention.”
So, remember, in God’s eyes we are chosen! In God’s eyes, we have never and will never be on the “last chosen” list! It may be hard to believe but God has crowned [us] with glory and honor. So with that in mind, we must give our bodies to God. And we must pay attention, as we allow God to transform us into new people by changing the way we think!
Core by DEREK WEBER / PREACHING NOTES
Aug 30th, 2020, Sun, 9:00 am
