MPC
6th January 2019.January 6 - Romans 12:1-13 - "Happy Re-New Year"
MPC
6th January 2019.
Phil Campbell
Friends, I'm going to call it. It's January 6. And it's not too soon to say it.
New Years' resolutions don't work. Do they?
You can be as resolved as you like to exercise more or to eat healthy this year; but for most of us, it only lasted 'til January 2. Because there's still that left over Christmas cake; there's still the tennis on TV; still the lazy days of summer holidays to kick back and take it easy. Instead of sweating it out at the gym.
And the reality is changing behaviours is hard. Here's a tip. They say if you're trying to start a new habit, never miss three days. Miss one day, that's okay. Miss two days, that's understandable. Never, if you want to build a positive new habit, never let yourself miss three days in a row. Or you're done for. Which is why for so many of us, by January 6, we've blown it already.
But look, the reality is when it comes to the big stuff, maybe you need more than an annual New Year's resolution that doesn't work anyway. And chances are, maybe you're someone who's got this one sorted already. In which case maybe you don't need to sweat the small stuff; because here in Romans 12 Paul's talking about not so much renewing our resolutions. But the big picture of God's plan and promise to renew our minds.
Romans 12 is a famous chapter because it marks the hinge point in the book.
Romans 1 to 11, full of the basic mechanics of what God has done in Christ Jesus to make us right with him.
And it's fantastic. Here's a sample. Romans 3 verse 22 to 24.
He says:
This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
Counted righteous. Freely. By his grace. And more than that, given new hearts, given new life, Romans chapter 8; by his Spirit. At work in us.
Eleven chapters of tightly packed theory. Of theology.
But leaves the hanging question what now? What next? If God has done all that for us, then how do we respond? What's it going to look like in practice?
Which is where you get to the hinge word in the book. The very first word in verse 1, the word therefore. Which picks up all the gospel logic of the last 11 chapters, and carries us forward into gospel consequences. And gospel living.
Because if you're Jewish and you've been religiously worshipping at the temple all your life; if you've been religiously bringing your sheep to sacrifice and you've watched while the priest sprinkles its blood on the altar to cover your sins until next time... do you seriously think you're going to just keep doing that stuff now you've understood Jesus?
Or if you've been a gentile pagan. You've been worshipping and serving created things instead of the creator. Idols. Statues. Stuff. Surely, now you've come to faith in Jesus, now that you're forgiven and saved and counted righteous... Surely, that's going to change?
Which is exactly what Paul's going to spell out here in chapter 12, following on from the therefore. It's because you've been saved. It's because you're now counted right with God. That you'll be living differently. With some new life resolutions. Some renewing. Some renovating.
So here. In a nutshell, says Paul. Is how we should live in view of God's mercy. Follow verse 1.
Therefore I urge you brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. this is your spiritual act of worship.
From now on, says Paul, in view of God's mercy, your worship of God is going to play out in all kinds of ways. That are very different to what they were before. And can I say, it might not be what you're expecting.
Interesting, we had a three week break in Vietnam before Christmas. If you've been to almost any Asian country you can't avoid seeing the temples.
Astonishing architecture, full of history.
And typically, there'll be a Buddha statue. And people bring their offerings; maybe flowers. Or food. A gift.
So you'll see what looks like little piles of groceries including things like Oreo biscuits or Choco chip breakfast cereal stacked up in front of your historic golden Buddha. Because judging by the size of his tummy he's got a sweet tooth.
The fascinating thing about Vietnam, and it's a sad thing. Is there's a history of French Catholicism too. And so there are old churches.
With statues not of Buddha, but of Mary. And people are bowing down there too and bringing their candles and offerings. In a way that looks very much the same.
We were on a tour bus, drove past a shop that was selling Buddha statues that you could take home for your own little temple. Buddha Buddha Buddha all in a row. And then the Mary section. Mary Mary Mary. One stop shop. No matter who you want to worship.
As they say over there, same same.
Which again is sad. Because what's presenting as Christianity at that point has completely missed the memo from the Apostle Paul that all that stuff's finished. And everything's new.
And most especially our worship. Not just in a small way.
Temples. Gone!
Sacrifices. Gone.
Priesthood. Gone.
Rituals. Gone.
Because Jesus has finished it. Once and for all.
And in their place; read what he says. Something much bigger. Offer your bodies. As a living sacrifice. Live. In a way that every day in every action and every decision you're looking back at the mercy God's shown you; looking back at the sacrifice of Jesus for you; and playing that out in your life in the way you're living a life of sacrificial service for others.
That. Says Paul. Is your spiritual act of worship. Which is revolutionary. And if you're prepared to think about it for a minute, it's a revolution that's still playing out. And I think we often haven't fully understood it.
Because it means your spiritual act of worship certainly isn't going to mean bringing a box of Coco Pops and putting them on an altar.
But it equally means our true and proper worship isn't defined by the songs we sing in church on a Sunday morning either. Whether they're Hillsong or your favourite old hymn.
It's great to sing. It's hugely encouraging to sing together. I mean, last Sunday we just about blew off the roof didn't we, with how great thou art. And it was so encouraging.
But even that. Is not our true and proper worship. Look at Paul's words again. Verse 1.
Because our true and proper worship is all about offering our bodies as a living sacrifice holy and pleasing to God.
Which is going to mean things like putting aside your own personal comfort and personal preferences; putting aside your favourite sins of selfishness; and using your body in sacrificial service of others instead of serving yourself. Paul says, in view of God's mercy, forget about comfortable. If you want to really worship God, then be a sacrifice.
Which again I want to say is much more than paying homage to your statue of Buddha in the temple; much more than the right kind of formal church service with the right words at the start and end; much more than the singing the latest hits from Hillsong with your eyes closed and your hands up.
Being. A sacrifice.
Which means, says Paul, you've gotta stop conforming to the world's blueprint; and be transformed instead. From the inside out.
Mind first.
Not just some New Years' resolutions. But a whole new way of thinking. About yourself. And about God. And about others.
Take a look what he says in verse 2.
Do not conform to the pattern of this world; but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Paul says, instead of following the way the world works, flip the script. Reprogram. Get a whole new set of gospel common sense. Start with your head.
Now way back in chapter 1, Paul's said a lot about the world's way of thinking. Which he says has been darkened by the rejection of God. And it all started with a wrong worship.
Romans 1 verse 25. Talking about humanity in general. He says,
They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served created things rather than the creator.
Their worship's messed up. Their centre is off centre, and so everything else is out of line too.
More from chapter 1. Because here's the consequence of that.
When our Nathan was about 18 months old, he was determined to taste chilli sauce. So we said, here, try some.
Kind of like that with humanity. Romans 1 verse 28; we don't value knowing God; so he gives us over to our wrong minds. Says try some. Do it your way. See how it goes.
Furthermore, just as they did not judge as good the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind so that they do what ought not to be done.
Don't think God's worth knowing? So God says have it your way; do what your bent mind wants to do. Which then results in us doing what shouldn't be done. There's a list back in chapter 1 from verse 29.
Greed. Envy. Deceit. Malice. Gossip. Arrogance. Boasting. No understanding. No love. No mercy.
That's the pattern of the world.
Which looks like this... wrong worship > not "judging as good" the knowledge of God > wrong mind> wrong action.
Can I say to you, if you doubt that's an accurate picture of the world, if you think that's a bit dark, just take a look at the Internet sometime.
I reckon it's mankind's supreme achievement. Full of every kind of knowledge. Let's us keep in touch and connected like never before.
And yet such darkness.
Scarlett Johansson says in an interview in the Washington Post, she doesn't even try to stop people faking pornographic images of her any more. Now they're even doing videos. She says, I don't even bother.
She says, "I think it's a useless pursuit, legally, mostly because the Internet is a vast wormhole of darkness that eats itself."
Which is because in a nutshell, the Internet is us. Humanity revealed. Posting stuff under cover of our secret electronic identities. Saying and doing things we'd never say or do in person; just because we can get away with it.
I read Graham Blundell's review of the TV series Westworld in The Australian a while back. A robot theme-park with lifelike characters where you can pay to play out your wildest fantasies. What's that going to look like?
What it's going to show, says producer Jonathan Nolan, is that despite all our technological mastery, despite our cleverness, "we remain as a species frustratingly broken, seemingly barrelling towards disaster."
That's us. That's exactly the humanity Paul's describing in Romans chapter 1.
Except for, says Paul, the mercy of God. In Christ Jesus. To change all that. So back in chapter 12. All that's rolling backwards. Being put back together.
Because of God's mercy in Christ; and his transforming spirit.
Right worship. Right mind. Able to judge as good the knowledge of God again. And then from that. A whole different way of living life. Hidden a bit in our English translation. But full of echoes in the original Greek of the problems that were spelled out back in chapter 1.
Romans 12 verse 2 again.
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then, you'll be able to judge as good God's will - his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Our translation's got test and approve what God's will is. In the original, it's exactly the same word back in chapter 1 verse 28; the exact thing humanity didn't do. To value as a good thing God's will and intention for our lives. Value as a good thing. Things like justice. And integrity. And love.
And yet God in his mercy in the gospel. God in his outpouring of his spirit in our hearts. Brings the kind of transformation inside us that makes us a people who can love right again.
When the pattern of the world... is to love wrong.
And so real worship. Is going to mean not just singing a few new songs; but singing a whole new lifestyle. Starting from the heart. And working all the way through.
Friends, when the word worship rolls off your lips, I hope that's what you're thinking. Because anything else is much too limiting.
The full picture plays out in more detail from verse 3.
Now if we're going to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, here's a good starting point. And it goes right to the centre of our self awareness; the way we think about our selves.
There's a lot being written these days about theories of consciousness. Which by definition is self awareness. The ability to think about what you're thinking about.
That kind of self awareness is fundamental to being alive. It's what's gone, when you're gone. So in a way if you're alive, you'll be constantly, or at least according to one article I read, at least five times a second thinking about yourself and you're hot or you're cold or you're sad or you're happy or you're standing or you're sitting.
But there's another kind of thinking about ourselves that goes beyond that to being self absorbed.
And instead of going to the next step and using your own awareness to be aware of how others are going; your self awareness becomes self absorption. And you. Become the most important thing in the universe. Self centred.
Paul says if you're going to get serious about being a living sacrifice, that's the first thing that's gotta stop. Self centredness. Which is just another way of saying self worship.
Lou and I were chatting to someone recently, someone we've known for years. And Lou made the comment afterwards, she didn't ask a single question about anyone else. And as far as I can remember, she never has.
And yet lots of talk. About her own achievements. Her own importance. Her own status.
If that's you. Paul says here's step one in being transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Romans 12 Verse 3.
For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgement, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.
In other words, measure yourself. In terms of how much you're trusting Jesus. And not by anything else.
Estimate yourself... As a forgiven and redeemed sinner. Rather than by your OP Results from school or your Uni degree or your job title or the size of your house. Or by your iq score, how good looking you are, how well connected you are, how well off you are.
Throw away the pattern of this world. And be prepared to think less of yourself. And more of others. Because Paul says, we've been brought together as a body.
Where our common faith in the Lord Jesus is what holds us together as one.
And so Paul goes on to spell out the implications of that. Don't think of yourself more highly than you ought. But instead keep in mind that as a church family, as a body, as the body of Christ... you, with all belong to one another. That you, with all your skills and gifts and capacity; they're not just for your convenience. But for sacrificial service.
And when you're using them that way even if you might not be feeling like it, that's worship.
That's the set-up in verses 4 and 5. Where Paul says,
just as we've all got bodies with many parts and members that all have different functions... so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others."
Friends, if you count yourself a part of this church; if you're really part of this church; that's what it's going to look like. You're a body part.
And it's inconvenient, isn't it? And it's potentially a bit time consuming, don't you think? To actually belong. To other people. And not just yourself? And yet that's what it's going to mean... to present your body as a living sacrifice.
It's going to mean talking to someone on the phone because you haven't seen them for a while and you're concerned. It's going to mean maybe making a meal; because you've heard someone's unwell. It's going to mean using whatever gifts you've got for building up the body in accordance with your faith, because all of us are different. And all of us have got something to offer.
Whether it's prophecy, which in Paul's New Testament definition in 1 Corinthians 14 verse 3 means "speaking to people for their strengthening encouragement and comfort... "
But the one who prophecies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort...
Maybe that's you? If that's your gift, says Paul, you're meant to use it in accordance with your faith. Which means if you're trusting Jesus and God's given you some encouraging words to say to comfort someone when they need it, don't just think about it. Don't just say it's inconvenient. Say it! And be encouraging. Paul says in Corinthians, if you're not sure it's helpful, check with some elders first. But get on with it.
... or if it's serving. Get on and serve. However it is. Because you don't just belong to yourself, you belong to Jesus and his body.
... or if it's teaching. Do something.
Too busy to do that? Too important to do that? I remember Paul Harrington who spoke at one of our Bible Teaching Weekends a few years ago saying that their most faithful kids church teacher was one of Adelaide's leading heart specialists. Who decides whether or not to speak at an international conference... on the basis of whether he can be back for his sunday school class on Sunday morning. Because ultimately, he says, that's more important.
What if you've got the gift of encouraging? You know what he's saying. It's all there in verse 8. Give some encouragement.
Do it, he says, in proportion to your faith. And do it. With all your heart.
If you've got the gift of giving, verse 8, do it generously. Instead of grudgingly.
If you've got the gift of leading. Apply yourself diligently. With all your might.
If you've got the gift of showing mercy, of practical care, do it with a smile on your face.
Because we all belong. Sacrificially. To one another.
Maybe, for you, that's going to need a change of heart. Maybe a change of mind. Verses 9 to 13 wrap it up. Because it's all about love. Which he says in verse 9, must be sincere. Of course it must. And so hate what is evil. And hold on to what is good.
And be devoted, he says, to one another... in love. Which means honouring one another... above yourselves. That's what living sacrifice is going to look like.
You might be tired of that stuff. Or you might never have tried it. Paul says in verse 12, keep at it. Keep your spiritual fervour, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope. Be patient in affliction. Be faithful in prayer. In simple ways. Like sharing with one another when we're in need. Verse 13. And opening our homes in hospitality.
Friends, if we're doing that stuff, sacrificially, then we are a worshipping church. And I reckon we are.
Our music will never be Hillsong. But for so many I'm looking at this morning, you're actually living out that sacrifice of honouring others. More than you're honouring yourself. In all kinds of ways. In all kinds of service. In all kinds of love.
And in view of God's mercy, that's exactly the kind of worship he wants. He's not so fussed on benedictions and doxologies. Doesn't have a preference over pipe organs or electric guitars. Equally happy with both. And not just a few New Years' resolutions that don't work anyway. But transformed hearts. Transformed minds. Living and serving sacrificially. in love.
So let me wish you a Happy Re-New Year. And let's keep on making those things our goal together; a church that's truly worshipping God as we invite and grow and love and send all over again in 2019.