Romans 12:1-8
Living Sacrifices to God
12 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Serve God with Spiritual Gifts
3 For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. 4 For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, 5 so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. 6 Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; 7 or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; 8 he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.
In my closet I have a shirt I like, red, faded, it is from a camp I chaperoned for Youth Ministry almost 20 years ago, but that shirt had Romans 12:1-2 on the front like a baseball logo and it said be transformed. I like that shirt, I like those verses, I like this book of Romans. I remember getting a kids illustrated bible and at the beginning of the book it had cartoon drawing of kids and they said read the whole Bible kids, start with Romans. Romans? Romans isn’t the beginning of the Bible its in the middle. But Romans has so many important verses to our faith all in one book. It is in Romans that we learn that God loves us, that we are justified by faith, that we are sinners saved by grace, that the Holy Spirit dwells in us, that if we confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in our heart God raised him from the dead, we will be saved. Romans is what Augustine read when he heard a voice tell him to “take up and read,” Martin Luther used Romans on his insight into God’s righteousness, John Wesley was reading a passage from Romans at Aldersgate when his heart was "strangely warmed."
I like Romans. Written by Paul to the churches in Rome, 1:7 tells us this. Paul is writing to churches in Rome, while the people are being oppressed. There is a tense political climate in place, Paul writes this letter around 10 years before a revolt against Rome. Somewhere between 55 and 58 AD. The people of God, don’t like how the government is treating them, and they fight back. Can you imagine that? Speaking up against the unfair treatment by those in power instead of saying keep politics out of it? I digress….for now. Paul is dealing with all of this and preparing to make a trip and writes a letter with all of this going on. What I read before starting the sermon is a pivot point in the text. Chapters 1-11 of Romans cover dogma and doctrine, but 12-16 cover ethics and behavior, 1-11 here is what you need to know and 12-16 is how you need to act now that you know. Even though the Roman Empire is oppressing those who believe in God, the government is demanding your loyalty, that is why Jesus is Lord is such a scandalous term at the time. Because the people expected you to say Ceasar is Lord, Ceasar was supposed to be you savior, Ceasar was supposed to be your all in all. They wanted you to worship your government, that is a popular way of thinking that the world, literally meaning this age in the Greek wanted the people of God to conform to, trying to beat them into submission into a mold that fit what they wanted to have. Paul tell them not to conform, don’t let them put you into a box but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. We ought to be like the people Paul was talking to and change the way we think as well. We have to change the way we think about being the body of Christ in this world, this day an age and we have the perfect opportunity to do it today.
This is an unprecedented time, with new things going on, a great opportunity to do things differently but as one of my colleagues Robert Johnson said, the church is fighting to do the same thing over and over. the Bible says to be transformed, that word for transformed is used other places in the Bible
Mark 9:2
2 Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John, and led them up on a high mountain apart by themselves; and He was transfigured before them.
2 Corinthians 3:18
18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
They all have this in common, radical change, a re-centering of ourselves, and some long hard work. This is not done overnight, but just because it doesn’t happen overnight doesn’t mean we don’t do the work. Martin Luther King said
"Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men [sic] willing to be co-workers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right." - Martin Luther King Jr.
We have to be humble, not think of ourselves more highly than we ought, we are all sinners in this world saved by grace. We cannot earn our way to heaven it is a gift of God’s love, unmerited favor, Paul received that grace and speaks to us about it. Paul tells us that Jews and Gentiles are a part of God’s kingdom and we have to do this in community. One body but many gifts, community, gifts of service in ministry, and gifts of financial support. It is all work, and we are called to do a new work, with a new mindset, to help make new disciples of Jesus Christ. What has happened in the past or did not happened we must move past and forge forward with a new mind in a new age, because new people need to learn about this Jesus Christ as we have.
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