New Year’s resolutions are examples of the universal human desire to have some control over your life…you’re thinking…either you’re confused on what time of the year it is…or you’re repeating a sermon from last January…neither.
New Year’s resolutions are similar to Lent…you stop doing something for a while but eventually you go back doing what it was you gave up.
I know Lent has nothing to do with the stopping of doing something because it’s sinful…I realize that for those who celebrate Lent as a Christian observance it’s a time in which you give up doing something as a way of practicing self-discipline by making it a sacrifice to the Lord.
I’ve never understood that…giving up something as a way of reminding us of the sacrifice Jesus made during the 40 days in the desert when He didn’t eat.
I’m not seeing the correlation between Jesus fasting and me giving up something for only 40 days…seems both Lent and making of New Year’s resolutions are a way of doing something that somehow makes us feel better about ourselves.
It really doesn’t matter whether we make good on those promises…just committing to them…if only for a few weeks…gives us a feeling of having some control over our lives.
As Christians all of us would say that we want to change so that we can be more like Christ…but…when it comes right down to it…change is hard.
It’s like climbing an icy slope…just when we think we’ve made some progress …we slip back down to the bottom.
So how can we change for good?…for good I mean both in our character and in our behavior…how can we change to become more like Jesus?
If you’ve ever tried you know it’s not as easy as just saying it…here’s why… the playing field is not level…some have a more difficult battle than others.
If you grew up in a home where there was frequent conflict…where your parents split…where you were verbally…physically…or even sexually abused …or even now you live in a situation that is less than joyful…you’ve got a lot more issues to deal with than those who grew up or now live where that is not the case.
Or maybe you’re involved in certain substance abuses such as drugs or alcohol where the battle is more difficult for you to overcome.
Now…because this is church and I am a Pastor I’ll tell you the right motive for wanting to change…1) could be that you want to be a better person…2) maybe it’s because you’ve grown weary of how your life’s going…but more realistically…it may be because at some point in your life you realized that you were a sinner deserving of God’s judgment.
Every person at some point in their life experiences that feeling…that you were a sinner deserving of God’s judgment…the difference is YOU reached out and took hold of that offer to change…while others continue to reject it.
In our efforts to have a more calming and desirable life people are told to turn to God who will bring you relief and make you feel better.
You can go to Google and find all kinds of heartwarming…soothing…and encouraging stories about how God wants to take your worries…problems…and difficulties from you.
There are countless articles on:
surrender your worries to God and you will find strength
God will solve all your problems
God’s purpose behind your problems
I don’t want to make light of that…because God does want to be intimately involved in our lives…but there’s a major difference in asking God to intervene in our worldly affairs and people using God to get out of their problems.
Here’s what happens all too frequently…people don’t want change…they just want God to get them out of the misery they’re in….then when they’re free from that issue they put God back in the closet until the next time they’re in a jam.
God knows your intent and your sincerity.Some may present themselves as being a faithful child of God …even having people believe they are…when in reality they don’t even believe in God.
BUT…just to show how sincere they are, they practice some form of Christianity at certain times of the year… notable at Christmas and on Easter (Resurrection Sunday) …with some even being a little more committed than that… their Christianity includes a one-day-a-week service.
People putting on Christianity as if it’s a set of clothing…not wanting to surrender to the lordship of Jesus…not wanting to present their life as a living sacrifice…just wanting to use God to get out of their problems until the next time He’s needed.
Let me share with you something of the character of God…see this in the Old Testament… a repeated problem with Israel…they would sin…then God would bring judgment on them…they would repent…then God would forgive them and restore them…until the next generation came along and the whole process began all over again.
One day God told the Prophet Jeremiah I’m getting tired of this…God’s patience does run out [Jer. 11:14]:
“Do not pray for this people nor offer any plea for them because
I will not listen when they call to Me in the time of their distress.” A rather harsh thing to say…probably something you didn’t know was in the Bible…BUT…just to emphasize the point, this is what God told Isaiah regarding the same thing:
When you spread out your hands in prayer I will hide My eyes
from you…I will not listen. (Isa 1:15)That’s not what you want to hear from God.
But it’s a reality…those verses kind of dispel the idea that God hears your prayers regardless of your situation…that’s what people are told…BUT… there’s a fallacy in that statement.
People who reject Christ’s teaching but still believe He hears their prayers…NO He doesn’t.
There is a marked difference between how God deals with those who are in a relationship with Him and those who are not…when we are out of fellowship with God our prayers are hindered…it’s the result of a positional problem between us and God…it’s not a God problem.
People want to believe that those verses from Jeremiah and Isaiah are Old Testament verses when God was…more punitive…quicker to punish…more judgmental…and stricter…BUT…He’s not like that now…those are no longer applicable characteristics because they were written before Jesus came to earth.
God is the same yesterday…today…and forever [Heb. 13:8] …there is no change from the Old Testament to the New Testament…the truth is the God in the Old Testament and the God in the New Testament is the same God.
In fact, Jesus spoke of hell more than any other biblical person…thus we can conclude that there is no difference between the two testaments…God remains the same…how He treats us is consistent…His love for us is consistent…His
hatred of sin is also consistent.
He loves us but He does not like our sin…as a result…it is our sin that separates us from fellowship with God.
People are so convinced that nothing can separate us from the love of God [Rom. 8:39]…that is a true statement…but sadly some have the idea that they can live however they want and still be confident God hears their prayers…He doesn’t.
Scripture describes at least five types of people whose prayers aren’t heard: https://media.faith-bible.net/topical/when-god-wont-listen
Atheist
Unbelievers
Church-Attending Evildoers
Intentional Idolater
Sinning Believers
Notice that two of the five groups whose prayers aren’t answered include church people…church attending evildoers and sinning believers…here’s why:
we know that God does not hear sinners; [John 9:31]People justify themselves by using the term ‘sinner’ …most people readily admit in the general sense of the word… “Well, we’re all just sinners”. That gives them some relief in thinking we’re all in the same boat…NO we’re not.
NOW…does sin live in us…YES…even as Christians we struggle with sin.
The real difference between a sinner and a saint is whether or not Christ is in you.
The Bible makes a clear distinction between sinners and saints…even Billy Joel says so …“I’d rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints.”
In the generic sense of the word…everyone who is descended from Adam is a sinner…that’s all of us…BUT…there are 67 uses of the word saint in the New Testament… always referring to those who trusted Jesus as Lord and Savior.
In that respect…you are no longer a sinner.
You might have sinful tendencies…you might even sin…you will sin…Bible says so…BUT…you are no longer a sinner…you are a saint.
Here’s where the difference shows up…there are times in your life when as a committed Christian you pray and it seems God is silent…actually He’s not…when that occurs it is for a completely different reason…another sermon.
That’s totally different than when God is silent because we’re living a deliberate lifestyle of disobedience and He elects not to answer.
Here’s what’s important…you may lack the marks of a committed Christian, but God can transform you into a true disciple if you simply surrender and let Him have His will in your life.
The difficulty is in doing what Paul suggests in 12:1…making the claim of being a Christian but not willing to completely give ourselves to God.
Neither in Romans, nor in any other of his epistles did Paul suggest a simple, automatic transition from defeat to victory…Christian living is a process of spiritual change accomplished by the work of the Holy Spirit. (Zane Hodges)…
When we fail to give ourselves to God by being born again…we cannot live transformed lives…what is the mark of a transformed life?
The transformed life is a life of serving others in the church.
Last week we looked at one way in which the transformed life is accomplished.
It is through the use of spiritual gifts that God has given to every member of His church so we can serve others.
Beginning in [9] Paul gives another way in which the transformed life is accomplished…it’s not a list of do’s and don’ts…he gives a comprehensive…but not exhaustive…list of the basic …practical…characteristics of the Christian life.
He tells us what a transformed life looks like…it’s not a mystical life lived on good impulses…or sincere intentions….it’s practical living that results from a conscious decision to be obedient to God’s standards of righteousness.
For the Christian….the only productive…and truly satisfying life…is the self-disciplined life…when we conform our outer lives to our inner lives…goes back to [1]
present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God.
The only way that can happen is by the transformed renewing of your mind [2] …so how do we get that?
It comes as the result of an unmistakable pattern of godly…righteous living…a life demonstrated by a desire to change and become a new creation…HOW? By hearing God’s Word taught at church…week after week…month after month.
If you only hear a couple sermons a year you can’t have the transformed life… there won’t be enough of the Word of God in you to renew your mind…you need to hear the Word of God taught on a weekly basis.
‘There you go again…just wanting more people to preach to’ …here’s the importance of being in Church…it’s the cumulative impact of the teaching of God’s Word…we change as our thinking changes.
Dedication won’t produce a transformed life.
Promising to serve God won’t produce a transformed life.
Being baptized won’t produce a transformed life.
Taking communion won’t produce a transformed life.
Sitting in church won’t produce a transformed life.
Change comes as the Spirit of God takes the Word of God which we have been taught week after week…month after month and changes our thinking …as our thinking changes so does our behavior.
The Holy Spirit will take the Word of God and renew your mind…so what does ‘renewing of the mind’ mean in the Bible?
Simply stated…it means seeing the world…yourself…others…God…and interpreting life through the lens of God’s Word…has nothing to do with your personal experiences…life’s issues…or the opinions of others.
In [9-21] Paul lists a series of rapid-fire exhortations that we are tempted to overlook because there doesn’t seem to be any logical connection to the spiritual gifts that just preceded it.
This list is the second way in which the transformed life is accomplished…one way through the use of spiritual gifts and beginning in [9].
The transformation of your behavior is to live a life characterized by the ideals listed in v 9-21.
A transformed life can be expanded into four applications
1) Personal duties [vv. 9]
2) Family duties [vv. 10-13]
3) Duty to other people in general [vv. 14-16]
4) Duty to those who are avowed enemies [vv. 17-21]
The details of those applications are spelled out in verses 9-21…they’re printed in your bulletin.
The decision was should I go over each exhortation slowly being sure to explore every thought in detail…or do like what Paul did…take the section as a whole and grasp the overall point rather than stopping over every detail.
I’m not going to talk about them individually.
But real quick…suppose this was part of your daily Bible reading…two hours later how many of those exhortations do you think you could remember…more importantly…what effect did they have on you…did they transform your heart and mind?
Reading over a text like this one…once and quickly has little effect to produce all the things mentioned in these 12 verses…so what are we to do?
This whole section can be summed up in verse [9]…maybe why Paul lists it first: let love be without hypocrisy…love must be sincere.
Paul closes out chapter 12 by describing what sincere love looks like…it’s contained in the next 12 verses…everything he mentions is motivated by love.
Paul is revealing the kind of behavior produced by a renewed mind by giving examples of how this love is expressed.
Everything goes back to verse [1]. When we present our bodies a living sacrifice to God He will transform our lives into a life that is good and acceptable and perfect.