Romans 12: 1 – 8 Change Is Not A “Four” Letter Word
Intro: You may be intrigued by the fact that you were given a teabag as you entered worship today. --- Remember the last time you were given something in worship by me? I asked you to take a silver dollar and turn it in $100,000. And now I’ve given you a teabag. Hum?
I. Vs. 1 – “Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. The living sacrifice is equal to spiritual worship.
A. Spiritual worship – (ëïãéêÞí ëáôñåßáí – logikan latreian) literally translated as “intelligent service”
B. Meant – to work for hire or pay / voluntary undertaking of work – that to which a person gives their whole life.
C. Real worship is the offering of our everyday lives to God not what we do here.
II. How do we do that? – Vs. 2 – “by not conforming to this world but be transformed.
A. Sam had a 1965 Corvette he bought back when he finished college – One morning he starts it and it begins clanking, sputtering and blowing out blue smoke. So he takes it down to the auto body shop and has it painted candy-apple red, new rims, new tires, new upholstery. - When Sam picked up the car it still clanked, sputtered and blew out smoke. Why?
B. “Transformed by the renewing of your minds.” Root word used for “conform” is shema – means outward form / root word for “transform” is morphae means the essential unchanging shape or element of anything.
C. Paul is saying that to worship and serve God, we must undergo a change, not of our outward form, but of our inward personality, of the very essence of our being.
III. “Renewing of your minds – so you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
A. Vs. 3 – “Don’t think of yourself more highly than you ought.” – We feel as if we have to do God’s work or it won’t get done.
B. God was working before you got here! – “But to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that god has assigned.
C. We need to change – you and I and this church need to change – We must become convicted that it is our bounden duty and our god-given privilege to make our own contribution to the common good of this community.
Conclu: I want you to take that teabag and put it where you will see it every day. You won’t have tea to drink unless it is transformed, changed by being put in hot water and being squeezed. The same is true of this church. You won’t have a church unless you are willing to change.
