Lord, Renew My Church!

*Romans 12:1-2

"I abeseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies ba living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your 2reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but dbe transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may eprove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Serve God with Spiritual Gifts"

There is a strugle within the Church today to be the kind of Church that Jesus is coming to receive to Himself.

Romans 12 spells out the nature of the strugle. We either conform to the world and its system or transform the mindset of the Church according to God’s will.

[1] There is three types of churches;

1)The type that pays more attention to the external things and rituals of man than to the things of the heart. These are churches that have adopted the very things that Jesus critisized while He was on earth, pharaseeism and leagalism.

Jesus said that these people rather obey the laws of man than to obey God.

They pay more attention to how people dress or how they wear their hair than to the issues of the heart and the tongue. This is why Jesus critisized the pharasees and teachers of the law for charging the disciples for not washing their hands before eating. This was not a law of God but only a tradition of man.

"By the same token they had broken God’s command that said to honor father and mother(Matt.15:1-20). Then the scribes and Pharisees who were from Jerusalem came to Jesus, saying, 2 “Why do Your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.”

3 He answered and said to them, “Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition? 4 For God commanded, saying, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.’ 5 But you say, ‘Whoever says to his father or mother, “Whatever profit you might have received from me is a gift to God”— 6 then he need not honor his father or mother.’ Thus you have made the 2commandment of God of no effect by your tradition. 7 Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying:

8 ‘These gpeople draw near to Me with their mouth,

And honor Me with their lips,

But their heart is far from Me.

9 And in vain they worship Me,

Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ”

10 When He had called the multitude to Himself, He said to them, “Hear and understand: 11 Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.”

12 Then His disciples came and said to Him, “Do You know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?”

13 But He answered and said, “Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. 14 Let them alone. lThey are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch.”

15 Then Peter answered and said to Him, “Explain this parable to us.”

16 So Jesus said, “Are you also still without understanding? 17 Do you not yet understand that owhatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated? 18 But pthose things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. 19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. 20 These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man.”

Jesus said that they were blind men leading others that were also blind(Matt.15:12-14).

2) The second type is the Church that conform’s itself to the world.

This church is into numbers. they rather preach what people want to hear.(2 Timothy 4:3-4)

"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. 5 But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry".

They don’t want to ofend any one. For this reason the word is watered down and they take a neutral stand on many of the tough issues.

They pretend to be in revival while the truth is that there is no conviction of sin because no one talks about the real issues. Everything is superficial.

3) The third type is God’s kind of Church. A Church without spot or wrinkle.