If you've got Romans 12 open, that will help you and it will help me.
Let me pray and we'll have a look at it together.
Dear Father, we thank you that your word has been preserved so that we can look at it together.
We can learn from it together.
And that your spirit will speak to us through it.
So I pray that this morning I'll be able to get out of the way as you speak into our hearts.
Amen.
I do confirmations pretty much every week, but that doesn't stop them from being special.
Every time I lead a service where I meet people who've decided they want to stand up
and declare to all their friends and family, their church that they belong to,
that they want to follow Jesus for the rest of their life, it's exciting.
It's really encouraging.
It is the best part of my job.
There's no question about that.
But I kind of, as I do it, I keep thinking, I wonder if people have thought about it.
What does a Christian look like?
I mean, we know where they're going to stand up in a minute.
We're going to look at them.
But what does a saved Christian person, someone who's saved from their sins, what do they look like?
What does a saved person look like?
So I thought I'd get some photos.
I don't know whether they're on the PowerPoint or they should be.
I've got some pictures here of saved people.
Can we have the first one?
That's not it.
That's transformed.
Oh, there we are.
Which person in this picture do you think is saved?
I'll give you the clue.
It's the old guy with his mouth open.
Tony Bullimore.
Do you remember him?
Anybody remember Tony Bullimore?
Come on, please help me.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Tony Bullimore was sailing around the world in a solo yacht race and he was doing pretty well but not in front and he wanted to win.
He worked out that if he left the south of Africa and cut across the southern ocean, really close to Antarctica, he could get to the bottom of South America quicker than the others in the race.
The risk is that the seas down there are massive and they were and they not only smashed his mast, they took the keel off his yacht.
If you have a boat in the southern ocean without a keel and without a mast, you are basically doomed and he thought he was.
He thought he was going to die.
He let off his emergency beacon and the RAAF and the Royal Australian Navy put a mission together where they found him in the southern ocean bobbing around in his yacht.
It was basically like being on a cork in the ocean.
They found him and they rescued him.
He met the guy who was flying the helicopter and he hugged him and kissed him.
Next photo.
Which person in this shot do you think has just been saved?
You know, the guy coming out of the cage.
Do you remember the Beaconsfield mine?
Yeah.
Remember that?
They had been cramped and trapped in a mine in Tasmania for nine days.
They could hardly walk.
But when he came up in the lift, having been rescued, and he saw his wife, he threw his arms in the hair and he raced over and burst into tears and hugged her.
What a surprise, right?
No surprise, really.
Well, this next picture.
More recently, only a few weeks ago, this man was in a cave mining.
Mining is dangerous, but they usually have mines, particularly in Australia, have engineers that tell you how the mine can be built.
In Laos, they're mining in caves.
No engineering.
The cave flooded and they were trapped.
But through the heroic rescue work of people, doctors and swimmers and cave dwellers, I don't know what they...
They rescued this man.
He came racing out.
He'd been down there without food, water, or anything and ran straight to his family.
There was no guessing which person had been saved.
So I want to ask you in the question again, what does a baptised, confirmed, saved person look like?
It's pretty easy in those photos to work out who's been saved because of their response.
They jump, they scream, they cry, they hug, they are affectionate and they let everybody know.
They let everybody know.
But what does a baptised, confirmed and saved person look like?
Because I've got to tell you, I do confirmations every week.
And most times they're the people who timidly, shyly, quietly stand on stage in front of everybody going,
can I sit down?
But what about you?
Are you a saved person?
What do you look like?
Do you look exactly the same as your neighbours?
Do you live the same way as everybody else?
Because you see, Romans chapter 12 is where Paul says,
actually, if you're a saved person,
you can't live like everybody else.
Let me take you again to those first couple of verses.
I want to urge you, says Paul,
in view of God's mercies.
If you've got your own Bible there and it says mercy, singular,
I can tell you now with all the authority of a bishop,
you can cross that out and put in mercies.
It's plural.
I don't know why the translators put it as singular.
In view of all the things that God has done,
the incredible actions that he has taken,
in view of all of God's mercies,
I appeal to you to live differently.
Your worship, your life,
holy and pleasing to God.
And then he goes on.
See in verse 2?
Don't conform any longer to the pattern of this world.
Be different.
Don't look the same.
So I want to ask you again,
what does a saved person look like?
What does a rescued person do?
It's different.
We live differently.
And I want to say to all of you people who are standing up to be confirmed,
I want to encourage you to live differently,
to be different.
But to really get an understanding of what Paul's doing here,
I want to go all the way back to chapter 1.
You're thinking,
how long are we going to be here?
We've only just got into two verses of chapter 12,
and already he's taken us all the way back to chapter 1.
It's because I want you to understand why Paul says,
you need to be different.
It's because of what God has done.
And back in chapter 1,
we see what we are by nature.
By nature, we ignore God.
By nature,
we don't give him any time at all.
And in chapters 1 and chapter 2 and chapter 3 of Romans,
Paul lays that out.
He says,
by nature,
what you'll do is you'll go and make idols.
You'll go and make other things that will fill the place that belongs to me,
says God.
And you can see that in the world.
People,
they've literally done it in terms of carving timbers and woods
or making statues out of all kinds of metals or stone,
and then they worship it.
I've travelled around the world and seen it in temples and in buildings,
in India or in Asia.
I've even seen it in restaurants around here.
People have got little idols.
But you know what?
We don't even need those to have idols.
We can make an idol out of anything.
Because an idol is anything that takes God's place.
And by nature,
we will do that.
We will put things in God's place and we ignore him.
And the evidence of that is often seen
when people only think of God either at Christmas and Easter,
maybe.
Quite often at funerals,
I've discovered.
Otherwise,
he doesn't figure in their life at all.
He has no place,
no time.
But by the time Paul gets to chapter 5,
there's an incredible change that's happened.
By nature,
we've pushed God out,
either by putting somebody else deliberately in its place,
rock,
stone,
gold,
whatever,
or ignoring him entirely.
But in chapter 5,
we discover that God doesn't ignore us.
It's really clear in chapter 5,
Paul says,
by nature,
we ignore God.
And by doing that,
we become his enemies.
But God doesn't treat us like enemies.
He shows us mercy.
Now,
I've said that before at churches,
and some people have been really offended.
They've said to me,
look,
I think you're overstating it a bit.
People may ignore God,
but they don't make,
it's not an enemy situation.
Well,
let me say,
with the greatest respect,
I'm only repeating what Paul said,
and actually,
who said you could be the judge of
what is the enemy or not?
It's a bit like my grandfather
was in World War I,
right?
My grandfather was in World War I.
He was fighting on the Western Front
in northern France
and in Belgium.
He was in trench warfare,
and they would go from one trench
to the other.
And there was one moment
where he was carrying a machine gun.
He was in the Vickers,
Machine Gunners,
and he was going over the top,
carrying the machine gun with his,
there was two of them who carried it,
jumped into the next trench,
right on top of a German soldier.
And the guy was there
and just threw his hands in the air.
And in the clearest English said,
I surrender.
In fact,
he had a British accent,
but he was wearing a German uniform.
And my grandfather,
who had a machine gun,
but no sidearms,
just said,
well,
you're captured.
And so he said,
yeah,
I give in.
And they started chatting to him.
They said,
your English is very good.
He said,
I studied at Cambridge,
but I was born in Germany
and grew up there.
And so,
although I was educated in Cambridge,
I've gone back to Germany
and I'm a cook.
They said,
a cook?
No,
the Australians didn't have a cook.
They used to eat terrible food.
So they thought,
a cook?
So they got him to take his jacket off
and they put an Australian jacket on him
and they included him in their group.
He was harmless.
He was a nice guy.
In fact,
they called him Smitty.
When their British officer came around
and did a head count,
he noticed the numbers had gone up,
which is unusual in war.
And he was trying to work out
what was going on
and they came to name off
and they said,
oh, no, Smitty,
he's been,
no, Smitty,
he's a great bloke.
He's been with us for ages.
No, he's a good bloke,
good bloke,
good bloke.
When the officer discovered
he was an enemy,
he treated him as an enemy.
He was arrested and taken off
because he was an enemy.
It's not up to my grandfather to decide.
It's not up to me to decide.
God says the way we ignore him
makes us his enemy.
Now, what can we do about that?
Well, Smitty could cook,
but even his good deeds
didn't make him an Australian.
What could make him?
The only way that could happen
is a declaration from the king
and that's what Paul says happens for us.
There's a declaration made
by the king of kings
and the lord of lords
that you can stop being my enemy
and become my friend.
No, no, actually,
it's more than that.
Chapter five
and into chapter eight,
you don't just become God's friend,
you become a member
of the royal family.
Can you imagine that?
Being taken from being an enemy
and given the status
of the family
of the king of kings.
Wow.
But that's the promise
that Romans chapter eight,
verse one has.
If you are in Christ,
there is no longer
any condemnation for you.
So believe in Jesus.
What an incredible mercy.
And Paul in chapter nine
makes it abundantly clear
that that change in status
from being an enemy
to being a family member
doesn't happen
because of anything
we have done.
In fact,
chapter nine,
verse 16
makes it abundantly clear
that it's through God's mercy,
not our desire
or by our effort.
And if you've never noticed
that verse,
I reckon it's one of the greatest
verses in scriptures.
So if you've got your Bible
there again,
open to chapter nine
and underline it.
Highlight it.
Tell somebody about it
this week.
I've discovered
the test of a sermon
is really by Wednesday.
If on Wednesday
you can remember
something that I said,
then we've both done pretty well.
Probably you better than me.
But I reckon
if you can remember
by Wednesday
to remind someone
of Romans 9.16,
it's not by my effort,
my desires,
but by God's mercy
that I'm saved.
What a good thing
to say to someone.
Try it by Wednesday.
There's your homework.
There's a challenge.
See how you go with that.
And it's that mercy
that transforms everything.
There's the rescue
that's taken place.
And that's why
Paul starts chapter 12
and says,
in verse 1,
in view of God's love
that has been lavished upon you,
in view of all of that,
don't stay the same.
Don't live like everybody else.
Don't be like your neighbours.
Be different.
So what does being different
look like?
What does it look like?
And that's where,
if you move in
to verses 3 to 8,
you'll see
what it is
to look differently.
Paul says,
by the grace given to me,
I say to every one of you,
don't think of yourself
more highly than you should.
Guess what?
That's not the message
that you hear
on podcasts,
in the media,
and in literature today.
It's actually,
you should think
well of yourself.
It's very bad
for your mental health
if you don't.
So is Paul saying something
to damage your mental health?
No,
what he's saying is,
don't put yourself first.
That's a fundamental error.
It is the mistake
that the world makes.
Look after number one.
But God is number one.
Look after others.
consider others
better than you.
It's not to think
that you're the worst.
That's not what Paul is saying.
It's actually,
he even goes on to say,
have sober judgment.
Think of yourself
in the right way.
C.S. Lewis put it brilliantly.
He said,
it's not that you think
less of yourself,
but you think of yourself
less.
That's clever, isn't it?
It's not that you think
less of yourself,
but you think about yourself
less.
Because you're thinking
of others before yourself.
You're thinking of others' needs,
others' concerns,
others' cares.
You're thinking of other people.
Why?
Because that's exactly
what God does with us.
God did not
hesitate
to send Jesus
into the world.
Jesus did not hesitate.
In fact,
he didn't cling on
to what was rightfully his,
but instead,
he put us first.
Have a look at Philippians 2.
It puts it beautifully.
What else does it look like
to be a rescued person?
Well,
he goes on
and he says,
serve.
You've been involved
in this new family.
you've become a member
of a new body.
And he says,
let me use that
as an illustration.
And being in a body
means you've got
a role to play.
Is there one part
of the body
that's more important
than the other?
No.
We all fit together.
We all work together.
We have different roles
to do.
Absolutely.
But
we belong together.
I want to say
that people
who are standing up
to be confirmed
this morning,
find your place
in the body.
Work out where to serve.
You've probably already
started doing it.
Let me encourage you
to continue to do it
and to continue
to find new places
to do it.
There will be seasons
where you're good
at one thing
and then another thing
will come along.
The thing to continue
to do is to see
where God wants you
to serve.
And usually
it will be by seeing
where there's a gap.
Where can I help?
Where can I fill in?
What can I do
to be useful
in this body?
But again,
that's different
to the way
the world sees things
because to do
that sort of thing
usually you get
a reward,
a payment.
Well,
this is not
to get a payment.
This is not
to get a reward.
In fact,
it's because
you've been given
something that is
incredibly precious,
a place in God's family,
that you take part
in this body,
in this life.
In fact,
work out what it is
that you do
and do it.
So what does it
look like
to be a saved person?
It means
to live differently,
speak differently,
be motivated
by different things,
to be motivated
by what God has done.
How can you do that?
How can you know
what is good
that we should cling to
and pursue?
How do you know
what God likes?
Well,
let me say,
I think
there are a number
of things you can do,
but the foundational,
most significant one
is to read your Bible.
I encourage you
to read your Bible
every day.
When I was about 15,
I went to a conference
and the speaker
at the conference
was really challenging us
to read our Bibles
every day.
And he said,
I'm going to call
on everybody here
to make a covenant
between themselves
and the Lord.
And this is the covenant.
No Bible,
no breakfast.
Stand where you are
and covenant now
Lord
that if you don't
read your Bible,
you will not
eat breakfast.
I couldn't do it.
I couldn't stand up
and say that
because I love breakfast
and I know
how hopeless I am.
Sometimes I get up,
I've slept in,
I'm running late,
have breakfast,
get out and go.
I can catch up.
I can read it late.
So I didn't stand up.
There was about
500 people there
and I reckon
there's only about
four or five of us
that didn't stand up.
I felt so guilty
after that
that every morning
when I was going
to have breakfast
I had to go
and read my Bible.
And you know what?
Reading my Bible
every day
has been so helpful.
When I was very little,
the Sunday school
I went to,
which is led by my mum,
we learned
memory verses
so that we could
remember
what the Bible said.
Anybody here
do memory verses?
We did it with
one for every letter
of the alphabet.
A,
all of sin
and fall short
of the glory of God.
Romans 3.23.
B,
believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ
and you'll be saved,
you and your household.
Acts 16.
C,
come to me
all you who labour
and are heavy laden
and I'll give you rest.
Matthew 11.28.
I can go through
the alphabet still.
I learned that
when I was about six.
I went to theological college.
Cramming my head
full of theologians
and commentaries
and books
and lecturers
sitting in an exam.
I went straight back
to my memory verses
from when I was six.
How good it is
to know the word of God
to understand
what pleases him.
Because another thing
my dear mum said to me
was,
Christopher,
garbage in,
garbage out.
If you fill your time
with television,
guess what you're going to know?
And to my shame,
I can sing to you
word perfect
the beginning of
Gilligan's Island,
the Beverly Hillbillies.
All those years
of watching television
have got in.
Do not think
that spending time
with television,
podcasts,
media
will not influence you.
It will.
So counter that
by being in the word
of God regularly.
Daily.
I didn't give the emphasis
to you,
Sauron,
just because I'm picking on you.
But because it's so important
to look at God's word
every day.
To know his will
for you.
So with all that,
we're going to call
these people up
to see if they look
any different.
And let me say right now,
they won't.
Not on the outside.
But the way that they live,
I pray for you
that you will
live differently
and you won't conform
any longer
to the patterns
of this world.
Let me pray for them.
Heavenly Father,
we do thank you
for your word,
for the assurance
that we can
trust in the work
that Jesus has done
to take us
from being
an enemy of yours
to being
not only a friend
but in your family.
We thank you
for that good news.
And I pray
that in view
of that good news,
we would never
stay the same.
Amen.