WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.759 Okay, so for those of you who are part, and have been part of the congregation at least 00:00:04.759 --> 00:00:11.279 for the last six months, then you might remember that in our morning worship at the end of 00:00:11.279 --> 00:00:18.199 last year, or the last half of last year, we looked at Romans chapter 1 to the end of 00:00:18.199 --> 00:00:24.800 chapter 11, and we took a break at the end of the year, and this is us picking it up. 00:00:24.800 --> 00:00:32.000 And it was a very clear division in the letter that Paul wrote to the church in Rome, which 00:00:32.000 --> 00:00:38.560 is part of God's word that we recognize as authority and significance for us today. 00:00:38.560 --> 00:00:40.200 And so it was a good point to break up. 00:00:40.200 --> 00:00:47.040 And now we're taking up Romans again, Romans, from Romans 12 to the end of the letter, and 00:00:47.040 --> 00:00:51.120 that will take us through for a few weeks together. 00:00:51.119 --> 00:00:57.320 So Callum read for us the section that we're going to look at, a brilliant section, Romans 00:00:57.320 --> 00:01:00.519 chapter 12, verses 1 to 8. 00:01:00.519 --> 00:01:06.560 Now, if you just take a look around you today in the church, just take a quick look around 00:01:06.560 --> 00:01:14.459 or at least visualize in your mind, both downstairs and upstairs, the kind of demographic of people 00:01:14.459 --> 00:01:17.920 that are here in church. 00:01:17.920 --> 00:01:23.960 It's very probably mirroring exactly, or maybe not exactly, but it certainly mirrors the 00:01:23.960 --> 00:01:29.920 demographic of the church to which Paul was writing in Rome. 00:01:29.920 --> 00:01:34.120 We'll see that a little bit in chapter 16 when a lot of the people in the church are 00:01:34.120 --> 00:01:36.159 mentioned by Paul. 00:01:36.159 --> 00:01:41.079 So the demographic of St. Columbus is very similar to the demographic of the church in 00:01:41.079 --> 00:01:42.079 Rome. 00:01:42.079 --> 00:01:47.159 And remember that Paul is writing this as a letter to a church. 00:01:47.159 --> 00:01:52.200 He's bringing God's Word to the church in Rome, a church just like ours. 00:01:52.200 --> 00:01:55.200 It wasn't written as a theological treatise. 00:01:55.200 --> 00:02:05.799 It wasn't written for those who were religious or academic institutions. 00:02:05.799 --> 00:02:08.240 It was written for God's people. 00:02:08.240 --> 00:02:14.280 And we are God's people, and therefore it's very significant and important for us because 00:02:14.280 --> 00:02:20.640 it has, excuse me, through the Spirit of God, the authority of God's message to us. 00:02:20.640 --> 00:02:25.840 So can you look at that very important words? 00:02:25.840 --> 00:02:29.080 Actually it should be the first word, I think, really. 00:02:29.080 --> 00:02:35.479 I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, because it's a, therefore, is a very important linking 00:02:35.479 --> 00:02:39.000 word in this chapter. 00:02:39.000 --> 00:02:40.520 It's a padlock word. 00:02:40.520 --> 00:02:45.439 You know what I mean by saying a padlock word? because a padlock links two different parts 00:02:45.439 --> 00:02:47.760 of a chain together. 00:02:47.760 --> 00:02:51.840 It's like a hinge word that links two things together. 00:02:51.840 --> 00:02:58.040 It's like the button of a quote word which brings two parts of a quote together. 00:02:58.040 --> 00:03:04.360 It brings, therefore, brings together what has been said before with what is now going 00:03:04.360 --> 00:03:08.160 to be said in the rest of this letter. 00:03:08.159 --> 00:03:15.400 It's a kind of cause and effect word, an adverbial conjunction. 00:03:15.400 --> 00:03:18.479 Am I right? 00:03:18.479 --> 00:03:22.199 I leave that to the scholars and to the educationalists among us. 00:03:22.199 --> 00:03:30.479 But it's a linking word, okay, that is linking what's gone before with what is to come. 00:03:30.479 --> 00:03:37.400 And if you remember, the first eleven chapters of Romans has been meaty theology. 00:03:37.400 --> 00:03:39.080 It's been quite deep, quite difficult. 00:03:39.080 --> 00:03:44.360 We've wrestled and battled with some very deep truths, remember, given to a church family, 00:03:44.360 --> 00:03:48.480 not given to a kind of theological seminary. 00:03:48.480 --> 00:03:55.120 And yet Paul sums it up here in these two words, in the light of, I appeal to you, therefore, 00:03:55.120 --> 00:03:57.480 brother, by the mercies of God. 00:03:57.480 --> 00:04:02.000 And that really is a sweeping summary of the first eleven chapters of Rome. 00:04:02.000 --> 00:04:06.439 He's been speaking about the mercies of God, what God has done for us. 00:04:06.439 --> 00:04:11.879 That's what all that theology has been pointing to. 00:04:11.879 --> 00:04:18.439 And that's really important, that theology, the knowledge of God, the study of God, understanding 00:04:18.439 --> 00:04:25.240 God is all about understanding God's mercy and God's love for us. 00:04:25.240 --> 00:04:31.279 So we need to keep that in mind when we are tempted to think, wow, that's not for me. 00:04:31.279 --> 00:04:38.239 This theology, the knowledge of God in the Bible is all pointing towards God and His mercy. 00:04:38.239 --> 00:04:41.959 You know, don't give me that love me, love me, I'm thick, I can't deal with theology 00:04:41.959 --> 00:04:45.959 or theology is not for me, it's for the scholars, leave it to the academics. 00:04:45.959 --> 00:04:48.359 I just want some warm fuzzy feelings. 00:04:48.359 --> 00:04:52.479 Because warm fuzzy feelings are great but they'll not get us very far in terms of our 00:04:52.479 --> 00:04:58.199 knowledge of a person and our knowledge of the living God. 00:04:58.199 --> 00:05:04.519 The theology of the first eleven chapters put the meat on the bones of God's mercies, 00:05:04.519 --> 00:05:07.879 God's compassion, God's pity, God's love for us. 00:05:07.879 --> 00:05:16.120 And it's really important for us to understand that if we value our lives and if we value 00:05:16.120 --> 00:05:21.919 our faith in Jesus Christ as Christians, if we are Christians. 00:05:21.920 --> 00:05:30.560 See if you have in your home a dusty Bible and if you have a pathway of prayer that is 00:05:30.560 --> 00:05:40.120 covered overrun with weeds because of not being used, then we are in a very dangerous 00:05:40.120 --> 00:05:46.400 position of misunderstanding the whole point of Jesus in our lives. 00:05:46.400 --> 00:05:51.879 That He is within this relationship of friendship with Him and that we are to know more about 00:05:51.879 --> 00:05:57.519 Him, the more we know Him, the more we can love Him and serve Him and worship Him in 00:05:57.519 --> 00:05:58.959 our lives. 00:05:58.959 --> 00:06:01.240 And Paul recognizes that. 00:06:01.240 --> 00:06:03.839 So he says, I appeal to you. 00:06:03.839 --> 00:06:05.920 Or he says, I urge you. 00:06:05.920 --> 00:06:09.560 It's something that's really passionate for him. 00:06:09.560 --> 00:06:17.480 See, I appeal to you is a good translation because the word comes with the idea of a really 00:06:17.480 --> 00:06:25.360 powerful persuasive personal plea of a lawyer before a jury where he's making a very important 00:06:25.360 --> 00:06:34.080 case and he's impassioned by giving his summary of the case. 00:06:34.080 --> 00:06:37.520 There's a great film which is not quite about lawyer and juror, but it's about juror and 00:06:37.520 --> 00:06:40.080 juror, a twelve angry men. 00:06:40.080 --> 00:06:42.080 It's an old film. 00:06:42.080 --> 00:06:44.160 It's a great film if you haven't seen it, you should watch it. 00:06:44.160 --> 00:06:50.760 It's all just set in one room with the twelve men of the jury and it's a murder trial and 00:06:50.760 --> 00:06:57.440 they need a unanimous verdict and there's eleven want to convict the person who's in 00:06:57.440 --> 00:07:00.120 the dock and there's one who believes he's innocent. 00:07:00.120 --> 00:07:06.120 And this one person with his persuasion and passion throughout the course of the film 00:07:06.120 --> 00:07:07.120 per... 00:07:07.120 --> 00:07:08.640 Maybe he persuades. 00:07:08.640 --> 00:07:10.040 I'll not tell you. 00:07:10.040 --> 00:07:11.040 Maybe that's what happens. 00:07:11.040 --> 00:07:12.040 I don't know. 00:07:12.040 --> 00:07:13.040 But it could be. 00:07:13.040 --> 00:07:14.800 Anyway, there's a tremendous... 00:07:14.800 --> 00:07:18.720 Sorry, I'm going to ruin a couple of films for you today. 00:07:18.720 --> 00:07:24.200 That is what's really important here that for him and for us the truth is at stake and 00:07:24.200 --> 00:07:25.200 it affects us also. 00:07:25.200 --> 00:07:27.200 Paul says, you know, I appealed to you, I urge you. 00:07:27.200 --> 00:07:28.200 I really... 00:07:28.200 --> 00:07:29.200 It's... 00:07:29.200 --> 00:07:30.920 Sit up and take note, he says. 00:07:30.920 --> 00:07:35.879 And you know, if you're coming today and you're an inquirer, you're not a Christian, 00:07:35.879 --> 00:07:40.960 then I would ask you also to sit up and take note and consider what is spoken about here 00:07:40.959 --> 00:07:46.159 about Jesus Christ and about our lives as Christians and why that should reflect what 00:07:46.159 --> 00:07:51.879 we believe in Jesus and how it should influence us in our lives. 00:07:51.879 --> 00:07:52.879 So I'm going to say two... 00:07:52.879 --> 00:07:53.879 I'm going to speak about two things. 00:07:53.879 --> 00:08:00.599 I'm going to talk about self-sacrifice and self-reflection, because I think that covers 00:08:00.599 --> 00:08:03.279 this passage that we're looking at today. 00:08:03.279 --> 00:08:07.919 And he begins with these really very famous words, you know, for us as Christians, I appeal 00:08:07.920 --> 00:08:11.960 to you by the message, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice wholly and acceptable 00:08:11.960 --> 00:08:13.920 to God, which is your spiritual worship. 00:08:13.920 --> 00:08:15.800 This is a visual idea. 00:08:15.800 --> 00:08:20.840 He's giving this people, he's saying, you need to be like a whole burnt offering. 00:08:20.840 --> 00:08:21.840 These were... 00:08:21.840 --> 00:08:26.040 If they weren't Jewish people, they at least knew about the Jewish sacrificial system of 00:08:26.040 --> 00:08:27.600 the Old Testament. 00:08:27.600 --> 00:08:31.400 And he's using that picture, he's saying, you need to be like a whole burnt offering, 00:08:31.400 --> 00:08:37.639 a consecrated offering to God, where the best of the sheep, the best of the flock was taken, 00:08:37.639 --> 00:08:43.840 it was to be expensive and costly, and it was to be a sign of your devotion and consecration 00:08:43.840 --> 00:08:48.720 and a willingness to give up everything to serve and to sacrifice for God. 00:08:48.720 --> 00:08:50.720 It's that wholehearted consecration. 00:08:50.720 --> 00:08:56.679 Now, I'm going to use another film illustration that I was taken this week by one of my family 00:08:56.679 --> 00:08:59.439 to see the film, Stan and Ollie. 00:08:59.439 --> 00:09:00.439 Great for you. 00:09:00.439 --> 00:09:03.679 If you've been a lover, you're my age and maybe older, you love Laurel and Hardy, because 00:09:03.679 --> 00:09:07.879 you grew up with Laurel and Hardy, they were the greatest comic act of all time. 00:09:07.879 --> 00:09:13.120 And this is a great film about the latter end of their lives when they're not so popular, 00:09:13.120 --> 00:09:15.799 I'm not saying a lot about it. 00:09:15.799 --> 00:09:20.879 But one of the real ends thing about Stan, who had Scottish roots, who's from Glasgow, 00:09:20.879 --> 00:09:25.319 his mother was from Glasgow, that's got nothing to do with anything other than putting it 00:09:25.319 --> 00:09:28.039 into its perspective. 00:09:28.039 --> 00:09:30.799 He was the writer of all the material. 00:09:30.799 --> 00:09:37.359 He did all the sketch material, all the jokes, and he did it consistently and passionately 00:09:37.359 --> 00:09:39.519 for Laurel and Hardy. 00:09:39.519 --> 00:09:42.359 It was for the partnership he did it. 00:09:42.359 --> 00:09:44.599 Everything, the partnership to him was everything. 00:09:44.599 --> 00:09:50.039 It meant even more than their friendship, if that makes sense. 00:09:50.039 --> 00:09:56.759 And he risked their friendship because the partnership and writing and acting and performing 00:09:56.759 --> 00:09:58.919 together mattered to him more than anything. 00:09:58.919 --> 00:10:05.559 So when Ollie died, or when Ollie retired and then died, Stan never performed again. 00:10:05.559 --> 00:10:10.079 He never performed without him, because to him the partnership was everything. 00:10:10.079 --> 00:10:18.159 He was completely dedicated to that partnership and sometimes with difficult and problematic 00:10:18.159 --> 00:10:19.159 implications. 00:10:19.159 --> 00:10:21.799 But it's that self-sacrifice. 00:10:21.799 --> 00:10:23.240 Everything was devoted to that. 00:10:23.240 --> 00:10:27.599 And that's the picture here that for Christian it's not just to be part of my life, it is 00:10:27.600 --> 00:10:34.080 to be everything, and we are to devote everything and focus everything on our relationship with 00:10:34.080 --> 00:10:37.080 Jesus Christ. 00:10:37.080 --> 00:10:42.920 Self-sacrificial in the sense of, as he says, offering up our bodies, present your bodies 00:10:42.920 --> 00:10:43.920 as a living sacrifice. 00:10:43.920 --> 00:10:45.320 What does he mean by that? 00:10:45.320 --> 00:10:51.200 Well, I think simply he's speaking about, he's countering the idea in the Greco-Roman 00:10:51.200 --> 00:10:55.399 world of the day where the body was very negative and the spirit was all that mattered, the 00:10:55.399 --> 00:11:01.279 devil, and he's saying, look, your faith isn't simply a matter of what you think or some private 00:11:01.279 --> 00:11:06.759 mystical spiritual lay-by that you drive into every so often in your life. 00:11:06.759 --> 00:11:12.279 It's not just an ideas factory, it's not just a background philosophy. 00:11:12.279 --> 00:11:18.159 It involves our bodies, it involves where we walk and how we listen with our ears, how 00:11:18.159 --> 00:11:24.079 we look with our eyes, our daily living, whatever you do tomorrow, you're going to do it with 00:11:24.080 --> 00:11:26.040 your bodies as well as your minds. 00:11:26.040 --> 00:11:31.800 You're going to take your bodies with you, and he says that as Christians, every part 00:11:31.800 --> 00:11:37.320 of our lives is devoted to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. 00:11:37.320 --> 00:11:43.879 It affects us at a daily level, in other words, how we treat our bodies, how we respond with 00:11:43.879 --> 00:11:49.040 our bodies, how we care with our eyes and how we look at all these things, offer our 00:11:49.040 --> 00:11:52.480 bodies as he says, living sacrifices. 00:11:52.480 --> 00:11:55.320 Now, have you thought of that? 00:11:55.320 --> 00:11:59.639 A living sacrifice, that's a paradoxical statement, isn't it? 00:11:59.639 --> 00:12:02.519 Sacrifice of something that was killed. 00:12:02.519 --> 00:12:08.000 This is a living sacrifice, effectively saying living, killing here. 00:12:08.000 --> 00:12:13.840 Now we know in Luke chapter 9, for example, Jesus says, deny yourselves, take up your cross 00:12:13.840 --> 00:12:17.960 and follow me, it's an image, it's a picture of how He wants to live. 00:12:17.960 --> 00:12:23.600 In other words, there is a dying in our lives, we're dying to our sinful selves, but we're 00:12:23.600 --> 00:12:27.480 coming alive in Christ and to God. 00:12:27.480 --> 00:12:34.680 It's a paradox really, as we live in Christ, and by grace we're killing our sinful, selfish 00:12:34.680 --> 00:12:36.759 separation from God and from others. 00:12:36.759 --> 00:12:43.680 We're crushing hatred and badness, and we're coming alive to the way God intended us to 00:12:43.680 --> 00:12:46.040 live in a sacrificial way. 00:12:46.039 --> 00:12:50.439 And holy is a holy sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. 00:12:50.439 --> 00:12:59.199 That's interesting because we think of, sometimes holy is a bit kind of pious, and sometimes 00:12:59.199 --> 00:13:03.159 maybe a bit self-righteous attitude we think sometimes of holiness. 00:13:03.159 --> 00:13:07.319 But here the holiness is related to the mercy of God. 00:13:07.319 --> 00:13:14.839 And so that the more we understand the mercy of God, the grace of God, the forgiveness of 00:13:14.840 --> 00:13:19.639 God, the holier we will be. 00:13:19.639 --> 00:13:24.480 Sometimes people in the church say, yeah, it's all very well talking about grace, but 00:13:24.480 --> 00:13:32.639 what about living in the right way and being right and condemning everything that's wrong? 00:13:32.639 --> 00:13:35.160 The two are not mutually exclusive. 00:13:35.160 --> 00:13:41.280 The more we understand grace, the holier we will become. 00:13:41.279 --> 00:13:51.079 This is that radical compassion and a hatred of all the destructiveness of sin. 00:13:51.079 --> 00:13:59.439 And so we are to have that mindset which is being sacrificial with our lives. 00:13:59.439 --> 00:14:00.639 What does that look like? 00:14:00.639 --> 00:14:04.240 What does it look like practically to be a living sacrifice? 00:14:04.240 --> 00:14:05.919 Well, a lot of it is wisdom. 00:14:05.919 --> 00:14:09.240 You need to work it out in your Christian life as I have to in mine. 00:14:09.240 --> 00:14:14.440 But there's two principles here that help us, a negative word and a positive word. 00:14:14.440 --> 00:14:21.560 So He says to us that we are not to be conformed to this world, but we are to be transformed 00:14:21.560 --> 00:14:23.759 by the renewing of your mind. 00:14:23.759 --> 00:14:26.159 So body and mind, that's all of us. 00:14:26.159 --> 00:14:29.240 So there's a negative word, don't be conformist. 00:14:29.240 --> 00:14:31.080 We mentioned that last week. 00:14:31.080 --> 00:14:36.080 That means it must be important that God wants us to hear it if He wants us to repeat it. 00:14:36.080 --> 00:14:39.520 We're not to be conformists, we're to be transformed. 00:14:39.520 --> 00:14:41.560 See, do not be conformed. 00:14:41.560 --> 00:14:48.280 There's a great paraphrase really, I think, of this verse, J.B. 00:14:48.280 --> 00:14:53.920 Phillips translation, which says, do not let the world squeeze you into its mold. 00:14:53.920 --> 00:14:57.120 That's really what's being said when it says don't be conformed. 00:14:57.120 --> 00:14:59.639 Don't let the world squeeze you into its mold. 00:14:59.639 --> 00:15:05.400 So there's a fact that we are non-conformists as believers, as Christians. 00:15:05.399 --> 00:15:12.240 We are to use not just our bodies, but our minds to be thinking Christians. 00:15:12.240 --> 00:15:17.840 Not simply going along with the tide, but thinking and not being conformists. 00:15:17.840 --> 00:15:23.959 We are to live with a different cultural foundation in our lives, something we're always learning. 00:15:23.959 --> 00:15:32.159 Our mind set is to be with God rather than our mind set, when you go from here, without 00:15:32.159 --> 00:15:33.159 God. 00:15:33.159 --> 00:15:36.839 Whether it's in our work, our marriage, our holidays, our money, our attitude to sex, 00:15:36.839 --> 00:15:45.079 to social media, how we treat people, not just our behavior, not just our actions, which 00:15:45.079 --> 00:15:52.559 is important, but the motive behind our actions is to be like Jesus and to be not to be conformed. 00:15:52.559 --> 00:15:55.360 Jesus was a non-conformist. 00:15:55.360 --> 00:16:00.959 That should really appeal to all of us, but maybe especially to the young people who, 00:16:00.960 --> 00:16:06.800 if you're not a non... if you don't have a non-conformist kind of rebellion in your 00:16:06.800 --> 00:16:09.560 heart, then I think you should. 00:16:09.560 --> 00:16:15.879 I think all of us, all of us, all of you in your youth, it's a good thing to be questioning, 00:16:15.879 --> 00:16:16.879 to be asking. 00:16:16.879 --> 00:16:22.360 But channel that as a young person to being a non-conformist for Jesus Christ and for 00:16:22.360 --> 00:16:25.560 the gospel in our lives. 00:16:25.560 --> 00:16:29.040 That means we need to be thinking. 00:16:29.039 --> 00:16:30.879 And it means we need thinking time. 00:16:30.879 --> 00:16:35.000 Now, I'm just going to throw in something here which will probably annoy you all, because 00:16:35.000 --> 00:16:37.159 it has... annoys me as well. 00:16:37.159 --> 00:16:43.399 But what's the greatest enemy to... I think today to be non... to being non-conformist, 00:16:43.399 --> 00:16:46.959 or the greatest enemy to simply being a conformist in the world? 00:16:46.959 --> 00:16:54.039 Well, I do... I know it's maybe a bit... passy to say it, but I think our social media devices 00:16:54.039 --> 00:17:03.399 and the apps we have and the time we spend on them, they have become what we fill in 00:17:03.399 --> 00:17:06.599 all the empty spaces with. 00:17:06.599 --> 00:17:10.279 Every empty moment, whether it's sitting on a bus or whether it's sitting in a room 00:17:10.279 --> 00:17:15.240 with five people in our home or whether it's going to the toilet or whatever it is, we 00:17:15.240 --> 00:17:18.720 are filling that empty time with social media. 00:17:18.720 --> 00:17:24.480 Now, I'm absolutely as guilty of that, and probably at my age more so sometimes because 00:17:24.480 --> 00:17:26.000 it's quite exciting. 00:17:26.000 --> 00:17:32.640 But we have to think about that because it's stopping us thinking and it's stopping us 00:17:32.640 --> 00:17:35.480 talking and it's stopping us learning. 00:17:35.480 --> 00:17:39.240 I thought about this and I'd put it in this sermon and I was thinking about it and this 00:17:39.240 --> 00:17:44.839 morning, bing, up comes in my phone the number of hours I've spent in the week on social media, 00:17:44.839 --> 00:17:45.839 horrified. 00:17:45.839 --> 00:17:49.359 I'm not going to tell you. 00:17:49.359 --> 00:17:52.079 Well, I could tell you if I look it up, I don't know if I could actually look it up 00:17:52.079 --> 00:17:53.079 just now. 00:17:53.079 --> 00:17:56.839 I don't know how to find it if it doesn't ping up, that's how good I am. 00:17:56.839 --> 00:18:00.959 But what's really interesting about it is it breaks it down. 00:18:00.959 --> 00:18:05.359 It breaks the hours you've been on social media, on the phone or on the iPad. 00:18:05.359 --> 00:18:08.039 It breaks it down into all the areas you've used. 00:18:08.039 --> 00:18:13.879 And having done that, I didn't feel so bad because the most thing that I was using was 00:18:13.880 --> 00:18:16.000 the Bible app. 00:18:16.000 --> 00:18:19.560 Okay, so now I feel a bit more self-righteous. 00:18:19.560 --> 00:18:21.560 But much of it was on... 00:18:21.560 --> 00:18:25.680 There wasn't a great deal on Facebook, surfing the net. 00:18:25.680 --> 00:18:32.120 But I see that how often we can just be conforming both not just by what we do but by what we're 00:18:32.120 --> 00:18:36.440 imbibing with the philosophy of thinking behind so much of comes... 00:18:36.440 --> 00:18:41.040 And even the secular world is recognizing that as a danger today. 00:18:41.039 --> 00:18:45.720 So we should be way ahead of the secular world in recognizing that as a danger. 00:18:45.720 --> 00:18:47.799 And that's a wisdom thing. 00:18:47.799 --> 00:18:50.480 We can't legislate for it and we would never want to. 00:18:50.480 --> 00:18:55.599 But as Christians, we need to think, how can I be a non-conformist? 00:18:55.599 --> 00:18:59.960 And how do I become aware of the dangers of the life that I'm living? 00:18:59.960 --> 00:19:04.440 Do not be conformed but rather be transformed, he says here. 00:19:04.440 --> 00:19:12.000 That word is just the word that we get metamorphosis from and there's another great illustration 00:19:12.000 --> 00:19:15.799 of it in 2 Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 18. 00:19:15.799 --> 00:19:20.000 And he says, And we all with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord are being 00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:25.440 transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, for this comes from the 00:19:25.440 --> 00:19:26.840 Lord who is the Spirit. 00:19:26.840 --> 00:19:31.640 So as we face, that's what being a Christian is, it's facing and knowing God through Jesus 00:19:31.640 --> 00:19:32.640 Christ. 00:19:32.640 --> 00:19:38.360 He is transforming us into His image and that's the positive side. 00:19:38.360 --> 00:19:42.680 There's this negative side of not being conformed to the world and its thinking, but also to 00:19:42.680 --> 00:19:43.680 be transformed. 00:19:43.680 --> 00:19:47.960 There's this mind play that must go on in our lives. 00:19:47.960 --> 00:19:48.960 There's a recalib... 00:19:48.960 --> 00:19:49.960 You need to... 00:19:49.960 --> 00:19:53.920 And I need to recalibrate our minds positively towards God. 00:19:53.920 --> 00:19:59.400 A mindset doesn't come naturally with God at the heart. 00:19:59.400 --> 00:20:04.440 The heart of our imagination, the heart of our thought process, the heart of where we 00:20:04.440 --> 00:20:11.960 begin our thinking which leads to our actions that were to be transformed there by the power 00:20:11.960 --> 00:20:13.640 of God and the Holy Spirit. 00:20:13.640 --> 00:20:22.720 God who dwells in our thoughts and enlivens them enables us to test what God's will is. 00:20:22.720 --> 00:20:29.120 How many of you, when you're looking in your life for God, it's around the... 00:20:29.119 --> 00:20:31.239 Around the question of His will. 00:20:31.239 --> 00:20:33.079 What does God want from me? 00:20:33.079 --> 00:20:34.239 What does He want me to be? 00:20:34.239 --> 00:20:35.959 What does He want me to do? 00:20:35.959 --> 00:20:42.279 And the more our minds are transformed, the more able we are to reason what God wants 00:20:42.279 --> 00:20:48.759 us to be and do and have the wisdom where it's not prescribed in His moral law, whatever 00:20:48.759 --> 00:20:49.879 it might be in the Bible. 00:20:49.879 --> 00:20:58.919 So we're to be living, we're to be self-sacrificial and that leads to what I've called make sense 00:20:58.920 --> 00:21:00.920 worship. 00:21:00.920 --> 00:21:05.000 This is, He says, holy and acceptable, this is your spiritual worship or your reasonable 00:21:05.000 --> 00:21:07.600 worship. 00:21:07.600 --> 00:21:11.240 And the word there for spiritual, I'm not quite sure why they change it to spiritual because 00:21:11.240 --> 00:21:16.800 it really does mean reasonable because it's the word that we get logical from. 00:21:16.800 --> 00:21:20.440 It's a logical, divinely logical thing to do. 00:21:20.440 --> 00:21:21.440 It's... 00:21:21.440 --> 00:21:25.580 In other words, He's saying a half-hearted response to the glory and the mercy and the 00:21:25.579 --> 00:21:29.679 kindness of God in our lives is irrational. 00:21:29.679 --> 00:21:31.480 It's a crazy thing to do. 00:21:31.480 --> 00:21:32.480 It's miserable. 00:21:32.480 --> 00:21:35.439 Now, take Hamish and Anna. 00:21:35.439 --> 00:21:37.839 They're getting married in Saturday here. 00:21:37.839 --> 00:21:40.240 I know they're somewhere but I don't know where they are in the building. 00:21:40.240 --> 00:21:44.319 Now you know that and we've seen it, they have this undying love for one another. 00:21:44.319 --> 00:21:45.319 It's great. 00:21:45.319 --> 00:21:48.159 We're looking forward to their wedding. 00:21:48.159 --> 00:21:49.159 Now can you imagine if... 00:21:49.159 --> 00:21:51.480 This isn't that you've got to imagine this, it's not going to happen. 00:21:51.480 --> 00:21:58.839 Can you imagine if Hamish spent every single last penny he could get his hands on on a ring, 00:21:58.839 --> 00:22:04.599 everything he had on this ring and he chooses vows that's just going to commit everything 00:22:04.599 --> 00:22:09.799 in every way to Anna for the rest of her life. 00:22:09.799 --> 00:22:19.319 And Anna accepts the ring on the day but then changes her vows and says, well, yeah, I'll 00:22:19.319 --> 00:22:23.439 live with you one day a week and I'm glad you've given me that ring because I'm going 00:22:23.439 --> 00:22:27.200 to sell it so I can go on lots of holidays by myself. 00:22:27.200 --> 00:22:31.200 Can you imagine that? 00:22:31.200 --> 00:22:32.799 We can't possibly imagine that. 00:22:32.799 --> 00:22:38.159 It would be totally unreasonable and completely irrational and after what Anna said here last 00:22:38.159 --> 00:22:42.759 week, we know that that would never be the case. 00:22:42.759 --> 00:22:46.480 Anger would kind of well up within us yet. 00:22:46.480 --> 00:22:51.120 We do with God all the time. 00:22:51.120 --> 00:22:57.240 We take all His goodness and all the costly sacrifice that He's done and all the love 00:22:57.240 --> 00:23:04.880 and we mold it to satisfy ourselves so often. 00:23:04.880 --> 00:23:10.200 Okay, I'm going to leave out a little bit here. 00:23:10.200 --> 00:23:13.920 Oh, wait, I don't know if I should. 00:23:13.920 --> 00:23:17.200 Okay, very quickly. 00:23:17.200 --> 00:23:21.160 And this is important because it says this is wholly unacceptable and if you look at 00:23:21.160 --> 00:23:26.800 the next verse, it also says when we discern the will of God, we recognize what is good 00:23:26.800 --> 00:23:28.960 and acceptable and perfect. 00:23:28.960 --> 00:23:34.560 That word could also be translated pleasurable, what is pleasing to God. 00:23:34.560 --> 00:23:37.400 And that's great because and it's something we often forget. 00:23:37.400 --> 00:23:43.560 We often think living for God is not pleasurable and we don't find it pleasurable. 00:23:43.559 --> 00:23:49.200 But what He's saying here is when we live like this, it pleases God and we become people 00:23:49.200 --> 00:23:56.319 who recognize God's will as something that's pleasing, that's good and lovely in our lives. 00:23:56.319 --> 00:24:02.240 And it's not about doing God's will in order to please God or be accepted by God or be 00:24:02.240 --> 00:24:04.079 loved by God. 00:24:04.079 --> 00:24:10.159 We do it because we are already pleasing to God and we are loved and accepted. 00:24:10.160 --> 00:24:14.279 We're pleasing to God not because of what we've done but because what Jesus has done 00:24:14.279 --> 00:24:17.920 in our place and for us. 00:24:17.920 --> 00:24:20.400 Jesus lived a pleasing, acceptable life. 00:24:20.400 --> 00:24:22.320 We sung about it in that Psalm 15. 00:24:22.320 --> 00:24:27.480 He was perfect and we are covered in His perfect righteous, not our own. 00:24:27.480 --> 00:24:29.360 So we are already loved and pleased. 00:24:29.360 --> 00:24:32.920 We don't do it in order to be accepted. 00:24:32.920 --> 00:24:36.800 We do it because we want to please God because we are accepted. 00:24:36.800 --> 00:24:38.200 Can I give you an illustration? 00:24:38.200 --> 00:24:43.640 It's a personal one, I don't usually do this and it involves Katrina but since she's Katrina's 00:24:43.640 --> 00:24:46.160 here anyway, I've been already up the front. 00:24:46.160 --> 00:24:51.640 I very occasionally, when things get really chaotic and usually when Katrina's away, which 00:24:51.640 --> 00:24:55.279 means it might happen quite soon, is I do the ironing. 00:24:55.279 --> 00:24:59.519 I don't do it very often but sometimes I do it. 00:24:59.519 --> 00:25:02.440 In fact, I might not be able to do it again because the last time I did it, I dropped the 00:25:02.440 --> 00:25:07.840 iron on a brand new carpet and made a big iron mark. 00:25:07.839 --> 00:25:09.119 Some of you will say I did that deliberately. 00:25:09.119 --> 00:25:12.519 I didn't, so I wouldn't be asked again. 00:25:12.519 --> 00:25:18.359 But I do that occasionally and there's usually a big pile of ironing in the house. 00:25:18.359 --> 00:25:25.879 But I don't do it for me in order to win Katrina's love for me. 00:25:25.879 --> 00:25:29.359 I already know that Katrina loves me. 00:25:29.359 --> 00:25:31.079 We are committed to one another. 00:25:31.079 --> 00:25:36.639 I don't do it in order to win her love or to win her acceptance. 00:25:36.640 --> 00:25:43.680 I do it to please her because I love her and because I know she loves me. 00:25:43.680 --> 00:25:50.560 And in return, that means I actually quite enjoy doing it. 00:25:50.560 --> 00:25:55.080 Maybe not the actual physical reality of doing it but the feeling at the end of it of having 00:25:55.080 --> 00:26:01.120 done it and knowing that she doesn't come home to pile of ironing is important. 00:26:01.119 --> 00:26:07.359 And spiritually, it's a fruit of grace is that we do God's will not in order to earn 00:26:07.359 --> 00:26:09.279 favor with Him. 00:26:09.279 --> 00:26:11.439 He already loves us. 00:26:11.439 --> 00:26:13.159 He already accepts us. 00:26:13.159 --> 00:26:19.319 We do it because we want to please Him for that reason and in so doing, we find pleasure 00:26:19.319 --> 00:26:20.319 in it. 00:26:20.319 --> 00:26:21.919 Eric Liddell is a great example of that. 00:26:21.919 --> 00:26:26.479 He's quoted at the beginning in the thought for the day in the bulletin sheet. 00:26:26.480 --> 00:26:35.200 But also he said, you know, God made me fast and when I run I feel His pleasure because 00:26:35.200 --> 00:26:37.799 he knew this was what God made him. 00:26:37.799 --> 00:26:38.799 So they're self-sacrificing. 00:26:38.799 --> 00:26:43.839 And very, very briefly, there's also self-reflection and that's verses 3 to 8. 00:26:43.839 --> 00:26:45.200 I'm not really going to go into this. 00:26:45.200 --> 00:26:49.319 We've already been looking at part of this section and the gifts of the Spirit series 00:26:49.319 --> 00:26:51.200 we did at night. 00:26:51.200 --> 00:26:55.799 But self-reflection along with self-sacrifice is also really important. 00:26:55.799 --> 00:26:59.799 We need to look at ourselves through the lens of faith. 00:26:59.799 --> 00:27:04.079 In verse 3 he says, you know, for by the grace given to me I say to every one of you, not 00:27:04.079 --> 00:27:09.000 to think more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment each according 00:27:09.000 --> 00:27:11.680 to the measure of faith God has assigned. 00:27:11.680 --> 00:27:17.399 Now he's not saying there that you can reflect on yourself depending on the amount of faith 00:27:17.399 --> 00:27:19.079 you have, the measure of faith. 00:27:19.079 --> 00:27:24.480 He's saying, rather he's saying we measure ourselves with the eye of faith. 00:27:24.480 --> 00:27:29.599 In light of the faith that we have in Jesus who has given himself for us. 00:27:29.599 --> 00:27:34.839 In other words, we measure ourselves by who we are as believers, as children of the Father 00:27:34.839 --> 00:27:38.279 and of brothers of Jesus Christ and sisters of Christ. 00:27:38.279 --> 00:27:42.160 That's how we relate to ourselves. 00:27:42.160 --> 00:27:46.519 Unworthy if we look with the eye of faith because we see what Jesus has done for us, 00:27:46.519 --> 00:27:48.319 but not worthless. 00:27:48.319 --> 00:27:53.039 Please recognize that difference sometimes and mentioned this before, isn't it? 00:27:53.039 --> 00:27:58.639 It's not that we're worthless, we're unworthy, but we're not worthless because we're to 00:27:58.639 --> 00:28:00.359 think highly of ourselves. 00:28:00.359 --> 00:28:06.039 He says, don't think more highly than you ought, but he's saying, yeah, there's nothing 00:28:06.039 --> 00:28:10.839 wrong with thinking highly of yourself in relation to Jesus Christ. 00:28:10.839 --> 00:28:14.559 In other words, we're precious to Jesus Christ. 00:28:14.559 --> 00:28:17.639 He died for us. 00:28:17.639 --> 00:28:18.720 That's how much he cares. 00:28:18.720 --> 00:28:24.000 That's how highly we can think of ourselves, but not more highly than we should. 00:28:24.000 --> 00:28:28.759 In other words, there should be humility in us as Christians, but not self-loathing. 00:28:28.759 --> 00:28:31.519 There shouldn't be fake humility or pride. 00:28:31.519 --> 00:28:34.640 Gospel gives us an amazing balance in our life. 00:28:34.640 --> 00:28:37.720 Now, you all should be looking, I have to look at myself here. 00:28:37.720 --> 00:28:38.720 Don't look at the next person. 00:28:38.720 --> 00:28:40.600 Don't think about how they think. 00:28:40.600 --> 00:28:43.319 What about us in our life as believers? 00:28:43.319 --> 00:28:46.400 Not too high, he says, not too low. 00:28:46.400 --> 00:28:49.120 Use your faith in Christ as a measure. 00:28:49.120 --> 00:28:53.800 How much he loves you, and yet why he had to do what he did. 00:28:53.800 --> 00:28:55.560 We're all needy, but we're all loved. 00:28:55.560 --> 00:28:57.240 There's this great equality. 00:28:57.240 --> 00:29:02.160 And you know, it's a famous, very, it's become a famous phrase from Tim Keller. 00:29:02.160 --> 00:29:07.640 The Gospel is this, we are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe. 00:29:07.640 --> 00:29:11.680 Yet at the very same time, we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever 00:29:11.680 --> 00:29:14.080 dared hope. 00:29:14.079 --> 00:29:16.879 It's the balance of the Gospel. 00:29:16.879 --> 00:29:19.759 That's how we look at ourselves in Christ. 00:29:19.759 --> 00:29:25.759 Don't think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but with sober judgment. 00:29:25.759 --> 00:29:31.399 So he wants us to have a right attitude to ourselves because of what Christ, the love 00:29:31.399 --> 00:29:33.960 that Christ has shown to us. 00:29:33.960 --> 00:29:39.720 Nothing about self-loathing and nothing about worthlessness. 00:29:39.720 --> 00:29:43.079 And we're to think of ourselves, not just in relation to Christ, but in relation to 00:29:43.079 --> 00:29:44.879 the body of Christ. 00:29:44.879 --> 00:29:48.519 For as in one body, we have many members, and the members do not all have the same functions. 00:29:48.519 --> 00:29:55.000 So we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. 00:29:55.000 --> 00:30:03.480 So we are part of a family that we define ourselves, not just in relation to the faith 00:30:03.480 --> 00:30:11.639 that we have and how, therefore, we think of ourselves with Christ, but also we think 00:30:11.640 --> 00:30:14.640 of ourselves as belonging in his family. 00:30:14.640 --> 00:30:19.640 We're not simply individuals, we form one body. 00:30:19.640 --> 00:30:28.080 So the local church, St. Columbus, should reflect practically and visibly the indisputable 00:30:28.080 --> 00:30:33.200 and absolute unity of the body of Christ as a theological truth. 00:30:33.200 --> 00:30:38.480 So there's no point in you or me saying, oh, I know I'm one in Christ with every believer 00:30:38.480 --> 00:30:43.519 all over the world, but I can't stand my local church. 00:30:43.519 --> 00:30:45.000 That's not how it works. 00:30:45.000 --> 00:30:47.279 That's a cop-out. 00:30:47.279 --> 00:30:51.720 We are to take all the faults and failings and mistakes of the local church of which 00:30:51.720 --> 00:30:55.519 we're a part, all the relationship issues, and we're to work out the fact that we are 00:30:55.519 --> 00:31:00.839 family together and work through the forgiveness that we need to offer and receive and work 00:31:00.839 --> 00:31:06.640 through the foibles and mistakes that we make, maybe especially in the leadership. 00:31:06.640 --> 00:31:16.280 We have to be done with ungodly disunity, which is usually not from a holy and a godly 00:31:16.280 --> 00:31:17.280 place. 00:31:17.280 --> 00:31:22.280 It's a pride, hurt, self-righteousness, and meanness, sometimes in the name of God and 00:31:22.280 --> 00:31:24.720 in the name of purity. 00:31:24.720 --> 00:31:31.480 We live and practice costly forgiveness in our understanding of grace. 00:31:31.480 --> 00:31:38.360 We are related, our identity is by being part of the family, and more than that, he says 00:31:38.360 --> 00:31:42.759 we actually belong to one another. 00:31:42.759 --> 00:31:50.160 We belong to one another, and that's an amazing truth that we recognize. 00:31:50.160 --> 00:31:53.640 We belong to one another. 00:31:53.640 --> 00:31:58.759 That's my phone going. 00:31:58.759 --> 00:31:59.759 That's Neil McMillan. 00:31:59.759 --> 00:32:00.759 That's terrible. 00:32:00.759 --> 00:32:04.000 What did I say about social media? 00:32:04.000 --> 00:32:08.759 In relation to the body of Christ, not only that we're part of the family, but that you 00:32:08.759 --> 00:32:12.960 and I belong to one another. 00:32:12.960 --> 00:32:18.240 We are individually members of one another. 00:32:18.240 --> 00:32:22.759 You might find that hugely uncomfortable to your, and I might find that hugely uncomfortable 00:32:22.759 --> 00:32:30.680 to my individuality and my sense of freedom. 00:32:30.680 --> 00:32:35.480 But it's not. 00:32:35.480 --> 00:32:43.320 And we're not to come to God and say, I belong, on my terms, with my kind of people, as long 00:32:43.320 --> 00:32:51.200 as the belonging doesn't hurt me, we belong, as he goes on to speak about all the different 00:32:51.200 --> 00:32:57.080 gifts we have, and we serve by belonging to one another. 00:32:57.079 --> 00:33:03.000 And I guess as we teach and encourage, as we're generous, as we lead, as we're merciful, 00:33:03.000 --> 00:33:06.079 and as we're cheerful, that's the kind of things he speaks about in the gifts here. 00:33:06.079 --> 00:33:11.240 But I guess the question coming from this, both in terms of our individual identity and 00:33:11.240 --> 00:33:16.319 our understanding of what it means to be involved in the body of Christ, is what kind of church 00:33:16.319 --> 00:33:21.960 family do we want to belong to and serve in? 00:33:21.960 --> 00:33:27.799 Not as an optional extra, because the question is not how everyone else should belong in 00:33:27.799 --> 00:33:30.880 it, but how do I belong? 00:33:30.880 --> 00:33:35.079 And what kind of belonging am I aspiring to? 00:33:35.079 --> 00:33:39.000 How can I help the health of the body of Christ? 00:33:39.000 --> 00:33:40.000 What does it look like? 00:33:40.000 --> 00:33:45.160 What a great thing is, God tells us. 00:33:45.160 --> 00:33:49.519 And that's the next section which God willing, we'll look at next week, which gives us some 00:33:49.519 --> 00:33:55.759 practical implications of what it means to be a Christian as part of a family of Christ. 00:33:55.759 --> 00:33:56.759 Amen. 00:33:56.759 --> 00:33:57.759 Pray. 00:33:57.759 --> 00:34:06.119 Lord God, help us, we pray, to see the meaty theology that we've been looking at over these 00:34:06.119 --> 00:34:13.280 last months, having very, very practical realities in our day-to-day living. 00:34:13.280 --> 00:34:21.920 And may we all come to terms with this great core reality, not my will, but yours be done. 00:34:21.920 --> 00:34:28.720 And may we face that each day and see that it's the only response we can give to God 00:34:28.720 --> 00:34:35.880 who's given us everything, who's given us everything so that we may live and be forgiven 00:34:35.880 --> 00:34:41.800 and that death will have its sting removed and we will live forever in His company. 00:34:41.800 --> 00:34:48.440 May we not think that it's worth just giving Him, giving you a tiny little part of our 00:34:48.440 --> 00:34:55.640 lives and help us to do your will and find it pleasing. 00:34:55.640 --> 00:34:58.720 And may we want to please you because of all you've done. 00:34:58.720 --> 00:35:04.080 Help us to see that and if there are any who, and we all don't see it as we should, if there 00:35:04.080 --> 00:35:08.760 are any who have never given their hearts to Christ today, we pray that they may see 00:35:08.760 --> 00:35:14.720 more clearly today than ever before who you are and how worthy you are and how we were, 00:35:14.720 --> 00:35:19.960 as we saw at the beginning of the service, that you're worthy to live for and to love 00:35:19.960 --> 00:35:24.200 and to glorify because you made us. 00:35:24.200 --> 00:35:26.440 Help us to know that transformation in Christ. 00:35:26.440 --> 00:35:39.440 Amen.