Changed by Grace: Living All of Life for Jesus

Heavenly Father, give us faith to receive Your Word, understanding to know what it means, and the will to put it into practice through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. ASOP tells the story of a farmer and a viper. The farmer finds a viper in a field frozen, nearly dead, and moved to Piddy. The farmer picks up the viper, tucks it into his jacket and warms him up. As the viper warms up and its life begins to return, so does the viper's natural instinct. And so the viper turns and bites the farmer, and the farmer dies. The viper doesn't change, doesn't show mercy, compassion, can't change. What about people? Do people change? Some would say that we're like the viper, that we don't change, that we can't change. But then there are others that say, well of course we can change. We can become the viper that becomes a pet, not an enemy. Well what we'll see today is that the Christian life is one where we are changed, and are being changed. And we'll see from Romans 12 how Jesus brings about this change in our lives. How does he take imperfect sinful humans like you and me and change us? Now you might have noticed that we're jumping in halfway through a book in Romans 12. Romans 1-11 has highlighted that it is through faith in Jesus that we are justified and made right before God. Jesus died for our sin in our place so that we could be forgiven of our unrighteousness and be given Jesus' righteousness. It's a swap. Jesus takes our sin-stained heart within to the cross and makes us clean before God. We're changed. We're brought into his family. We're given the Holy Spirit. And we can now live our new life for God. I don't know if you've ever been ice skating. When you go ice skating you have to hire ice skates. Without hiring the skates you don't go ice skating. Well the Christian life is similar. We're given by grace through faith in Jesus, salvation and eternal life. That is the skates so that we can then learn to live our new life to God. And then we come to Romans chapter 12 and we see how we are learning to skate in the Christian life. So as we look at Romans 12 we see that we are living sacrifices. We're transformed not conformed and we are people who serve. So first we are to live as living sacrifices. Romans chapter 12 verse 1 reads, Therefore I urge you brothers and sisters in view of God's mercy to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship. God's mercy has been explained in chapters 1 to 11, salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Now here is the application. Here is the how we should live now that we've received the salvation in Jesus. And the answer there is offer your bodies as living sacrifices. A sacrifice in the Bible refers to death. And we often talk about sacrificing our time, our money, someone might even talk about sacrificing their dignity. But this is a modern use of the term. In the Bible sacrifice referred to animal sacrifices and ultimately to the sacrifice of Jesus who shed his blood on the cross. Sacrifice involved death. So to talk about a living sacrifice is to use an image that doesn't sit easily in our minds because life and death don't go together. Living in sacrifice don't go together. Yet we're exhorted here to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice. So what does that mean? Well in Romans chapter six we're told that through faith in Jesus, we're united to Jesus in his death and raised with him in his resurrection. So spiritually our old life is dead and we now have a new life which we live to God. So to be a living sacrifice means we no longer live for ourselves or our sinful nature but for Jesus and his glory. An illustration of this might be a professional athlete. A professional athlete is not just an athlete when they're competing are they? They are one full time. It affects everything from the moment they wake up, their diets, their schedules to where they spend their time. It's a whole of life decision. Living for Jesus is the same. Being a living sacrifice for God is an all of life activity where we seek to honour and glorify God. We offer our bodies everything that we do for the glory of God. We live our whole lives in worship of him and that encompasses all of life. It encompasses life here at church. It encompasses life at home in the way that you relate to your family or at work and how you relate to your colleagues or even how you go about doing the work that you've got before you. It encompasses social functions when you're chatting with people, when you're dealing with those call centres that are just ultimately very frustrating to the glory of Jesus, living sacrifices. And in living this way it is our true and proper worship. See worship in the Bible is not limited to just time of singing God's praises or coming to church on a Sunday. It's not just an hour and a half on a Sunday morning but it's seven days, 168 hours a week. We're not to be living sacrifices part time but all the time. Everything for the glory of God. So how are we to do this? How are we to know what glorifies God? And so we come to our second point. We are to be transformed, not conformed. Verse two, do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you'll be able to test and approve what God's will is, his good, pleasing and perfect will. The pattern of this world is one that does not listen to God's word or glorify God. Instead our world suppresses the truth about God. They ignore God or believe things about God that they have made up rather than what God has revealed through Jesus in his word. We are not to conform to their pattern. And it means as living sacrifices, we should be looking to Jesus and God's word for how we should live through the week. We should be looking to Jesus and God's word for what we should believe and practice about money or human sexuality or death and the dignity of human life. We should look to Jesus and God's word as we think about heaven and hell and eternity. We look to God's word to shape our life, our prayer life, our work life, our family life, all of life. A Christian life will differ from someone who is not a Christian because we're living by a different pattern, a pattern that seeks to glorify Jesus. And this happens through transformation. We are being transformed. When we place our faith in Jesus, we're given the Holy Spirit who takes up residence in our hearts and our minds and starts a renovation project. And the goal of this renovation project is to make us more like Jesus in our heart and soul and mind and strength. As the Spirit works in us, as He applies His word to us from the Scriptures, we will be changed. Sometimes that changes very quick. You might have heard the story of someone who becomes a Christian and then overnight their addiction to drugs or alcohol just disappears. And praise God for that. But from my experience, in most instances, the change that the Holy Spirit brings about in our lives is more often slow change, change over time. The Holy Spirit over time each day is working in us to make us more patient, to make us more kind, more loving. The Holy Spirit transforms us so that we're more full of faith, more joyful, more someone who seeks peace, not division. Transforms us so that we're gentle and more full of self-control. All those things are the fruits of the Spirit listed in Galatians chapter 5. It's a slow spirit working in us, producing those things. Sometimes we notice the work of the Spirit in us, other times we won't. It's like when you stop at road work on the highway, there's signs there, you know something is going on. And sometimes it's bleedingly obvious what they're doing. They pulled up a section of the road and they're retiring it. But from my experience of driving around the roads of Australia, most of the time when road works there, I'm like, what on earth are they actually doing? I have no idea. I'm sure they're doing something, but I don't know what it is. And that's like the work of the Holy Spirit. We can know that something is going on. God has given us His Holy Spirit. Our minds are being renewed and transformed. Sometimes we might know what that is. Other times we might not, but we can be confident that God is at work. Through the work of the Holy Spirit, we're being transformed so that we will not conform to this pattern of this world, but instead we will give glory to Jesus. And it is worth highlighting at this point that we are works in progress. We're not perfect. We still sin. It's not possible for us to glorify Jesus perfectly in every moment of every day. And when we fail, when we do sin, what we need to do is we need to come back to the cross of Jesus. We need to ask Jesus for His forgiveness and ask for His help. And then go about seeking to glorify Jesus as living sacrifices with transformed minds. And the result of this transformation is we will be able to test and approve what God's will is. His good, pleasing and perfect will. Now this is not saying that we will have a map of the future of what God necessarily wants us to decide. It's not the answer to, you know, who shall I marry? Should I retire? Should I keep working? Should I move house? Should I travel? God has given us wisdom in these areas. But rather, those two are saying that as we live for Jesus, each day we will have a better idea on how we should live for Jesus. We will be able to test and approve as our minds are transformed. We will know how to glorify Jesus in our conversations after church. Or when you receive bad news. Or when someone treats you like you don't matter. In those moments we will know how to glorify Jesus. Now what is God's will when your child or grandchild throws a tantrum? What is God's will when you've got some free time before breakfast? Well, God, by His Spirit, will give us the wisdom to discern and work out what will glorify Him in those moments. But here's the thing, we don't have to do that by ourselves. In fact, we shouldn't do that by ourselves. We are part of a church, a body of believers that are designed to encourage and help each other. But also we have God's word. Romans chapter 12 through to 16 is just four chapters of instructions on how we are to live our lives to glorify Jesus. And there's plenty of instruction in the Bible on how we are to glorify Jesus. And so as the Spirit renews our minds, and we are transformed, we will be able to, in every situation, be living sacrifices and know how to live for Jesus in that moment. Now we're going to look at a specific application of this now, which is verses three to eight. Which is we are to be a people who serve. As living sacrifices we are to be a people who serve. The exhortation in verse three starts with the reminder we ought not to think too much of ourselves. For by the grace given to me I say to every one of you, do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. Be sober-minded. Be aware that in a church building with a bunch of Christians, you're not the most important person in the room. I'm not the most important person in the room. We have to have a sober judgment, a sober mind. And the key to not thinking too highly of yourself is the measure of faith given to you by God. The measure of faith is not talking about how much faith you have, whether it's little faith or lots of faith. But actually it's to see ourselves in light of the faith that we do have, that our salvation is through faith in Jesus. Not by our works, but by God's grace. Faith that recognizes that the good things that we have are good gifts from God, not something that we can take credit for. Faith to see that the only indispensable person in the church is Jesus. And this is helpful for us to remember whatever position we find ourselves serving in to not think of ourselves too highly. And so then in verses four and five we're told we are the body of Christ. We are all connected together and we each have a part to play. We're not all hands. That would be weird. No, as a body we've all got different parts with our eyes, nose, mouth, little pinky toes. We're all there. And in verse six we're told that as parts of the body of Christ we have different gifts according to the grace given to each of us. And in verses six to eight there are some gifts mentioned. There's prophesying in accordance with faith, serving, teaching, encouragement, giving, leading, showing mercy. And the exhortation and the encouragement is if you have a gift that is given to you by God, use it. Don't hold it back. Now all of these gifts there are many things in here that actually all Christians are called to do. All Christians are called to encourage and build each other up. All Christians are called to serve and be involved in serving. But there are some people who have the gift of encouragement. When I first became a Christian, the minister at our church, he met with me and he read the Bible with me. Every word that came out of his mouth was just super encouraging. Encouraging me to live for Jesus and live my life for the glory of Jesus. And it wasn't just me when he was speaking to me, it was everyone. Every time he spoke his words were just so encouraging. He had the gift of encouragement and he used it to great effect. If you have the gift of encouragement, encourage. Or service, we're all called to serve. But some people have the gift of serving. They'll put their hands dirty and do just about anything and they'll do it with great joy as they serve the kingdom. If that's you, serve. That's what we're told here in Romans. Use that gift. Serve the body of Christ. Or leading. The church needs leaders. There are lots of Christians who have the gift of leadership. They use it in the secular world. But then when it comes to church, often it just stays in the pew. If you have the gift of leadership, lead. Our church needs leaders, particularly in our world at the moment where a change in context, a shift in world. I've just drawn attention to those three. But God has given us these gifts listed in Romans 12 plus more. There's two other lists of gifts that God gives us in the Bible. God has equipped each of us in some way, shape or form to be able to serve the church. It's not just my job to do church. We are all to do church. We don't come to church as consumers. We're to come to church as participants. Serving the kingdom as living sacrifices who are being transformed into Jesus' glory. This raises the question then, well, what gift has God given me? How do I know what gift God has given me to serve? When I became a Christian, it was in the 90s. It was a bit popular at the time to try and work out what your spiritual gift was. There were surveys and questionnaires. I did these surveys and questionnaires to tell me what my gift was. I'd come up with all sorts of random things and I don't even remember what the results were. That is actually not the most helpful way to work out what your gifts are. The most helpful way to work out what your gifts are for serving the church is to see a need and get involved in serving. Put up your hand and say, yeah, I can do that. There's the Women's Conference next week. This week there's going to be people in and around church setting up. Maybe you've got the gift of time to be able to put your hand up and say, hey, I'd love to come and serve in that. Maybe you see that there's a need on welcoming. Actually, I think we're fine at the moment on welcoming, but you see that there's a need on welcoming. And you go, I can smile and say hello and be a friendly person at the door. I'm going to stick my hand up and do that. The question is, do I have the gift of welcoming and then we spend a long time thinking about it? No, get involved and work it out. And sometimes as you do that, you'll recognise actually, I do not have a gift in doing that. I really should probably leave that to someone else. I do not have the gift of playing the trumpet. I'm not going about to put my hand up to play the trumpet in the church music band. But the best way to work out what your gift is is to get involved and do it. Test it. Test the waters. Don't hold back because you think I don't have that gift. So can we change? Well, the answer is an emphatic yes. Does Jesus change us? Yes, we're not at all like the viper. When we put our faith in Jesus, Jesus sends His Holy Spirit to transform us so that we will be living sacrifices, worshiping Him in every moment of every day, not conforming to the pattern of this world. And part of this transformation happens as we serve in church using the gifts God has given us for the benefit of others and not ourselves. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we praise You that You are a good and gracious God. We thank You that You've provided for us so abundantly in Jesus that through faith in Him we have salvation. And thank You that You've given us Your Holy Spirit that is working in us, renewing our minds, transforming us so that we can live lives to the glory of Jesus. And we ask, Lord, that You would help each of us to serve in church. Use the gifts that You've given us for Your glory. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.