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Notices - Sermon
Hearts and Minds
This morning I am not going to talk about the BBC programme 'Hearts and Minds' but about our own hearts and minds. We sometimes speak of someone whose heart rules their head. By that we usually mean someone who is emotional or whose emotions dictate their actions. To a certain extent that is true of all of us because we cannot truly separate our emotions from our minds. Turn with me to Romans 12 and especially verses 1 and 2.
Context
This letter to the Romans was written by the apostle Paul around AD57. The church at Rome was a mixture of Jewish and Gentile believers. Paul is on his third missionary journey, which you can read in Acts, and this letter paves the way for his journey to Rome. The letter explains the apostolic gospel to a church that had not had an apostle visit before. The first 11 chapters are the core of the doctrinal teaching of the letter and as you can see verse 1 of chapter 12 starts with the word 'therefore' - which is a favourite connecting word of Paul. In light of all the doctrine that he has taught them then this is the practical outworking of it in their lives.
Verse 1.
Paul begins this section of the letter with a call to wholehearted commitment by those in the church at Rome. He is quite direct and forceful in his call, in fact it is a command, to them. He 'urges' or beseeches them to 'offer their bodies as living sacrifices.' Here is a call for them to offer the totality of their lives, of who they are, to God as a sacrifice, as an act of worship. The idea of offering yourself as a sacrifice would have been familiar to them. However, instead of an animal being offered it was themselves that was to be offered. Think for a moment what an animal sacrifice entails. It involved the death of the animal and its life-blood being offered to the god. The animal had no choice and the commitment required of it was total. There was no turning back and there was nothing less acceptable (or offered) than the whole animal. The whole animal was laid on the altar and offered up in worship. This is the total commitment that Paul urges them to make to the true God. They were to offer themselves as living sacrifices, to die to themselves and, to live totally for God. Their offering was not a dead offering but a living offering. They were to be an offering which was continuously alive before and to God and continuously living for God.
Why were they to offer themselves as living sacrifices? Paul tells them in verse 1 - in light of the mercy of God. What was that mercy? They were not treated as their sins deserve but whilst they were still sinners, still dead to God and hell bound, God sent His only Son Jesus Christ, to die in their place on the cross. The mercy of God was revealed in the punishment of Christ for their sins and the gracious offer of salvation extended to them. This mercy Paul has spent 11 chapters explaining. It is in light of this mercy that they are to respond, the only acceptable response, by offering all that they are to God as a living sacrifice. Such an offering would be 'holy and pleasing to God.' It would be holy because through the sanctification of the Holy Spirit they were holy and because man had been created to worship God and to be in a relationship with God it pleased God that such an offering was made, voluntarily made, by man. Paul concludes verse 1 by telling them that this is their 'spiritual act of worship.' Now stop there for a moment. When we think of worship we think of what we do here on a Sunday morning but that is only a very small part of worship. In fact some people even narrow worship down even further to 'singing'. So you have people who speak of a 'worship leader' when they really mean the person who leads the singing of God's praise. In Scripture, and here in Romans 12, worship is about all of life. When Paul exhorts these believers to offer their lives as living sacrifices it is because that is their spiritual act of worship. There is a famous Christian book by Brother Lawrence called 'Practising the Presence of God' - it is worth reading. He was a monk and he writes about practising the presence of God in every moment of every day. It is an amazing little book because you discover how one man's life was transformed by that simple remembrance that worship is about all of life. There is one incident which stuck in my mind how doing the dishes he was worshipping God - I struggled with that because I hate doing dishes. Yet the lesson from Paul is simple, and yet the blessing profound, worship is about the totality of my life and only the offering of the totality of my life is acceptable to God in the light of His mercy to me in Christ. As God would have John write to the church at Laodicea in the book of Revelation (chapter 3), you are lukewarm and because of that I would spit you out of my mouth. This morning this verse challenges us as to the state of our hearts and minds - are we totally committed to God? Can we honestly say that we offer ourselves as living sacrifices to God? Do we see all of our lives as a spiritual act of worship?
Verse 2
Having told them what they are to do Paul now tells them the key to doing this. The dedicated life is also to be the transformed life. Paul begins this verse with a negative command. 'Be not conformed to this world.' Think for a moment of the world into which Paul is speaking and the city into which he is speaking. A world of immorality, idolatry and paganism. A world where every desire of the flesh was met and where freedom, wealth and power were aspirations of the majority of people. A world where almost nothing was considered wrong or depraved and where, as Paul has stated in the first few chapters of Romans, men and women gave themselves freely to this depraved lifestyle and boasted about it. It is into this situation that God says, through Paul, do not conform to the ways or the patterns of this world. Conformity to the ways of the world is no superficial matter to God and it should not be to the Christian believe either. What a tragedy for these believers to conform to a world that will pass away when they have been introduced to the world to come in Christ Jesus. This is the great danger that the believers in Rome are in - commitment without transformation. A commitment to Christ which over a period of time wanes and fades until the live of the 'christian' is not different to the world around them. It is not such a big river to cross from first century Rome to 21st century Carrickfergus, is it?
How are they to ensure they do not conform to this world? By being transformed by the renewing of their minds. Friends, the word Paul uses their for 'transformation' is the exact same word in the Greek that is used to speak of Christ's 'transfiguration.' It is the same word that speaks of Christ being transfigured when He did not bow to the ways of this world, or satan, and obeyed the will of His Father. Allow me to give you a translation of what Paul says in this sentence: "Let yourselves be transformed by the renewing of your minds; that you may prove what the will of God is; that which is good, pleasing and perfect."
The first thing I want you to note is that Paul uses the present tense - let yourselves be transformed. It is a continuous action. It is not a once off event - please remember that. So many Christians are just lazy when it comes to their minds. So many Christians think I have been born again and therefore there is nothing more I need to do. Waken up - you are to be continuously transformed by the renewing of your mind. This is not a matter of impulse or feeling but a continuous action on your part. Note also it is in the passive voice - 'let yourselves be transformed' - whilst it is in the passive voice, it is something done to the believer by the Holy Spirit, the believer participates in agreeing, willing and allowing it to happen. You are not completely passive in this work - you must not quench the Spirit of God in your life and you do that by conforming to the pattern of this world. You must co-operate fully (whole hearted commitment again) with the Holy Spirit. The result is 'transformation' or 'transfiguration.' What happened at the transfiguration of Christ? The disciples who were with Christ were given a unique privilege. The veil of heaven was peeled back, their eyes were opened and they were allowed to see a fraction of the glory of Christ. What will happen when you are transformed or transfigured? The veil of heaven will be peeled back, your eyes will be opened and you will be allowed a glimpse of the glory of Christ in you. Those with you will see Christ in you as your life is transformed and transfigured. Just before my grandfather died I wrote him a letter to thank him for being my grandfather and all the things he had done, shared and put into my life. One the things I wrote in that letter was to tell him that I first saw the light of Christ in him. Now let me ask you a question: Do you want to be transformed so that you see the glory of Christ in you and others also see the glory of Christ in you?
Paul goes on to tell them how this will happen in their lives - by the renewing of their minds. Sometimes Christians get accused of being 'anti-intellectual' and sometimes that is a fair criticism. It is totally unbiblical for Christians to anti-intellectual. This verse tells us how important are minds are to the spiritual transformation of our lives, to our worship and to our knowing the will of God. Paul tells them that this inner transformation can only come about by the renewing of their minds. Where once they had the mind of world they now, by the work of the Holy Spirit, have the mind of Christ. Where once their mind was dead to the things of God and the ways of God now through the mercy of God their minds are alive to God and the ways of God. Yet there is a danger for them - the mind of this world which seeks to have them conform to the ways of this world. For those at Rome they were under constant pressure to conform to emperor worship, to pagan rituals and immorality. They were under pressure to accept the teaching of the academies about the workings of this world and the deities of the heavens. Nothing has really changed in 21 centuries. Are we not under the same pressure to conform? Is your mind not assailed everyday with teaching that is contrary to the Word of God, that is assuming you know the Word of God?
I am amazed at how conscious people are of the foodstuff they put into their bodies and into the mouths of their children but have no regard at all for the materials they put into their own minds or allow their children to put into their minds. I am not this morning going to give you a list of acceptable things - that would legalism, but what I am asking of you, in fact what God is asking of you this morning from His word is to waken up and examine what you put into your mind, what you allow to enter your mind because it is that which is transforming your heart and your life. The same is true of your children this morning. Friends, be honest before God this morning - which got more of your mind this week - God and His Word or the world? Measure how long you spent reading God's Word in relation to the newspaper, the magazines, the TV channels etc. Some of you spent more time this week reading emails than the Word of God - to what is your mind conforming or transforming? What about your children? How many hours did they spend playing computer games above their age limit? Only last week I was going to watch Macbeth, I know sad, and Taylor wanted to watch it with me, Shakespeare - you know she said 'Daddy it says 15 on this DVD box.' I shelved it and we watched an animated cartoon of Heidi instead. Waken up people to what is going into your mind and into the minds of our children because it is what you know in your mind that you believe in your heart and live in your lives.
Paul calls them to renew their minds - it is in fact a call to keep going back to the commitment of their hearts - to the offering of their total lives as sacrifice to God. If I can keep going back to that commitment to Christ because of His mercy towards me and in light of that put into my mind the things that I know are good, pleasing and perfect then I will prove, discern, know the will of God for my life. If I put the garbage of this world into my mind then I will not know what is good, what is pleasing to God or what is perfect and the result will be I will have no idea of the will of God and will no longer live for Him but conform to the patterns of this world. This is a serious matter brothers and sisters. This is where the rubber hits the road for us all, for you this morning. This morning the challenge is to renew your mind before God this morning. To reaffirm not only the necessity of your commitment to Christ but the legitimacy of it because from that begins the transformation of your life. Each day I need to reaffirm my commitment to Christ and each day I need to renew my mind in the knowledge that in light of His mercy I needed to make that commitment to Christ. From that starting point I need to guard my eyes, to guard my mind and to guard my footsteps - so that I put into my mind, into heart and into my path those things which I know to be good, to be pleasing to God and to be perfect, then and only then will I be able to prove the will of God and obey it.
There is no shortcut here brothers and sisters. The reason Paul choose the word sacrifice was because it was a daily occurrence in the many pagan temples in Rome. He wanted the Christian believers to know that for them it was to be a daily offering of themselves, totally, to Christ and to do that they had to be transformed by the renewing of their minds.
Application
So what are you to do in light of these two verses this morning?
For us as a congregation I think we need to confess before God that we have conformed for to long to the ways of this world. Some of you know that to be true of your lives this morning and you need right now to confess that before God.
For us all we need to recommit our lives to God, not just a part of our lives but the totality of our lives. God calls you this morning to stop being lukewarm and to be on fire for Him. It is time to get real with God and to be committed to Him fully. You know, if your commitment to your wife, husband or family was as apathetic as your commitment to Christ they would genuinely doubt you loved them. It is time to offer yourself as a living sacrifice to God.
Thirdly, we need to truly examine what we put into our minds this morning and what we allow into the minds of our children. I am going to be very honest with you all this morning. For some of you it will mean going home and clearing out certain materials from your home. For some it may mean putting the computer in a public accessible place so no one can hide away viewing inappropriate material on the computer screen. For some it will mind exercising godly parental discipline and saying 'No' to your children when things are not appropriate or good, or pleasing to God. For all of us it is time to take a stand about what is and is not acceptable to go into our minds and the minds of our children.
Finally I want to say this to you all - it is time to stop blurring the lines of the ways of the world and the ways of Christ. The believers at Rome where in no doubt as to what God was calling them to when He called them to offer themselves as living sacrifices and to be transformed by the renewing of their minds. It meant they didn't go to the pagan temples and pagan festivals and parties where immorality, debauchery, idolatry etc would be the norm. This morning God is calling us to step apart from this world, to no longer conform to the ways of this world. It would be easy to point the finger at the young people in this congregation and have a go at them but let me say to you as adults the majority of young people in this church do live lives of sacrifice to God and are more careful about not conforming to this world than many of the adults who claim to follow Christ. So this morning I am not talking to the teenagers but to you the adults - offer yourselves as living sacrifices and to be transformed by the renewing of your minds. It is time to take the garbage out and it is time to sweep the house clean. It is time that your commitment ceased being lukewarm and was totally devoted to Christ because this morning God would say to you 'nothing else is acceptable to me…I will spit you out of my mouth for being lukewarm.'
Amen.
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