Romans 12:3-9

It’s been a few weeks since we looked into the book of Romans. We have had a little break while pastor Jeff and the team were here ministering to us. It was a wonderful time. They did a truly great job of serving to our church but also going out to the street and talking about God with people. So, if you were blessed by their ministy, and haven’t had chance to say thank you, I highly encourage you to send them a short(or long) text and say thank you. It’s just a right thing to do and it will be very encouraging for them.

With that being said now we can come back to our scripture for the week and start looking into the last portion of the book of Romans. Currently we are at the chapter 12.

In this chapter we start to explore more “practical” side of things. Unlike the the first half of the letter which mostly talking about foundational truth. Things which we believe in as followers of Christ. Reinforcing foundation of our faith. By reviling the grace of God and uncovering answers to some dipper life issues.

Two weeks ago we’ve had kind of an overview. We looked at all those things that God did for us. How great and rich his mercies are. We started to talk about the “LIFE OF WORSHIP.” that summerized in verses 1 and 2.

Romans 12:1,2

¹I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.² Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

LIFE OF WORSHIP

Remember we said that to live LIFE OF WORSHIP is not dying for God, but rather living for Him every day of our life.

IN FAMILY

It is somewhat like a marriage relationships. When you enter into a marriage it’s not really about being ready to die, to take a bullet for you spause. It’s very unlickly that the opportunity would ever present itself. Way more often it’s about doing dishes, cooking dinner and putting the toilet seat down. Right?

While you single, you can, and most likely do, live a pretty self centered life. Probably without even realizing it. But when you enter a true marriage relationships and especially when you start having multiple children(pet’s doesn’t counts, sorry). That’s when you learn to die for yourself. Thant’s when you learn to put interests and needs of your family above your own. That’s when the changes happen. It’s not happening automatically though. You have to make that decision and follow it through. Day after day.

And unless you do that, family life not gonna work out.

Every single day you make decision to set aside, and at the times completely give up, on YOUR desires, YOUR dreams, YOUR needs for the sake of those you love. For your wife, your kids. And that is life of love - the life of a husband and a father.

OUR ATTITUDE

Same principle applies to our walk with the Lord. Unfortunately, if we were to compare our relationship with God to a marriage, I think it would often look something like this:

You fell in love and got married. With a ceremony and all that. But then, you end up never moving together. Yeah, you kinda remain faithful to your spouse. But you don’t really wanna change anyghing in your life. You meet once a week, or every other week if you are too tired. You spend together a couple of hours. And even then you only half paying attention to what’s happaning. Actually, you can’t wait to go back home to your own life…to your own little things. Because this meeting became a rootin, a chore. Something that you have to do to fulfill the obligations.

No one would call THAT a marriage!

You can’t live like a single preson in a marriage. It’s not gonna work.

And that is exactly what we try to do in our walk with the Lord. There is ME and MY LIFE, “MY TIME”, “MY EVERYTHING” and there is “GOD”. We saparate a little corner of your life for him and think that Lord should be happy. Because I come to church every other Sunday. Yeah, maybe sometimes I come late and go early. But I mostly there. It’s not a big deal if I check my emails and respond to a couple of messages while He trying to talk to me, I mostly listen after all…

I mean, what you think will happen if you will try that wiht your husband or wife? It will ruin your relationships. You can forget about any kind of affection. Most likely you will divorce in a no time!

Please, don’t try this at home!

If you’re living as a “two Sundays a month” Christian, why are you surprised that you struggle to experience God’s presence and His love?

TRANSFORM

When person get married he should transform the way he approaches life. Transform the way of thinking. You transition from self centered way of thinking to something quite opposite. You should go from “What can I get from my wife” to “How can I bless my wife”, from “You owe ME”, to “I owe YOU”. From “What this relationships gives ME” to “What can I give in this relationships”.

So, daily self-sacrifice and transformation of the way of thinking is a solid foundation for a healthy marriage realtionships that will last. Same applies for our relationships with the Lord. That’s what the verses 1 and 2 talk about.

TRANSITION

It is the same as to say that we should LOVE God with “ALL OUR HEART, AND WITH ALL OUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL OUR MIND”. We should live the LIFE OF WORSHIP.

With one core differance.

Human love can be self centered in a way. I mean we want our loved once’s spend their time with us, show their affection to us, care about us. And I don’t think it’s wrong or something. And due to that, we tent to think that is exactly what God expects too. We think that true love to God is to withdraw ourselves from this world, go to a desert or monastery and stay there.

And people do exactly that. They withdraw from their families. Abounded their responsibilities and obligations as spouse and parent in order to “fully devote to God”. It was especially popular in Medieval Period and it is still actual in slightly different shape and form in our day and time.

But this is not what God wants. Actually His desire is completely oposite. His love is not self-centered. It is selfless, self-giving. God says Show me your love by loving people around you.

He wants you to show your love to Him by being the best husband or wife you possible can be. He wants you to be the best parent you possible can be.

It’s not about withdrawing yourself from the world, but changing a small world around you. Little communities you a part of. Through love. It’s starts in a family. But it is also includes the church family! The body of Christ. Your LOCAL, OFFLINE community of Christians. And then it goes above and beyond to the whole world, but that’s for the following weeks. Our scriputre for today focuses on the church.

Local churches face a problem in our day. We live in the world of constant consumption. And It effects us big time. More then we realize. Often we thing about the church. We think from consumers perspective. “What can I get? What would I gain by coming?”. And I must say that from consumers point of view local gathering like ours doesn’t make much sense. Because, you can go online and enjoy christian music and sing along. You can find a christian speaker who’s sermons fits your taste. As a consumer you will be more satisfied this way.

But it is not the biblical idea of the church. Church is not a product, it’s not another corporation that offers you a subscription plan in exchange to it’s services. Like Netflix or Amazon.

Church is the body of Christ. You individually is not the body of Christ. Individualistic society tell you that it’s only between you and God. There is nothing more. That church is the thing of the past. Of the old days, when bible was not available. When there were no online churches and teachers. It tells you that you don’t need church. That your “personal” faith all that matters.

Unfortunately it’s not true. Being a part of a local Church matters. It is essential for every christian. Because, cell that is outside the body is a dead cells. You can’t be the part of the body “remotely”. At least at this stage I never heard of “online kidneys” or “remote liver”. To belong to the body, you have to be present in the body.

Church is not about consumption. It’s about serving one another. More often in a little, practical ways. With the gifting that we have from God.

If we will keep up with our marriage analogy. You can watch a family dinners online as much a you want. But it does not make you a famaly member.

There are quite a few people who share their everyday life with the world via socail networks. You can track their posts. You can know alot about their life. But it will never make you a part of their family. You will never have true experience. Because it’s not about the knowledge. But about going through life side by side, having each others backs. And so on and so forth.

Church is not about Sunday service. It’s not about hearing the sermon and singing couple songs. It’s about life as a community. Day in day out. Serving to one another. This is LIFE of WORSHIP.

Romans 12:3-9

³For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.⁴For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function,⁵so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.⁶ Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith;⁷if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching;⁸the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.

⁹Let love be genuine…

GENERAL WILL OF GOD

You see, Paul confirms that yes, we all different, BUT equally important. God brough us together, with our different giftings for a reason. Together we are the body of Christ. And there is a plan and a purpose for us. Everyone of you. We all called by God. He has a plan for you as an individual, but also he has a plan for us a whole.

And the first thing we SHOULD learn to do. Is to use our giftings to build up one anothe. Hear me our: “God wants you, yes, you. To use your giftings. He wants you to server your family. He wants you to serve your bother and sisters in Christ.” You start there, and then God will reveal more and more specific plan for your life.

ATTITUDE MATTERS

And not only we should serve to one another, but also, we should serve with a good attitude. Your attutude is as important as your service. Verse 9 says our love should be genuine or other way to translate it “Let love be without hiprocrasy”. LOVE shold be always at heart of everything we do. It’s the most important part. No matter what we do, we should do in love and out of love. Because, let’s face it. People get hurt in churches. Sometimes so much so, that they leave the church. They say that people in this world was so much nices to them then people in the church. And that’s tragedy. Because we are called to be known by our love for one another. 1 Chorinthians 13 can teach us some principles of acting in love. Jesus was love first type of person. And we should follow his example.

Does GOD CARE IF WE GO TO CHURCH?

But often we life as if God doesn’t really care whether we are part of a local church or not as long as we pray enough prayers and read enough bible.

I dont think so… Bible doesn’t say, if you decide to join church locally… No, it says as a part of a local community this is how you should live…

Our life of worship is life of action. It starts from ministering to our family, extends to our brothers and sisters in christ and continue to flow into the world that does not yet know God.

LIFE OF WORSHIP of a one person can make a differance. By changing a small world arund you. You can make a global impact. And it doesn’t take very much. I know that you are brave people who are not afraid of a change. You left your country, your comfort thone and came here. You are the risk takers. Even if you don’t think this way about yourself. You CAN change this world. You have something to give to your family, to your brother and sisters.

Struggles

Sometimes all it takes is to share our struggles:

Because, statistically speaking, and what I mean is that I don’t have any specific people in mind. But based on the numbers there is more then one person right now in this room who stuggles with the use of pornography. Actually it is probobly more like 4 - 10 people. It’s a nasty harmful thing. And you can help one another to overcome this problem. If you be willing to open up and serve one another.

Same goes for exsessive alchohol usage, dipression, loneleness, etc…

We should live behind egocentric “ME” buble. And start to live the LIFE OF WORSHIP. You should

Romans 12:1

…present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

CONCLUSION

Our Love for God is not something mystical. It’s not about isolation, and rejection of this world.

God wants us to love and serve to our families. To our church. To this world.

And as we do so, He wiil transofrm our way of thinking by the renewal of our mind. Then we will learn to know God’s will for us, which is good and pleasing and perfect.