What does it mean to be transformed?

·         Welcome:

o   What is theme of Snowcamp?: The Story: How it all began and how it will never end.

o   What did we talk about on Friday night?/Four questions asked?:

o   What did we talk about Saturday morning?

§  What is one characteristic you remember?

Story about China:

            Han dynasty vs Mai Ling: divers

Story about Armagedon:

            Bruce Willis and Ben Aflec

Story about Tale of Two Cities:

            Takes place in Paris and London and is set in the years of the French Revolution. The plot is complex but it reaches a never-to-be-forgotten climax when Sydney Carton, the dishonorable character in the story, substitutes himself for his friend Charles Darney, who is being held for execution. Darney, who has been condemned to die, goes free, and Carton goes to the scaffold for him, saying, “It is a far, far better thing I do, than I have ever done; it is a far far better rest I go to, than I have ever known.”

Story of Jesus

What do all of these stories have in common? What is the common theme? Sacrifice.

Tonight, we are going to talk about sacrifice. If you are taking notes the title of tonight’s talk will be, “Roadblocks: Transformed NOT Conformed.” If you have a Bible, please open to Romans 12:1-2, Romans 12:1-2.

Read Romans 12:1-2

Point One: The Mercies of God

Paul begins Romans 12, with a therefore, any time you see a therefore in the Bible you should always ask what’s it there for. Romans 12 Paul wants to remind his readers and us of everything he has talked about in the first eleven chapters of Romans. For eleven chapters, Paul has declared God’s mercy to you and me. The mercy of his unconditional election, of his justifying grace, of his sanctifying Spirit, of his fatherly adoption, and of his providential love that works all things for the good of those who love him – mercy after mercy God has shown us. None of them are deserved. In fact, all we have ever deserved is God’s just condemnation and death. But God has given us what we do not deserve – mercy. Now here, in chapter 12, Paul makes an appeal based upon God’s mercies to us in Christ.

And if we didn’t already know the Bible’s story, could we ever utter God’s name and mercy in the same breath? His execution of justice is expected; his mercy is not. He is perfectly righteous and just, and warned man that the wages of sin is eternal death. His condemnation of sinful man is all that we have any right to expect. But from the third chapter of Genesis onward, God extends his mercy to sinners. He should have killed Adam for eating the fruit but He extended mercy, Noah should have been destroyed in the flood along with everyone else but God extended mercy to Noah, David should have been killed for sleeping with Bathsheba but God extended mercy. Christ should have never appeared to Saul and saved him and used him a former murder to write over half of the New Testament. Let me ask you a question, how many lies have you told, did you know God should have killed you for just telling one, how many times have you looked with lust upon a woman, how many times have you talked back to your parents, put God first? God should have killed you for each offense but He extends mercy.

And his mercy is all the more remarkable because God does what no man can do. A king or president may commute the sentence of a man condemned to die; he can reduce it to life in prison. That would be mercy. But once a man is dead, he is beyond hope of human mercy. After all, who of us can grant life to the dead? But granting life to the dead is the very essence of God’s mercy – we who were dead in trespasses and sin are made alive in Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:1,4-5). In Christ, men and women become alive to God, both now and forever. Mercy is God’s sovereign granting of life to the dead. 

Think for just a minute about the mercies which God has extended to you. You were born a sinner yet in God’s mercy He placed you in a home with Christian parents. Did you know you could have been born in the middle east into a home that had no access to the Gospel? He orchestrated events so some of you would come to know Him as Savior, Lord, and friend. He brought you to Snow Camp. Evidence enough that God loves you.

Point Two: We are to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice

According to biblical law, priests took a sacrificial lamb without spot or blemish, which represented the moral purity of the victim. Then they laid their hands on the lamb, confessing the sins of God’s people. By that act, guilt was transferred from the people to the lamb. The lamb was killed, the morally innocent in the place of the unrighteous. All of this pointed God’s people to the coming of his Son, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). Jesus dies, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might reconcile us to God. He bears our guilt, and removes our shame. In Christ, God’s mercy comes to us.

Sin brings guilt, and with guilt comes fear and shame. In the sacrifice of Christ, our guilt is removed, and along with it our fear and shame. In response to God’s mercy in Christ, we offer ourselves, all that we are, to God in gratitude. “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a…sacrifice.” With the death of Christ, all sacrifices that took the life of a victim came to an end. Free from guilt, fear, and shame, we present ourselves as sacrifices, alive to God.

We do not present our bodies as a sacrifice for our salvation, remember your salvation is complete in Christ.

Story of Joe and Marianna sacrificing frogs to atone for sins.

We present our bodies to God because it makes sense. Look at what Paul says at the end of verse 11, “this is your reasonable worship.” Paul is saying that when we examine all that God has done for us in Christ it just makes sense to present are bodies as a living sacrifice. Dr. Schreiner says, “Since God has been so merciful, failure to dedicate one’s life to him is the height of folly and irrationality.” And if I could go one better, “Because of all that God has done for us in Christ failure to present your body as a sacrifice is STUPID.” What does this look like?

Point three: Transforming NOT Conforming:

“Do not be conformed to this world.” Here “world” means the world in opposition to God, in rebellion against his sovereign rule. The world seeks to shape us according to its own pattern of defiant ungodliness. Too often we think conformity to the world means gross immorality or out of control materialism or blatant profanity. To limit conformity to the world to scandalous behavior is not only wrong but also spiritually dangerous. A person can be quite moral, admirably generous, and impeccably courteous, and still be conformed to this world. Why? Because his thinking and his decisions and his lifestyle are all conducted without reference to God or his glory. Life is lived without saving faith in God’s Redeemer, Jesus Christ. The world wants to conform us to its image – a world without the holy God revealed in scripture and savingly known only through his Son, Jesus Christ. Paul knows that the mind is the great battleground where victory is won or lost. Our minds – rebellious and unruly and poorly disciplined – must be brought into conformity to God’s will.

Ways we are conformed to this world:

Friends:

            Who do you hang out with? Do you spend the majority of your time with individuals who don’t know Christ? How much time do you spend with friends in youth group? Did you know that the people you hang around influence you and conform you?

Women:

            How do you treat women? The World tells you that they are nothing more than objects, take what you want and move on. Did you know that women are God’s children? How are you treating them? Do you open doors? Do you allow them to go first in line? Etc.

Lust:

            Struggling with porn, or masturbation. Talk to us, get X3 Watch or Open DNS to block sites. Maybe there is someone in here struggling with same-sex attraction, please come and talk with us. We will not judge you. Satan wants to trick you into shame and not sharing. Don’t listen please come and share with us.

Entertainment:

            How many hours do you spend on-line? Checking Facebook, Twitter, ESPN, Hulu? How many hours do you spend playing Angry Birds, Call of Duty, etc? How many hours do you spend watching movies and wasting your life? The world wants to conform you into taking everything in. We have NETFLIX where you can watch movie after movie after movie and never leave your house. I’m not against entertainment don’t hear that. (STORY about Star Wars Vs. Nick Mecimore).

The world desires for us to be conformed BUT God wants you and I to be transformed. Look at verse 2. The word transformed is in the passive tense meaning it must be done to us by an outside force, and that outside force is God.  So how are we to be transformed? We are transformed by God through the Holy Spirit inside of us. The Holy Spirit works through the Bible and the local church, therefore, in order to be transformed we must be reading are Bible and involved in the local church.

Reading the Bible:

The best way that God can change your mind is with His Word. It takes reading God's Word. It takes meditating (or thinking on God's Word.) It takes memorizing God's Word.

This verse of Scripture is itself a very good verse to memorize.

Therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God. 
(Romans 12:1-2 HCSB)

Sustaining and Deepening Bible Reading

Example football practices (August (Two a days; deepening), vs October (Sustaining); Example Julia’s basketball practice.

In the Bible, reading through a chapter, sustaining and deepening Sunday morning, Wednesday night, SnowCamp, etc.

Church Involvement:

Surround yourself with other believers. Learn about God and His word. You are able to be encouraged that you are not the only one trying to run hard after God. You will be encouraged that you are not the only one with the same struggles and you can find help and accountability. You will be motivated to seek after God.

Conclusion,

In conclusion, we have talked about the mercies of God. We have examined all that God has done for us in Christ and because of that we are to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice. We are to offer our entire bodies every second, of every minute, of every hour, of every day, of every week, of every month, of every year. We are also to no longer be conformed to this world and it’s attitude concerning who we hang out with, entertainment, and women; but we should be transformed through daily times of reading the Bible and weekly being/becoming involved in our churches. I close with just an exhortation. It’s reasonable to give everything you have for God because in the end only that which is spiritual will last. “Only one life, twill soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last.” One day this building will be destroyed, one day your home where you live will be gone, the trees outside the window will be gone and the snow hill will one day have no more tubers on it, only what was done here, spiritually will last forever. Jim Elliot wrote as a young missionary, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” He gave his life to God in what he judged to be the most reasonable service, and he gained a spiritual inheritance forever. Another missionary, William Borden, came from a wealthy priviledged family, was a graduate of Yale University, and had the promise of a lucrative career before him. But he felt a call to serve God as a missionary in China and left for the field even though his family and friends thought him a fool for going. After a short time away and even before he reached China, Borden contracted a fatal disease and died. He had given up everything to follow Jesus. He died possessing nothing in this world. But Borden of Yale did not regret it. We know this because he left a note as he lay dying that said, “No reserve, no retreat, and no regrets.”

Let’s pray.