Streetsville United Church Sunday, September 11, 2011 Rev. John Tapscott NOT CONFORMED...BUT TRANSFORMED

Transcription

1 Romans 12:1,2 1 Streetsville United Church Sunday, September 11, 2011 Rev. John Tapscott NOT CONFORMED...BUT TRANSFORMED A few summers ago a For Sale sign appeared at the corner of our church property at Barry and Queen Streets. Actually the sign had an arrow pointing toward a house for sale on Barry Street. But that arrow was not very visible and it looked as if the church was for sale. People in the community and the church said to me, What s going on? Why is the church for sale? Some elders came to me and said, We re sorry we missed the last Board meeting, John. We would have voted against that. I said, Anything can happen when you miss a Board meeting. Seriously, I had to tell people, No, our church is not for sale - look at the sign more closely. But sometimes churches do go up for sale. They are torn down to make way for office buildings or condos. Sometimes churches are incorporated into the new structure, but who would know? And some new churches these days do not look like churches. Nothing makes them stand out from the surrounding buildings. They don t even have a cross on them. I still believe that a church should look like a church. A church building itself can be a witness to the reality of God and eternity, even to those who never go into the church. But my concern today is not with church buildings. It s with the people inside the church, members of the Body of Christ, you and me, to whom Paul writes in Romans 12:2. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God - what is good and acceptable and perfect. My concern is that many Christians have become quite indistinguishable from the world around us. Rather than influencing the world we are being influenced by the world. Studies show that Christians are pretty much in synch with what

2 2 recent opinion polls show on any given topic. Our lifestyles and attitudes mirror what the world thinks and how it lives. Jesus said, You will be my witnesses, but we have taken on the world s values to such a degree that our witness is compromised and even silenced. And it s a temptation for every generation of believers. So Paul wrote this for the early Christians in Rome and for every generation, Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds. Here s how Eugene Peterson puts the first part of that verse in The Message : Don t become so welladjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Don t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds. Now it s interesting isn t it, that Paul says that we are to transformed by the renewing of our minds. You might think he would say that we should be transformed by the renewing of our hearts. But remember Paul is talking to people who are already Christians. If he was presenting the Gospel to new comers, he might say, Let your heart be renewed and transformed by receiving Christ as your Saviour. But he was writing to the church, to people who have already done that. Paul is speaking to us who have put our trust in Christ. We already have a new heart, a forgiven heart within us, a heart covered by the blood of Christ. Our eternal destiny has been changed. We have been set on the road to heaven through our faith in the One who loves us and gave himself for us. When God looks at us he sees a transformed heart, because God has given this gift to all who trust in Christ. But as believers we now go on to the next step - the transformation and renewing of our minds, the way we think. And when are minds are transformed and renewed, then our actions follow, and we begin to influence the world around us for nd God s sake. We become, as Paul writes in 2 Corinthians, a letter from Christ...written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the

3 3 living God. Do not be conformed to the this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds... Now it s God who does this transforming and renewing work in us. It s God who keeps us from being totally conformed to this world. It s God who transforms and renews our minds so that we begin to think like Jesus. By the power of the Holy Spirit God helps us to discern God s good and acceptable and perfect will, will, that is, what God wants us to do. The challenge for us is to give God the time and the space to work in us. There are three means by which God transforms us by the renewing of our minds. The first way is through the Bible. In the wilderness, the evil one tried to shape and form Jesus with world s values. And to be honest, they were very attractive. But Jesus rejected each temptation by quoting Holy Scripture. On his earthly journey, Jesus was not conformed to the world, because his mind was transformed and renewed daily by God s word. So he was able to know and to do God s perfect will. The main reason Christians conform so easily to the world is because we are not in God s word on a regular basis. The world constantly gives us its wisdom about sex and money and marriage and relationships and the way of salvation and everything else. Quite frankly most of this teaching comes from Hollywood and it s very pervasive and it s very easy for us to be moulded by it. Sometimes we even assume that the world s values are Kingdom values. But God uses Scripture to keep us from wholesale acceptance of the world s wisdom. In fact, what the Bible teaches is so different that people are quite shocked when they really get into Scripture. That s why I read right to the end of Romans 12, just so that we are reminded again how different Kingdom values are from the world s values. Here is the mind of Christ. Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse...live in harmony with one another...do not be proud...be willing to associate with people of low position...do not repay anyone evil for evil...do not take revenge...if your

4 4 enemy is hungry feed him; if he is thirsty give him something to drink...do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good... I urge you if you can to join a small group which studies the Bible. But if you can t do that, you can still spend 10 minutes a day in the word of God. In fact, along with our monthly Bible readings, I am inviting you to create a Life Lessons Journal, which will help you to know God s will and apply his word. Through Scripture God helps us to resist the pressure we feel to conform to the world. Through his word God renews and transforms our minds so we start to think and act like Jesus. And as our pattern of thinking is changed our actions follow. That doesn t mean that our life will always be easy, but our life will be blessed and become lot more interesting. We will begin to stand out as Jesus witnesses in the world. Not conformed...but transformed... A second way God transforms and renews our minds is through worship. Neglecting the house of God is a big reason why many Christians reflect the world s values rather than Kingdom values. We get so transformed by the world that our witness is compromised and we even begin to reflect the world s despair and cynicism. Of course, we live in the world, and we must, but we need that time apart every week in God s presence. It is so precious. Let s remember the purpose of worship. It is to meet God and honour him in spirit and in truth. We come here to present ourselves as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. We come here to seek God, to learn what he wants us to do and to be empowered to do it. And the Lord is found here by all who seek him. Wherever two or three are gathered in my Name there I am there in their midst. Here in weekly worship we give God has a chance to transform us by the renewing of our minds. Here we are reminded that we are not earth-bound creatures, but children of God and heirs of immortality. Here we are lifted beyond the things of this world into the light and peace of God s presence. Here we are given a new

5 5 and much better perspective than the world gives. Here we are reminded that God is in control of his creation, that Christ is risen and victorious and coming again, and that we are not alone as we face the challenges of living. Here our minds are transformed by the truth and the promises of God s word. Here our spirits are lifted by the melodies and words of Godly music. Here we are strengthened by the presence of God and encouraged by the presence of one another. Here our thinking is shaped by the values of God s Kingdom and not by the fallen world around us. And it s God s work. Here God is transforming us by the renewing of our minds. And it s cumulative. It can t be just one Sunday here and there. Let s give God that steady opportunity to do his work in us, so that we are not conformed...but transformed... One more way God transforms and renews our minds is through prayer. I am so encouraged that ten or so people meet in the library each Sunday following worship to pray. It s a most welcome and positive development. Prayer is so vital to the church and to individual Christians. And our prayers are especially powerful when we pray together. In fact, Jesus makes this incredible promise, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. When we pray individually or together we open up a channel in which God can come and do his transforming and renewing work in us. Frequent contact with God, at least once or twice a day keeps us from becoming conformed to the world. Through prayer God works to transform and renew our minds, so that we can more know and prove God s will. And with the challenges we face as a congregation, we need to be in prayer, all of us, so that we may know discern God s will and how each one of us can be part of it. You see, in prayer it s not just what we say to God that s important but even more what he says to us. So part of our prayer could be the words of the boy Samuel, Speak Lord, for your servant is listening...speak to me Lord, for your servant is listening. Now, God may not answer

6 6 you directly as you pray, but eventually his answer will come. You may be in the grocery store, or in the barber s chair, or walking down the street, or at the gym, and a thought comes to your mind, and you just know it s an answer to prayer. God s whispers to us so that we may discern his will, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Scripture, worship and prayer - all those are the means by which God transforms us by the renewing of our minds. And know this - that while God is making us different, he is not making us weird. God is working in us to make us like Jesus, in character and in thought, in action. And honestly, why should not want that? For that is God s great purpose and goal for our lives - to become like Jesus. Therefore do not be conformed...but be transformed...