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Eastside Church Sermons
These are the sermons of Eastside Church in Madison, WI. We live in a broken world - everyone feels it. We believe we were made to have lasting peace with ourselves, each other, and God. Because of who Jesus is and what he has done, we don’t have to experience the hardships (or joys) of this life alone. We exist to be a church made up of people who love, live like, and speak of Jesus, locally and globally, as the Spirit leads.
Eastside Church Sermons
Love Live Speak by Houston Tucker
Can living for a cause be more challenging than dying for it? Join us in this compelling episode as we delve into Paul's radical concept of "living sacrifices" and its implications for modern Christian life. We'll unpack what it means to offer our daily actions as a gift to God, drawing inspiration from biblical stories and even cultural references like the musical Hamilton. This isn't just about lofty ideals; it's about making your everyday life a meaningful act of worship.
We promise you'll gain fresh insights into the transformative power of the Holy Spirit versus the conforming pressures of our culture. How do we renew our minds to align with what is pleasing to God, rather than what culture dictates? We'll explore Paul's crucial command to "be transformed" and discuss the role of community worship in reinforcing our connection to God and each other. Our gatherings aren't mere rituals; they're vital lifelines that help us stand firm in our faith and mission.
Finally, discover how our mission statement to love, live like, and speak of Jesus can be practically applied both locally and globally. As we preview our nine-week series on Romans 8 and look ahead to combining Advent with the theme of Sabbath, we'll emphasize the importance of living out our mission in unity and faith. Whether through our MCs and DNA groups or through personal acts of worship, this episode challenges you to see yourself as already acceptable to God through Jesus and to live out that truth daily. Join us for an episode rich in spiritual wisdom and practical guidance.
I did not do a mic check this morning and I just feel like I need to start by telling you all that that's me, it's on me. I'm also just stalling so that Carl can get the levels and make up for my lack of mic checking. Okay, good morning guys. Man, I know a preacher always says this kind of stuff. I think I always say this kind of stuff. I'm really glad oh, my voice cracked. I'm really glad to be here. I'm really glad to be here this morning with you guys. I'm really glad you guys are here and you know what. I'm really glad to talk about our mission statement this morning. What I want to do before we jump into that, I want to talk about where we're going for the rest of the year sermon-wise. So first of all, this week and next week we're preaching on our mission statement and then our vision statement. So this week I'm preaching on the statement you see in the picture here that we exist to love, live like and speak of Jesus, locally and globally, as the Spirit leads. Next week, ben is going to preach our vision statement, which is man, I know it, but it's like I get on the spot and I feel like I don't know it. We want every person to have an encounter with Jesus in Dane County and I butchered it. I'm sorry. I work here. I should Thank you. Ben will tell you what it actually is. No, so two-part vision series kind of launch the ministry year and then we're going to do I'm really excited about this a nine-week series on Romans 8.
Speaker 1:Just chapter 8. Now, look, some of you maybe thought that we have gone slowly in the past. Buckle up or really whatever the opposite of buckle up is Like whenever you're going too slow. Settle in. Maybe Settle in. It's going to be great. Nine weeks on Romans 8. And the reason we're doing this is because I want us to ask the question what does it mean? What does it actually mean to live the life in the Spirit? And as Christians, we say this stuff all the time. Right, we say these kinds of things. What does it actually mean? And Romans 8 is one of the clearest examples of that. So we're going to go very carefully and very slowly through that chapter. I think it's going to be really sweet. And then after that it's Advent. Guys, we are literally like so what? Two weeks or one week and then nine weeks, ten weeks and then four. We're 14 weeks from Christmas, kids. That's good news. Right, 14 weeks from Christmas. My math could be wrong, but we're coming up on Advent.
Speaker 1:After the Roman series, we'll do Advent, and this year, you know, we've been doing this daily practice. We've been talking about the spiritual disciplines, and for this we call it trimester. This third of the year we're focusing on Sabbath, and so our Advent series is going to combine Advent and the conversation of Sabbath, because what we see when we look through the Bible, when we look through the Old Testament and we look through Jesus' first coming and Jesus' ministry, is we see that one of the main things that he does is he brings the promised rest, and so that's what we're going to talk about. We're going to talk about how, in this life, we are waiting for Jesus to come back to give us that ultimate rest, and so that's what we're going to do. We're going to look back at the ancient Israelites waiting for Jesus to come, and then we're going to look forward, waiting for him to come again, and we're going to talk about that through the lens of Sabbath. I think it's going to be really sweet, but today, like I said, we're talking about mission. We're talking about our mission statement and again, you can see it there we exist. Or sometimes, I think we say we seek to be people who love, live like and speak of Jesus locally and globally, as the Spirit leads. And here is something that I hope is apparent is that what we're saying with this is essentially we want to be Christians, right, like. Our mission is to go out and Christian, and so our mission statement, I think, to that end is hopefully obvious, and I think a good mission statement should be obvious.
Speaker 1:You know, maybe some of the entrepreneurs in the room disagree with me, and that's fine, but I've got strong opinions. I think mission statements should be obvious to what you do. And one of the things that I should be obvious to what you do, and one of the things that I hate, really, really grinds my gears is when mission statements feel really, really disconnected from the organization. And I worked for Starbucks for five years and some people love this. I did not. I hated all of that rhetoric that came down from corporate, you know, and it's like when you're managing a store, it's like I have to be the one who's taking that in and like I'm supposed to give it to my people too, and it's like ugh and I'm just also a little crotchety, but it's like, don't mind that, but I just don't like that. And here's why Because Starbucks' mission statement is not make coffee and make money and I think it should be, because that's what they're trying to do, right, like that's what we know.
Speaker 1:At the end of the day, they're trying to make coffee and make money, but no, their mission statement is this and it changes. It changes all the time too, with every cup, with every conversation, with every community. We nurture the limitless possibilities of human connection, and my notes say roll eyes, no, and someone works really hard on that and they care a lot about it and that's wonderful for them. But at the end of the day, what are they saying? What are they really saying? They're saying that their mission is to sell coffee and to have a good enough meeting space that people can get together and hope that that changes the world. Okay, I hope they do too. I'm not optimistic, but I hope so too. I would be great, it'd be great if that works out for them.
Speaker 1:But you know, when I worked there, I would constantly hear the mission statement over and over and always. I would constantly hear like the mission statement over and over and always. Always, it would come back to. This is our mission statement, and why is that? It's because in any organization, you need to make sure you're talking about your mission all the time. You need to keep coming back to this. At Starbucks, they were trying to convince us that we were part of something bigger.
Speaker 1:But either way, when we talk about a mission statement, we have to keep coming back to it, because we have to keep reminding ourselves what are we doing here? What are we doing here? What are we doing here? We have to keep coming back to this question. It's important, it's really important. We have to keep coming back to this question. It's important, it's really important. We have to keep reminding ourselves, and the same is true of organizations like us. Same is true of churches, same is true of Eastside Church. We have to keep coming back to this mission statement.
Speaker 1:We have to keep saying that we want to love, live like and speak of Jesus. Why? Because that is really important. This is probably the most important thing that we will do in our lives is love, live like and speak of Jesus, and so we have to keep going back to it, keep reminding ourselves. So it's worth talking about. So we're talking about again and again, and again and again and again. It's worth it, and so that's what we're going to do today.
Speaker 1:We're going to talk about this mission statement. We're going to talk about this thing because this is our life. This is our life. To love, live like and speak of Jesus is our life as Christians. And so what I'm going to do today is I'm going to unpack this passage in Romans 12, 1 and 2. And what I want us to see is that this life that we're talking about, that we keep coming back and reminding ourselves about this Christian life is essentially a life of worship and a life of transformation. So, again, to love, live like and speak of Jesus means living a life of worship and transformation. So we're going to look at this in three parts. You can see the outline in your bulletin. We're going to look at the life of worship, we're going to look at the life of transformation, and then we're going to consider it all in view of God's mercies.
Speaker 1:First, let's pray. In view of God's mercies, first, let's pray. God, I'm just, yeah, really thankful to be here. I thank you for this place. I thank you for the school that's opened their doors to us. I thank you for big fans blowing air around and open windows doing their best to cool a hot building. And, god, I just thank you for everyone here. Man, I just pray, god, that as we open your word and try to chew on your word, I pray that you'll open our minds and our eyes and our ears and our hearts to your word. I pray that you'll meet us today. I pray that you'll change us today. I pray that you'll change us and I pray that the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts will be glorifying to you, lord, our God and Redeemer, in Jesus' name, amen, amen, all right, first thing I want us to see is that the Christian life is a life of worship. What do I mean by that?
Speaker 1:Well, let's look at the first verse of our passage, romans 12.1. He says I appeal to you, therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. And so there's a lot going on here. I want to draw your attention to two parts of this verse first. First look at the part where Paul says present your bodies as a living sacrifice. And then, second, we're going to talk about what that spiritual worship means. And here's the thing that I want us to know right off the bat is that this verse reads maybe kind of simple for us, but there's a lot of wild stuff happening here in the Greek. There's a lot of really strange combinations of words, strange phrases, strange ideas, and so we're going to unpack that.
Speaker 1:And the first thing is this living sacrifices. This is not like an easy thing to translate because these words do not go together. If you look through like the entirety of ancient Greek language, you would almost never and I don't know this definitively, but maybe never except for here see this combination of words of living sacrifice. And that's because it is kind of an oxymoron. I mean, if you think about what a sacrifice is, in almost every situation a sacrifice is something dying, something giving up and something dying, and so it's really strange to say offer ourselves as a living sacrifice, and in fact, for some of us, like the weird thing here is offer yourselves as a sacrifice. That in the ancient world, this is like oh sure, yeah, this is a totally understandable concept. Maybe I don't want to do it, but like I understand what you're saying. So, like Paul saying, offer yourselves as a sacrifice would be nothing.
Speaker 1:But when Paul says, offer yourself as a living sacrifice, it's like what are you saying, paul? What are you getting at here? And so what does it mean? Well, I think if in every other instance, in every other situation of sacrifice, the thing being offered is the death, then that must mean that, in our case, the thing that offered is the death. Then that must mean that, in our case, the thing that we're offering is the life. The life is a gift to God, and here's what I mean by that. What Paul is getting at here is not this ancient idea of sacrifice being one life for another, of trading death for my life, like if you think about a sacrifice of atonement. That's not what Paul's getting at. What he's talking about is the act of giving God my life while I'm living it, and we get glimpses of this, we get pictures of this idea in different places, like in the Old Testament.
Speaker 1:There's the story of the prophet Samuel and Samuel, his mom her name was Hannah and she was married, and her husband had two wives and it was a very difficult relationship and her husband's other wife had many children. She had no children, she was barren, she was really destroyed by it. And there's a scene, the very beginning of Samuel, where she goes to the kind of pre-temple and she goes to the altar and she's just like, weeping, she's crying, she's praying God, please, please, give me a child. And she says, God, if you give me a child, I will give him right back to you. And then he does, and after that she gets pregnant and she has a child, she has a boy, and she names him Samuel. And then, as soon as Samuel is weaned, she takes him to the temple and gives him to the priests, and he's raised by the priests and he lives surrounded by the priesthood and surrounded by living near the altar, and eventually becomes a prophet, like one of the greatest prophets in Israel's history. And so what we see here, the picture here, is that Hannah is so overjoyed to have a child. She's finally been given the thing that she wants more than anything else in this world, and so she gives it immediately back to God as a thank you. But Samuel doesn't die. No, samuel lives and he lives for God.
Speaker 1:This is what Paul's talking about. This is what Paul's talking about. This is what Paul's calling us to. It means, as Christians, that means that we have to view our lives very differently from the way the rest of the world does, like we have to consider our lives differently than everyone else, Because the idea is that we are constantly offering them back to God. And look, here's what I want to make sure we understand. This is not like being willing to die for God. That's an idea in the Bible and that's in different places, but that's not what we're talking about here. We're not talking about being willing to die for God. We're talking about being willing to live for God.
Speaker 1:Is there any fans of Hamilton out here? Okay, two of us. Everyone else, buckle up. There's this incredible line. There's this incredible line when George Washington is talking to Alexander Hamilton. They're going back and forth. Hamilton wants status, he wants glory, he wants honor, and so he says, essentially, I am ready to die for our nation.
Speaker 1:And George Washington says one of the most powerful lines in all of human history. I think he says dying is easy, young man, living is harder. Some of you just like who cares right now, but like three of us in this room, chills, right? No, but this is the idea. This is the picture. This is the picture. It's just like what George Washington said to Hamilton dying is easy, but living is harder.
Speaker 1:And this is the gift we're giving to God. Our lives are the offering to God. And so what does that mean? That means that in everything we do, everything we do, we are asking the question thing we do, we are asking the question does this increase the value, does this improve the quality? Let's say that Does this improve the quality of my gift to God or does it worsen it? Does this make this a better gift or worse, or worse? And that is a big, almost ethereal question. It's hard, but this is our work. This is our work, and I use that word work intentionally, because that's what Paul says. If you look at the end of the first verse, paul says offer yourselves a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Here's the deal.
Speaker 1:Again, this is difficult, very difficult phrase to translate. That's because, for one, the word for worship here is not the one that we usually think of Like. When we think of worship, typically we think of like, maybe, singing, or like praise, or even just this general idea of adoration, but that's not what Paul is saying. The specific word that's translated as worship, is the word for the thing people do in the temple, the work, and in fact the best translation for this would be temple work. And so that word covers a lot of things. It covers praise, it covers adoration, yes, and it covers other things. It covers offering sacrifices, it covers prayers, it covers that thing that when the people have a question or they don't know what to do with their lives, they would come to the temple and they would ask God for direction and the priest would say this is what I think the Lord is saying to you. That is the kind of work we're talking about. And, man, it also covers cleaning and it covers maintenance and it covers tending to the grounds. You get what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:When Paul says this is your worship, he's saying this is your work and it's everything. It's everything. It describes everything that we do for God. And then there's that word spiritual, which again is tricky, because again the literal word here is the word logiken, and if you hear it, this is the word that we get logical from. And if you hear it, this is the word that we get logical from, and what Paul is literally saying here is this is your logical work. And the problem is when we hear that the translators have done us a great favor in translating this way. The problem is that when we hear that I especially, I hear something like this is your rational service, this is your logical work, and it's the sense that we can hear that this is like a mental thing right, that this is some rational thing, something that we're doing in our minds. That's not what Paul's saying. What Paul is getting at here is not so much rational, logical and maybe not even so much spiritual. What he's getting at here is intentional.
Speaker 1:One scholar I read described it as intelligent and deliberate. Scholar I read described it as intelligent and deliberate. And the picture is that we are going to the temple, we are going into the presence of God and we are offering this sacrifice deliberately. And here's why that's significant, because if you think about any other instance of sacrificing let's say I take this lamb and I'm going to the temple to offer a sacrifice this lamb is not really a willing participant in this interaction. Is he Like? He doesn't like what's going to happen, and nor should he. I mean, this is going to be bad for him. He is not a willing participant. But what is God asking us to do. He's asking us to be intelligent, deliberate, willing participants in this sacrifice. He's calling us to choose this and choose it over and over and over, and choose it over and over and over.
Speaker 1:And you know, if you've been around for a minute, you know that that means something like waking up every morning and saying again okay, this is yours God. Or for me, like in the minutes before coming up to preach, saying, okay, this is yours God. It is constant, it is deliberate, it is deliberate. I want to say just really briefly, before we move on to the next point, what I think this like practically looks like for us. And again, I think that when we hear this language, I know I go in a lot of different directions.
Speaker 1:I think when we hear this language, maybe we hear something like me saying man, I'm willing to die for you, jesus. And again, that's good, that's a part of this, the Christian life. But that's good Like that's, that's a part of this, the Christian life, but that's not this. Or I mean some of us, maybe some of us hear something like okay, I have to offer myself as a sacrifice. That means I have to go into vocational ministry, I have to be a missionary or I have to do this Again. That's not what we're talking about.
Speaker 1:I think essentially what it means is that we're just constantly trying to make our lives things that are just more and more pleasing to God. And Paul says to offer yourselves as acceptable sacrifices. And man, I wonder how many of us, when I say that, hear me say something like, hey, work really hard, try really hard so that you will be acceptable to God. And it's like I get this picture in my mind of, like man, I'm going to work my tail off, I'm going to do everything I can so that I can just barely meet neutral with God. But, man, that like baggage that we have with acceptable, the Bible doesn't have that baggage. No, in fact, this word that's translated as acceptable is just as often translated as pleasing, delightful. And the picture here is not hey, work hard so that you can breach neutrality with God, work hard so that you're not distasteful to God. The picture here is a craftsman, someone who wants to work hard to make something beautiful. Why? Because they want to give it to somebody that they love. And man the perfect example of this in my mind I just experienced last night.
Speaker 1:This weekend, kinsey and Nikki are both out of town. I'm both solo parent. One of us has a much harder job than the other. Five to one and Ben invited Stella and me over last night for dinner. It was super sweet and, man, he pulled out all the stops. He hates that I'm doing this right now. I'm sure he pulled out all the stops last night, like if Stella and I came over and he gave us sandwiches and chips, I would be delighted, like this would be so wonderful, right. But I didn't, he didn't. We came over and he made like ribs and carrots and mac and cheese and cornbread, there was great beer, there was cookies, I mean, it was all the stops, right.
Speaker 1:And the question is, why? Why did Ben do this? It's not because Ben is hoping in some way to like get neutral with me, right. And it's not because he just wants me to like like him or something right. It's because Ben loves this, first of all, and he loves me and he loves Stella and he loves his kids and he works so hard, I think, like all afternoon, on this meal because it was a joy to me, it was a joy to him and he was happy to do it.
Speaker 1:Friends, this is the picture. This is what Paul is saying. It's not like, hey, work so hard so that God will accept you. It's like, no, what he's saying here is he's like, hey, this thing that you're going to give God, this gift man, make it special, make it something that gives him delight, something that brings him joy. Why? Because I need to, in order to be okay. No, no, because I love him and I want to do this. I just want to tell him thank you, parents. Is there anything in this world better than when your kid comes to you and just like, does something they know you'll love, just because they know you'll love it? I'm gonna get emotional here. It's like there's nothing better, there's nothing better in this world. That's what the lord wants from us. That's what paul is calling us to give, these beautiful gifts, and that, I think, brings us really nicely to my second point Beautiful gifts.
Speaker 1:And that, I think, brings us really nicely to my second point this idea that the Christian life is not just a life of worship but a life of transformation. And I think that should make sense. That should make sense because we just talked about offering my life as something pleasing to God, and so it makes sense that, if we want to make our lives more pleasing to God, that this would involve transformation. Right, that's what Paul is getting at here in the second verse of our passage. Look at it with me, verse 12, 2. Look at it with me, verse 12, 2. He says Don't 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.
Speaker 1:Look, for a long time I think, unfortunately, maybe most of my Christian life I have always thought that this was just two separate things, that Paul was saying, that he just kind of jammed together. You know, like sometimes, like you're giving instructions, you're like this, oh and this one and this one. I always thought this was like just jammed together, and it was probably not until I started studying for this sermon that I realized that these things are absolutely together. And here's what I mean At the end of verse two, do you see what Paul says? Paul says he says be transformed so that you can know what is good and acceptable and perfect. Do you get it Like Paul is saying you need to be transformed why? Well, do you remember what we just said about offering pleasing, acceptable gifts to God. Okay, you don't know what that is. We don't know what is pleasing and good and acceptable. We don't know these things. It's the same word. It's literally the same Greek word as above.
Speaker 1:When Paul says be transformed. This is not two separate ideas. He's saying, hey, this life of worship is so important, you need to be transformed to do it. We are offering our lives as pleasing sacrifices. We have got to know what is pleasing. And maybe that feels like one of those duh statements, but I think the truth is it's the opposite of duh, it's anti-duh. We have to recognize that we inherently don't know what is pleasing to God. That's our problem. Our problem is that we don't naturally know what is pleasing to Him, and that's because, largely, we're products of our environment. I mean, that's what Paul is talking about here.
Speaker 1:At the beginning of this verse Paul says don't be conformed to this world. You know we would say if Paul was writing in 21st century English, he would say don't be conformed by this culture. And in fact that word for conform this is the word that we get schematic from Don't fit the schematic of this culture and the idea is that the culture, culture, is like this big machine. What it takes in is people, and then something or someone pulls a lever and presses the people and they come out fitting a specific mold right. It's like this machine that is meant to shape us into something. And look, for some of us that language sounds like conspiracy theory, a little tinfoil, hat-ish, but it's just because I use really dramatic language to describe it. The truth is that culture is absolutely a shaping machine, and here's why let's think about it.
Speaker 1:What is a culture except a group of people who share ideas and thoughts about what people are supposed to look like? Right? Every culture, every culture defines for itself, sometimes intentionally or consciously, sometimes not. Every culture defines what is good and what is evil. Every culture defines what is noble and what is ignoble. Every culture defines what is valuable, what the responsibilities of the individual are, what the responsibilities of the group are, and, honestly, this language can sound dramatic, mainly because we just don't see it Like, if we are in a culture, this just seems normal.
Speaker 1:And again, that should make sense, right? Because what does culture do except primarily normalize? And so it should make sense that the things around us just look normal. And look, here's the perfect example of that. Have you ever talked to another human? Yes, have you ever had a relationship with somebody in some way? Yes, and what always comes up, especially in marriage? What always comes up? You think that's normal. Maybe this doesn't happen to any of you. It happens to me a lot. You think that's normal. Or someone's saying to me you think that's more normal. In my experience, that's what the first eight years of marriage are about Eight out of eight, and that's what we're experiencing. Hey, you grew up in a culture you had things normalized for you and you don't see what has been normalized for you until you see something alternative. Right, it's like we can't even see it. It's the water around us, the air we breathe.
Speaker 1:That's what Paul's talking about here. That's what Paul is saying Don't be conformed to this culture, don't fit the schematic of this machine that is working. So what's the alternative? Well, the alternative is what Paul says Don't be conformed, be transformed. What does that mean? Great question. No, what he says is be transformed by the renewal of your minds. He's literally renew.
Speaker 1:You need new brains, we need new wiring for these things up here, because this culture and every culture this is not some rag on American culture in particular Culture inherently wires our brains. We need re-new wiring, we need re-wiring. And look, you guys know this, you've been around. We know that this re-wiring is not something that we can just do ourselves. If people could just re-wire their brains like, yeah, there's so many things we would not experience in this world. But we can't, and so we need the Lord, we need the Holy Spirit to transform us All.
Speaker 1:Throughout the Bible, whenever this idea of transformation comes up, it is almost always the Holy Spirit as the key player in this transformation. The Spirit has to transform us. We need him to change us. But here's what I think Whenever I start thinking about this, this transformation process and the work of the Holy Spirit in my life, I always get this picture of the Holy Spirit in the driver's seat and like I'm in the back seat Maybe I'm just in the trunk driver's seat and like I'm in the back seat, maybe I'm just in the trunk, like I'm an unwilling participant he's going and we'll see what happens Like I don't know. I don't think that's fully what Paul's getting at or what the Bible is getting at. And that's because, do you notice, when Paul says this, he says be transformed.
Speaker 1:This is an imperative, it's a command, specifically grammatically, because I know you all love grammar. Grammatically, this is a passive imperative, meaning that we're being told to do something and that thing is allow it to happen. And maybe that feels weird to talk about passive imperatives. Parents, we live in passive imperatives, don't we? Every night, with Stella, when we're getting ready for bed, we are going through the same list of passive imperatives that we do every night Let me brush your teeth, let me change your diaper, let me change your clothes. Right, what does Stella need to do? Get her teeth brushed. And you know, parents, what does Stella always do? She says no, stella, and in fact, she doesn't say the L, so she does like a Spanish. She says it's really cute.
Speaker 1:And, man, more and more I just think like, okay, this is what God's experiencing with me, right, all the time. That's an aside, that's a freebie. And the point is that this thing that we're doing is passive Be transformed. But there's also a command in that Be transformed. And that means that there's something I need to do. There's something that I am doing here. I'm playing a part of this and, look, I'm not doing the most important part. I'm not the one making it happen, I'm not the one whose power is changing, but I've got a part to play here. I've got something, one making it happen. I'm not the one whose power is changing, but I've got a part to play here.
Speaker 1:I've got something that I have to do and I think, at the most fundamental level, it means going back to the one who will change us. I think it means going over and over and over to the Holy Spirit saying show me the ways. I don't measure up. Saying Lord, show me what's broken here. And saying, lord, please fix this, please change this. And here's the deal.
Speaker 1:You've all heard that before. I know I know that you guys know this. You have heard me and Ben and a hundred other people in your life say we need to keep coming back to the Holy Spirit to be transformed. But here's the deal. I want us to think about this. Out of this verse, we have two options presented to us, two options Be conformed or be transformed. That's it. There are two options, and here's a hint One of these will happen by accident and one of these will not. One of these things will happen to us, whether we choose it or not, and one of these things we have to keep choosing. Here's what I mean.
Speaker 1:Like I said earlier, our culture, every culture, will automatically shape us, just by being in it. We are being shaped by it. Friends, this is not a matter of some of us are being shaped and some of us are strong enough. No, we are all being shaped by this. John Mark Comer, this wonderful pastor out of Portland, he said it this way. He said that he described culture like a strong river. We are all in this river and the current will naturally take you somewhere, and so if you decide that the place you want to go is not where the current is taking you, then it is a battle. It is an intentional set of decisions that you have to make, and it's one of those things that, if you are not deciding to go against the current, you are inevitably going along with it, because it's very strong. It's very strong, it does sweep away and, friends, that's a challenge in front of us. That is the thing that we're facing.
Speaker 1:And again, I don't say this to make us all afraid of this culture and what it's going to do. No, we have to understand that we are people surrounded by people, and that will always affect us. It just will inevitably affect us. And so if we want something different than what this culture around us is doing, we have to decide for it. And here's the deal. This is a warning for me as much as anyone else. This is not something that happens by accident, and sometimes we think that we are strong enough or smart enough or spiritual enough or good enough that, even if we're not striving for growth, we're still fine, like, even if I'm not pushing well, I'm at least coasting in the right direction. But, man, I think that image of a river is very true, because the truth is is that if you are coasting at all, it's the wrong direction. That is what we are in, that is it.
Speaker 1:And again, man, don't get me wrong, don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying that success is up to you. That's not what I'm saying here. I'm not saying that the success of your transformation is on you and your shoulders. That's too heavy. I'm not saying that the success of your transformation is on you and your shoulders. That's too heavy, we can't carry that. It's depending on the Spirit. It's depending on the Spirit to change us. What I'm asking is this question are we coming back again and again to him?
Speaker 1:Are we going against the current of our culture, man, our culture that says some really wonderful things, but also says things like you're perfect just the way you are. Instead of you're loved just the way you are. Instead of you're loved just the way you are, our culture says you don't have to do anything, you don't have to change the world around you. You have to change. Instead of the Bible, it says, hey, you don't have to change to be okay, but you do need to change. And these are subtle. These are subtle Again. It's the water we're in, it's the air we're breathing, it's around us all the time, in our culture in particular. We have to be vigilant Again, because I think one of the things that our culture in particular, we have to be vigilant Again, because I think one of the things that our culture is saying is this really weird kind of two-sided statement and maybe you don't hear this, but I hear this all the time is in every situation, you've got two options Either you are bad or everything else around you is bad.
Speaker 1:Either everything around you needs to change or you're garbage and worthless, and I don't understand how both of these things can be true. But, man, I hear that message constantly. It's hard, it's a strong current. We have to be aware, vigilant I like this word. We have to be vigilant Because this life that we have embarked on is a life of saying no, I am okay and I know that I need to change. It's this life of striving to love Jesus more, this life of striving to live like Jesus more, speaking of Jesus more, and this is what we say all the time. It's the life of being transformed, transformed to be like Jesus.
Speaker 1:And as we move towards the end this last point I want to stop and make sure that we are really catching what's going on here, catching the arguably most important thing in this passage, and it is the first few words. It's the first thing that Paul says. If you look at verse one, I appeal to you, therefore, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies to be transformed. I love the way the NIV translates this. I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercies, do this.
Speaker 1:And what we have to understand, guys, what we have to understand, is that the foundation of all of the things that we talked about today, all of these things, is God's mercies and man. For so many of us, this is familiar, but we have to see that what Paul is doing is flipping this whole thing on its head. He's flipping this whole thing on its head Because, think about it we talked about our lives as temple workers like offering sacrifices to God. We talked about this picture. But look, do you understand? Do we understand that what Paul is saying here is that, in view of God's mercies, offer yourself as a sacrifice, friends.
Speaker 1:In every other place in the world, in every other religion, in every other thing, it says the opposite. It says offer yourself as a sacrifice in hopes of getting God's mercies, friends. We say that we offer ourselves as sacrifices, not for God's mercies, but because of them. We constantly strive to love and live like and speak of Jesus, not because we have to be acceptable, but because we are acceptable, not in the hopes that one day he'll be pleased with us, but because he is pleased with us. Friends, we have this privilege of being living sacrifices because 2,000 years ago, jesus offered of himself as a sacrifice for us, because he died for us and we get to live for God's glory and enjoyment, because 2,000 years ago, jesus lived the perfect life and earned it for us. Gave it to us, guys. We can spend our time discerning what is pleasing to God because we don't have to to be okay with him, because we are, because Jesus made us okay with God.
Speaker 1:And you hear us say this all the time, all the time, and I pray we'll never get sick of it. The time, all the time, and I pray we'll never get sick of it. What the Bible says is that right now, in Jesus, you are delightful to God, you are a joy to him. It's not fighting for neutrality, it's way over the top, it's way off the other end of the chart. This is what we're talking about. And look, we've heard this before. My guess is you've heard it about once a week for the last, however long you've been here and other places before.
Speaker 1:But, man, we have to keep coming back to this. We have to keep coming back to this, like. We have to keep coming back to this. We have to keep coming back to the gospel. Why? Because our culture is taking us in the opposite direction of it. The current is pushing away from this truth.
Speaker 1:And, man, maybe here's a little exercise. How many of us woke up this morning feeling not acceptable? Just me? No, my guess is a lot of us. How many of us woke up this morning thinking I don't think that I have anything good to offer God. How many of us woke up this morning feeling pretty crappy about us, about our relationship with God, about our relationship with others? Probably a lot of us. Why?
Speaker 1:Because this is what our culture produces. It produces this anxiety that draws us away from God's peace. It produces this self-image that is so much more broken and somehow not willing to own that brokenness. It's this culture that takes us away from Christ's image and really, really wants to press into that broken one, and what I hope is that we all see that in the Christian life that loving, living like and speaking of Jesus means worshiping God with our whole lives, and it means going against the stream of our culture and friends. I just want to end with this.
Speaker 1:If it's not clear, all of the things that we do together are for that express purpose of reminding us the truth. Like we keep coming together on Sundays again, not because we're trying so hard to be okay with God, but because we need the reminder that we are. Like we keep coming together on Saturdays to sing about how good God is because we need to be reminded of that. Like we do MCs together because we need to be around other Christians sharing about what's going on in our lives. We need to be talking, we need to be eating.
Speaker 1:Man, remember I talked about? Worship is all these things. That is worship, guys. We need to come around this table to worship God together and go on mission together to worship God together. We do DNA because you and I need to come to the word so often, more than we want to admit and be reminded. This is who you are, this is who God is. You're okay, this is what you need to do. That's why we do this. We keep coming back, because we are looking to fight against a strong current and we need to do it together. I mean the great news, the great news this morning, is that it is a strong current and we have a much stronger Lord. So let's praise him, let's pray to him.