Message by Pastor John Culp : April 20, 2008
“Satisfied? – Part 2”
Text – Romans 12:1-2
Let me tell you a little story about a ministry colleague of mine. I love him as a brother in Christ. I have the highest regard for his work as a minister of the Word and sacrament. He has a deep and genuine love for the people God has entrusted to his care. And I know that they love him in return. God uses him powerfully in the pulpit. He serves with energy, intelligence and imagination.
But I have to tell you that if you need advice or help relating to doing some body work on you car – this is not the guy to call!
Now I’ll beat some of you to the punch. For me to say that is the very epitome of the pot calling the kettle black! Not only are you looking at a guy who drove to church today in a car with duct tape on its side. Standing before you is the very perpetrator of that atrocity in automotive repair.
But my friend is in the same league. He has had this car for some years now. At the time he got it, it was already a number of years old, but had relatively low mileage. It remains mechanically sound, but its body has been the victim of too many salty western Pennsylvania winters. As a result, it’s plagued with a number of large areas of rust. For awhile my friend drove his car in that condition. But then he decided to do something about the problem. He knew full well that this was not the ideal fix, but he bought some spray paint in a color that matched the existing paint pretty closely, and simply painted over the rust.
Now if you know even the first thing about cars or corrosion, you can guess what happened. In fairly short order, rust reappeared below the new paint. I think he’s now been through several cycles of this treatment – and who knows? He may be able to keep his unique maintenance program up till the motor falls out, or Jesus comes back – whichever comes first. One good thing about all this is that neither my friend nor I need to worry about ever being bothered by any neighbor looking for help with fixing his car…
The text we just read contains some of the many words of the Apostle Paul that are surely familiar to every serious student of the New Testament. Two weeks ago we looked at some others, from the third chapter of Paul’s letter to the Philippians. The apostle writes there of his desire to “press on” to the goal Christ had for him, and has still for every believer. We spoke two weeks ago of God’s call to us to cultivate a holy discomfort, a godly dissatisfaction with ourselves as we are. Though we should surely rejoice every day in the glorious truth that God indeed accepts us in Jesus Christ just as we are, we just as surely need to remember that He loves us too much to be willing to have us remain as we are.
If you get that message, here’s the natural next question: If God doesn’t want me to stay the way I am, what does He want me to do? And here’s the answer: If you’re a car, God is not interested in any projects involving spray paint or duct tape. What your Creator has in mind is more like this: A brand new frame, chassis, engine, transmission, interior, paint job and hood ornament.
to be engaged in an ongoing process
of being transformed by the renewal of our minds,
a lifelong extreme makeover.
Let’s talk about that for a few minutes.
Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, Paul packs some really dramatic thoughts into just a few words here.
Note first that what he has in mind here is not some subtle tweaking of our personalities. Paul is calling all who name the name of Jesus Christ into a radical, life-changing transformation.
We sense his urgency right at the outset: “I appeal to you therefore, brothers…” (Romans 12:1 ESV). The specific appeal he goes on to make is certainly consistent with that feeling of urgency. Paul calls us to present our very bodies “as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God” (12:1).
Speak in such terms and it becomes pretty obvious right away that you’re not talking here about some casual dabbling in religious stuff.
Think about Paul’s background. He had grown up a Jew, and every faithful Jew knew very well the language of sacrifice. Throughout Paul’s life the great Temple still stood in Jerusalem. As long as the Temple was there, sacrifices continued to be made daily. Real flesh and blood animals were brought in and ritually slain, their blood sprinkled on the great altar of atonement. Neither Paul nor any other faithful Jew would ever casually toss around the language of sacrifice. This is serious stuff!
And the image of transformation suggests just how radical is the change Paul has in mind.
Political satirist Bill Maher is no friend of the Christian faith. We should pray that God will reveal the light of the Gospel to him! But he’s often a pretty funny guy. Once he shared this news item and comment:
“Drug kingpin Amado Carrillo-Fuentes has died from repeated efforts to change his appearance. They’re saying that he succumbed after nine hours of cosmetic surgery – or as it’s commonly known here in Beverly Hills, natural causes.”
(“Laughter, the Best Medicine”® Reader’s Digest, December 1997, p.76.)
Paul’s not talking here about mere spiritual cosmetic surgery – a procedure designed to change only the way you look on the outside. He has in mind a complete change from the inside out.
Nor is he talking about a repair you can make with a can of spray paint or roll of duct tape. In fact, he’s not talking about a fix you can make at all! It’s one that can be carried out only by the Holy Spirit of God.
Note also, at the risk of stating the obvious, that this is not easy! That’s true for all sorts of reasons. Paul alludes here specifically to the pull of the world. He warns us against the danger of being “conformed to this world” (12:2). I trust that I don’t have to tell you what a great – and what a grave – danger that is! When the New Testament speaks of the ‘world’ in such contexts, it’s generally referring to human society specifically opposed to the things of God. It was true of the first century world in which Paul lived; it’s been true across all the centuries since; it’s true in our own day: the world pulls us in one direction. Jesus pulls us in another.
Today the world screams any number of things at us – sometimes loudly; sometimes (paradoxically!) softly – but always insistently. It says, for instance: The most important things in life are things. You’ve got to look out for Number One. All religions – including the religion of faith in yourself alone – are equally true. The Gospel of Jesus Christ, of course, says something very different. And – trust me! – unless you are constantly vigilant and actively seeking the transforming power of the Holy Spirit in your life, the world will press you into its mold.
The choice is really that simple: Be conformed to this world. Or be transformed after the longing and the model of Jesus Christ.
Now I’ll grant you that all of this can sound pretty abstract – even irrelevant. You might be inclined to think: ‘John, that sounds real nice. But what’s it really have to do with the struggles I live through day after day?’
I have to tell you: That is always precisely the question you should ask! If the Gospel has no real traction down in the mud of the trenches where you and I live out our days, then it’s nothing but a bunch of religious fluff.
But in fact nothing has more practical power for everyday life than the truth of Jesus Christ. The Bible says here that when we truly are being transformed in the way God wants, we’ll be growing in our ability to discern the will of God, knowing what’s “good and acceptable and perfect” (12:2).
I think you’d agree that that’s an eminently practical need for all of us. One of the things that can most wear you down in life is the curse of indecisiveness. For many, making decisions is one of the hardest things in life!
I saw this just recently in one of our daughters. She had a decision to make. Now this may very well have been a matter she won’t even remember in just a few years. But at the time it loomed very large on her emotional radar. She had prayed about it, and had a pretty clear sense that God was pulling her in one direction. But she knew also that she wanted herself to go the opposite way. She shared her anguish with me for some time, shedding real tears over the whole thing. In the end, she did do what she felt God wanted. Like Jonah, she went finally not to Tarshish, but to Nineveh, and later felt good about that decision.
Her struggle is often ours, over matters big and small. I don’t want to over-simplify or trivialize any of this. But one of the tremendous benefits of being transformed, in the way to which Paul calls us here, is that we can then have much greater peace about the decisions we have to make.
In today’s Old Testament lesson, the prophet Jeremiah looked ahead to the time when God would establish this new covenant: “I will put My law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be My people” (31:33 NIV).
When we’re transformed along the lines God intends, we will have His law in our minds, written on our hearts. And that reality will indeed give us growing confidence, power and victory in the everyday business of life.
A fair question for you to ask at this point is this: Specifically how can I apply all this in my life? How am I to cooperate with God’s design for this extreme makeover in my life? I’ll give you just one way. I want to suggest that God wants every disciple of Jesus to be involved in a small group.
Let’s talk for a moment about the place in the believer’s life of what we’re doing right now. What about worship on the Lord’s Day? Worship is surely a necessary exercise for every Christian. But it is not sufficient! God certainly can change lives through worship, and He frequently does so. But that’s not the essential purpose for worship. Worship is designed in a concentrated way to fulfill the purpose of our whole lives: To glorify God.
By contrast, changing lives is precisely the intention of small the group experience. What happens in such a group is that a relatively small number of believers (generally twelve or fewer) come together for prayer, discussion and fellowship around God’s word. The Bible says that “Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.”
(Proverbs 27:17 ESV)
In an ideal small group, believers wrestle with the real claims and commands of Scripture. They share the own questions and challenges, their victories and defeats. They pray with and for each other; they’re accountable to one another. They plan and carry out concrete service projects, doing kingdom work. They “Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:15). And as they do all those things, lives are transformed.
Why do you need this? The transformation God has in mind is so radical; the pull of the world in the other direction so strong, that you can’t do it on your own. But the good news is that God doesn’t expect you to! In the small group experience He has provided the model for a way you can know real transformation in your life.
If you’re involved in a small group experience already, discuss with your group any changes you need to make to more faithfully open yourselves to God’s life-transforming power. Come to each meeting fully expecting God to change your life.
And if you’re not currently part of such a group, why not? I know well that I’m asking you to give something really precious here: a commitment of your time. But I can assure you that this is worth that commitment. And remember, as I ask you to give that costly gift: In Jesus Christ God has given His all to you.
Where can you find such a small group experience? Here at Tower we already have a handful of wonderful classes that meet each Sunday morning, as well as several thriving midweek groups. Talk to folks who are involved in those groups. Talk to me or to Janice. We would be delighted to help you get plugged into an existing group. Or if none seems to fit for whatever reason, let’s talk about starting a new group. Your level of Bible knowledge is absolutely no barrier. Whether you’re a seasoned Bible scholar, or you wouldn’t know Genesis from Jeremiah, Luke from Lamentations, there are abundant resources available to meet you where you are and help you jump-start this life-changing process of God’s transformation. Let’s talk!
I shared quite awhile back a wonderful example of what can happen when God changes lives. This one was reported by Maxie Dunnam.
Some years ago the American Red Cross was gathering supplies – medicine, clothing, food and the like – for the suffering people of Biafra. Inside one of the boxes that showed up at a place where they were collecting supplies one day was a letter. It said, “We have recently been converted and because of our conversion we want to try to help. We won’t ever need these again. Can you use them for something?”
Inside the box were several sheets that had obviously been sewn into very particular garments: the kind worn by members of the Ku Klux Klan.
So the Red Cross workers cut the sheets down into strips that in time were used to bandage the wounds of black persons in Africa. It could hardly be more dramatic: from symbols of hatred to bandages of love, all because of the transforming power of Jesus Christ. (Maxie Dunnam, Commentary on Galatians. James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited [Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 1988] p. 51.)
You may have never been a hate-filled racist. But be sure of this: God wants to bring about a transformation in your life that’s no less radical. And He is abundantly able to do that.
In Jesus Christ God loves you just as you are. But He’s not satisfied with you that way. Don’t you be either! One of the surest ways for you to cooperate with Him in the adventure is to actively participate in a small group experience. What are you waiting for? Are you ready to begin the only extreme makeover that really matters?
Let us pray. You well know, Lord, how easy it is for us to be satisfied with ourselves. You know how strongly the world pulls us in directions that go against Christ’s call to us. Please continue to tug at our hearts, to call each of us – through fellowship, prayer and study of Your word – to be transformed by the renewal of our minds, so that we might more fully know Your mind. As we grow in that knowledge, in Christ our Savior, please give us confidence and power and victory in life. We ask it in His mighty name. Amen.