Transformed Living; Transformed Giving (Romans 12:2)
- people at the end of the 20th century have
the audacity to think that they invented the modern world
- actually, the modern world created us
- for instance, we think that we have invented technology
- cars, fax machines, computers, televisions, and telephones
- in fact, it's probably more true that technology has
invented us
- we have not transformed what we have made
- what we have made has transformed us
- take the car
- researchers have noted the controlling power of the
automobile
- the car has transformed our lives, in some intentional
but in mostly unintentional ways
- the car created the suburbs, and separated residential
communities from urban centers
- it also transformed our lifestyles, courtship patterns,
recreational lives, and our environment
- as well it has become a leading cause of injury and
death
- did you know that 25% of the national economy revolves
around the automobile?
- roads, bridges, gasoline, rubber, steel, plastic, and
much more relate to the car
- the traffic cop, the stop sign painter, the auto insurance
industry, and Al Palladini, all spun off the auto
- if you think about it, the car has added a burden to
parents that no other generation of parents in history has had to cope
with
- parents have to chauffeur their children everywhere
- fenced yards are another unintended result of the automobile
- this one example demonstrates the power of the world
to transform us rather than our transformation of the world
- nowhere is this more significant than in the realm
of Christian stewardship
- stewardship is our use as trustees of the time, money,
and abilities that God has given us
- and to be good stewards, it is absolutely necessary
that we have transformed lives
- we must be thermostats that set the temperature
around us, rather than thermometers that merely reflect it
- it is one thing to be a weathervane, and another thing
to direct the wind
- in Romans 12, the apostle Paul makes a passionate appeal
for transformed living
- he appeals to us to resist the pressure for conformity,
and to proactively transform our living
- (Romans 12:2) Do not conform any longer to the pattern
of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then
you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing
and perfect will.
- one translation says, "Don't copy the behavior
and customs of the world, but let God transform you into a new person
by changing the way you think"
- Paul is warning us against adopting the outward behavior
of the world
- a true Christian, by their very nature, can't actually
conform to the world at the center of their being
- yet it's possible for a believer to take on the behavior
and customs of the world, so that nobody can tell by looking at them
that they are followers of Christ
- one preacher said that there are two types of hypocrisy
- one type is to act better than one is
- but another type of hypocrisy is to act worse than
you actually are
- and it's possible for a Christian to outwardly act
worse than they inwardly are
- Martin Luther, leader of the Protestant Reformation
in Germany, had an expression: "Become what you are"
- the normal course of events for the Christian is that
our inward life of renewal should change and transform our outward behavior
- yet in the endless pressure of the world, the opposite
often happens to the believer
- our outward behavior often conforms to the world, rather
than to our true inward nature
- when Paul warns us against being transformed by the
world, what does he mean?
- the Greek word for world, as Paul used it, means "the
spirit of the times"
- in other words, don't conform to the prevailing attitudes
and opinions and norms of the day
- don't let public opinion transform you
- in Canada, indecency is defined as something that violates
community standards
- the problem with this is that community standards are
always changing
- Paul says, don't be like that!
- in a poll of executives, 80% of respondents admit to
driving while drunk
- 35% cheat on their tax returns
- 75% steal work supplies for their personal use
- and 78% use the company phone for personal long-distance
calls
- there's more
- the spirit of the age is not only low on personal honesty
and integrity, but it teaches the following:
- you happiness is number one priority
- sexual freedom leads to happiness
- no-one can tell you what's right and what's wrong;
it's up to you to decide
- abortion is every woman's rightful option
- homosexuality is fine
- "till death do us part" really means "as
long as we're happy together"
- society teaches all these things
- and society attempts to press Christians into its mold
- and Paul says, "Don't let them do it!"
- what I've talked about really are issues of stewardship
- what we choose to do with our minds, our automobiles,
our tax deductions, work supplies, and bodies all are aspects of the
issue of stewardship
- perhaps nowhere is the world having more success
in molding Christians than in the area of stewardship
- John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, said, "Make
all you can, save all you can, give all you can"
- but the world today says, "Make all you can, keep
all you can, spend all you can"
- the startling truth is that the average Christian gives
about 1% of personal income to the work of Christ
- this is far, far behind the amount spent on housing,
food, clothing, transportation, and recreation
- the average Christian spends about 50 cents per day
to the missionary work of spreading the Gospel over the globe
- that's less than a soft drink in most machines
- the chameleon is an interesting lizard
- it changes its color to match the background
- place a chameleon on green and it turns green
- place a chameleon on brown and it turns brown
- when it comes to giving, there is really no place for
Christian chameleons
- rather than reflecting the values of human culture,
we must reflect the values of God's reign
- [transition]
- the opposite of pressure into the world's mold is the
life of transformation
- the imperative "be transformed" reflects
the Greek word metamorphosis
- this means not a change in the external scheme of things,
but a change in the essential nature of the person, beginning on the
inside and working its way to the outside
- a key to understanding this is the transfiguration
of Jesus Christ
- the records indicate a change in the being of the Lord
Jesus that began on the inside and worked its way to the outside - a
shining, luminous transformation that permitted the essential eternal
deity of the Christ to shine forth from the humanity of a Galilean carpenter
- this is a perfect illustration of the transformation
implied by Paul in Romans 12
- he exhorts believers to demonstrate in the outward,
observable aspects of life, that inward transformation that we have
experienced in Christ
- the sun gives of light because it shines
- the rose exudes fragrance because it is a rose
- and the believer demonstrates the traits of a believer
because it is the nature of the believer to do so
- Jesus didn't say, "Take salt and pour it on the
earth?
- rather, he said, "You are the salt of the earth"
- Jesus didn't say, "Shine light on the world"
- rather, he said, "You are the light of the world"
- in other words, the Christian exercises saltine and
illuminating influence in the world not first by doing but simply
by being
- the fruit tree does not transform the bud into the
flower and the flower into some fruit by some extraordinary effort
- it is the very nature of the tree at work
- the same is true for the Christian
- if and when we truly know Christ, the life of Christ
within us transforms the externals of life around us
- this happens as surely as sunrise follows the night
- what we have to do is to prevent anything from blocking
the natural expression of that inward, transforming life
- we do that by keeping the commandment of the apostle
John:
- (1 John 2:15) Do not love the world or anything in
the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not
in him.
- we are not to put supreme value on the lifestyle of
the world around us
- in the 19th century, Henry Thoreau abandoned
the active life of the thriving New England towns of Lexington and Concord,
to spend more than a year at Walden Pond, a pothole in the earth left
by retreating glaciers 10,000 years before
- while living in utter simplicity, he contemplated and
wrote about the world's ability to keep us slaves
- the simple farming equipment of the 19th
century had as much power then to prevent transformed living as modern
technology does now
- only a resolute commitment to transformed living will
demonstrate a lifestyle of transformation
- this is most certainly true in the arena of stewardship
- what we do with our time, money, and abilities is an
accurate barometer to the degree our lives have been transformed by
the power of the Gospel
- in a world where Donald Trump is as much a hero as
Billy Graham, we really need to think which one we're going to emulate
- nothing so demonstrates the tangible change in our
lives brought about by Christ as the willingness to give
- it's no accident that Paul follows the remarkable chapter
on the resurrection of Christ in 1 Corinthians with a practical appeal
that believers give with individual responsibility, weekly regularity,
and proportionate return to God's work
- Paul immediately connects the mighty transforming power
that raised Jesus from the dead, with the power that transforms selfish
humans into regular givers to the kingdom of God
- the biological process of metamorphosis takes place
when an ugly caterpillar spins a cocoon around itself, and after that,
emerges as a beautiful monarch butterfly
- for a human being who has lived in self-absorption,
materialism, greed, and possessiveness to suddenly turn into a spiritual,
generous, and giving believer, is no less a miraculous transformation
- this comes only by the grace of God
- how does this transformation take place?
- transformation takes place, Paul says, by the renewing
of the mind
- while our generation knows more than any previous generation
about the mysteries of science, we have never really understood the
difference between mind and brain, between thought and the physical
framework in which thought takes place
- it is only at the divine level by God's intervention
that the mind my be changed in the transformation of life called Christian
conversion
- and when our mind is transformed, that change includes
Christian stewardship - the living mind turns into the giving mind
- it is the nature of God to give as it is the nature
of light to shine
- the mind of Christ can transform our minds and take
us to heights of living and giving and giving that we otherwise could
not reach
- many of us are like the barnyard duck in this
little poem:
- My soul is like a barnyard duck
- Muddling in the barnyard muck,
- Fat and lazy with useless wings;
- But sometimes when the north wind sings
- And wild ducks fly overhead,
- It ponders something lost and dead,
- It cocks a wary, bewildered eye
- And makes a feeble attempt to fly,
- It's quite content with the state it's in
- But it's not the duck it might have been.
- there is a sense that we were intended to fly, to mount
up with wings of eagles
- only the transformation of life into the giving life
of the Gospel releases me from that earth-bound grasping to the heaven-bound
giving that characterizes the life of Christ
- [transition]
- Paul said in Romans 12 that we're to be living sacrifices
to God
- in the Old Testament, people offered sacrifices to
God that were separate and apart from the worshippers' own personality
and life
- at best, they expressed a transformation in giving
- at their worst, they were merely mechanical religious
acts
- further, the Old Testament sacrifices were intermittent
- there were three great feasts every year in Jerusalem
- those were the primary times of giving
- on other occasions, people might give a free will offering
- but the thought of each individual giving a daylong
sacrifice to God was incomprehensible
- also, the giving of sacrifices was limited to one
place, the temple in Jerusalem
- if one lived a mere 50 miles away in Galilee, the thought
of a daily sacrifice was out of the question
- but in the coming of Jesus Christ, the system of giving
has been changed completely
- we no longer bring material sacrifices first; we bring
ourselves
- we do not offer our sacrifices intermittently; it is
a daily way of life
- our giving is not confined to a religious shrine, but
we are offered as living sacrifices to God wherever we go - our homes,
offices, places of recreation, and at the church
- when one sees life as a daily living sacrifice, giving
to the cause of Christ becomes as natural as breathing itself
- the transformed life is the giving life
- all of nature witnesses to that fact
- the withered and dehydrated seed falls to the ground
- there, a strange, wondrous transformation takes place
- the seed, moistened by the damp soil, disintegrates
as the life-principle within the seed germinates
- soon that seed becomes a slender shoot of life
- that shoot becomes a stalk
- that stalk produces a beautiful flower
- the flower in turn produces another seed
- you see, the life that gives is the life that lives
- Jesus said, "It is more blessed to give than to
receive"
- how can we validate the truth of that statement?
- Jesus proved it by his life and resurrection
- this morning we want to apply this truth
- the transformed life will be the giving life
- giving is actually a double miracle of transformation
- it reflects the miracle of Christ within our life
- it also reflects that providence of God by which our
energy, work, education, and training are turned into that which we
place in the offering plate and at the altar of God
- our life transforms to money
- that money transforms to ministry
- that ministry then transforms again to life
- the circle is complete
