Sermon Manuscript

[[Video:  “Beyond Belief” - 0:30]

This morning we continue within a series of messages called Beyond Belief where together we are looking at truths within the Scriptures which are “beyond belief” and simply too good to be true.  Last week we began this series by examining the truth that we are free in Jesus.  Because Paul said in Romans 8:1 that “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.”  Through the death of Jesus Christ we have been set free.  We are free from guilt, free from shame, and free from the burden of our sin.  We are free even from death itself.  And this enables us to live freely under a different law.  The law of the Spirit of life instead of sin and death.  It’s amazing!  It’s incredible!  And it’s a truth that if we’re honest is “too good to be true.”  It’s beyond belief.  And today we’re going to examine a second truth.  The truth that you can radically change and become something that otherwise would be completely impossible.

So to help us think about this I want to ask you a question.  When was the last time you made a clean start?  When was the last time you stopped doing something and said to yourself, “I’m going to completely start over.  Not make a different decision or make a course correction but to completely start over and go a different way.”  Because this happens throughout our lives in big and small ways.  For instance, there was likely a time when you were dating someone in grade school or college or as a young adult and you came to the point in which you said, “You know what?  This is crazy.  I should not be with this person.  So I’m going to end this relationship and completely start over.”  Or maybe you were in college or had just started your career?  You were working long, hard, shifts and you came to a point in which you said to yourself, “What am I doing here?  This is just not for me.  I have been slaving for this employer and doing something I hate for far too long.  I’m going to quit and choose a completely different job.  I’m going to start a brand new career.”  Or maybe you were living in an apartment or a house or owned a certain car and you thought, “This place is a dump.  This car is a dump.  I just keep pouring more and more money into this.  It’s a money pit!  I’m tired of trying to fix this.  I’m going to get rid of it and start over!”  Or maybe it was a health issue and you said, “I’m tired of living like this, eating like this, carrying all of this weight.  I’ve got to start over!”  Or maybe it was a spiritual decision that you made to start over and go to church or read your Bible or tithe?  I mean.  When was the last time you stopped and started over?  When was the last time you made a clean start?

This happened to me recently.  Just a few weeks ago.  For years I had been complaining about our yard.  And I would tell Debbie, “We have the dirtiest yard in the neighborhood.  I am always, always, always cleaning it up!  We have two pine trees and a river birch tree in the front yard.  And they drop pine cones, pine needles, and sticks in our yard all year long.  And then in the back we have trees that drop leaves constantly!  It is always a mess!!!”  And so finally I think Debbie had had enough.  And she said, “OK.  So if you could do one thing to help clean up the yard what would you do?”  And without hesitation I said, “I would cut down those two pine trees because they drop hundreds of pine cones, pine needles, sticks, and they even have had a few hornets nests in them!  And they’re huge!  I would just get rid of them all!”  And for some reason she said, “OK.  Call and get a quote.”  

So I did and then they came.  It was exciting!  Because these two trees which were probably 50 or 60 feet tall and had been the bain of my existence for years were finally going away!  Finally!  So a crew of guys came early one morning.  And they began by cutting down the limbs with a couple of huge chain saws.  Then they brought both of the trees down, cut up the trunk, and threw the branches into this huge wood chipper that just cut through those branches like a hot knife in butter!  Then they hauled off the pieces of the trunk and even removed the stumps.  It was beautiful!  I’m pretty sure I shed a couple of tears that morning.  Tears of joy!  (Although it was raining at the time so it could have been the rain!)  However, when Deb came home and saw how bare our yard looked she said, “Ugh.  That looks awful.”  And it does… but I keep telling her it will get better.  And… they’re gone!  It’s awesome!  And we get to start over.  To completely start over.  To make a clean start so that in the end it will look completely different!  And hopefully be much easier to maintain.

Here’s my point.  God wants this to happen in your life.  He wants to make you into something completely different.  Brand new.  Not simply to make a couple of changes and cut off a few branches.  But to completely uproot what had been growing before and to make you into something that was completely impossible apart from Him.  And the truth we’re going to discover this morning is that not only can this happen but that God wants it to happen within your life.  You can become something radically different in Jesus.  It’s a truth that is truly “beyond belief”.  

So let’s get started and see what God wants to do and how that can happen in your life and mine.  If you have your Bibles, turn with me now to the book of Romans chapter 12.  Today we’re going to be just in verses 1 and 2.  We’ll examine some other passages but our main text for this morning will be just these two verses.  If you’re new to The Fountain and want to follow along with us online you can do so by using our app.  It’s called Church Center and it has all of the resources you will need for our time together.  Just open the app and click on Sunday Services followed by Message Notes and you’ll find everything that you need.

As you turn there, let me just share a little bit about the book of Romans itself.  The book of Romans was a letter written by the Apostle Paul to the church in Rome in AD 57.  It was written from a port city in Greece called Corinth in which Paul spent three months at the end of his third missionary journey.  And within this letter Paul shares how our salvation works.  It’s my favorite book of the Bible for that reason.  Because without the book of Romans we would have so many questions about how our salvation actually works.  Just how does God enable all people to be saved through Jesus?  How does the death of one Man bring about the salvation of all who are in Him?  Both Jews and Gentiles?  How does this one act make us morally and legally right before God?  The book of Romans answers all of these questions and more.

It explains the Gospel in detail.  Paul says in Romans 1:16-17 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.  For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’”  The Gospel reveals the righteousness of God and how He has bestowed that righteousness upon you and me through Jesus and our faith in Him.  And within the book of Romans Paul describes God’s righteous judgment upon sinners but also how His righteousness is upheld through faith.  He describes how this began first with Abraham but has now continued to us and how we are justified by our faith.  As a result, we have been released from the Law and have life in the Spirit.  Paul covers all of this in chapters 1-8.  Then in 9-11 he describes what God has done through the nation of Israel and how He has saved all who will call upon the name of the Lord.  He even discusses the hardening that has taken place upon the nation of Israel today and what that means in chapter 11.  

Then in chapter 12 he begins in this way.  Paul writes these words.  Verse 1 says:

1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not 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.

Alright.  Stop there.  That’s as far as we need to go at this moment.  But there’s a ton here to explore.  So let’s make a few observations.  First of all, Paul says, “I appeal to you”.  This Greek word is PARAKALEW and it’s composed of two other words.  PARA which means “alongside” and KALEW which is a verb meaning “to call”.  So Paul is saying, “I want you to come near to me and to draw alongside me.  I want you to follow me in my example.  I’m not commanding you at this moment but appealing to you.  He then says “therefore” or “based upon what I have already shared with you about the Gospel and the “mercies of God found within it.”  He also calls them “brothers” which can be translated as “brothers and sisters.”

And what does Paul appeal to them to do?  What does he want them to do that he is already doing?  He wants them “to present their bodies as a living sacrifice”.  He wants them to present their bodies as “holy” or “set apart for God”.  So that they might be “acceptable to God” because He is holy.  Paul says that this is their “spiritual worship”. 

Stop and consider what that means for just a moment.  To be a “living sacrifice”.  Because this phrase is a bit of an oxymoron.  An oxymoron is a phrase where two different ideas are brought together to create something new.  Like “jumbo shrimp”.  Right?  Something big with something small.  Or “deafening silence”.  Not silent but silent.  Or “bittersweet”.  Not sweet but sweet.  Or “virtual reality.”  Not real but real.  Or “pretty ugly”.  Well, you get the picture!  Right?  Paul says he wants believers to follow in his example and be a “living sacrifice.”  Not dead but dead.  Alive spiritually but dead to your former way of life.  Paul says, “I want you to live as if you were dead.  I want you to live for Jesus as if you had died to your former way of life.  So that people who see you will see that you are not who you used to be.  You are completely different!  Radically different!  Completely changed from who you used to be!  Like a front yard which has had its pine trees ripped up from the ground!  And underwent a “clean start.”

That’s what Paul wants.  Because that’s what God expects.  And for that reason he says in verse 2, “Don’t be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.”  Don’t be conformed.  Be transformed.  The Greek word for conformed is SYSCHEMATIZO which means “to be conceived of or to be conformed to a pattern.”  So Paul is saying, “Don’t follow the patterns of this world.  Don’t allow yourself to be molded and shaped by the values and principles and morals of this world.  Don’t conform to them.  Instead, be transformed.”  The Greek word for transformed is the word METAMORPHOO.  It’s composed of two words META meaning “to change” and MORPHE meaning “shape or form”.  We get the word metamorphosis from this word.  And if you remember from school metamorphosis is the scientific term for the process that some species undergo when they transform from one form into another.  So a caterpillar transforms into a butterfly and a tadpole transforms into a frog.  They don’t simply change color or grow a new body part.  They completely change from one form to another.  Paul says, “That’s what God wants from you!  God wants you to be completely transformed by Him!”

And how do you do that?  “Through the renewal of your mind.”  You think differently so you can act and behave differently.  So Paul would be saying, “When you see a believer who is thinking like the rest of the world then you are seeing a believer being conformed to the world.  But when you see a believer who is thinking differently from the world and living differently from the world then you are seeing someone who is transformed.  And being transformed into the image of Christ.”  So here’s a question for you:  Where are you thinking differently from the world?  Do you think differently from the world when it comes to… Jesus and the Church?  I hope so.  But what about premarital sex?  What about living together?  What about homosexuality?  What about gambling?  What about drunkenness?  What about lying or cheating or stealing?  Do you think differently from the world on those issues too?  Because all of us need to be continually renewed in our minds.  We have only two options.  Every single person in this room right now is either being conformed or transformed.  We are either being conformed to this world or being transformed into the image of Jesus so that we can live differently.  So which one are you?

Paul then finishes by saying “that by testing you may discern what the will of God is.”  Interesting.  Sometimes we think that God’s will is “black and white”.  Easily understood.  And sometimes it is.  God has made Himself very clear on certain subjects.  However, sometimes we need to “test and discern” what God’s will might be for us in a given situation.  Paul says that we need to have our minds renewed so that we can test and see what God would want us to do.  If our minds are renewed we can think differently and make better choices.  But if not we will not.  God’s will is good and acceptable and perfect.  And so living according to His Will is always, always, always our goal.  We want to think differently so that we can live differently.  And when we live differently others will see us differently.  They will see that we have radically changed.

You see I can’t speak for you but some of the best decisions I have ever made within my life required radical change.  For example, when I became a Christian and gave my life to Jesus it required radical change.  I had to change the way I lived.  When I was in college and chose to stop buying non-Christian music it required radical change.  I had to change what I listened to.  When I got married and gave my life to my wife, it required radical change.  I had to now put the needs of another person ahead of my own.  The same thing happened with our children.  When I changed careers and left the programming world to become a pastor it required radical, radical change.  I had to radically change the way I spent money.  When I stopped drinking sodas several years ago to get a little healthier it required radical change.  I no longer could drink a Pepsi with my pizza or a Coke with my burger and fries.  And on and on it goes.  And your life is different but my guess is that you could say the same.  Some of the best decisions you have ever made required radical change.  A point in time in which we completely changed how we thought about a particular decision and started to live differently.  But never regretted it since.

So what radical change do you need to make in life?  What change is God asking you to make within your life today?  What decision have you been putting off that God has asked you to do because you knew it was going to radically change your life?  And what if God is waiting for you to make that decision so that He can continue the process of transforming you?  Into the image of His Son?  Whatever it is, don’t wait.  Because it could be one of the best decisions you will ever make.  A decision that will change your life forever because it will make you like Jesus.  

This week within our Core 52 book the author Mark Moore ends his chapter called Radical Change by saying this.  He writes, “There’s no shortcut to radical transformation.  The cost is high, often excruciating.  But of this there’s no doubt:  the benefits are more gratifying than the sacrifice is difficult.”  He says radical transformation is hard.  It’s extremely hard.  However, the benefits are better than any sacrifice you might be asked to make.  So what is it?  What is the radical change you need to make within your life today?  

Because radical change begins first in the mind.  Remember.  Paul said to be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  So in order for us to change we’ve got to learn to think differently.  And within this morning’s passage Paul speaks to us about three ways we can do this.  So let’s take a look at each of them and learn how they will help us renew our minds to be transformed.

First, think differently about yourself.  Because Paul tells us we need to think differently about ourselves.  He appealed to his readers to present their bodies as “living sacrifices”.  God wants us to see ourselves as dead to sin and alive to Him.  He wants us to view ourselves as dead to our former way of life but alive to Him in Jesus.  This, Paul says, is our spiritual worship.  We worship God now by offering up to Him as His priests ourselves.  Just as Jesus our High Priest offered up Himself to God through His death on the cross we do the same.  We offer up to God our lives and declare to God that He owns all of us.  But to truly do that in life we have to think differently about ourselves and to see ourselves as “living sacrifices”.

So stop and think about what that means.  If we were to truly see ourselves as “living sacrifices” then that should change the way we think about our lives, our work, and the way we serve.  If I am a living sacrifice then it doesn’t matter if I have to do things today or tomorrow that I don’t want to do right?  Because my life is not about me.  I died to myself and it belongs to God.  So if today I have to do something I don’t want to do, that's OK.  Because it’s all for Him.  And that then continues to my work.  And how I serve.  If my job requires me to do something I don’t want to do or someone needs me to serve them in a way I really don’t want to serve, that's OK because life is not about me.  I died to myself when I gave my life to Jesus and my life now belongs to Him.  So if it’s not “fun” or “exciting” or “what I want to do” all of the time that needs to be OK.  Because my life is not about me.  It’s about Him.  I’m dead to my former way of life but alive in Him.  I’m a living sacrifice.  But to become one I have to think differently about myself.

Second, think differently about your world.  Because Paul tells us not to conform to the patterns of this world but to be transformed.  This world is filled with patterns of thoughts and patterns of behavior that we can all get wrapped up into.  Patterns which tell us how to think about social and political views.  Patterns which tell us how to spend our money.  Patterns which tell us how to use our free time.  For example, I’m in a bad pattern of watching too much TV at the end of the day.  My daily pattern is to get to the end of the day, plop on the couch, and watch TV.  Typically football.  And it’s on like 4-5 days a week!  Some football is OK but it’s a pattern the world has taught me that I need to change.  For some of us, it’s social media.  We have a pattern in life of scrolling through Facebook or Instagram or Tik Tok or some other social media platform every day.  Maybe for hours.  Why?  Because the world has taught us that we really need to keep up with what everyone else is doing.  Right?  The world is constantly trying to get us to conform to its patterns.  To think about our lives and our money and our resources and our relationships and constantly ask yourself, “What makes you happy.  Because you should do what makes you happy.”  Yet, the Bible never teaches us these things.  And Paul never taught that either.  In fact, he lived his life as an example worth following in order to show other believers how to view their world differently.  How to break those patterns of behavior.

So what patterns of behavior do you need to remove within your life?  What do you need to replace them with?  Because all of us are right now falling into certain patterns of behavior.  Some good.  Some bad.  But the world constantly speaks to us and challenges us to stop and consider how we are living our lives.  And it presents patterns it says we should follow.  And if you and I do not acknowledge those influences and break those patterns of behavior our tendency will be to fall into them.  So break them.  Think differently about your world.

And finally, think differently about your decisions.  Because Paul tells us that in order to renew our minds and be transformed, we are going to need to test and discern what is the will of God for our lives.  And as I’ve thought about his instructions over the past few days I can see why this is so important and so powerful.  Because here’s what he’s saying.  God has a Will for your life and mine.  He has goals and desires for you.  He has plans and purposes for you.  And He wants you to make certain decisions within your life.  But here’s the point.  His Will for your life is going to be different from His Will for my life.  Right?  I mean.  He’s called all of us to love people but only some of us to get married.  He’s called all of us to love children but only some of us to be parents.  He’s called all of us to serve within the local church but only some of us to be vocational ministers.  He’s called all of us to make disciples but only some of us to preach on a Sunday morning or to teach a class on a Wednesday night.  He’s called all of us to serve with the gifts and abilities He’s given but only some of us to do so vocationally.  He’s called all of us to serve within ministries but only some of us to lead them.  He’s called all of us to be connected to one another in groups but only some of us to host them.  He’s called all of us to give to the local church financially but only some of us to give in such a way that we are able to impact a church or ministry like no other.  My point is that His Will for all of us is similar but different.

So if His Will for us is going to be different at times then so, too, must be our decisions.  And we all need to know what God’s Will is for us and to discern what decisions He is calling us to make.  We do this by testing it and seeing if God wants to open up certain doors for us or not.  But we recognize that our decisions will be different.  So we think differently about them.

You see these are three ways we can learn to think differently so that we can live differently.  Three ways in which we can think differently in order to produce radical change within our lives.  And it starts with ourselves.  We think differently about who we are.  We are living sacrifices.  Our lives do not belong to us.  They belong to Him.  We think differently about our world.  We realize this world wants to conform us but God wants to transform us.  So we look at our lives and the patterns being formed and we make radical changes when necessary.  And we think differently about our decisions.  We recognize that God has a Will for our lives.  His Will is good and acceptable and perfect.  But to understand it we must discern not only what is right and wrong but what we are called to do.  We must test and discern it and think differently about our choices and decisions.  When we learn to think differently in these ways we will be different.

Why?  Because radical thinking will produce radical change.  And give us a clean start.

This past week I read an article that spoke about a couple of guys who both were given a clean start.  Two wide receivers from the NFL who were both baptized over the weekend before their games.  The first was a Kansas City Wide Receiver called Marquise Brown who is also known as “Hollywood Brown”.  He said this to the media after scoring two touchdowns against the Baltimore Ravens.  He said, “All glory to God.  I just got baptized on Friday so this weekend’s been amazing for me.”  He then said this on his Tik Tok account, “Letting God know that I’m a follower of Him, all of this is a blessing, that’s from Him, and I don’t take it for granted.”  

Then another Wide Receiver named Travis Hunter who was the second overall pick in last year’s draft for the Jacksonville Jaguars spoke up and said this.  He told ESPN, “It’s Sunday.  It’s God’s day.  I’ve been planning to get baptized for a minute.  I changed my life over to become a better man.  It means a lot.  I’m becoming a better man and leaving my old self and starting a new chapter.”

Wow.  What a powerful statement.  “I’m leaving my old self and starting a new chapter.”  So what about you?  What clean start do you need to make within your life?  What radical change do you want God to make within your life?  Maybe you need to get baptized and start your new life with Jesus?  Just like Hollywood Brown and Travis Hunter did.  If so, you can do that today.  Or maybe you need to radically change the way you think about who you are in Christ?  And to see yourself for the first time as a “living sacrifice”.  You need to think differently about yourself.  Or maybe you need to recognize that in your life you are conforming to certain patterns in this world that need to be broken for Jesus?  So you need to think differently about your world.  Or maybe you need to discern what God’s will is for your life and to think differently about a certain decision He is calling you to make?  Whatever the case may be, all of us need to make radical changes in our lives and all of us need to be transformed through the renewing of our minds.

So what change do you need to make?  Make it today for Jesus.  Bottom line is this…

Transformation begins when we radically change the way we think for Jesus.

Let’s pray.

[Prayer:  For God to help us to change how we think so we can live differently for Him.]

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