Title: Conformed or Transformed?
Someone tell me what Paul is saying here in your own language. (Ben, isn’t that your job?)
I’m going to make a basic assumption today. I’m going to assume you get the idea of what Paul is saying here, and why, and I’m going to focus on a heart issue that keeps us from being able to do it.
What is the most difficult Mission Field in the world? (What mission field do you DREAD being called to?)
Now when we normally think of difficult mission fields we think of harsh environments or harsh climates, like what someone might see in the Serengeti Desert, or the mountains of Nepal.
For some of us, difficult missions means language barriers and years of study to even be able to communicate the simplest of ideas, let alone share the complexity and majesty of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. (Betsy Becker)
Others see the most difficult mission field as one that is overtly hostile toward religion, like communist China, or particularly hostile toward the Christian religion, like much of the Middle East today.
All of these things are real deterrent, to be sure, but America, as a mission field, offers an obstacle that is much more difficult to deal with than climate, language, and hostile people.
Anyone want to ponder a guess as to what this very real obstacle is?
Our lives are too good.
We are too blessed.
We live in a land that opens its great arms to almost anyone and we teach them all the same thing: America is the land of opportunity. The poorest among you can not just survive, but thrive like you could not imagine. The only limit is your own desire, discipline, and drive.
And you know what, it’s true.
Where else can you borrow money from your own government to start a business?
Where else can you patent an idea so that the intellectual property is privatized and available for profit to the highest bidder?
What is “poverty” in the United States? (Take answers)
Is that “poverty” in the rest of the world?
Consider these statistics from the Heritage Foundation:
* 38 percent of the persons whom the Census Bureau identifies as “poor” own their own homes with a median value of $39,200.
* 62 percent of “poor” households own a car; 14 percent own two or more cars.
* Nearly half of all “poor” households have air-conditioning; 31 percent have microwave ovens.
* Nationwide, some 22,000 “poor” households have heated swimming pools or Jacuzzis.
*”Poor” Americans today are better housed, better fed, and own more property than did the average U.S. citizen throughout much of the 20th Century. In 1988, the expenditures of the lowest 20% of the U.S. population exceeded the of the average American household in 1955.
I’m not saying we don’t have poor people. I’m reminding us that “poor” always has been, and always will be, a relative term.
Where else can an Austrian born bodybuilder first become a movie star and then the governor of California?
We have been taught since our births that if we lack for something, it is our faults for not taking full advantage of the opportunities that this land of milk and honey grant us.
And this has permeated even into the Church, where Christians will readily tell you that God helps them who help themselves, even though that phrase, or even that thought, can not be found anywhere in the Bible.
Simply put, America doesn’t know it needs a savior because America doesn’t know it’s in trouble.
And why is this?
In part, it is our fault.
We have not heeded the words of Paul here in Romans 12:2 when he first tells us:
“Do not be conformed to this world…”
Too many of us are having our cake and eating it to. There is nothing district about our lives that would cause others to wonder about what gives us peace.
I read a book a few years ago, written by a Patrick Morley for other Christian men, and it’s title was The Man in the Mirror. The book focuses on men as leaders of their families, in their churches and in their communities and warns of the same thing Paul warns us of here, to not get caught up in what the world gets caught up in.
The book opens in chapter one with a fantastically sobering question: Has anyone ever won the rat race?
We all run in it, every day, but do know, or know of, anyone who has actually crossed the finish line?
We are caught up in the ideals that our society says are achievements of worth: financial success, power, respect, envy, admiration, privilege, and sex.
And why are we caught up in these things?
Because our minds have not been renewed.
Another way to put it is this: What is important to God is not as important to us, as what is important to our society.
And when this happens, when we are in the world, and of the world, we lose all ability to “prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
The only way we can know what God’s will is, is to have our minds transformed by the renewing power of the Holy Spirit.
We cannot speak about God, defend his existence, or explain his plan of salvation if our minds have not yet been renewed. We, as Christians are eternal creatures, destined to live forever in God’s glory.
Yet the things that most readily consume our thought are things that won’t matter a year from now, let alone in eternity!
You know what real peace is? It is having the world around you crumbling, and being okay with it, not because you have excellent medical insurance, not because you are rich, not even because you’ve lived a good life and if this is it, you can deal with that, but rather because God is sovereign and He knows you.
That is peace.
You know what else is peace?
Coming into a situation that calls for an important decision, and knowing what God’s will is.
We see these “WWJD” bracelets everywhere, well, imagine with me for a second that this phenomenon was literally real. Imagine you have $30 from Christmas money and you go to payless shoes to pick up a new pair of shoes. You really like two pair, one is $30 and you like them, but there is another pair that is $40, so you’d have to dip into your own money to buy them, but you really like them more.
Imagine if, at that point, you could literally call up Jesus Christ and have him meet you at the store. He looks at both shoes, both prices and says, “I think you’ll be happier with the $40 pair.” Would anyone in the room buy the $30 pair?
On top of that, would anyone here think that for one second of their life, they’d regret the decision to buy the $40 pair?
That is peace.
And yet, we don’t see it, because we are still looking at things through our own eyes, and processing information with our own minds.
The cycle needs to be broken in all of our lives. Our minds need to be renewed. Agreed?
How do we do this then? How do we “be transformed by the renewing of our minds?”
1. Decide today that you want God’s will to be more important to you than your own.
2. Have a daily quiet time. Daily.
3. Be not just attending, but involved in a local fellowship of believers.
4. Share the Gospel. (First with yourself, then with others)
5. Pause for consideration. (Meditate on God’s Word).