August 25, 2024 - Jordan Walker - Living A Transformed Life

good morning morning I'm very grateful for the chance I have to be here this morning and to speak a uh message from God's word to you um I'm very grateful just to be here to to worship with everyone here that after a what's been for me a very long difficult and stressful week that I get to come here with Brothers and Sisters in Christ and to worship and praise God and be refreshed and renewed in spirit to that that's a a great blessing and encouragement to me and I hope that you feel that this morning as well now as as much as I fought it a lot as a teenager and as a as a younger guy I am my Father's son that after years and years of of trying to rebel and and be my own person I've realized that I am more and more like my father every single day and not just a spitting image of what he looked like when he was younger but I've taken a lot of of traits of his and and personalities uh that he has and that's very much apparent in my life and because of that I've also made a lot of the same decisions that he made when he was my age at first I didn't want to go into preaching I didn't want to preach I didn't think I had the ability or the desire to really do so but I got through my first year of college and I started to wrestle with things I'm like I'm not really being fulfilled in what I'm pursuing right now I don't care for my degree I'm like maybe I should go into preaching I call my dad after I was thinking about this I'm like Dad I I want to get your opinion on this I think I want to go into preaching he's like I thought you'd say that and he's like that's exactly what I did my freshman year of college I didn't want to preach but then I just wrestled with it I'm like every step of the way I feel like I'm making the same choices as my father and I feel like maybe you all have felt that same way that from our a young age the people that raise us and we grow up around imprint on us that we grow up a certain way and we take on habits and personality traits and different things of the people around us as we grow up and we get set in a sort of motion as we go through life and we build these habits and then later on in life if we try to make change and we try to change some habits maybe we have some negative habits we grew up with and we're trying to make change it becomes really difficult that uh you know the say you can't teach it old dog new tricks that it's very difficult that and when we're later on in life to try and change parts of our life even if we want to it takes a lot of work and so a lot of people go about their lives just living it as they always did there's no change in their lives they just go through a routine R maybe they just keep up their negative habits that they have and they just live that way because it's it's the easy thing to do change is not easy but as a as a Christian we are to live differently we are called from an old life of of sin of of evil and we're called to make change as a Christian we're called to make a transformed life this is what Paul writes about in uh Romans chap 12 where we had our scripture reading earlier this morning I want to go back and read that again Romans 12 now the letter Paul writes to the Romans for the first major part of the letter Paul is talking about the gospel what Grace is where Grace comes from he lays it out to them in in fine detail then we come to chapter 12 after he's thoroughly talked about the gospel and who it's for and what it is and he switches GE years to talking about how the gospel should then change how we live he starts off this new section in chapter 12 starting in verse one it reads therefore brothers and sisters in view of the mercies of God I urge you to present your bodies as a Living Sacrifice holy and pleasing to God this is your true worship do not be conformed to this age but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may discern what is the good pleasing and perfect will of God that when we become a Christian as Paul is writing here after we accept the gospel and choose to follow that life that God has set before us our lives are no longer for ourselves we are we are living for God and therefore we are no longer to live after the ways of the world we're not to conform to our old Liv What Society uh holds up these these sinful lifestyle that we were supposed to leave but now we're called to be transformed and to live differently seeking after the good pleasing and perfect will of God so what does this entail for us because when it comes to making change this is where so many people uh trip up when it comes to seeking God that you could be talking with someone who's not a Christian and studying with them and they're accepting everything so far they're like yeah I believe in Jesus I believe in eternal life and I I want that in my life and then you're like I but you have to start making change that the gospel requires a change in life a life pleasing to God and seeking after God and that's where people start to hesitate because that change as we talked about is difficult trying to transform our lives trying to transform the habits that we grew up in that we've been living by for maybe decades is a difficult thing so I want to then just take a moment this morning to look at what a transformed life is and how we can better seek after that because Paul's going to spend the rest of Romans going into what that transformed life looks like what a Christian life looks like after they accept the gospel and a transformed life what a a new life looks like in Christ encompasses a lot of things but I'm going to focus on three main points that Paul brings up here that a transformed life should show a a humility a Godly humility that a new life in God should show Godly love then finally a a Christian who is transformed should be seeking peace and conflict so then let us look first at Godly humility because our uh country that we live in this is sort of a topic we don't like to talk about our country is one that's been built on a a prideful philosophy that you can come to America from whatever background you are and you could build yourself up by your own power and that you can make yourself successful we have that that phrase that I grew up hearing all the time in school that you pull yourself up by your own bootstraps that no matter your situation that you have the power to to change it that you are the one who makes yourself successful and having that mindset has made uh our our economy and everything a very selfish one that only looks after one's own benefits that I'm the one who who deserves these success that I'm the one who built this up and I there's a lack of care for other people our success as we see it comes from our own ability and therefore it is about us this is not what the gospel is about Paul spent the the entire book of Romans up to this point refuting that that the gospel and our Salvation our eternal life is not something that we can earn that no matter what we do in life we do not have the ability or the power to earn our Salvation to earn eternal life we just can't do it but rather God acted so by his grace we can have eternal life and that should humble us that the power is not really in our hands but it is God who is in control now we no longer should live for ourselves but we should live for the God who presented this grace to us and with that in mind I want to read what Paul has to say about humility starting in verse three of Romans 12 it reads for by the grace given to me I tell everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he should think instead think sensibly as God has distributed a Measure of Faith to each one now as we have many parts and one body and one body and all the parts do not have the same function in the same way we who are many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another according to the grace given to us we have different gifts if prophecy use it according to the proportion of one's faith if service use it in service if teaching and teaching if exhorting in exhortation giving with generosity leading with diligence showing Mercy with cheerfulness what Paul is saying here is that we're not supposed to be prideful we're not supposed to think of ourselves highly But realize that this isn't about us but rather we can't do everything on our own as Christians that we can't make our own success but our success comes from God that we are given gifts by God and that we can't get through this life alone but God has given us a body to work together in that where we can't succeed people around us can give us support that we are able to serve other people no longer looking to ourselves serving ourselves thinking that we are what's the most important but rather realizing that we need to lower ourselves humble ourselves and serve other people this is the will of God and how we are supposed to show humility I said this is a a very difficult thing because we come from a a culture that cultivates Pride that that makes you want to to live pridefully that encourages that but rather Christianity wants you to move away from that that that pride is a destructive thing that hurts other people but God wants us to to be humble and to serve other people and to realize that we are not capable of all we think we might be but rather God is the one who gives success God is the one who gave us this community in order to serve people now this is sort of the basis the beginning point of my next two points because once we have a a Godly humility once we're striving after this we need to realize that in serving each other we need to do it in love and the way that we love is is different from the world and it's not that the world is completely without love there is love quite apparent in the world Jesus points this out over in his Sermon on the Mount over in Matthew 7 Matthew 7 I'm going to read in verse 7 real quick Jesus says ask and it will be given to you seek and you will find knock and the door will be open to you for everyone who asks receives and the one who seeks finds and to one that knocks the door will be opened who among you if his son asks for bread we'll give him a stone or if he asks for a fish we'll give him a snake if you you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children how much more will your father in heaven give G give good gifts to those who ask him so starting off there Jesus says that you who are evil you who are apart from God still love people you still give good gifts you don't are constantly striving after do evil to people but you there are people that you love in your life so there is love in the world but it's not the kind of love that God wants us to strive for so what is a a transformed love what does that look like back over in Romans 12 Paul gives us a bit of a description of what that looks like Romans 12 I'm going to pick up in verse 9 Paul says love let love be without hypocrisy detest evil cling to what is good love one another deeply as brothers and sisters outdo one another in showing honor do not lack diligence and zeal be fervent in spirit serve the Lord rejoice in Hope be patient in Affliction be persistant in prayer share with the Saints in their needs pursue Hospitality bless those who persecute you bless and do not curse Rejoice with those who Rejoice weep with those who weep live in harmony with one another do not be proud instead associate with the humble do not not be wise in your own estimate do not repay anyone evil for evil give careful thought to do what is Honorable in everyone's eyes if possible as far as it depends on you live at peace with everyone friends do not avenge yourselves instead leave room for God's Wrath because it is written Vengeance belongs to me I will repay says the Lord but if your enemy is hungry feed him if he is thirsty give him something to drink for in doing so you will be heaping fiery coals on his head do not be conquered by evil but conquer evil with good now Paul gives this long description of how a Christian displays love in different ways but he starts off with what is to me one of the most powerful passages in the Bible it says in some versions let love be genuine or as it reads here as I read in this translation let love be without h hypocrisy the basis of transformed love is genuiness it does not come from selfish ambition it does not come from a feeling of obligation where we feel like we have to love other people because God wants us to but deep down we don't really love that person that we're just doing it because we feel like we have to but we don't have genuine feeling of love that's not true transformed love transformed love as Paul points out here is one that comes from a genuine care for other people he starts off talking about that genuine love and how we show it to fellow Christians that we should seek ways to outdo each other in showing love that it's almost like a competition like how can I show more love to people how can I be as loving as I possibly can to this person it should be a huge priority in our life not just when it's convenient but it should be an active thing we pursue how can I help this person constantly looking for the needs among people and see how can I support someone who is in need how can I be loving in that way and what Paul's also saying is that this isn't just a love we show to fellow Christians to people who agree with us Jesus said that it it's easy for people to love those who love them so Christians who love each other it's easy to love other Christians but God calls us to take a step further that our love should not just be for those who love us like the world loves but rather our love should not just be for each other but for everyone not just Christians but for non-christians even going as far as loving our enemies that's what Paul leaves off here at the end of the section we read that if our enemy is hungry feed him if he is thirsty give him something to drink for in doing in so doing you will be he weeping fiery coals on his head this is completely opposite of how the world reacts to opposition and to enemies then when someone is constantly actively trying to stop us and we're doing it every step of the way trying to hurt us in some way we're expected to retaliate or expected to stand up for ourselves and fight back in some way whether verbally or physically that this is how you defend yourself if someone is attacking you but Paul says leave that to God that's not how you're supposed to treat your enemies but Jesus said to love your enemies so when your enemy is in need when they need something you should be there to help them just as you're there for your fellow Christians who are in need you should be there and love your enemies and that is a much more shocking thing to the world the world that expects you to to fight or flight that expects you to retaliate when you show love to your enemy that that's a powerful statement of showing who God's character is because that is the kind of love that God shows today and has showed each and every one of us Paul brought that up earlier in Romans and one of the most powerful passages about the gospel over in Romans chapter 5 I'm going to read from there Romans 5 I'm going to start reading in verse 6 Paul writes for while we were still helpless at the right time Christ died for the ungodly for rarely will someone die for a just person though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die but God proves his own love for us and that while we were still sinners Christ died for us how much more then since we have now been declared righteous by his blood will we be saved through him from wrath for if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his son then how much more having been reconciled will we be saved by his life not only that but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have now received this reconciliation Paul writes that God is someone who loves his enemies and who are his enemies at one point it was each and every one of us that we rebelled and we sinned and we worked against God serving our own desires being prideful looking only after ourselves and not caring about God and God is fully justified in Striking us down for doing that but he didn't but rather he showed love to his enemies going as far as Dying For Us Paul writes that us even as Christians it's it's hard for us to Fathom that or even try to replicate that that even for a good person we might even hesitate to die for a good person but God died for each and one every one of his enemies enemies and this is how we can then show genuine love to our enemies if we remember how God loved that we are able to say that we are Christians that we are able to be reconciled and have salvation because God showed love to his enemies and therefore we should do the same even in just a little way by looking after their needs and helping them this is the kind of uh love that God wants us to strive after and to to seek after that kind of love requires humility you know a prideful person would say that they need to defend themselves when someone's attacking them but a humble person says I'm not what's really important here but seeking after their needs that's what's important we need to have that transformed humility to have that transformed love and working towards these two things and hand in hand we come to uh the last big point which is see seeking Peace In conflict that a a Christian who is transformed should seek peace in Conflict Paul brings this up in two different ways in the letter of Romans that we seek peace within our country and under rulership and we seek peace among each other as Christians and he first brings this up in Chapter 13 I'm going to start reading from verse one Romans 13 reading from verse one it says let everyone submit to the governing authorities since there is no Authority except from God and the authorities that exist are instituted by God so then the one who resists The Authority is opposing God God's command and those who oppose it will bring judgment on themselves for rulers are not a terror to Good Conduct but to bad do you want to be unafraid of the authority do what is good and will have its approval for it is God's servant for your good but if you do wrong be afraid because it does not carry the sword for no reason for it is God's servant an Avenger that brings wrath on the one who does wrong therefore you must submit not only because of Wrath but also because of your conscience and for this reason you pay taxes since the authorities are God's servants continually attending to their tasks pay your obligations to everyone taxes that to those you owe taxes toes to those you owe toes respect to those you owe respect and honor to those you owe honor now we live in a world that in my opinion as I've seen more and more thrives on conflict they don't want peace it seems that they're they're looking for a fight that they look for ways to argue with other people and it creates a huge amount of Divisions among people and breaks relationships and that is most parents when it comes to to politics and things like that even more now that we're coming up on an election I see more and more hate online people fighting over opinions and who they think should be this so and so leader representative even to the point of Christians fighting with each other that they they are dividing over each other and arguing with each other I've heard in churches that I've heard Christians say that if this person takes up this political view or supports this person then they should sit on that side and I'll sit on this side it's it's a it's a huge problem that we try to think uh that we know what's best and that this person will serve God's will the best so this should be our leader and it creates a lot of Divisions but but Paul argues against this mindset saying the person who is in command is the one that God has chosen and we need to respect that and submit to that and live peacely under that not to uh outrage and fight but just submit and Trust in God's control whether it's not obvious at first God is always the one in control it's a big message of the Book of Daniel that God's people are are ripped from their land and they're taken to a foreign Nation who serves pagan gods and they're left in a situation thinking we've lost how how can God possibly be in control here and God constantly reminds them that even in Babylon he is in control and that they should just live peaceably in serve him there that's what Paul calls the Romans to do as well to submit themselves and live peaceably he tells Timothy in 1 Timothy Chapter 2 to even pray for the rulers there and pray for peace in the land that they're able to spread God's word in that time and that if we live peaceably and we have peace among us then it is easier for us to go out and focus on what's important which is serving other people as we talked about and spreading God's word and I think this passage here in Romans 13 becomes more powerful when we realize who the ruler is at the time now these are the Romans living in Rome who feel the the heavy weight of Rome's hand the most and at the time the emperor is Nero and if you don't know a few years after Paul writes this letter Nero will turn against the Christians that he will call them out for something they didn't do starting some big fire in Rome and have the people turn against Christians and have them brought before courts and accused and if they claim to be Christian and held to that Faith they were executed in terrible ways the ruler was working against Christians and it's this group of people that will soon face this in a few years that Paul writes to submit to authorities and live peaceably and that's what we see the Christians do when Nero turns against them they don't Rebel they don't build up an army to fight against them but but they they accept it they serve God and submit even when they were being persecuted by the government their focus was on keeping peace and that's the kind of peace that we need to seek in our country and in the political climate of our country that so much goes against that idea not only are we supposed to seek peace in that big picture of our country but we're supposed to seek peace among fellow Christians and within our church we talked about one way that that Christians have divided over things like politics but there's a lot of things that Christians divide over and argue over and split the unity that we are supposed to have in the body of Christ and some of those things are very important in keeping the truth and sticking to the truth and making sure that God is the center but there's a lot of things that Christians argue and divide and split over that are not things we should be caring about that are that are things that are are simple and and are are silly even and Paul spends uh the next two chapters Romans 14 and 15 talking about how we need to keep peace and unity with each other it talks about uh personal freedoms versus serving your brothers and sisters that we shouldn't hold on to our our personal freedoms over helping other people we're like now that I'm a Christian I'm able to to eat meat that I wasn't able to before if you were a Jewish person and so you're going out and eating all these Foods you couldn't before but there might be some brothers or sisters who struggle with that still and they look at you and like I don't know if you should be doing that or they they're stumbling because you're you're practicing this personal freedom you have now what Paul's writing is that personal freedom is not more important than your brothers and sisters that you shouldn't cause splits and divisions and someone to stumble because you want to do something that you're able to do but you need to be willing to sacrifice in order to keep peace with each other I want to read about what Paul has to say about this in Romans 14 starting verse 13 Romans 14 and verse 13 Paul writes therefore let us no longer judge one another instead decide never to put a stumbling block or Pitfall in the way of your brother or sister I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself still to someone who considers a thing to be unclean to that one it is unclean for if your brother or sister is hurt by what you eat you are no longer walking according to love do not destroy by what you eat someone for whom Christ died therefore do not let your good be slandered for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking but righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Spirit whoever serves Christ in this way is acceptable to God and receives human approval so then let us pursue what promotes peace and what builds up one another do not tear down God's work because of food everything is clean but it is wrong to make someone Fall by what he eats it is a good thing not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that makes your brother or sister stumble whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves but whoever doubts stands condemned if he eats because his eating is not from faith and everything that is not from faith is sin so Paul is saying is be willing to make these sacrifices for other people that you have these personal freedoms that you want to enjoy but if someone else stumbles because of this why are you tearing down someone else's Faith causing them to sin in their mind because you want to practice ice these things this is not seeking peace but rather we need to put other people first show that humility show that love that we are talking about and seek their better seek their good and building them up in God and not tearing them down we need to keep the unity that God has given us and not divide ourselves over over silly things that God does not hold to be important and that can take the form of of many things that these kind of arguments could come from many different things Paul's talking about a very culturally significant thing here in terms of eating unclean or clean foods and how some Jewish Christians were were struggling with making that change and so Paul is asking the Jewish Christians who are okay with eating unclean things to make sacrifices to help those Christians and not making yourself the priority but for us it could take on different forms I've seen churches get into arguments over things like do we have Bible class on Wednesday or Thursday and they divided over that it's it's things like that that should not be a problem but we should rather seek peace over seeking what we think is is should be our personal right that we need to build up the body of Christ and seek each other's good this is the kind of peace that we are to seek after and to to close us off uh I want us to keep us to keep in mind these three things that the humility and love and peace we are to be living after and and to be transformed by but being transformed is not a a one-time thing it's not that you get baptized and all of a sudden you're a completely different person and your habits are 100% changed and you're never going to fall back into them again but being transformed is a is a process that happens over time you start off with a little and you're slowly building to being more humble you're showing love in different ways and you're trying to seek peace in different conflicts and that is a a process that you build towards and you grow in and it's something that you slowly become and strive after accomplishing we're not always going to be perfect in doing this that there are going to be times where we fall short maybe fall back into bad habits we tried to break but our goal is to to dust ourselves off pick ourselves up and keep walking and that by the grace of God that was given us because Jesus died for us we can continue to strive after being the kind of person that God wants us to be to continue to seek after his will no matter how many times we fall short of that the grace of God continues to cover us and we can keep striving after being the kind of person he wants us to be and building the kind of Church community he wants us to build and this is how we walk and this is how we live we should continue to seek God's Will and how he wants us to live as Paul talked about at the beginning of Romans 12 that a transformed person seeks the will of God and tries to understand it and that is what we've been really spending our time this morning and I want us to think about through this week through this year and through the rest of our lives that we need to live differently from the world to live after the way that God has set before us by his will now if you have not given your life to God if you are still living in your old ways but you want something better you want to be transformed and walk in this way to walk with God and and be a part of his family and have eternal life at the end of this life you could be baptized into Christ and begin that walk with him begin living differently if you need the the prayers or the support if you're struggling with anything and you need our help if there's anything that we can do for you as Brothers and Sisters in Christ please let us know now as we stand and sing this invitation song