It's Time to Make a Shift
SHIFT • Sermon • Submitted
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· 1,667 viewsTo renew our minds means to shift our thinking that leads us to act in certain ways.
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Introduction
Introduction
Hello, and good evening. My name is Jeremy Franklin. I am one of the pastors at Farley Street Baptist Church in Waxahachie, TX. If you are new to our church, we’d love to get to know you better. At the end of the message, please head on over to farleystreet.com/nextsteps. If the Lord is leading you to share your information, make a decision, or leave a prayer request, just fill out the form to let us know.
Right now, during the Covid-19 pandemic, our church is not meeting in person but we are trying to minister to you online in as many ways as possible. Here’s a list of our weekly content:
Sundays- Worship service is 10:30 am
Tuesdays- Video devotional with our Senior Pastor, Richard Smith
Wednesdays- at 6 pm, we have something for everyone:
Adults, a Midweek Message, new series exploring the idea of making a SHIFT
Students, Pastor Jimmy hosts Youth Night Live from Zoom (jimmy@farleystreet.com)
Kids, Pastor Aaron has a video devotional on Facebook to do with your family
Thursdays we share our Weekend Update announcements
Life Groups meet online, check with the Group Leader for schedule
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Giving- If you are part of our church family, or been blessed by our ministry, please go to farleystreet.com/give and show your support. Throughout this pandemic, we are maintaining our ministry of the Word and to people as best we can. We also support several missionaries and local causes. When you give it supports the spread of the Gospel throughout the world and helps people in benevolent ways.
We are also trying to organize a new ministry effort to supply medical personnel with PPEs, Personal Protection Equipment. If you have items to donate, or can sew PPEs, please contact us at jimmy@farleystreet.com. Here he is to give a little update on those efforts...
Tonight, we are trying something new with our Midweek Messages. I am on a Zoom call with a few friends for an interactive and inductive study. Let’s make some introductions...
Glad you guys are here to participate. If you are watching this, we want you to participate with us- get your Bible, pen, notepad, & turn to Romans 12:1-2. Let’s dig into this text.
Text: Romans 12:1–2, Living Sacrifices to God
12 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Let’s pray.
The way to do an inductive study is to ask questions of the text, and since this is also interactive, I’ll need your help with it.
- What sticks out to you about these verses?
- What key words or phrases are there?
- Are there any cause and effect relationships?
- Do you see any comparisons or contrasts?
Here’s what sticks out to me: RENEWING OF YOUR MIND, I’m basing the series on this phrase.
Mind (nous)- the most common word, but there are about 11 other words that describe the mind.
Nous- mental state, attitude, that involves beliefs, feelings, values, and dispositions; the things that lead us to act in certain ways.
Nous is the root word for repent, repentance; metanoia (repentance) = a change of mind
Here we are talking about RENEWING the mind, which means to reestablish something in a like-new, often improved, manner. ILL: like buying a refurbished laptop, it’s been used before, by someone else, for different purposes, but now you bought it and re-purpose it for your use.
That’s what Christ is doing with our mind, and it leads to changes that happen in our lives.
2 Corinthians 5:17 , Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
Renewing our mind IN CHRIST means that we make a SHIFT in our mental state of beliefs, feelings, values, and dispositions (attitudes) that lead us to act in certain ways. I.e., renewing the mind changes the understanding and our way of thinking that shows up in our actions.
During this time, the Covid-19 pandemic, we’re having to do a lot of re-thinking: we have to be more cognizant than ever about where we go, what we do, are we wearing the right gear, etc…
- During the pandemic, in what ways are you thinking or acting differently?
We are already having to shift our thinking in a lot of ways, now we need to take it a step further.
BIG IDEA: it’s time to make a shift in our minds that shows up in our lives and makes a difference in the world around us.
BIG IDEA: it’s time to make a shift in our minds that shows up in our lives and makes a difference in the world around us.
1. The first shift is to VIEW everything through the lens of God’s MERCY. vs. 1
1. The first shift is to VIEW everything through the lens of God’s MERCY. vs. 1
- What is the immediate context? Therefore- what is it therefore? Look before it.
Volunteer- Romans 11:33-36, Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! 34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His counselor?” 35 “Or who has first given to Him and it shall be repaid to him?” 36 For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.
These verses are the culmination of the first 11 chapters of Romans. What are some important themes or verses in Romans? (righteousness of God, redemption through Jesus, justification by faith, etc)
Rom 3:23, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God;
Rom 6:23, the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord;
Rom 10:9, if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
11:33-36 are a doxology (a praise to God) about the wisdom and mercy of God, recognizing that everything we have comes from Him, is through Him, and goes back to Him.
So in 12:1, Paul is beseeching (urging) the church to, in light of God’s wisdom and mercy, to give Him what He deserves. Based on what He has done for us through Jesus, that means everything.
2. The second shift is to GIVE God everything because that’s what He DESERVES.
2. The second shift is to GIVE God everything because that’s what He DESERVES.
Giving God everything we have begins with giving Him ourselves.
- How does Paul describe the act of giving ourselves to God? (as living sacrifices)
- How do you think the passage is affected by its cultural or historical background? I.e., what’s the general idea behind the word sacrifice?
- How do you think the idea of sacrifice relates to our worship of God?
Service: commonly refers to priestly duties in the temple. One of the duties of priests was to make sacrifices. Now, we don’t have a physical temple to serve in because believers are the temple of God.
Volunteer- 1 Corinthians 6:19 , do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?
The sacrifice we make is not a dead animal, but living wholly for Christ.
Bodies: (soma) refers to the entire person, a person considered as a whole (physical & immaterial)
Application: Before I came to Farley Street I was working in youth prevention. We went to schools and community centers to teach evidence-based curriculum to try to keep kids off drugs. In that curriculum we talked about being a well-rounded person- physically, intellectually, emotionally, & socially; I used the acrostic PIES to discuss being whole or well-rounded.
As we consider giving God everything because that’s what He deserves, to what extent are we giving Him everything? One of the reasons I disliked the curriculum I taught before is that it left out the most important part of our being- which is spiritual. There was a hole in our curriculum.
But I see the church going the opposite direction. We talk all about the spiritual but neglect to discuss how it affects us a whole- our bodies, minds, feelings, relationships, and yes, souls.
- In this time, how are you giving your bodies to God?
- How are you giving your minds to God?
- What about your feelings, and relationships?
Giving God what He deserves requires more than giving Him our hearts, it’s giving Him everything! And in this 3rd point we’ll talk about how to do that.
3. The third shift is to BREAK free from the mold of this world and do the WILL of God.
3. The third shift is to BREAK free from the mold of this world and do the WILL of God.
ILL: When I was growing up my mom had a Tupperware jello mold, one of those hard-plastic, light sea-foam green colored, jello molds, in the shape of a flower. She’d cook the jello on the stove top, pour it into the mold, and put it in the fridge to cool. Then she could turn it over and the jello would come out in the shape of the flower mold. That’s what it means to be conformed.
Conformed: to be shaped or molded to a certain pattern, & in this case it’s the pattern of the world (not the physical earth, but this present evil age prior to Christ’s return)
- Now that we are in a time when we can’t really go out into the physical world, are we letting the world’s systems & values get into us?
Volunteer 1 John 2:15–17, Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. 17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.
Rather than be conformed to the world, believers are to be transformed. Transformed- to be changed outwardly, in essence, or nature (where we get the word metamorphosis).
- According to the text, how is a person transformed? By the renewing of our mind.
It is only as we conform to the truth of God and His word, rather than that of the world, that we can actually be transformed and prove God’s good, acceptable, and perfect will in our lives.
If we are going to do that, we need to make a shift: 1) to view everything through the lens of God’s mercy, that means even now when we are in this pandemic, 2) to give everything to Him and that begins with giving Him our whole selves, 3) How we do that is by breaking free from the mold of this world to do the will of God.
RESPONSE:
- What are some negative things we need to break with during this pandemic?
- What are some positive things we can to prove the good, acceptable and perfect will of God?