Sermon Tone Analysis

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*/Towards Becoming so that…/*
*Romans 12:1-2; Matthew 28:19-20*
*September 7th, 2008, Richmond Baptist Church*
*Pastor Jeff Germo, Candidating Sunday*
/ /
How many of you ever made it downtown to Coal Harbour to see the sculpture of the upside down church before they removed it and brought it to Calgary?
 
It’s an interesting piece of work isn’t it?
I kind of wished they had left it where it was because it opened a lot of doors for conversation.
Do you know what the title of this sculpture is? 
[“Device to Root out Evil”][1]
*/[3]/*
What do you think the artist was trying to say through this sculpture?
It seemed quite out of place where it sat juxtaposed against the busy city.
It looked like it was picked up by a tornado in Kansas, along with Dorothy and Toto from the Wizard of Oz, and slammed upside down and crooked in the middle of Vancouver.
What was he trying to say?       [discussion]
 
To me, it sort of looks like the artist is saying that the church is not doing the job that it was called to do.
It’s upside down, it’s crooked, it’s falling apart, it’s obsolete, it’s out of place, and it’s lost its way…
 
But in reality, the church is supposed to be upside down in relation to the world around us.
If we, as God’s church, are doing our job we will be a people that stands out from our society in such a way that it makes us noticeable, not because of the clothes we wear, or anything external.
We will stand out because we will be characterized by the fruit of the spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, & self-control.
In other words, we will look more and more like Jesus.
And the world will stand up and take notice.
God has a plan for the church.
That plan has always been the same.
It has never changed.
He is building for Himself a people, a society, or culture within a culture who is all about His business on earth, so that His mission that He gave us can be accomplished.
Each one of us here today is in process.
None of us, at this moment in time, is all that we could be.
As a matter of fact, if I become your pastor at RBC, you will eventually discover, and maybe sooner than later, that I am not a perfect pastor.
You can talk with Ruth after the service and find out that I am not the perfect husband either.
I might as well tell you that right now to burst any illusions.
Like you, I am in the process of becoming the person that God has called me to be in Christ Jesus.
Soren Kierkegaard, the Danish theologian and philosopher from a century and a half ago famously wrote, “With God’s help I will become me.”
Sometimes, even as Christians, we have a picture of God as someone who wants to spoil our fun, and that if we truly follow Jesus He will strip of us of our real selves.
But, the opposite is actually true.
By His grace and power, God wants us to become fully who He has made us to be so that He can do His work through us.
And when we enter into that process with Jesus life becomes very exciting.
We enter into a thrilling journey towards the heart of God that is satisfying like nothing else on earth.
And so my main job as pastor is to keep all of us attentive to God so that we are always aware that He working in our lives so we can join Him in that process of becoming.
When we get towards the end of our lives we will all look back and wonder, did I invest my life in things that were important, or did I waste my life on things that didn’t really matter.
Nobody, on their deathbed, says, “I wish I had spent more time at the office.”
We have been brainwashed in our society to have values that are not priorities to God.
We are bombarded with images all day long on TV, radio, billboards, magazines, etc. that it is important to drive a certain kind of car, or wear a certain kind of clothes, or live in a certain kind of house, or have a certain kind of job.
We look at people who have these certain kinds of status symbols and assume that because they have them they are successful.
Basically, what our society does is encourage us to live lives of debauchery.
Debauchery means that we do what ever we feel like doing at any given time.
This kind of living is totally opposite to the life that Jesus has called us to.
And so, what God wants to do with us is an extreme makeover so that the things we do are *not* the things that come naturally to us, but the things that Jesus would do through us so that His mission can be accomplished.
Turn with me to the book of Romans in your Bibles.
*Romans 12:1-2*
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./*[2]
Paul begins this section with an appeal to the Roman Christians.
There is an urgency in his voice.
He says, */“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God…”/*
 
Now, remember whenever you see a “therefore” you need to ask what it’s there for, because it always refers to something that has just been said, so to make sure that we are staying in context we need to find out what came before this statement.
In the first eleven chapters of Romans, Paul has expounded the truths about all that God has done for the believer, and all that the believer is and has in Christ.
By God’s great mercy and grace, Paul says, we have been saved from an eternity in hell, if we believe, not because of anything that we have done, or could do, but simply because it was His sovereign will to love and redeem a people for Himself.
We have been given freedom *from* sin, not freedom *to* sin, peace with God, power to live, and an eternity in heaven with Christ.
And all of this and more because of what Jesus did on the cross two thousand years ago.
It takes Paul eleven chapters to expound these glorious truths of the Christian life.
And then he says in 12:1, /“*therefore…*, because of all these wonderful and glorious truths that I have just told you about…, because God is merciful… /*/present your bodies as a living sacrifice, which is your spiritual worship.”/*
Now, what does Paul means by /“spiritual worship?”/
We have two Greek words here; ‘*/logikos’ /*and */‘latreia’./*
Now, what English word do we get from the word */logikos/*?
*Logical, and logic.*
It means reasonable, logical, obvious.
Or another way it is used is *“to be true to the real nature of something”.*
Keep that definition in the back of your mind for a minute.
Now, ‘latreia’, *the Greek word that is translated, “worship”, here, is one of those words that we have difficulty translating with just one English word.
It is the word that was used of the Levites when they would perform their priestly duties at the altar of God.
They were performing a *service of worship* to God.
So, the word /latreia/ is “a ministry, or an act, that is done for the glory of God.”
 
Now, the KJV instead of */“spiritual worship”/* says, */“reasonable service,”/* which seems to be a little bit better translation.
But really, I think that the NASB translates it best.
It says your */“service of worship.”/*
It combines both of the ideas that are in the Greek words to make this phrasal word.
Now, I am not a Greek expert.
I know just enough to get myself in trouble, but I do have some resources that I use, and one of the Greek scholars translates verse one like this;
 
*/I therefore beg of you, please, brethren, through the mercies of God, by a once for all presentation, to place your bodies at the disposal of God, a sacrifice, a living one, a holy one, well-pleasing, your rational, sacred service./*
* *
If I was a Greek scholar, which I’m not, but if I was, I would translate it like this;
“Duh…  Isn’t obvious because of all that God has done for you, and because it is actually what God made you for, that you should surrender every part of your life in service to Him?
This is how you worship God.”
 
God created us to worship Him.
That is our purpose for being.
It is our */logikos/* – “true to our real nature.”
Our true nature, the reason that God created us, is to worship Him.
In this, and only in this, will we find satisfaction in our lives.
This is key, and everything must start from there.
-Paul then goes on in verse two to say that in order for this to be possible, we’re going to need a new way of thinking, because this does not come naturally to us.
*/2 /**/Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind,…/*
 
You can’t think like you used to think, Paul says.
You need to be transformed to think like Christ, and the only way that you can do that is if you are changed from the inside out.
*/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./*
If we are going to know what God wants for us, His good, acceptable and perfect will for us then we need to think like Him.
In our natural selves this is not possible.
And if we are going to think like Him we will need an overhaul of our mind.
We will need an extreme makeover.
And Paul says that through the power of the Holy Spirit a transformation is possible.
Does that excite anyone?
Now, the starting place is, of course, to place your trust in the fact that Jesus died for your sins, and that He was raised from the dead to give you new life.
You need the Spirit of Jesus residing in you.
That’s the starting point.
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