VISION SERIES: Formation, Part 2 // ”Living Out Transformation”, Rom 12:1-2

this guy's been working overtime and

we're just so grateful for you. Um, love

that you got time to prep this sermon.

So, that's amazing. Thank you so much,

brother.

>> Thank you. That's a huge assumption. Got

time. Yeah, we make time.

Some of us have time, some of us make

time. Uh, I know we've already prayed 20

times. I just felt a strong desire to

just uh pray and set the tone for the

scripture. It's just going to be a

devotional today since we wanted to

spend some time for with those giving us

a heart for worship in this place. But

just bow your heads as we enter into

just a couple verses today. I just feel

such a grace from God to empower us to

resist the hindrances and challenges,

lies, just the the ideas that enter into

our different parts of our mind.

Forgetting who we are. That challenges

feel harder than they are. the

situations feel more impossible than

they are. We just ask this morning you

would deposit a grace to remind us who

you are first and who we are as your

kids.

I just feel like there's some of us in

the room that are just like questioning

some of us subtle things questioning

subtle things.

Do I have what it takes? Am I in the

right community? Am I the right city?

Mind with the right person?

Those are valid questions.

But are you present with a conviction

that the living God has plucked you out

of eternity,

has adopted you,

has taken you

from a completely

purposeless

reality

into an eternal hope. that's secure that

nothing of this world can take from you.

How are we allowing culture, Father? How

are we allowing

the realities of our day and our time to

dictate

our mood, our attitude, our actions, and

our lives. We give them to you today. We

ask that you would speak to us. you

would encourage us where we need to just

resist

mindsets.

Give us that power. Make it simple for

us to step into it as a people in Jesus

name. Amen. Amen. All right. We're going

to be in Romans 12. Uh Romans is

probably my favorite book of the Bible.

It's my least favorite book of the Bible

to preach. So, here we go.

Romans 12 1.

Uh, I think I'm I'm only going to

probably get to a the first couple

verses. I meant to go one through eight.

I'm going to read one through eight.

We're probably only going to preach one

to two.

This is Paul's

first 11 chapters of Romans. He's

getting into a lot of of stuff. And then

this is like this is what it looks like

to actually live this out. He says,"I

appeal to you therefore brothers by the

mercies of God to present your bodies

your bodies as living sacrifices."

So he gets into this whole thing. This

living sacrifice mentality is a

completely new way of looking at the

world, your life and your body, your

physical, spiritual, mental, everything

holy and acceptable to God, which is

your spiritual worship. The entire

premise is saying this is what worship

looks like.

Don't be conformed to this world. Says

his message is nonconformity.

Don't be conformed to this world, but be

transformed by the renewing of your

mind. Transformation

lives in the place of your mind being

completely renewed.

That by testing you may discern what is

the will of God, what is good,

acceptable, and perfect. There will be

testing. Verse three. For by the grace

given to me, I say to everyone among you

not to think of himself more highly than

he ought to think, but to think with

sober judgment, each according to the

measure of faith that God has assigned.

I just want you to note for a second,

humility in the ancient world was not a

virtue. If you look at any Greek or

Roman philosopher, not one of them would

look at humility as a virtue. The reason

why humility is a virtue in the modern

world is because of Christianity.

For as one body we have many members and

members do not all have the same

function. Verse five. So we though many

are one body in Christ individ

individually. To know your place you

have to understand you are a member of

one another. Having gifts that differ

according to the grace given to us. Let

us use them. If prophecy in proportion

to faith of service and serving. The one

who teaches and teaching. The one who

exhorts in his exhortation. The one who

contributes in generosity. The one who

leads with zeal. the one who does acts

of mercy with cheerfulness. He's

essentially saying, you've got gifts. Do

them excellently.

Raise the standard. So, we're in a

vision series right now. And I want to

briefly just for those of you that are

entering in, new, visiting, checking

things out, welcome. Good to see you. We

what we're doing is we are building out

trying to understand our vision as a

church as we head into a new space. And

it's of course it's not about a space.

It's about what can he do with the

people in that space and it's m much of

what matters is how you got there. And I

think a lot of what we are what where

we've been in the process is more

important than what we say when we get

there. It's understanding how did we get

here in the first place. And ultimately

the vision he's given us is that we are

first and foremost as frontier. We're a

countercultural family formed by the

presence of Jesus renewing his beauty on

the frontiers of modern culture.

countercultural family formation and

frontiers.

And so what we've been looking I think

there's a slide for this. I've got it.

Yeah, there we go. We've kind of been

going in, you know, the last number of

weeks since the beginning of the year

from from the the ache, that new year

ache was the first message of the year

where we all are coming from adoption,

family, church, formation,

transformation, and frontiers will be

the the last couple weeks. But that ache

that we started with, we named the ache

many of us carry here in the new year.

And the pressure that we have to prove

ourselves, to reinvent ourselves or to

keep up. And what we really need is to

hear Jesus simply say, "Follow me

again."

We moved into adoption, the ache of

adoption. And we were in Romans 8 again.

And and and there Paul reminds us that

we're not spiritual just freelancing our

lives away. What we're doing is is we're

starting from a place of adoption.

You're a son, you're a daughter.

Then we build from there into family, a

countercultural family. And that God

doesn't form just individuals.

He doesn't take us into isolation. It's

always forming a people that are shaped

by wisdom and love for others. And then

the church, Phil did an amazing job of

reminding us why the church matters and

will continue to matter long after

you're gone. And that the product of

church is not about consumption.

It's about people being deeply committed

to Jesus. living it out in a community.

That ultimately leads us to what we're

doing this week and last week, which is

about formation.

We're spending two weeks on this. We

were in Psalm 71 last week. And that

that was all about how we look at

formation over time for the long haul.

How God becomes our home over decades.

He can't just be an emergency contact.

And today, as we're walking this road of

formation together, I I want to ask just

a couple questions.

What's shaping you if you're honest?

What story are you living from?

And what wisdom is it that anchors you,

that forms you along the way? Those

questions matter especially right now

because when we enter into new spaces

like we're about to do, whether it's a

new building, a new calling, new

frontier,

all that it's doing is it's it's getting

at questions, these deep questions that

that really matter more than ever, not

less. And these frontiers that we're

wanting to enter into as a people, they

reveal the world's needs. We are called

on the frontiers to meet the world in

the midst. Not so that not because we

have all the answers to all their needs.

It's because in that place it reveals

something of the longing of their hearts

and in the process of going.

We're living out what we what is most in

our hearts. What we want to let Jesus

form and reveal in us, but that's

forming us all along the way as we go.

And so the the issue here that Paul's

talking about, it's one it's one

concept. And the concept he's talking

about is transformation.

It's, you know, transformation,

restoration, all these like nice

biblical words that a lot of modern

churches name themselves after is great.

But but really all we're asking is how

is it that God actually forms people?

How does he form us over time?

So what we're going to look at, I'm

probably not going to get all the way

through just probably the first couple

verses, but in this one passage, Romans

Romans 12:1–8

12:1-8 has our three anchors. How we we

say family, formation, and frontiers,

but there's there's several phrases we

often go back to. What does it mean to

be a countercultural family? We learn

how to trust the story of God.

We're his sons and daughters that are

part of a bigger story than our own. We

trust that story. We offer ourselves in

view of God's mercy. This is what Paul's

talking about today. Secondly, we

practice the way of Jesus. That's

formation. It's it's the reality of

being reformed together by a different

kind of story. And then third, we

remember the future. We play our part

for the sake of the body in the world.

That's what Paul wants to get at today.

Again, I'm going to land us just on the

first couple verses. So, let let me just

remind us what how he starts. He's

saying this whole appeal. Therefore, I

appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by

the mercies of God. Present your bodies

as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing

to God. This is worship. So, he doesn't

make a command here. Paul loves to make

commands. Paul is not a shy person when

it comes to to to saying things how how

it is. He's Jewish.

Says it how it is.

And that that matters because he's not

giving us a command here.

What he's saying here is if you truly

see God's mercies for what they really

are. If you really encounter them,

you're not going to need me to coersse

you into obedience.

So, he's kind of lingering. He's kind of

just like dangling something in front of

them.

He's not pressuring them. He's not He's

He does persuade at times in his

letters. This is not a persuasion.

He's saying if mercy if you've

encountered the mercy of God

again grace getting something you don't

deserve mercy not getting something you

do deserve if you've encountered God's

mercy that it's actually reshaped your

imagination

a surrendered life to that God is the

most reasonable normal thing in the

world

if you know the mercies of God what they

are

you will live them out for what they

are. So transformation starts not with

effort but with trust. Trust the story.

And so why living sacrifice? Why does he

use this living sacrifice language? So

in the ancient world, whether it was

Roman or Jewish, doesn't matter.

Religion, you could not comprehend any

sort of faith in religious order without

a temple, without a priesthood, and

without some kind of physical sacrifice.

In the modern day, we make fun of it. I

mean, people on podcasts when they start

making fun of religions or questioning

religion, they always go back to those

silly little sacrifices and

temples and priests. And you have to

understand,

we have always had sacrifice. We've

always had temples and we've always had

priests. And we have it in the modern

day, too. Not just in ordered religion.

We have it everywhere.

But here's here's the thing is that

devotion to sacrifice, they assumed that

this was literally somewhere. And what

Paul is doing, it was completely

unprecedented in his time. And you have

to understand that to understand the

weight of what he's saying. He's using

the language sacrifice, worship, and

priesthood. But he's without a temple,

without priests, and without animals.

He's giving it without all the things

they thought were mandatory. He's saying

all these things. Your body becomes the

offering.

Not a goat, not a lamb.

Your life becomes worship. And the

community becomes the temple.

He he's giving the foundation of what

the last 2,000 years of Christian

history have done to transform the

world. But it doesn't transform the

world without transforming lives.

Um some people misappropriate when he's

talking about living sacrifices that

he's alluding to the fact that Nero and

the Roman emperors are going to burn

Christians at the stake as a living

sacrifice. Um

that didn't happen until after Paul

wrote these words. The the powerful

thing is is that that actually happened

after Paul wrote these words. So many

people misappropriate that he's talking

about that. He's not talking about that.

It's but it's because he talked about

that that Christians were willing to

become that.

He's not talking about, hey, you're just

going to have to like let yourselves be

burned as charcoal as

the pagans worship around you.

But it's because they see themselves as

living sacrifices that they're willing

to become those kinds of people.

And it's because they didn't see their

faith tied to just a physical temple or

a physical priesthood or a physical

animal sacrifice. It's because they saw

that their body becomes an offering and

that their worship is their life and

that their community is their temple.

And if we'll if we will understand that

we will never have an issue

filling a building or maintaining it.

It'll have its proper place because our

temple is our community.

Christianity didn't abolish sacrifice.

It just relocated it.

Worship moved from an altar to a way of

life. In Paul, Paul says bodies. He

doesn't mean just thoughts or

intentions. He's talking about the whole

person. Your whole person, your time,

your energy, your presence, your

endurance, your vulnerability,

everything is tied to this kind of

worship in real life. And so what he's

talking about this kind of sacrifice, he

he mentions three things. It's like he's

stacking three words together when he

talks about living sacrifice. Living,

holy, and pleasing. Living is like the

ongoing daily embodied part of this.

Then he's talking about the holy set

apart for God's purposes. You're not

withdrawing from the world. You're

leaning in. You're set apart, but you're

not moving away. You're pleasing, not

impressive to the culture, but you've

been received by God, and you're

stepping into the culture with that

mentality. You're living, you're holy,

and you're pleasing. That's a living

sacrifice.

It's not about some dramatic martyrdom

that comes but it's because of how the

people lived their ongoing boring lives

with this mentality that they became the

living sacrifices.

It's the self-giving life

for the well-being of others.

And in the Roman world, that kind of

life was essential just to survive for

the for these people, for these

Christians. They shared meals. They

shared space. They shared suffering. And

they ultimately shared an eternal hope

by remembering the future and living in

the present. And this to them this

wasn't abstract. This was the this was

the reason why they could get up and

face all kinds of persecution,

uncertainty. And it's why it was costly,

communal, and real.

But but where it gets us uncomfortable

if we if we'll let this speak to our

modern day is that he's he's not asking

people to just start sacrificing. He's

assuming they already are.

So if you're if you're just curious

about the Christian life, it's not this

isn't just like a question and we're not

asking you to start sacrificing. We're

asking you

if you've encountered the life of

placing your life on an altar where you

where you are you're sitting here saying

everyone worship something. Everyone

puts their life on the altar of

something. Paul's just saying choose an

altar.

So we can just take a moment

and let's be real with the altars that

we're choosing.

There's some modern altars that I put on

the screen behind me. They're not

they're not secrets.

I just want us to sit with these. And

that may be all we get to today. But

what are the modern altars that are

sitting before us?

Productivity,

security, image, control.

If productivity is your is your modern

altar, what you're telling yourself is

you're being a good steward of your

time.

That's good. I need to be better at

that. But it's somewhere along the way,

what happens is productivity has has

stopped being a tool. And it's it's

becoming your very sense of worth.

You'll know this when when you don't

know how to rest without guilt.

Does your quiet time feel like a task?

Does stillness make you anxious?

Productivity is an altar.

Security your altar.

It's easy to say we're just being wise

with your security, your money, your

time.

But your peace depends on having enough

maybe buffers in your life, maybe backup

plans, contingencies. If you can't

actually relax until everything's

accounted for,

not just money, definitely money,

outcomes, people,

worst case scenarios that you're playing

constantly in your head. When peace

depends on certainty,

trust

is difficult. Security may be your

alter. Image.

Image is a tricky one. It's really easy

to point out a young person who's

obsessed with image.

But what about the rest of us? Maybe

you're a young person wrestling with

image, but every single one of us has an

image issue.

And we mask behind this concept that I'm

just being thoughtful.

But if my inner life is still constantly

shaped by thinking about how I'm seen

and perceived and not just how I'm being

formed. If if I'm constantly replaying

conversations and and I'm I'm managing

the impression I give off to other

people.

Some of us our entire careers are

basically this. the impression I give

off the people that I'm attracted to in

work and that come to me for things that

the vibe I get off

you feel unsettled when you can't

control the narrative

when being misunderstood is is the most

threatening thing in the world.

It's an image issue and that's your

altar. Then there's control.

Those of us that wrestle with control,

it's it's under the false pretense of

responsibility. Some of us need to take

more responsibility.

Others of you

control freaks. We hide behind it.

That underneath it is the fear that if I

don't manage everything and everyone,

it's all going to unravel. I'm going to

let myself and everyone else down.

And then you struggle to what? You

struggle to delegate. You micromanage.

You hide under the lies. This is good

for everybody else. And that doesn't

matter if you're doing that in the

workplace or in your home.

You feel exhausted and you can't let

anything go.

When surrender when surrender like this

doesn't feel safe,

you're living in the altar of control.

Finally, success. We all want it, but we

all frame it, if we're honest, as

calling. Our high watermark of success

is living out our calling.

We have got to separate careers from

calling.

Your career can't be your calling.

Every single one of us are called, but

not every single one of us get to live

out a career.

There's not one time the Lord promises

your career.

It's the blessing and curse of the

American dream is that many of us get to

merge our calling with our careers. What

a gift that is when you can. The lie

underneath it is that you have to or

that you need to.

And if you can't separate the two, you

live at the altar of success.

This is when you're the success of your

outcomes, whether you're riding high or

low. It's like you ultimately need the

impact and recognition of your life and

your success to fuel you.

So, a good week makes you feel close to

God. A setback makes you question

everything.

Some of these things are subtle. I live

with this every every week.

How did Sunday go? Went great.

I feel like I'm living out my calling.

Sunday went bad.

I want to give up and move to another

country.

Maybe I shouldn't come back from France

this summer. Whatever it is, you start

thinking irrationally. You You merge

calling

with career.

Doesn't matter whether you're a pastor,

police officer, an actress.

When fruit determines your sense of

faithfulness,

your production,

you are living at the altar of success.

Can you just join me

in your mind's eye?

Meet Jesus at the altar, the one you're

really worshiping at this morning.

Let him take over your altar.

The point, most of these things aren't

evil. We don't we're not sitting in a

room full of evil people doing evil

things.

It's the danger is when something good

becomes the ultimate good in your life.

When something that's not the ultimate

good sits at the top of all the other

things.

And what we what we need to do and what

Paul's invitation, it's not accusing us.

He's sitting here simply asking, "Who's

going to receive your life? Who's going

to receive all the sacrifices when

you've been offering them at the wrong

altar?"

So, he's saying in in view of God's

mercies, Paul is saying, he's saying,

you don't climb onto the altar to earn

love. You step onto it because love has

already claimed you. And he's saying,

God meets you in the midst of this where

you meet him at the right altar. And

he's saying, don't try to improve your

life first. We're obsessed with

self-improvement as we've talked about

many, many times and we will continue

to. Don't improve your life first. Offer

yourself first. The difference of the

Christian life, and this is our this is

our modern false gospel,

self-improvement for the sake of others.

I go to counseling for the sake of

others. I read these books for the sake

of others. I improve my business for the

sake of others. I work out for the sake

of others. Self-improvement, self-help,

self for the sake of others. The

position is wrong. You need to do

probably most all of what you're doing

besides that cleanse. That cleansing

stuff is like absolute hogwash. I've

tried it. Doesn't work. Stop cleansing.

I'm just kidding. I have no idea what

I'm talking about.

But this the stuff that it's the

mentality is if I just take care of

myself, I'll be useful. I'll be

impactful.

And what Paul is saying is you can't

understand the gospel if you think that

the order is improve your life and then

offer it. It's simply this. Offer your

life.

He'll improve it.

You can't keep yourself and offer

yourself.

I these things are so subtle.

Many of you like it's not it may not

even change your schedule. It's going to

change your mindset. That's why he says

the transformation comes by the renewing

of your mind, not by your schedule. We

think we can be transformed by the

renewing of our schedules.

It's not even by the renewing of your

giving.

Even that'll come by a mindset.

And some of you are giving more than

others with the wrong mindset. And he

doesn't want that kind of giving.

If it's doing it to check it off a list,

it'll never get you where you're trying

to because you're at the wrong altar.

Choose your altar.

You sit at the right altar. You can even

be offering the wrong sacrifices and he

will sit there with you and pull out

what needs to die.

Offer yourself before trying to improve

yourself.

Oh, that's what I said. Verse one and

two. Team, come up. I don't have any

more time.

Can we uh stand for a moment and just

close your eyes? Get in a posture of

prayer.

I do have one final thing just to to put

on our minds. I do I think there's a

slide for it. The final practice that I

want us to do and just to step into this

week.

one simple question as we enter just

back into a moment to let the Holy

Spirit just take us somewhere to live

this out in one simple simple simple

way.

What is it that's already in your hand

that you've been underestimating?

What Paul spends the rest of this

passage doing is reminding them of the

gifts that they carry.

Do something you've been gifted.

Some of us right now, you're stuck in

your head.

And he wants to set you free by just

reminding you that you carry gifts. Use

them. Use them for the sake of others.

What's already in your hand that you've

been underestimating some of us, it's

it's the way you listen to people is

profound.

You listen in the way that others can't.

Some of you have done that for me.

Remember

your gift this morning.

The way you notice people.

The gift of noticing

will change someone's life forever.

The way some of you consistently show up

when it's inconvenient or even

impossible is only because of your

faith.

The way you speak hope, create

stability, give quietly, serve without

being seen. This is because you've been

adopted and you live from another realm,

however imperfectly, but this is who you

are. These are the gifts that you carry.

None of these are small. They're simple.

And that's what grace working through

people activated and in motion has to

look like day in and day out. So the

practice we invite you into this week is

simply offer one of these gifts

intentionally this week

for the good of someone else. I want you

to leave this morning knowing who's the

one person I'm going after this week.

If you're good at noticing people, just

reach out to someone who you know who's

been overlooked or been extra quiet. If

you if you're an encourager, go speak

life over somebody. Send them a just a a

thoughtful message.

Call them, text them, email them. Don't

overthink it. Just go and do it right

now today.

Some of you are are this the steady

practical types. You can help someone

carry a burden that they can't even ask

for help. Some of you, you're just the

most natural leaders in the world.

You can bring clarity or calm into the

tense parts of life or a storm.

Use your gift of leadership and help

someone in chaos.

Those of you that carry generosity, I'm

just

look for a need.

Don't make an announcement. Just meet

someone where they know where you know

that they need you. And finally, some of

you are just the most mercyhearted,

beautiful people.

You can show patience where other people

freak out and withdraw. Every single one

of you carries gifts. You carry access

to all these things. If you feel like

none of them are you, that's a lie.

Jesus, we just ask you to remind us that

we are your representatives. You fully

embody every single one of these things

and these gifts in full. And you give us

the mission to go live this out. I pray

today that we don't go to serve our own

future, but yours. We're real with the

altars that we're living on.

And we come to you aresh with a fresh

mindset,

carrying our gifts, carrying our

burdens,

becoming a people that are being formed

as we go to lay ourselves down, living

sacrifices,

living for the ultimate sacrifice.

We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.