Let’s pray, thank you, good God, for this wonderful day, whether it be snowing or hailing, sunny or rainy. Your word says joy comes in the morning, and we thank you. As we take this opportunity to seek and read your word, give us understanding. We call forth wisdom and we accept her and her rebuke that she may pour out her words into us, and we gain understanding of your word. Blessed are you, God, for giving us this opportunity. In Jesus’ name, AMEN!
So Romans 12:1-2 says “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 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.“ Paul wrote this and you can see he approaches humbly “by the mercies of God” so let us drop our pride and open our hearts and minds. He says we should “present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service”. What does that mean? You know sometimes we tend to live our lives for others and in the things that we do we think would this be acceptable to them? Would they want to do this? Or even when we hold someone to a high regard we wish to please them and do right by them in everything that we do, that they are happy. Well that’s what this is saying, only this is coming from God and it is “our reasonable service”. As Jesus gave his life on the cross for us and died for us, For the Son of Man(Jesus) did not come to be served but to serve, and give his life a ransom for many. Many is us, us who believe and accept and are born again. So we are not our own we are his as we have surrendered our lives to him. He paid the price, the price that we couldn’t pay and by blood and a willing sacrifice for us. Therefore it is our reasonable service to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God. Now that you know what to do, how do you do it? Verse 2 shows us. It says “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.“ Do not be conformed. To be conformed is to be poured into the mold of, in other words there is pressure from the world, the devil, unbelievers, circumstances and sinners. In this life, we will be pressured. Jesus said so in John 16:33, but you choose what gets to mold you, what you allow pressure from. It says we should conform to the world. So we shouldn’t allow the things of the world, not the world, to pressure us. Instead, we are to be “transformed by the renewing of our mind”. To transform is to go through a metamorphosis, like a caterpillar to a butterfly. The Greek word that was used for “transform” is “metamorfu”, that’s why I said metamorphosis. If you want this change so that you are in the physical, where you are no longer that bitter, hurtful, sick, and defeated person, and you are the victorious person that God wants you to be. You renew your mind. Through the word of God, you gain new values, spiritual truth, and new attitudes. The word acts as a mirror showing what God has to say about you and all his creation. You must conform to Gods word, be transformed by it.
The word is the knowledge of God, and we must attain understanding. Wisdom helps provide understanding of that knowledge. Knowledge is when we read and hear, but understanding is taking that knowledge and applying it. It’s a two-step process. We are to be doers and not only hearers of the word. 1 John tells us that. We must think spiritually minded, acknowledging him on all our ways and in every situation so that we know how to act, and not carnally. ”So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.“ Ephesians 4:17-19 NIV. Paul again wrote this. He again insists on it on the Lord that we, born-again Christians, children of God, do not live like the gentiles and think like them, with carnal thoughts. Gentiles are those who were not Jews, those who did not walk with God. He’s right. We should not be thinking like people who do not know God because we know God. He is out farther. You will shut off the flow of the power of God that I mentioned before that lives in you if you think carnally. According to Romans 8:6, thinking carnally is death, while thinking spiritually is life and peace. All sin is Carnal but not all carnality is sin because the word carnal simply means of the five senses. So touch, smell, taste, etc. So we are told that we shouldn’t let our minds be dominated by our senses. Life is more than that. Through faith, we can believe the word of God and believe things that we cannot see. Carnal mindedness = death. Spiritual mindedness = life. It doesn’t have to be physical death. Death is anything as a result of sin. Depression is death. It can be the slow death of emotional sadness, bitterness, anger, and many more. If you walk like a Gentile, you are “darkening your understanding and separating from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in you due to the hardening of your hearts.” Walking this wide path, thinking carnally alienates you from God. Paul wrote in Philemon to his friend a prayer. ”I pray that your partnership with us in the faith may be effective in deepening your understanding of every good thing we share for the sake of Christ.“ Philemon 1:6 NIV. He is praying that “partnership” meaning communication or relationship that they share which is Christ Jesus, we all share the same faith through Christ. He is praying that the faith be effective, that faith works by deepening his understanding of what God has given to us, deepening his understanding of “every good thing we share for the sake of Christ”. So it’s not more faith. Jesus literally said “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.“ Luke 17:6 NIV when replying to the apostles when they said “increase our faith!” In the verse prior. This is a process, a lifelong process and there is patience and growth and understanding and maturing but that one thought of believing is what starts this process. Believing the truth. Believe what God sent Jesus to do and say because Jesus does nothing on his own ”Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.” John 5:19 NIV. Once you begin to understand this you will see changes in your life and it will pour out to those around you where you see changes in their lives. God bless you. Shalom.