Conformed to the World or the Word

by SAP
(Florida)

Romans 12:1-2
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

What an amazing passage of scripture we have here. Paul starts off by pleading by begging Christians. I “beseech”. Beseech means: to beg urgently or anxiously or to request earnestly. We find the reason he is begging them is so that they would present there bodies as a living sacrifice. And as he pleads he tells them HEY by the mercy of God, because of the mercy of God this is what we ought to do.

God sent his only Son for us. The Bible tells us in Romans that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us (Rom 5:8). That was Gods mercy, mercy that none of us deserve. God gave his all for us and why?

We are constantly turning our back on our Saviour but yet he still loves us and extends his “MERCY” to us. We don’t deserve that mercy, but God being the loving God that he is still extends it to us. That’s reason enough to present our bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable unto God.

Paul is begging them because of God’s mercy that we don’t deserve we ought to live a life pleasing unto him. He then makes the statement “which is your reasonable service”. Paul through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit tells them HEY it’s the least you can do.

It’s the bare minimum that we should be willing to do. Just live a holy life, a living sacrifice that is pleasing not to your preacher, not to your church, not to the people at work, but a life that is pleasing and acceptable to God Almighty.

So we know we aren’t accomplishing the command given in Verse 1. So this tells us that we have a problem. What is our problem? Verse 2 has the answer.

I. In order to live the That holy acceptable life we must first “Know the Problem”

“Be not conformed to this world”. Again Paul through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit tells them HEY you aren’t living and presenting your bodies as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable unto God because you are conformed to this world. Conformed means: to be similar or identical or to be obedient or compliant.

He is telling them you look like the world you act like the world you can’t tell that you’re a Christian because you are conformed to this world. You love the world and all the things that are in it, and when you love the world you serve the world and God’s Word clearly states that you cant serve the world and love God (Mt. 6:24) .

• Sad to say we are conformed to this world more times then not
• We are conformed to their lifestyle
o Music
o Talk
o Attitude
o Their TV shows
o We want their riches
o We want what their idea of Happiness and Joy.

Instead of desiring what God wants for our lives and desiring a life style that brings honor and glory to HIM we are so trapped by the desires of this world, the devil has us so weighed down and consumed by our own lust it has us fighting and bickering (Jam. 4:1) and as a result we don’t conform to the image of God the Father but rather to the image of the World.

II. So what do we need to do?

“Be ye transformed” We need to be transformed from the image of this world to the image of God. We need to be transformed to a life style and a life that is well pleasing to God. When God looks at us what do we see?

We are the Child of the KING!!! So why do we go around and look like the children of the poor and helpless? That’s what we look like when we are conformed to this world.

• One of the things we need to do to accomplish this is separate ourselves from the things that keep us in this worlds grips
o We need to separate ourselves from the worlds music, TV shows, etc...
o We need to separate ourselves from those that drag us down and corrupt us (I Cor. 15:33)

We answered the “What’s the problem”. We answered the “What to do”. And now lets look at the “How to do it”

III. How do we do it?

“By the renewing of your mind”, we must know our problem. We must know what to do to fix the problem. And we need to know the how to do it. The answer is in Verse 2. By the renewing of your mind. So many Christians go thru life and this is the ingredient they are missing.

Lets look at the word renewed. Renewed means: to make like new: restore to freshness, vigor, or perfection. So let think about the renewing process and how God makes us like new.

• He cleans our slate and forgives us of our sin when we come to him.
o I John 1:9
o In Eph 5:26-27 In talking about the church (the ecclesia) the called out body of believers He cleanses us by the washing of water by the “Word”
o How often should we read his WORD then? I Tim. 4:13 Till I come give attendance to reading.

So let’s look at some other verses that talk about being renewed.

Eph. 4:23 We see God tells us to “be renewed in the spirit of your mind” In the context it is talking about the difference in walking in the flesh and walking in the spirit. And when we are living a life that is pleasing and acceptable to God it is a result of walking in the spirit and being renewed.

So we ask “How often?” II Cor. 4:16 For this cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is RENEWED (how often?) day by day.

Sometimes it may be hour by hour. Going to God and telling God, Lord forgive me for ____________. Sometimes we just need to hide away read God’s Word for a few minutes to refocus our mind so that we can think on those things that we ought to think on (Phil 4:8)

David said in Ps. 55:17 Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice.
I wonder how many of times David a man after God’s own heart was going to God needing to be renewed.

Paul tells us in 1 Cor. 15:31 “ I die Daily” Hmm, die daily, living sacrifice….HMM…
Daily Paul died to self daily Paul was conforming to the image of God and not conforming to the image of this world. He surrender to God’s perfect will, not his imperfect will, He gave into what God wanted, not what the world wanted.

We need to be renewed in Prayer to God daily (sometimes hourly). We need to be in God’s Word daily. Hey if need be carry a pocket NT with you and once an hour go to the bathroom and read 5 verses to refocus your mind (“by the renewing of your mind”) on the things of God. His Holy Word is powerful and able to change you (Heb 4:12). We need to die to self put away from us our lust and desires and get interested in God’s desire.

So as we recap three points:
“Know the Problem”
We then ask “So what do we need to do?”
Then is given the “How do we do it?”

I want us to go back in our mind to a story we know Ps 51

Of course this being David’s prayer after falling into sin.

David in verse 3 “Knows the problem” He states For I acknowledge my transgression: and my sin is ever before me. David admitted his problem he knew what his problem was. He knew “What needed to be done” He needed to be transformed. Verse 10 “Create in me a clean heart” He wanted God to change his heart. Then we have the “How” VERSE 10 David asked the God “RENEW” a right spirit within me.

We can’t do it without God. We can’t do it without the help and power of the Holy Spirit. Tit. 3:5

Last question and then closing.

Verse 2 of Romans 12 you see the statement “that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God."

Is our life showing others specially the lost world what is a good and acceptable life style in the sight of Almighty God?
I Tim 4:12 “Be thou an example to the believer, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.

So in order to accomplish Rom 12:1
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
We must:

• Know and admit the problem
• We need to know what needs to be done and how to do it.
• We need to fall in love with God and the renewing process
o His Word. His fellowship, going to him in prayer.
o Fall in Love with the blood that will cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
• We need to die daily to self.
• How? By staying hooked to the Source that has the power to change and transform. The Word of God.

Romans 12:1-2

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

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