BULLETIN STUDY QUESTIONS:
1. Do you believe God wants you to know His will in the little things? The big?
2. Name some areas you’re working in your “sweet spot.”
3. Name some needed “course corrections” in your life to stay on course, on purpose with God’s will for your life.
4. Name some ways the world is trying to “squeeze you into its own mold.” Or some ways you’ve been trying to change yourself by your own willpower.
5. Name some ways Jesus is changing you from the inside out, via worship and His Word?
I. The new “Transformers 2” movie came out this week at midnight in our local theater. I was NOT there, silly me wanting sleep more than seeing millions of dollars blown up in explosions real and computer imaged. It’s about an epic battle between these robots who masquerade as cars, but then morph into weapons of mass & machine destruction. It’s the autobots vs. the decepticons. Your kids and grandkids will beg you for the really cool toys and happy meals based on this transformer theme.
A. The Bible is a story about transformers, not the machine kind, but the human kind.
B. The 12 steps, both secular original and the Christian sequel, are about transformers, people who are changing and growing so they can experience life as it was meant to be lived.
II. Some of these 12 steps, contain words that usually have a negative association, like “change.” Most people don’t like change. Some people fear it. A few thrive on it and live for it…until it comes to changing themselves.
A. Steps 8-10 are about changes and growth that needs to happen in our lives. Let’s talk about transformation though, because it’s both the hot topic and the timeless, biblical word.
B. The Department of Defense admits that their BEST missiles are only on target about 2% of the time. Guess what they are doing the other 98%? Making course changes, corrections.
C. What would you identify as some needed course corrections in your life to stay on target, on mission? Of course we must be headed toward the right target, the right (God’s purpose) mission, or it really doesn’t matter.
D. What if Air France #447 pilot, Marc Dubois would have come during that storm that caused that plane to crash in the Atlantic tragically June 1 “We’re hopelessly lost in this storm, but we’re making great time”? You must have the right purpose, goal in mind.
E. Let’s assume we can know our life purpose/mission i.e. the target. Let’s assume we can know that in the big picture and the short-term goals we need to aim for. Why wouldn’t God want us to know? Why would He want to keep that a secret?
III. (Rom 12:1-3) Doesn’t this say we will be able to know God’s will?
A. And not only His will, but we can test and approve what God’s good, pleasing and perfect will is. I believe this means for our day to day lives and the big purpose for our lives.
1. If He wants us to DO His will, which is obedience, He would reveal it or He would be a cruel God, demanding obedience, but then refusing to tell us what He wants. That’s not the God the Bible reveals who loves us and wants us to do His will. In doing His will we experience freedom and joy.
2. Someone (SG) was just telling me this past week they know they are in the center of God’s will, and the peace, joy and freedom that comes from that. They were mainly talking location and their ministry.
3. How about you? Are you in you sweet spot? In any area? Most? A few?
B. What are some of the ways we can know God’s will, His good, pleasing and perfect will? The “how” question?
C. (I’ve already answered the “so what” question; so you can have peace, joy, freedom = the abundant life we all want.)
IV. The “how” is found in (vs 1-2). We must FIRST offer our bodies, ourselves, as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This is also our first priority in worship, individual worship that we do every day and the corporate worship we do Sundays. We offer ourselves.
A. Our motivation is “in view of God’s mercy.” When we look upon His mercy, His grace, His love and sacrifice for us, all wrapped in that word “mercy,” then we want to offer ourselves to Him when we remember how much He’s done for us.
B. I’m afraid we offer too little of ourselves to God, because we don’t think God has really done all that much for us. Do realize everything you have is given (breath)?
C. We start to believe we don’t really need His mercy, after all, “I’m not that bad.” But ALL of us fall so short of God’s glory (Rom 3:23). We all need a Savior. Have you asked Him to be yours? [GOSPEL]
D. Note this passage reminds us that worship is first and foremost GIVING to God, not getting. Yet how many of us are still stuck in that cycle of evaluating God on what He gives us? How many evaluate worship mainly by what we get out of it? It’s what we GIVE Him, not what He gives us. Each time we worship we should spiritually offer Him our bodies, our lives, and our renewed minds (v 2).
V. Notice how we offer our renewed, changed, TRANSFORMED minds (those key theme words today). “Transformed” is a great NT word. It’s the Greek “metamorphoumai.” It means to be changed from the inside out.
A. This is a work of the Holy Spirit that happens during worship. He renews our minds from the inside out mainly through using God’s Word.
B. How did Jesus renew or wash His disciples in (Jn 17:15-17)? Through the washing of the Word, The Bible
C. There’s another change word in the Greek, but it describes change that is forced from the outside in. It’s the word “metaschematizomai.” It means “conformed.” It’s like a masquerade. It’s what those decepticons do to fake out their enemies posing as a car when they’re really a very bad robot. It’s a charade, a façade, a poser, a fake.
1. (2 Cor 11:13-14) gives an example of false apostles who masqueraded as true apostles (“angels of light”), but were really angels of darkness; agents of Satan.
2. We’re told not to be CONFORMED from the outside in right here in (Rom 12). So a key question for us is: Are we a conformer or transformer; being changed from the inside out, by Christ? Or are we being changed from the outside in by the world?
3. When we’re changed by His Spirit in worship through the Word of God sung, read, preached, memorized, meditated upon, it’s like a butterfly who comes forth metamorphosed from the cacoon.
4. When we try to change any other way other than God changing us through worship from the inside out it’s like pinning wings on a worm—it DOESN’T WORK.
5. The world is always trying to pressure cook us, change us, from the outside in. That’s being a conformer, not a transformer. We’re always trying to change ourselves by our will power. That’s being a conformer, not a transformer. It’s like “pinning wings on a worm.” [You can only dress up a worm so much. Those gummy worms, “Pete’s bait” that we had in Bible school, go a long way in dressing up a worm. But I got to tell you, they’re still hard to stomach.]
6. BE A TRANSFORMER! Be changed from the inside out as you offer yourself each day, each week, to God in worship asking Him to renew your mind by His truth, His Word.
7. JB Phillips translation says it beautifully: “Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God remake you so that your whole attitude of mind is changed.”
D. The word “offer” here is in the past, completed (aorist) tense. It is a once and for all presentation. It was a word taken right out of the Temple when the priest presented the sacrifice. It was once and for all, burnt up.
1. Don’t get me wrong there is a sense in which we have to present out bodies every day, revealed in the continual daily offering of the sacrifices in (Ex 29:38-42).
2. But here we see the other side of offering ourselves to God where it’s a definite point in time with no reservations or ideas of turning back. Have you made that kind of presentation of your body to God? Or have you always had an escape clause in your contract with Him? Ill.
E. So we offer ourselves to God, without reservation. He changes/transforms us from the inside out. There is a practical result in that we are able to “test & approve” (liter. By experience or action) what the good, pleasing and perfect will of God is. This is putting into ACTION what God’s will is for our lives.
F. And it only happens as we get moving. The big word in exercise today, esp for seniors is “just move.” Anything you do to keep moving is good. It doesn’t have to be vigorous. So many Christians are frozen in finding the will of God for their lives because they won’t move. We need to test various experiences to see if that’s what God wants. Just get moving. Experiment. Experience. JB Phillips transl tells it so accurately.
1. Our worship should result in a practical ministry expression, NOT just a private mystical experience (Real Worship, Wiersbe, p 32) to bless others.
2. That’s why the great preacher/author John Stott, defines worship as an intelligent (ACTION) RESPONSE to God’s revelation of Himself in worship (Wiersbe, p 33).
3. The new movie shows who wins in the battle of the Transformers. But who will win in the battle of the transformers vs. the conformers in the church? Don’t let the world squeeze you into its mold. Don’t let anyone do that except Jesus who wants to transform you from the inside out. Are you?
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