Do Not Conform to This Generation (Romans 12:1-2)

Do Not Conform to This Generation (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.

 

The first verse of today’s scripture starts with, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God.” This is saying, “Since you have faith in Jesus, live this way.” The second portion mentions a living sacrifice, in other words living the way the Bible tells us to is the way to properly give worship.

 

 

A) Present a Holy Living Sacrifice

1. What is Paul encouraging us to do in these verses? He is telling us that our living bodies and selves is a living sacrifice and the spiritual worship we do pleases the Lord.

 

God wants us to give Him our lives. After we are reborn, we must be ready and willing to give our lives as a living sacrifice.

 

What most precious thing did Abraham give up to God? He gave his son Isaac whom he loved more than himself.

 

2. Saturdays used to also be set aside as a day for worship. People slept early the night before and ensured they were at their best.

 

Our Young Adult Group has changed their habit of going out on Saturdays to Fridays to keep themselves at their best for Sundays. A few years ago, the young adults drank quite a bit. But over the years we have seen a change. A drink or two is understandable, but careless drunkenness and habitual drinking is a sin. Drinking until you black is not only irresponsible, but a sin.

 

3. Is a living sacrifice harder than the sacrifices of the Old Testament? Yes it is. It is a sacrifice given through your whole self and body, a sacrifice where you literally give your whole live. However, this must become our goal and something we pursue until the day we die.

 

It used to be thought, wrongly, that the church is holy and the world is crude and vulgar. In other words, work for the church is holy work and work for the outside world is selfish and the work of crude humans. Hence, one should work hard for the church but it’s okay to slack off when doing worldly work.

 

As a result, these people are praised for their work in the church, but their work done in the world is abysmal because in their minds, working for God and working for the world are two completely separate things. This is the wrong way to think and believe.

 

 4. Puritans rejected such a way of living. Being Holy in church but doing whatever you want once you leave the doors is not the way of a true Christian. Your entire live, in and of itself, must be a time of worship. Preaching is holy work, but so is farming and raising cattle. They even considered one’s job to be a sort of calling.

 

These people worked and taught with worshipping hearts. They socialized and stepped into the world with worshipping hearts. And slowly they saw society change along with the economy, welfare, and ethics of the people.

 

5. The revival of Korean churches in the past was also because of this. Normal congregation members would spread the gospel in their everyday lives. There was even a barber who converted 100 people in 1 year just by telling his customers about the gospel.

 

We must worship in our everyday live; that is how we give a living sacrifice of ourselves to the Lord.

 

B) Spiritual Worship

1. Paul speaks of giving our bodies as a living sacrifice then continues by telling us that “this is your true and proper worship.” (NIV) We give our bodies, but in truth we are giving our true and proper worship.

 

2. During Jesus’ time, people considered where you worship to be incredibly important. When Jesus left Judah for Galilee, he met a Samarian woman and she said, “My ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but your people say Jerusalem is the proper place to worship. Where is the proper place for worship?” So Jesus answered, “It is neither this mountain nor Jerusalem. True and proper worship requires a true and sincere heart.”

 

The true and proper place for worship is one where there are sincere hearts that want to meet Jesus, praise Jesus, and welcome the Holy Spirit.

 

3. Many people also consider worship to be a timed event with a specific timeslot set aside for it. They spend six days of the week in the world doing worldly things then spend Sunday at church often out of guilt or habit. Hence the term, “Sunday Christians” or “Sunday Warriors.”

 

But God does not want a “Sunday Christian”; He wants a Christian that will spend everyday, whenever possible, for Him and His Word. It is when we do this we observe “spiritual worship”.

 

In the Bible, the Lord accepted Abel’s sacrifices but rejected Cain’s. Why is that? Some say it is because Cain’s sacrifices were scarce or he was being frugal. But it was actually because Cain lived his life enjoying worldly sins on a regular basis.

 

C) The Image of Spiritual Worship

How should we give spiritual worship? The answer is in verse 2: “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.”

 

There are three things that make up true spiritual worship:

1) “… be not conformed to this world…”

2) “… be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind…”

3) “…prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

 

1. The first step to spiritual worship is to not conform to this world. The Greek word for such an idea is, “suschematizo”, or “do not conform to this generation’s mold.” In other words, do not become the same as everyone else in the world like cookies cut from the same cookie cutter or cakes baked in the same shaped pan.

 

What is one of the signs of the end of times?  The first is the increase of non-believers and the determination to live without God. People think the concept of God is old fashioned and merely a bothersome fictional deity. They want no interference in how they live their lives.

 

They want to enjoy whatever they can. They want the freedom to do what they want. They don’t want the shackles of God holding them back and telling them they can’t.

 

As a result society grows increasingly vulgar and crude, replacing God with worldly pleasures.

 

These days, homosexuality is not only sympathized and accepted in society, but also rationalized. They theorize that they are born with hormones that affect their sexual preference, but in reality their hormones are no different from those who are heterosexual.

 

This is humanism. Humanism means to place importance on humans above God. To follow humanism means to follow today’s worldly generation. It is a ugly method used to gain power.

 

They do not have Jesus with them. They are openly defying and denying the Bible. Humanism will ruin you. It will lead to the same results as Sodom and Gomorrah.

 

2.) Second, do not conform to this world that worships science and business. Science, business, capitalist worship are all methods Satan uses. The great development of science is not necessarily solely a good thing.

 

The development of science has led to greater and deadlier weapons. The development has science has not fixed the increasing gap between the rich and poor. Suicide rates have increased.

 

One would think since cars have made our lives easier it would make us more efficient and on-time but the reality is that we are lazier and often late.  More people die because of car accidents.

 

Most importantly, science has made the Bible a book of lies and fictional stories.

 

If one says God created the Earth they will reply with the theory of the Big Bang and say everything happened on its own by accident.

 

Schools only teach such scientific theories. Thus our children find it harder to believe God. Hence the creation of “Mission Schools” where one to two hours a day are dedicated to teaching about the Bible. But even this is difficult to come by and maintain in today’s society.

 

If a child told his parents, “I was accidentally created on my own 5 billion years ago!” How angry and dumbfounded would they be?

Isn’t this what we are doing to God today?

 

Some alcoholic say, “First, I drank alcohol then alcohol drank alcohol and then alcohol drank me.” What this quote is saying is that the drinking is cannot be controlled only by human will. It may start with human will but eventually, Satan is the one who makes them drink. If you ask a killer “why did you kill someone?” Most of them will say “I don’t know why I did that.” They will say that they were not themselves when they committed the murder. These days, money rules the world. With money, you can do anything you ever wanted. If you have option to move your job to other company which provides better salary you will quit your current job right away. However, money doesn’t buy you happiness. Before you make any decision, should consider God before money.

3) Third, you should follow selfish people or people who are in peace at any price. 2 Timothy chapter 3 says at the end of the world, people who love themselves and money will appear. Sounds pretty much like these days, we have to be alerted. Rome chapter 12:12 says “Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer;”1 Peter 4: 7 also says “But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.” Do you think you are hard working person for God? Think and self-evaluate.

D) Also, we should accept changes. ‘Renew your heart’ does not just mean changing some habits, a complete change is required. When church was starting to develop in Korea, people came to the church in Pyeon Yang from Busan for a revival service. And the trip took four days by legs. Do you think they were receive grace or not? Of course they did, that was the foundation of the churches of Korea. Nowadays, people do not pray, because their life is just fine without God. However, we should strive for change and love God.

E) Finally, we should know how to differ what is God’s purpose and what is not. How do we do that? Before we do something, we have to determine this activity or behave that I am going to do is right thing to do in front of God’s eyes. When we apply for a job or get married or make friend, we have to ask ourselves if this is what God wants us to do.

Conclusion) Brothers and sisters don’t look up and follow this generation. Be changed, we have to break the pattern, and former goals of your life. We have to follow God’s words and not compromise with this world. Throw away what is not fit for life of Christians. We are not the people who worry about what other people think of us but only obey gospel.

2 Timothy 3:5 “Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.” Do not conform this generation but renew your heart. Heart of Jesus should be same as ours. We should be the place where Jesus can stay, that life is the whole life which God wants from us.