Summer in Rome | Romans 12:2-8

What shapes the way you live? In a world that is constantly trying to define our values, priorities, and identity, followers of Jesus are called to be something different. In this message from Romans 12:2–8, Pastor Ben Kaempfer explores what it means to reject the patterns of this world and allow God to spiritually transform us from the inside out. As we surrender our minds to Christ, He renews us, reshapes us, and empowers us to live with humility, purpose, and faith. Discover how true transformation leads to a life that reflects Jesus more clearly and uses the unique gifts He has given us to serve others and glorify God.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Good morning, everybody. If you could please stand for the reading of God's scripture. Today, our scripture comes from Romans 12, 2 through 8. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. 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. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one in Christ, and individually members of one another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them, if prophecy in proportion to our faith, if service in our serving, the one who teaches in his 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 with of mercy, with cheer, with cheerfulness. Thank you, and you may be seated. Kids, you are dismissed.

SPEAKER_01 1:13

Kiddo. What up, young fella? All right, church. We say bye to the kiddos. Bye. We love you guys. We need to have some kind of an official, like, you know, we are proud of you type of thing. Um, my name is Ben. I have the honor of serving here as a lead pastor at a downtown community church. Let me pray for us as we get started this morning. Jesus, I ask and pray that you would be with us as we are here to hear from you. Uh, the last thing we need is just my thoughts, ideas, and opinions. But Jesus, I pray that you would just speak clearly. Uh, for those of us who are in the room and we've been following you for a long time, Jesus, I pray that today would be um hopefully helpful in in a sense that that we would see you more clearly, follow you more holistically with all of our lives. For those of us who have recently started following you, Jesus, I pray that this would be such a helpful wind towards what you have created in the life of transformation, of being more and more like you, of sanctification. And for those of us who are brand new in the room, not really sure what we are, not really sure what we believe, not really sure what we think, Jesus. I pray that that today we would just see you clearly, because people who were the farthest from you were the most magnetized to you, King Jesus. And so we pray that that would happen today, that no matter where we are in our faith journeys, we see you clearly. You would leave, you we would not leave here unchanged by the power of your word and by the power of your spirit. And it's in your name that we pray. Amen. Amen. So we are in a series, uh, starting to kind of have a series type of a thing last week. We're going through the book of Romans, and the first two weeks, the that last week and this week, are pretty slow. In fact, we're gonna spend about just to contextualize uh about 80% of the sermon today is on verse 2. And the reason I say that is because I'm gonna get to the end of verse 2, and you're gonna think, oh, good grief. We've only gone through one verse so far, so let me just go ahead and tell you. The lion's share of what we're gonna learn principally happens in verse 2, but it outerworks in verses 3 through 8. But before we kind of hop into that, let me just kind of set the table a little bit. When I was young, um there were some things that weren't kind of like typical, I guess, about my life. Um, when I was really young, uh, I had I came from a bit of a background where there was some brokenness that was involved. I had a mom who loved us to death um but struggled with alcohol. Um it caused my family to fracture and be divorced uh early when I was in about kindergarten. My dad was doing the best he could, and it was just back and forth and trying to deal, and eventually he got full custody of us. He also um was doing the best he could. Uh, and a lot of times that took him out of town for work. He was on the road pretty constantly. And so from the time I was about in uh fourth or fifth grade, my sister was in sixth or seventh. Um, Monday through Thursday, a lot of weeks, uh, my sister and I uh would be at the house by ourselves. My grandma lived next door, uh, but there was a lot of um autonomy, I guess you could say. Uh I'm pretty sure it would have been uh something that somebody would have called somebody at this point in time. Um but you know, when you're in fifth grade, you don't really know the difference. And so you get yourself up and you go to school. And and what's interesting is I always had this expectation, this high level of expectation of what I was gonna be able to do, what I was gonna be able to accomplish, and and what felt like you know, this is what you're supposed to do, and I had a complete lack of structure. And so, as such, um, my family was kind of around church, but it wasn't really central in our lives. We would go once every two months, once every six months, every every once in a while we go every week, and I'm like, oh, this is awful, right? Maybe not right, but you know, that was what it was for me. And in ninth grade, after going, you know, a lot of people had this testimony where they saw the hypocrisy in church and they ran from it, as what their parents were around, and they ran to it, or something like that. For me, I just saw everything else in the world, and honestly, it just looked more fun. And when I was going into ninth grade at about 15 years old, I had this moment. I was sitting in Piedmont Park Alliance Church off Thomasville Road. The guy who was speaking, I was my I was a freshman in high school, the guy who was speaking that particular uh week at FCA was a senior, and he would go on to mentor me. His name's Dean Insair, and he would go on to be the city church pastor. And he would mentor me through some of my early high school and early college years. And I'm thankful for who he was and the influence, but I realized in that moment, once I realized this is what Jesus has done for me, and this is all that he's called me to for him. That this sense of God, you would not just know me, not just see me, not just understand me, but that you would know all the good things and the bad things that I've done, and you would come and you would die for me, and now you've called me to live to you to to a higher purpose. And like almost every other person in this room who has gone through a similar experience where you once weren't living for Jesus and now are, you all of a sudden realize, uh oh, I have a whole lot of sin in my life. And and honestly, at first, all you think about, you don't think about the deep, kind of more existential sins. You you just see the stuff that's on the surface, and you think, I gotta clean all of this stuff up. And I remember, and what I want to talk about in this sermon today, the reason I lead into that is what I'm gonna tell you today, for the first time maybe ever, I have found the sermon that puts the words to the very first thing I ever learned as a Jesus follower, and quite possibly the most important thing I ever learned once I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior. This is fundamentally what I believe is the process of sanctification in the life of the believer. And it's more difficult than we think, but it's actually way easier than we realize. It's more difficult because we have so many mental blocks of what we think, but it's actually way easier than what we realize it is. So I'm gonna tell you about what was my very first thing I ever learned as a Jesus follower. And it comes from Romans chapter 12, verse 2. He says this. And he starts off with words that are very strong, but in some ways possibly even the problem. This is Paul talking, by the way. He's just talked to a group of people who are in the first 11 chapters of Romans built out this beautiful case of what is the gospel, the fact that we're all sinners, that we're all in need of a savior, that in view of God's mercy, not just what he saved us from, but what he's called us to, not just the life he rescued us from, but the life he now gives as we follow him. He says, present your body as a living sacrifice. And then he follows that up and he says, so do not, do not be conformed to this world. Don't be conformed to this world. And if we're being honest, that's the difficult part, right? Is it saying, hey, I want you to not form into the patterns of this world. This world has patterns. Right? It has patterns of what's successful, it has patterns of what you should do, what you should be like, it has patterns of what you should look like, it has patterns of what we should aspire to, it has patterns of what we should create, it has patterns of what we what we see as importance. It has a pattern that puts in each side of us, inside of each of us, a view or a picture of the good life. Right? And it's that kind of that personal utopia. To me, it's where we just were at St. George Island for the week. Just hanging and relaxing, and you forget, is it Tuesday or is it Thursday? Is it 11 o'clock or is it four o'clock? I don't know and I don't care, you know? Amen. And not that there's anything wrong with that. And I love that, that's beautiful. But it's saying, hey, there's this pattern, right? And what we feel sometimes as we read that verse, do not be conform to the patterns of this world. Do not be conformed to the patterns of this world. And it can sometimes, sometimes just seem so honestly not life-giving, but life-draining. It feels like maybe for you, your entire experience in religion and becoming more like Jesus is this rigid moral framework where it just feels like this weight, it feels more like shackles than it does like freedom. Never forget, I was talking to a girl who when we were first started DCC was about a couple years in. She was part of the kind of the initial team and helped kind of found the church in some ways, honestly. Moved away a long time ago. But I remember having a conversation. And she said, you know, is this all just too much? It seems like, it seems like it's just, all right, we take it so serious, it seems like all of the morality, all the aughts and the ought nots, all the things you should do and all the things that you shouldn't do, it just feels like it's just so weighty. And maybe you felt that. That the moral obligations of being a Jesus follower, the religious moral framework feels like it's a jail cell. And the best that we can do is to kind of continue to try to do the best that we can, empowered by Jesus. And if that's you, I'm so glad that you're here today. Because there's actually something so much more incredible and so much more beautiful than this continual white knuckling of the will. See, he says, do not be conformed to this world. We got that. And then, in a very interesting word, he says, but be transformed. Be transformed. And the idea behind this transformed, there's three different parts to it. Let me just nerd out on a little bit of language really quickly. The first thing about this idea of being transformed is that it's a continual process. What he's not saying is, be transformed at conversion. Give your life to Jesus, now you're transformed, now you're good. He says, no, no, no. Every single day there's a continual process of which we are being transformed. So be transformed currently and continually. And then he says, well, actually, how this word transformed is not, then he says, the Greek just has different layers that the English language doesn't have, and the translators are trying to figure out how do we kind of put the right word in that. But that transformed, the best way to say it is there is a sense of an active voice, and there's this sense of a middle voice in the Greek language. And this is in the middle voice, not the active voice. I know everybody in here is like, oh, I know exactly what that means. Let me tell you. Active voice is you are the present, almost driving participant. Middle voice is you more passive, but it's also happening. Here's what that means. The active voice. I am driving to the grocery store. Who's got the keys? I'm driving to the store. Middle voice is I am going to the grocery store, but I'm being driven by somebody else. What this verse is actually saying is it's saying you're continually being driven by Jesus towards transformation. And then it says the most honestly, I think, difficult thing, or the difficult third part about this word, is it is both a continual, it's but it's also something that we can't control, that we allow ourselves to be driven by Jesus. And it's also a command. And the reason that's particularly difficult, if you think about it, is you can't control that. You can't control that. You can't just say, okay, I am going to be transformed by the renewing of her mind. Got it.

unknown 12:55

Right?

SPEAKER_01 12:55

But now the Bible is not the only time that it gives things that or commands that we're not fully in control of. It says stuff like, be filled with the Spirit. Well, I would love, you know, I want that, but I can't just stop by the circle K and be like, give me $10 of spirit, please. You know? So what's interesting is it has this sense where the command is to continually allow Jesus to transform. It says, but it's but we're transformed. It's almost this metamorphosis word that we're transformed. Why? Why, why? Not because we do everything different. It actually says, no, no, no, by the renewing of our minds. By the renewing of our minds. Now, what's fascinating about this is as I was thinking, I was like, man, how does this actually work? How does this actually look? Because what he's saying is this. I want you to not conform. I want you to be different. I want you to stand out. I want you to have a different pattern, a different priority, a different way that you live life. And at the same time, I want you to know that it's a continual thing that's happening. It's not something that you can control, but it's a command that you must do. And the whole thing is just going to change how you think. And that sounds odd, to be honest. But another place that that word transform comes up, and this same essence is captured, is 2 Corinthians chapter 3. And in 2 Corinthians chapter 3, Paul is actually talking. He's talking to uh to this church at Corinth, who, like me when I was young, had a lot of things that needed to get cleaned up, still in the process of cleaning up, but a lot of things that needed to get cleaned up. And what he talked about was how Moses, Moses went and he saw, he met face to face with God. And when he met face to face with God, there was this glow, there was this change, there was this, there was this sense that his face needed to be veiled so that it wouldn't fade from the glory that he had experienced. And he says, but the thing is, is now that Jesus has come, anybody, if you don't believe in Jesus, but you do believe in Moses, you're still reading it with that veil over your face, you're not seeing the fullness of God. And this is what he says in 2 Corinthians chapter 3. But when one turns to the Lord, verse 16, when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. There it is. Okay, so there's the sense of freedom. Okay, now how do we get to that freedom? He says. And we all, with unveiled faces, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image. It says, and we all beholding. Beholding is a massive word. In fact, Grace Markwell, if you were here, I don't know, a college night maybe two years ago. None of y'all are probably here, some of y'all might have been, but but she gave the most incredible sermon. You become what you behold, you become what you behold, you become what you behold. And that that that phrase, I just love that. You become what you behold. And here's why it says that. This word behold, it says, and we all with unveiled faces, beholding the glory of the Lord. Beholding, and I don't want to get too into the Greek on every single time we go through anything, but but what's really fascinating about that is there is such a separation among theologians on what exactly that word beholding means. Because what it typically means to behold something is to look into something, to study it, to understand it, to examine it, to see what's happening, just to almost get like your PhD in this thing that you're just intently looking at. But the word in its in its actual original Greek form, this is the only time this word is used in the entirety of the New Testament, and it actually gets its derivative form from mirror. So that's why some of your translations say reflecting the glory of the Lord. And people try to figure out which does it mean? Does it mean that we study or does it mean that we reflect? And reflect is an interesting thing. Because studying, we all know what that means, but reflecting doesn't actually mean that we are looking at our reflection. This is going to be the most odd example I'm gonna use all day, okay? So just go with me on this. There's this thing in y'all's generation, by that I mean younger, called looks maxing. Anybody know what that is? Okay, I don't really know exactly. But I know it's like it's weird. People do stuff. Apparently, people like break their jaws on purpose to try to make it more angular. Yeah, if you're older, pray for this generation. That's what I'm saying, you know? That's why we're here. It's this really odd thing, right? Where people are like, man, this is how I want to look, and they just like try to different means, natural means, I don't know, maybe make their self look like that, right? As if they can become this image. And what this is actually saying is when it talks about reflecting, it's almost like it's almost like you're not just looking in the mirror intently at it, but as you look in this mirror, what reflects back to you, you begin to become the image of the thing that you're looking at. So it's like as if you were like AI version, right? And you could pick out like the most beautiful, looks maxing, you know, you know, uh the most attractive, you know, angular, angular man, you know, you know, you know, whatever it is, you know, or you're like, you know, more like Timothy Shallow, like, oh, you know, whatever, you're just like, just kidding. Right, but but there's different versions and forms, right? But but but you look at this person, you look at this thing, and you become exactly what it's like. Now, here's what that's saying. And here's why I think that it's it's it's silly to say he means one or the other, because if he uses this word the only time in the New Testament, it had to be intentional. Here's what he's saying: that as we, as we, with unveiled faces, we have unfiltered access to God, we have unfiltered access to God through his word, we have unfiltered access to God through prayer, we have unfiltered access to God through the way that we are spend time in silence, in solitude, through the way that we serve, through the way that we give, through the way that when we have so much access to God, he says, that we, with unfiltered access to God, when we spend time looking at the face of Jesus, in the face of Jesus, in the presence of Jesus, what actually happens as we behold that, we actually begin to become and to begin to look like that. That's why he says, and we are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. Let me break that down into normal terms. The way that we begin to look more like and reflect Jesus is not that we decide, today I'm no longer conformed, I will be transformed, I will look like Jesus. The way spiritual transformation happens, as you engage with and experience the presence of Jesus. You behold, you look the maker of the universe, the creator of all, the redeemer of your soul in the face, and you pray. And you spend time in this word, and you just want to see him and want to know, and you spend time listening to him. You you know that this is the word of God, but this is just the written word that Jesus is the incarnate word. And so you're studying and you're reading Matthew and you're reading Mark and you're reading Luke and you're reading John and the stories and the accounts, and you just want to know, you just want to see this Savior and spend time in his presence. And it says this is what happens. You're being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. That transformation, again, is not just this sense of like, oh, so what happens externally looks different. Because again, that's what most of our version of sanctification is is I just, you know, got saved, prayed a prayer, walked up front, got baptized, and now I just try real hard and I show up every once in a while, and I gotta show up enough to people know that I'm still in. I've got to read and pray enough to where I don't feel like too much of a hypocrite, and I gotta kind of do some extra like serve things or whatever it is, you know, here and there because of the fact that, you know, I really need to and I really shouldn't and I really ought to. That kind of seems a little bit more superfluous. But that's how sanctification happens, right? Say no. In fact, when you look at the face of Jesus, this transformation, it's almost an essence of who you are begins to become transformed. To where what used to be scary, it seemed like this massive step of faith. Now to not obey seems terrifying. And like this massive step of disobedience, where you actually want the things. You see the best way I can describe it. When I was little, as you can imagine, without many parents around saying this is what you should eat for breakfast, I mean, let me tell you what the bre the best breakfast I ever had. Continually had was honey buns. That's it. You think, well, what else? Just maybe coke if it was in the fridge? Like I'm talking, I'm like I would wake up in one, I'm like, bro, why doesn't the fact that other people don't eat honey buns every day? That's stupid, you know? I don't know why they don't. That's silly. Why would they not eat honey? This is just what's good, right? I mean, this is obviously what tastes the best. I mean, yeah, you could have, you know, grapes, you know, but on a honey bun. You could have eggs and they're good, you know, but I mean, have you had you had a honey bun? And then you get to college, and like you know that you should eat better, right? And and and so maybe you start to try to eat a little bit better, and but honestly, I mean, there's nothing that beats five guys, or not a lot, at least, you know. I mean, some of you, you know, I have some some desires. I would love to at some point see what it would look like to have a Chipotle burrito laced with Chick-fil-A nuggets with Zach sauce kind of all slithered in between. And you've got to eat it at Chick-fil-A because my pleasure, you know what I mean? Like it's just the service there, it's unbelievable. Right? But but you know that, like, okay, I'm I'm starting to like salads and things, but not really. You know what I mean? You don't really like, but like, you know, if somebody's like, oh, you should try kale, it's like, no, I shouldn't. And then as you get older, it's this interesting thing that happens. At least it's happened to me, and I'm not, I am not fully there yet. So if you're the person, like you're like, go to Wendy's and you're like, I just genuinely want a salad, like, I don't know what to say to you. We're different. But it's interesting because there comes this point now where it's like, I actually want to eat healthy. Not because of the fact that food five guy doesn't taste bad. I can't eat that for lunch, or I'm killing my entire day, and I've got more that I want to do than just eat. Right? And so I actually want to start putting good things, want to start putting fuel, want to start putting positive things into my body. And it's and it's not that I'm like, oh, I just love this. Like, trust me, I will get down with anybody with some wings, I will get down with anybody with a steak, which I think is actually pretty healthy. Different story for a different day, you know. But like, I still love five guys once a quarter, but if you catch me there more than once a quarter, I'm gonna, I have a problem. For most of our Christian life, we stay in the infantile mode where all we want to eat all day is honey buns and Chick-fil-A. And at times it's like sanctification is forcing myself to eat this salad. But what he's actually saying is, no, no, no, it's actually way better. It's actually way different than that. What this actually is, is as you see Jesus, you become more like Jesus, and the things of Jesus, you actually shift to where it's actually now what you want. This morning, Lindsay was amazing. I was finishing every you know Sunday morning, I'd get up at you know six o'clock hour and start studying and prepping and re-internalizing. And at about eight something, she came down with the most incredible toaster strudel. We we had our kids hadn't had one of those yet, and so we're like, man, we gotta, I'm sorry we've neglected you. So, toaster strudel, you know, it shows up and it was incredible. And when I got done with studying, I thought, I'm about to go give a sermon. I can't do that, I'm just a straight toaster strudel. So I went in the fridge and grabbed a little bit of leftovers. You know what I grabbed? A handful of grapes and some water. And it's not because of the fact that somebody said you ought to. It's because inside of me, that's actually what I wanted. And what this is saying is that we become, as we look at Jesus, transformed from one stage of glory to the next in increasing measures, day to day of sanctification. Right? So, what this looks like practically and functionally is he's saying, I want you to be transformed by the renewing of your mind. How are we transformed by the renewing of our mind as we spend time with Jesus, as we spend time in his word, as we spend time with him in prayer, and not just, okay, God, hey God, I'm just being in your closet, just you and God, just you praying to your Father who is unseen. Intentional time where I am saying, Jesus, I am getting in the car with you. Drive me wherever you want. I just want to be in your presence. And what happens is increasingly, it's not that you just say, okay, I'm getting better at fighting, it actually begins to shift inside of you, the makeup of which for you are, you you become transformed in such a way that you ultimately begin to want the things that are good. Let me give you an example of that. Because some of you are like, man, what in the world are you talking about? If you've never actually gone through the difficult process of forgiving somebody before. And I don't mean you said, I forgive you. Cheap forgiveness. I mean actually doing the difficult work of acknowledging the hurt that's happened. And not that this other person has to say anything or do anything, but before, when you heard every sermon about forgiveness, you felt like to forgive somebody is to release the wrongdoing and it is to dismantle the idea of justice. But what you realize is forgiveness is about you in such a way that you continually take this to Jesus and day after day say, this hurts, this hurts, and God, I'm bringing this to you, God, this hurts, and I'm bringing it to you. And day after day, you begin to see this transformation where what you know to be true intellectually at first, what you sense is that is that, God, I know I need to forgive because you told me to. But before you did all of this bitterness, all this grudge, I mean it was you were you were holding on to it. And it was causing so much exhaustion and frustration because of the bitterness you're holding. Of course it does, it always does. And you've gone through the process of bringing that to Jesus, laying it at his feet, of bringing it at Jesus, saying, Jesus, why about laying his feet, Jesus? This hurts. And I know that you were hurt worse for me, but this hurts. And you do that day after day, and you get to the point. Not where you reconcile, because reconciliation takes an acknowledgement of wrongdoings by both parties, but to where you're able to actually forgive this person. And once you've been through that process, here's what you know. What used to feel like, what used to feel like forgiveness, which would be impossible in the absence of justice, you've been through the difficult part of taking that to Jesus every day. You've released the bitterness in your heart. And now you forgive. And you know what? From glory to glory, as you continue to go to Jesus, the next time that somebody does something to you, the thought of holding on to that bitterness, it no longer sounds appealing. What appeals to you because you have begun to be transformed because you spent time with it and has been a continual process. You sat in the seat, you didn't just say, I'm gonna do it, but you sat, you were brought continually to the throne in the presence of God. He showed you over and over and over how much he loves you. He knows that you've been hurt, he knows that he loves his son who was also hurt, which doesn't make your hurt go away. It just means you're not alone in your hurt and he understands your hurt. In fact, he was the one that was hurt for you. And so when you get to that point, you can't possibly hold on to it, not because they deserve it. In fact, the opposite, it's because you realize how detrimental it is to your soul. And in fact, what you will find if you go through that process is you'll find that that's actually the only time when you actually are at a place where you can have any type of real reconciliation or justice, because until you actually go through the process of forgiveness, here's what happens: we either want to eviscerate the person, which feels good to us and is horrible for them, or we have a tendency to minimize it and not even acknowledge it, which is damaging to us emotionally, damaging to the improvement that could happen with them, and it's terrible for the community. But only in Jesus do you not find minimization internally for you, and you don't seek revenge either, because you don't need it, but you can seek justice because you can see clearly now, and this is exactly why the next thing he says is be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Why? So that, so that you can test and approve what the Lord's will is. So that by testing you may discern. NIV puts it test and approve because again, this Greek word kind of speaks to both of these. It's what the way he's says it, testing you may discern. That if you think about testing, here's two versions of this test and approve. It's it's a two-edged sword. One is a test of authenticity, and another is a test of value. I hand you a babe Ruth card. Is this real? Is this authentic? Is this a real babe Ruth card? Yes, no. That's the test of authenticity. You can tell me it's authentic. But can you tell me how much it's worth? Most of us know and contest authentically that the Lord's will is to forgive. But because we've never continually beheld Jesus, because he hasn't transformed us from the inside, because of the fact that we're still just behavior modifying, behavior modifying, behavior modifying, behavior modifying, what we actually find is that we don't seek justice. We don't really seek forgiveness. And the reason we don't is because we actually don't understand the value that it has. There's this beautiful thing. There's this idea that we are what we love. We become what we love. For so long we have been taught in Christianity avoid rowing the wrong way. When somewhere deep in our soul, God's call is to love me, God's call is to long for the sea. And you can test and approve. You can say, okay, the reason why I'm going to forgive is not only do I find that this is authentically what God desires for me. Yes, that's true, but I also understand why that's so valuable and why that's so important and why that made so much. I can not only see that's the authentic move of God, but I see the value in it. You saw that you used to live a life of selfishness, a life of vanity, a life of just saying, look at me, look at me, look at me, because you want it to be the beautiful, most incredible, the most, the most, I don't know, looks maxing thing that you could. And let me say, in terms of this pattern in this world, that makes total sense. What he's saying is, but once you've spent enough time being transformed by Jesus, what you see is that knowing that you're never enough, knowing that he was ultimately enough, that because we live as a broken world, as broken people, God came in to fix our brokenness. We will be ultimately with him in heaven. So I don't need you to approve me. I don't mind it. But what you actually begin to find is that seeking approval from people is so much more exhausting than seeking approval from Jesus. Living a life of selfishness where everything I create is for my consumption, and you put money into it, and money into it, and money into it, and money into it, and you know what? You still weren't happy. And then you helped somebody, and it wasn't big compared to what you were done for, but you did something. And you felt this little thing inside of you just come alive. And some of you, you have done that consistently enough. You have prioritized, you budget in a way that intentionally creates blocks for generosity. And now that you do that, you can't imagine not, not because you're like, I just love to give away money, but you because you realize that when I do, when I consume everything that I create, I find myself inevitably only want to create more so I can consume more because my appetite for more is insatiable. And you realize what Jesus said, it's better to give than receive. And you feel that. But you see, it's not that we're deciding this is really difficult. It's not we're deciding this is what we have to do. It's it's we simply decide, okay, I am going to, I am going to, as a person, man, I'm gonna be transformed. How? By the renewing of my mind. Why? So I can test and approve what God, so I can see what God direction you want me to go and how you want me to live. And I can see why that's so valuable, I can see why that weighs so much. In fact, I begin to long for God, the things that you want, long for. And and in this life, I will always love five guys. There's always a part of me that wants this in. But as we behold it, it starts to fade away. And thankfully, he doesn't leave us. I said 80%. This is 92% of the sermon so far. He doesn't just leave us with that. He begins to talk about what a transformed life is. And again, if I was to say to you, what would not conforming to the patterns of this world look like, right? We would all probably walk in with a list of three or four big things that we would say are kind of typically big sins. This is what he says. He says that by testing you may discern what the will of God is, what's good and acceptable and perfect. 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 him. He says, I want you to see this. The very first thing of a transformed life is your self-identity. How do you see yourself? He says, Some of us, you think of yourself way too much. The first thing I want you to think about, he says, is Jesus is going to change things. He's going to change how you see you. For some of us, how we see us is we see us way too high. For others of us, we say we see ourselves as way too low. And both of those, the focus is continually on self. He says, Man, there's a way that you see this that you actually, by the grace of God, you don't think more highly, you don't think more lowly. What you think is equally, actually. Because I am a sinner in need of a savior, just like anybody else. Not better, not worse. Simply acknowledge the need for forgiveness. Changes how you view yourself. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function. So we, though many, are one body in Christ and individually members of one another. He says, having gifts that differ in according to the grace given us, let them let us use them. If in prophecy, in proportion to our faith, if service and our serving, the one who teaches is 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 says, Okay, so here's how this looks. When you become to be transformed, you're like, oh, I gotta clean up all these extra. No, no, no, no, no. I just want you to see this. The beginning, the mark, the mark of someone who has been transformed, who is being renewed into the likeness of Jesus, who has beheld him, who is being transformed into his image. As I'm looking at this person of Jesus, I am becoming more like this person of Jesus. My face is changing, my life is changing, my desires are changing in such a way that I start to look up and I say, man, I'm gonna see myself as part of a body that is building a kingdom. This kingdom is not my own. And so I need to not only see myself differently, I need to see my community of people differently. That if you are a Christian on an island, you are doing this wrong. And I don't mean that negatively, I don't mean that condescendingly. I mean probably the reason you're doing this wrong makes a lot of sense because I know almost every single person who avoids being engaged in church, avoids being engaged in church because they've been hurt by it. I'm so sorry. And it kind of is hypocritical for me as a church leader to be like, so you should pray about it. Because we typically can be the ones who cause it. And I get that. Let me just tell you, as you engage with the presence of Jesus, he gives you that desire. Forgiveness. What begins to happen? You see yourself also as someone who has been hurt and who's caused hurt. But that hurt doesn't have the same hate because you've taken it to Jesus. And you begin to see the people around you who also need help. And you begin to serve because you realize you have a gift. You have the gift of teaching, you have the gift of administration, you have the gift of hospitality. Has anybody seen Miss Daisy who stands at the door? Can you not feel love when that lady is opening the door and you're just like, hey, Miss She's like, hey, she gives you help. It's just when people use their gifts. But here's the point: it happens as transformation happens. It happens as we behold Jesus. He begins to redefine how we see ourselves, he begins to redefine how we see our community, and he begins to redefine that the old way was I'm going to see myself as most important, I'm going to see my community as a part of the people I need, and what I'm building is my kingdom. That was the old pattern. He says, and the mark of Jesus' followers is we all see ourselves as sinners in need of a savior. We all see ourselves that we have all sinned, all fallen short of the glory of God. But a righteousness had been made possible apart from the law, apart from what we do, apart from me being better than you or you being better than me. And it's only through the person that work in the blood of Jesus. And when I spend time beholding face to face this unfettered access, I become transformed into the likeness, into the person of Jesus. I literally begin to, in some ways, radiate Jesus in a way that transforms not just what I do, but what I desire. And as I desire those things, I begin to see what God's doing in the world. I begin to see it in a positive way that, oh my gosh, this actually gives life. This doesn't, this isn't just look appealing or not appealing. I see the decisions that I make that are sinful, and I know when I'm making them, I know they're bringing death. And God, you're giving me the desire to continue to fight. And because of that, I see the people around me and I see myself. Because the old pattern was to say to maximize all of that. Your individuality and your community and your gifting for your success. The gospel says each and every one of us are a sinner in need of a savior. Each and every one of us is a person who Christ died for. And we're not here to be served, but to serve and give our life as a ransom for me. I'll never forget the first time I had this realization. I don't remember why it was there. But I was driving down Deer Lake Road. I didn't live anywhere near that place. I was driving down Deer Lake Road. I was about 16 years old. I've been following Jesus for a little while. I had this realization. The more I focus on not sinning, the more I sin. The more I focus on not doing bad, have this innate tendency to do bad. But the more I focus on growing in a relationship with Jesus, the more I focus on spending time with him, the more I focus on engaging in his presence, the more, and I didn't have the words, the more I beheld him, the more the natural essence of who I am became more like him. Can I tell you guys something? There is literally nothing different between me and any of you. If you think that, you are so inaccurately wrong. Sinful. Jesus was a person not sinful. The only reason that I've grown in sanctification is as I've spent time beholding Jesus. If your entire life, what religion has been to you, what sanctification has been to you, what spiritual growth has been to you is this continual effort to white knuckle your will into a better looking version of what Jesus says. You need to spend time with Him. Allow Him to transform you. Spend time in the Word, spend time in prayer, spend time in silence, spend time in solitude. Spend time forgiving. And when you begin to behold, not just by spending time with, but then start to move towards obedience, you receive the reward of that obedience. And it goes from glory to glory to glory to glory. You're transformed. You see yourselves more correctly. You see the body. You see the kingdom, and you say, Jesus, how can I serve? Be transformed, not by your desire that you are good enough, smart enough, strong enough, have enough willpower to transform yourself. Allow Jesus to drive you every single day. And if you do that, I'm telling you, you don't have to focus nearly to the level of just ridding yourselves of sin. If you would simply spend time with Jesus every single day, face to face. He transforms us. And as we do that, we see his good and pleasing and perfect will. So here's how we're going to end the service today. Not by making a decision, even that I'm going to go spend time with Jesus now. What we're going to do is we're going to take communion together. And we're going to sing a song. We're going to take communion together. And we're going to do it a little bit more organized. We're just going to try. If you, you know, when you stand up, you know, whenever it's your time. And we don't do it by rows, by the way, because sometimes, you know, it's kind of this row, that row, that row, that row. But if you're here and you're not a Jesus follower, this is something that we do, that we partake in. Because Jesus, his disciples, the last night before he died, he got them together and said, This is my body which is broken for you. This is my blood which is shed for you. Take this, do this in remembrance of me. And when he said all that and did all that, he broke it and gave it to them. This was what the disciples were participating in. And if you're not a disciple, if you're not a follower of Jesus, that's okay. We don't want to make you feel weird, we don't make you feel odd. We would just ask you to continue to sit, continue to sing. But as a Jesus follower, the invitation is to come and partake in the realization, in the internalization of God, you were broken for me. Your blood was shed for me. I just want to spend some time before I go back out into the world, beholding you, King Jesus, seeing you, King Jesus, acknowledging, experiencing your body which was broken, your blood which was shed. And Jesus, would you continually transform me? We just want to behold Jesus for the next couple of minutes. And I'm praying that this sparks a moment that creates a movement in your life. That daily you just spend time beholding him. And over time you become like him. And that when people look at the people of our church, they wouldn't look at a group of people who are trying so hard. They say, How do they naturally exude that level of desire and spirituality? How do they just naturally look like Jesus so much? And it's not because we naturally do, it's because he has supernaturally changed us. So come, let's behold our Maker. Jesus, I pray and I ask that you would give us the ability to have the courage to simply behold you. Jesus, for some of us, we're so performance-based. The reason that we haven't spent time with you is because of how long it's been since we've spent time with you. The reason why we haven't prayed is because of how long it's been since we prayed. The reason we haven't read is because of how long it's been since we've read. The reason we haven't fasted is because of how long it's been since we've fasted. We let the distance that has grown be the reason why we continue to avoid you, but not today, Jesus. We behold the man on the cross, the God who did not stay on the mountain and just simply give the command, but you came down, dwelt among us, died for us, and gave us your spirit. And as we behold you, look you in the face through your word, through prayer, and right now through communion. Would you transform us to be more like you as we continually experience your presence, Jesus? Help us to be the weirdos who just love fruits and vegetables. Help us to long for what you long for, to see what you see, break our heart for what breaks yours as you transform us into your image, King Jesus. And as we take this communion together, would you help us simply to see you, to experience your love poured out, your body which was broken, and your blood which was shed for us because you did not come to serve or come to be served, but to serve. So Jesus, help us to experience the love with which you served us. Let us pray.