Transcription downloaded from https://sermons.stmarksplumstead.org/sermons/25091/sacrifice-part-3-a-living-sacrifice/.

Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions.
Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt.


[0:00] Well, I wonder if you've noticed, just looking at creation in the animal world, how all creatures on earth seem to know what they're here to do, except humans.

[0:13] Have you noticed that? We've got this golden orb spider in our garden. I don't know if you're familiar with the golden orb spider. It makes these beautiful golden webs. And even if you don't like spiders, you can't help but appreciate the spider and how it works.

[0:29] It's a beautiful looking creature, but it knows exactly what it's meant to be doing. It goes to the right place. It makes a web, this three-dimensional web. It knows where to sit so it can feel the vibrations on the web and feel when the mosquitoes land on its web so it can eat them instead of them biting us at night.

[0:50] And it's beautiful to watch, just how it makes its whole web and how it positions it. And it knows exactly what it's meant to be doing. And it never went to university. It never researched on the internet how to be a spider.

[1:06] It wasn't taught these things, and yet it knows instinctively what it's meant to be doing. Or ants. Have you ever watched a trail of ants in your house? I'm sure you have.

[1:17] They're unavoidable. But the one thing about ants, and the reason why Proverbs uses ant as an example for us, is that they're so focused on their mission, right? Ants know exactly where they're supposed to be going.

[1:28] You never find an ant who's sitting off to the side, away from the other ants, wondering what its purpose in life is. Right? You never find an ant sitting off on the side reading a book on how to live your best ant life now.

[1:45] Because ants know what they're meant to be doing in creation. So do spiders. So do all the other creatures, except humans. Humans, on the other hand, are still, by and large, bumbling around, wondering how to live our life.

[2:02] Looking at motivational videos, reading motivational books, trying to find our purpose in life. Experimenting with dozens of different religions. Humans just don't know what we're meant to be doing here, right?

[2:15] All of the other creatures do. Why? Why don't we know our purpose? Why don't we know our place? Well, questions like that is what we have the Bible for.

[2:26] Because the Bible is here to answer those questions. The Bible tells us why we are the one creature who fails to know and do our purpose.

[2:38] And that is because, in summary, our purpose is simple. It's to worship God. Unlike animals, we have the ability to know God.

[2:50] To have a relationship with the being who made us. The animals don't have that. The spiders, the ants, the dogs, the cats. They don't have that ability that only humans do of being able to have a relationship with the creator of us all.

[3:05] And because we are unique in that ability to know God, our place in creation is, as the Westminster Confession puts it, is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

[3:19] We are meant to be the leaders of the created world in stewarding this creation in a way that glorifies God.

[3:30] Because we are the ones who know God. And so our place in creation, our purpose, is to worship God. The spider's purpose is to build a web and catch mosquitoes.

[3:40] The ant's purpose is to move stuff around and deconstruct things and do its job. Our purpose is to worship God. But because of the fall, which you probably know about, that's described right at the beginning of the Bible, of humanity's fall into sin, our relationship with God is cut off.

[4:00] And so we don't do the one thing that we're here on earth to do, and that's the reason for all the problems. Paul puts it this way in Romans 1. I'll put it on the screen behind me so you can follow along or follow along in your Bibles.

[4:14] Romans 1, 21 to 25. Paul is describing humanity in general, and he says these words. For though they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God or show gratitude.

[4:31] Instead, their thinking became worthless, their senseless hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they become fools. Isn't that such an apt description of humanity? We claim to be so wise.

[4:42] We claim to know everything. Every answer to every question. Human science, human philosophy claims to know. We claim to know everything about everything.

[4:55] And anything that we don't know can't exist. We claim to be wise. That's what it says. And yet they became fools. Why did they become fools? Verse 23. Because they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images representing mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles.

[5:12] Therefore God delivered them over in the desires of their hearts to sexual impurity, so that their bodies were degraded among themselves. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served what had been created instead of the Creator.

[5:32] And that there, that's the summary of the human problem. That is, in many ways, the core, the heart of the human problem. It's the worship of created things rather than the Creator, when we are the one species on earth whose job it is to worship the Creator, to connect the creation with the Creator.

[5:51] But instead we turn around and worship the creation. That's what Paul the Apostle says is the root of the problem, that our sin has separated us from God.

[6:02] And so we focus our instinct to worship something, because we're separated from God, we focus it on idols, not just the idols they used to worship in ancient times, but anything that's created that we look to to make us happy rather than God, that we look to for fulfillment rather than God, whether that's money or sex, or any of the things that God has given us that we look to instead of God, for our ultimate fulfillment and joy.

[6:32] It is an idol. And that is the reason the world is in such a mess, because people take the created things and then they misuse those, and they look to those to fulfill them, when those things are never made to fulfill them.

[6:47] And that's why they abuse money and sex and all the things we've been given, to the point of the problems and the pain that we see in our world. So that's the problem, idolatry.

[6:59] Do you see that? That's what Paul says right at the beginning of this letter to the Romans. The problem is our idolatrous hearts, our instinct just to worship creation rather than the Creator.

[7:11] But that is also why the gospel of Jesus Christ is such good news, because the gospel is the story of God bringing you and me back into relationship with Himself, through Jesus Christ dying for our sins, to take the penalty for our sins, so that we can be in right relationship with a just God once more, and we can come back into our purpose, and we can be rescued from idolatry.

[7:35] That is what the gospel does. We talk about being saved by Jesus, but salvation is so much more than just being saved from the punishment for our sins. It's being saved from idolatry.

[7:47] It's being saved from our instinct to worship the things that we shouldn't be worshiping. And once again, do what we were made for.

[7:58] That is the good news of the gospel. That God brings us back into right relationship with Him, so that we can be the humans that He put us on earth to be. And do you want to know the proof that the gospel is working in a person's life?

[8:13] According to the Bible, in Romans 12 verse 1, the proof that it's working, the proof that people are breaking out of idolatry, is sacrifice.

[8:23] sacrifice is the indicator that a person is being saved and breaking out of this worldly pattern of idolatry.

[8:36] Turn to Romans 12 verse 1. It will also be on the screen behind me. Let's read it again. Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, this is your true worship.

[8:58] This is your true worship. What does that mean? Lots of people have scratched their heads about just what Paul is saying.

[9:08] The original word there for true, translated true, it will be translated differently in different translations. In your Bible, it might be spiritual worship or reasonable worship.

[9:20] But the original Greek word, I looked it up, it's the word logikos. That's the Greek. It's from where we get the English logical. It's the thing that makes sense.

[9:33] It's the rational, the proper thing to do versus the irrational worshipping of created things. The irrational foolishness of idolatry. Sacrifice is the opposite of that.

[9:46] Sacrifice is the opposite of idolatry. Instead of worshipping the created things, we are literally giving up the created things to worship the creator. And that is why idolatry and sacrifice are polar opposites.

[10:01] And therefore, to be breaking out of idolatry means to be starting to live sacrificially. That is the opposite of idolatry. The problem is that we don't naturally worship God.

[10:19] Because we're sinners, this side of the full redemption of our bodies, when Jesus returns, we will always have these sinful inclinations. And so we don't naturally sacrifice.

[10:32] We don't naturally give God our worth rather than our created things. We naturally, what is our natural instinct? It's to worship the stuff we have. We wouldn't say it. We wouldn't bow down to it.

[10:42] But we worship it whenever we look to our money and our things to give us our fulfillment and our happiness and our security that we should look to God to give us.

[10:55] That's idolatry. And that's our instinct. That's our default. And that's why we must be urged as Christians to live these lives of sacrifice.

[11:07] Look at what Paul says in Romans 1 again. He says, I urge you. Did you notice that? He didn't say, I suggest to you, you might want to consider doing this. He said, I urge you. It's a very strong word.

[11:18] It means I compel you. Because you're not going to do this by yourself. You don't instinctually sacrifice. You don't instinctually worship God. So I need to urge you to do this.

[11:29] And not only do we need to be urged, but we need to be trained just what this looks like. You know, when you take a toddler who's learning to walk, and you don't just let them learn.

[11:43] You have to hold them. You have to train them. Okay, one foot in front of the other. That's what Paul's doing here. He's like, okay, let me tell you the first steps to what it looks like to live a sacrificial life.

[11:55] And that's what he goes on in the rest of chapter 12 then to outline. He trains us how to live these new lives so that we can break out of idolatrous patterns.

[12:06] And throughout the New Testament, you see these sacrifices that Christians are called to make that mark the breaking out of idolatry in our lives. And that as we grow as Christians, we more and more willingly are able to make these sacrifices that are liberations from idolatry.

[12:25] And as you, I spent some time the last three weeks just going through the New Testament, looking at the different types of sacrifices Christians are called to make. And they generally fall in one of three categories.

[12:38] Sacrifices of money, sacrifices of time, and sacrifices of energy. And what we find just in Paul's chapter here in chapter 12, there's examples of each of those.

[12:50] And so I want us to go through each of those and just look at the types of sacrifices that show that we are breaking out of idolatry as Christians. Firstly, sacrifices of money. So one mark of the new life that we've been saved to live is in Romans 12 verse 13.

[13:09] He says, share with the saints in their needs. Share. Share. It's like what parents have to tell kids. Share. Well, it's what Paul has to tell Christians as well.

[13:22] Because we still haven't learned. Share. But the word, there's so many, and I'm sorry I have to refer to the Greek so much in this passage, but there's so many interesting words underlying the English translations that I want to tell you about.

[13:38] The word for share here is the same word for fellowship. It's koinonia, the Greek word for fellowship. That's the word Paul uses to describe the sharing of our things with each other.

[13:51] Which changes the way we think about what fellowship means, doesn't it? Because when I say fellowship, what do you think of as a Christian? You think of tea and biscuits and chatting, right? But in the Bible, fellowship is so much deeper, so much more than that, so much more committed than that.

[14:07] Fellowship is physical, it's practical, it's giving actual resources to those who need them. And it's the mindset that goes behind that.

[14:18] Fellowship is seeing the stuff you have not as yours alone, but for the benefit of the people you belong to. That's what fellowship is. It's not just belonging to people and chatting with them. It's actually seeing the things you own as for their benefit.

[14:32] That is what true fellowship means in the New Testament. Kind of like the same attitude soldiers would have in a war. I don't know if you've ever watched that series, Band of Brothers. Watched it years ago.

[14:43] But it's amazing when you put soldiers in a war together, how they connect and they bond, because they're fighting a common enemy, and nothing that they have belongs to them.

[14:54] It belongs to the whole group, the whole unit. You never find a soldier hoarding his five clips of ammo when his friend in the trench next to him has no ammo. He says, I'm out of ammo.

[15:05] And he says, no, no, these are mine. These are mine. Get your own. Never. Never does that happen in war. No. Soldiers know that they're in it together, and they share what they need. They're war to their ammo, their rations. And if Christians realize that we are part of a body, that we are part of a new family, that we're in it together for a common purpose, we will also see our resources like that.

[15:24] That's what fellowship really means. And we see examples of this throughout the New Testament, just some that I want to point out. Ephesians 4 verse 28, Paul is describing what it looks like to live this new life.

[15:41] And, you know, people from a pagan background, and he's training them how to live the Christian life. And he says this, Ephesians 4 verse 28, let the thief no longer steal.

[15:53] Okay, he has to spell it out. If you're a Christian, guess what, guys? You can't steal anymore. Let the thief no longer steal. But he goes on, and he says, instead, he is to do honest work with his own hands, so that, now you'd expect him to say, so that he doesn't need to steal, so that he can earn his own wage honestly.

[16:13] But he doesn't. He goes further. He says, so that he has something to share. So the point of a Christian working is to get things to share with their people.

[16:28] In 2 Corinthians, you see the same concept. concept. 2 Corinthians 9 verse 11, Paul is convincing the Corinthians to stop being so stingy and convincing them to just give money to the needs of the other saints in Judea.

[16:45] And he has to write two chapters in 2 Corinthians just to convince them of that. But towards the end, in 2 Corinthians 9 verse 11, he says, you will be enriched in every way for all generosity.

[16:58] You will be enriched in every way for all generosity. You will be enriched for generosity. In other words, some Christians are richer than others. Some Christians are enriched by God.

[17:08] They are given opportunities that other Christians don't have, gifts that other Christians don't have, resources that other Christians don't have. But the reason for that, according to the Bible, is that they may be more generous.

[17:20] The point of God enriching some, giving some the ministry of stewardship, is for generosity, not for hoarding. That's how Christians work. That's how money works in the life of a Christian.

[17:33] But of course, that's so foreign to how the world thinks, isn't it? How does the world think about money? How does the world train us to see our money? Well, what I've earned is mine.

[17:46] I deserve it. And I will spend it on myself first, because I need it for my security, and my comfort, and my happiness. That's what money gives me. You know what that is?

[18:02] That's idolatry. Isn't it? The moment we look at our money to give us the things, and hoard it to ourselves, because we need it to give us the happiness, and security, and comfort, we're looking at the created thing to give us what only the creator can give us.

[18:22] It's idolatry. But when Christians learn that, actually, we don't need money for security, and comfort, and happiness, because we've got God. When we learn to rely on God alone for these things, then we can actually start to share, and be in proper fellowship, like God wants us to.

[18:43] Sacrifices of money. But there are other types of sacrifices that Christians are called to. Secondly, sacrifices of time. Romans 12.

[18:58] Paul goes on from calling us, urging us, to think this new way. And then he talks about, the first thing he talks about, is how Christians are to use the gifts that they've been given.

[19:14] So from verse 4, says this. Now, as we have many parts in one body, and all the parts do not have the same function.

[19:28] He's talking about our physical bodies. He's saying your body will have different parts, right? Organs, different organs. Heart, does a different thing to the stomach, does a different thing to the liver. Your fingers, your eyes, your ears, they all do different things.

[19:40] So just as you have different parts in one body, that all do different functions, and they're all important. So, verse 5, in the same way, we who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.

[19:55] According to the grace given to us, we have different gifts. If prophecy, use it in according, to proportionate one's faith. If service, use it in serving. If teaching, in teaching.

[20:05] if exhorting, in exhortation, giving with generosity, leading with diligence, showing mercy with cheerfulness. The point is that he's saying that, if you're a Christian, if you have been saved by Jesus, and you are being drawn out of this life of idolatry, back into your purpose as a human being, you are part of a body, you are part of a covenant community.

[20:27] You're no longer an individual, and so stop seeing yourself like that. And what that means, is that you've been given gifts by God, not for your own good, but for the good of the body.

[20:39] And therefore, the gifts, and the time it takes to use them well, and the time it takes to develop those gifts, to use for other people, that time doesn't belong to us as individuals.

[20:51] Those gifts don't belong to us as individuals. They belong to the other people in the body. That's literally what the translation of the NIV of verse 5, if you've got an NIV, look at verse 5 again.

[21:03] It says, Each member belongs to all the others. That's crazy talk in today's world. I'll read it again until it actually hits you.

[21:14] Each member belongs to all the others. You belong to the rest of the members of the church.

[21:25] Your time, if you're a member of God's church, your time does not belong to you anymore. Your resources, your gifts do not belong to you anymore. Each member belongs to all the others.

[21:35] It's very counter-cultural, isn't it? Because in the world, how does the world think about my time? Well, that's it, isn't it? It's my time. Me time.

[21:45] Me time. Have you heard of that phrase? Me time? I'm going to take some me time now, because I need my time. Any time that I'm not paid for by an employer, is my time by default, isn't it?

[21:56] And I can use it how I want, and I will guard it jealously. Don't we do that? Don't we guard our spare time very jealously? Well, I've already planned what I want to do with my spare time.

[22:09] And Lord forbid anyone coming in threatening that. I'm going to guard it jealously to do what, I mean, I've been working all week, and so this is my time now. I'm going to decide what to do with it.

[22:21] I need this time for myself. But the moment we think that, the moment we say, I need this time, you know what we're doing? We're worshipping it, aren't we? It's just as easy to worship time as it is to worship things.

[22:37] In fact, that is specifically one of the reasons God came up with the Sabbath command. You know, he gave, under Moses, he gave ancient Israel a number of commands, along with their sacrificial system.

[22:51] He also gave them this command to do no work or do no kind of other activity on the Sabbath day. And for Israel, that was a sacrifice of time, essentially, just as they had to sacrifice other things to learn this idea of not holding tightly to the stuff God has given us, whether it was grain or wine or sheep.

[23:17] They also had to sacrifice time at least once a week in recognition. It's not like God needed that time from them. It's in recognition that this time is not mine, actually. That God has given me this time, and God actually wants me to use my time for certain things at certain times.

[23:34] I think that's something that many Christians have forgotten. Because the Sabbath command doesn't apply to us like it did to Israel anymore, we think, well, now coming to church, going to growth group is optional.

[23:47] You know, if it works for me, I'll do it. But otherwise, if I don't have the time, I won't. But that's why we need to realize the principle of the Sabbath, just as all the Old Testament laws, still remains in that it's not your time to decide like that what to do with it if you're a Christian.

[24:08] God gave it to you. And He wants you to use your time in certain ways. Of course, sometimes He does want you to relax and enjoy and take time off and enjoy His gifts.

[24:19] But other times, He wants you to use your time the way, it's not your time, actually. It's His time that He's given you the way He wants you to, like being involved in His church and the time it takes to build those relationships and use your gifts.

[24:34] And that's the other kind of sacrifice we're called to make, sacrifices of time, in recognition that it's not really mine to use however I want to.

[24:46] But this life that Christians are called to also involves other types of sacrifices. And the third category I want to talk about quickly is the sacrifices of energy that it takes to be a Christian or effort.

[25:02] I mean, most people work a five or a six-day week and when you get to the weekend, when you get to the end of Friday, how do you feel? You're drained, right?

[25:15] You're looking forward to two days where you can just take it off. You can go on battery saver mode. That's how we are on the weekend. My phone has a battery saver mode. Yours probably does as well. When I haven't charged it for a while and the battery's running low, the sign will appear on the screen saying, you're now in battery saver mode and the screen goes dim and the phone doesn't work as quickly as it used to because it's trying to save the battery.

[25:39] Well, that's typically how we are on the weekends, aren't we? We go into battery saver mode. Just recharging for Monday again. And that's why verse 11 doesn't sit well with us when we read it.

[25:54] Talking about the attitude we should have when we gather with God's people, when we're involved in His church. Look what it says. Verse 11. Do not lack diligence in zeal.

[26:05] Be fervent in the Spirit serving the Lord. Those are very interesting words. Zeal. Zeal is the Greek word spudos, which we get the word speed from.

[26:19] In other words, don't lack in zeal. Don't slow down when you're approaching Sunday. When you're approaching gathering together and being involved in kingdom work. Don't slow down. That's when you've got to gear up.

[26:30] Because that's the work that actually matters. Of all the work you do in the week, being involved in God's eternal kingdom, that's the work that matters. That's the work you should be conserving your energy for.

[26:43] The next word he says, be fervent in the Spirit. That word fervent in the original means literally hot. Hot. Boiling. It's the word that they used to describe when water boiled.

[26:56] It would be fervent water. The water is fervent. You may make your tea now. That word literally means hot. Which means instead of conserving energy for work, you've got to conserve it for kingdom service.

[27:09] You've got to bring your A game to church. And practically that means maybe going to bed a little earlier than you normally would have on Saturday night.

[27:21] Waking up a little earlier on Sunday morning so that you can spend some time in prayer and gear up and get ready. I'm going to go to church. I'm going to see God's people. There's going to be opportunities to speak into the lives of other people, to look out for strangers who might feel awkward, to find out things I can pray for, to encourage my fellow believers.

[27:40] I'm going to church on Sunday. I get to play my instrument. I'm going to play it to the best of my ability. I get to serve on computer. I'm going to make sure that I'm ready for that. You know, it's conserving our energy for the work that matters.

[27:55] sacrifice of energy. But also, what you find as you read this life that Christians are called to, it requires other kinds of sacrifices as well.

[28:08] It requires emotional sacrifices. Look at verse 15, for example. Rejoice with those who rejoice.

[28:20] Weep with those who weep. in other words, don't be aloof. Don't be distant to other people's problems. That's our default.

[28:31] When other people have got problems, we kind of, I'll pray for you. And of course, we've got to pray for each other, but that shouldn't be where it ends. What's being called for here is actually an investment of our emotions.

[28:46] Running the risk of actually being emotionally hurt because of what somebody else is going through. It's tying our emotions to one another.

[28:57] It's investing our heart in each other's lives, and that takes sacrifice. It takes energy. Another type of energy that we're called to sacrifice is in verse 13.

[29:09] The end of it, it says, pursue hospitality. What does that mean? Pursue hospitality. Well, you know what the original Greek word for hospitality is here in Romans 12?

[29:20] It's this. It's philoxenia. Love for the stranger. Literally. As opposed to xenophobia, which is fear of the stranger. Philoxenia.

[29:32] Love for the stranger. That's what the word hospitality here is. Loving the stranger at church. Looking out for the people you don't know. Going to them, seeking to build kingdom relationships, rather than just gravitating towards the people you do know.

[29:48] And not just at church. Opening your home to share meals with people you don't really know that well who might be a little bit strange, who you don't naturally get on with. Normally we just invite people who we do get on with, because we think how will we have the best time, but actually a Christian is a person who engages in philoxenia, love for the stranger, looking out for the people we might not naturally get on with, so we can build relationships deliberately with them.

[30:15] I could go on. There's many more practical kinds of sacrifices that the apostles in the New Testament are walking us through, step by step, like toddlers.

[30:30] You have to learn this new life that we've been called to live, because it's not natural for us. And so the New Testament is full of examples of these practical sacrifices that are involved in living the new life we've been called to live.

[30:45] But it's when we're willing to make those sacrifices, even if we don't feel like it, even if it's not yet natural for us, it's when we're willing to take those first steps and make those sacrifices, it's that that shows that we are breaking out of the world's pattern of idolatry.

[31:06] Christians making these kind of sacrifices shows that we're being liberated slowly but surely. from the world's pattern of worshipping and hoarding these things for ourselves.

[31:23] And this is a challenge and the reason that I decided to preach these last three weeks on the topic of sacrifice and have been just as challenged as anyone else as I've been preparing these sermons and studying this topic.

[31:37] But it's a challenge that I think needs to be issued afresh in 2022 to all of us because, let's be honest, these last few years have put even more strain on the things we have, haven't they?

[31:50] With COVID and now with rising fuel prices, we have less energy after the last two years, we have less time, it seems we have less money than we've had before, and so we're even more reluctant than ever to give these things up.

[32:07] And yet, here in Romans 12 is a snapshot of the life of a saved person starting to live the way that they've been called to live, and it involves sacrifice after sacrifice, but I don't know about you, when I read through these instructions, I'm saying to myself, if everyone did this, that would be an awesome community to be part of, wouldn't it?

[32:37] Let love be without hypocrisy, cling to what is good, love one another deeply as brothers and sisters, outdo each other in showing honor, do not lack diligence in zeal, but be fervent in the spirit serving the Lord, rejoice in hope, be patient in affliction, be persistent in prayer, share with the saints in their needs, pursue hospitality, bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse, rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep, if everyone did this, wouldn't that be an awesome community to be part of?

[33:05] Right? If all the people here did that, wouldn't you like to be part of that community? We all want everyone else to do that, but it's very difficult when we have to do it ourselves.

[33:19] But the reason that would be an awesome community to be part of is because that is what we were made to be. That is what God put us on earth to be.

[33:29] That is what we were saved to be. This kind of outward focused life that seems so strange and alien and unnatural when we read about it here. It seems like things that saints do, not me, ordinary Christian, but this is the kind of life, this outward focused life that seems so unnatural.

[33:53] This is the way we've what we've been made to live. This is the lives we've been made to live. This is the logicus, the rational, the proper way of living. of being human. And it's what we've been saved to be.

[34:07] So that we can learn to live free of idols and to live the lives that we've been called to live and to show the self-absorbed world around us what it means to be the humans that God made us to be.

[34:20] And it's as we make those sacrifices that the world takes notice and realizes this is something that they can't get anywhere else. That is our greatest witness. That is our greatest worship, is the willingness to sacrifice.

[34:37] But I know it's hard, isn't it? To conclude, you know, the last three weeks, we all nod our heads and we know this is what the Bible says, but we also know it's hard to do.

[34:51] Such counter-cultural, counter-instinctive lives of joyful sacrifice seem just too much to ask. We don't think we have it in us to live like this.

[35:05] But I want to tell you, if you're a Christian, if you're a believer in Christ, you do have it in you because you've got the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit who has real power to change you far more than you thought was ever possible.

[35:18] You've got God's Spirit to give you power to live the life you were saved to live. But we must be urged because it's not natural. It's not instinctive to do that.

[35:30] But we do have the power in us to do it and that's why the Bible urges us and trains us to use that power. So will you be willing to be trained to use the power that the Holy Spirit has given you?

[35:44] And do you want to live this transformed life, breaking free of the idolatry of things? Well, if you want, then I want you to come back next week because we'll be starting a new series called Transformed and it will be looking at how to use the power that God gives us in the Spirit to live the lives we've been called to live.

[36:05] So come back next Sunday. But in the meantime, let me pray for us. Lord, you, as we sing in our one song, you are giving and forgiving.

[36:19] you are giving. You give. You are outward focused, Lord. You are not self-absorbed. Lord, when we compare ourselves to your character, we just see how far we've fallen short of what we should be.

[36:35] And so we pray, Lord, that you would help just as you are giving and you, in your very nature, are sacrificial, that you would help us to realize that that is what you've made us to be.

[36:48] Outward focused. And that that is the way, that is our true worship. Being outward focused is our true worship. It's the true way of glorifying you to the world around us. Lord, we know it's hard.

[37:00] As we read these instructions of what a Christian should be, we think it's so impossible to do, let alone to want to do. And so we pray, Lord, that you would remind us that we have your Spirit.

[37:14] We have your Spirit to help us, to transform us. And we pray that you'd bring us back next week so that we can learn, we can start a new journey learning how to embrace the power of your Spirit to become the people you've saved us to be.

[37:29]  In Jesus' name, Amen. Amen. Amen.