← ArchiveSunday, January 12, 2014DateJanuary 12, 2014Speaker—TextRomans 12Passages in this sermonRomans 122:52Romans 12:13:07Job 19:57Matthew 1328:49Genesis 2234:34Romans 137:35Romans 637:41Romans 9:1137:47TranscriptClick any line to jump there.0:00Now, Brother Billy, they began today in challenging their people what we're going to be doing tonight. I know it says a leadership pep rally, but I want to encourage you. I really want everybody to be here. I want you to hear my heart about what I hope our church can become, and it's just a platform of building, a building platform of 2015, 2016, in a continuation of growth and doing what0:26God would have us to do, and doing it God's way. That's what I want you to hear. I want you to hear something that you say, well, you don't preach it. I'm just going to talk it. I don't have a platform of Bible verses other than the Bible itself to hold to, and we will. We're going to talk about our revival upcoming in March, and the commitment we as a church0:52are going to need to make toward that as we prepare for that. We're going to talk about DU and why we have the DU classes that we do, and what we're hoping that everybody will come and hear and be a part of. We're going to talk about, Brad's going to talk about the young people. Sharon's not here. Gail and I got up early Saturday morning, drove to Savannah, Georgia, went to Bradley's wedding Saturday morning about 10.30, then turned around and drove back yesterday afternoon.1:19It was a very beautiful wedding, and we were glad to support Sharon and Danny and their family and this beautiful thing that God did in Bradley's life by giving him a beautiful wife. Her name is Taylor, and it's really interesting, Bradley's name is Taylor, Bradley Taylor, and her name is Taylor. So I didn't do the funeral, but if I had, I would have said Taylor and Taylor. I would have done it just to aggravate them, but I thought it would have been a neat thing.1:47But wedding, did I say funeral? When did I say funeral? Over and over again. Dog. Now, how do you get out of that hole? I don't feel like my marriage is, well, anyway. We went to a wedding.2:20Very much like a funeral. Huh? We went Friday, we left Friday morning and spent the night, and then went to the funeral Saturday. Okay. Find me at the wedding.2:41I'll tell you, it's been a long weekend. I'm not sure how this is going to turn out this morning, but I do hope you'll be here tonight. If you have your Bibles with you, I told you we would go back to Romans chapter 12. We're going to revisit it. This time we're going to stay in verses 1 and 2. Verses 1 and 2 talk about a very important matter in our life, and you'll see that as we talk about it in just a minute. In Romans chapter 12, verses 1 and 2, Paul, again, as I shared with you last week, uses some very important introductory language here.3:07He says, therefore, I urge you, brethren. Therefore, it's there because of the first 11 chapters. And I hope you went home and read those first 11 chapters because they mean everything. You want to, when, as a pastor, I seek to challenge you to go home and read your Bibles and go home to study the Word of God. That's what's going to encourage you, and that's what's going to help you.3:35That's what's going to get you through tough times. That's what's going to make life, as we know it sometimes, to be very hard to become something very special. Because we don't always know what the Bible says. Sometimes we want to sit down and say, and I have meetings with people all the time, not always church members, but sometimes just in conversations. People say, I know what the Bible says, but let me tell you what I think.4:03And, you know, God's not really concerned about what I think unless I tell you what I think, and it supersedes the Bible. Then he's concerned about that. But not, he's not really concerned about what you think. He's concerned about what he said. And what he said is eternal, it's true, and it's worth our attention, and it's worth our life. What we think comes and passes, I want to tell you something. I'll guarantee you, we could have, break up into groups right now, and I'm going to have a group over here,4:32and I want this group to talk about, and you're going to have all you want to talk about, and what you think really matters. I want you to talk about how in the world a Southeastern Conference football team can lose every game last year and play for the national championship team this year. And I say that because I know there are a lot of Auburn fans over here. Y'all talk about that. I want you guys over here that are the Alabama fans, tell me,4:59why in the world did Nick Saban hire Lane Kiffin, whom I despise as an offensive coordinator? Y'all talk about that. And you say, preacher, you really despise somebody, I didn't care for his antics. Well, we can talk about those things, and we can say, but let me tell you what I think. And you can talk about those things, and you can tell you, let me tell you what I think. That's okay. What you think matters, because it's yours. And people like to know what they think matters, but folks, when it comes to godly living,5:29the only thing that matters is God's word. That's the only platform that I have that I can stand on and say what I say to you. If I get into what I think and to get into what I believe and to get into what I can mess up, unless everything I think and everything I believe is based on the inerrant word of God.5:51And so this morning, I want to speak on what I see the Bible says about the matter of what God really desires for your life. How to give God what he wants the most. Have you ever thought about that? Now, speaking down at Brother Billy's church this morning, they were talking about their budget and their faith giving,6:19and they're seeking to create a large offering over the next year to help reduce their debt, help do some work in their church building, and to help do their mission program. Not anything unlike ours. As a matter of fact, it's exactly like ours. But I don't know, sometimes I think it's easier for preachers to invite other preachers into their church to preach on money than it is for them to preach on money, because then the people can't leave and say,6:48well, all he ever talks about a pair is money. Can I tell you, I believe God's word is bigger than money. I believe our commitment to God is bigger than the check we write. But I believe it includes that. In Romans chapter 12, beginning at verse 1, we'll read it again. And he says, therefore, I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice,7:10acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And then he gives us the negative. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove that the will of God, what the will of God is,7:35that which is good and acceptable and perfect. The whole outlook of mankind, this is according to A.W. Tozer, the whole outlook of mankind might be changed if we could all believe that we dwell under a friendly sky and that the God of heaven, though exalted in power and majesty, is eager to be friends with us. What does God really want from me?8:07Well, listen to what he says. Come to me, ye who are weary and burdened, and I'll give you rest. Really? That's what God wants? That's what he said. A Christian life, though, is filled with all kinds of struggles, and sometimes those struggles overwhelm the spiritual side of our life. Don't you think? Sometimes those struggles become more of our focus than those things that Jesus said.8:35Come to me, you who are weary. Come to me, ye who are burdened. Come to me, ye who are hurting. Come to me, ye who are struggling. Come to me, ye who are caught up in addiction. Come to me, you who are committing the same sin over and over again. Come to me. Come to me, and I'll give you rest. Wow. What a God. Come to me, you who hurt inside so bad sometimes you don't want to get up in the morning.9:05Our greatest struggle in the Christian life is the lack of spiritual maturity on the side of the church because spiritual mature people ought to be those that are heading up the body of Christ in such a way that we are taking on those less spiritual and mature and teaching them what the Christian life is really all about9:33and that there is a God who can take their struggles and can take them and their struggles and see them through it to the bitter end. What we need to be reminded of is that we as believers who have made the journey, God has placed certain hardships in our life for a purpose so we can share them with someone else. If you don't believe it, go back and look at Job chapter 1. And I did, by the way.10:02Listen to Job chapter 1. There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless. He was upright, one who feared God, and turned away from evil. And if you look down in the end of verse 5, and it says, Thus Job did continually. In other words, Job is one of those men who loved God so much and who put such faith in God that he was totally surrendered to God's purpose and design for his life10:31and he lived that life out in such a way that God could look down from heaven and say, There's nobody on earth that I know of that's like that man right there. I'll compare him to anybody. I'll put him up against anybody. And then there's nobody that we know that goes through the struggles that Job goes through. And then when we think about being Job's, we run. Because we're scared to death that somewhere along the way,10:58God is going to take us through a valley that we can't get out of. But let me remind you that Job never went through anything that God didn't get him through to the other side. We are so afraid of making that total commitment to God that we're going to miss out on something that we can supply ourself that God would never supply for us. I want to just share. You know, I get emotional thinking about this.11:28But when I became a Christian as a youngster and surrendered to preach as a youngster, I don't know what this had to do with anything. But I can tell you as I have shared this with you before, in my life, do you know what? I didn't want to be a doctor growing up. I didn't want to be a lawyer growing up. And all y'all say, thank God for that. And then I didn't know what I really wanted to be growing up. But do you know what I knew? I wanted to be growing up more than anything, Brad. I wanted to be a dad. I wanted to be a daddy.11:59I wanted to get married first. So I had to find somebody that would cooperate with me. And I did. But I didn't find her. God did. And God put us together. You see, we're missing out on so much in our life today because we are not fully committed to God to take on the reins of leadership in our life that he could actually do something that we want him to do.12:26Now, did I know that wanting to be a daddy would lead me and my wife through certain valleys of great heartache and hardship such as miscarriages and fetal demise and babies being born in the doctor's hand as the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck? Did I know that? Did I know that through this that I was going to have three teenage boys that would make me wish that I had been like Abraham and sacrificed each one of them to Isaac at some point in their life? No.12:58No. But you know, I'm so glad that when I was little, God didn't say to me, Chris, you're going to find a beautiful wife, but y'all are going to go through pain. Y'all are going to go through suffering. Y'all are going to hurt. She's going to miscarry. It's going to break her heart. You're not going to understand it. You're going to watch a baby be born in the doctor's hand. And you're not going to have... Don't tell me those things, God. God, just let me be a dad. Just let me be a dad. And so that's what I wanted. This sermon's not about that.13:27What this sermon is about is that God is willing to take what you really want to be sometimes and bless it. And you don't even know it until you're willing to totally commit. When we understand what it means to give God what he really wants,13:54we're going to be able to truly understand what worship is. We never truly fully understand what worship is because we only worship when it's like we want it. And then we think this little moment of time right here is worship. But according to this passage, worship is an everyday life. It's what I'm doing every day.14:23It's how I'm living every day. It's how I raise those children. It's how their mother raised those children. It's how we treat our grandchildren. It's how we treat our daughter-in-laws. It's how we work. It's how we come. It's how we treat people when we get to work. It's a lot more. When we understand that what God really wants, and if you look at this passage, what does God really want? God wants all of me. You see, when we became a Christian and we had confessed Christ as our Savior,14:52hopefully that's when you became a Christian, when you confessed Christ as your Savior. I believe a lot of people have done a lot of things to become Christians and never become Christians because they've never fully been engulfed by the power of God and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to the point they want to live out their Christian life for the Lord Jesus Christ. And so they mimic the lives of others. They picked up some good traits along the way and they try to do those things. My friend, you don't have to pick up good traits along the way. All you have to do is allow the Holy Spirit to work in your life15:22to do what God's Word is teaching you. He wants from you. That's why we have Romans 12. That's why Romans 12, 1 is there. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present yourselves living sacrifices. Wow, the missing power of the absent joy15:51in our life can be found in Romans 12, 1 and it's surrender. Can I tell you that I really feel like we've got a good church, we've got good Christians this day and next, but we've just got a lot of unhappy people. More people are miserable today than I've ever seen in my life. We're miserable over life. We're miserable over, some of us didn't get what we wanted out of life. We're miserable over, some of us haven't made the choices16:20that we thought we should have made, that we should have made back there. Some of us are miserable because we didn't get on our face before God and ask Him what He wanted to do with our life and we began living it and we made such atrocious mistakes that our lives have been scarred by those sins that we can never forget. And Satan is real quick to bring up those things to us over and over again when in reality, Jesus Christ is saying, hey, come to me. You are burdened and heavy laden. I'll give you rest.16:52You know, it's not unusual for any of us to want to pick and choose from the Christian life what we want. I get somewhat tickled nowadays over what people pick and choose about the Christian life and, you know, we will pick and choose. Well, in the New Testament church, nowadays you grow if you don't talk about money and you get all the money you need if you don't talk about money. Well, I'm not sure that's true because if our offerings don't pick up, we're going to have to start17:22talking about it more than that and we're going to have to take up two of them. That's okay. We're not destitute. But what about teachers in Sunday school, Brad? We're going to need some teachers in Sunday. We're going to need somebody to say, hey, I'm willing to be committed to teach the word of God. I had a Sunday school class and I hate to say this but it is the truth. It was a bunch of senior adult ladies. I mean ultra senior adult ladies.17:50So if you ultra senior adult ladies take offense to this, please don't because I don't mean it to offend you but I want to share it because it's how churches can be sometimes. They had a great Sunday school teacher but as you can imagine, she died. But there was a woman in that Sunday school class whose husband loved to teach the Bible and he was in a men's Sunday school class and he was a great teacher so we said, hey, why don't we let him go into that Sunday school class and teach that class? He'll do a great job because he loves God18:19and he loves to teach the word and his life is so precious. We did that. Six weeks into it, here was a complaint. He don't give us enough time to talk before Sunday school starts and he takes way too long when he gets started and so I went to him. One of the most foolish things and heartbreaking things I've ever done, I told my Sunday school director, we got to ask him18:49to quit teaching and he did and he left the church and he never spoke to me again after that. Why? Because we are so absorbed with church being about us that when somebody gets up there that loves God, loves what they do, we'll nitpick them to death until we get what we want.19:19Why is it so hard? Well, first of all, surrender and fear are synonymous in our minds and hearts. Did you know that? Surrender and fear are synonymous in our minds and in our hearts. I didn't say that, Chip Ingram said that. Think about it. If I surrender19:48and I give up, that means I don't have control anymore. In other words, if I were to pull a gun on Brad right here and say, okay, Brad, stand up, buddy. I'm going to shoot you. Don't stand up. I'm going to shoot you. Brad's going to stand up. The rest of you are going to go, oh. But I say, now put your hands up, okay? I want, I like your sweater vest, Brad. Catch it on. Can I have it?20:17What size is it? Oh, it's not the kind I wear. It's all right. But I want, Brad, I like your shoes.20:33I want your shoes. Brad's going, I've got my gun on Brad. Guess what he's going to do? He's going to give me everything I'm asking for. That's how we view surrender. God doesn't hold a gun to our head. The Bible says that God just simply has taught us in his word that if we really, truly want to find the real joy of living out a Christian life and really fulfill all the purpose and plan that he has for my life, no matter whether I'm 90 years old or whether I'm nine years old,21:03that I have to come and come to a place where I say, God, I'm beyond fear. I surrender. I am willing to surrender, God, to your purpose and your plan for my life. Why is it so hard to surrender? Well, there was a book, this was, I totally read this so don't sue me. There's a book that was written by a Yale Law professor titled Risk, Reason21:32and the Decision-Making Process. In the book, there are two case studies. One of the case studies deals with a man by the name of John. I'm going to have to quickly go through this and I can't give you all the things that John says. If you want to read about John, you can read it in Chip Ingram's book. In Chip Ingram's book called the Romans 12 Christian. He talks about John and John is a man who is a Civil War buff and who loves to go22:02to these buildings that are going to be torn down or auctioned off and all the stuff in them are going to be auctioned off and so he would make his attention to find the oldest ones and that's the one he's going to. So he went to this old house that they were going to auction everything in the old house. The couple had lived there forever and they had died and the family didn't want anything in there and so they were auctioning it off and so John went by and he went through the house and he did notice in one of the rooms there were a whole set of guns and they were old22:31Civil War weapons and he just assumed in his head these things could be worth several thousand dollars and he put that back in his head and then he continued to look further and he began to look around upstairs and he saw that the house really wasn't worth what they were probably going to want for it because he had heard they were going to ask about $95,000 for the house and all the contents they weren't just going to sell each individual thing and so anyway he goes looking throughout the house and he didn't see a whole lot more23:01but he did see some shelves that went downstairs and he goes downstairs and there's a roll top desk over there goes to the roll top desk opens the roll top desk he looks at it and he thinks well this roll top desk is interesting I like roll top desk and about that time he's filling around and he's got his flashlight and he's looking through the drawers and he hits a button and out comes a hidden drawer and inside the hidden drawer are seven confederate gold coins he quickly just picked one of them up shined the coin shined it now this is a civil war history23:31buff and he looks at it and he realizes that these coins are in mint condition he puts it back in the drawer he slides the drawer shut he closes the roll top desk and he walks outside and he determines this house is going to cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $95,000 I've got $20,000 in my savings account I haven't got enough money to get this but I really would like to get this house I really would like to have it only way I'm going to do it is I've got to call my wife and tell her we've got to sell our house immediately we've got to sell our cars23:59we've got to sell all of our electronic equipment we've got to sell everything we've got so that I can have enough money to get this house it's potentially worth millions of dollars another case study Sheila Sheila's a painter she loves to paint she went to art school she did a special study in Picasso she was a wonderful person never married was a painter I mean taught a college class took a vacation24:28to Europe while she was in Europe she runs across a little French village in the French village she runs across an art gallery in the art gallery she runs across some paintings and she realizes they're having an auction on these paintings and she goes through the paintings and she looks and she says is this and she calls one of the ladies over she says is this a Picasso she said yes yes we've got several of those they're prints of Picasso's early days they're worth about five or ten thousand dollars each she said really why are they just worth and they're just prints and they're just worth that24:58worth that she said well we don't really believe they're Picasso because they only have his initials on there and not his full name and Picasso always signed his full name and she began to look at these prints and the more she looked at them she began to think these are not prints these are real and even if they are prints they're real Picasso prints and if they're real Picasso prints these things could be worth millions and millions of dollars and it redoned on her as she remembered her studies concerning Picasso back in college25:28and she remembered that in Picasso's early days he didn't sign his full name he only initialed his pieces so she walks out of the little shop she's excited and she's torn she's thinking to herself okay if I buy all this work it's going to cost me everything I've got back home25:58I've got to sell all my artwork that I have she had a little collection of her own it ran about $25,000-$30,000 but she's got to sell that she's going to have to sell her car too and she's going to have to do all that while she's in France and hope that the bank or one of her friends get the bank to lend her the money to do all that knowing that she's going to put all that up for collateral here's what as they turn these cases over to the26:27students at Yale Law School here's what they had to discern what are the risks what's John's risk what's Sheila's risk what are the potential rewards plus simple John knows that his gold coins could be worth millions of dollars Sheila knows that her Picassos could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars what would you do and why26:55and why would you do it that was their test that's what they had to go do these are the key issues in both studies as they make these critical conditions but the first and most important factor is this are they authentic and is their validity in other words is what I believe that I've learned27:25I've learned about these things make these things real or am I about to make the worst mistake of my life John's got to determine he's asked his wife to sell their home put it up mortgage it sell their cars sell all their everything they got if these are gold plated coins I'll lose everything so he's27:55so he's got to rely upon his knowledge of everything that he studied concerning history she was relying on her knowledge of everything she studied concerning Picasso bottom line do they trust what they know if so are they going to be willing to give everything that has value in their life for this potential treasure that they28:25that they found will they act on their faith in their knowledge and be courageous for the potential to become millionaires or will they be safe and stay where they are well I'm sure you've picked up there's another case study that wasn't listed in this book but it is listed in this book it was in Matthew chapter 13 the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field when a man28:54found it he hid it again and then in his joy went and sold all that he had and bought the field again the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant ship looking for fine pearls when he found one of the great one with great value he went away and sold everything he had and he bought it let me tell you another little story29:24story we're full of stories you got the time good I'm sorry we just run a little late there was a man sitting in front of a little store and he just sat there and he sold his own jewelry and he had garnered some pearls of his own that were real and he had put some together and made bracelets put some together and made necklaces and he had a bunch of her fancy and he started talking to29:54talking to her while her mother went studying or went shopping and he looked at her and he noticed that she had a little thing of pearls on her neck and he said sweetheart those are such beautiful pearls what are they and she said my mama gave them to me and he looked at them and they were plastic pearls and he said that's precious well they conversed back and forth for a long period of time and it came time the mother finished her shopping she got ready to go and the old man had been so overwhelmed by the30:24by the sweetness of this little girl that he looked at her he said sweetheart I've got some pearls here that I'd like to trade you for the ones you've got around your neck you know what that little girl did she took off running to her mother and she jumped up at her mother's arms and she said mama mama mama that man's trying to get my pearls surrender30:50surrender is not a dirty word total commitment is not reserved for spiritual superstars pastors missionaries and those who are more spiritual than regular people just like you and I total commitment is the channel through which God's best and biggest blessings31:19blessings flow would you like to know what happened to John and Sheila they mortgaged everything they had they bought the house they bought the Picassos John became a millionaire he knew exactly what he was getting he trusted31:48he trusted his knowledge Sheila bought the paintings got home with them and they were real in the early days of Picasso so he only initialed his prince she became a multi millionaire but then there's the church someone has32:16someone has offered us a roll of real pearls and we'll leave here today with our plastic ones when God has offered us his real ones come to me ye who are burdened and heavy laden and I will give you rest Jesus didn't just32:46didn't just give us a facsimile of what he was he gave us who he was and the whole purpose is that we might know the fullness of his joy and his love and his life and yet there are people that leaves church every Sunday Sunday after Sunday in church after church with plastic pearls and no33:14and no commitment to God's real love now what's our challenge today I want to challenge you to examine your soul because I can't I can go to the doctor and he can take his stethoscope off and he can hear my heart but he can't examine my soul I want33:42I want you to examine your soul I want you to ask yourself because I believe God is big enough and in this room in his Holy Spirit big enough to give you an answer are you committed to give it all are you going to keep something back this morning and leave with plastic pearls34:11pearls you see Paul says I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice which is holy and acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service there was another time and place that God did much the same thing in a man's life in Genesis chapter 22 this is what we focus Genesis on he said take now your son your only son whom you love Isaac and go34:41and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I'll tell you when we read this it horrifies us I was listening to some atheists on the radio the other day and they were using this text this is the kind of God Christians serve the kind that ask them to take their sons up on the mountain and sacrifice them my friend if you haven't sacrificed your children that may be why they're the way they are we've35:06we've got to sacrifice them we've got to take them to the altar and everything else that goes with them but let me tell you what I want you to focus on as we leave now that was God speaking to Abraham the first time this is when God spoke to him the second time then the angel of the Lord called Abraham the second time from35:36from heaven and he said by myself I have sworn declares the Lord because you've done this thing have not withheld your son your only son indeed I will greatly bless you and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore and your seed shall possess the gates of their enemies in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed because you have obeyed my voice so Abraham36:06Abraham returned to his young men and they rose and they went together to Bathsheba and Abraham lived at Bathsheba can remind you he took Isaac with him as well you see God's not going to bless a half hearted heart joy and peace is not going to reign in a half hearted life if we're going to see God do something different in 2014 that's really going to make a difference I'm not going to have to get up here and preach sermons on tithing36:36tithing or on needing to teach God's going to do that for me because you're going to be so committed to God's purpose and design for your life that it ain't gonna matter what happens is that we get a warped view of God we get a view of God37:06God that sometimes comes from religion sometimes it comes from preachers sometimes it just comes from all of it being mixed up in the world we get the idea that God is a stingy God he's an unkind God he's looking to punish all of us and he doesn't want to live with us unless we measure up to his standards when we read the first 12 chapters of Romans we find out in Romans 1 through 337:353 we've all sinned in Romans 6 through 8 he's provided the Holy Spirit to guide us through sanctification in Romans 9 11 he's sovereign and he knows everything that we're going through you know the question thus remains are you going to leave here with38:05with plastic pearls are you going to leave here with the best God has for you let's pray father total absolute surrender is what you've asked for you've commanded it God it's not up for suggestion or discussion Paul says I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God give your bodies off your bodies38:35bodies living sacrifices holy and acceptable unto God which is my reasonable service God I pray today you'll examine the soul of every man woman and child in this building first of all father if there is a soul that is darkened by the fact that you do not live there that that person will come to confess you a savior to bring light to his soul father if there's a person39:05person here today and they know in their life that they have lived off plastic pearls God they'll walk out of here rich with the blessings of God father I ask these things in Jesus name and then father I ask also if there's someone here that's looking for39:35for a church home God guide them let my words convey let your Holy Spirit guide and God when we leave we will give you praise because you're a God worth trusting Jesus name I pray amen come to me not me but Jesus ye who are burdened and heavy laden and he can give you rest swap your plastic pearls40:04pearls for the wealth of heaven let's standMore sermons on Romans →
