Good morning and welcome in today. Today we’re going to take a look at a passage of scripture from Romans chapter 12. But before we do that, I wanted to tell you a little story.
As a child, I can remember helping out to prepare dinner. All my brothers decided that they wanted hamburgers for the night, so we began to mix up the meat and the onions in a bowl.
When everything was finally prepared, my job was to put the hamburger mix into the hamburger press. This was a little press made out of a couple pieces of wood.with a hinge. You’d put some hamburger mix into the press, and then push down with your hands. After you had completely compacted it down, you would clean the edges of the press. When you opened it up, you had a hamburger patty!
I would continue this routine about 15 to 20 times until we had a bunch of hamburger patties ready for the stove. I can remember sitting and looking at all of them as they sat on the cookie sheet. I remember how they all looked perfectly similar. Although each hamburger patty was a patty unto itself, they were all similar to each other. The word similar means having characteristics in common.
Think about all the birds that fly around in the air every day. They’re all similar in the fact that they each have wings. Similar means having characteristics in common. They have a likeness or resemblance. Have you ever driven by a brand new apartment building, or condominium? Have you noticed how they look practically identical?
People who profess to be Christian, are not supposed to share similarities with people who are still living in the world. When we become believers in Jesus Christ, we are supposed to become similar to Him, rather than those who are living in the world. This is what we’re going to discuss today from Romans chapter 12.
Rom 12:2
And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
To conform means to be similar in form or type. In this world, we are all human. In this world, each of us need to drink water or to eat food to survive. Although each of us share similarities as humans, when a person becomes a Christian, we are called out of this world. Instead of walking on the wide road of sin that leads to destruction, we begin to walk down the narrow path of Christ Jesus. The further you walk down the narrow path of Christ, the further away from the world you are going to get.
When you conform, it means to be similar, identical, in agreement, or harmony with something or someone.
Titus 3:3
For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.
All of us have come short of the glory of God. When we begin the Christian walk, we are turning away from the way that we used to live.
Each of us have sinned, and each of us needs forgiveness with God. None of us are better than anybody else. When you decide to become a Christian, you’re deciding to follow the way of Christ rather than the way of the world. When we follow Christ we choose him and his way over relationships that we’ve had with others who are still living in the world.
1 Pet 4:4
Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you:
1 Pet 3:16
Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ.
Each of us when we’re born into this world develop relationships with other people. They can be brothers or sisters. They can be classmates from school. These relationships may grow over the years, until the point that you decide that you want to become a follower of Jesus Christ. The Lord calls us to come out from among them and be separate.
That’s exactly what Moses did when he turned his back and left Egypt. That’s what Noah did when he spent his life preparing his ark for the destruction of the world. Abraham was separate when he lived out in the desert. That’s what Lot did when he left Sodom and Gomorrah.
When you become a follower of Jesus Christ, he leads you away from the world and its ways. Lot’s wife loved the world. She loved the world so much, she turned away from her own husband. There are people who still do that today. They profess to be Christian, but they turn around and go back to Sodom and Gomorrah. The truth is that in the Christian life, there’s no turning back, no turning back. It’s like being on a one way road and there is no U turn available.
As a Christian, we’re supposed to be following Christ. Instead of following after the world, Jesus calls us into a completely different path.
When I was a child, I can remember going through a bicycle training class. While I was in the playground, they had set up markers that you had to follow. They also told you that you had to obey all the signs that you came across. When you came to a stop sign, you needed to obey. You had to go through all the cones and avoid any obstructions may come into your path. When you finally completed the course. You got a certification badge. That is so similar to the Christian life. The Lord Jesus wants us to follow the narrow path that he has put us on and there is no turning around. Jesus is changing us into what he wants us to become and the end result is going to be very different than what you see out in the world.
I want you to think for a moment about a monarch butterfly. They need to go through many stages in their life in order to become what they are meant to be. They need to undergo a complete transformation. They began life as an egg and then into a caterpillar, a pupa, and finally they turn into an adult butterfly.
As I’ve always taught, Christians are not perfect on day one. We are like a baby who has come out of the womb who needs help from those around us. Baptism is the first step but there are stages that God is going to take us through as we learn to submit and obey Him.
What similarities does a butterfly have with a caterpillar? Would you agree with me that they are completely different. When we lived in the world we were kind of like caterpillars. God, through His grace to change us, wants us to fly. The true Christian is learning to come out from the things of the world and becoming very different from what they used to be.
Remember the hamburgers I spoke about at the beginning? Imagine your mother taking one of those burgers and turning it into a meatball. Now it has completely changed in its form and its purpose. Christians are supposed to be different than what you see in the world.
1 Pet 2:9
But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light;
Imagine going to school one day and the principal had decided beforehand that everybody was supposed to wear orange for the day. There was a young man who showed up to school wearing a black suit and a tie. When he sat in his class, he was completely different than everybody else. The kids started to whisper to each other because it was so odd and unusual what he was doing. He looked completely different from everybody else. Welcome to Christianity. It’s about not being similar to others in this world. It’s not having resemblances to the way that the world lives. Jesus calls us to a different life.
Remember, we’re no better than anybody else. Each of us are sinners. We have all come short of the glory of God. But if you’re going to decide to become a Christian, you’re going to take a different road than others.
I can remember driving down a four wheeler trail that happens to run directly next to a highway. As you drive down this trail, you can look to your left and see cars passing by on the highway. You are both on two completely different paths.
God wants to take us off that highway and put us on his narrow path. He calls us out of the world that we used to live in and to become what he wants us to become. He does not want us to conform to the world that We came out of, but to become transformed, just like that butterfly. As a Christian, there is no turning back. God is taking us to a different place, just as Moses led the Israelites to a new land.
We are not supposed to love this world. We’re supposed to love Christ. We’re not supposed to follow this world and its ways. We’re supposed to love Christ. We are not supposed to be similar to this world anymore, but allow God to do that change in our lives.
Remember, the further you go down the path of Christ, the more different from the world you will become. That’s the truth of Christianity. It’s about undergoing a change. The more change that you go through, the more different and peculiar to this world you will be.
Do you want to become peculiar? What you need to do is obey Christ and come out from the world.
Think about those things for today and Lord willing, we’ll talk to you some more tomorrow. Till then, bye Bye, everybody.
Teufer Lake King James Bible Church 