During our recent visit to Chicago we visited the Art Institute of Chicago. We saw wonderful works of many different mediums of art. Some I’m not sure why it was considered “art.” We also saw original Greek statues.
Did you know that in the days of Roman greatness so many people wanted their likeness in sculpture that Greek artists, working in Rome, had apprentices turning out stock bodies of gods and goddesses, while the artists made the heads to fit into sockets.
In our day of celebrity worship, the situation is reversed. Thousands of people are wearing the heads of others. They do not think for themselves. They are carried away by current fads in music and clothing, but also in science and religion.
We think we’ve got everything figured out. And we think that we’ve got our lives all planned out. But in reality all we have is the future, and what God gives us in it.
I’ve noticed two kinds of people: those who are out to make a better place for themselves in the world and those who are out to make the world a better place for everybody. The first group pursues fame. The second pursues success. Let me explain…
Fame is not the same as success. Erma Bombeck correctly pointed out that Madonna is one and Helen Keller is the other. It takes individual courage and faith to reject the fads of the world. Only the Spirit of God can furnish this supernatural life.
I am a future-oriented person. I don’t dwell in the past. I identify with the words of Paul when he wrote, “But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:13-14).
Now that’s adventure! Reading this you never get the sense that Paul thinks he’s “arrived,” or that he can now take it easy. He’s still excited about living the adventure God has laid out for him.
It is complacent, satisfied, and comfortable people who are not excited about the future. We become stagnate; growth declines; and the failure rate increases and excuses are made.
That’s not God’s way. God is always pushing us; He has plans for your life. But there are always people who push back at God. The Bible says in James 4:6, God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.
Pushing back at God is like pushing against a wall. You won’t get anywhere and your life will be miserable. People who continually push back at God usually come to the end of their days, or some point in their life, and sadly say, “I should have done what God called me to do when I had the opportunity.”
I loved what Pastor Ken Moore told the senior adults at Portales. He was challenging them to stay active for God in their senior adult years. Don’t give up, don’t quit, there are still things you can do. Then he said about himself, “There is so much life still to be lived that I don’t want anybody else to live it for me.”
What a great attitude. We could all learn from Ken. Are you excited about where you are going and what is God going to do with you today, next week with your life tomorrow? Do you really want to live a meaningful life? Do you want to please God? Then consider what God says in Romans 12:1-2.
1Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual£ act of worship. 2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
God loves you and offers His grace to you. So give yourself to Him.
(v.1) God created you. He gave you the responsibility of your body. Now He says, …offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. In other words, say “yes” to God.
Saying “yes” to God simply means saying “no” to things that offend His holiness. The greatest thing we can do in this life is give ourselves to God. . . our total selves—our body and our mind.
It is created by God. It is God’s good gift to you. You are made in the image of God. Whatever that means, it includes your body. Your body is the most marvelous of all God’s creation.
For your own benefit, it ought to be taken care of. It is important to eat the right diet, get proper rest, exercise, and to discipline the appetites of the body.
You may think, “This is my body. I can do with it whatever I want.” Well, no, not really. You are the caretaker, the steward, but it really belongs to God. 1 Cor. 6:19-20 makes that absolutely clear.
1 Corinthians 6:19 - 20 19Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.
If you are a Christian, the Holy Spirit lives in you. Your body really belongs to God. You honor God by taking care of your body.
When you abuse it with drugs or alcohol or constant over-eating, or neglecting to exercise, or cigarettes, you are destroying God’s property. It is destruction of the house you live in, and it brings dishonor to Him.
It’s the same with sexual sin. Your body is not yours to do with sexually whatever your appetite demands. It may not be easy to say “no” to drugs or alcohol or sex, but it’s not impossible.
You are not an animal. God has given you the power in His strength and yours to refrain from whatever is destructive to your body.
How can that happen? Well, we listen to Satan’s lies with our ears. Satan also uses our eyes as another means of entry, doing everything in his power to corrupt your mind and your body.
Hollywood knows the power of visual and sensual things. So do advertising executives. They are masters at using our ears and eyes to stimulate, influence, and accept that what is wrong.
It is up to you to make a deliberate decision to get out of the mould the world wants to put you in, and to give your body to Christ. But God didn’t stop there. He also said that He wants your mind.
(v. 2) … be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Proverbs 23:7 says, As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. Conformity to the world may be the biggest threat we Christians face.
I’ve noticed that the movie and music industries, don’t like Christianity very much. Have you ever wondered why? It’s because Christianity is about hope and life and eternity.
But the things the world holds close to their hearts leads to death and heartbreak and broken dreams and shattered families, and broken and destroyed lives and….well we could go on and on . . .
But genuine Christianity is about the good and the best. It is assurance of a future beyond this life. It is bodies and minds that are not dependent upon false dreams and hopes. It recognizes we live in a world where bad things happen, but that God never forsakes or turns His back on us.
When Jesus came into this world, the world turned its back on Him. The world found the matchless Son of God intolerable. It nailed Him to the cross. And it now ridicules and scorns, not those who do evil, but those who take the lordship of Jesus Christ seriously in their lives.
That’s a word of warning to you. When you give your body and your mind to Christ and allow Him to be the Lord of your life, the world will not forgive you for that, and will always be your enemy.
In the book of Daniel is the story of Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah (better known to us as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego). I’ve talked about them before because theirs is the amazing story of young men who could have had for the taking all this worlds sensual delights and pleasures….
You remember the story. They were advisors to King Nebuchadnezzar. Wine, women, and song were theirs for the taking. There was just one catch—they had given their bodies and their minds to God. They refused to give in to the peer pressure of their culture. More particularly, they refused to worship the golden image of the King.
Nebuchadnezzar was furious. He had them hauled before him. He said, “If you do not worship [my image], you will be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace. Then what god will be able to rescue from my hand?”
I love their answer to this man with the power to snuff out their lives with the snap of a finger: Daniel 3:16 – 18. 16 “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. 17If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. 18But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”
Verse 18 says it all. There’s no place in their lives for wishy-washy Christians who think it’s too much trouble to go to church. They had given themselves so totally to God that they knew without a doubt He could and that He would save them if He chose to.
Their trust was so complete, that if He chose not to, that was okay too. That’s what it means to give your body and mind to Christ. Because, when you live a life pleasing to God, your faith will always be under attack. That’s a promise and a fact.
The circumstances of life will tempt you in every possible weakness in your life. You will be filled with pessimism over your desire to please God and the enticement of the moment to bow before the god’s of the world.
But remember the goal. Your hope and future are in Christ. And hope always remain unshaken, because we “know” our God can deliver us from the fiery furnace. We know what the end result of our faithfulness is.
Years ago California tomato growers were more successful at tomato growing than the tomato growers of all human history. They grew more tomatoes per acre than anyone ever had. But they had a problem—how to get their tomatoes into the salad bowls of Chicago and the fruit baskets of the Bronx un-bruised, because no one would buy a bruised tomato. So they set agro technology to work and accomplished two marvelous things. First, they got a machine to pick the tomatoes while they were still yellow but very firm. Then they put the tomatoes on an assembly belt, passed them under a certain kind of light for seven seconds, and they came out a rosy red, or almost red. And then they devised packaging in a Styrofoam crate that could get the tomatoes anywhere in the country unbruised. Agro technology wins again. But they had one problem—they forgot the purpose of a tomato. The tomato that the chef sliced into his salad in Chicago and that the woman bought from the market in Albuquerque didn't taste the way a tomato was supposed to taste. They forgot that a tomato was supposed to taste good.
Remember what the end result is of your faithfulness. The purpose of our lives is to serve and please God. We do this when we give our bodies and minds to Christ.
And when you give yourself totally to Him, you will discover that life is a much more exciting adventure than anything this world can offer.
Remember, God wants our bodies as living, active, vibrant sacrifices. He doesn’t want dead, useless corpses.
If you have accepted Jesus as your Savior, God has a plan, a purpose, a future and a hope for you. And it’s a great adventure. Whether you are young and just starting to learn how to follow God, or whether you are older and are learning again how to follow Him, live the adventure.
So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you. Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention of God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. (From The Message). Live the adventure with Christ.