"Unified Body Life in the Church"

Romans 12:1-6

Rev. Min J. Chung

(Friday Night Large Group, October 15, 1999)

 

"Therefore, 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. Do 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. For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith." Rom 12:1-6. NIV

 

I. IntroductionA. What does a good church or small group look like? What should one’s

Christian life ought to look like when we’re unified and serving one another? Someone once said, "Unfaithful friends are like a shadow. They are there in the sunshine but gone in the rain." That’s so true. In troubles, good friends are consistently there. That’s how the church ought to be. Tonto and Lone Ranger were riding through a canyon together, when all of a sudden, both sides were filled with warriors on horses, dressed for battle. The Lone Ranger turned to Tonto and asked, "What are we going to do?" Tonto replied, "What do you mean ‘we’ white man?" When things were fine, they were "we", but when problems came, they were not "we" anymore. A. W. Tozer said this in Pursuit of God, "There can be union without unity. Tie two cats together by their tails and throw them over a clothesline. Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers [meeting] together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be, were they to become ‘unity’ conscious and turn their eyes away from God for closer fellowship." "Snowflakes are one of nature’s most fragile things, but just look at what they can do when they stick together." (Vesta Kelly) We are weak ones away from each other, but when we’re stuck together, we can be a powerful people of God who can do mighty things for His glory. Diffuse light has no power; gathered light can go through steel bars. We’ll discuss four ways to have a unified body life, a unified church life,

a unified Christian life. You can also check what it means to grow in the Spirit of God. Am I going in the right way in my spiritual life? Am I becoming the person I ought to be? Here are four ways to check.

II. BodyA. We Are Not to Become Living Survivors But Living Sacrifices

1. We can individually survive on our own. Any time I am following the ways of the world I’m trying to survive on my own. I live to get. In Scripture we die to give. The call for us is to become living sacrifices. "Offer your bodies." Of course, body  is the embodiment of our being. It’s a picture of sacrifice. In the Old Testament, an animal’s body was sacrificed so that someone else could live. Sin was transferred to that animal and because it dies, someone else lives. In Romans 1-11, it talks about how Christ died for us; He became a dead sacrifice. He died once for all, so all we have to do is become a living sacrifice.

2. In view of God’s mercy–that’s the basis of living sacrificially. The world says survive. Scripture says sacrifice. We are not to be living survivors, but living sacrifices. This is the most basic and fundamental thing for us to become unified members of the church, to sacrifice and live for one another. This must be basic. In view of God’s mercy. We are saved by His mercy. Chapters 1-11 talk about doctrine and chapter 11 ends with doxology. After talking about amazing doctrine Paul has to exclaim, "Amazing! Praise the Lord! Amen!" Then in chapter 12, he talks about duty. Theology, doxology, practicality. Paul often does that. He talks about great theology and then praises God. Then he talks about our duty in response. As he starts this duty section, he says we are to be living sacrifices, because Christ died in our behalf.

3. One of the best movies I’ve ever seen is Saving Private Ryan. If you have a weak heart or if you’re pregnant, do not see this movie. It’s very graphic. However, it has great meaning and many spiritual implications. At the end of the movie, an older man goes to the grave on Veteran’s Day with his family following him. He bows down in front of a few graves and weeps and cries. Then he asks his wife, "Am I good man? Was my life worth it?" He is wondering this because the movie has described how a few men gave their lives to save this man’s life. The spiritual implication is this: We live because Christ died on our behalf. He sacrificed in our behalf. Now we are to live for Him, to represent Him. We can ask ourselves, is my life worth it? Is my life a living sacrifice? Am

I trying to survive, or am I sacrificing? That’s the core and most basic philosophy of our lives. To survive or to sacrifice?

B. We Are Not to Conform But to Transform1. That’s what verse 2 says. "Do 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." Until God is changing us, the world is shaping us. That’s what Scripture says. If you live a passive life, the world is shaping us. It’s an ongoing process of transformation and a lifetime of change.

2. We need to define the words conform and transform. The verse implies that you are already being conformed ("Do not conform any longer…"). What is conformity?Conformity is outward change that comes without inner change. So when you say I am conforming to this, you are confirming externally but not internally. He world shapes us but it doesn’t cause us to sin. It alters us and motivates us to express our sinful nature, but it does not cause us to sin. We can’t blame the world when we sin. We are merely shaped by the world. We are born with a sin nature, so the world shapes us to express our sinful hearts in a sinful way. It shapes us and justifies our sinful heart without change within. The world’s philosophy is: obey your thirst. That’s a survival philosophy. It means that you do whatever you want. If you look at advertising philosophy, it goes along with the sinful desires of the human heart. It says gratify your desires. Live for that thirst. Do whatever you want. Basically this world’s advertising system and really the entire philosophy of the world is: When your sinful desires are stimulated, don’t abstain. Rather, obey. That’s the philosophy of the world. Look at all the commercials. Out of a hundred commercials, how many things are advertised that are really needed to survive? Probably one, or not even that. So what do they have to do to sell these products? They must say: You have to gratify your desires. All of them are selling unnecessary things. Do we really need tires? Do we really need Gatorade? Do we really need all this food? When you fast, just watch TV. You’ll notice how many commercials are about food. What these commercials are doing are not causing us to sin, but stimulating us to sin. The world causes us conform to what already exists in our hearts.

3. Transformation is different. Transformation is outward change that comes from inner change. I tell you right now, nothing can

change a human heart other than God. Nothing. Anything and everything this world can try to change a heart, but nothing can change the inside, the heart of man. Everything we do without Christ is conformity. Every other religious system of this word is the same thing; there is nothing that can change us. The Spirit of God, the Word of God washes away our evil intentions and motives. Through political systems, communism, we are conformed but never transformed. Christianity transforms us. We change inside and the proof is outside change. There is a lot of conformity within the church but real change comes from transformation. The reason why Christ’s name is defamed is conformity. There is behavior modification but no heart transformation. We might not sin by going to certain places, but we sin in our religious activities by being pharisaic. Why? Because there’s conformity but no transformation. When there is transformation, Christ is glorified. Change takes place from the inside out. Some people say, "I don’t want to conform to CFC ways." My response is, "I hope not!" I hope you don’t conform to CFC ways, but you transform to CFC ways. Not only change outside and look like you’re different, but change within.

4. Let me try to define CFC ways, whatever that means. CFC girls are a certain way, CFC guys are a certain way. Who created that? Let me define CFC ways two ways. There are some biblical CFC ways. Read your Bible. Pray. Love each other. Sing praises with all your heart. Those are all biblical CFC ways. There are also just CFC cultural things. You need to distinguish between the two. Does only CFC have a culture? No, every church has a culture. There are neutral things they have decided to do in a certain way. It might not be explicitly biblical, but by agreeing upon certain ways, it has become its culture. Every church has a certain way of praying. We have a lot of ways of praying, positions of praying. Every church has a culture. You can distinguish between biblical and cultural ways by asking, "why?" Why do we do the things we do? For example, why do we take notes? Is it a sin not to take notes? No. So it’s not a biblical thing. It’s a CFC culture thing. Why does everyone take notes? Because Pastor Min’s sermons are so long. He preaches so long and with so many points that you have to take notes to remember anything. If you don’t ask why, you’re conforming, not transforming. You gotta know why. Is it a good reason? Ask not out of rebelliousness but out of a desire to learn and discern. You take notes because when more senses are

involved, more learning takes place. A lot of times you need to go home and review your notes, to remember and chew and meditate on the Word of God. I prepared this sermon for hours. So here is ten to twenty hours worth of things coming at you as you sit there and listen for forty-five minutes. Of course it takes chewing and meditating for you to get it. So take notes. It’s so helpful. I don’t know how many people talk about how good it is to do it. This whole issue is important because later on, when you serve at another church, you need to emphasize biblical ways, not cultural ways. Let’s say you’re teaching a youth group. You need to emphasize biblical things like, "You gotta pray." Otherwise, you’ll take a whip out when they don’t take notes–pshaaw! Isn’t it OK for kindergarten kids not to takes notes? If you don’t ask "why", you’ll enforce cultural things in a wrong way. If it’s a cultural thing, you should discern whether or not it’s appropriate in a certain situation.

5. As you ask these questions you’ll have one of two attitudes. One attitude is: Unless it’s biblical I will not follow. Another attitude: Unless it’s unbiblical I will follow. They sound similar but there’s a drastic difference. What’s the difference? In the first one, your attitude, direction and propensity is, "I will not follow." There are issues the Bible doesn’t specifically address. So you say, "That’s not in the Bible so I will not follow." When you don’t follow in the natural course of things, it becomes rebellion. I won’t take notes, because the Bible doesn’t talk about that. Our thinking should be: Is it unbiblical to take notes? No, it’s no big deal. I’m not sinning, so I’ll do it. Unless it causes me to sin, I’ll do it. It’s generally good to follow and have a submissive heart. The first attitude is minimum submission–bare, bare minimum. The second attitude is maximum submission. The first ends up being rebellion. The second is an excellent definition of submission. Ladies, this is an excellent definition of submission. The neutral must be followed in a spirit of submission.

6. How does this happen? "Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is." Well, obviously this kind of inner change takes place through Scripture. The Word goes into our hearts (this Sunday I’ll talk more specifically how this transformation takes place through the Word of God). The Bible goes in, and we learn not a TV philosophy, but a philosophy that says "deny yourself, carry your cross, and follow Me."

7. Do you want to know the will of God? How do you discern? When the Scripture goes into your mind and heart (verse 2) then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is. Test and approve are important words. These two words are translated from one word in the Greek. English cannot capture it with one word. It’s saying that you know something not only in your mind (test), but you agree with it in your heart (approve). When the Word of God changes you inside, you not only know it’s yes or no, but in your heart you desire it. When inside change takes place, you don’t need to ask, "Is this what God says?" but you kind of know it in your mind. And not only do you know it but you want it. This one word pictures head knowing and heart loving. You not only know the will of God but you love it. It’s not only about cognitive discerning but cardiac desiring. Not only right thinking but right valuing. Not only right testing, but right treasuring. When inside change takes place, you are able to discern because of spiritual knowledge, and you love it because you love to do the will of God. That’s how you test and approve. We have new spiritual taste buds. We love it. We want to do it. Heart change takes place.

8. Here is the process of biblical transformation. The world challenges your philosophy: Obey your thirst! So my heart says, "Obey your thirst." The Bible comes and boom! it says, "Deny yourself." Then you struggle between knowing and loving: "I know that God wants me to deny myself but I love to sin and to exalt myself, to have fun doing the things I want to do." There is a struggle between knowing and loving. You have occasional repentance coming in tears, "I sinned and failed again," but don’t be discouraged in that process. What you know will become what you love by the power of God. It has that kind of power, because transformation is taking place. The transformation of your desires. Then when your desires change, you don’t want to do those things anymore. Then transformation of your behavior occurs. You can quit smoking, drinking, whatever, because you don’t want to do it anymore. That’s the slow profess. Struggle even if you fall. Confess and repent and keep praying. Then through that process you’ll be able to disassociate yourself because you’ll be transformed within. That’s why the Bible says that David was a man after God’s own heart. What does that mean? Not only did he know the will of God but he desired it. It matched in his heart. When it is like that in our hearts, there’s clarity of conscience.

When you sin, you can’t sleep because there’s guilt. The more you grow, the more smaller things bother you. Not only that, but the more you grow, the more you desire good things. To pray, to worship, to love people, because the desires of your heart match the desires of God. Not living survivors, but living sacrifices. Not to conform but to transform.

C. Not Intoxicated Judgment, but Sober Judgment1. As you give your life as a living sacrifice, there will be

transformation within. Judgment of yourself must take place. Isn’t that what verse 3 says? "For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you." Sober means not intoxicated. What does it mean by intoxicated? The world makes judgments based on performance and ability. When you are good at something you are valued highly. You get more money in your job. Money, positions, and abilities and so on give value. That determines the world’s hierarchy. The difference between worldly hierarchy and biblical hierarchy is this. Please note that hierarchy is not sin. In the Trinity, there is God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. God the Father sends the Son. The Son listens and so on. Even though they have equal status there is a hierarchy. There is a difference between worldly hierarchy and biblical hierarchy. In worldly hierarchy there are different roles as well as different values. The boss is better than the employee. He’s more valued, he gets more money than the employee. So the worldly system says that I, dear sir, reverend, Pastor Min, am better than the people sitting there in church. That’s secular. Biblical hierarchy has different roles but same values. Bible says whether you are a boss or a worker you are equal. You have different functions, but you have the same value. The pastor is not better than the members in the congregation. A husband has authority over his wife, but he isn’t better than her. A teacher has authority over his/her students, but they’re equal beings. An elder has authority, but he’s not better than other members of the church. So the consequence of worldliness coming into the church is that visible leadership is more desired. When the disciples were arguing about who could sit on Jesus’ left and right, He says that the world’s system is like that, but I came to serve not to be served. Some people with a lot of visible gifts act as if they’re better than people with lesser gifts. Paul is saying in this text,

think of yourself with sober judgment, with biblical judgment. I think he talks about three things here.

a. Grace1. "For by the grace given me." Anything you have is

given to you by the grace of God. It’s just manifested differently. When light comes through a kaleidoscope, different colors come out. Gifts in the church are a shining kaleidoscopic array of differentness. Everything is by grace. If you received it by grace, why do you act as if you own it? It’s by the grace of God. Everything is given by God. If you’re smart, good-looking, whatever, there is no room for boasting. It’s the grace of God. He gave it to you, He can take it away.

2. This pastor told me of when he was driving someone else’s Cadillac. He had his Sunday suit on and as he was filling up the car at a gas station, people were looking at him. He felt so proud. We are like that. We should think of ourselves with sober judgment.

b. Gifts1. When you have certain gift that you’re good at,

someone else is good at something else. Especially when things go well, I try not to judge others, for everybody has a gift that God has given them.

c. Maturity1. The end of verse 3 says "in accordance with the

measure of faith". This is talking about a person’s maturity. No matter how gifted you are, your gifts can only be used according to your maturity level. If your gift level is 10, but your maturity level is 2, you can only be used to the level of 2. You need to constantly grow. Manifestation of gifts doesn’t mean you are spiritually mature. Gifts are what God has given you. Maturity is about character. Maturity is measured by 1 Corinthians 13, which is a portrait of love. You’ll be used according to your measure of faith. Everything is given by God’s grace.

2. There are a lot of ways to serve at this church. There’s something you’re good at. It’s in there somewhere. Just do things, just serve, it’ll come out. As you try different things, during one of those

things, wow! You’ll see what you’re gifts are. It’s amazing for some people. You never think they’d be good at something, but as they keep serving, wow! That’s great! Just keep serving. You’ll take off. It might be something invisible or visible. A lot of it has to do with desire. One of these days you’ll take off and serve. Especially In the context of small group it doesn’t matter if you have a tittle. Keep serving others. Be a living sacrifice not a living survivor.

3. Many people at CFC envy titles. Many people struggle when someone in their year has a position. Everyone’s view of that person changes when they get a title. A title signifies this: proven faithfulness. People can see someone’s maturity through external faithfulness. We’re talking about measure of faith. People with titles are fat people. FAT. Faithful. Available. Teachable. Faithful is about consistency. Available is about being sacrificial, they give their time. Teachable is about humility. It’s very easy to see who is faithful externally and to give them a title. When you look into 1 Timothy 3, who are the ones chosen to serve? Those people who are blameless. Before who? Before God? Well, no one’s blameless before God. No, blameless before people. That’s what a title signifies–that you are mature in peoples’ eyes. However, just because you have a title doesn’t mean you are guaranteed to be faithful in God’s eyes. You may prove yourself visibly to people, but it doesn’t mean you have proven yourself to God. Only God can tell whether you have the heart approval of God. To everybody who does not have title, it doesn’t matter whether or not you have title. You are to live for eyes of God, not the eyes of man. A title just means that you have the approval of man. As you wholeheartedly serve the Lord, you’ll be approved by Him. There will be a lot of people approved by God without titles. And there will be a lot of people to whom God says, "I never knew you," who have a lot of titles. I used to think like this: I

was so afraid that God wouldn’t use me that I would constantly pray, "Lord, use me! You gotta use me!" I was so afraid that He wouldn’t use me! These days I don’t care if He uses me or not. I just want to serve You. If He cuts off my title as pastor of CFC, it doesn’t matter. I’ll do anything. I’ll prepare the donuts. I might get fired after a few weeks. If that happens, I’ll set up chairs. If I’m too slow, I’ll clean the bathroom. I just want to serve God. If you tell me not to preach to you, then I’ll preach to my kids. They have to sit there. Don’t care about titles. Worry about serving the Lord. Have sober judgment. Do not have a worldly concept of judgment.

D. Not Disunity In Uniformity but Unity in Diversity1. We could have uniformity, where everybody looks like each

other. We kind of do, I guess [since many of us are Asian]. But we could have disunity at the same time. We gotta have unity in diversity. Many people mistake uniformity for unity. It’s like marbles in a bag; they’re all in there together, they all look like each other, but they’re all independent from each other. The biblical goal is not independence but interdependence. We all have different gifts. Verse 4 says "just as each of us have one body (unity) with many members (diversity). These members do not all have the same function but in Christ (unity) we who are many (diversity) form one body (unity) and each member (diversity) belongs to all the others (unity). We have different gifts (diversity) according to the grace given us (unity)." It is not merely a nice concept but an absolute necessity in the church and in each small group. There is unity in diversity. We all have different gifts, but there is unity with Christ in a way that unites us to each other. When we are united to Christ we are automatically united to each other. The body illustration is perfect. The body has many different parts. There are the feet, arms, head, torso, toes. Some of you are toes. Someone told me that when he sprained his toe, it was very difficult to walk. I think the big toe especially is very important for that. Doctors agree. The big toe is so important; it affects the whole body. Can you believe that? We all have different parts in our body (diversity) but we all have same purpose (unity). Of course, without the brain, nothing can function. The brain is Christ. We need to have unity in purpose–the glory of God. We might have different parts, but when

everyone is serving together for one purpose, there’s unity. We’re talking about the glory of God, edifying one another, serving one another.

2. I asked this as question I studied this passage. Why didn’t God just create perfect people? Why did He allow people to be imperfect? We hate each other, gossip and yes, we repent and love each other again, but why does it have to be such a painful process? I think of this illustration. Gee saw this in the news. There is a program used in high schools utilizing a computerized, simulated baby. They have teenagers spend two days with it. When the baby "cries", you have to turn a key on the "baby" and let the computer know what you did. "I changed the diapers." After doing this, teenagers would say, "I am not ready for pregnancy, so I will abstain from sex." Well, even if a grown woman spends time with that computerized baby, she might say, "I’m not ready to have a child." Everyone would have that attitude. But it’s different when you actually go through the pregnancy for nine months. If you carry anything for nine months you’ll be attached to it. A watermelon. A dog. Sheep. That’s why shepherds get attached to their sheep. The baby inside communicates without words for nine months. Then birth pain. When you go through all that pain, you get attached to the baby. It’s best to go through the process naturally [without painkillers], because God has allowed all that so that you can be attached to the baby. Breast feeding–there’s such a loving relationship between the mom and the baby. You get to love that baby so much that you’ll die for it. A computerized test can’t simulate that. Every mom can be ready if they go through the pregnancy. Why am I talking about this? Why must there be a church where we serve one another and grow together? It’s the same issue. Just as the mom is so selfish, she can grow to love her child. That selfishness is broken as she matures, as she has to take care of something. Through the birth pain and breast feeding, selfishness is broken. Then through the pain and the tears you learn to depend on other people; hopefully if you’re Christian, you depend on God. You learn to serve and grow to be a mom. A woman really grows when she becomes a mom, because it’s the first time she is unselfish. Why be in church and small group? My selfishness is revealed when I have to give myself to others. I’m so sinful and selfish, I always complain. That leads me to repent and depend. Yet a mutual love flow takes place, and you help one another and

serve each other. All that pictures God. It pictures two aspects of God’s relationships. It pictures the Trinity (the relationship between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit) and it pictures God’s relationship to the church. He sacrifices, lives for, gives, and serves the church, the bride. That is wonderfully pictured as we love one another. When people see that, they will know that you are my disciples. We picture Christ through that.

3. Think about it. Even if you have a right church life or small group life, there is both joy and pain. There is the joy of serving, loving, and growing. But there is also the pain of selfishness revealed and selfishness discovered. Selfishness in yourself and in one another. As you grow, you’ll experience betrayal and gossip and pain. An immature attitude is to respond like this: I’m not going to love people anymore. Because you’re thinking, it’s so painful to give. The biblical attitude is when people cut you off and hurt you: come to Me. I’ll give so that you can give. I’ll give everything you need. There is both joy and pain. Become a servant. Don’t have the attitude, "Why don’t you serve me," but serve others. Any complaints you have about church or small group are because you have an attitude of "serve me". If you have a servant’s attitude you’ll never have a complaint about any small group. There are many people who compare their present small group to past ones. You’re comparing your small group to one that took a whole year to develop and you’re just thinking about the good things. It’ll take givers and servers to develop that kind of small group. Be part of the solution not part of the problem. To those people who miss their home church and say about CFC, "This is not my church," if this is not your church then whose is it? I come up here to preach and I don’t know two-thirds of the church members. There are so many of you. This is your church not by virtue of feeling, but by virtue of calling. If you’re really serving the Lord you’ll be able to serve anywhere. This is your church for the next four or five years. If you don’t feel like that, you’re serving to receive. If you’re serving to give, you’ll have no complaints. We’re gonna love each other and learn to give no matter what we feel like.

4. I recently went to Guam. There have been a couple of earthquakes in the recent past, in Turkey and in Taiwan. The earthquakes there were seven point something on the Richter scale. They were incredible earthquakes in which so many people died. They say

that in Guam, they have had earthquakes measuring 8.5 on a few occasions. Some of the biggest earthquakes in history have been in Guam. 8.5! Even one degree on the Richter scale signifies hundreds of times the intensity. But rarely do people die or are buildings destroyed when there is an earthquake in Guam. Why? Because the whole island moves together. I was almost in tears when I heard that. That’s how the body of Christ ought to be. No matter what kind of difficulties we go through, if we move together, nothing will shake us.

III. ConclusionA. If we’re sitting here as a bunch of selfish people, we’ll have a bunch of

complaints. Any time you have complaints you’re selfish. There are why-doesn’t-anyone-come-to-me-and-say-Him-to-me-people. Why-don’t-I-have-a-title-people. At-home-I’m-something-but-here-I’m-nothing-people. Anytime you complain about anything you’re not serving the Lord but yourself. It doesn’t matter what you go through if we are truly living sacrifices, not living survivors. We can go through it with gratitude and joy. If we don’t have joy in Christ there’s something wrong. We are to be living sacrifices, being transformed. I know what God wants. He wants me to serve. I know the will of God. But not only do I know in my head but I treasure it in my heart. I think I can serve the church. I can transfer the hymnals, make copies. I think I can drive around. Have sober judgment. I am a Bible study leader, but I’m not better than my members. Live according to your measure of faith. We are to serve one another. Grow with another. When difficulties come, we move together. The gates of hell will not overcome that kind of church. If we loved one another like that, what kind of people would want to get away? So many people would come that we’d have to close the doors of the church. People are so attracted to love. May we smell like love. May we smell like the cross– we need to be those kinds of people who are bleeding, loving, flowing with love. Let’s be living sacrifices. Everything starts with repentance. Transform this desire so that I’ll want to serve. Let’s start here.