church

INI
Palm Sunday
March 28, 2010
Ascension Lutheran Church, Tacoma WA
Paul Naumann, Pastor

YOUR LIFE IS YOUR OFFERING
Romans 12:1-5

Hosanna to the Son of David; blessed is He who comes in the name of the
Lord; hosanna in the highest! Amen. Our text on this day comes from the letter
of Paul to the Romans, chapter twelve, beginning with the first verse, as
follows:

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your
bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable
service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the
renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable
and perfect will of God. 3 For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone
who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think,
but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. 4 For as
we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same
function, 5 so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually
members of one another. Here ends our text.

In Christ Jesus, Our triumphant King, Dear Fellow Redeemed,

Would you like to give something to Jesus today? If you're like me, that's one
of the feelings you get on Palm Sunday. You, too, would like to welcome your
King. You, too, would like to lay your palm branches at His feet. You, too,
would like to offer Him something, something worthy of His majesty and His
grace. Especially after having spent all this time during the Passion season
focusing on how your Savior suffered to bring you life, you get to Palm Sunday
and you think, "Lord, You’ve done all this for me - what can I give You? There
must be something I can do!” You feel as did the author of that well-beloved
Lenten hymn:

O mighty King, no time can dim thy glory.
How shall I spread abroad Thy wondrous story?
How shall I find some worthy gifts to proffer?
What dare I offer? TLH 143:8

Well, you’ll be happy to learn that today’s text has the answer to that question.
It’s about the most important offering you can give to the Lord, an offering
that's much more significant than any personal check or banknote in the
collection plate could ever be. It's the offering of yourself. Today, the Apostle
Paul is challenging you to take a giant step forward as a Christian; in effect, he's
asking you to put yourself in the collection plate. -Not physically, of course, but
spiritually to give yourself over, body and soul, to the service of the Lord. We
ask God's Holy Spirit to guide us this morning as we consider the theme:

YOUR LIFE IS YOUR OFFERING
An offering pleasing to God is a life that --
I. Is not conformed to this world
II. Is transformed by faith in Jesus
III. Finds its place in the Church

Paul was writing to the Christians in the congregation at Rome. Some of them
were Jewish, and some of them weren’t. One thing both groups were familiar
with was the practice of religious sacrifices. And I’m speaking now of literal
sacrifices - the ritual killing of animals on religious altars as a part of worship,
which was something both Jewish and pagan religions of the time commonly
practiced. True Christian worship, Paul was telling them, also required sacrifice
-- but not the kind they were used to. He said, I beseech you therefore,
brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice,
holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

Give your whole life as a sacrifice to God, he said. Not a bloody sacrifice, but a
living one; ongoing, in daily service to the Lord. You might remember, though,
that the animal sacrifices in the Old Testament had to be carried out with
particular kinds of animals, and in a particular way. Otherwise, the sacrifice
wouldn't be acceptable to God. The same thing is true about the way we New
Testament Christians give our living sacrifice to God. In order to make your life
a pleasing offering to God, there are some guidelines you should follow. Paul
spells them out. In the first place, he says an offering pleasing to God is a life
that is not conformed to this world.

We’ve talked about this before, about the tremendous and inexorable pressure
that the world brings to bear on Christians, trying to make you conform to their
godless ways. And when I say tremendous and inexorable, I’m not exaggerating.
It reminds me of a visit I once made to the Fisher Auto Body plant in Detroit.
Everything in the plant was interesting, but what really grabbed me was a huge
machine that made automobile fenders. It was an enormous press, three stories
high and weighing several hundred tons. A worker would take a blank piece of
sheet metal and place it in the press, then a huge steel piston would come
crashing down and stamp it into a fender with one, powerful stroke. One after
another, the machine stamped out fenders, each with the same design, each one
exactly like the last.

The society we live in is a lot like that machine. It tries to pound us and mold
us and shape us into something we shouldn't be. As Christians, we're under
constant, driving pressure to conform our lives to the image of the world. I
hardly need give examples – I’m sure you could think of plenty on your own.
On television, in movies and magazines, we're told that pleasure is the ultimate
goal in life. That there's really nothing wrong with sex outside of marriage. That
a woman should have the right to kill her unborn baby if she wants to. That
homosexuality isn't an unnatural perversion, but a healthy "alternate lifestyle."
We're taught that the Bible is a quaint, old-fashioned story book, full of errors
and myths and fairy tales. And the goal of religion? -If you listen to the
preachers of the mainstream denominations you might well get the impression
that the chief goal of religion is to make people behave nicely. The pressure on
us to conform is constant, and it's effective. After a while, we may be tempted
to see things the same way. We may be tempted to live like the world wants us
to; or at least to look with a less critical eye on those activities that God's Word
clearly condemns as sin.

But Paul says, "Don't be conformed to this world." An offering pleasing to
God is a life that's not stamped out in the world's mold. Does that make you
feel uncomfortable? Somehow "different" from the folks around you? Great! As
Christians, you're supposed to be different. The Apostle Peter is speaking
directly to you when he says, "You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood,
a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him
who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light." I Pet 2:9.

What's the alternative to conformation? Trans-formation! Paul says, do not be
conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. An
offering pleasing to God is a life that is transformed by faith in Jesus.

I saw an interesting news show about what some of the nations of the former
Soviet Union are doing with their ballistic missiles, now that the cold war is
over. As you know, many of the missiles have been decommissioned. It turns
out that very often, after the nuclear warhead is removed, the metal is actually
used to make farm implements, like plows and disks. Talk about “swords into
plowshares”! It's the same piece of metal, of course, but now it looks different,
and it serves a different purpose. The same thing's true about believers. A
Christian is a human being whose life has been transformed by faith. He's still
made of flesh and bone, but now - by the power of the Holy Spirit - his life
takes on a different look. He also functions differently, using his body, his
mind, and all his resources to serve the Lord. Earlier in the book of Romans,
Paul encourages the transformed Christians, "For just as you once presented
your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more
lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for
holiness." Rom 6:19.

But what is it, exactly, that transforms us? Is there any force that's really
powerful enough to change our lives from self-serving to God-serving? Yes
there is. That force is called the Gospel!

We cannot transform ourselves, that's one thing for sure. Even if you were to
set aside an hour every morning, and sat at your kitchen table concentrating
with all your might on how to keep the Commandments and make your life
better, that by itself wouldn't do you any good. God's Law is powerful, don't get
me wrong - it's great for showing you your sins - but the Law of God can never
give you a better, more God-pleasing life. Only the Gospel can do that!

The Gospel message is the renewing, refreshing, transforming Good News that
you have been freed from your sins. Each one of your sins - the ones you
committed yesterday, and the ones you will commit tomorrow - they have all
been atoned for by the blood of Christ. Jesus died to redeem the world, yes. But
more important is the fact that He died to redeem you, as an individual. And in
the place where your sinfulness was, Jesus has put His perfect righteousness. He
kept all of the Commandments perfectly. He was perfectly obedient to His
heavenly Father. He fulfilled all righteousness; and now His perfect
righteousness has become your personal possession, by faith in Him. You know,
I have very little patience with the learned theologians and Biblical scholars
who try to portray salvation as a complicated and difficult process. Because
salvation isn't complicated! It's very simple, really: "God so loved the world
that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believs in Him should not
perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16. It’s as simple as it was for the little
children in the courts of the Temple that first Palm Sunday, in childlike faith
singing their hosannas to Jesus, the King. And it’s so simple for you -- Jesus
lived and died for you. It is finished. For Jesus' sake you are going to heaven,
and nothing can stop you!

When people really understand that - when they grasp by faith the meaning of
this incredibly Good News - a powerful change occurs. By the power of the
Holy Spirit, their minds are renewed. Without even thinking about it, their lives
are transformed. Good works flow spontaneously in their lives, just water runs
spontaneously downhill. You don't have to tell water to run downhill, it just
does. You don't have to tell a Christian to do good works, he just does, he can't
help it. It's in the nature of being a Christian. You see, you don't have to sit and
concentrate about it; the fruits of a thankful faith will appear in your life
naturally, just like apples grow on apple trees. The fact is, you don't even have
to go looking for good works to do. The Bible says that God already has them
all lined up for you! In the book of Ephesians we read, "We are His
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared
beforehand that we should walk in them." Eph 2:10.

The Gospel is our motivation. The joy of knowing we're saved by Jesus - that's
what inspires us to offer our whole lives as a sacrifice to the Lord's service. In
our new-found freedom from sin's punishment, we want to serve the Lord -- we
can't help but serve the Lord. The only question that remains for you now is:
what's the best way for me to do this? How can I, as an individual, put my
particular talents and abilities at the Lord's disposal? And that's an important
question, because Paul says that an offering pleasing to God is a life that finds
its place in the Church.

Today the Apostle urges you, as an individual, to prove what is that good and
acceptable and perfect will of God for your life. In other words, to let God's
Word to guide you to your place, to show you where you fit into His overall
plan for the Church, the invisible body of all believers. For I say, through the
grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more
highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one
a measure of faith..

The Church is like an orchestra. By nature, however, we human beings are all
soloists. We're proud, we want to perform alone, and have the stage completely
to ourselves. But the Church of God is no place for soloists. It's an orchestra,
made up of many different members, all using their different talents in different
ways. Now the harmony of an orchestra depends on the fact that all the
members are using the same music and watching the same conductor. The Head
of the Church is our Savior Jesus Christ, the One we all look to for our life and
salvation. The score that we all depend on for our life's direction is the holy,
unchanging Word of God. We dare not give in to "pious pride;" we dare not
assume a "holier-than-thou" attitude. Paul uses the picture of the human body -
can the hand criticize the foot because it's not a hand? Ridiculous! Both the
hand and the foot are necessary to the body. For as we have many members in
one body, but all the members do not have the same function, 5 so we, being
many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.

Sometime in the near future - maybe on your way home from church today, or
sitting in your easy chair after dinner - I hope you'll give some more thought to
that question. "What's the best place for me in the Church? How can I position
myself so as to give the most back to God for everything He has given me?"
God offered up His only Son for you - remember and rejoice! And let your life
be your offering to Him! In Jesus' name, AMEN.