In a few minutes’ time, you will be enrolled in the BB or the GFS. You will be accepted into membership for the first time, or for another year. And as you do that, you are making a commitment that you will be a faithful member; that you’ll turn up, and get stuck in, and be involved in everything that your section and company or branch is doing.
In our second Bible reading today, Paul is calling on us to make a commitment - not just to BB or GFS, but to God himself. Here’s what he says:
‘Therefore, I urge you, brothers (and sisters), 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.’
Now, there’s a lot in that one sentence, isn’t there? So let’s try to break it down, to see what God wants us to do. At the very centre of that verse are these words: ‘offer your bodies as living sacrifices.’
God wants us to give ourselves, all of us, every part of us, from the top of our head to our toes, to follow him and serve him. And we’re to live for him - as living sacrifices. In the Old Testament, people would sacrifice an animal - a bull or a sheep or a goat. But now, we offer ourselves, fully alive, to do what God wants us to do.
But please don’t think that God just wants you to follow him so that you can in some way earn his love and his favour. Every other religion is all about what you have to do - whether it’s going on pilgrimage, or giving, or fasting, or whatever - and then when you earn enough points you can be with God.
And it’s what we all work to all the time. Have you ever heard something like this: If you’re good today, then we’ll get a treat later on. Or, if you’re not good this week, then we’ll not do what you want at the weekend. When we live like that, then we’re always having to prove ourselves, trying to earn our own rewards for good behaviour. So, if I were to tell you now that I’ll give a bar of chocolate to the best GFS girl and best BB boy who listens during the talk, then would it make you want to sit up and listen in a little harder?
It might. And we’re so used to thinking in this way, that we think this is what God wants of us as well. Here’s what we think - if I go to BB or GFS and try really hard; and if I go to church, and pray and read my Bible, and help little old ladies across the road, and try really hard, then God will like me. That’s how I thought, when I was being enrolled in the BB.
But that’s not how God is. Every other religion is about what you have to do so that you earn your reward. But Christianity is different. Yes, we’re called to offer ourselves as living sacrifices - but only because Jesus has already sacrificed himself for us.
Jesus has already given all of himself for us, when he died for us on the cross. And Jesus has already offered us his mercy before we’ve done anything good or bad. Jesus took the first step - and we are called to receive his mercy and to offer ourselves in response to him.
That’s why the verse starts: ‘Therefore, I urge you, brothers (and sisters), in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices...’ Because we can see God’s mercy already given to us - then we can offer ourselves. Other religions say ‘Do this...’ But Christianity says ‘Done’. Jesus has already done all that is needed for us.
But what will it look like to offer ourselves as living sacrifices? What does it look like to follow Jesus day by day? Paul says:
‘Do not be conformed any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.’
Now, I’ve got a question for you. What’s your favourite dessert?
You might be able to tell that I have lots of favourite desserts. But one that I like is jelly and ice cream. Do you know how to make jelly? What do you need?
You need some jelly cubes, and some hot water and some cold water, and you mix them all together, and then where do you put the jelly? You put it into a mould. Whatever shape the mould is, the jelly will set in the same shape. So my moulds here have rounded bits at the bottom, but when it sets and you take off the mould, then the rounded bits will be at the top. The jelly is conformed to the mould, it follows the same pattern.
A while back we were at a friend’s 30th birthday party. And in their family, a special birthday tradition is that they get a jelly rabbit for their birthday. His mum has a jelly mould in the shape of a rabbit so when you take the mould away, you have a rabbit-shaped jelly.
And that’s what the world wants us to do - it wants to press us into its mould, to be conformed to its pattern - to do the same things as everybody else. And in school or in work, you might find yourself under pressure to be like everybody else in what you say, and think, and do. If you were to tell them you were in church, or that you go to BB or GFS, they might think that uncool or boring or stupid. And they want you to be like them. They want you to conform to their patterns.
But as we offer ourselves as living sacrifices (in view of God’s mercy to us), we’re not to be conformed - we’re to be transformed. We’re not to be the same as everybody else; we’re to be changed, to stand out from the crowd as we follow Jesus.
And that transformation - that change - comes about as our minds are renewed, as they are made new and refreshed. And we do that as we think about God, and read his word in the Bible, and as we pray to him.
Are you conforming to the world, or being transformed by God? Which voices are you listening to? Whose opinion is forming you and shaping you? Perhaps you need to change the channel that you’re listening to.
The world wants us to be like it, like other people, just the same. But Jesus wants us to be transformed, as we offer our whole bodies as living sacrifices to him - because he has already given himself for us.
So who are you following? Who are you becoming more like? The world? Or the Lord Jesus who loves you and calls you to follow him?
Today, as you make a commitment to be a good member of the BB or GFS, go further, and make the commitment to serve Jesus - and not just in BB or GFS, but in all that you do with all that you are - a living sacrifice in view of God’s mercy.
This sermon was preached at the BB and GFS Enrolment service in St Matthew's Church, Richhill on Sunday morning 17th November 2019.
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