The Chasm of Alienation - Part Three

The chasm of alienation -- part three -- the solution -- part two

How do you know you are doing the right thing?

How do you know, that you are doing the right thing in your life, and with your life?
How do you know, that you are doing the right thing in any given situation in your life?
And how do you know, that doing the right thing actually matters anyway?

So How do you know you are doing the right thing, how do you know what the right thing is, and why does it really matter anyway?

Even the atheist, the God denier, will acknowledge that it is better to do good than to do bad, (deep down you don't have to convince people of that truth), but if your world view is one where there is no God, you have to say that ultimately it makes no sense to say, that good is better than bad.

Without God, there really is no firm centre and foundation, to navigate life and its often difficult paths, and in fact there is no real need to choose good over bad. And certainly this is true in a moral sense, that we live in a culture where morality or lifestyle is perceived as being a matter of one's own choice.

The truth is, our society doesn't live consistently with that, because at some point it feels the need to legislate the bounds of what appropriate behaviour looks like. So many people today, live by the rules that if it's legal its moral, and even if it is illegal (as long as you don't get caught), that's ok as well.

A worldview without God, ultimately an becomes at its logical conclusion, an immoral view of life, which as a consequence is usually lived out by people somewhere along the slippery slope that is relativism.

There is no firm basis, in truth, for deciding good from bad, all we have to direct us, is what are current social norms, to which we are compelled to conform, irrespective of the fact that there is no firm basis for seeing them as virtue or vice.

In recent weeks, you couldn't help but notice, the latest scandal to envelop the NRL. So let me ask, what do you think really was the problem?

For some people, it wasn't so much the act itself, as it was the fact that it became publicly known, and as a result it became a public relations nightmare. For other people it wasn't the nature of the act, a number of men using one woman, but it was in fact only a problem because of the power imbalance in the situation, that meant it probably wasn't consensual.

For other people, it was the fact that the act itself, with a number of men and one woman, which they believe to be if not wrong, at least distasteful.

But at the heart of the issue And interestingly, very few people commented on the fact, that it centred on a married man having sex with an unmarried woman. Very few people seem to think that the cheating on his wife, the adultery, was central to the issue at all.

So how do Society decide what is good and what is bad, without God?

In this day and age, the main premise that has formed something of a mantra for our "tolerant" and "relative is" society, is the shibboleth of "do no harm". Which is another way of saying, All is fair in love and war as long as no one loses an eye. As long as no one gets hurt, you can do what you like.

Which sounds nice, at one level, but the truth is our society doesn't even live consistently with that. The expression "do no harm", has become the excuse for all sorts of immoral behaviour, but more than that, immoral mankind doesn't even live consistently with his new maxim of morality, "do no harm".

You only need to see the out working of the events, from that night in Christchurch in 2002, to see the reality, that mankind really lives inconsistently with himself, and in the process does much harm, even if they are unable (or just unprepared) to perceive the harm that will come at the time of their actions.

And that is not even to begin to start with some of the bigger issues in our society today. Again only this week, United States President, was challenged on the issue of abortion. How can society justify the extermination of the most vulnerable people in our society, and still claim "do no harm". Abortion in the vast majority of cases, is not even close to, "to do least harm" let alone “do no harm”. Again this current society claims a Maxum, a shibboleth, of "a woman's right to choose". But then how does that relate, to "doing no harm"?
A woman, just like a man, has the ability and capacity to not have sex. A woman, just like a man, has the ability and capacity to be part of married relationship where sexual relations are a good and godly expression of the relationship, within which children are a blessing from God.

A woman, just like a man, has the ability and capacity to use contraceptives wisely (although there will be much discussion in Christian circles as to how to use them wisely, and why some methods are not wise at a minimum, while others that work post-fertilisation are in fact immoral).

But in many ways, a woman, just like a man, has the ability and capacity to take control and responsibility for their own lives and actions.
But, a woman, just like a man, does not have the ability to put to death another human life. A woman, just like a man, does not have “the right to chose” death for another innocent human, particularly just because it has become an inconvenient consequence of their failure (a long with the male partner) to use their other abilities and responsibilities properly in regards to their sexual expressions.
You cannot use the language of rights if you will not take on the associated responsibilities. No one has the right to terminate an innocent human being. The issue of abortion in the society, is a classic outworking of man's inconsistent self-regulation and self-determination, once they have denied the reality of God our creator and his purpose for our lives.

There are such things as good and bad in our world. And no amount of saying you feel good about an act, changes it from being bad too good. Mankind is not the ultimate determiner of what is good and bad in this world, only the creator is. Mankind in his arrogance goes on with his ways, ignoring his creator, and bearing in his own existence the consequences of his decision. The consequences being the experience of alienation.

Many people in society may have given up on the "why" question about life. But no one can afford to give up on the question, "how shall we live?". The Christian Gospel offers a real, meaningful, fruitful, and practical solution to both these questions. “why do we have life, and how shall we now live”?

God created mankind to live in relationship with him. And as a result, Mankind is hardwired to worship. To honour and serve God. The vast majority of the world, today at this time, acknowledges the reality that they were created to worship. But as we saw in part one of our talks this weekend, mankind has distorted that reality, and has exchanged the truth about the living God, declared in creation, for a lie. All man kind worships and serves some god. And in the vast majority of cases one whom is no God at all. In fact in Western society today, the god most people serve, is themselves.

And as a result of our rejection of God, we bear the consequences of our choices, through the alienation the experience in this world,. Mankind in their choice to sever relationship with the living God, is cut asunder from the touchstone of reality, the heart of all truth and meaning in life and creation, the living God. And as a result, we have sold ourselves into slavery, to our new Lord.

Mankind's actions of denying the true God, has caused them to drift across a wasteland in a life of inconsistency and Immorality (at is logical conclusion), with no real ultimate purpose and meaning.

Mankind is no good at self-regulation, because mankind was not made to self regulate. We were designed to worship, to serve an honour, the true and living God. The disconnection, or alienation experienced in this life, is a result of our rejection of God. it is the result of our Sin.

The only hope for mankind, is the central hope for mankind, in fact it is the centre of all life, creation history, purpose, and meaning, it is the gospel message about the lord of creation and his cross. The cross of Christ, (which is a shorthand way of saying Christ's death and resurrection), is the central event, of life, history, space and time, because it is the centre of Gods purposes for all creation.
In this amazing event, in Palestine 2000 years ago, God entered into his world, and upon that cross, put things right between mankind and himself. for those who would believe Christ and his cross, he brokered a true and lasting, even eternal, peace between mankind and God.

Because of Christ's life and death, we are now able to have life and meaning and purpose in our very selves, because we are able to worship God, the true God, the living God, as we were designed to do in the first place. We have been rescued, and redeemed from the wasteland, that is this sinful and destructive self determination, and we have been freed in Christ to worship God.

We are free to worship God, to honour God as God, to give him due praise, and to serve him as our God, as the lord of all our lives, who has called us out of the darkness, to be his people, for a purpose.
God saved us in Christ to worship him, now there are two main aspects of worship we're going to look at now. We have been saved, to firstly, be separate from the world and to live as Christ's people -- to not live like the world any longer, but we are to do it with the goal of Secondly, serving. We are saved, to be separate, to serve.

We are called to serve as Christ's people. We are called by Christ to serve. We are to serve his very own people, in the communal life of his body the church. But we are also to serve Christ by being his ambassadors of reconciliation into this world. We have been saved, to be separate, to serve.

Christ's Gospel is the solution to the problem of alienation in this world, it is the means and way of putting things right in our lives, by putting things right with God. But not only is Christ's Gospel the foundation of solution to the problem of alienation, we are part of the solution as well. Christ has chosen his people, to be for good in this world.

His people are to actively seek to live God's way in God's world, in order that God’s goodness, and purposes, may be seen by, and fulfilled in, his world and to his glory.

We are a saved people, who are to live separately from the way the world does, in order to serve the body of Christ, and indeed to serve the world itself, by showing the wisdom of Christ and his gospel in our lives. The solution to the problem of alienation is the Christian Gospel, but also the Christian Gospel lived out in authentic Christian lives. The authentic Christian life is the life of worship. That is what God has called us to, that is what God has saved us for.

The Christian cannot view the world like the unbeliever, because we now know the "why" of life. The Christian also knows the “how” of life, the “how shall we know live”, the good they should do in this life, but it is only by the power of the spirit they can see that truth, and they can be empowered for that truth in their lives.
We are called to live the authentic Christian life, the "Obedience of faith" that Paul desired of his readers back in chapter one of Romans, an authentic Christian life, that is the life of worship.

Rom 12:1 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. 2 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.

Now as we look at this passage, we need to get something sorted out from the beginning. Worship in the Bible is not a term used exclusively about church gathering, or even less so is it used about the singing in church. But that is how the term is used in our contemporary Christian context. Worship is often used about singing, as if there is something particularly pleasing about that the God, as opposed to what we do in the rest of our lives. In fact, in using the worship in regard to singing only, it profoundly misunderstands the nature of Christian worship.

Christian worship is about the whole of life, v1 of Romans chapter 12 tells us that we are to offer our whole bodies, in the worship of God. Now, There are in fact two words that are translated as worship in the English Bible, the first of these, means to honour, to give glory to God as God -- literally it means to bow at the waist. The second word that is translated as worship in the Bible, is a word that means to serve. So the idea of worship is dual, it is about honouring God as God, and doing that through serving him and his purposes. Nothing gives God greater honour than his people living lives as he has called them to. That is the life of worship.

The life of worship is not just praises upon our lips, but the actions of our lives as an out working of a heart that longs after God and please him alone. To change dirty nappy, (which can be a pretty disgusting thing by the way), is an expression of faithful worship of the true God when it is done acknowledging that this is the work that God has put before us to do.

That is offering our bodies to serve God which is true worship, much like Jesus Christ the true worshipper who came not to be served but to serve.

There is no point honouring God with your lips on Sunday, if you will not honour him by serving him with your body the rest of the week, that is not worship. And yet I suspect that is how too many Christian people live in our context. Our true worship, our spiritual worship if you like, is to offer all of our lives, all our mind, heart, soul and strength -- all our dreams, all our working life, all our relationships, all our hopes, our money and our time, all of them, to honour and serve the true and living God.

Singing can be worship, but worship is much more than singing. the Sunday meeting can be worship, but worship is much more than the Sunday meeting. True worship is serving and honouring God with all our lives and person. Worship is to lead a God honouring and God pleasing life in every aspect and sphere of our existence, in every corner of this life he has given to us.

True worship it is about being truly human, about living out our God-given lives in relationship with that God. It is about living lives that have meaning, hope and purpose, in spite of the alienation we experience all around us.

Now you're big question should be, "how can I do that?".

Well Firstly, worship is about gratitude. No Christian is more pleasing to God because of their worship, which is to say that worship is not meritorious in our standing before God. God does not give us smilie stamps for good behaviour. Our life of worship, is the "Obedience of faith" in action. Worship is our right response of obedience because of God's mercy towards us, and that is what the apostle Paul says in verse one, "therefore, I appeal to 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".

Worship is not meritorious for us with God, but it is a right response of obedience because of the profound mercy God has had towards us. God loved us enough to send his precious one and only son to die for us, how can we now not love God in response by honouring him as God with all our lives. God has given us in Jesus Christ, everything we need for life and salvation, he has saved us, and so now we serve him. That is what it means to truly call Christ our Lord and saviour.

The life of worship is marked, founded and fuelled by gratitude to God for his great love and mercy towards us in his son, which is only possible through the holy spirit that God has given us.

Secondly, worship is about two sides of the one coin, of on the one hand, resisting the world, and on the other hand being transformed in our minds.

So the first side of the coin is resisting the world.
Paul talks about the nature of the Christian resistance of the world quite a lot in the book of Romans in particular from chapters 5-8 we get a good picture of the nature of the Christian life now, in this alienating world, as we live in Christ. In particular, Christians are to show the wisdom of God by living God's way in God's world, which is to say they are to resist the temptation to live just as the world does. Just as those who deny God and his rule live. The people who bear in themselves the foolishness of the decision, and one day will bear the judgement of God for all eternity if they do not come to their senses and take refuge in the great Redeemer Jesus Christ.

Paul tells us that we are able to resist sin and temptation, because we are no longer slaves to sin as we were, but we have been redeemed by Christ and belong to him. We are no longer slaves to sin but slaves to Christ.

Romans 6:11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. 14 For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.

15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

Now If you stop to think about it, Do you still live with the same goals and ambitions and purpose as your God denying friends?
Is there a perceivable difference in how you live your life, spend your time, how you work than the rest of our God denying society?

If you still live like your God denying friends, in those external things, if you drink like your God denying friends, if your sexual life is like your God denying friends, if you lust after the same material things as your God denying friends, you have to ask yourself the question:
Is Christ really my lord?
OR Do I just serve him with my lips, and on and other with my heart?

Christian people who have received the Gospel of Christ will be changed by his spirit. We will no longer desire the things we once did, we will no longer do the things we once did, but instead we will desire to put those things to death. Christian people will not be perfect in their worship of God this side of Christ's return, but we should expect substantial change in our lives, that is evident to all, including ourselves in regard to the lifestyle we lead & the desires of our heart.

Romans 12 Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. 13 For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, 14 because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship.

Because of Christ's victory at the Cross, and his gift of the holy spirit to us, we now no longer live as slaves to sin, we now no longer conform to the pattern of this world, but by the power of the spirit we are being conformed to the likeness of Christ. In our status we have been changed from God's enemies to his children, and now by the spirit we have been substantially changed, and we are being conformed into the likeness of his perfect son Jesus. God's spirit changes us to enable us to live a life of worship in Christ, the authentic Christian life, "the Obedience of faith".

So we are to resist the world, its ways, its goals and its wisdom, and instead we are to be renewed in our minds by the power of the spirit.

In our Christian context, people often oppose the spirit to the flesh, which in these verses of ROmans 12 would oppose the spirit to the mind. And there is truth in that, in this context we are not talking about worship, being some sort of activity of self-help, the kind of process or program that you would see promoted on Oprah or Dr Phil. So at that level people are right to resist the notion that the God pleasing life is just an act of will.

But unfortunately, in the process many Christian people tend to throw the baby out with the bath water. Paul is saying here that the life of worship is not about bypassing the minds through some short-circuited power of the holy spirit, but it is instead, foundationaly the work of spirit to renew God's creation the mind. The mind for which Christ died to redeem.

The spirit itself works upon our very own minds, to rewire them, to recreate them, so that they would not be God hating in their natural inclinations, but God loving and honouring in their inclinations as God intended in the beginning.

The word Paul uses here to describe the transforming of our minds, is actually the word from which we get the English equivalent of metamorphosis. A profound change and rebirth of the mind to be able to think Gods thoughts after him, about his world and how to live in it.

In fact this passage is so much about the mind, where the NIV says, "spiritual worship", a more direct translation of this term would-be "logical worship" or even "true worship". Paul here is encouraging us to conform our minds to God's mind about his world, to live out the Obedience that comes through faith.

The renewing of the minds is a work of the spirit that comes first and foremost through the word of God. God's speech to us empowered by his spirit is what renews our mind, it is how the gospel word comes to us, this gospel word that recreates, this gospel word that saves, this gospel word that brings the Lord Jesus Christ into our lives and changes us from the inside out, so that we may reflect his glory in his world and live God honouring lives.
Is your very existence defined by Christ and his gospel?

Is your life reflective of that truth?

How do you need to result right now to change, in order to reflect rightly the truth of who Christ is and what he has done for you?

How are you going to change the priorities in your life so that you would no longer be conformed to the world, but renewed in your mind to honour Christ and to live out God honouring lives in his world?

The life of worship is the antidote to the alienation experienced in the world. The life of worship is the authentic Christian life, it is the Obedience of faith, which means it is a life of service.

Now just quickly we need to mention that we have looked at Salvation this weekend from a very individual perspective, but the truth is why we are saved as individuals, we are saved individuals brought into a community, we are brought into the body of Christ.

The authentic Christian life, the life of worship is not individualistic, we are called to serve Christ by serving his people, and in fact serving his whole world. Christian people express their Christian faith essentially and truly by serving Christ's Church and by serving Christ's world.

So just quickly I'll read for us
Romans 12:3 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. 4 Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6We 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. 7If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; 8 if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.
Love
9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13 Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality.

14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.

17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. 18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19 Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay,"says the Lord. 20 On the contrary:
"If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head." 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

The problem of alienation that every single person in this world experiences, is solved, by dealing with the chasm of alienation that exists between mankind and God. The only means of dealing with this alienation, is the Gospel of Christ.

Only Christ and his substitutionary death on a cross, and his declaration of victory overall by being raised from the dead, is a real solution and foundation in this life. All other options are truly sinking sand.

Our lives have become inextricably tied up with Christ's by Faith and his gracious gift to us. Our lives are now hidden in Christ's and as a result we are his Gospel light into this dark world. God is using you and me to make his appeal to the world to be reconciled to him. And God has called us into his body the community of the church to serve them to that end, that the whole world may hear of the glory of the Christ and receive life in his name. We have been saved by Christ, that we may be separate from the world in order to serve.

The Gospel is the real and true solution to the alienation of this life, but the authentic Christian life, the life of worship, the Obedience of faith, is the concrete expression and witness of the gospel truth in the Gospel power in God's world.
The question is for you, is Christ's gospel your gospel, or are you looking for some other means to find meaning and hope and purpose and salvation in this life?

I appeal to your brothers and sisters, have no other saviour Jesus, have no other GOSPEL than Christ's, live no other life than one wholly sacrificed to God. Resist the world in the power of the spirit its slippery slope of being conformed into its likeness, but instead renew your minds in the spirit power that you may truly be salt and light in the world.

That you may truly live the authentic Christian life, that you may truly live a life of worship honouring in serving the living God, in order that Jesus himself may make his appeal to his world through you. That people would see the truth of and the power of the gospel lived out in authentic Christian lives.

Rom 12:1 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. 2 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.