Episode 1. Ditching That Worm Theology
These days, we’re spun the line that we only matter if we’re rich or good looking. Important and well appointed. And most of us figure – I don’t measure up. That sounds like fun Join Berni …
Enjoying Life on Purpose
I am so excited this week to be starting a new series called “I AM going to enjoy my life”. We all want to enjoy our lives don’t we? You never meet anyone and say “do you want to enjoy your life?” And they say “oh well no, not really, I don’t really want to enjoy my life”. We all want to enjoy our lives, problem is, a lot of people don’t enjoy their lives. A lot of people go through life grumbling and unhappy and this and that and the other, and you get to the end of it and you say “did you enjoy it?”, and they go “ah no, not really”.
I have this radical, radical idea for you, I believe that God wants you and me to enjoy our lives, so this week and the next 3 weeks, we’re going to be working through a teaching series called “I AM going to enjoy my life”. You may notice that I talk a lot about the advertising industry, I actually think the advertising industry has a lot to put its hand up for, but one of the things that happens interestingly in our reactions to the advertising we see on television and radio and internet and in the press, is that it sort of sets up this image of who we should be to try and get us to buy whatever they’re selling and they’re always selling something, so it sets up this image of who we should be and somehow we never quite make it to reaching that image. The strong theme around advertising is you only have value if you are wealthy or attractive and preferably both, and really you only have value if you purchase whatever it is that they happen to be selling. The world says perform and deliver, the world says “have”, “do”, “appear” but what about who we are, what we experience on the inside, what about the life that we’ve been given by God to lead, that I believe that we’re meant to enjoy?
Is enjoying life, living up to the image that the advertising industry gives us of who we should be? Is enjoying life, living up to the image of what we think we should be? Is enjoying life living up to what other people think that we should be? Today’s message is called “Ditching that Worm Theology”. I believe a lot of people have worm theology…”I’m only a worm, I’m nothing much”. So today we’re going to set about doing some radical surgery and try to ditch that worm theology. You look around and some people don’t seem to have much worth; people in nursing homes, old people, people with dementia, refugees, boat people, people in prison, people who are poor, people who have mental health problems, let me ask you something – do they have worth, or not? In God’s eyes, do they have worth, or not? In God’s eyes are they meant to enjoy their lives? In God’s eyes are you meant to enjoy your life?
So we end up with this distorted pattern of value that’s given to us by the world. Some people end up over-inflated in their estimation of who they are and what they should be, and what they should achieve. You see them on the television all the time, you see people strutting around in the media, full of their own self importance, and think…well one day buddy that bubble is going to burst, and the other side of that coin is that a lot of other people, in fact most other people, they’re not over-inflated, they’re emotionally anorexic!. They have a view of themselves that says “I’m not much at all”. What’s my view of myself? What’s your view of yourself? Do you have that view? Do you like yourself? Are you content with who you are? Or are you trying to fit into an advertising industry mould of what constitutes value? Because I’ll tell you something, if we try and fit into the mould that the world tells us we should be, if we try and fit into the shape and the behaviour, and the looks, and the patterns, and the thoughts of what the world tells us we should be, we are not going to enjoy our lives.
If you have a bible, I’ll ask you to open it at Romans, Chapter 12:1. Romans is the sixth book in the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, now the book of Romans, it’s about half way through. Beginning Chapter 12 the apostle Paul writes this. “I appeal to you therefore brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God which is your spiritual worship. Don’t be conformed to the world but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God, what is the good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.”
Romans is a really interesting book and these two verses at the beginning of Chapter 12 are like the fulcrum of the turning point of the whole of the book of Romans. Chapters 1 through 11 are all about what God has done, Chapters 1 through 11 are all about God’s mercy in view of our sin. “Therefore”, writes Paul in this very first verse of Chapter 12, therefore in view of everything else I’ve written before this in the first 11 chapters, therefore in view of God’s mercy, in view of God’s forgiveness, in view of what God has done by sending Jesus Christ to die for you and me, therefore, respond in this way. “Therefore”, that one little very important word, turns the whole equation back on us, and what does he say? “Therefore, present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God which is your spiritual worship”. “Therefore, don’t be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Therefore don’t conform any longer to the pattern of this world.
Don’t conform; don’t be squeezed into the world’s mould. Have you ever put on some clothes that just don’t fit? You know, you put on a jacket and the arms are too short, and the chest is too tight, and you kind of put it on and go out because you think it looks good but it’s not particularly comfortable? That’s what Paul is talking about here; don’t be squeezed into the mould of the world’s standards. In fact he says, get some new standards, get a new approach, get a new sense of value, look at others differently, look at ourselves differently, why? Because then you’ll be able to test the things, and figure out the things that are God’s will, good, pleasing, perfect. If we try and see ourselves through the worlds eyes, if we try and see ourselves through the advertising industry mould; good looking, tall, terrific (now I know I am, fortunately I’m on radio), I know I am but come on, if we try and put ourselves into that mould, Paul’s saying, that’s not what God’s grace is about, don’t live your life like that; look at what God has done for you in Jesus.
If you wanna enjoy your life, read the first 11 Chapters of Romans and read about God’s love, God’s grace, God’s mercy for you and for me. Paul says, because of that I appeal to you, by the mercy of God present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God which is your spiritual worship. A living sacrifice bit of a bizarre term isn’t it? In other words you have to die to live. You have to die to this world and its standards, and ideas, in order to live a life of joy. It sounds radical and it is radical. Does it mean we have to live like hermit crabs? No, it doesn’t. Does it mean we have to live in poverty? No, it doesn’t. Does it mean we have to give up everything we value in life? No, it does not. It simply says; stop looking at ourselves, you at yourself, me at myself, through the world’s eyes. Stop trying to be like what they say you should be, because if you do that you’re not going to enjoy it, if I do that, I’m not going to enjoy it. See our self through God’s eyes, by His standards, not by the world’s standards.
The way we think is important. The mind goes ahead of our lives. Joyce Meyer, a preacher that I enormously admire, puts it this way, she says; where the mind goes, the man follows. If we think miserably, we’ll have a miserable life. If we think an over-inflated view of who we are, we’ll be ugly. Paul says no, ditch all that, look for the good, and pleasing, and perfect will of God. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Who am I anyway?
Ok, Paul is saying here, in view of God’s mercy, be transformed. A whole eleven chapters on mercy, start off the book of Romans. Now Paul calls us to respond. Well what’s the very first thing he asks us to do? Have a look at Romans, Chapter 12:3. “For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think yourselves more highly than you should think, but to think in sober judgment each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned”. In other words, if you really want to enjoy your life, stop fitting into the world’s advertising parade and figure out exactly who you are. Don’t think too highly of yourself, and the flip side of that coin, which we’ll talk about in a minute, is…don’t think too lowly of yourself, but instead, with sober judgment, figure out who you are.
Now I think the whole problem of thinking too lowly about ourselves, is the more common problem in our society, 2000 years on. In Paul’s time they didn’t have the advertising and consumer machinery that we have now. And so Paul wasn’t dealing with a situation where people watch television, they see a glossy ad of someone driving a fancy car, and they aspire to that image and then they go out and put themselves in debt to buy the car. That’s not what Paul was dealing with, Paul was dealing with a society where people were perhaps promoting themselves too highly, but what we do in our society (and this is what psychologists and social researchers say), is that we have this nagging sense of inadequacy and so we behave highly, we behave boisterously, we behave offensively, we behave with superiority to hide that inner emptiness, that inner insecurity.
Paul is saying here very clearly, “No, by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you (not just some, everyone among you) don’t think of yourselves more highly than you ought to think (don’t think of yourself more lowly than you ought to think) but with sober judgment (with a realistic assessment, look at who you are).” Look at who you are in view of the grace that I’ve just talked about in the last eleven chapters. Look at who you are in view of what Jesus has done for you. Look at who you are in view of the Son of God dying on the cross for you and God saying through that, I love you. With sober judgment look at who you are.
Do you believe in Jesus? You are a child of the living God, and if children then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ, Romans Chapter 8:17. “Oh no, I’m a worm, I’m not much” No! In all things you are more than a conqueror, through him who loves you, Romans, Chapter 8:37. We need to start seeing ourselves the way God sees us. We need to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, and stop thinking of ourselves through the inadequacies that we’ve developed by interacting with this world.
The big mistake that we make is to compare ourselves with other people. Oh boy, so-and-so is so clever, so-and-so is so smart, so-and-so is so good looking. Read verse 3 again, “For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you, not to think of yourselves more highly than you should, but to think with sober judgment each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.” Does he say compare yourself with other people? Does he say look at other people and try and see where you fit given who they are? That’s not what he’s saying at all. He’s saying No, think of yourself with sober judgment because of what Jesus has done for you, in the context of that grace, figure out who you are. Why? Let’s pick it up in verse 4 “For as one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we who are many are one body in Jesus and individually we are members of one another.
We’ve got different gifts according to the grace that God gave to us. Prophecy in proportion to faith, ministry in the ministering, the teacher in teaching, the exhorter in exhortation, the giver in generosity, the leader in diligence, the compassionate in cheerfulness. He’s saying exactly the opposite, he’s saying don’t, don’t compare yourself with the next guy, you’re different to the next guy, we’ve all got different gifts, we might be the member of one body, one church, one family, but each one of us is different, individually he says we’re different. Together we are members of the one body. When we compare, what happens is, we are prone to aspire to something that we really aren’t. We need to stop comparing and focus who God has made us to be.
A few years ago, I used to run a consulting firm that ended up working internationally, had about fifty consultants in it, myself and another gentleman effectively ran it. He was the managing director, the chief executive, and I was his second in charge, and over the 16 years that we ran this firm, we had a pact, effectively I would take over from him when he retired because he was 20 years my senior. I was the logical choice. You know something, then I came to faith in Jesus Christ. Then I focused on who I am in view of his grace and then I realised I no longer have to conform to the worlds value system, I came to the sober judgment, I wasn’t cut out to run that firm. That’s not who I am, that’s not what I wanted to do with my life and so sadly people do things, and they take jobs, and they marry people, and become part of clubs, not because it’s them, not because it works for them, not because they really fit but because other people have expectations of them. Other people force them into the world’s mould. We have to say no, we have to say no, that’s not who I am.
If I want to enjoy my life, if you want to enjoy your life, we cannot allow ourselves to be squeezed into a mould in which we do not belong, in which we do not fit. So many people do things that God hasn’t gifted them to do. Why is it that 80% of people just aren’t satisfied in their jobs? Probably because they’re doing things other than what God made them to do. Contentment comes not from being squeezed into the world’s mould but when we’re doing what our Creator made us to do. So what did God make me to do? What did God make you to do? Well Paul puts a list in here, he says we have different gifts, some have the gift of prophecy, that is speaking God’s will, some have the gift of ministry – helping people, some have the gift of teaching of exhorting of encouraging people, the gift of generosity to give, some have a gift of leadership, not all – some. And some have a gift of compassion. Who am I? Who are you?
Sometimes we think “I haven’t got anything that’s useful”. We are one body, we are many members, we have many functions, we belong to one another. My gifts, the things that God has made me good at, they’re gifts to you! And the things that God has made you good at, they’re gifts to me and other people, it doesn’t matter how zealous and how enthusiastic we might be, a body without arms and legs is useless. And if you go to a church where people aren’t living in their giftings, people aren’t doing the things they’re good at; it’s going to be like a body without arms and legs.
God has put you in the body of Christ, if you believe in Jesus, God has put you in the body of Christ and it’s a picture. Are you an arm? Or a leg? Or an eye? Or a foot? Or an ear? I don’t know but you probably are a different one to me, and together we can do all the stuff Jesus did. Together we are the body of Christ. He had it all. We collectively have it all because we are bound together as one by his presence and his spirit. We together can do all that Jesus did, and Jesus said in fact you’ll do much more than I ever did. Separately we’re all different, together we’re complementary, together, we’re the body of Christ. I’m gonna come back in a minute and finish up by looking at how we handle some of those differences.
Many Parts, One Body
We’ve been talking about the fact that each one of us is different. Sometimes the world wants to squeeze us into this mould, or that. Sometimes friends or family have this expectation, or that expectation about us. But God tells us here through what Paul is writing in the book of Romans Chapter 12, we are all different, we have different gifts according to the grace given to us, he says in Romans chapter 12:6. How many beetles are there on the planet? 360,000 different species of beetles. Your clothes, your hair, your fingerprints, your voice patterns, your emotions are unique to you; you and I are not the same. In fact you go into a room of 5000 people and unless there are identical twins in the room, and even they aren’t the same, you won’t see two people who look the same. And that’s just on the outside, that’s just the things we can see. The differences and the variety on the inside are so much greater!
Have you noticed God loves variety? Variety was his idea, making you and me unique, that was His idea. And instead of comparing ourselves to other people, can I get you excited about this? The fact that you are unique, made in the image of God is such an exciting thing. When we stop comparing ourselves, when we accept with joy God’s choices, in the gifts that he has and hasn’t given us, then and only then will be content with who we are. Then and only then will we enjoy our lives. And you can argue with God, I can argue with God, I can say to God…”God I don’t like what you’ve made me, I don’t like the gifts that you’ve given me, I wish you’d given me other gifts”. You can argue ‘til you’re blue in the face, God is God. God chose to make me just the way I am, God chose to make you just the way you are. So we can argue with him, or we can be excited with who and what He has made us. Think with sober judgment, knowing who it is that I am, and knowing who it is that I ‘‘aint. And that prepares me to be a part of the body of Jesus Christ.
The Psalmist in Psalm 139 writes so beautifully, with excitement he stands completely in awe of the fact that God had handcrafted him. Look at verse 14 of Psalm 139, “I praise you God because I am fearfully and wonderfully made, wonderful are your works, I know that very well. I wasn’t hidden from you when I was being made in secret, intricately being woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes beheld my unformed substance, in your book were written all the days that you had formed for me when none of them yet existed. Oh God, how wonderful are your thoughts to me”. It is time we ditched our worm theology, God made us the way we are and when he looks at you, and when he looks at me, his heart just fills with love.
You and I are God’s creation, we are His choices, He delights in us, He wants us to delight in ourselves too. Think soberly; think realistically, what gifts has God given you? Maybe it’s the gift of speaking out – prophecy, maybe it’s the gift of serving, maybe it’s the gift of teaching, maybe you’re an encourager, maybe you’re a giver, maybe you’re a leader, or an administrator, maybe you’re really good at showing mercy. What are your core motivations? The things that really make you tick?
My wife Jacqui, you know when we were running a home group from our church at our house, I was always concerned about bible study, I was always concerned about having really good discussions and good teaching, cause that’s who I am. She on the other hand, was concerned about the coffee being just so and having the right biscuits there, and this, that, and the other. She has a gift of serving! Can I tell you something? I hate serving. She ran a coffee shop in our church for a while and made muffins and coffee, and she loved doing that. I would die if I had to do that everyday, but it turns out we’re a good match. It turns out we’re a good partnership, we’re different, we’re complementary and we’re partners in God’s ministry that he’s called us to.
The world’s standards are about appearance and wealth, and delivery, and performance, and Paul says, you’re not going to enjoy your life anymore if you try and fit into the world’s mould, instead, in view of all that Jesus has done for you, he died to set you free from your weaknesses, from your failures from your sin, he rose again to be the first born, to give you hope of eternal life, to give you victory over all the rotten things that are gonna happen in your life. Because of that, be transformed let your mind be renewed by God’s Word. See yourself the way that God sees you, you think miserably of yourself, you are gonna be miserable for the rest of your life. You think you have an over-inflated view of yourself, you’re gonna be ugly, people aren’t gonna like you. You have a worm theology, you’re gonna have a miserable life, see yourself as God created you, with strengths that he chose sovereignly out of His love and His heart with weaknesses and limitations that He chose so that you would need the next person. I have weaknesses that my wife covers for; my wife has weaknesses that I cover for. Together we are a great team. Come on, you’ve been handcrafted by God, he likes you, no, He loves you He adores you and if you ever doubt that look at what he did for you, look at what he did for me on the cross through Jesus Christ. That is the platform for us enjoying our lives, accepting who God chose us to be is how we will enjoy our lives. Ditch that worm theology, for Christ’s sake.
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