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The Altar alters life by Warren Wiersbe
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so
the great decision that each one of us
has to make
is not do i stay home or go overseas
do i get a job or go into
some job that we call full-time
christian service
that's not the big decision
big decision that you and i have to make
grows out of what paul wrote in
romans 12 verse 2 am i going to go
through life
being a transformer
once you have made that decision
everything else falls into place
we find out whether god wants us to stay
or go
we find out what he wants us to do we
find out where he wants us to serve
not everybody is called into full-time
christian service although we're all
called into full-time christian living
and so the great question i have to
answer is am i going to be a conformer
or a transformer and you say well what
is the difference
what's rather obvious i think paul wrote
do not
conform any longer to the pattern of
this world but be transformed by the
renewing of your mind
a conformer is a person whose life
is controlled by pressure
a transformer is a person whose life is
controlled by
conformers are sacrificed
transformers are living sacrifices
someone says well i'm a student in
school fine you can be a transformer
that's what
they gave daniel a new home
gave him a new address gave him new
clothing gave him a new name
gave him a new curriculum and tried to
give him a new religion and daniel
purposed in his heart he was going to be
a transformer and not a conformer and
before long he was running the country
became a worker in potiphar's home and
made up his mind he was not going to be
a conformer he's going to be a
transformer before long he was
second in command of the home
he was lied about put into prison and
before long he was second in command in
and then he became second in command of
the whole land
i'm not saying that each one of us as
transformers will become
what i am saying is this many of us
do not make much of a difference where
if we were not there nobody would notice it
that wasn't the way it was with deborah [Applause]
[Applause]
a group of men were sitting in a barber shop
shop
in northfield massachusetts many years
ago and they were talking as
men sometimes do in barber shops and a
man walked in
said nothing sat down waited for his turn
turn
but the whole atmosphere of the
barbershop changed and the conversation
shifted and after the man had been
attended to
and left a stranger said who was that
and the barber said oh didn't you know
so the big decision we have to make now
am i going to be a
transformer whose life is controlled by
power from within
so that around me things change
or am i going to be a conformer whose
life is controlled by
pressure from without
j.b phillips translates it do not let
which raises the question how do i
become a transformer
how do i become a living sacrifice now
god does not call all of us to be dead sacrifices
sacrifices
martyrs we've heard today about
many who have laid down their lives god
may call some of us to do that
but in this particular context paul is saying
saying
it's one thing to say lord i will die
for you if necessary
it's quite something else to say where i
am with all the pressures that are there
i'm going to live for you a living sacrifice
sacrifice
my lord up in heaven is a living sacrifice
sacrifice
now he's not offering himself again and
again no that was settled once and for all
all
for by one offering he has perfected
forever them that are sanctified no no
no more sacrifice but he's a living
sacrifice he bears on his body
the wounds of calvary isaac was a living sacrifice
sacrifice
he went with abraham to the top of moriah
moriah
and there he willingly put himself on
the altar
and willingly faced the knights
to all intents and purposes he did die
spiritually speaking and from that point on
on
in order for me to be a living sacrifice
in order for you
and me to be transformers
there are four essentials that must be
present in our life
they're very simple paul spells them out
very simply
romans chapter 11 verses 33-36 the first essential
essential
is a worshipping heart
when we preachers are going to preach on
dedication we start with romans 12
in romans chapters 9 10 and 11 paul
wrestles with some of the deepest theology
theology
found anywhere in the new testament
he discusses election
mr moody used to pray lord save the elect
elect
he discusses predestination
he discusses sovereignty he discusses
topics that divide the saints today
he discusses the future of the jewish nation
nation
he discusses evangelism he discusses missions
campbell morgan used to say when all of
my attempts
at exegesis bible study
and paul gets to the end of this long section
section
of profound theology and theology turns into
into
doxology and he ends up singing
i don't recall ever hearing any of my
theology instructors
sing but i'd be a little bit suspicious
of somebody who taught theology who
couldn't turn it into song
oh the depth of the riches of the wisdom
and knowledge of god
how unsearchable his judgments and his paths
paths
beyond tracing out paul begins to sing a
hymn of praise to god
because that's the first essential for
being a transformer
keep a marker in romans and go back to
the book of acts
chapter 13 verse 1
dr luke lists for us a group of prophets
and teachers who were ministering in the
church at antioch
at the beginning of the list is barnabas
at the end of the list is saul
but notice verse 2 while
they were worshiping the lord and
fasting the holy spirit
said set apart for me barnabas and saul
for the work to which i have called them
it does not say
while they were attending a missionary
conference nothing wrong with missionary
conferences i speak at them often
it does not say while they were reading
a missionary prayer letter i
read missionary prayer letters it says
while they were worshiping god
i wonder if today one reason why we
don't have very many transformers
here were a group of teachers and ministers
ministers
who were worshiping god
they were praising and praying and
worshiping god
and the holy spirit of god in the midst
of that worship
said i want barnabas and i want saul
and they're going to go out and reach
the gentiles
a worshiping heart that's what happened
to isaiah
we aren't told specifically but we have
every reason to believe that isaiah
was in the temple when he had that vision
vision
recounted the account of which is given in
in
isaiah 6. in the year that king as i had
died i saw also the lord high
holy holy holy is the lord of hosts the
whole earth is
and while he was worshiping god isaiah
discovered he was a sinner and god
sent the coal of fire to cleanse his
lips and then god
said who who can i send who will go for us
us
and out of that worship experience
isaiah said
now go back to romans chapter 11 and
let's find out
is preparation for a transforming life
you see in verse 33 when you have a
worshiping heart
you don't try to explain god's ways
oh the depth of the riches of the wisdom
and knowledge of god
how unsearchable his judgments and his paths
paths
beyond tracing out [Applause]
[Applause]
every once while someone stops me and
asks me a bible question
and i will sometimes say i don't know
and then they look at you as though you
are some kind of a fool
here you are teaching the bible
preaching the bible writing books preaching
preaching
on the radio surely you know the answer
i have a confession to make to you i do
not live
on explanations i live on promises
there's much about this life i can't explain
explain
and there's much about the pathways of god
god
i can't explain oh i've read the books
that explain them
that's one reason why i can't explain them
now it isn't wrong for us to think god's
thoughts it's not wrong for us to try to
dive into the depths of god's wisdom but
let's remember
and so when you're a worship when you
have a worshiping heart you don't try to
explain god's
ways you just accept them and do them
and then in verse 34 he says when you
have a worshiping heart you don't try to
change god's mind
who has known the mind of the lord or
who has been his counselor
in our praying we say now lord do your
perfect will but i think it ought to be
this way
but when you have a worshiping heart you
don't do that you just get lost
in the will of god and the wisdom of god
you get lost in the glory of god and you
verse 35 says when you have a worshiping
heart you don't try to buy god's blessings
blessings
who has ever given to god that god
should repay him
now lord i'll do this if you'll do that
that's not a worshiping heart
now lord i'll make a bargain with you
that's the way jacob lived
he always had some scheme up his sleeve
and paul says that's not the way it
works when you have a worshiping heart
you don't try to explain god's ways you
don't try to change god's mind
and you don't try to bargain your way by
your way into god's blessing and it
finally ends it up
ends up in verse 36 that when you have a
worshiping heart you don't
try to steal god's glory
where does ministry come from for from
him and through him and to him
are all things to him be the glory
forever amen
when i was in youth for christ many
years ago
i learned a little principle that i
think is still true if you can explain
oh it's no wonder our church is
succeeding our pastor is such a
well-educated man
then how do you explain the early church
in the book of acts they were
untaught men nothing wrong with
education learn everything you can
put it under the blood of christ and go
to work
oh it's no wonder that our ministry
grows we have such a good
mailing list really if you can explain
what's going on god didn't do it
so a worshiping heart is where we start
long before i make any other commitment
i come and say father i want to worship you
you
lord jesus i want to worship you
i'm not going to tell you what to do or
how to do it
i'm just going to worship you i'm
concerned about one thing to him
be the glory forever that's the first
essential a worshipping heart
then in verse 1 of chapter 12 paul says therefore
having gotten our worship straightened
out now we can talk about some other things
things
therefore i urge you
not i command you i urge you brothers
in view of god's mercy the thing he's
been talking about in chapters 9
10 and 11 the mercy of god to offer your
bodies as
living sacrifices holy and pleasing to god
god
this is your spiritual
act of worship now we're continuing that worship
worship
we don't start stop start something else
no we continue that worship
i have given god an adoring heart
i'm lost in the wonder of his wisdom and
his ways
and now i'm going to give to him a
yielded body
that's the second essential have you ever
ever
we have this strange attitude toward dedication
dedication
that it's something very spiritual
which means it's nebulous it's foggy
it's it's like trying to put
steam in an envelope and mail it overseas
overseas
it's like shoveling mercury with a pitchfork
pitchfork
dedication is here i am lord and i feel
so good
paul says let's get down to rock bottom
give god your body
i recommend that you study the physical
sometimes i get phone calls from church
officers or even ministers and they say
we have a problem in our church and
what's the problem
well the trustees and the deacons or the
trustees and the elders do not agree i
said what
tell me what they do well the elders are
in charge of the spiritual
part of the church and the trustees are
in charge of the money
and my response is usually the most
spiritual thing you can do in a church
is handle your money properly
who said money wasn't spiritual
now i'm not saying go home and rewrite
your constitution all i'm saying
is when paul got a missionary offering
from the church at philippi
he looked upon it as a spiritual sacrifice
sacrifice
a fragrance that went up pleasing to god
there's no such thing in the bible as
sacred and secular
spiritual and material the most
spiritual thing i can do for god
is to give him my body and
use that body the way he wants me to use it
it
now if i continue on this track i may
meddle and i don't want to meddle i'm a visitor
visitor
and though i am leaving the country the
lord willing next wednesday
i don't want to leave any enemies behind
i will simply say this we evangelical
christians are prone to criticize
unbelievers for what they do to their bodies
bodies
and sometimes we are guilty of equally
why does god want my body because god
cannot get anything done without a body
when the lord jesus came to do the great
work of redemption
he had to have a body and so the holy
spirit of god
prepared a body for him in the womb
of mary and jesus had a
body and he went about doing good he was
not an ethereal
kind of a spirit they could feel him
they could touch him he was there
now he's gone back to heaven he's left
behind a spiritual body the church
the head is in heaven the body is on earth
earth
and that body is made up of people
we are members of his body we belong to
each other and we need each other and we
affect each other and we should minister
to each other
and god says i want you to give me your
body because i need a pair of hands to
i need some feet to go do some visitation
visitation
i need some eyes to plant a building
i need some lips and a tongue
to deliver a message how is god going to
get his work
done if he doesn't have a body through
which the holy spirit can work
god wants our bodies because our bodies
are god's temple
he purchased our bodies he indwells our bodies
bodies
and this temple should glorify him
whether therefore you eat or drink or
whatever you do glorify god
in your body that
christ may be honored in my body said
we sometimes quote that verse man looks
on the outward appearance god looks on
the heart
friends men do look on the outward appearance
god wants our bodies because our bodies
are god's temples our bodies are god's tools
tools
romans chapter 6. don't
don't let sin take over your ears and
your eyes and your hands and your feet
your stomach
don't let sin use the members of your body
body
give the members of your body to the
who indwells you let him fill you and
empower you
and your body is god's treasury
paul wrote to the corinthians in second
corinthians chapter four verse seven
we have this treasure
god's put the treasure of eternal life
in an earthen vessel
now he says share the treasure
well how do you do that you have to have
a vessel
many of you take medicine i'm sure
i do i look forward to that day when
i'll have a glorified body
and won't even have to take glorified
medicine there just won't be anymore
when i was in the hospital and they
brought me my medication
a paper cup a plastic cup didn't have to
be a silver cup
as long as what brought the medication
and available and that was the right medication
medication
now these earthen vessels that we have
are weak
these earths and vessels that we are
have are are not the important
thing to share with others it's the
treasure in the vessel
and god says give me your body have you
ever done that
in fact it's a good thing to do every day
when we wake up first thing in the
morning and just simply say
thank you father you've cared for me all
night you've been awake i've been asleep thank
thank
you now here's my body
by the way if we got into that kind of a habit
habit
it might help us to get up a little
earlier and spend some time with the lord
lord
early in the morning the high priest
used to go to the altar
take off yesterday's ashes put on some
fresh wood
take a burnt offering and give that
burnt offering
first thing in the morning and that's
what i should be doing
first thing in the morning present
myself as a living sacrifice to god
here's my body
makes a difference what you do with your
body the rest of the day
but it doesn't stop there a worshipping heart
heart
which leads to a yielded body which
leads to
a renewed mind verse two
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 a
renewed mind
where did we ever get the idea that when
you go to church or come to a conference session
session
you park your mind someplace else
that the christian faith is
anti-intellectual you don't
think i don't know about you but my
christian life began with my mind
i had to change my mind i had to repent
i'd been raised in sunday school every
sunday i was in sunday school class my
my lesson completed to the last
question i was confirmed
in the church and was not a believer i
bluffed my way through
one year after my confirmation i trusted christ
christ
as my savior and the first thing i had
to do was admit that what god
said was right and what i thought was wrong
wrong
that's where the christian life starts
the mind
we hear a message we have to think it through
through
it's not just the emotions the emotions
are involved no question about that
and the will is involved it's like
getting married
in fact paul uses that illustration in
romans 7.
he says we have been wedded to christ
that we might bring forth fruit to god
my wife and i met at school seminary
her last name was warren we were seated
in a couple of classes alphabetically
and so it was warren
wiersby warren wiersby
but i wasn't married to her and then
over the years
we had some dates and got to know each
other and something happens in your heart
and finally we went together for so long
but even though i had facts in my mind
and feelings in my heart i did not have
a wife
until one hot june day
now salvation was that way i knew so
much about jesus
in case you had feelings of fear in my
heart but i wasn't converted
then one day i said i will but start in
my mind
when god wants to communicate he talks
to the mind he wrote a book
and this book communicates to the mind
now also to the heart
i know this it's not like reading a
textbook on chemistry
it's like reading a love letter from
home i know all of this
but he communicates to the mind my mind
is a part of the
image of god and god wants to renew that image
image
in me and therefore he says
will you give me your mind
and will you allow me to renew your mind
because some thoughts have gotten in there
there
i consider my mind to be something like
a computer
only that is going to come out which i
put in it
therefore i'm very careful what i put in
it i'm very careful what i watch
on television our set doesn't go on
except to see the weather
very often very careful about what i
read and how i digest
it and by the grace of god i try every day
day
to spend time in this book so that
in the amazing way that he does it the
you've had this experience your your
reading consistently through your bible
and not just anywhere i meet these
people who
who play bible roulette you know they
just open anywhere
you don't do that you read this book
like you'd read any other book
consistently carefully systematically
and you really say has that verse always
been there
i never saw that before but there it is
why god is renewing your mind
a worshiping heart a renewed
a yielded body a renewed mind
my mind controls my body
and even the most humanistic
psychiatrist would tell you if you want
to change your behavior change your mind
this takes me back to a verse that
haunts me i've quoted it so often
second corinthians chapter 3 verse 18 we
referred to this
the other evening ii corinthians 3 18
and we who with unveiled faces
all reflect the lord's glory
are being transformed same word
into his likeness all
with ever increasing glory which comes
from the lord who is the spirit
when the child of god looks into the
word of god
and sees the son of god he
is transformed by the spirit of god into
the glory of god
the word transformed is the word transfigured
transfigured
god wants us to have our own private
transfiguration every day
oh you won't go up on a mountain maybe
you could i couldn't there are no mountains
mountains
anywhere in nebraska
your own private transfiguration where
you hear
moses you hear elijah the prophets
you hear jesus you hear the voice of the father
father
the glory of god and that glory is not
picked up on the outside temporarily
that glory grows on the
inside permanently and we start
the way stephen did we become transformers
transformers
if you want to be a transformer it
starts with a worshiping heart
which leads to a yielded body which
yields to a
renewed mind
but don't stop there there's a fourth essential
essential
then you will be able to test and approve
approve
what god's will is
his good pleasing and perfect will
god does not have three wills god has
as i first enter the will of god i say
hey this is good
but then i realized i don't just do it
because it's good
that could be selfish i do it because it
it's a beautiful day in the life of a teenager
teenager
when he graduates from i'd better be
good or my father will beat me too
my father loves me i want to make him
happy that's maturity
it's a beautiful day in the life of a
christian when he says i'm going to do
what god wants me to do
it pleases him it makes my father's
heart happy
but you don't stop there you discover
how perfect it is not three wills
but i have a suspicion we grow in our
appreciation of that will
and obedient will i'm encouraged by the
fact that paul tells us that we
test and approve god's will now it
doesn't mean
we have to go through all sorts of puzzles
puzzles
and mazes and enigmas to find the will
mark twain used to say it's not what i
don't understand about the bible that
worries me it's what i do understand
there are times when we wrestle about
decisions i know this
all i can do is follow what paul says
if i have a worshiping heart i want his
glory alone
a yielded body a renewed mind
then i pray i seek the will of god
through the word
through my christian friends i wait
before him
i make a step i've learned that if i
make a wrong
another way to translate verse 2 is then
you will
learn by experience
it's not true here in the uk but in
america our people love
formulas they love quick answers they
love the quick
quick answers you put money into a
machine push a button
out comes a soft drink that's the way to live
in some parts of the united states we
now have drive
you don't have to get out of the
if you just drive through and there's
the remains of
the friend or loved wouldn't be a loved
one you'd be in the mortuary i suppose
but the friend and
i don't know how you sign the register
that we are now so unfeeling we can't
get out of an automobile and go in
and hug somebody and say i'm sorry
but that's the way people live we have
to have the fast food and the quick
answers and the
merchant dies delivered right now and
people want the will of god that way
and so you can read books that to give
you five steps toward the will of god
and paul is saying learning the will of god
god
is like learning how to swim you dive in
and occasionally you sink a little bit
in the case you swallow some water
and occasionally you flail around a
little bit but you're learning
a lifestyle
once again it's like marriage the longer
you live with somebody
and the longer we walk with the lord
with a yielded body with a renewed mind
the better we understand
his ways and his promises he made known
his ways
unto moses his acts to the children of
israel the children of israel knew what
he was doing moses knew why he was doing it
and moses was a transformer
an obedient will now you'll notice that paul
paul
moves then into the church
he says evaluate yourself find out what
you can do
and get to work in the church if you've
got a gift and you must have at least one
one
use it i was converted to christ
in my teens and through a series of
circumstances which led to a church
where somebody laid hands on me one day
and said why don't you teach a sunday
school class because i've never done it
well do it and lo and behold discovered
i had a gift of teaching
i can say that because i have no credit
for that you don't take credit for a gift
john the baptist said a man can receive
nothing except it's given from heaven
and i found myself enjoying teaching aha
where'd that happen in the church
we are sheep and sheep flock together we
are members of the body and they stay together
together
we're stones in the temple and we are
linked together
cemented together we need each other
it's a dangerous thing when a person
goes off like the lone ranger
to do his own thing and he's not under
an obedient will paul says don't
think too highly of yourself don't
overrate yourself rate yourself soberly
if you came to me and said would you
manage the athletic
ministry at our camp i'd say no
don't be conformed to this world let's
just close on this note
what do you know about the world well we
know what john told us
love not the world oh the world wants my heart
heart
love not the world if anyone loves the
world the love of the father is not in him
him
but if i have a worshiping heart i won't
love the world
for all that is in the world the lust of
the flesh oh the world wants my body
ah but if i have a yielded body i won't
give my body to the world the lust of
the flesh the lust of the eyes the world
and all of the things you see in the
world get into the mind and
impregnate the mind and paul says wait a
minute if you've got a
renewed mind the world won't
stain you the lust of the flesh the lust
of the
the pride of life that's the will oh the
world wants my will
the world wants me to say i will there
was a funeral and lincoln nebraska a few
weeks ago i did not attend it
but a friend of mine who was there told
me about it one song was sung at the funeral
funeral
the man was not a believer one song was
sung frank sinatra's song
the world wants my will but if i have a
an obedient will
then that pressure on the outside is
counteracted by the power on the inside
i become a transformer
what is a transformer somebody whose
life is controlled by
power from within how does that
transformation work
a worshiping heart
some years ago on a rainy day my wife
and i drove to northfield massachusetts
to visit the grave
of d.l moody i was pastoring the moody church
church
i thought i should go pay my respects to
the founder of that church
mr moody as you know was a great
fundraiser he raised millions of pounds
here in the uk
to build uh various ministries here in
this country and didn't take that money
back to
america with him but in america he was a
in fact he said the epitaph on my
tombstone should be
and it came to pass the beggar died
but it wasn't you know what the epitaph
is on his tombstone
sure you do he
who does the will of god
abides forever i stood there on that
rainy day that miserly day like you have
up in scotland
and i looked at that tombstone i thought
to myself that man is
dead but he's still winning souls
that man is dead but he is still
publishing books that man is dead but
he's still
sending out the gospel because he was a transformer
god may not make you and me into a dl moody
moody
or an amy carmichael
but where you are in your world
conscious of the great opportunity we have
have
in our world where we live
and as in paul's day so today your holy
spirit is looking
for available people
forgive us that we have yielded to the
pressures of the world
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