Made For More: Week 1 (Romans 12:1-2)
Romans 12:1-2
〰️
Made For Discipleship
〰️
Romans 12:1-2 〰️ Made For Discipleship 〰️
I always get excited when we start a new sermon series, because it means we can shake up the routine a little bit, like getting a new pair of shoes. This series is going to be a little different from most of our previous ones, as we usually go through an entire book (or section of a book) of the Bible. We tend to stay away from topical series as they can sometimes devolve into only teaching about what we want to teach. After significant prayer and counsel, we planned this sermon series to be a fresh start to the new year. With such a technology-driven world, it can be easy to feel lost and unsure how to engage. Through this sermon series, we’ll see ways in which we can engage with, let go of, and redeem different aspects of technology. This will likely be uncomfortable for some of us and some of our people, but at the end of the day, our desire for this series is to seek to look more like Christ in every aspect of our hearts, including our digital lives.
Made for Discipleship
With all this in mind, our focus for this week is discipleship. When God created man, He did so in His image (Gen. 1:27), making us to reflect His own nature and glory. Within this, we were made for community, as God Himself is in the perfect community of the Trinity (Father, Son, Holy Spirit). The kicker here is that we aren’t able to exist in perfect community with anyone in this world post-Fall (Gen. 3:7-19). This brings us to discipleship. If we desire to experience this kind of communion with God and with others, we must first decrease so that God can increase in our lives. All of this stands with the caveat that this is for those who are regenerate in Christ. Discipleship is the way in which we experience life with others, learning and growing from those who are a little further down the road than we are. Jesus gathered twelve disciples and invested in them intimately during the years of His active ministry. Jesus taught them (and us, through the writing of the Gospels) what it means to know God and His Word.
And so our passage this week is the perfect distillation of this concept of discipleship: because of God’s kindness towards us, we’re to live lives before God that are holy and righteous. Before we proceed, we need to make it abundantly clear again that salvation is not dependent on our obedience or holiness. Legalism tells us that we must perform to receive, but grace (God’s Word) tells us that God’s kindness in redeeming us should motivate us and be the reason we joyfully respond in obedience. In this passage, we see an interesting progression of argument by Paul:
Because God is merciful in His sacrifice for us... (v1a)
we should joyfully live lives of holiness so that...(v1b, 2a)
we can better see and know what is good and... (2b)
live lives pleasing to God (v2c)
Most interesting is that we get a glimpse of a snowball effect here. Living lives of counter-cultural righteousness gives us eyes to “discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.” (v2). It’s interesting the ways in which the Lord has made us, as creatures of compounding habit. I used to really struggle with swearing, and it’s amazing how a little bit turns into a lot pretty quickly. The same is true for good habits and living in the way our Lord calls us to. It’s truly amazing how, as our love for God and His Word grows, our hatred for sin grows as well. As we grow to love what is good, we hate sin, which further grows our love for what is good, and it continues. But all of this rarely, if ever, happens in a vacuum. God designed us with relationships in mind, and the Gospel method for this kind of growth with guidance is discipleship. We call it this because this is how Jesus imparted knowledge and wisdom to those with whom He was closest.
Now our focus for this passage during this series is meant to be on how we engage with technology, particularly devices (phone, iPad, tv, etc.), but what does technology have to do with discipleship? Well, if we take a look at our screen time at the end of each day, we might have a good idea as to where most of our time is spent and therefore, what is truly discipling us. We can faithfully and joyfully spend 30min+ each morning steeping in God’s Word, but if our minds (and hearts) are predominantly elsewhere, we can open up the door for other voices speaking into our lives, whether we realize it or not. We are being shaped every day, and more and more, we’re being shaped by the content we consume, the games we play, and the things we read and see. The architecture of our brains are constantly adapting and being formed by the world around us. Scientists call it neuroplasticity, and there’s an abundance of research to back it up.
“Neuroplasticity is what allows a pianist to memorize concertos or a taxi driver to navigate city streets. New connections form; old ones fade...Studies show that frequent multitasking with devices weakens the brain’s prefrontal cortex—the seat of decision-making, impulse control, and focus. People who juggle apps and notifications often show reduced gray matter density in regions linked to empathy and emotional regulation.
The consequences ripple outward. Attention spans shrink. Memory grows porous. Our capacity for sustained thought, for “deep work,” fades. Nicholas Carr, in his haunting book The Shallows, warns that the internet is training us to skim rather than contemplate. “What the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation,” he writes. “Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski.”
We are not merely distracted. We are being transformed.”¹
With us constantly being transformed, the question is this: Who is discipling you? Who is discipling your family? With not a lot of reflection required, I can confidently say that I am primarily discipled by people and organizations that want nothing for me. They want my attention and thoughts to meet their ends. So, how do we fight this and push back? Well, Paul gives us the answer: “the renewing of your mind” (v2b). But really, what does this look like in practice? “We should experience a progressive transformation of life by the renewing of our mind. The mind is changed by prayer, by reading and reflection on God’s Word, by worship, and by meditation on God’s acts as the Holy Spirit works in us.”² So as we enter into discussion together, I’d encourage you and your group to team up and come up with a strategy together on how we can actively work in one another’s lives to “be transformed” by God’s Word, character, and goodness. This is a two-way street between all of us, so it’ll take some vulnerability and discomfort. Growing in any way, shape, or form always comes through discomfort, but a life lived for Christ in light of the Gospel is far greater than anything the world has to offer.
“I am the gate. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture. A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.” (John 10:9-10).
Discussion Questions
Could someone read Romans 12:1-2 for us?
What stood out to you from the passage?
Does this passage remind you of another part of Scripture?
Do you have any questions?
What does Paul say is the reason we should love holiness and present ourselves as a “living sacrifice”?
What is the “mercies of God” he’s talking about here?
In what ways can we often be “conformed to this age”? How could this be applied to the way we engage with technology?
Why should we be concerned with discerning what is good and pleasing to God?
How might we, as a community, commit to the “renewing of our minds”?
1. https://www.sciencenewstoday.org/how-tech-addiction-is-changing-our-brains
2. Edwin A. Blum, CSB Study Bible: Notes (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017), 1800.