{"id":3506,"date":"2011-10-23T10:53:00","date_gmt":"2011-10-23T14:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/?p=3506"},"modified":"2020-12-27T10:54:10","modified_gmt":"2020-12-27T15:54:10","slug":"sojourners-retreat-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/sojourners-retreat-2011\/","title":{"rendered":"Sojourners Retreat 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sojourners Retreat<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sunday Chapel, Oct. 23, 2011, 9:00-10:30 AM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMaking the Most Out of Your Retirement and Serving the Lord\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Romans 12:1-3<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Sing:            Spirit Song<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                        Cares Chorus<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Read Romans 12:1-3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Message<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We know that the Bible was organized with chapters and verses so that we may locate particular passages. But the original manuscripts didn\u2019t necessarily have these designations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To understand Romans 12:1-3, we need to go back and up one verse to Romans 11:36 first. Paul writes, \u201cFrom him (Christ) and through Christ and to Christ are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By going back to this earlier verse, we now understand the meaning of the word, \u201ctherefore\u201d in our retreat passage. We live lives of obedience and love because the gospel of the God who in Jesus Christ enters into a right relationship with the ungodly and therefore calls us into a right relationship with one another. The question for us is: \u201cHow do we glorify God?\u201d How do we worship the one from whom, through whom, and to whom all things are?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The answer is that we worship with our bodies. That is, we worship the God who is all with all that we are. Our conduct is our proper sacrifice to God. Here we remember Micah 6:6-8\u2014Read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Growing Old<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this weekend, we have been talking about retirement\u2014making the most of it or preparing for the most of it. We have talked about getting old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in Romans, Paul believes that, in Jesus Christ, history shifted forever. The old age of sin and death, where we tried but failed to obey the law, has passed away. A new age based on God\u2019s gifts and our faith has begun. The verse \u201cDo not be conformed to this word\u201d could just as well be translated \u201cDo not be conformed to this age.\u201d That is, \u201cLive as citizens of the new age of faithful obedience. Be who you really are.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Greek word, to \u201cbe transformed\u201d has come to us into English as \u201cmetamorphosis.\u201d Butterflies may be overused as symbols of the Christian life, but the metamorphosis from caterpillar to butterfly is not a bad symbol of what Paul hopes for Christians. In baptism we are moved from our old citizenship and our old shape to the new shape of faithfulness. We move from the old age of sin and the law to the new age of grace and faith and faithful obedience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One way to understand Paul\u2019s own life is as a story of metamorphosis. He was a persecutor of Christians. Now he is a Christian. He was an enemy of Christ. Now he is Christ\u2019s apostle. He has been transformed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The metamorphosis we undergo as Christians is this: Our minds are made new. This doesn\u2019t just mean that we have a lot of new information, as our minds might be renewed by learning geography or doing sodukos. It means that what we want and intend and hope for and trust in is all made new. Transformed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As transformed people, we are asked to \u201cdiscern what is the will of God\u2026\u201d Another translation is\u201d \u201cto prove what is the will of God\u2026\u201d That means both to discern God\u2019s will or to discover it, and to prove what is God\u2019s will in our own experience. To put it to the test. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. The proof of God\u2019s will is in the living. What God\u2019s will turns out to be is what is \u201cgood and acceptable and perfect.\u201d If we obediently live lives that are good, acceptable, and (moving toward) the perfect, we will discover that those are the lives that serve God\u2019s kingdom, that worship and glorify God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read Eric Carle\u2019s The Very Hungry Caterpillar<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our many years of life can be represented in the hungry caterpillar. When the sun comes up, we become hungry. We search for food every day of the week. We eat many things and live through many years. And when there were times when we had stomachaches, those are the trials and struggles of life. And after living a long and full life eating through every day and working every day, we finally had enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cocoon for us is like our baptism. We are buried under the water and when we come up, we are transformed. We go through a metamorphosis and become a beautiful person\u2014the person that God intended us to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have talked about \u201cold age\u201d in the sense of chronological aging. But there\u2019s another form of \u201cold age\u201d that God has eliminated in Jesus Christ. We can live in a \u201cnew age\u201d of grace and faith and faithful obedience so that we may glorify God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. Closing Prayer<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. Sing:            Leaning on the Everlasting Arms<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sojourners Retreat Sunday Chapel, Oct. 23, 2011, 9:00-10:30 AM \u201cMaking the Most Out of Your Retirement and Serving the Lord\u201d Romans 12:1-3 1. Sing:            Spirit Song                         Cares ChorusContinue readingSojourners Retreat 2011<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-group-leadership"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3506"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3506\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3507,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3506\/revisions\/3507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}