A Living Sacrifice to God

Join BOLD Church in 21 Days of Transtraumational Prayer

A journey to healing, deliverance and freedom, by grace through faith, to manifest the good, pleasing and perfect will of God in our spirit, soul and body.

Day 1- Romans 12

Transcript

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Amen. Amen. So as I mentioned a little earlier, we are going and continuing through our 21 days of transformational prayer with specific topics or specific groups of people in the body of Christ that we're going to focus on. Today's focus is people that work in the realms of arts, media, or entertainment. So we're going over Romans chapter 12. The book of Romans in general and this specific chapter is always special to me because it's one of those books, and this is one of those chapters in general where if you know people always use that example of, oh, if you had to be trapped on a remote island with this, that, or the third, um, the book of Romans is like an excellent just guideline to being in Christ and being of being a Christian. Like you can kind of just like pick sections of this and you know, you know, obviously there are other things that we learn throughout scripture. That's why, you know, it's so vast. But you know, if you kind of stay within the things that you hear in these chapters and specifically this one, you'd be you'd be okay. So I'm gonna read a bit of it verbatim and then I'll relate to how this can um um how we should kind of target our prayer towards those in the realm of media, entertainment, and the arts. Um, I do want to start off by saying one thing though. Um, as we go through um these topics and we have these specific groups that we are to pray for, um, one thing that's one expectation that I want to set, um, which kind of is also mentioned in scripture, but well, you may not have a personal connection to uh that particular group of people that we are targeting for that day. And that is fine. Um, it's not necessarily about, you know, our comfort level, it's not necessarily about, you know, um, I guess our are we able to identify with those groups of people. But what is important is for us to understand and realize that um there are people in those groups in the body of Christ. And um when we look at the entire body, um, and we can imagine a human body, obviously that's done in this chapter, that's done in scripture. But you know, sometimes the fingers aren't about the ears business, sometimes the eyes aren't about toes business, et cetera, et cetera. But they are all necessary. And if you ever suffered any type of injury or took care of someone in any type of industry or worked in the medical field, you can see how these things that may not seem connected are connected. So I just want us to come into this with that type of heart and to make sure we're just kind of delivering that same type of vigor if um, you know, it's a topic that does not, you know, hit home. You know, because also on the flip side of it, if it's something that, you know, hits home for you, you know, you may want, you know, be like, okay, well, you know, you're expecting, you know, everyone else to kind of rah-rah along with you. So we just want to make sure we kind of continue that energy on. Um, but I'm gonna read a bit of Romans 12 uh verbatim, then we'll kind of jump into how I believe um that, you know, the members of that worked in that type of those type of fields are affected. And once again, we're talking about people that work in arts, media, uh, and entertainment in general. Um, so starting off with Romans 12, a living sacrifice to God. And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you, give your bodies to God because all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice, the kind you'll find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you'll learn to know God's will for you, which is good, pleasing, and perfect. Um, so of course, uh, if you've been to any type of church or uh just in general, that's probably a scripture or excerpts of that scripture you have heard. And you know, it's probably not it's probably not the first, second, third, or 33rd time that you have heard that. Um, so when we talk about um people that are in the limelight per se, whether it be they are the ones that are creating um content or whether they're the ones that are reporting or content, there is, um, and it can be, and we've seen this, we don't have to work in any of these industries to understand, there is a certain level of temptation that can come along with that. And there's a certain type of pressure. And we experience it throughout our jobs, et cetera. But I think that is more precise with this group of people, um, where you know, we've all seen award shows or whatever have you, where, you know, the person they get up and they, you know, hopefully, you know, they're they thank God first. Um, now what we are talking about in this specific specific uh portion of the other chapter is the type of worship that actually matters to the Lord, that the type of worship that actually gets his attention. And, you know, as we know, we could talk about it for you know for days about the relationship between what's coming out of our mouths versus how we're actually living. And early on in this chapter, it puts into um just plain wording what it looks like to uh engage in worship that pleases the Lord. So people that are in the realms of you know being in the limelight media, et cetera, um, there is a lot of pressure on them to conform. A lot of it could be financial, you know, like, hey, you know, this is the type of you know, artist that's being promoted, or this is the type of way that a person that's on TV, this is how they talk, or these are the type of jokes they make, or et cetera, et cetera. But what's being um, you know, what is being detailed to us, and as long as you know these people are in Christ and then interest have an interest in doing that, which is being um detailed to them, is don't copy that behavior, which can be very difficult because, you know, as we've always discussed, we are in this world. We are in this world. Uh the Lord has placed us in these circumstances, He's placed us at these jobs, He's placed us around these folk. Um, so you know, we are where we're supposed to be. So it's not a matter of us not um, a lot of times of us not being in a place of, you know, hey, I'm not, I'm not sure if I should be doing this, or I'm not sure, you know, that's that's a part of, you know, just growing in Christ and walking in Christ is having those questions. But a lot of times we are exactly where we're supposed to be. And it's about how we conduct ourselves while we are there. And, you know, for a regular person, you know, working at this job or that job, that can be a challenge. But specifically for someone who's um their calling and their talent and their gift kind of propels them, you know, to being in front of, you know, masses of people, whether that be through social media or just in right in reality, there's a level of pressure. And I want us to, you know, as we go into the breakout rooms to come into prayer specifically for these people to uh have the strength not to um, you know, fall into that temptation to blend in, fall into that temptation to kind of round off and kind of, you know, not speak the truth or to promote things that um they know go against Christ. Um we all have that same individual, small battle, you know, within our group chats, within our friend groups, et cetera, et cetera. Um and that's hard enough, and I can say that that's hard enough in general. But so I can't even imagine um how it would look to you know have to do it on a different level. So I guess, you know, as we, you know, as we as the scripture say, as we um don't pretend to love others, but really love them and to, you know, now once again, I'm jumping in back into uh Romans uh 12 verse 9. Don't to pretend to love others, really love them, hate what is wrong and hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection and take delight in honoring each other. So in that moment, um, as we know, because we, you know, we see a lot of, you know, we see pastors on social media, we see, you know, gospel singers and you know, just also just regular celebrities that um, you know, maybe maybe they have proclaimed Christ and their lives are under microscopes that our lives are not under. So whereas we can make a mistake, we can have a bad day, and that day can just kind of be swept under the rug. And the only person that knows what we did is the person that we, you know, made a gesture to in traffic. There are people on the other side of this that, you know, we're taking time to pray for today that um the stakes are a bit higher. Um, so you know, when we break out into the breakout rooms, um, I would say just for us just to kind of have that heart about it and understand that um, you know, there's there's a different level of pressure there. Um so and as I was mentioned earlier, I want to make sure I don't kind of skim past this and then I'll yield. Um I just want to kind of go backwards or go, yeah, go backwards into verses three and four, three, four, and five. Um, because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning. Don't think that you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us. Now, of course, that can be um a challenge for us on a personal level, um, you know, pride, haughtiness, et cetera, et cetera, is something that can affect all of us. But as we just can see from just having a general idea of what it means to be in the limelight, to have celebrity, et cetera, these it can inflate people's heads, it can kind of do things to their heart, it can do things to their eyes and the way they hear things and you know, flip that around and how they're looking at themselves in the mirror. Now, obviously, you know, our best mirror is the word of God. So as we um, you know, come together in prayer, we just want to pray for these people to um, you know, just understand that their identity is rooted in Christ, that, you know, no matter what the world is saying about them this day versus next day, well, the next day, that these things don't change who they are, because when we are truly rooted in Christ, um that is our standard that determines our worth. And that worth is immeasurable. Um, and then just jumping into um verses four and five, as I mentioned, just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with the body of Christ. We are many parts of one body and we all belong to each other. So just circling back around to my original point, even though you may not feel an actual emotional drawing or tie to people in this particular industry or any other industry that we may go into throughout these 21 days, um, it's if these people are in Christ or they are in or propelled into these positions because it the Lord will it, um, you know, not to jump into Romans 13, but you know, we talk about authority and how people are placed in certain places by the Lord, that um we should have it in our hearts, even though they're different than us, even though they may live on a different side of town, for us to come together in prayer and keep them lifted. But with that, I will yield.