Last week we talked through the importance of honoring your body and remembering your body is a temple. And even more importantly, that your body is on loan from God and God has entrusted us to care for our bodies while we have them. Some of you asked last week what is the ?how.? How do we do this? What does it look like? How do we make changes to be healthier? Today we are going to dive into that. But we also are diving deeper into that during the small group time. The small groups on Wednesday at 11 or 6:30 is where we take the idea of what we discuss in worship and we break it down even more. I really would like to encourage you to join us. Today we are going to look at what it really means to change. A wise friend said this one time, ?nothing changes if nothing changes.?

Have you ever gone to the book store or library and seen the sheer volume of books on self-improvement and self-help? Last time I went through the bookstore, I couldn?t even count how many self-help books there were! Based on that, I would likely say that there is a universal desire for people to want to improve. We all want to grow, get better, and improve. We all want to make something of our lives if we?re healthy. But we can buy the books, download the apps, purchase the gadgets, and spend lots of money to change, yet the results don?t really seem to last?or even begin!

We have read our scripture passage from Romans, now we are going to go through it verse by verse to examine this classic text of what it really takes to change. From Romans, we are going to discuss six principles for lasting change. You even have a handout today so we can work on remembering them together.

Romans 12:1 says the following: ?I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present YOUR BODIES your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.?? This first principle, we will call ?the Principle of Dedication.?

The principle of dedication is this: Present my body to God.

That?s the starting point. For change to happen in any area of your life whether you want it financial, vocational, educational, mental, relational ? it actually works best to begin with the physical. I present or commit my body to God.

Why is this true, to start with the physical? Because your body affects your behavior. Your muscles affect your moods. Your muscles affect your motivation. Your body can actually influence your moods. You can read any book on body language, posture, things like this ? your physiology can actually affect your psychology.

Let me prove this to you. Everybody just sit up straight right now. Roll your shoulders just a little bit. Take a deep breath and hold it for a minute. Now let it out slowly. I don?t know if you feel any better but you sure look better! I want to guarantee you that you are far more alert than you were five seconds ago. I guarantee you you?re far more alert. Why? Because your body sent messages to your brain saying, Sit up and listen.

So God says you offer your bodies. Start there. Physiology affects psychology.

This verse directs us to the importance of offering our bodies to God and remembering that everything we do is connected to worship. It is the reminder that as long as you?re on this planet everything you do for God, with God, in God, you?re going to do in your bod for God.

Paul says ?offer your bodies.? Question: the word ?offer.? When you offer something, is that forced or is that voluntary? It?s voluntary, not forced. This is an important thing. Nobody can force you to offer your body. Nobody can force you to change. No matter what changes need to happen in my life or your life, nobody can force us to change. ?Just do it? doesn?t always work!

This is the first law of change. We?re going to look at the laws of change from God?s Word. The first law of change is this: Change is my choice. And we don?t typically just change once. We need to keep offering ourselves up for change over and over again.

?It is your spiritual act of worship.? You say, wait a minute! There is actually something I can do with my body that would be an act of worship? Absolutely. In fact, let me give you three specific things you can do with your body that are acts of worship. Three things you can do with your body that the Bible says, the Bible clearly says, are acts of spiritual worship. Here are some practical steps to take in how we work towards 40 days to a healthier life.

I can cleanse it.

I?m talking about detox. I?m talking about not putting poison in my body. By cleansing my body, that can be an act of worship. There may be some stuff that you?re putting in your body that you need to stop putting in your body. You need to cleanse your body of those toxins, those poisons, that bad stuff.

Where is that? In 2 Corinthians 7:1 ?Let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates the body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.? Notice the motivation: I want to be holy before God. I?m doing this as an act of worship, as an act of reverence to God. God made my body; I better take care of it.

That verse says, ?perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.? In that verse it says everything that contaminates the body, or the spirit. What contaminates the body is stuff that goes in through the mouth ? you eat it or you drink it. What contaminates the spirit goes in through the eyes and the ears. Does that make sense? You contaminate your spirit by what you watch and what you listen to. You contaminate your body by what you eat and what you drink.

So the first thing you can do, the Bible says, out of reverence for God, is you can cleanse your body of the contaminants. That?s an act of worship.

The second way?

By caring for my body.

I can care for my body. That?s an act of worship. I can care for my body. Caring for your body is an act of stewardship because remember, what you think you own is really on loan. You don?t really own anything. It?s all God?s. God just loaned it to you. You didn?t own anything before you were born. You?re not going to own anything after you die. It?s just yours while God lets you live here on earth.

The Bible says this in Ephesians 5:29 ?No one hates his own body [at least in his right mind] but lovingly cares for it, just as Christ cares for his body which is the church [the people of God].? The writer of Ephesians says we care for our bodies just like Christ cares for his body the church. Caring for your body can be an act of worship.

How do care for your body? Keeping it in shape would be a good way to do that. That can be an act of worship to God.

Let me give you a third way:

By controlling my body.

Cleansing it, caring for it, and controlling it. Controlling my body is an act of worship to God when I do it out of motivation?

Some of the people cleanse their body, care for their body, control their body simply out of pride. That?s not an act of worship. I can take you down to the gym and people do it out of worship of themselves. So we?re not talking about everybody doing this. But if you?re doing this because you want to please God then it becomes an act of worship. It?s not an act of worship automatically. It?s an act of worship if you?re doing it out of reverence,worship, for God.

1 Thessalonians 4:4 says this, ?Each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable.? In other words I control my body, it doesn?t control me. In other words, I don?t say, I couldn?t help myself.

1 Corinthians 9:27 ?I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should.? That?s what the Bible says. That?s what God says.

Rick Warren shares information from an article he read: ?Seventy-five percent of the 2.5 trillion dollars of U.S. health care costs, seventy-five percent of all the money spent on health care which is 2.5 trillion dollars, stems from chronic diseases which can be prevented by lifestyle choices.? You know what that means? Seventy-five percent of all that health care is due to the things that we?re not cleansing, controlling and caring for our bodies.

Why are we starting with the physical? Number one, it says offer your body. Any change, you start with the body. Why? Because no matter what kind of change you want to make in your life ? mental, physical, financial, spiritual, social, whatever ? every change requires, any change requires, energy. The reason why you don?t change is you don?t have the energy. You?re just too tired to change. You don?t have the energy to change. You get home and you want to lie down and turn on Dancing with the Stars instead of dancing under the stars. We?re going to start there.

Let?s go to the second principle. The first principle is I commit my body to God. That?s dedication.

The second principle is verse 2, the Principle of Concentration: that is I must refocus my mind.

Romans 12:2 says, ?Do not be conformed to this world, but be TRANSFORMED by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God?what is good and acceptable and perfect.??

The reason why he starts here with the mind is because whatever gets your attention gets you. What he?s talking about is you?ve got to stop thinking about what you don?t want and start thinking about what you do want. You?ve got to stop focusing on what?s bad for you and start focusing on what?s good for you. You?ve got to stop focusing on your plan and start focusing on God?s plan. You?ve got to stop focusing on what everybody else wants you to do and start focusing on what God wants you to do. You?ve got to stop focusing on the negative and start focusing on the positive. You?ve got to transform by the renewing of your mind.

?Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world.? The point is this, everything you?ve learned in life you?ve learned from a pattern. You learned from a model. That?s how we learn. That?s how little ducks are patterned, by the momma duck. You learn by a model. The problem is, there are no perfect models in the world. Every human being is imperfect.

So you have, for instance, some models for conflict resolution growing up that weren?t very good. You may have had some models for anger management growing up that weren?t very good. You may have learned some models for eating that weren?t very good. You may have learned some models for how you use your mouth that weren?t very good. You learned some models and some patterns growing up about procrastinating that weren?t very good. A lot of the models and a lot of the patterns that you grew up with were defective. You?re going to have to learn some new patterns. You?re going to have to not conform to those old patterns any more. You?re going to have to change the way you think. You?re going to have to learn some new models and some new patterns.

This is the second law of change from God?s Word: To change my life I must change my model.

?Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.? That word ?transformed? in the Greek is the word, we get the word ?metamorphosis? from it. What is metamorphosis? It?s what happens when a caterpillar changes into a butterfly. That is that word, metamorphosis.

When a caterpillar wraps itself in a cocoon, when it comes out, it?s not a better version of a caterpillar. When it comes out of the cocoon, it?s a totally different animal. That?s not reformation. That?s not renewal. That?s not improvement. That?s transformation. That?s radical transformation.

And only God can do that. Positive thinking can?t do that. Only God can turn a caterpillar into a butterfly. We can turn over a new leaf. Lots of people can turn over a new leaf. That?s easy to do. Only God can give you a new life. The Bible calls it being born again. It?s like getting a whole new life. Not turning over a new leaf ? a whole new life. Being transformed, metamorphosis. From ugly caterpillar to beautiful free butterfly. Be transformed. Totally new life. How? By the renewing of your mind.

Here?s the point you need to understand. In the renewal of your mind, you?ve got to put off before you can put on.

This is third principle that I call the Principle of Evaluation. I must humbly assess my current state.

I must humbly ? because it takes humility ? assess my current state. The first and the greatest barrier to your change, the number one barrier to change in your life, in any area of your life is pride. ? ?I don?t have any problems! What, me worry? I don?t see a pink elephant in the living room. What are you talking about?? I don?t want to admit I need to change.

The fact is, nobody has it all together. I don?t have it all together. You don?t have it all together. The Pope doesn?t have it all together. Nobody?s got it all together. The Bible says there?s nothing perfect on earth except God?s Word. Everything on this planet is broken because of sin. Have you noticed your body doesn?t work perfectly? Your relationships don?t work perfectly. The weather doesn?t work perfectly. Nothing works perfectly on this planet. That?s because we live on a broken planet because of sin.

So nothing?s perfect. But we pretend like we?ve got it all together. We walk around trying to impress people that we?ve got it all together. You know you don?t have it all together. God knows you don?t have it all together. We know you don?t have it all together. So why do you try to pretend you have it all together? I would rather admit I don?t have it all together in order to get it all together, than to pretend that I have it all together.

Did I understand myself just then? Did that make sense? In other words, honesty is the best policy and I must humbly assess my current state. I have to admit it when I don?t have it all together. I have to admit I have a problem with my finances, I have a problem with my health, I have a problem with whatever!

?Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought to think (that?s humility), but to think (meaning, evaluate yourself) with sober judgment, (in other words, be realistic about the situation you are in) each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.????????

First, be humble. I like the phrase ?be humble or you?ll stumble.? Just be honest, be authentic. Be real. Be humble.

Second, be realistic. The New Living Translation says ?be honest in your estimate of yourself.? So let me just ask you some honest questions: Do you have the courage to be honest about you? Do you have the courage to ask other people to be honest about you? That?s step three in change. Evaluation. Humbly access my current state.

Third, you need to the measure of faith. So you?re going to need what is the measure of faith I?ve got, and what is the measure of faith I?m going to need in order to change. Do I have enough faith to believe I can change? How much faith am I going to need to believe I?m going to change? Do I really believe I can change? Do I really believe I can be different? In all the different areas we?re going to look at how much faith am I going to need in order to grow, in order to change in these seven key areas of my life? You?re going to need to increase the measure of your faith.

How do you get more faith? The Bible says, ?Faith comes from hearing the Word of God.? The more you hear the Word of God, the more your faith grows. This is soul food. It feeds your soul. It stretches your faith.

Let me give you two very practical applications

The first thing you can do is record your progress. Record your progress in any goal. I don?t care if you keep a journal or a record or whatever you do. If you?re going to set some health goals, some financial goals, any other kind of goal, record your progress through the year so you can measure your faith and you measure your growth and you measure your progress.

The second thing you need to do is what this principle teaches: You need to know your starting numbers. There are five of them you need to know for sure. Your weight and your height, your waistband and your blood pressure. These kinds of things that you?re going to need to know because that?s the starting part.

Evaluation ? humbly assess my current state. I can?t know here I need to go unless I know where I am right now. True evaluation of your life.

Principle of Cooperation. I must get group support.

You will not make all the changes you need to make, you want to make, you?d love to make, you plan to make, you desire to make by yourself. If you could, you would, but you can?t, so you won?t. You need a group. The Bible says God wired the universe in such a way that we need each other. We get well in community. I need you; you need me. Fifty-eight times in the New Testament the phrase ?one another? is used. Love one another, care for one another, encourage one another, support one another, pray for one another, greet one another, share with one another ? fifty-eight times. It is the mutual ministry and support of each other through life. God never meant for you to go through life as a lone ranger. Even the Lone Ranger had Tonto. You?re not meant to go through life by yourself. Whether you ever marry or not is irrelevant. But you need a family, you need a spiritual family and you need to be specifically in a small group.

The Bible says this in the next verse, verse four: ?For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function,?5so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another You need me, I need you, you need the other people around you, they need you. We belong to each other.

Here?s the fourth law of change: change requires community. Weight Watchers, Addiction Recovery Groups, small groups, and more prove that we need one another to change. And maybe one of the things we need to explore is how we do more things together as a group. And how we invite others in our lives to join these groups.

It is not a solo issue. You change faster, you change better, you change longer, you change more completely, you change permanently through community. The areas that you say, ?I can never stop that. I can never break that habit in life.? It will break if you get in community. Because of the two things you need. There are a lot of good self-help books that will tell you the right thing to do, but they don?t provide the two things the Bible says you must have: God?s power and community. That?s what you need to really change ? God?s power and community. Lots of good books will tell you what to do, but they don?t provide God?s power and they don?t provide community.

Principle number five is the Principle of Affirmation. I must fill my life with love.

If you want to have lasting change, if I want lasting change in my life I must fill my life with love. If I want lasting change, permanent change in my life I must fill my life with love.

Why is this? Because love can change the unchangeable. It is the only thing that can. It is the most powerful force in the world. Love invigorates. Love revitalizes. Love renews. Love refreshes. Love is the most powerful force in the universe because God is love. It doesn?t say God has love; it says God is love. Love heals what cannot be healed otherwise. Love uplifts. Love strengthens. Love energizes. It gives you energy when you don?t have energy. Love will give you energy. Love empowers when you don?t have the power.

The Bible says in Songs of Solomon, ?Love is stronger than death.? Think about that. If love is stronger than death it means that love is stronger that debt. Love is stronger than divorce. Love is stronger than discouragement. Love is stronger than depression. Love is stronger than disease. Love is stronger than doubt. Love is stronger than anything else. You must fill your life with love because it is the strongest power in the universe.

Verse 9 says this: ?Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good;?10love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor.?????????????

I love that ? take delight in honoring each other. You know what that means? It means in your small group when people in your small group have a small win in health, in finances, in any area of goal they?ve set, you need to celebrate with them. Celebrate their small wins. You did good! You lost two more pounds? Congratulations! You got a little bit out of debt? Fantastic! You had a breakthrough in your marriage? Terrific! The Bible says outdo each other and take delight in honoring each other. Show genuine affection.

Here?s the amazing thing. God has wired the universe that when you help other people, God takes care of your problems. God is looking down to say not, are you helping yourself? But are you helping others. God says, when I look down and I see you helping other people, like in your small group, those at the Homeless Coalition, those you meet in the grocery store, those you help in church, people you meet in your neighborhood, I?m going to help you. So you want help with your goals? Start helping other people with their goals. Show love. Give yourself away. There is healing in giving back.

We?ve got to give back. How do you know when you?re recovered? When you?re helping somebody else. You?ve got to give back.

Why do you need to be in a small group? Not just so other people can help you, but so you can help them. So you can pray for those people and then God can help you. When you go to a group you pray for the other people and you watch God work in your life. You give yourself away. You give yourself in love.

There?s one last principle. The last principle is just as important as all the others.

Principle number six is the Principle of Motivation. I must nurture my enthusiasm.

That is, you?ve got to figure out how to nurture your enthusiasm. I must nurture my enthusiasm. In other words, I?ve got to figure out how to maintain my enthusiasm over the long haul in order to reach my goals.

I want to talk about this very frankly with you as we close. How do I nurture my enthusiasm? Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, ?Nothing great is ever accomplished without enthusiasm.? I believe that with all of my heart. I have found it to be true in my life. Nothing great is ever accomplished without passion, without enthusiasm. You?ve got to have passion, you?ve got to have enthusiasm, or you?re never going to make it to the finish line. Not, I kind of want to get out of debt. You?re never going to get out of debt. I really want to get in shape? Pass me some potato chips. It isn?t going to happen. If you?re just kind of ho-hum, half-hearted, no energy, no enthusiasm for this goal, you?re never going to do it. You?ve got to be passionate. You?ve got to have enthusiasm or you?re never going to do it.

So what I want to talk to you about is how do you maintain your enthusiasm not for weeks, not for months, but for the rest of your life. How do you maintain enthusiasm so you can set goals that are not just one year goals, ten year, twenty year, thirty or forty years. But life time goals and reach them. I told you last week most people set their goals too low and try to accomplish them too soon. How do you set goals for your lifetime and then maintain the enthusiasm to actually reach them. They?re so big that they keep pulling you and you don?t give up on them? How do you do that?

Friends, it takes more than positive thinking. I?m not against positive thinking. It?s certainly better than the alternative. Negative thinking, I?m definitely not in favor of negative thinking. But positive thinking is not enough. Pulling yourself up by your own psychological bootstraps is not enough. Psyching yourself up with psycho cybernetics and talking yourself into optimism is not enough. Because the truth is there are a lot of things in the world you can?t be positive about. Rape is not positive. If your wife gets leukemia, that?s not positive. If your son gets shot and dies in Afghanistan, that?s not positive. And all the positive thinking in the world won?t get you through that. You need God to get you through those tough times.

The way you stay enthusiastic for a lifetime is found in the word ?enthusiasm.? The word ?enthusiasm? comes from the Greek word en Theos. En is the Greek word for the English word ?in.? Theos is the Greek word for ?God.? So en Theos means to be ?in God.?

When you get ?in God? you will be enthusiastic. And it?s the kind of gut level enthusiasm that fills your heart with such enthusiasm that it doesn?t matter whether the economy is tanking or it is soaring. Or whether it?s raining or it?s shining. Or whether things are going good or bad. Or whether you feel healthy or sick. Or whether things are bad or good. Your enthusiasm is not dependent upon your circumstances. It is not dependent upon your circumstances because you are tied to the Rock of Ages. You are tied to the Eternal God. You are in Christ. You are in God and you are eternally enthusiastic.

And you need to do that. Paul tells us how to do this in the last verse. Verses 11-12. He says, ?Do not lag in zeal, (that?s enthusiasm) be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord (That means nurture your enthusiasm. Then he tells you the three ways to do it?).?12Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer.??

That?s how you keep your spiritual fervor. You rejoice in hope so that even when things are going wrong I can still be joyful in hope because I know God?s plan. God wins in the end. God?s plan is good. I win in the end.

Be patient in suffering. Because I know that even in pain God?s going to bring good out of it. And I can be patient even in the pain.

I persevere in prayer. Why? Because in every problem I?m either going to pray or I?m going to panic. I?m going to worry or I?m going to worship. I?m either going to get on my knees or I?m going to fall over and faint. Those are the options. Those are my choices.

When you are joyful in hope, when you are patient in affliction, when you are faithful in prayer then you get what I call God?s gps. Gps is God?s Power System. How many of you have a gps in your car? I love gps. Gps corrects all my mistakes. If I?ve got to go to UCLA and I type in UCLA and I make a wrong turn it just says ?You made a wrong turn. Make a U turn. Go this way.? And it corrects it. It?s no big deal. It just gets me back on the path real quickly.

Friends, what you need above all else is you need to get in God right now.

Prayer:

Dear God, I don?t want to go another day without you in my life controlling every room and every part of my heart. So I want to take these initial steps for change. I offer you my body. I dedicate myself to you. In light of all you?ve done for me, I give myself as a living sacrifice to you, as a spiritual act of worship. I don?t want to think the old patterns any more. I want you to help renew my mind. I want to be transformed. I don?t want to be a caterpillar any more. I want that metamorphosis. I want to be that butterfly ? set free. I don?t want to be conformed to all the pressures of what other people want me to be. I want to be what you want me to be. Over this year I want you to change my mind. Help me to think the way you want me to think. I ask you to forgive me for my pride and I humbly want to admit that I need help and I need to change in a lot of areas. I don?t want to think more highly of myself than I should. I admit that the measure of my faith needs to grow. Help me to set goals that can be measured so I can manage them. Forgive me for trying to do the changes on my own. Help me to get group support. I want to fill my life with love. I want to fill my life with you. Help me to take delight in honoring other people, to focus on giving my life away so that you can take care of my needs. I want to nurture my enthusiasm by being in you. Help me to be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, and faithful in prayer. I give myself to you. In your name I pray. Amen.