These two verses from Romans 12:1-2 served as the scriptural basis for a recent two-month sermon series I presented on renewal of the church: “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform 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.”
What is renewal? The basic definition of renewal that I used in this sermon series was “to restore or to make new…” It means to restore to freshness. Another traditional term in evangelical Christianity that may be interchanged with renewal is that of “revival.” We sing the old gospel hymn “Revive Us Again.” Regeneration is another term that may be used somewhat interchangeably with renewal in the context of my sermon series. Note the key phrase from Romans 12:1-2 that undergirded each of the sermons: “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
In a series of nine messages, I preached on the spiritual struggle that is encountered in the pursuit of renewing the church. A basic premise of the sermon series is that you and I must cooperate with God the Father who would prune out, or cut out, those branches (our attitudes, our ambitions, our actions, our sins), that are hindering our testimony and holding us back in our service to carry out the mission of Jesus Christ – holding us back in bearing much fruit for God the Holy Spirit.
Renew, our church, O Lord! That should be our prayer – for Saloma Baptist Church and for all churches in 2021. In Romans 12, Paul outlines the nature of the struggle that the church in Rome was involved in – the struggle of conformity to the world or transformation according to God’s will. The burning question in 2021 is this: what will we do with the church in general? Will we attack it, will we criticize it, will we neglect it, will we quit it? Our prayer should be that of Frances of Assisi when he knelt in the empty and forsaken chapel by San Damiano – “Renew my church, o Lord.”
Just a few weeks ago, we thought we were emerging from the worse of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now we are going through what is proving to be the very worst, at least for many areas of the country, of the pandemic with the rapid spread of the Delta variant. It seems that all ages are being threatened, and once again, we are facing major dangers to our public health and safety. This creates additional pressure and challenges for the church. Now is the time for the church to be the church – to allow Jesus to reign as the rightful head of His church – to put aside our petty differences and divisive rhetoric – and let the indwelling Holy Spirit infill us each and every day. Come, Holy Spirit. Renew us, infill us, revive us! The world must witness the love and grace of God in His church and His people as we move through these challenging times.
As I shared in the very first sermon in this series, “Time is short because the church is losing spiritual sensitivity. Time is short because Jesus is coming again. Time is short because people die without the gospel in their hearts. I have hope for the church because our hope is in the Lord Jesus Christ. As he is, so are we in the world. The time is now that we are to present ourselves to him for his usefulness. If we will build the altar, He will send the fire!”
We are called to minister to the “lost and the least” with the power of the Holy Spirit and in the name of Jesus Christ. As I shared in the closing message of this series, the most important quality in renewal is that of Christian love. Have we forgotten our “First Love?” That is the love of God. 1 John 4:19 says: “We love because He first love us.” It is only through Him – God the Father – that we are able to love. He loves us unconditionally, and we are called to love ourselves and all others unconditionally as well. Renew the church, O Lord. Help us to recover our First Love, O Lord. Revive us again!!!