HOW DO YOU MEASURE UP?
I. Introduction
a. Measurements!
i. We are born to be measured. I was 6lbs. 8 ounces. I’ve been measured ever since. My parents put hash marks on the door jambs with dates for our growth measured in inches.
ii. We all have been trained to measure ourselves.
iii. If you're less than 10 years old, you're so excited about aging that you think in fractions.
1. How old are you? ... "I'm four and a half "
iv. Then, when you get into your teens. You start jumping numbers.
1. When asked how old you are, you say, "I'm gonna be 16." You could be 12, but you're gonna be 16.
v. And then the greatest day of your life happens.... you become 21. Even the words sound like a ceremony.... you BECOME 21.
vi. But then you turn 30 ... Makes you sound like bad milk ... He TURNED 30!
vii. Think about the terms we use:
1. You BECOME 21,
2. You TURN 30,
3. You PUSH 40 ...
4. You REACH 50 ...(an act of supernatural attainment).
5. You MAKE IT to 60
6. Then you build up so much speed you HIT 70!
7. When you get into your 80’s and 90’s, you call each day a gift.
8. Then a strange thing happens. If you make it over 100, you become a little kid again and say ... "I'm 101 and a half!!"
b. This morning, we are going to learn how to biblically measure ourselves.
i. We have been learning quite a bit lately about releasing the power of God in our lives, about breaking and about being transformed.
ii. This process of transformation should lead us to periodically measure the changes that God has been working in us.
II. Three Measurements
a. There are three ways for you to measure yourself:
i. By comparing yourself to others (2 Cor. 10:12a) “We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves”
1. There is a danger in comparing yourself to others.
2. You can always find someone better than you and someone worse than you in the arena that you are comparing.
3. So you face one of two dangers by doing this.
a. You will either become proud, because you tower over those you see as inferior or less than yourself.
b. Or you will become discouraged, because those you see around you seem to tower over you.
c. Both of these are the result of a poor self-image and an identity that is based upon performance.
d. Comparison abounds in our lives. We compare ourselves at every turn. Every criticism of another person, every judgment, every offense, has at its root, a comparison with another person.
e. Every act of comparison to others is a faulty action. It leads us away from Godliness.
ii. By measuring yourself by yourself (2 Cor 10:12b. “When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise.
1. This is the equivalent of looking in the mirror and seeing something that isn’t really there.
2. Most everyone in the world is used to seeing this view of themselves.
3. When they look in the mirror they see their god. They don’t realize that, of course, but their actions spell it out.
4. Their own views are the highest law, they do “what is right in their own eyes” and believe that morality is up to the individual, that there doesn’t exist any truth that is outside of man. In other words, truth is subjective, and each person makes their own form of truth they live with.
5. They depend upon themselves.
6. They live for themselves.
7. They believe in themselves
8. God, if He exists, exists FOR them.
a. This is at the very root of man’s alienation from God. Man has a blatant desire to BE god.
iii. By the measurement stick of faith. 2 Cor 10:17-18 “But let him who boasts boast in the Lord.” For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.”
1. Let us use scripture to explain this point.
III. Open your bibles to Romans 12:1-3
a. Romans 12:1-2 “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing (present, active, continuous action) of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”
b. Romans 12:3 –“For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.”
i. The passage of Romans 12:1-2 explains to us the transformation process that God desires to perform within us, and it explains the WHY of that process.
ii. We find this transformation through the renewal of our minds.
1. For our lives to overflow with spontaneous Christ-like love and holiness, a checklist of behaviors that we need to engage in simply won’t work!.
2. We need a new mind and new heart.
3. We need a transformation in which we are ruled from the innermost man (The Spirit of God) rather than our soul or body as we discussed last week.
4. Christian living is not will-power religion.
a. It’s the overflow of a new mind and new heart created by the Holy Spirit.
b. It is supernatural. You can’t produce it on your own.
c. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
d. “You have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator” (Colossians 3:10).
5. Everything written in Romans 12 is a description of the way the new self—the new mind and new heart—thinks and feels and acts.
iii. Some thoughts about the Renewed Mind
1. Although Romans 12:2 calls for the renewal of the mind, it does not tell us how the renewed mind thinks.
a. It just tells us what will result if we have it: namely, we will be able to discern the will of God.
b. Verse 3 tells us how it works and thinks.
2. The way that the renewed mind operates is the opposite from the way that the “depraved mind” works. (see Romans 1)
a. A depraved mnd is defined as the non-Christian mind, the mind which is un-submitted to God. It is at “odds” with God. It is living in opposition to God.
b. The “depraved mind” (the un-submitted mind) has exchanged the glory of God for the glory of created things and does not want to know God.
3. In contrast, the renewed mind is where that exchange is reversed and the glory of God is treasured above all created things,
a. God is treasured even above self.
b. The renewed mind brings forth behaviors that reveal the worth of God.
c. So the new mind, at its root, is a mind that treasures the glory of God above all things.
d. It has a passion for the rule of God.
iv. How does the new mind think?
1. Look again at Verse 3: “For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.”
2. Of all things he could have said about human thinking and the way the mind works, he chose to address the issue of pride and what the mind does in thinking about itself.
3. He is getting more specific and describing the way that the renewed Christian mind does not conform to the world but is transformed. And the first thing he addresses is pride.
v. In Romans 8:7 Paul describes the fundamental problem that we have—all of us—“The mind that is set on the flesh [that is, the “natural mind” –non-Christian mind] is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot.”
1. That is the fundamental problem of your mind and my mind.
2. We are insubordinate toward God.
3. We will not submit to the truth that God himself is the sum and judge of all that is true and good and right and beautiful and valuable and satisfying.
4. Instead the human mind thinks of itself as the judge and measure, thus thinking too highly of itself. Essentially, the human mind acts as if it is god.
5. We spoke last week about our need to have this “soulish” part of ourselves broken, crucified, put to death.
6. We need a Mind-Transplant!
vi. And this is what happens to us when we are born again.
1. Being reborn spiritually is much different than having a religion or a religious belief.
a. Jesus said, “Unless you are born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3)
b. Unless you are spiritually reborn, you will never see heaven.
c. Having religion isn’t good enough.
d. A religious belief may cause you to do some things, but it is at its best, an outside force working in. It is only a belief system.
e. Becoming a new creation requires an act of God.
f. It is not something you can do yourself.
g. The only prerequisite is that you acknowledge that you cannot do it yourself…you acknowledge that you are separated from God by your sin and that you need and want Jesus to change you and bring you back into a relationship with God.
2. When you are spiritually reborn, God changes you from the inside out.
3. “Former things have passed away, all things have become new.”
4. This is the process of transformation that the bible speaks of.
IV. I want to focus in upon Paul’s saying in V3 of Romans 12. .
a. What does Paul mean that we should think “with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned”?
i. I believe that there is a key to our renewed mind that is explained here in this short verse.
ii. He essentially is saying, “When you take sober, proper assessment of yourself, make your own God-given measure of faith the standard of assessment”
iii. The renewed mind is the mind that measures itself by “the measure of faith God has assigned.”
b. Before I continue, I would like to explain a couple of the Greek Words that are used in this passage that will help bring light to its meaning.
i. [METRON: Measure, an instrument for measuring a vessel for receiving and determining the quantity of things or the rule or standard of judgment determined extent,]
ii. [SOPHRONO: to be of sound mind, to be in one's right mind, to think of one's self soberly
1. This comes from two roots,
a. SOZO – To save, make whole
b. PHREN the parts of the heart, the mind, the faculty of perceiving and judging)
iii. The implication is that one who resists God’s rule in their life is not in their right mind!
iv. According to Romans 12:3, self-conceit is a species of spiritual insanity.
v. Without Jesus Christ, our minds do not work the way they were designed. They are darkened. They are not sound.
c. Let me make a comment about Pride and Humility
i. Low self esteem is not humility.
ii. Pride, the opposite of humility, is thinking more highly of yourself than you should (Rom 12:3).
1. But humility is not thinking less highly of yourself than you should.
2. Humility is seeing yourself the way that God sees you.
3. When God says, "clothe yourself with humility" (1Pe 5:5), he doesn't want you to wrap yourself in a false self image!
a. Remember Moses? Moses did not have a proper regard himself. When God told Moses, "I am sending you to bring my people out of Egypt"
i. God’s call to Moses showed God's high regard for Moses.
ii. That word from God was the standard by which Moses ought to have measured himself.
b. The low regard which Moses held for himself, almost stopped him serving God as Israel's leader. 'Who am I, that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?", he complained. "What if they will not listen to me? I have never been a man of words; I am slow of speech" (Ex 3:1-11 4:1-17).
4. Moses wasn’t exercising faith.
a. He was looking TO HIMSELF and his own abilities to meet the task at hand.
b. He didn’t yet understand that God would be working with Him, and that God would be the reason they would follow.
c. Fortunately, God took him where he was and grew him, just like He grows us…loving us the way we are but loving us too much to leave us that way!
iii. In the passage of Romans 12:3, we are told that we should evaluate ourselves solely upon the basis of the faith we have been given.
1. In choosing faith as the measure of the new self, Paul is choosing a unique action of the new mind.
2. Faith is an act of a renewed mind.
3. What is the essence of faith?.
a. Faith is looking away from ourselves to another.
b. Faith is total dependence on another.
4. Everyone exercises a degree of faith in every day life. It may not be faith in God. But none-the-less, we all exercise faith.
a. The simple act of flipping on a light switch is an act of faith in the power company to provide electricity on the other side of the switch.
b. But faith is only as valuable as the object it places its trust in.
i. If I “believe” that two week old potato salad is good to eat, my faith will not protect me from food poisoning..
ii. If I believe that gravity won’t affect me if I jump off a building, my faith won’t protect me.
iii. Faith must be in something true and reliable or it is useless.
c. When a person with faith in Christ stands in front of a mirror, the mirror becomes a window with the glory of Christ on the other side.
i. They cease to see themselves and instead see Christ.
ii. Faith cannot boast in itself because by its very nature faith looks away from itself and boasts in Christ
iii. I believe that the reason that Paul makes faith the measure of thinking soberly is that it turns self-exaltation upside down and makes the glory of Christ, not ourselves, the essence of our new life.
iv. If you want to measure yourself soberly, measure your faith in Christ
5. How we measure our new man in Christ is the degree to which we DON’T LOOK at ourselves (or others for comparison) but instead look to Christ as our source, and our life.
a. The last bastion of pride is the belief that we are the originators of our faith.
i. Pride would say faith is something we earned, developed, grew or made ourselves.
b. But faith is a gift of God and therefore eliminates boasting.
i. God assigns our faith.
ii. Literally according to Romans 12:3, God measures out our faith.
iii. Faith is not our own creation.
iv. Ephesians 2:8, “By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
v. Faith is a gift from God, so that no one may boast.
vi. The moment we are born again, we are given the measure of faith by God.
1. We are become new creations in Christ.
2. Our spirit man is changed.
3. However, when we look in the mirror, there is no obvious change in the physical.
4. But the process of transformation has begun!
c. Even if faith were the sort of act one could boast in, Paul says, you can’t boast in it because it’s an undeserved gift.
6. Faith is the most powerful antidote to the poison of pride.
a. It looks away from itself and looks upon Jesus Christ.
b. Depression is looking at yourself and loathing yourself.
i. It is an act of pride.
c. So is boasting. It is looking at yourself and exalting in yourself.
d. Both are wrong. Because they look at self instead of Christ
e. You have a choice today. To worship yourself or to worship God.
d. Do you want to have significance? Then embrace Christ as the one who is infinitely significant to you.
i. Do you want to have value? Then embrace Christ as infinitely valuable.
ii. Do you want to want to have esteem? Then embrace Christ as worthy of infinite esteem.
iii. As we looked at Romans 12:2-3, we saw that we have to take the time in the Word of God to renew our mind each and every day.
1. It is this, the taking of the time with Father, to hear His Word and allow it to become a way of life for us, that will cause the transformation within us.
2. The more time that we take to renew the mind in the Word of God, the more that is able to be released out of our spirit man, because our mind (soulish self ) is broken down by the truth, and our ways of thinking, acting and believing do not interfere but instead cooperate with the Spirit of God within us.
iv. But, for the most part, very few folks take the amount of time that is necessary, to keep their minds renewed (present, active, continuous action) by the Word of God.
v. And, since they do not take adequate time in the Word, they are puzzled that God does not operate in their lives more.
e. What will you do today?
i. Will you “turn your eyes upon Jesus?” and off of yourself, your circumstances or other people?
ii. Will you come to Him and stop trying to be religious? Jesus doesn’t want religious people. He wants broken people to come to Him and be born again. To be brand new creatures in Christ. Jesus doesn’t want to be your magic genie. He wants to be your savior. Will you come to him today?
iii. In a moment, we will have our Ministry time. During this time, Jennifer and I will be down front to pray with anyone who has a need. Maybe God has been speaking to you. Maybe something in this sermon has touched you and you want God to change you. Whatever your need, you can come forward and have us pray with you, and let God work in your life. Don’t be ashamed. Every week we have folks come for prayer. Don’t let your pride keep you from experiencing something God has for you.
Lets pray.