Identity – Transformed

by Brianboswell

Have any of you ever ridden in a car with someone and they are driving and they are looking at you while they are driving the car? How does that make you feel? It drives me nuts. Look at the road! Don’t look at me. I know you are talking to me. I’m paying attention. Don’t look at me. Look at where you are going. 

Why does this bother us? Because what we look at or what we focus on is the direction our life is moving. Most of us struggle to walk and chew gum at the same time, so to ask someone to maintain eye contact while also drive a vehicle down the highway at 70 miles an hour seems like too much to ask. 

In other words, we can only focus on one thing at a time. Whatever we focus on has our attention. To say this another way, our lives are heading in the direction we are moving. 

We are at the end of our series on Identity and today’s topic is probably the penultimate topic – transformation. One of the biggest questions I’ve been wrestling with since we started this series is this…

“What if my identity is rooted in something other than Christ? How do I change my identity to fit what God says about me?”

Or to put it more simply, how am I transformed to be more like Jesus? In other words, I love what you have been saying Pastor about me being a child of God, having an inheritance in Christ, that God loves me and so on, but I don’t really see myself that way and I can’t seem to change. How do I change? How do I transform my life from the way it is now, to the way God wants it to be? How can I see lasting change in my life. 

This I think is the ultimate question from this series and I want to address it today. How do we change? Let’s read together from Romans 12. I want pick up where we left off last week. 

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

‌‌Romans 12:1–2

So last week we really focused in on the beginning of verse 2. Paul says do not be conformed to this world. And if you remember, I talked about various ways the world is trying to conform us to its mold. It’s trying to press us into its design and we are to fight against it. Now I talked about sin a lot and several of you came up to me afterwards and said it was the worst sermon I ever preached because I stepped on your toes a bit. 

So, how many of you went home and changed something about your life? I had a few people come up to me Sunday evening and tell me they were so convicted about what I said on diet that they made a smarter choice at lunch than what they usually do (btw, the sermon was not on diets, that was an analogy), but several people said that. Now, if you did go home and perhaps you were more diligent that afternoon about what what you invited into your home, maybe you laid off social media or tv for the day. How many of you kept that up all week? Probably not as many. 

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Kiss the Son

by Brianboswell

“Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.” Psalm 2:12

There is not much that is more intimate than a kiss. Most people would never dream of kissing their enemies and few today would kiss their friends. In today’s society, we only kiss those that we are incredibly close to, typically your spouse, your children and possibly your family.

The Psalmist encourages people here to kiss the Son. The call is a call of intimacy. It’s a call to dive into a deep relationship with the Creator of the universe. There is no greater relationship to enter into than a relationship with the Savior. His kiss is sweet. He draws us close and there is a safety there that cannot be found elsewhere.

The warning here though is stark. If you refuse that intimacy with the King, he will get angry and you will perish. The choice is stark. Do you want to anger the one who created you? Or do you want to draw close and experience an intimacy like no other? Choose wisely because his wrath is quickly kindled.

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How Do I Serve The Lord?

by Brianboswell

“Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.” Psalm 2:11

The Psalmist offers this advice to those of us who may take serving the Lord lightly. For those that may abuse his grace, the Psalmist admonishes us to serve the Lord with fear. This isn’t an unhealthy fear, but a reverence.

When we approach God, there must be a holy reverence in our interactions with Him. He is the King of the Universe, there is no one mightier than He, so we would be wise to honor Him in our thoughts, deeds and actions.

Sometimes, because of his amazing lovingkindness, it’s easy to fall into a place where we do not respect the Lord. We do not offer Him the praises and glory that is due Him. There are so many ways that we can disrespect the Lord, but the one that strikes me the most is simply sinning in His presence. When we sin, that is the ultimate disrespect.

The Lord though is kind and gracious to us and will forgive us when we commit the ultimate betrayal. He continues to pursue us. But woe to those that do not know Him and do not fear Him. He is a mighty God who will pour out his wrath on sin and sinners alike.

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A Warning to Kings

by Brianboswell

“Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth.” Psalm 2:10

The road to the house that I grew up in was curvy. There were some pretty tight turns on the road, but because it was a main road at one time going from one city to the next, the speed limit on the road was 55. When I turned 16, my first car was a Geo Storm. It was not that great of a car, but it was pretty low to the ground and somewhat sporty looking.

Because it was so low to the ground it could hug the turns pretty well and having driven that road to and from my house all of my life, I was pretty familiar with the turns. One night, I was coming home and it was pretty late. I wasn’t in a hurry, but I was driving a bit fast for that road.

Unbeknownst to me, there was a cop following me that night. As I was hugging the turns in my car, his top heavy vehicle was struggling to keep pace with me. As these things go, the cop decided to turn on his blue lights and pull me over. This was the first time I was pulled over by a cop. I was nervous and of course my mind is jumping to conclusions that I was in deep trouble.

But instead of writing me a ticket for reckless driving or speeding, he let me off with a warning. I’m not sure if they still do this or not, as I’ve only ever received that one warning from law enforcement, but they used to give you a piece of paper that was an official warning. This was contrary to what I had always thought, which was that if they gave you a warning, it was a verbal warning, as in “don’t do that again, young man.”

Instead, I got an official warning. Here the Psalmist is giving out an official warning. It’s written down. God is not just issuing a verbal warning or shaking his head, this is an official warning to the Kings of this earth. You have been warned. You kings who plot against the Lord, who scheme against his people, you have been warned.

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Broken Pieces

by Brianboswell

“You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” – Psalm 2:9

Perhaps you have heard of Aesop’s fable of the Oak Tree and the Reed. In this fable, the Oak Tree is proud of who he is and he says to the reed, “look at me, I am a strong oak tree, I am unmovable. You are a small reed; you bend and sway with the slightest of breezes. Nothing can blow me over, I’m strong and mighty.”

The Reed remained quiet as the Oak Tree boasted. One day a storm came through and it was a bad one. The reed bowed low to the ground and bent in accordance to the wind. The Oak Tree, strong and mighty, stood tall and fought against the wind and storm. In the midst of the storm, the oak tree is blown over, unable to fight the storm any longer, while the reed survived the storm in tact by bowing low to the ground.

The moral of the story of course is that pride comes before the fall. What strikes me in this story could be summed up in the word pliable. The Reed is pliable, it bends under the weight of the wind, but it doesn’t break. The Oak Tree, on the other hand, isn’t easily bent. It’s not very pliable and under most circumstances, it serves him well, but a strong wind comes and it destroys the Oak Tree. Being pliable is what kept the Reed from the same fate.

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Ask Me For The Nations

by Brianboswell

“Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.” Psalm 2:8

If you could ask God for one thing, what would it be? Would it be money? Power? Wealth? There have been many people who have treated God like a genie in a lamp. They expect for Him to grant their wildest wishes and get mad when he seemingly doesn’t respond.

But what if there was something God wanted you to ask him for, like a gift that he has for you and all you need to do to receive it, is to ask for it? God tells us in this verse today to ask for the nations. In other words, he owns the nations and he wants to give them to you as a gift.

Now this has to be done in the proper way of course. Satan comes to Jesus and offers him the nations during the time of temptation in the wilderness. He says, just bow down to me and all of this will be yours. But Jesus rightly refuses. Jesus knows that Satan is not the true ruler of this world, God is. So Jesus waits. His Father will give him the nations, he just needs to be faithful.

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Father & Son

by Brianboswell

“I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you.” Psalm 2:7

The Bible is really a story about family. Jesus made that abundantly clear when he encouraged his disciples to pray, “our Father, who art in heaven…” The message was clear. God is a father. And not just that he is a father, but that we are his children. We are sons and daughters of the king.

This passage is one of many Old Testament references to that idea. Here is God telling King David that he is his son. He’s expressing himself in familial language. He wants David to understand that he is apart of something much bigger than himself. This has to do with generational blessings and inheritance in some sense. In the next verse, it confirms that, but the key is understanding the difference in relationship – God wanted David to relate to him in a certain way, the way a son relates to his father.

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That’s My King!

by Brianboswell

Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.” Psalm 2:5-6

After the nations have joined together and plotted against the Lord, you would expect for the Lord to respond in fury. He does. The interesting thing about this passage is it goes back to the power of God’s word. God doesn’t raise up an army or send a plague when the nations rise up against him, he speaks a word.

One word has the power to destroy the nations. It has the power to terrify them. The word of the Lord has the power to build or to destroy. In this case, it brings a holy terror on the nations who are joining together in rebellion against Him. He speaks a word in anger towards them and terror follows it.

What is the word that the Lord speaks? He says he will set up his king in Zion. Now in context, Zion is the often referred to as Jerusalem, the city on his holy hill. However, I believe this passage to have prophetic significance. I believe this is actually referring to the New Jerusalem, or in other words, heaven.

And that is why terror has enveloped these nations, they know they can do nothing to overthrow a heavenly king. While they may be able to kill an earthly king, a heavenly king would be impossible to overthrow, instead they would be subject to Him and His rule.

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The Laughing Lord

by Brianboswell

“He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.” Psalm 2:4

There is an old saying that laughter is the best medicine and scientifically speaking, there is some truth to that. It seems that laughter releases immune cells to help heal certain ailments in your body. Laughter also releases endorphins which fight stress and depression.

For many of us we don’t associate laughing with the Lord. Most people would say they picture God the Father as very serious. And while God is never described as being goofy or irreverent, he is described in several places as the God who laughs.

What is interesting is that God predominately laughs at one thing – his enemies. The Psalmist here says that even though the nations are plotting against God, God himself laughs at them. It’s as if the Lord doesn’t respect their plans and schemes. When he looks at their vain attempts to overthrow Him, he chuckles. God isn’t worried in the slightest about what the enemy is planning against Him. And why should He? He is the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings. Who is as mighty as He? No one!

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Raging Against The Lord

by Brianboswell

“Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.” – Psalm 2:1-3

We live in confusing times. One of the most confusing things to some people has been the quick decent into evil and madness. The world looks to be “heading to hell in a hand basket” as they say. But are things really that different?

Look at what David says in this Psalm. He notes that the nations, peoples and kings of the earth have set themselves up against God and against his Son. This was around 3000 years ago. It would seem that not much has changed. In fact, we still ask the same question, why do the nations rage against God?

The answer is simple, but we may not like where it takes us. Sin is the obvious answer to this question. The nations rage because their hearts are captured by sin. The more daring question might be, why do I rage against God? Tougher question, but same answer.

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