You're listening to Mountain View Church Audio, Christ-centered teaching from the Wilderness City, Whitehorse UConn. Here's this week's message. Hello everyone, and welcome to Mountain View Church. My name is Rachel, and I'm your welcome host today. We would love the chance to connect with you. For those attending online, you can click the Connect link or text Connect to the number on your screen. For those attending in-house, you can fill out a Connect card under the seats in front of you and hand it into the welcome desk.
Thank you for choosing to be a part of our gathering today. Now here's today's Basecamp Kids Minute. Hey Basecampers, I hope you all are doing great. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Caitlin and I work in Basecamp. Basecamp is our kids program that we have in both our 9.30 and 11 o'clock services. If you can't join us in person, we also have resources online. Just visit us at mountainview.church slash basecamp where you can find all of our videos and lessons.
Campers, this week we're learning about spreading the word, God's word, like the gospel, which we find in God's word, the Bible. Jesus told us in the Bible that we are supposed to be salt and light to the world. But what does that really mean? People are watching the way we live our lives and that's why it's important we live it in a way that honors God and shares his word. People learn about Jesus when we live like him. But how does that connect to being salt and light? That's a tricky one. You're just gonna have to come to base camp and find out. And once you guys have the answer, make sure to come tell me because I don't know.
Thanks for listening, and I hope you have a great week.
He is my light, my strength, my song. This cornerstone, firm through the fiercest drought and storm. What heights of love, what depths of peace. Fears are still, that striving cease. My comforter, all in all, at least I stand. The long that cross Jesus died, and was satisfied. The death of Christ I live, the world by dark, if on me.
I'm going to begin today's message by showing you something. This is a modern compound bow, and it's a accompanying arrow. This bow is meticulously designed for precision, allowing an archer to hit a target with remarkable accuracy, even from a considerable distance. Its value lies in the technical craftsmanship and high-quality materials used to create it. But here's the catch. This bow is entirely useless without a target.
If I handed you this bow and told you to knock the arrow and fire it, your immediate question would be, at what? Without a visible target, your shot would be random, or you might never take a shot at all. And hitting a bullseye would be out of the question entirely. In essence, without a target, there's no point in ever knocking an arrow and drawing the bowstring. Now, this next part might seem a bit strange, but stick with me, and it'll all make sense in the end. I want you to think of yourself as this bow, uniquely designed and crafted by God himself. According to scripture, you were formed by God.
In Psalm 139, 13 and 14, we read, For you formed my inward parts. You knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works. My soul knows it very well. But here's the most fascinating part. God didn't just design and form you. He's laid out clear targets for you to aim for. These targets represent his plans and purposes, and living them out will bring about meaningful joy and lasting fulfillment. God has created us and given us targets to aim for.
Over the next six weeks, we'll discover God's targets for life in our message series titled Arrows, Living Toward the Target. We'll figure out why we can't see the targets or why we frequently miss them. We'll unpack why we sometimes give up before ever taking a shot. Today, we're starting with God's target for your body. Why did God design your body? What greater purpose could it serve? What's the target that God wants you to aim for in regards to your body? I will be reading from Romans 12, verses 1 to 3. A living sacrifice.
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. The apostle Paul who wrote this scripture was one of the greatest church leaders of the first century. In Romans 12, Paul makes an important appeal to the church to align with God's target for their bodies and their lives. Instead of consistently pursuing individualized pleasure and self-fulfillment, Paul calls them to something new, to use their bodies for worship and service to God. God's target for your body is worship and service.
Perhaps you're wondering, what motivated Paul to make this appeal? Well, it's because the culture in ancient Rome was the exact opposite of what he was advocating for. At the time, Rome was the center of modern civilization. It was a place of pleasure, sports, gladiators, and the origins of the Olympics. It was a hub for food, art, music, philosophy, and even engineering. Citizens perceived the Roman life as the good life, potentially the best life. But in truth, self-worship and self-service became the targets for Romans.
Pursuing this kind of life is fleeting and ultimately meaningless. And so Paul calls the Roman Christians to God's target for their bodies, emphasizing that without God's target, the body becomes idolized or misused or even neglected. Let's unpack God's target for our bodies. How and why are we centered on worship and service in this? In Romans 12.1, Paul calls us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, which is your spiritual worship. Some translations use the word service instead of worship, but these two words are interchangeable within this context.
Notice the progression of thought in Paul's instruction. First, the decision to present our bodies as living sacrifices is a spiritual one. Second, the outcome of this decision is that our lives and daily actions, what we do with our bodies, in our bodies, becomes acts of worship and acts of service to God. To better understand this, let's explore these terms. First, speaking to the spiritual decision of presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice. It may seem strange depending on your background in church and Christianity.
To comprehend this concept, we need to consider the ancient world's understanding of sacrifice, which often involved killing and offering animals within the practice of worship. However, Paul is writing to this church after Jesus' death on the cross. Jesus had served as the final atonement, the final sacrifice for humanity's sin. So making animal sacrifices was no longer necessary. Furthermore, Paul is writing after the resurrection of Jesus, which ushered in a new era of relationship, restored with God through Jesus. Those who have accepted God's Son as their eternal Savior would now become living sacrifices, striving to follow Christ's example in their lives. This has actually continued for 2,000 years for every Christian, every follower of Jesus. As we become more like Christ, our bodies will perform acts of worship and service to God, increasing as God's Spirit guides us in daily life.
Next, regarding the acts of worship and service that our bodies perform. We're not talking about a movement to religious roles and responsibilities. Don't think about it that way. Instead, almost anything and everything can become an act of worship and service to God, depending on our internal disposition. Are we open and willing to be used by God when he calls us to action? When his Holy Spirit urges us to speak to someone or help someone, are we willing? Are we receptive when he calls us to pause, just stop, and spend time listening to him and praying, talking to him?
When we present our bodies as living sacrifices, we are choosing to open ourselves up to God's leading. Quite often, this will lead us toward challenging yet fulfilling experiences that we might not otherwise encounter. Within our bow analogy, targets are revealed everywhere, every day. Now let's look at verse 2 because it provides further explanation, further context. 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.
For the Romans, and for us today, the world can cause us to focus on ourselves as the central figure of our stories. Paul's challenge is to not be conformed to the world, but in contrast, present our bodies as living sacrifices to God so that our hearts and minds can be transformed. When we align with God's target for our bodies, our daily choices become good, acceptable, and perfect in God's sight. They become pleasing sacrifices to him. Let's return once again to our bow analogy. Consider how well you're aiming for God's target in your day-to-day life.
If you envision for a moment yourself as a well-designed bow, what's your aim? How on target are you today, this week? Are you obsessed with how good you look, putting yourself on a display all over social media for the world to notice, but you've never actually fired an arrow? You see, pictures of a bow with a knocked arrow aren't the target. The bow itself can't be the target. Let's think of this another way. Do you treat yourself like you're worthless, like some random object with no real purpose or value? Do you misuse and mistreat yourself until you're bent and broken?
The question is, how can an abused bow have any accuracy? How can it hit God's target? Next, think about it this way. Do you completely disregard how useful you could be lying around and collecting dust? How can a neglected bow ever knock an arrow, never mind hit God's target?
If you find yourself in any of these situations feeling a bit of conviction, it likely stems from one of two schemes of the enemy. And yes, God has an enemy, Satan or the devil, who is a liar and deceiver. He doesn't want you to believe that God created you for a purpose because he doesn't want you to have value and he doesn't want you to be used by God. And so the enemy has two schemes regarding our bodies and they are pride and shame. Or sometimes he might even use a combination of both. First, the scheme of pride leads us into a constant obsession with our bodies where self-care becomes self-love and eventually self-worship.
This is a never-ending pursuit that can and will consume you until the day you die. Next, the scheme of shame. This leads us into constant devaluing of our bodies, resulting in a lack of self-worth that can turn tragically into self-harm, whether it be intentional or not. This might manifest itself through abusing drugs or alcohol. It could be using food for pleasure or to ease anxiety or boredom. Constant pursuing sex in any form which leads to internal and external damage. Overworking at career or trade until the mind and body are crippled.
Sometimes, quite literally, it leads to hurting oneself through cutting or some other form of intentional self-harm. You see, shame gradually destroys the body God has designed for a greater purpose, for greater things. Where are you at? Have you struggled in any of these ways? Take heart. Your story isn't over. You can reclaim God's target for your body. God led Paul to write another scripture for the Ephesian Christians, helping them understand the eternal picture for their lives.
In Ephesians 2.10, we read, For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. You are God's workmanship, carefully and uniquely crafted by him. If you have a study Bible or you're using a study app, look at the footnotes that are found in this verse. They lead us back to the Old Testament, ancient texts, thousands of years old. Deuteronomy 32, six says, is not he your father? Speaking of God, who created you, who made you and established you. Psalm 100, verse three says, know that the Lord, he is God. It is he who made us and we are his. You were uniquely designed and formed for something greater than self-obsession or self-destruction. God loves you and has a plan for you if you can get back on target.
don't miss the second part of that verse we just read from Ephesians, which emphasizes that it all begins with Jesus. It says, we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, that we should walk in them. Without Jesus, you'll never be able to see the target, let alone take a shot. Only through Jesus can you find restoration from the pride and shame that can plague your mind, body, and soul. When you submit your life to God and accept that he sent Jesus to pay for your sins, making a way for you to be forgiven, you're given a new life, a new purpose. You will be transformed from the inside out. And if you struggle with pride or bodily obsession, confess that to Jesus and accept his forgiveness. Let him be the standard, not social media. And if you struggle with shame and bodily abuse or neglect, confess that to Jesus and embrace his healing. Let him help you recover from your addictions and destructive behaviors.
When you keep God's target in focus, you will not only understand and enjoy the body God has given you, but you'll also live for an eternal purpose. So a few questions remain. Will you present your body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God? Will you set a new target for your body, focusing on spiritual worship and service? Let's pray together, asking God to guide you on this journey. Dear Father, thank you for the bodies you've given us. Thank you that you've designed us, that you've formed us, that you care so deeply for us.
May we understand the greater purpose, that bigger target that we need to be aiming for, that there's so many greater things that we can be a part of and experience if we would submit to your will. If there's anyone who's been listening to this that doesn't know you, I pray that they would accept salvation and redemption and restoration through your son Jesus and that they would choose to follow you and be guided by your spirit. For those of us that know you and have chosen to follow your son Jesus, we ask that you would convict us. Convict us of any pride that we may have and convict us of any shame that we may be dealing with and heal us from it. Help us see our body as a useful tool created for worship and service to you, service to others. We ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Thank you for joining us at Mountain View Church. If you gave your life to Jesus today, or if you would like to submit a prayer request, please click the Connect link, text Connect to the number on the screen, or fill out a Connect card. Before you go, we have a few updates followed by this week's discussion questions and prayer focus. Hey, what's up, Senior Youth? Hope you guys are having a wonderful week and listening to your parents and doing your homework and all the things that I normally tell you to do. I tell you to do those things because it's a good idea. Trust me, I'm your youth leader. This week when we hang out, we're going to be doing one of my all-time favorite fall activities.
pumpkin carving yes we're gonna be doing pumpkin carving it's gonna be sweet we'll have everything you need just show up with a bit of enthusiasm and please please please do not cut yourselves otherwise i'll have to fill out an incident report and it's a pile of work for me so be careful with the knives when you show up and then for our lesson we're gonna actually do a lesson that i wasn't able to do last time it's all about making good decisions and bad decisions and we're gonna have to look at the old testament book of kings to see the example of a king of israel who was kind of blowing it in his life but made one really good decision in step with what god was asking him to do and the whole story of his life changed so You're not going to want to miss it. And for those of you who are excited for laser tag and wondering why I have an open registration, I'm sorry. I just didn't get to it. I've been busy. You'll also have probably noticed in the email update I sent out that laser tag is only for senior youth. That's a typo. Super lame typo. Laser tag is open to all the youth. It's whoever signs up first. So stay tuned because registration will open up this week. I will be sending an email out and letting you guys know so you don't have to worry about missing it. But keep your eyes peeled. It's exciting. Laser tag is sweet. All right. That's all I have for you now. Have a great week.
We would like to extend a special thank you to those who have continued to support our church. To continue that support or to make a one-time tax-deductible donation, simply click the Give link or text Give to the number on the screen. And if you're in-house, please feel free to use one of our giving envelopes found under the seats in front of you, then drop it into the donation bin at the back of the auditorium. Now let's bring Pastor Jeremy back for this week's discussion questions and prayer focus. Thank you and God bless.
All right, as always, I want to leave you with a couple of discussion and prayer points. So first, the question for today is, now that you see God's target for your body, what changes do you intend to make in your life? Now that you see God's target for your body, what changes do you intend to make this week, this month in your life? Next, once you have discussed that a little bit with each other, share the change you intend to make. Hopefully you've already shared it. And tell someone and pray with them. Pray for one another as we all embark on this journey of aligning with God's target for our bodies.
Share your change and pray with each other. All right, we'll hope you'll be back next week for week two of Arrows as we focus on God's target for money. Maybe you're in debt. Maybe you wanna give to charity of the church, but you don't know how that works. Maybe you just hate money and you don't like dealing with it. Maybe you love money and like dealing with it too much. Wherever you're at, we're gonna explore God's target for our money, our treasure, our possessions, our resources. What's it all about? Come back next week to find out.
If you prayed to receive Jesus today or would like to connect with our church community, visit mountainview.church and click the connect link. If this podcast and radio ministry has been a blessing to you, please consider partnering with us or making a tax-deductible donation at mountainview.church. Thanks for listening to Mountain View Church Audio. Join us next week for more Christ-centered teaching from the Wilderness City of Whitehorse Seacon.