Sun. Apr. 26, 2009 (Jesse Nickel)

Jesse Nickel dealt with Paul’s text urging Roman Christians to present their bodies as living sacrifices and not be formed by the present age; rather be transformed. (Rom. 12) These words, in a letter written to a church made up largely of Gentiles, address the platonic view with a distinct line between the spiritual and the physical; the body was viewed as a prison longing for release. The body is important; Jesus took on the form of a human body. Paul encourages the Romans not to conform to the present age but to live as members of the new kingdom that Jesus introduced. The world pushes us to want more of everything; our challenge is to be continually transformed rather than conformed. The discussion centered on how we use our bodies in worship and on the matter of not being conformed to the present age. What would a transformed life look like? (HN) Listen to the sermon audio MP3 recording from Sunday Apr. 26th, 2009 using your browser's preferred media player.