"God’s art is making dead people truly alive."
Have you ever walked into a trophy room and felt the eerie stillness? Everything looks perfect—almost alive—but the unsettling truth is that it’s all death, carefully posed and preserved. In this message, we flip a difficult question on its head: What if your spiritual life looks exactly like a trophy on the wall? Whether you are a longtime believer or someone exploring faith for the first time, we all face the temptation to settle for the appearance of godliness while denying its power. Join us as we explore Romans 12:1 and discover why God rejects the static "taxidermy" of settled religion and instead demands a living, responsive heart.
In This Sermon, We Explore:
- The Mounted Trophy: Why sincerity and "polishing the glass eyes" of your religious reputation is never a substitute for spiritual life.
- The Divine Inspection: How God ignores our outward "countenance" and uses His "X-ray vision" to weigh the true density of our hearts.
- The Gold-Plated Coin: Why God isn't looking at the "gold leaf" of your reputation, but the "base metal" of your internal motives.
- The Heart Transplant: How God replaces a stubborn heart of stone with a vulnerable, vibrant heart of flesh.
The Big Idea: True worship is found when we stop polishing our external shells and start offering our internal selves as broken, breathing, and responsive sacrifices. Don't be a trophy on a shelf; be a sacrifice on the altar.
Key Scripture References:
- Romans 12:1 – Presenting ourselves as a living sacrifice.
- 2 Timothy 3:5 – Having a form of godliness but denying the power.
- Ezekiel 36:26 – Taking away the stony heart and giving a heart of flesh.
- Proverbs 21:2 – Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord ponders the heart.
- Matthew 23:27 – The warning against being "whitewashed sepulchres."
