I'll ask you to turn to Romans chapter 12. Romans chapter 12, we'll spend all our time in verse 1 and verse 2. The subject before us is reforming family in your culture. Reforming family in your culture. As has been said already, I'm from Malawi.

It's a small country in South Central of Africa with a population of about 19 million people. I was born and raised there. We are doing church planting. I've been in the church that I'm a pastor now since the start of the church about 10 years ago, over 10 years ago. And the Lord has been gracious with us to bless us a little bit with our vision.

We named our church Antioch to follow the pattern of the church in Acts chapter 13. That would be a church that plants other churches and the Lord has been gracious to help us see a little bit of that vision in the planting of other churches. We serve in a country where it has not experienced Reformation. Christianity has been in Malawi for over hundred years and as we've studied the history of our country, especially the history of the Christian faith in Malawi, there is no way it's recorded. The Malawi has sent biblical churches in place and so it's a burden of ours to see many churches planted and the church reformed.

How do you reform family life in your culture? This is exactly what we're trying to do, where we are, by the grace of God. We are on a continent with 1.3 billion people. Africa has 1.3 billion people. Six hundred million of those people profess to be Christians, yet if you visited Africa today and go to just any church around the corner, you can hardly recognize it as a Christian Church.

1.3 billion people, 600 million people profess to be Christian. The family structure has been put asunder just like everywhere else in the world. Culture and long standing African traditions basically dictates and inform people's lifestyles, how we organize church, and the family structure. And so how do you reform family in a culture like mine? I was a Western missionary that once visited Africa and coined the popular phrase, Christianity in Africa is a mile wide and an inch deep and I strongly believe that is still true till today.

I define my culture as a multiple linear culture because in my culture it's the family and extended family structures that matter the most. Slightly different to what I define a single linear culture like yours where you probably don't have as much extended family influence in your life. Culture and traditions form the guiding principle determines what is right and what is wrong. It comes up over and over again when other people are trying to encourage young people in the area of marriage, career, business, parenting, how they should handle their money, their lifestyles, that their appeal is never from Scripture, it's almost always from culture and tradition. One of the challenges that we have as we try to guide men and women in our church and those that we minister in the churches that we've been planting, as we're trying to encourage men and women to be biblical, to use the scriptures as the standard for both doctrine and life, is that on the other hand, they have parents and relatives and uncles and aunties who are telling them that You cannot do things that way because in our culture, and according to our tradition, this is how we do things.

So it's extremely difficult to try to reform family life in a culture, a multiple linear culture like mine. Recently, my wife and I were, just before we flew to the U.S., we had to do a wedding the day before flying out. And the wedding was about five hours away from where we are in Blantyre. And as we spoke to the couple just a few hours before their wedding, we were told that there was need to send someone to inspect the wedding dress. I've never heard that before and that's the thing in my culture is that there is one thing after another that do even surprise me in my own culture.

Because even within our culture, there are subcultures. And they also do things differently and in their own way. So how do you reform family life in a culture like that? Do you Appeal to the culture? Do you appeal to traditions?

And probably if we begin to think about where we are right now, how do you reform family life in your culture? It's my understanding that you, like I say, don't have probably a lot of influence from your extended families or at least the part of the country where you come from, that you don't have uncles and aunties, cousins, brothers and sisters telling you what to do. So how do you reform the family life in a culture where the appeal is to the individual or the celebrity? Celebrities in your culture are not only shaping your culture, they are in a sense also shaping my culture. And so Africa is as exposed to celebrities, Western celebrities as you are.

There are even many times where I come here and I mention certain important and popular figures that sometimes some of my American friends don't even know them. So how do we reform family life in our cultures? The problems that we are all facing are pretty much the same even though they may show up in a different way, they might wear a different face. I want to propose three things that are found in Romans chapter 12, verse 1 to 2. There are three things that we must appeal to, so let us read Romans chapter 12 verse 1 through 2 Paul writes, I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy acceptable to God which is your reasonable service and do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Three things that we must appeal to if we're going to reform a family life in our culture. Number one, we should appeal to something authoritative. Paul will show us how he does that. Number two, we must appeal to something unchanging. And number three, we must appeal to something better.

This is exactly what Paul does. Number one, let's appeal to something authoritative. So in my culture, we need to learn and train people to not appeal to tradition, to not appeal to culture, to not appeal to longstanding African practices. We must appeal to something more authoritative. We need to learn to appeal to something unchanging.

Like I said, as I'm here just having performed this wedding, I'm encountering things in my culture that I'm not aware of, that I've never heard of. So my own culture is surprising me as you're being surprised with your own culture. And so we need to appeal to something unchanging. Culture is always changing. And you and I have learned, had lessons in areas that we trusted culture and we appealed to culture.

And lastly, we should appeal to something better. Want to give a little bit of a background here. Paul is writing to the church and we see this in chapter 1. He's writing to this church that he had never met. He's only heard of, he's only heard of what God is doing in Rome, that there are believers there.

And there's a strong, vibrant church and Paul writes to them 16 chapters and Paul believes he has something to say to them and he can exhort them yes as an apostle but beyond as we see in this chapter that Paul believed he had something authoritative, something unchanging and something better to give to them. The whole book you can see that as we get to chapter 12 Paul is really suggesting reform or reformation. But who is poor to speak so authoritatively to a group of men and women that he's never met? How can you and I exhort people in our culture, even people that we've never met, How can we do that? How can I go out in my culture preaching to men and women and exalting them to do certain things?

On what basis? On what authority? What right do I have? He's going to call them to action in chapter 12 and through chapter 16 Paul is calling them to action. See what he does in chapter 1 through chapter 3, Paul discusses human sin.

In chapter 3 to 5 he discusses the gospel, the doctrine of salvation. He's going to call them to action, but he doesn't start with chapter 12. Chapter 12 is where it is because Paul wanted it to be there. There's a reason why we have the things he's saying in chapter 12. In Romans chapter 6 to 8 Paul is addressing the Christian life.

He goes on to discuss sanctification and address some of the problems in the church. In Romans chapter 9 through 11, Paul discusses the role of Israel in God's purposes. So when he gets to chapter 12, if you can look at chapter 12 and verse 1, Paul says, I beseech you therefore brethren, by on the basis of the mercies of God. I have instructions for you, I have some things to say, I plead, I beg you therefore brethren by the message of God on what basis is he going to give them chapter 12, chapter 13, chapter 14, chapter 15, and some more exhortations in chapter 16. On what basis Paul says, by the mercy of God, If we are going to reform family life, we must appeal to something better, something more authoritative, something unchanging, and Paul knew what that was.

I cannot appeal to my culture. I cannot appeal to the good things, long-standing traditions in my culture, I cannot appeal to tribal practices in my culture. You cannot appeal, at least we should begin to learn that we cannot call people to action on the basis of national patriotism. We cannot appeal to the ever-changing modern ideas about life. Our highest appeal is what God has done in Christ Jesus.

Paul writes, I beseech you therefore brethren by the message of God, and so he says, I am pleading with you, I beg you on the basis of what God has done, and so what he's doing is he wants them to feel the weight of everything he's been saying from chapter 1 to chapter 11 on the basis of chapter 1 through chapter 11 I plead with you and then he begins to suggest reformation. We should not dare to try to appeal to the same traditions, to appeal to the same culture that has failed us, that does not seek to glorify or honor God. A culture that's lost cannot reform itself. It is something authoritative, something unchanging and something better and Paul says I have that which is good. See it's easy to rush to chapter 12.

We do this, I know I do this, we do this all the time. We expect people to change, we expect people to live in a certain way, we expect churches to function in a certain way, we expect communities to behave in a certain way. We expect family members to do certain things in a certain way, but most of the times we don't have chapter 1 to chapter 11. We don't put that weight on them. We don't want, we don't wait until they feel that weight on the basis so you we say all these things is what it was we're talking about with the pastor is yesterday that we come to people and we tell them repent and believe the gospel we don't tell them what the gospel is we you know you we need we need a Christ-centered church How do you get to a Christ-centered church?

We want to live Christ-centered lives. How do you get Christ-centered lives? We need chapter 1 through chapter 11 to achieve chapter 12, verse 1 and 2. And so we can't experience this reformation within our families without chapter 1 through chapter 11. We shouldn't be quick to change people.

I know I'm guilty of this in ministry I come I come I work so hard probably sometimes two weeks on one sermon it's ready it's ready to be preached I get there I'm thinking this this sermon is gonna sanctify my church today chapter 12 to through chapter 16 will happen today and I preached that sermon I'm sweating there everybody's saying amen in our church and then on Monday same problems. We shouldn't rush to change people. We must appeal to them on the basis of what God has done. We cannot achieve, people cannot achieve that which only God can do. We need a clear proper balance between the law and grace and Paul does that in chapter 1 when he begins to work through chapter 2 he brings everybody when he gets to chapter 3 he brings both Jews and Gentiles to a place where they can see that they fall short of the glory of God.

Then he goes on to discuss justification, the work of God, propitiation, all that God has done, expiation, showing them the work of Jesus Christ. Chapter 5 and chapter 6 he begins to discuss justification by faith. We want our families to reform. We want members of our families to change their ways to honor God. But we must do that on the basis of chapter 1 through chapter 11 what God has done for us.

You see when we are in a hurry to fix people to fix our families to fix our churches We want to see chapter 12 happen. Just read chapter 12 verse 3 through 8 with me. For I say through the grace given to me to everyone who is among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function. So we being many, our one body in Christ and individually members of one another, having been gifts defying according to the grace that is given to us.

Let us use them if prophecy let us prophesy in proportion to our faith or ministry let us use it in our ministry and he who teaches in teaching, he who exalts in exhortation, he who gives with liberality, he who leads with diligence and he who shows mercy with cheerfulness and he goes on in verse 9, let love be without hypocrisy. We want these things in our families. You can go on and read chapter 12. You surely want your families to look like chapter 12. But we cannot get to chapter 12 without chapter 1 through chapter 11.

Families struggle. In every culture, they struggle in the same way. Either you have a family that will fall into the trap of legalism because they have skipped Chapter 1 through Chapter 11, they want to just see Chapter 12 happen. So you're pushing family members to look and behave and say and do certain things in a certain way. You want to see chapter 12 through chapter 16 without chapter 1 through chapter 11, legalism.

Or families will fall into the trap of antinomianism. We don't care about chapter 12. So we don't care about chapter 12 through chapter 16. We don't call people to obedience. So grace.

So we just live our lives, It doesn't care how we live our lives. Anyhow, we want our families to reform. We want the kind of reformation that brings joy in the home. We want to see happiness in our homes. We want to see freedom of conscience, which is chapter 8, what Paul discusses, life in the spirit.

We want to see that happen in our homes. We don't want terror-filled, joyless individuals in our families and churches. We want people that are filled with joy and that can only be achieved if we have a clear understanding of chapter 1 through 11 before we command people to do the things that are being talked about in chapter 12 through chapter 16. Practical Christianity. Here's how one commentator sums up chapter, the things that we've just talked about.

He says, the Christian life is the waking out in our everyday lives, the righteousness status that God freely gives to all of those who by faith Trust in Jesus Christ and not in their own good works That's what we want to see in our families Again John Calvin sums up all that I've just said here He says we will never worship God with a sincere heart or be rounds to fear and obey him with sufficient zeal until we understand how much we're indebted to his mercy. Paul's Reformation is an appeal to help the Romans navigate through cultural chaos but he doesn't appeal to Caesar, He doesn't appeal to the popular political trends, he doesn't appeal to the sports stars of his day, he doesn't appeal to the music stars, he doesn't appeal to philosophers, he doesn't appeal to celebrities, he appeals to something greater, the message of God. Listen to what he says again back to our text. By the message of God, he says, I beseech you therefore brethren by the message of God, To do what? That you present your bodies, that's where reformation begins.

You present your bodies a living sacrifice. Consecrate yourself. Paul is calling for full dedication. The whole man, the whole woman, the entire man, the entire woman, given to God. Not to the dictates of the culture, not to the dictates of our popular celebrities, not our preferences, not our personal ideas and political views, not our cultural identity, but given over to God.

He says, consecrate yourself based on what God has done. Present your bodies as living sacrifices. This is borrowed language from the Old Testament. They would bring an animal and they would inspect it. I was trying to help our people have a full understanding of what's really going on in the in the Old Testament.

Sometimes it almost seems like you have this little temple over there and someone brings his goat and someone looks at it and says, oh, it's perfect, you know, just go ahead and sacrifice it. I mean, this is a huge, big industry happening at the temple. Their guys, who profession is inspectors, that's all they do. They inspect the animal to ensure that it is blameless, it doesn't have blemishes, doesn't have spots, it's pure, it's perfect before it can be brought to the priest to be sacrificed. And so even the Romans who only have a few Jews there have an idea of what Paul is talking about because animal sacrifice in that part of the world at the time was done even by Perkins.

So they understand what Paul is talking about when he says you present your bodies a living sacrifice. They understand what they are talking about. And so we want family reformation within our culture. We need to help our culture, we need to help members in our families give themselves over to God, but they can only do that if they understand what God has done for them. What else does he command them?

He says they should be holy. You now belong to God. You've been separated from the world. Set yourself apart for the Lord's use. What else does he tell them?

He says acceptable, so he says you give yourself yourselves over, you dedicate yourselves over to God, not the dictates of your culture, but on the basis of what God has done, something greater that God has done for you. Present your bodies a living sacrifice holy and then he says acceptable to God. How will this sacrifice this dedication of the whole man be acceptable to God only on the basis of what Jesus has done for us. So we don't appeal to people in our families to do the things that are being talked about in the last few chapters, but we do that on the basis of chapter 1 through 11, the mercies of God, the gospel. So in a way, men and women can be accepted before God.

So we are calling them to repentance. We are calling them to see what God has done in chapter 1 through chapter 11, that God has truly given his son in death for our sins. And then he moves on, you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, the basis of what Jesus has done and then he says which is your reasonable service. The thing is if you have understood chapter 1 through chapter 11 it only makes sense that you give yourself entirely to God. What he's arguing is common sense.

He's not saying you need to understand the very depth of Christian theology. He's saying at this point now that you've understood what God has done in Christ, It only makes sense. It's just common sense that you give yourself, the whole man, the whole woman, given to God. Not because this is acceptable in our culture, not because the elders in the culture will say, oh you've done a good thing, not because your family members will cheer you on, not because this is what the culture dictates, not because you're gonna look like your celebrities, not because of all these things that are acceptable today but on the basis of what God has done in Christ Jesus. It only makes sense.

It only makes sense. It's what makes sense. Actually it's the least we can do. Which is your reasonable service. I love that word, it only makes sense.

So we need families to reform your family within your culture. We need families that have been moved and are under the weight of this gospel. Deeply moved, deeply grounded in this gospel. And they begin to see that the only thing they can do is to commit and dedicate themselves to God. We need to appeal to something greater and that's the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

You come today to Africa and you can go to any home, just any home around the corner, just say, I see you doing this, Why are you doing it that way? Literally, everybody in that family will say, this is how we've always done it. Tradition. People, we walk around and the first thing people look at our children and the first thing they speak to them or sometimes not even speaking to them, they hear them talk and they turn and say, The first thing they say is, where do you go to school? They don't even ask their name.

Where do you go to school? How kids will say, where are homeschooled? At that point, everybody pulls and says, homeschooled. Do you bring teachers at your home? That would mean I have a lot of money to do that.

So that's what they're thinking at that point. And I have to sort of step in and clarify that, no, we teach them. And then what is homeschooling? We go into a discussion of what is homeschooling because it's unheard of out there. So this is what it means, this is homeschooling, and then the next question is always why?

Now at that point I can't say that's how we've always done it because no we've never done it. So at that point it becomes a gospel discussion. Homeschool has been such a door for us to share the gospel with a lot of non unbelievers including Muslims. We need to appeal to something greater. Secondly, we need to appeal to something unchanging.

Listen to what he says in verse 2. He says, and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds. The apostle knows if this church is going to reform, if it is going to exhort these men and women to do what he's saying in chapter 12 through chapter 16 he needs to appeal to something unchanging so he's seeking transformation not conformity. They must transform and that transformation will only come by the renewing of their minds. They need to change the way they think, they need to change the way they see the world.

They need to begin to love the Lord their God with all their minds. They should no longer see the world through the lens of their culture. They must begin to see the world through the lens of the Scriptures. It's no longer through traditions and new fashions and movies and movie stars and celebrities and academics and all those things. They can no longer see the world through the lens of all those things.

They have to begin, they should begin to see the world through the lens of the Scriptures. So Paul tells them, and to not be conformed to this world, but be transformed. Transformation, So to reform family life, we should seek transformation in our families. We should seek transformation in the members of our church. Let's just conform, adapt, follow what is fashionable, what's selling fast.

They should not just change outwardly, because that's what it means to conform. But they should transform, they should be transformed and that transformation will only come if they have understood chapter 1 through chapter 11 which is the gospel. So Paul now appeals to something unchanging, the way of God. Renew your minds. Families can easily conform.

All you have to do is comply to the rules and standards. Embrace what other families are doing, what's holding the movement, what books everybody's reading, what things everybody's watching, how people are dressing. Families can pick up the latest lingo in the reform circles and conform. Paul says that is fake. A sick transformation.

Let's reform. And how we get there? Through the renewing of the mind. Now you no longer see things the way your culture sees them. I tell you, in Malawi, they have quoted everything else, they have run out of names.

From satanic to cult, everything in between. Now they have run out names, they don't even know what to do with us. For simple things like homeschooling, simple things like just modest dress, Simple things that, really simple things that just having made us elders. You hear that and you say, oh that's very simple, that's given, it's not given out there. You can literally count biblical churches In a country with 19 million people, 80% professing Christian, on the continent with 600 million people professing the Christian faith, on a continent with 1.3 billion people.

It's not a given to have a public church. Those are rare. So families, even in your own culture, can easily conform and Paul is trying to help us not do that. And we can all be accepted, oh look at the way they dress, look at the way they homeschool, Look at the way they, the books they read, look at what they're watching, look at the conferences they go to, and their mind is still the same. It's easy to conform.

And so Paul says, Do not be conformed into this world, but be transformed. And so all these good things that we're doing should come because now the mind has been renewed. We see things through the lens of chapter 1 through 11 the gospel of Jesus Christ something unchanging so that if if you were removed from this country from your church and your circles of fellowship and you are placed in a different country you can still homeschool even though you're the only family who's homeschooling. You can still go on and do family worship, you can still go on and preach the gospel, you can still go on and categorize your children, you can still go on and do the things God has called you because you see things through the lens of Scripture and not the dictates of the culture. We see so many of our young people when they leave our country professing Christians, They leave our country, they come to places like America and you can't even recognize them.

They quickly adapt, they quickly conform to the ways of the West. And most of the times it's the ungodly side of things. It's easy to conform and you make sure that your family, your children are not just conforming, learning the language. You need to ask them, why do you always say praise God? Why do you always say all glory to God?

Why do you pray the way you pray? Number three, we must point our families to something better. Listen to what Paul says, He sees that those who are given over to God, those who are not conforming but being transformed by the renewing of their minds, will lead to something better. That you, in verse 2, that you may prove What is that good and acceptable, perfect will of God? What is family reformation that you and I come into this place where we well discern the will of God for our lives?

That by constant use of God's Word, we have come to learn to understand and to know the difference between good and evil. What is family reformation if it's not coming to spiritual maturity? In Micah chapter 6 and verse 8, he has shown you, O man, what is good and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. So family reformation is basically a mature Christian life Where we come to test and to prove and to discern that which God requires of us, that good perfect will of God which is rooted in his commandments, that which is acceptable, his perfect will found in his word, that perfect will of God knowing his purposes for our lives. Here are final reflections.

If we're going to reform family life, the answer is not in our culture. Amen. We need to understand that the answer is not in our culture. We cannot appeal to culture. Even in my culture, there are lots of good things in my culture.

Lots of good things. I have learned a lot from my culture. But it's not good enough, amen? It's not good enough. We must appeal to that which is good, which is acceptable, that perfect will of God.

We must appeal to something better. In your culture I'm sure there are so many things, so many things you can learn from public figures and politicians and celebrities, so many things you can learn from friends and family members. But we must appeal to something better, that good and perfect will of God. Next time you are tempted to to challenge a family member towards something that you believe they should be doing. Only do it on the basis of what God has done for them in Christ Jesus.

Amen. Let's pray. Father, I pray that you would help us to not take matters in our own hands and seek to change or reform others without thinking or considering that we don't have and are not great. We are always changing. We need to point them to something better, something unchanging, something greater, and that is not found in our culture, in our traditions, that is not found in our families or in our individual practices and beliefs and ideas about life.

God, I pray that you would help us, that as we seek to reform family life within our culture, that we would point people to Christ and what he has done for them. That on the basis of what God has done, on the basis of your mercies toward us, that we can begin to urge others to honor you and glorify you and worship you and love you and serve you. I pray that you would help us in Jesus name. Amen.