An Act Of Worship

We'll jump into the Word of God and if you have your Bibles we'll be in chapter 12 of Romans, Romans chapter 12 and Pastor Josh will be back on Sunday morning.

Talk to him Sunday after service and sent me a couple pictures of some nice sized sharks he's been catching and just pray for him and his family that they have a nice restful time away. We do appreciate all that he does for us and he does deserve a restful time just to get away and relax with his family and if you would stand with me to honor the reading of God's Word when you find your place in Romans chapter 12. In Romans 12 chapter 1 through 2 is a very familiar passage of scripture. Many of you maybe even have memorized this passage but the Word of the Lord says, I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice holy and acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service. Verse 2, and be not 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.

Let's pray. Father we thank you for your Word. Lord we thank you for the truth that is in it. We thank you for a place that we can come and worship you Lord in a country where we don't fear of persecution at this time just freely assembling and Lord we thank you for the brave men and women who have fought for this country to give us these rights and Lord we just pray as we open your Word tonight Lord that you would help us to examine ourselves myself included Lord and Lord if there's any area where we are not a living sacrifice to you Lord that you would convict us of that or that we would not hold anything back from you and Lord that your will would be done in our lives and we would not be conformed to this world but we would be transformed by the renewing of our mind where we ask all this tonight in Jesus name amen you may be seated. Also tonight begins our first night of Awana so that that's up and running again we're excited about that and they just it's an exciting time to be a part of the church and it's an exciting age when you see the things that are unfolding in our world around us and I think between the first century of Christianity and where we are at in these last days there is probably the two most exciting periods that I would want to be in as a Christian and so in this introduction tonight Paul here has just concluded the first 11 chapters of explaining explaining correct doctrine and what God has given to us as believers. Paul now charges those believers with what they need to give to God and what I mean by that is Paul here is going from orthodoxy or our doctrine to orthopraxy and how do we practically live that out. The key idea in this section is on a relationship if we have a right relationship to God our vertical relationship then all of our people relationships which we would call horizontal relationships will be in a right relationship with them if we have the vertical relationship correct with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and so the key to spiritual victory and true happiness is in not trying to get all that we can from God but by giving all that we have to him there's a lot of people that'll that'll come to a church I don't say a lot but there are people that sometimes will come to a church or maybe they will even just come to God for what they can get out of God what can I get and you see that in a prosperity gospel health wealth fame and when those things typically do not happen they say well you just didn't have enough faith to make those things happen but when you look at Jesus Christ he never had any wealth you know as far as earthly treasure I should say he he obviously gained much fame for his miracles and what he was doing but at the end of his life there's only some 500 followers of Christ and so as we look at this passage of scripture tonight we need to examine ourselves and are we walking in a worthy walk of the Lord and also are we a living sacrifice to the Lord and so the key to spiritual victory and true happiness is again not what we can get from God but are we giving him our all is is our and it's this paradoxical statement it's like kind of an upside down thing in God's economy in Matthew chapter 16 verse 25 he says for whosoever will save his life shall lose it and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it and we see the same thing in luke chapter 9 verse 24 for whosoever will save his life shall lose it but whosoever will lose his life for my sake the same shall save it and so here in this passage Paul is emphasizing in Romans chapter 12 verse 1 through 2 not that we need to receive more from God but what we need to give more to God in our in our personal devotion time the key is not in getting more but rather in giving all of ourselves to him John chapter 4 verse 23 says but the hour cometh and now is when the true worshipers worshipers shall worship the father and spirit and truth for the father seeks such to worship him verse 24 says God is the spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth and so we must translate our learning into living I'll say it again we must translate our learning into living by showing our daily life in our daily lives that we trust God and we trust him for his word and the truth that is in it God gave himself for us in order that we might give ourselves to him and so tonight the question I begin to ask is what is true dedication what does true dedication look like to the Lord and I believe Paul here is describing it as Christian dedication involves three steps that we'll unpack tonight which brings me to my first point our bodies must be given to God that's the first thing our bodies must be given to God and we see that in Romans chapter 12 verse 1 he says I beseech you therefore brethren that you present your bodies you present your bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service and so when we see this I beseech you when we look at that beseech means to appeal to beg to implore or to plead and John Phillips said it like this I beseech you means God does not compel or coerce the believer into presenting his body he does not corral him and bridle him like a horse and force him to obey he beseeches him he wants an unbridled sacrifice it makes he makes it clear that to present the body to God is for the believer the proper thing to do and Vance Havender said this he said God wants self before substance and service so the proper term and order of it is self service substance that is the divine order and nothing else counts until we give ourselves first and so a lot of times people will get that backwards they'll get busy about serving they'll get busy about maybe giving of their substance but they still hold back certain portions from the Lord and what I mean by that is they're not going all in that some people hold back certain portions of their life of their walk and they say no God you can't have this area of my life and he's asking for a total surrender he's asking for an all-in commitment from his followers there's some here tonight that and whether it's in this this sanctuary or it's in another room in this building there's some here tonight in this building that can't even begin to present their bodies as a living sacrifice because they are still a natural man or woman they are not saved is what I mean in second Corinthians gives us this second Corinthians sorry first Corinthians chapter 2 verse 14 but the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned and so when I was lost in my sins dead and trespasses and sins for the majority of my life I lived that way until I was 30 years old and so I served self I didn't have any reckoning to follow what the Lord had for my life or any desire to live for him and so I was lost I was a servant to self and so a natural man cannot receive the things of God because he is still in the flesh he's natural he has not been born again only the redeemed can present a living sacrifice to God because only the redeemed have a spiritual life and only believers can come to God or before God with an offering of themselves and so therefore you see that in verse one there he says therefore and so anytime you see therefore you must ask what is it therefore and again it's that transition from the first 11 chapters of Romans of doctrine to now we're going to practicality we see it in Ephesians and most of Paul's letters you will see this where in Ephesians the first three chapters are doctrine and the last three are how do you practically live those things out so when we look at this this therefore in the letter of Romans there are four of them Romans 3 20 is the therefore of condemnation declaring that the whole world is guilty before God then we see again in Romans chapter 5 verse 1 there's a therefore and that is the therefore of justification and in Romans 8 there is a therefore of assurance and then here in Romans 12 chapter 1 or chapter 12 verse 1 we see we have a therefore of dedication and is this dedication that is the basis for other relationships that Paul goes on to discuss in the rest of Romans chapter 12 and so we can't again when you look at Romans chapter 12 the first two is your dedication to the Lord and then from there starting in verse 3 it begins our our role in how we serve and live out that in the lives of others that are in and of our lives and so it's it's the service of love to all starting there in verse 3 through the rest of chapter 12 and you get into some spiritual gifts as well there as you're reading through Romans chapter 12 and then when you get over to Romans 13 it's speaking of our our relationship to the government and those in authority over us and so this is this practicality of where we must have our relationship with the Lord right first and so let us not forget the vital part of doctrine it's the first two letters of doctrine and that's do we must do it we may think of we know Romans chapter 1 through 11 but we don't unless we allow it to know us it's one thing to have a head knowledge of the scripture but it's another thing to allow it to take shape in our lives and for it to conform us and to us to live that out to those that we encounter with in our day-to-day lives and we are living it out practically in our day-to-day walk and James chapter 1 verse 22 says this be ye doers of the word it says but be doers of the world word and not hearers only deceiving your own selves and so we're not just to sit and to take in the word of God but we are to actively live that out in our day-to-day interactions Paul frequently uses therefore to mark a point of the turning from theological to practical and this shift can express it in many ways from doctrine to duty or maybe from creed to conduct from a Christian wealth to our Christian walk and from exposition to exhortation basically the mercies of God and we see that there in verse one the mercies of God are probably the two most precious mercies of God that I can think of are his love and his grace and God his love was an action we know that in John 3 16 for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life and so we see that this is the the first step I think of his mercy and we see that in his love but then we also see grace and what I mean my grace is that his grace is all around us and I would say grace can be defined as God's favor towards man towards unworthy man or God's benevolence on the undeserving and so we didn't deserve anything but death and hell because of our sin our sin has separated us from God but in his mercy in his grace he's freely given us his son to call upon for salvation thirdly we see that spiritually we are destitute we're blind we're unclean and we are dead our souls were in peril for and bound towards everlasting punishment but then came grace grace grace what grace God's grace God extended his favor to us through grace grace is what saves us Ephesians 2 8 tells us right for by grace are you saved and so grace is the essence of the gospel acts 20 verse 24 tells us that and Jesus Christ is the embodiment of grace it tells us in John chapter 1 verse 14 that he was grace he was coupled with grace and truth he was full of grace and truth and so the psalmist asked the following question he asked this in psalms 116 verse 12 what shall I render unto God or unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me so what what should I render unto the Lord for everything that he's given to me that that's the psalmist question here in psalm 119 or 116 and the answer simply is our lives our lives it is the component of a living sacrifice we're to live a sacrificial life towards God for what he has done for us this thing we are commanded is to present to God our bodies and presenting our bodies to the Lord as part of our spiritual worship and what we do with our bodies will have a direct bearing on how God will reward us one day and this is one of my favorite bible verses as after having studied the word for several years now and we we use this oftentimes when we do the share Jesus method when we're out reaching the lost in the community and we're going through the questions and we get to share the gospel with them and this verse is one of the highlighted verses and in second Corinthians chapter 5 verse 15 and it says in that he died for all Christ died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which died for them and rose again and so therefore because of what he has done for us for you and for me as we've called upon him as our lord and savior we should no longer live unto ourselves but we are to live accordingly unto him in his glory because of what he's done for us as we talked about on sunday it was you know you don't do so that you are loved you love so therefore you do you abide because of what he has done for us and so a pastor friend of warren wiersby said this he said there are too many cafeteria christians in our congregations instead of letting God plan the whole meal and accepting it they pick and choose what they want i i was a picky eater growing up anybody else a picky eater growing up i have a picky eater in my house he's like peanut butter sandwich oatmeal and maybe a cheese pizza i mean that's his his realm but there's many christians who want to pick and choose what they want from God and instead of letting God plan the whole meal they pick and choose what they want and they miss out on the best dishes that he has for them and that he has fixed for them and i would say this tonight God wants all of our hearts he doesn't want just part of it he wants every aspect of our heart he does not want to be in competition for any false idols any any false gods and he wants all of us and he expects us to obey all of his will and in all of our ways we are to do that if Jesus Christ gave his all for us how can we do less than give our all to him and so are we or so we're to present ourselves a living sacrifice because we are alive to God in Christ Romans 6 11 tells us this Romans 6 11 says likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Jesus Christ our Lord and so this word present it basically means to yield we're to to yield ourselves the appeal is to will Paul is saying is to yield our bodies your total personalities to God your will to God the body is the instrument through which we express ourselves the mind the mind the effects the affections of it the our will and the Holy Spirit can use the body all those the mind can use our body the the affections of our of our desires can control our body and what we do our will will also kind of make our bodies do what we want and sometimes i'll say this we have to will ourselves anybody have to maybe will yourself to read the bible sometimes it is is one of those things that it's not a natural thing that we would always want to do especially early on if you're a babe in Christ like i remember when i was early on in my Christian walk there'd be days that i would read it and then there would be like i go weeks without reading it and so it was getting to the point where i just had to will myself into reading the scriptures to study in the scriptures same thing with prayer we could take it to the physical realm and there's many days where um you know to actually want to exercise like it's like i don't know that i really want to do that today or i want to eat healthy like i see a donut and i want to eat it like that's my kryptonite like i sometimes it's hard to say no to that but other times i have to will myself to say no to the the the donut that's right before me um and so we have to make sure we're taking these and basically we're submitting to Christ it is the the impetus here roman 6 13 says neither yield your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead and your members are instruments of righteousness unto God and paul goes on to say in verse 16 know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey his servants ye are to whom you obey whether of sin or death or of obedience unto righteousness and so paul here is saying hey whatever you're serving that that's who you're your servant to um are you serving sin or are you serving righteousness and so verse 19 he goes on to say i speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity even so now yield your members uh servant to righteousness unto holiness and so we're to take our bodies we're to no longer serve sin we're to serve Christ we're to serve in a righteous manner and so friends are we servants to sin tonight or are we servants to righteousness are we to glorify God in our bodies and the answer is yes we are to glorify God in our bodies there's several passages of scripture that say this verse corinthians chapter 6 verse 20 for ye are bought with a price therefore glorify God in your what in your body and in your spirit which are gods philippians 1 20 according to my earnest expectation and my hope that nothing i shall be ashamed i shall be ashamed but with that with all boldness as always so now christ shall be manifested in my body whether it be life or death so i'm to manifest christ whether i'm living or whether i'm dead throughout that process i'm to manifest christ i am to live that out i'm to magnify him in my body i should say not manifest uh second corinthians 4 10 says always bearing about the body the dying of the lord jesus that the life also of jesus might be made manifest in our bodies and so our bodies are to be this living sacrifice we're to do that and i believe paul really understood this because you see the inglations chapter 2 verse 20 he tells us this inglations chapter 2 verse 20 if we could have that verse please because i am crucified with christ nevertheless i live yet not i but christ liveth in me and the life which i now live in the flesh i live by the faith of the son of god who loved me and he gave himself for me and so when we are now in christ we are to crucify the flesh daily we're to to walk in the spirit so we don't fulfill the lust of the flesh and when we do that we are crucifying the flesh every day it's dying to self every single day and so the problem with the living sacrifice i will tell everyone that's here tonight myself included is that a living sacrifice they tend to want to crawl off the altar anybody however have that happen you said a new year's resolution hey i'm going to eat right this year and like six days later you've fallen off of that like i do that sometimes it's like ah why my flesh is so weak um and so there's there's times when we're going through um you know and we're trying to set parameters whether it's hey the new bible reading calendar this year and i'm going to study the word of god more than i ever have but at times our flesh is so weak and it wants to crawl off that altar it doesn't want to die to self the flesh is very strong and the main point is that although the lord may ask some of us to physically die for him he asks all of us to live for him there may only be a few that are actually martyred especially where we're at in the west here there may become a day of that when that you know may unfold but there's christians all around the world that are dying for christ every single day and so there's only some that are called to die all are called to live though i would tell you and in some respects it may be harder to live for christ than it is to die for him i would say but if we are living for him we will be ready and prepared to die for him if we were actually living for him in the moment um in our daily walk and so we need to remember our lord's command in luke 9 23 and it tells us this in luke 99 23 and he said to them all if any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me i really think this is the verse where pastor gets that denying the selfies like he's he's big on nobody taking selfies and maybe he pulls it from this verse no i'm just kidding um but uh we are to deny ourselves daily um and it we are to take up our cross daily and to follow him we're to die to self and i love this quote by aw tozer he said this present your bodies that is present your vessel that must come first a vessel that has not been presented will not be filled god cannot fill what he cannot have present your vessel and so are we presenting our vessels to the lord so then he can use us for his glory friends listen we need to be more like daniel hananiah michel and ezeriah and ezeriah and we see that in daniel chapter 1 verse 9 they refused to partake in what the king had had given they refused to bow their knee to king neba kineser and it says this in daniel chapter 1 verse 9 but daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat nor with the wine which he drank therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself so we live in a day and age where we are in a babylonian culture and we as christians must not bow our knees to what the culture has deemed as right because it's wrong in the sight of the lord daniel was prepared and willing to to be a living sacrifice for the lord it did not matter what king neba kineser said or what the people of the nation were doing look friends if you put god first and you present your bodies a living sacrifice if i present my body as a living sacrifice to god look what god does in chapter 1 verse 10 of daniel now god had brought daniel into favor and tender love with the prince of the eunuchs matthew chapter 6 verse 33 says but seek ye first the kingdom of god and all and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you so that's what we must do we must present ourselves a living sacrifice unto the lord and we see there in verse one as we continue breaking that verse down it says which is your reasonable service it's our reasonable service it is not only reasonable for man to believe or be available to god it is even your logical reason for existence paul is saying in light of the depth of the riches that we have received from christ and the wisdom and knowledge of god basically and his unsearchable judgments and his unfathomable ways and because from him and through him and to him all things receive glory and we pull that from romans chapter 11 verse 33 through 36 tonight and it says oh the depths of the riches both of wisdom and of knowledge of god how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out for who hath known the mind of the lord or who hath been his counselor or who hath first given to him and it shall be recompensed unto him again for of him and through him and to him are all things and to whom be glory forever amen and so including his immeasurable mercies that we are that we have received it is only our reasonable service to give back what he for what he has done for us i think paul is saying here is something like this if you wait all way out all that god has done for us and mercy and grace and of light of such a of our sin and we actually truly get a hold of how sinful we are and i truly believe we get a real clear picture of how sinful we are the closer we get to god you look at isaiah he said woe is me a man of unclean lips i am undone and the closer you get to god the more that light sheds the sin that's in our own lives and so what i tend to notice over the years of ministry is the people that are a little further away from the lord they tend to point out the sin in others first before they see the sin in themselves and the closer you are to the lord you just see the sin that is in yourself more so than what is going on in other people's lives and so here we we see that in light of what all of god has done for us and how sinful we are basically that his righteousness the only reasonable response is to lay our life on the altar to him and so there's a there was a pig and a hen that were walking by a church sign one day and the church sign said how shall we help the poor and the hen looked at the pig and he said hey we could have a ham and egg breakfast and several moments later the pig's pondering this and he's like whoa whoa wait a minute this only this only is is requiring a contribution on your behalf but it's requiring a total commitment on my behalf and so when we think about that that's exactly what god is calling for us to do this is what god is asking from you and i he wants all of us not just a portion of us not 99 percent he wants a hundred percent and this shouldn't shouldn't scare us because if we let god have our lives he can do more with it than what we can do on our own the rich young ruler constantly think about this the rich young ruler he comes to jesus and he's he's consecrated part of his life to the lord but he wasn't willing to go all in for the lord was he he was giving him a portion but he was holding back he was willing to give an inch of his life but he wasn't willing to go the mile he would go part of the way but not to the end and the peril is upon all of us as well we give ourselves to the lord but we reserve some liberties for some of us i've been guilty of this at times and my walk with the lord is like i just you're you're just not sure you know it's like well i trust him with my salvation but can i trust him with this part of my life can i trust him with my kids can i trust him with my finances and all these things and so sometimes we we hold on to things and it reminds me of the parable of the talents and you have these guys that were were given the talents and and two of the three who did very well with the talents and and the lord increased them and the one that had little or no faith he buried it in the ground and so here basically what i take from this is that we all sometimes hold things back from the lord he's wanting us to offer him all and so sometimes we offer him a house but we mark some of the rooms inside of our house private he doesn't have a key to that area he cannot enter there and that word private means denying the lord admission and it basically it crucifies him afresh he has no joy in the house as long as there's any rooms that are withheld from him and so fb meyer was told that in his early christian life his ministry was paralyzed just because he had kept back certain areas of his ministry he didn't trust the lord with certain areas of his ministry he didn't trust the lord with certain areas of his life and the one key of one room kept him from being used greatly by god in that season and the lord is shut out of those areas and the effect of this incomplete consecrations were found in a lack of power and a lack of assurance a lack of joy and a lack of peace and so the joy of the lord begins when we hand over the last key and we've totally surrendered it all to the lord if you can remember that day of salvation when you got saved and you were broken and your sin and you finally just trusted in the lord and you gave that over to him the weight that was lifted off of you in that moment that's what he wants throughout your whole sanctification process he wants that he wants every bit of your life he doesn't want us to hold back portions of that and so when we hand over that last little bit we sit with christ on his throne and as soon as we have surrendered all our crowns and made him soul and only ruler of our lives and its possessions that's when he can truly work in the believer's life and so the question i have for us tonight is what keys are we holding out what rooms are we locking him out of in our lives are there any are you totally committed and given it all to him and the other question i would ask is did christ hold anything back for us he didn't he gave he gave his all and so that brings me to our second point tonight not only do we must then must we give our bodies but we must also give our minds our minds must be given to god and we see that in romans chapter 2 verse or chapter 12 verse 2 it says and be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind and so the world wants to control our minds we are bombarded with advertisements i was listening to a podcast the other day 75 of all advertisements in the united states are from big pharma from pharmaceutical companies and so we are constantly being conditioned in different aspects of our mind and the world is trying to conform us or mold us to what the world is i mean it is the mind that and keep in mind it is the mind that are that that we are to renew every day it's the old nature wants to come back up and we're to renew that and it is with the mind that we make choices of whether to feed our flesh or to feed our spirit and so here we see paul's command was gentle yet firm and that we are not allowing ourselves to be conformed to this world we are to stop allowing ourselves to be fashioned after this present evil age he's telling us god has continually charged us both in the old testament and in the new testament to not conform to the ways of this world of the lost hell-bent world and we see that starting in exodus chapter 23 verse 2 it says thou shall not follow a multitude to do evil neither shalt thou speak in a cause to decline after many to rest judgment and deuteronomy 8 9 18 9 says this when thou art come into the land which the lord thy god giveth thee thou shall not learn to do after the inhabit the abominations of that nation so he's given the the israelites he's given the jewish nation a command not to do as the lost around them you're not to take in the abominations of the lost people around you and we see in john 15 verse 19 if you were of the world the world would love his own but because you're not of the world but i have chosen you out of the world therefore the world hated you and so be not conformed here literally means do not let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold that's what this really means as you're as you're breaking this down looking at it it basically means do not allow the war the world to conform us to its shape its mold and so what are the desires of the of the world that we see around us when you look at the culture you look at the world there are four things i believe that this world is is is pushing towards there may be more but the first one i see is fortune and money and materialism and and jesus said you cannot serve god and mammon right and so the first chief you know that i see of the you know what the world is pushing is is fortune it's money it's materialism the second thing is is fame popularity and acceptance you see that on social media everywhere it is a push for acceptance there's so many teenagers that are just wanting to be accepted in the day and age that we live in they're trying to be conformed and you see that they take after influencers that are on social media whether it's on tiktok or just different ones but they there's a push for this fame and popularity the third thing is power influence and control and we definitely have seen that over the past two years with covid right there's a push for power and for control and and once they get a taste of that they do not want to let that go we see that in the day and age that we live in and that's that's what the world is and we know who's the power the prince of the power of the air it's satan and he is the the prince and the ruler of this world fourthly is the pleasures there's a a a sensual desire we see that in the day and age and what we live in with sexual revolutions the different things but there's there's a push for all those fortune fame power and pleasure we must not be shapen by these influences cannot be any part of the christian walk and so it is not uncommon for the unsaved to present themselves as christians we can see that we looked at that on sunday with those that are our false professors they they don't abide in christ and we see the true believers that do abide in christ and unfortunately it is also not uncommon for christians to wear the mask of the world we want to enjoy all that the world has to offer from entertainment passion vocabulary music and many of the same attitudes even when they don't line up with what the word of god says so we have to be cautious of ourselves and of our walk because the biggest thing that i i can remember growing up in high school was that that hypocritical student or in the workplace i go to work and know somebody that was a christian when i wasn't one in the moment that they don't walk the walk that they're talking it's like there's a hypocrite and it's easy to point that out and so we have to be cautious of because our testimony can be destroyed in an instant you could spend years building your testimony and then in a moment it's destroyed just like that and so we have to be cautious that we don't conform ourselves to the world but we transform our minds we we are transformed by the renewing of our minds and we do that through god's word we do that through prayer we do it from being in his word and the the assembly of believers and not forsaking that many of us have made decisions maybe this past week or in times past that we were going to go all in for god let me ask this are you a demas tonight and you may say what do you mean by that brady look with me at colossians chapter 4 verse 14 as they put it up it says luke the beloved physician and demas greets you and philemon chapter 1 verse 24 says marcus aristicus and demas lucas my fellow laborers and so you see demas he's a man that seems to be following the lord he seems to be serving the lord i should say and you see at some point demas made a decision and that decision reflected giving service to the lord's work however at some point something changed in demas's life and you see that in second timothy chapter 4 verse 10 for demas hath forsaken me having loved this present world and has departed unto thessalonica christians and to glacia titus unto dalmatia and so we see that demas fell in love with the present world present world and if we are not careful we too can fall just like demas but christians take heed of this first john chapter 2 verse 15 love not the world neither the things that are in the world if any man love the world the love of the father is not in him and so friends let's say uh let me say this to be a timothy we need to be a timothy or we need to be a luke to be faithful to the very end i think of of paul and and and uh when he's writing to timothy he says i finished my course i i i fought the good fight and so he stayed the course and we too must stay the course instead god through his word tells us that we need to be transformed and we see be transformed it comes from a greek word metamorphu which you can guess is where we get our english word metamorphis and so this greek word is where we get our english word metamorphis our inner redeemed nature also is to be manifested outwardly but as completely and continually as possible in our daily lives this is to be displayed not just inwardly but outwardly we're commanded to allow ourselves to be changed outwardly into the conformity of our savior jesus christ think of this second corinthians chapter 3 verse 18 but we all with open face beholding beholding in a glass the glory of the lord are transformed into the same image from glory to glory even as the spirit of the lord so we're to be transformed from glory to glory we're to aspire to the outward change but it can only be accomplished by the holy spirit working within us and through his word we see that in ephesians chapter 5 verse 18 it says be and be not drunk with wine wherein is excess but be filled with the what the spirit we're to be filled with the spirit it's the spirit that transforms us that allows us to fulfill the the the the spirit basically not walk in the flesh the holy spirit attains this transformation by the renewing of our minds david testify to this in psalms 119 verse 11 he says thy word have i hid in my heart that i might not sin against thee it's god's word that is the instrument it's god's holy spirit that is used to renew our minds in which in turn he uses a to transform our lives to a living sacrifice so how is your bible study going how is your prayer life because if we're not doing those things if we're not the basics we cannot expect to have a transformed life those are the the basics um people don't act like jesus because they don't think like jesus the only way i can know how jesus thought and his actions were being in his word i'm not going to go to the lost world and they're going to tell me how jesus perceived the world and how it act i'm not going to go to walmart and find it right um i know how i was as a lost teenager i would pick on those christian kids in school uh for talking about moon dust when they're trying to talk about creation versus evolution and i was just ignorant i didn't know there was a such thing as moon dust and and so you know i'm taking a rabbit trail here to get it back on course but um you're not going to find that out in the world the only place you're going to see what jesus was about and how we need to live our lives is through the scriptures through the word of god and his holy spirit taking up residence inside of us nobody let me say this nobody can walk with god for you nobody can walk with god for you you can't live off of other people's altars i can't live off of pastor josh's altar i can't and you can't either um you think about that who we all you know we come to church we come to be edified and built up so then we can go out like brother tom said and evangelize the world um but if if all i'm doing is getting sunday morning or wednesday night here and i'm not feeding upon the word of the lord and the word of god throughout the week i'm famished i'm not going to be in a right spiritual condition i'm not going to be able to face the the wiles of the devil i'm not going to be with to be able to be a light in my community and so we can't live off of other people's altars i used to say it all the time to our teens when i was back there with them before like you know the body parts started failing the workman's competition i'm just getting those verses if you're here sunday you get that um but you know i would tell the teens all the time you cannot live off your parents' altar you can't live off your grandparents' spiritual altar it has to be a personal intimate relationship between you and the lord and so if we ever feel that the lord is distant we need to check where we're at because he hasn't moved we have he we're the ones that are prone to wander and so listen to colossians 3 16 i love this verse let the word of christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing with grace in your hearts to the lord so that is just so rich let the word of christ dwell in you richly when we come to the word of god and whatever time you spend with the lord you know if you're a morning person and that's me i love to get up early and in the morning spend time with the lord some of you like man that that's devil workshop you know you're not a morning person you're not going to be in the spirit you're going to be in the flesh you haven't had the three cups of joe or coffee whatever you want to call it in the morning you're more of an afternoon person or maybe you're an evening but we need to know that when we come to the word of the lord that we we take time to dwell in it richly we let it meditate we let it soak in and we don't just haphazardly read it or just to check off a box we allow it to sink in we we meditate on it day and night as deuteronomy tells us and and so are we doing that the transform and renewed mind is the mind that is saturated with the word of god say again the mind that is renewed is is the word of this is a mind that is saturated with the word of god it is the mind that is set on the things above colossians 3 2 tells us that set your affections on things above not on things on this earth and so i if i can just be honest i was down and and just a little i i told brother tom about it on tuesday there's just things that go on and you see things in the the attack on families uh the attack on families in the church and the the the spiritual warfare that is going on and and you see sometimes spiritual um mentors that you look up to in the faith that fall and tuesday was one of those days for me it's just a rough day where like you see like just some some news that comes down and and some spiritual mentors you look at and just guys in the faith and so what i had to do is not allow that to deter my walk i had to set my affections on things above i had and what i did in that moment i realized i was starting to get a a downtrodden spirit or a downcasted soul as psalms would declare it and i went to the book of psalms and i read that and then i went to colossians chapter three verse two to remind me hey i need to set my affections on the things above and not on the things of this earth and so when we do this we make our lives a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to god which is just our reasonable service for what he has done to us or for us i should say and so that brings us to our last point tonight our will must be given to god and we see that at the end of chapter uh verse two there this it says in verse two after you renew your of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of god and so the third thing is christians that we must do is is offering god our will and allowing his spirit through his word to conform our will to his when we go to lord and prayer it's not to conform him to us it's not we're coming to him as a genie in a bottle and you will give us what we ask through prayer we are conforming our will to his we're allowing him to take root in our hearts and that we are conforming to his image our lives can prove what that will of god is only by doing the things that are good and acceptable and perfect to god i'll say that again our lives can prove what the will of god is only by doing those things that are good that are acceptable and perfect to god so perfect conveys the idea of being complete of something that is being everything it should be and so in our lives when we are looking for what will completely satisfy and we know that's not the things of this world the only thing that is is going to satisfy is the lord and and so our will should desire only what god desires and what he wants us to do and the way he wants us to do it our imperfect will must always be subject to his perfect will our wills are imperfect we're fallible creation he is infallible his word is infallible he is the perfect creator so in conclusion tonight a transformed mind produces a transform will by which we become able with the spirit's help to lay aside our own plans and to accept god's plans no matter the cost if you're here tonight and you have been born again you need to have that mindset and then what i mean by that this mindset i'm talking about is that god has the right to interrupt our lives anytime he wants god has the right to interrupt our lives anytime he wants that may look different to different people in this room some people you know may be called in the mission field some people may not but we cannot if we say that he is our lord and savior and we trust him with that and say okay lord you can have this area of my life but you cannot have this area god has the right to interrupt my life anytime he wants this continued yielding involves the desire to know god better and to follow and understand his purpose for our lives if we're continually to yield to his desire for our lives we're going to get to know god better we're going to get to know the will of god for our lives by yielding to him and what he has for us this divine transformation of our minds and wills must be constant because we are still continuously tempted through our flesh we are tempted daily in our flesh and our flesh is weak if we're not filled with the spirit our flesh is prone to fail it's prone to wander our minds must be continuously transformed through his word and through his holy spirit the end result or product of transformed minds is a life of complete surrender to the lord there's nothing that he cannot ask that i will not do um and that includes if it's if it's a death a martyred death one day things god has declared to be righteous fitting and complete i must seek to do in my life and so if you would stand with me tonight as the musicians come let's ask a few questions maybe you're here tonight and you don't know jesus christ is your lord and savior you've never called upon the name of lord with heads bowed and eyes closed is there anyone here tonight that says great i don't know that jesus is my savior i don't know that i've ever called upon him i don't know that heaven would be my home would anybody be willing to give an uplifted hand i'm not gonna call anybody out i just want to pray for you you don't know for sure that you've ever trusted jesus as your lord and savior maybe you're here tonight you say hey braden there's areas of my life that i need to surrender over to the lord maybe there's an area that you haven't fully surrendered as a living sacrifice to him that you're holding back maybe a an area of your life a room in your home per se would you be willing to give an uplifted hand that there's areas of my life that i have not surrendered to the lord see those hands hands all around lord we come before you you know every heart in here lord you know whether they are lost you know whether they are saved lord i pray that the first step for those that are here tonight that do not know you as their savior that tonight would be the night of salvation for them that they would come forward or that they would trust in you and that would be their first step of being a living sacrifice lord i pray for the hands that went up many hands went up lord that there are areas in our lives that we have not given over to you that we haven't fully surrendered or trusted you i pray lord that you would work in hearts or that those things would be laid down at the altar tonight the days to come the days to come lord that they could trust you you will never leave us you'll never forsake us and your will is far better in our lives when we have completely surrendered all to you lord take this invitation do with it what you would it's in jesus name that i pray amen