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потрясårlig

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inci

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Amen. Good job. It is now time for children's church. If we got any little tikes, you know

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the way. Six and under. Head this way. The rest of us will be in Romans chapter 12 verse

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two. Romans chapter 12 verse two. Romans chapter 12 verse two. I'll probably reference a handful

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of scriptures today. So if you don't catch them as we're going through them, just ask

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me afterwards. I'll tell you where they are so you can look them up. I would encourage

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you to do so always. Romans chapter 12. That's in the New Testament. Romans chapter 12 verse

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two. We'll read the text, then we'll pray and get started. Do not be conformed to this

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age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may discern what is

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the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God. Let's pray. Father God, we come to you today

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and we thank you for your word. And what a good word this is for us, dear Lord, as we

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face the temptations of the ways of the world, dear Lord. I pray, God, that we would be able

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to stand up against those things, dear Lord, that we would not look like the world, but

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that we would look different, that we would look like your children, dear Lord. So I pray,

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dear Lord, that if there are some things in our life, in our hearts, in our minds that

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should not be there this morning, that you would help us to deal with those things today,

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that your word would begin to work in our life, that your spirit would speak to us today.

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I pray that you'd keep me humble, dear Lord. I pray that you'd take away any fear that

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I have today, and I pray that your Holy Spirit would just speak through me, that we each

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would hear your word, and that it would help us to grow in you today. And I ask these things

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in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Do not be conformed to this age. To be conformed to something

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means to be like it, kind of following the same mold. Everything kind of take the same

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form. And the problem we have with this age is that it's full of evil. Now, this is nothing

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new. It's not like this just started in the 2000s. This has gone on since God has created

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human beings. This is the age of humanity. In this age, on this planet, as we wake up

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every day and go about our day, Paul gives us good instruction here. And that is, do

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not be conformed to this age. And so it's a constant battle for us, because there's

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a lot of things that this age presents to us that God says is wrong. However, it's easy

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for us just kind of as we go through our life and we're around other people and we begin

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to live in our sin and we get comfortable with our sin, we get to a point where we just

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kind of get to where we just do what the world says is okay. There are things that God's

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word says are wrong and maybe in our mind we know they're wrong, but they become so

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accepted in the world that people really don't care too much about sins that maybe 50 years

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ago, 100 years ago, that you wouldn't dare let known that you sinned in that way. And

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nowadays we celebrate sin. Many sins that people used to be ashamed of, which should

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be all sins for us, we begin to get comfortable with those sins. And so we begin to conform

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to the world. Now, as God's people, there's a problem there. We should look more like

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Jesus than we do like the world. And so there's part of our test today is that we have to

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kind of look at our life and say, okay, we have to, it's hard for us to be unbiased.

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We have to try our best to be unbiased and to kind of judge our life against the word

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of God and say, when people see me, what do they see? If you are on trial for being a

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Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you? Is there enough evidence in

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your life to show that you look more like Jesus in the way you act and the things you

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do? Or do you look more like the world? That's a little easier. It's a little easier to look

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back the world and say, yeah, I like Jesus. I'm not opposed to God. I like God's word

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and I believe in God, but I'm just going to kind of live in the way of the world. So it's

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easy for us to be conformed. And sometimes you see that and hear that. One example is,

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you may see people shackled up. You used to that wasn't too big a thing. And nowadays

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it's getting to be more and more of a thing. And you'll say something about it. That's

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not a godly thing to do. You shouldn't be doing that. God's word doesn't want us to

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do that. He wants us to be married. He wants us to be husband and wife. And then somebody

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will say something like, yeah, but that's old fashioned. It's 2025 now. Don't you know

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the times have changed? Well, yeah, the times have changed, but God's word has not changed.

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But what happens is as the times change, we conform more to what the world says. But what

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Paul says is he says, do not be conformed to this age. Therefore be alert. Be alert

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that what the things that the world puts before you and says are okay are not always okay.

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And more times than not, they are not. More times than not, the things that are acceptable

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and celebrated in this world are not in accordance with the word of God. So we have to check

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ourselves and we have to say, am I conformed to this age? And maybe we are. We need to

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be honest. We're not fooling anybody here today. Well, you might be fooling the person

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sitting next to you. You're not fooling God. So you might as well be honest with yourself

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this morning and say, am I conformed to this age? Have I put the word of God on the backburner?

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Have I began to live for what the world says is okay, but what God says is not okay? So

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don't be conformed to this age. So what does he say? For those of us who fall into that

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trap who are conformed to this age, what does he say? He says, do not be conformed to this

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age, but be transformed. That is, there needs to be a change that takes place in our life.

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A change from the us who is a sinner and living for sin and living in the ways of the world.

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There has to be a change that takes place. Now that change only occurs in one way we

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see in scripture. That change only occurs through Jesus Christ. He is the only one that

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can make us a new creation. So many times we kind of fall into this mold. We're all

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the same. We're just conformed to the world. We're all in this mold. We're all just going

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to live this way and the world says this is okay. And as long as I kind of fit this mold,

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I'm good. But what Jesus wants to do is he wants to break the mold. Right now we're living

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as the world tells us to live and there's no peace in that and there's no joy in that

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and there's a lot of stress in that and there's pain and there's fear in that. But what Jesus

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wants to do and what he came to do when he died on the cross is to break that mold so

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that we would no longer be conformed and confined by the ways of the world, but that we would

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be transformed into something different. When we become a Christian, there should be something

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different in our life. We should look different. If we say today that I'm a follower of Jesus

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Christ, then our life should look different. There should be some evidence that there has

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been a transformation from what was there to something that is much greater, from something

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that was quite normal to something that is spectacular. Now when I was a kid, and some

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of you are in this age range, my favorite TV show as a kid, and I only caught the end

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of it because I'm just old enough that it was just going off as I was getting old enough

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to remember it, was Transformers. I love some Transformers. Still do. 41 years old. Love

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Transformers. Boy, that was good stuff. And the lead Transformer, his name was Optimus

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Prime and he was a cab over 18-wheeler, red with a white stripe down the side and you

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saw that truck and it's just a truck, right? We've seen trucks. We all see cars and trucks

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and 18-wheelers and all the things on the vehicle, they were called Autobots, the good

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guys because they were all like automobiles and they looked like something normal that

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was not unique, but there was something that was unique about them and that was they could

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transform. They could turn from those trucks and cars into these big, huge, strong robots

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that could always defeat the bad guys. There was a transformation that took place from

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something that was ordinary like everything else to something that was extraordinary and

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that's how it should be for us as Christians. We live like the world. We're like everybody

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else in the world. There's nothing too spectacular about that. There's billions of people in

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this world who live for the world. But when we come to Jesus Christ, there should be something

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that's different. There should be a transformation that we're not normal anymore, that we're

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not like the world anymore, but that we have been transformed and that's what Paul says.

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Don't live like the world, but be transformed. If you are a child of God, if you've been

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living in sin and you don't want to live for the world and the pain of the world, but you

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want to be delivered today, then turn to Jesus Christ that he can transform you into something

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beautiful and new. So don't be conformed to the world, but be transformed. How does that

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take place? If we want to be transformed, maybe some of you are in here today and you

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say, okay, well, I want to be transformed. I don't want to be like I'm being. I don't

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want to live like the world. I want to be transformed. How does that transformation

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take place? Well, he tells us, he says, do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed

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by the renewing of your mind. There's the key right there. Be transformed by what? By

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the renewing of our mind. We have to change our mindset. We have to change what we think

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about, what we give our attention to, what our desires are on. We have to change our

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mind. We have to have our mind renewed. We no longer want to focus on and dwell on and

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live for the things of the world, but we want our mind to be cleansed that we begin to seek

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and think and dwell on the things of God, on the word of God. Garbage in, garbage out.

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You may have heard that before. You eat a bunch of junk all the time. Guess what? It's

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going to have a bad effect on your body. It's going to affect you in a lot of ways. You

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watch a bunch of bad stuff on TV, garbage in, guess what's going to come out? Garbage

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out. You listen to a bunch of stuff around a lot of people with a lot of bad language.

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You hear that it's going in, it's going in, then guess what's going to come out? It's

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going to come out. So whatever we expose ourselves to, that's what's going to come out of us.

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And so we have to decide what we are putting into our mind. We only have so much time in

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a day, and how much of that time in our day is focused on the Lord? How much of it is

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focused on the word of God? How much time is focused on prayer? How much time is self-reflecting

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of us saying, okay God, there are some things in my life that shouldn't be there. Help me

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to see these things. Help me to grow in these things. How much of that time is focused on

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serving others? This is the way that we renew our mind. That we say, God, I'm opening up

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my mind to you. That you would fill it with your word. That you would fill it with a desire

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for me to consider others as more important than myself. And so if we're dealing with

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a problem today of being conformed to the world, it's probably because our mind is on

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the wrong thing. It might be on ourself. It probably is. It's easy to be selfish. We begin

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to be real selfish, think about ourselves, what we want. We begin to soak in all the

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things of the world. We begin to live for the things of the world. We begin to justify

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the things of the world. And so we have to renew our mind. We have to change the way

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we think. We have to change the way we live. We have to let the word of God permeate our

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mind. And the Bible talks about this a lot. Now, the Bible talks about our mind and our

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heart a lot. And yeah, we have in our body, we have an organ. We have a brain, which is

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probably the most powerful organ in our body. It's unbelievable how powerful our brains

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are. And they're super tiny. Your brain's only about the size of your two fist if you

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put them together. Our brain is a beautiful organ. And our heart's a beautiful organ.

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It pumps the blood through our veins and it keeps us going. And oftentimes we see the

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scripture talk about our mind and talk about our heart, but not in the physical sense.

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Not the organ, not our brain, and not our heart, but more in a spiritual sense that

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our minds need to be renewed. That there's a problem with our mind and our heart. And

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while there's a difference there, they kind of overlap. There's kind of some of the same

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things when the scripture talks about our mind and our heart and what's within us and

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what do we seek within us and what is our heart dwelling on and what is our mind dwelling

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on. And our minds aren't too good. Your mind's not too good. It's pretty evil. The mind is.

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And don't sweat it because you're not alone. This happened from Adam and Eve on. By the

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time we get to Genesis chapter 6, it says that God saw the minds of all the people and

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their minds was on evil all the time. It didn't take long for humanity's minds to become entrenched

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just with evil things all the time. So this is nothing new to humanity. What we experience

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is what those who have come before us have experienced. And the problem with that is,

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is that Jeremiah chapter 17 verse 10 says that it's God who looks at the mind and God

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who tests the heart to see what's there to give to all what they deserve according to

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what they have done. So there's our problem. You see, our minds are sinful. Our minds are

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selfish. Our minds dwell on the things of this world. We become conformed to this world.

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We have a problem because the judge of this world sees right through anything we got on

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the outside. He sees right into our mind. He sees right into our heart and he knows

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that we are evil. Now the desire and the instruction and the command is simple. That we would seek

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God. Now David, beautiful, beautiful story where this is mentioned about seeking God

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with our heart and mind is found in 1st and 2nd Chronicles. David wanted to build this

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temple for the Lord and God said, you got too much blood on your hands. You can't do

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it, but your son can do it. So Solomon was going to do it and David was getting everything

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prepared so Solomon could do this. And here's what he tells Solomon in 1st Chronicles chapter

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22 verse 19. He says, now determine in your mind and heart to seek the Lord your God.

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Now that's good instruction. He tells Solomon, before you embark on being the next king,

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before you embark on building this temple for the Lord, before you embark on leading

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these people, make sure that you determine in your mind and in your heart to seek the

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Lord. That's good instruction. That's what we need to do today so that we will not be

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conformed but that we will be transformed by the renewing of our mind that we would

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determine today that in our mind and in our heart that we would seek God. That's the command.

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Well David gave that command to Solomon and Solomon did pretty good. He started off pretty

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good and even Solomon in all of his wisdom still failed. Even with a father like David

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who also failed but knew the right thing to do and had the right instruction for a son

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and Solomon failed and we fall into the same boat because we read these instructions today

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and we say, okay I want a renewed mind. I want a mind that's determined to seek God

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and Solomon understood that so much so that he even gave the same command to the people

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in 2nd Chronicles chapter 6. Here's what Solomon says at the dedication of the temple. He's

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kind of prophesying here what's going to happen. He's acknowledging to the people that there

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are going to sin and that God is going to send an enemy to overtake them. But listen

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to what he says. When they come to their senses he says in 2nd Chronicles chapter 6 verse

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38, and when they return to you with their whole heart or excuse me with their whole

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mind and heart. He says look God's people are going to be delivered when they turn to

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God with their whole mind and with their whole heart. So we're just going on the same journey

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that those who come before us have. Even some righteous men and women in scripture. Those

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who were called godly men who tried to live for the Lord and are celebrated in scripture

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even they knowing that they need to have a mind and a heart that is on God and on the

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will of God even they sometimes fail. But Solomon gives us some good encouragement here

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that is not just to the people he's talking to but to us as well. That if we would be

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those who would seek God with all of our mind and all of our heart that we too would be

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delivered today. So where is that deliverance going to come from? Because we have this struggle.

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Because even coming in here today maybe you struggled last week or you struggled for years

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and you say golly there's a part of me and I want to do right and I keep failing and

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what am I going to do and how am I going to get my mind right and how am I going to get

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my heart right? Well praise the Lord God provides the way for us. Now in 1st Samuel chapter

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2 there's a story about a guy named Eli and he's a priest and his sons are coming after

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him and they're evil and God is dealing with Eli and his sons because they're not fit to

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be the priest of the people. And listen to what God says in 1st Samuel chapter 2 verse

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35. He speaks of one who will come. He says, Then I will raise up a faithful priest for

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myself. He will do whatever is in my heart and mine. So we see throughout the Old Testament

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that God there's all these little clues and little nuggets and little hints that God's

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preparing a way for his people who are sinful and all of these priests that God has prepared

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and they're not fit for the job and all of these kings that he sent they're not fit for

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the job they all fail but what does he say to Eli? He says I'm going to send a priest

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one day. I'm going to send a priest and he will do whatever is in my heart and mind.

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Well praise the Lord because that's where we fail. We fail to live up to the things

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that God wants us to live up to and do the things that God wants us to do. And the priest

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that God was going to send that would accomplish all of these things was Jesus Christ. It is

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Jesus Christ who came and he had the mind of God and the heart of God to do the work

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of God and that's where our hope is today because we fail. We come today and we fail

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so many times but there's hope for us in Jesus Christ that if we would seek Jesus Christ,

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if we would seek to live by the ways of Jesus Christ, if we would seek the word of God to

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live by the word of Jesus Christ that God would begin to work in us, that God would

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begin to transform our minds. Paul even says so. He says in the New Testament that we as

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Christians have the mind of Christ. So Christ succeeds everywhere that you and I fail. And

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so Paul says look don't be conformed to this age but be transformed by the renewing of

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our mind. And our minds are renewed when we have a mind that is focused on God. Jesus

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even tells us as much in Matthew chapter 22 verse 37. Jesus says love the Lord your God

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with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. So Jesus gives us the

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command. Paul says look, you need to be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And what is

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Jesus say? Love the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. And

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so if our minds need to be renewed today, then we need to start by seeking Jesus Christ.

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We need to ask for some help. We need to say God I need you to help me with my mind because

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there's this battle that goes on in our mind every day and in our hearts every day of whether

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or not we're going to live by the word of God and the will of God or whether or not

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we're going to cave and we're going to say what the world says okay is okay. We have

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to fight this battle and we have to say God I need you to help me because I failed but

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through Jesus Christ your son that died on a cross and rose for me God I know he has

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the victory and so I pray God that you would guard my heart and mine. David gives a good

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prayer in Psalm chapter 86 verse 11. He says teach me your way Yahweh and I will live by

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your truth. Give me an undivided mind to fear your name. Maybe that needs to be our prayer

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today. God give me an undivided mind. There are so many things in our lives that are competing

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for our attention every day. There are a lot of things on our mind and that's something

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that we cannot escape. There's a lot of things in life we can escape we can walk away from

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but your mind it is always thinking. You're always thinking about work about school about

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your children about your parents about church about whatever it is that's going on there

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are always these things that are just competing for our attention and distracting us and what

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happens sometimes is we get so caught up in all of these things our mind is divided and

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God's word doesn't get any part of that division. Our time with God kind of kind of falls to

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the wayside and we're kind of divided on well God's word says this but I'm so caught up

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with this but maybe our prayer today needs to be God help my mind to be undivided. God

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help me to seek you. God help my mind to be renewed so that I can be transformed and that

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transformation can be apparent not for my glory but for your glory God. So maybe today

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we need to change how we think. We need to change what we think about. We need to change

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what what goes into our mind. We need to change what our mind focuses on. It's probably going

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to be a battle for us because there's always stuff coming in. I'm going to have to pray

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a hundred times a day. Okay God I need you to help my mind to be refocused. I need you

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to to get my mind back on track. I need you to help my mind to stop thinking about these

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evil things and desire and these evil things. But God put better things into my mind. God

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put better people into my path. God give me opportunities to serve others and consider

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them as more important to myself. God I pray that you would transform my mind today and

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then once that occurs then we can begin to really live for the Lord because what does

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Paul say at the end of the verse? He says do not be conformed to this age but be transformed

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by the renewing of your mind so that you may discern what is the good pleasing and perfect

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will of God. Well that should be what we want is to know the good pleasing and perfect will

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of God. And sometimes we may ask ourselves what does God want me to do or I don't know

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what to do here. Well maybe the reason why we don't know the good and perfect pleasing

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will of God is because we've conformed to this world but if we would allow through Jesus

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Christ our minds to be transformed, we would be transformed through the renewing of our

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mind, we would begin to seek God with all of our mind and all of our heart then we may

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begin to get some clarity in areas of our life that we have been seeking. We may be

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saying what does God want me to do and how does he want me to do it? Well maybe if we

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begin to seek God and we begin to put him at the forefront of our mind then we may be

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able to see the goodness of God. We may be able to see what is pleasing to God. We may

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be able to see what the will of God is for our life. How God wants to use us. How God

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can use us to help others. How God can use us to serve him. And that only comes by the

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renewing of our mind. It's a beautiful thing. When our mind is consumed by the things of

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the world, golly that is so stressful. And some of you have experienced this. You've

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just taken the time out of your life and you've given it to God and you begin to seek him

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and you begin to trust him and you begin to listen to him and you begin to have your mind

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transformed and you get clarity and you get joy and it is a beautiful thing when through

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Jesus Christ we are no longer conformed to the world and God begins to transform us and

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begins to grow us into the man or the woman that he wants to be. It is a freeing thing

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for our mind. When we say God this stuff is here, work is here, school is here. This is

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serious stuff that I've got to deal with but God it cannot be more important than you and

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we shift things around and we give God the best of our mind. We focus on God first. What

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a beautiful thing it is and a freeing thing it is that we find some peace there. And that

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comes through the renewing of our mind through Jesus Christ. One more scripture. Isaiah chapter

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26 verse 3 says this, you will keep the mind that is dependent on you in perfect peace.

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Is your mind dependent on the Lord today? Is your mind dependent on something else?

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What gets the most of your mind every day? What do you spend your thoughts on and your

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focus on? What a beautiful promise that we have here in Isaiah chapter 28 verse 3. You

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will keep the mind that is dependent on you in perfect peace. Some of you are looking

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for peace today. I want to tell you that peace only comes through Jesus Christ. That peace

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will come today if you would focus your mind on the Lord and the word of the Lord and the

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ways of the Lord. That we would find peace today in Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Father

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God we come to you, we thank you for your good word and I pray today that you would

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help us not to be conformed to the ways of the world. Dear Lord, we're probably, I suspect

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you're guilty of that, every one of us in this room in some way. The world is so alluring

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to us dear Lord and the world just makes a lot of compromises with your word and can

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convince us that God that we just need to do it the way the world says and not worry

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about your word but we're in a bad place dear Lord when we get to that shape. So I pray

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that we would seek your word. That we would listen to your word and pay attention to it

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God. That we would not compromise your word but that we would live by it. God I pray that

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we wouldn't give in to the ways of the world. That we would not be conformed to this age

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but I pray today that you would bring about transformation in our lives. God maybe there

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are some in this building and they've been living for the world their whole life. They

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don't know anything different but they know they're not enjoying life. They know that

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there's no peace and there's no joy. And God if that's the case I pray today that if any

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feel that way that they would know that there is hope in Jesus Christ. That today that they

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would confess their sinfulness. That they would turn from living for themselves and

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living for the world and start living for Jesus Christ. I pray that they would ask you

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to forgive them today dear Lord. That they would turn from their sinful ways. That they

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would seek you. That they may be transformed this morning. God I pray for those of you

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in this place that are here in this place dear Lord that are yours and maybe we hadn't

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been living the way we should. God I pray that you'd bring about a great transformation

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in our life. That we would not be those who are okay with a little sin and what the world

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says is okay. But God we realize that we live by a higher standard and that is your word

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and the example of Jesus Christ. So God I pray that if there are some in here today

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that are yours that you would just help us to be transformed. Maybe we started the process

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and you worked in us and we just let sin get the best of us and we've just kind of been

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stagnant dear Lord. I pray today that you would just help us to grow and transform into

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the men and the women that you want us to be. And God that only starts by the renewing

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of our minds. So I pray dear Lord that you would help our minds to be renewed. God maybe

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today there are some in here and their mind is just full of shame and guilt of sin. I

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pray God that they would repent of that. That they would give that to you. That you would

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free them from that burden today to know that it has been forgiven in Jesus Christ. Dear

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Lord I pray that you would help our minds to be renewed. That we wouldn't focus so

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much on the world but dear Lord that we would take more time to focus on you and think about

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you and what you say and your words say and your commands are dear Lord. So I pray that

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you would work in our minds today. That you would help us to be those who have a mind

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that seeks you first and foremost. God I pray that we would be those who would seek you

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with our heart and our mind that we would determine today just as David had commanded

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Solomon that we would determine to seek you with all that is within us. And I pray today

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that each one would find peace. That we would find peace today. That we would be the ones

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who would seek you with all of our heart and all of our mind that there would be peace

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for us today. And I ask these things in Jesus name. Amen. If God has spoken to you today

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in some way now is your opportunity to respond as we stand and sing. Jesus meet me near the

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cross, there of precious mountain, free to all the heaving strain, fools from doubtless

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mountain, in the cross, in the cross be my glory ever, till my ransom soul shall find

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rest beyond the river. Near the cross, the trembling soul, love and mercy found me,

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where the bright and glory star sheds its beams around me, in the cross, in the cross

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be my glory ever, till my ransom soul shall find rest beyond the river. Thank you all

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for coming this morning. Don't forget if you would be interested in helping to prepare

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a meal for Mr. Paul and his family, just come hang out here on the front couple of pews

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after a service today and we'll kind of work on the schedule and see what we can do to

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help them. Brother Sidney, would you close us with a prayer?

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Lord, hear me.