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Amen. Good job. It is now time for children's church. If we got any little tikes, you know
the way. Six and under. Head this way. The rest of us will be in Romans chapter 12 verse
two. Romans chapter 12 verse two. Romans chapter 12 verse two. I'll probably reference a handful
of scriptures today. So if you don't catch them as we're going through them, just ask
me afterwards. I'll tell you where they are so you can look them up. I would encourage
you to do so always. Romans chapter 12. That's in the New Testament. Romans chapter 12 verse
two. We'll read the text, then we'll pray and get started. Do not be conformed to this
age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may discern what is
the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God. Let's pray. Father God, we come to you today
and we thank you for your word. And what a good word this is for us, dear Lord, as we
face the temptations of the ways of the world, dear Lord. I pray, God, that we would be able
to stand up against those things, dear Lord, that we would not look like the world, but
that we would look different, that we would look like your children, dear Lord. So I pray,
dear Lord, that if there are some things in our life, in our hearts, in our minds that
should not be there this morning, that you would help us to deal with those things today,
that your word would begin to work in our life, that your spirit would speak to us today.
I pray that you'd keep me humble, dear Lord. I pray that you'd take away any fear that
I have today, and I pray that your Holy Spirit would just speak through me, that we each
would hear your word, and that it would help us to grow in you today. And I ask these things
in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Do not be conformed to this age. To be conformed to something
means to be like it, kind of following the same mold. Everything kind of take the same
form. And the problem we have with this age is that it's full of evil. Now, this is nothing
new. It's not like this just started in the 2000s. This has gone on since God has created
human beings. This is the age of humanity. In this age, on this planet, as we wake up
every day and go about our day, Paul gives us good instruction here. And that is, do
not be conformed to this age. And so it's a constant battle for us, because there's
a lot of things that this age presents to us that God says is wrong. However, it's easy
for us just kind of as we go through our life and we're around other people and we begin
to live in our sin and we get comfortable with our sin, we get to a point where we just
kind of get to where we just do what the world says is okay. There are things that God's
word says are wrong and maybe in our mind we know they're wrong, but they become so
accepted in the world that people really don't care too much about sins that maybe 50 years
ago, 100 years ago, that you wouldn't dare let known that you sinned in that way. And
nowadays we celebrate sin. Many sins that people used to be ashamed of, which should
be all sins for us, we begin to get comfortable with those sins. And so we begin to conform
to the world. Now, as God's people, there's a problem there. We should look more like
Jesus than we do like the world. And so there's part of our test today is that we have to
kind of look at our life and say, okay, we have to, it's hard for us to be unbiased.
We have to try our best to be unbiased and to kind of judge our life against the word
of God and say, when people see me, what do they see? If you are on trial for being a
Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you? Is there enough evidence in
your life to show that you look more like Jesus in the way you act and the things you
do? Or do you look more like the world? That's a little easier. It's a little easier to look
back the world and say, yeah, I like Jesus. I'm not opposed to God. I like God's word
and I believe in God, but I'm just going to kind of live in the way of the world. So it's
easy for us to be conformed. And sometimes you see that and hear that. One example is,
you may see people shackled up. You used to that wasn't too big a thing. And nowadays
it's getting to be more and more of a thing. And you'll say something about it. That's
not a godly thing to do. You shouldn't be doing that. God's word doesn't want us to
do that. He wants us to be married. He wants us to be husband and wife. And then somebody
will say something like, yeah, but that's old fashioned. It's 2025 now. Don't you know
the times have changed? Well, yeah, the times have changed, but God's word has not changed.
But what happens is as the times change, we conform more to what the world says. But what
Paul says is he says, do not be conformed to this age. Therefore be alert. Be alert
that what the things that the world puts before you and says are okay are not always okay.
And more times than not, they are not. More times than not, the things that are acceptable
and celebrated in this world are not in accordance with the word of God. So we have to check
ourselves and we have to say, am I conformed to this age? And maybe we are. We need to
be honest. We're not fooling anybody here today. Well, you might be fooling the person
sitting next to you. You're not fooling God. So you might as well be honest with yourself
this morning and say, am I conformed to this age? Have I put the word of God on the backburner?
Have I began to live for what the world says is okay, but what God says is not okay? So
don't be conformed to this age. So what does he say? For those of us who fall into that
trap who are conformed to this age, what does he say? He says, do not be conformed to this
age, but be transformed. That is, there needs to be a change that takes place in our life.
A change from the us who is a sinner and living for sin and living in the ways of the world.
There has to be a change that takes place. Now that change only occurs in one way we
see in scripture. That change only occurs through Jesus Christ. He is the only one that
can make us a new creation. So many times we kind of fall into this mold. We're all
the same. We're just conformed to the world. We're all in this mold. We're all just going
to live this way and the world says this is okay. And as long as I kind of fit this mold,
I'm good. But what Jesus wants to do is he wants to break the mold. Right now we're living
as the world tells us to live and there's no peace in that and there's no joy in that
and there's a lot of stress in that and there's pain and there's fear in that. But what Jesus
wants to do and what he came to do when he died on the cross is to break that mold so
that we would no longer be conformed and confined by the ways of the world, but that we would
be transformed into something different. When we become a Christian, there should be something
different in our life. We should look different. If we say today that I'm a follower of Jesus
Christ, then our life should look different. There should be some evidence that there has
been a transformation from what was there to something that is much greater, from something
that was quite normal to something that is spectacular. Now when I was a kid, and some
of you are in this age range, my favorite TV show as a kid, and I only caught the end
of it because I'm just old enough that it was just going off as I was getting old enough
to remember it, was Transformers. I love some Transformers. Still do. 41 years old. Love
Transformers. Boy, that was good stuff. And the lead Transformer, his name was Optimus
Prime and he was a cab over 18-wheeler, red with a white stripe down the side and you
saw that truck and it's just a truck, right? We've seen trucks. We all see cars and trucks
and 18-wheelers and all the things on the vehicle, they were called Autobots, the good
guys because they were all like automobiles and they looked like something normal that
was not unique, but there was something that was unique about them and that was they could
transform. They could turn from those trucks and cars into these big, huge, strong robots
that could always defeat the bad guys. There was a transformation that took place from
something that was ordinary like everything else to something that was extraordinary and
that's how it should be for us as Christians. We live like the world. We're like everybody
else in the world. There's nothing too spectacular about that. There's billions of people in
this world who live for the world. But when we come to Jesus Christ, there should be something
that's different. There should be a transformation that we're not normal anymore, that we're
not like the world anymore, but that we have been transformed and that's what Paul says.
Don't live like the world, but be transformed. If you are a child of God, if you've been
living in sin and you don't want to live for the world and the pain of the world, but you
want to be delivered today, then turn to Jesus Christ that he can transform you into something
beautiful and new. So don't be conformed to the world, but be transformed. How does that
take place? If we want to be transformed, maybe some of you are in here today and you
say, okay, well, I want to be transformed. I don't want to be like I'm being. I don't
want to live like the world. I want to be transformed. How does that transformation
take place? Well, he tells us, he says, do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed
by the renewing of your mind. There's the key right there. Be transformed by what? By
the renewing of our mind. We have to change our mindset. We have to change what we think
about, what we give our attention to, what our desires are on. We have to change our
mind. We have to have our mind renewed. We no longer want to focus on and dwell on and
live for the things of the world, but we want our mind to be cleansed that we begin to seek
and think and dwell on the things of God, on the word of God. Garbage in, garbage out.
You may have heard that before. You eat a bunch of junk all the time. Guess what? It's
going to have a bad effect on your body. It's going to affect you in a lot of ways. You
watch a bunch of bad stuff on TV, garbage in, guess what's going to come out? Garbage
out. You listen to a bunch of stuff around a lot of people with a lot of bad language.
You hear that it's going in, it's going in, then guess what's going to come out? It's
going to come out. So whatever we expose ourselves to, that's what's going to come out of us.
And so we have to decide what we are putting into our mind. We only have so much time in
a day, and how much of that time in our day is focused on the Lord? How much of it is
focused on the word of God? How much time is focused on prayer? How much time is self-reflecting
of us saying, okay God, there are some things in my life that shouldn't be there. Help me
to see these things. Help me to grow in these things. How much of that time is focused on
serving others? This is the way that we renew our mind. That we say, God, I'm opening up
my mind to you. That you would fill it with your word. That you would fill it with a desire
for me to consider others as more important than myself. And so if we're dealing with
a problem today of being conformed to the world, it's probably because our mind is on
the wrong thing. It might be on ourself. It probably is. It's easy to be selfish. We begin
to be real selfish, think about ourselves, what we want. We begin to soak in all the
things of the world. We begin to live for the things of the world. We begin to justify
the things of the world. And so we have to renew our mind. We have to change the way
we think. We have to change the way we live. We have to let the word of God permeate our
mind. And the Bible talks about this a lot. Now, the Bible talks about our mind and our
heart a lot. And yeah, we have in our body, we have an organ. We have a brain, which is
probably the most powerful organ in our body. It's unbelievable how powerful our brains
are. And they're super tiny. Your brain's only about the size of your two fist if you
put them together. Our brain is a beautiful organ. And our heart's a beautiful organ.
It pumps the blood through our veins and it keeps us going. And oftentimes we see the
scripture talk about our mind and talk about our heart, but not in the physical sense.
Not the organ, not our brain, and not our heart, but more in a spiritual sense that
our minds need to be renewed. That there's a problem with our mind and our heart. And
while there's a difference there, they kind of overlap. There's kind of some of the same
things when the scripture talks about our mind and our heart and what's within us and
what do we seek within us and what is our heart dwelling on and what is our mind dwelling
on. And our minds aren't too good. Your mind's not too good. It's pretty evil. The mind is.
And don't sweat it because you're not alone. This happened from Adam and Eve on. By the
time we get to Genesis chapter 6, it says that God saw the minds of all the people and
their minds was on evil all the time. It didn't take long for humanity's minds to become entrenched
just with evil things all the time. So this is nothing new to humanity. What we experience
is what those who have come before us have experienced. And the problem with that is,
is that Jeremiah chapter 17 verse 10 says that it's God who looks at the mind and God
who tests the heart to see what's there to give to all what they deserve according to
what they have done. So there's our problem. You see, our minds are sinful. Our minds are
selfish. Our minds dwell on the things of this world. We become conformed to this world.
We have a problem because the judge of this world sees right through anything we got on
the outside. He sees right into our mind. He sees right into our heart and he knows
that we are evil. Now the desire and the instruction and the command is simple. That we would seek
God. Now David, beautiful, beautiful story where this is mentioned about seeking God
with our heart and mind is found in 1st and 2nd Chronicles. David wanted to build this
temple for the Lord and God said, you got too much blood on your hands. You can't do
it, but your son can do it. So Solomon was going to do it and David was getting everything
prepared so Solomon could do this. And here's what he tells Solomon in 1st Chronicles chapter
22 verse 19. He says, now determine in your mind and heart to seek the Lord your God.
Now that's good instruction. He tells Solomon, before you embark on being the next king,
before you embark on building this temple for the Lord, before you embark on leading
these people, make sure that you determine in your mind and in your heart to seek the
Lord. That's good instruction. That's what we need to do today so that we will not be
conformed but that we will be transformed by the renewing of our mind that we would
determine today that in our mind and in our heart that we would seek God. That's the command.
Well David gave that command to Solomon and Solomon did pretty good. He started off pretty
good and even Solomon in all of his wisdom still failed. Even with a father like David
who also failed but knew the right thing to do and had the right instruction for a son
and Solomon failed and we fall into the same boat because we read these instructions today
and we say, okay I want a renewed mind. I want a mind that's determined to seek God
and Solomon understood that so much so that he even gave the same command to the people
in 2nd Chronicles chapter 6. Here's what Solomon says at the dedication of the temple. He's
kind of prophesying here what's going to happen. He's acknowledging to the people that there
are going to sin and that God is going to send an enemy to overtake them. But listen
to what he says. When they come to their senses he says in 2nd Chronicles chapter 6 verse
38, and when they return to you with their whole heart or excuse me with their whole
mind and heart. He says look God's people are going to be delivered when they turn to
God with their whole mind and with their whole heart. So we're just going on the same journey
that those who come before us have. Even some righteous men and women in scripture. Those
who were called godly men who tried to live for the Lord and are celebrated in scripture
even they knowing that they need to have a mind and a heart that is on God and on the
will of God even they sometimes fail. But Solomon gives us some good encouragement here
that is not just to the people he's talking to but to us as well. That if we would be
those who would seek God with all of our mind and all of our heart that we too would be
delivered today. So where is that deliverance going to come from? Because we have this struggle.
Because even coming in here today maybe you struggled last week or you struggled for years
and you say golly there's a part of me and I want to do right and I keep failing and
what am I going to do and how am I going to get my mind right and how am I going to get
my heart right? Well praise the Lord God provides the way for us. Now in 1st Samuel chapter
2 there's a story about a guy named Eli and he's a priest and his sons are coming after
him and they're evil and God is dealing with Eli and his sons because they're not fit to
be the priest of the people. And listen to what God says in 1st Samuel chapter 2 verse
35. He speaks of one who will come. He says, Then I will raise up a faithful priest for
myself. He will do whatever is in my heart and mine. So we see throughout the Old Testament
that God there's all these little clues and little nuggets and little hints that God's
preparing a way for his people who are sinful and all of these priests that God has prepared
and they're not fit for the job and all of these kings that he sent they're not fit for
the job they all fail but what does he say to Eli? He says I'm going to send a priest
one day. I'm going to send a priest and he will do whatever is in my heart and mind.
Well praise the Lord because that's where we fail. We fail to live up to the things
that God wants us to live up to and do the things that God wants us to do. And the priest
that God was going to send that would accomplish all of these things was Jesus Christ. It is
Jesus Christ who came and he had the mind of God and the heart of God to do the work
of God and that's where our hope is today because we fail. We come today and we fail
so many times but there's hope for us in Jesus Christ that if we would seek Jesus Christ,
if we would seek to live by the ways of Jesus Christ, if we would seek the word of God to
live by the word of Jesus Christ that God would begin to work in us, that God would
begin to transform our minds. Paul even says so. He says in the New Testament that we as
Christians have the mind of Christ. So Christ succeeds everywhere that you and I fail. And
so Paul says look don't be conformed to this age but be transformed by the renewing of
our mind. And our minds are renewed when we have a mind that is focused on God. Jesus
even tells us as much in Matthew chapter 22 verse 37. Jesus says love the Lord your God
with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. So Jesus gives us the
command. Paul says look, you need to be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And what is
Jesus say? Love the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. And
so if our minds need to be renewed today, then we need to start by seeking Jesus Christ.
We need to ask for some help. We need to say God I need you to help me with my mind because
there's this battle that goes on in our mind every day and in our hearts every day of whether
or not we're going to live by the word of God and the will of God or whether or not
we're going to cave and we're going to say what the world says okay is okay. We have
to fight this battle and we have to say God I need you to help me because I failed but
through Jesus Christ your son that died on a cross and rose for me God I know he has
the victory and so I pray God that you would guard my heart and mine. David gives a good
prayer in Psalm chapter 86 verse 11. He says teach me your way Yahweh and I will live by
your truth. Give me an undivided mind to fear your name. Maybe that needs to be our prayer
today. God give me an undivided mind. There are so many things in our lives that are competing
for our attention every day. There are a lot of things on our mind and that's something
that we cannot escape. There's a lot of things in life we can escape we can walk away from
but your mind it is always thinking. You're always thinking about work about school about
your children about your parents about church about whatever it is that's going on there
are always these things that are just competing for our attention and distracting us and what
happens sometimes is we get so caught up in all of these things our mind is divided and
God's word doesn't get any part of that division. Our time with God kind of kind of falls to
the wayside and we're kind of divided on well God's word says this but I'm so caught up
with this but maybe our prayer today needs to be God help my mind to be undivided. God
help me to seek you. God help my mind to be renewed so that I can be transformed and that
transformation can be apparent not for my glory but for your glory God. So maybe today
we need to change how we think. We need to change what we think about. We need to change
what what goes into our mind. We need to change what our mind focuses on. It's probably going
to be a battle for us because there's always stuff coming in. I'm going to have to pray
a hundred times a day. Okay God I need you to help my mind to be refocused. I need you
to to get my mind back on track. I need you to help my mind to stop thinking about these
evil things and desire and these evil things. But God put better things into my mind. God
put better people into my path. God give me opportunities to serve others and consider
them as more important to myself. God I pray that you would transform my mind today and
then once that occurs then we can begin to really live for the Lord because what does
Paul say at the end of the verse? He says do not be conformed to this age but be transformed
by the renewing of your mind so that you may discern what is the good pleasing and perfect
will of God. Well that should be what we want is to know the good pleasing and perfect will
of God. And sometimes we may ask ourselves what does God want me to do or I don't know
what to do here. Well maybe the reason why we don't know the good and perfect pleasing
will of God is because we've conformed to this world but if we would allow through Jesus
Christ our minds to be transformed, we would be transformed through the renewing of our
mind, we would begin to seek God with all of our mind and all of our heart then we may
begin to get some clarity in areas of our life that we have been seeking. We may be
saying what does God want me to do and how does he want me to do it? Well maybe if we
begin to seek God and we begin to put him at the forefront of our mind then we may be
able to see the goodness of God. We may be able to see what is pleasing to God. We may
be able to see what the will of God is for our life. How God wants to use us. How God
can use us to help others. How God can use us to serve him. And that only comes by the
renewing of our mind. It's a beautiful thing. When our mind is consumed by the things of
the world, golly that is so stressful. And some of you have experienced this. You've
just taken the time out of your life and you've given it to God and you begin to seek him
and you begin to trust him and you begin to listen to him and you begin to have your mind
transformed and you get clarity and you get joy and it is a beautiful thing when through
Jesus Christ we are no longer conformed to the world and God begins to transform us and
begins to grow us into the man or the woman that he wants to be. It is a freeing thing
for our mind. When we say God this stuff is here, work is here, school is here. This is
serious stuff that I've got to deal with but God it cannot be more important than you and
we shift things around and we give God the best of our mind. We focus on God first. What
a beautiful thing it is and a freeing thing it is that we find some peace there. And that
comes through the renewing of our mind through Jesus Christ. One more scripture. Isaiah chapter
26 verse 3 says this, you will keep the mind that is dependent on you in perfect peace.
Is your mind dependent on the Lord today? Is your mind dependent on something else?
What gets the most of your mind every day? What do you spend your thoughts on and your
focus on? What a beautiful promise that we have here in Isaiah chapter 28 verse 3. You
will keep the mind that is dependent on you in perfect peace. Some of you are looking
for peace today. I want to tell you that peace only comes through Jesus Christ. That peace
will come today if you would focus your mind on the Lord and the word of the Lord and the
ways of the Lord. That we would find peace today in Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Father
God we come to you, we thank you for your good word and I pray today that you would
help us not to be conformed to the ways of the world. Dear Lord, we're probably, I suspect
you're guilty of that, every one of us in this room in some way. The world is so alluring
to us dear Lord and the world just makes a lot of compromises with your word and can
convince us that God that we just need to do it the way the world says and not worry
about your word but we're in a bad place dear Lord when we get to that shape. So I pray
that we would seek your word. That we would listen to your word and pay attention to it
God. That we would not compromise your word but that we would live by it. God I pray that
we wouldn't give in to the ways of the world. That we would not be conformed to this age
but I pray today that you would bring about transformation in our lives. God maybe there
are some in this building and they've been living for the world their whole life. They
don't know anything different but they know they're not enjoying life. They know that
there's no peace and there's no joy. And God if that's the case I pray today that if any
feel that way that they would know that there is hope in Jesus Christ. That today that they
would confess their sinfulness. That they would turn from living for themselves and
living for the world and start living for Jesus Christ. I pray that they would ask you
to forgive them today dear Lord. That they would turn from their sinful ways. That they
would seek you. That they may be transformed this morning. God I pray for those of you
in this place that are here in this place dear Lord that are yours and maybe we hadn't
been living the way we should. God I pray that you'd bring about a great transformation
in our life. That we would not be those who are okay with a little sin and what the world
says is okay. But God we realize that we live by a higher standard and that is your word
and the example of Jesus Christ. So God I pray that if there are some in here today
that are yours that you would just help us to be transformed. Maybe we started the process
and you worked in us and we just let sin get the best of us and we've just kind of been
stagnant dear Lord. I pray today that you would just help us to grow and transform into
the men and the women that you want us to be. And God that only starts by the renewing
of our minds. So I pray dear Lord that you would help our minds to be renewed. God maybe
today there are some in here and their mind is just full of shame and guilt of sin. I
pray God that they would repent of that. That they would give that to you. That you would
free them from that burden today to know that it has been forgiven in Jesus Christ. Dear
Lord I pray that you would help our minds to be renewed. That we wouldn't focus so
much on the world but dear Lord that we would take more time to focus on you and think about
you and what you say and your words say and your commands are dear Lord. So I pray that
you would work in our minds today. That you would help us to be those who have a mind
that seeks you first and foremost. God I pray that we would be those who would seek you
with our heart and our mind that we would determine today just as David had commanded
Solomon that we would determine to seek you with all that is within us. And I pray today
that each one would find peace. That we would find peace today. That we would be the ones
who would seek you with all of our heart and all of our mind that there would be peace
for us today. And I ask these things in Jesus name. Amen. If God has spoken to you today
in some way now is your opportunity to respond as we stand and sing. Jesus meet me near the
cross, there of precious mountain, free to all the heaving strain, fools from doubtless
mountain, in the cross, in the cross be my glory ever, till my ransom soul shall find
rest beyond the river. Near the cross, the trembling soul, love and mercy found me,
where the bright and glory star sheds its beams around me, in the cross, in the cross
be my glory ever, till my ransom soul shall find rest beyond the river. Thank you all
for coming this morning. Don't forget if you would be interested in helping to prepare
a meal for Mr. Paul and his family, just come hang out here on the front couple of pews
after a service today and we'll kind of work on the schedule and see what we can do to
help them. Brother Sidney, would you close us with a prayer?
Lord, hear me.