Introduction:
What is God's Will for Me? (Romans 12:1-2):
- Alter Get On It. (Romans 12:1)
Psalm 116:12 - What shall I render to the LORD for all his benefits to me?
- Bible Get In It. (Romans 12:2a)
Joshua 1:8 - This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.
Psalm 1:2-3 - his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. ...In all that he does, he prospers.
- Choices Get Making Them. (Romans 12:2b)
God's Will for His People:
- It Is God's Will That I Am Saved. (1 Timothy 2:3–4)
- It Is God's Will That I Am Filled With The Holy Spirit. (Ephesians 5:17-18)
- It Is God's Will That I Am Morally Pure. (1 Thessalonians 4:3)
- It Is God's Will That I Submit To The Government. (1 Peter 2:13-15)
- (Sometimes) It Is God's Will That I Suffer. (1 Peter 4:19)
- It Is God's Will That I Am Thankful In All Circumstances. (1 Thessalonians 5:18)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:54-01:47
I would ask that you would please pray for me to be faithful to communicate God's Word and I will pray for you to have a heart open to receiving the Word of God today. Let's pray. Father in heaven we believe that your word is like a lion that we don't need to defend it we just got to let it out of the cage and it'll take care of itself. So I'm praying Father that that's what's happening here over these next several minutes that your Word is just let loose and we trust your Holy Spirit to work with the Word in ways that maybe we can't fully comprehend, but we know it works and we believe, Father. Glorify your name through your word we ask in Jesus name.
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And all of God's people said, amen.
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Open up your Bibles with me please to the book of Romans chapter 12.
01:57-02:04
And we're in this series called intentional wisdom, intentional because nothing important happens by accident, right?
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Intentional wisdom.
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And this series is the lost art of discernment.
02:11-02:21
Last week, we talked about discernment And we saw John saying, "Stop believing everything that you hear.
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Test everything, use discernment." Speaking of, look at Romans 12.
02:32-02:34
We're just gonna look at two verses today.
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Paul writes, "I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
02:58-03:14
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may, oh, there it is, Discern.
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Discern what?
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You may discern what is the will of God.
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What is good and acceptable and perfect.
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So this passage is about discerning the will of God.
03:41-03:42
And that's what we're gonna talk about today.
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the will of God, because quite honestly, a lot of Christians, when it comes to understanding the will of God, they get a little weird, a little weird about that.
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Like, what do you mean?
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Well, let me give you a couple of examples.
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When I was in Bible college, there was a guy that was dating this girl and she broke up with him.
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He showed up at her dorm room, pounding.
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God told us that we're supposed to be together.
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God told me, God told me that we're supposed to be together.
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Hopefully God told her to call the police.
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But God told him.
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Did he?
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And then fast forward, one of my very first counseling sessions, a lady had come to the church office And I said, "Well, what seems to be the problem?" And she said, "I'm just," she goes, "I don't know what to do "because I feel like if I come to church, "maybe a friend is gonna call me at home "and I'm gonna miss that call "and I'm gonna miss the opportunity to help my friend.
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"But if I stay home waiting for a call from a friend "that might need my help, I don't come to church "and I miss maybe what God wants to teach me at church.
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"I don't know what to do." And listen, that might sound goofy or silly or trivial to us, but this poor woman was in tears because she was so concerned that she was going to miss the will of God for her life.
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Had another person who's a friend of mine whose daughter got married to a guy that, not great, let's just leave it at that, right?
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Not a great guy.
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And I was shocked when he said, you know what?
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maybe my daughter should just get a divorce.
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And I was shocked to hear this man say that.
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And he said, because, you know, maybe it just wasn't God's will that she married this guy.
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I'm like, is that how it works?
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In any of these scenarios, and I can give you a lot more, but in any of these scenarios, is that how the will of God works?
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(congregation murmurs)
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What is God's will?
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You know, we face situations as Christians where we just wanna know what God wants.
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Maybe you're buying a house and you're thinking, is it God's will that I buy this house?
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Is it God's will that I live in this neighborhood next to these people?
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How do I know this is God's will?
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Or maybe you're trying to decide on a college to go to.
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What is God's will?
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Like, where should I study?
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Like, how do I know where God wants me to go to school?
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Or maybe it's a career choice.
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Like, what does God want me to do with my life in a vocational sense?
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Or how do I know what he wants me to do?
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Or maybe it's choosing a church.
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How do I know which church I should be a part of where I'm serving God?
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What if I'm in the wrong church wrong ministry and what like, am I gonna show up in heaven someday and God's like you completely missed where I wanted you. Like is that possible? Or what about, oh here's a big one, but the person you're supposed to marry. You know some people think there's exactly one person out there that I'm supposed to marry and boy I sure hope I find her. Because what if I marry the wrong person? What if I marry the person that wasn't God's will for me to marry.
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And then we have kids, and maybe these kids weren't supposed to exist.
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And now we've completely taken the apple cart of God's will and turned it over.
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What about if you have a spouse that's unfaithful?
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What does God want me to do?
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What is God's will in this situation?
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What if you have a loved one on life support?
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And it has fallen on you to make the decision.
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If it's time to turn off the machines and let nature take its course.
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Serious issue, isn't it?
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How do I know God's will?
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How do I know God's will?
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Is my life mapped out?
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Like God has this path for me, and I gotta make sure that I stay on that path so that I'm always in God's will.
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That leads to the question, well, what if I get off that path?
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Can I get back on?
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Or what if I put myself in a situation, like a marriage situation or a career situation, or it's just not so easy to jump back on a path.
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Have I forfeited what God wants for me?
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Is that my life?
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Just a waste because I forfeited what God wants for me.
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Well, the Bible says so much about God's will.
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And as followers of Jesus Christ, we should want God's will more than anybody.
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So the question on the table is, how do I know what it is?
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Well, we have a lot of techniques that we use to try to determine God's will.
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These aren't great ones, by the way.
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I'm gonna give you a few that we use that aren't great techniques for learning God's will.
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One is feelings.
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Some people say, you just gotta trust your heart.
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That's a dumb idea.
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You know what the Bible says about your heart?
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It's deceitful above all things.
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you gonna trust that liar?
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True or false?
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Plus when it comes to feelings, look, feelings change constantly.
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They, feelings change.
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One minute you're like, I love this woman more than anything in the world.
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The next minute you're like, I really don't wanna be around her.
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I mean, not me, I'm speaking for somebody else.
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(congregation laughing)
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You knew that.
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But you can't just say, well, okay, I, this is God's will because I have peace about it.
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I have peace about it.
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Do you know who else had peace?
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Was Jonah sleeping on the boat?
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He had total peace about the decisions he was making in life, running from God.
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Peace about it's not a great indicator.
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And oh, by the way, Proverbs 3 tells us to lean not Oh yeah, yeah, you've heard that one.
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Lean not on your own understanding.
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Another way that people try to determine God's will is the old do nothing.
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We're just gonna let things happen.
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We'll just let it happen.
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I'm not gonna make a choice.
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We'll just let things happen and I'm just gonna sit back and not do anything.
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Oh, that's not great.
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For some people, it's a flip a coin, right?
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You flip a coin.
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Like, because in the Bible, didn't they cast lots?
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Right, that was a way in the Bible that they determined God's will, they cast lots.
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There's a problem with that though.
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Do you realize that stopped when the Holy Spirit came?
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They stopped casting lots.
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Choosing Matthias, that was the last time that happened.
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And then the Holy Spirit came and they never did it again to determine God's will.
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But we're Christians, we do Bible stuff, right?
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And so we lay out a fleece, right?
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You ever heard somebody say that?
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That's how you determine God's will, you lay out a fleece.
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And I would suggest to you, that's not a great idea.
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Why?
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Because if you study that story with Gideon in the Old Testament, when he laid out the fleece, there was a problem.
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He already knew God's will.
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It was crystal clear to him.
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So him laying out a fleece was demonstrating doubt, not faith.
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He ends up commanding God what to do.
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And by the way, if it was such a great way to determine God's will, why didn't it satisfy Gideon the first time he did it?
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He's like, yeah, can we do that again?
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Laying out a fleece, not a great idea.
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Like, so what is God's will?
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Well, we just read it.
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We just read it in Romans 12, one and two.
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So here's the sermon, here's the short version.
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Listen very closely, please.
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God's will is not about what you do.
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God's will is about the kind of person that you are.
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That's what Paul says in Romans 12, one through two.
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I'm gonna say that again.
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God's will is not about what you do.
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God's will is about what kind of person you are.
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And if you'd like me to unpack that a little bit, that's what we're gonna do.
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On your outline, what is God's will for me?
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And for the outline here, we made it as easy as ABC, all right, because it is this easy.
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Don't go banging on any dorm room doors, all right?
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Don't get all sideways wondering if you're in the right geographical spot.
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That's not how it works.
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God's will is not about what you do.
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It's about the kind of person you are.
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Let's unpack that.
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This is exactly what he's saying here.
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ABCs, all right?
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Number one, what is God's will for me?
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Alter, get on it.
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Alter, get on it.
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This is where it starts.
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Look at verse one.
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This is where it has to start.
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What's God's will for me?
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I appeal to you therefore brothers by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
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Do you know what the Christian life is?
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The Christian life is one big act of worship.
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That's what it is.
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And if you think worship is, oh, that's the music time when Ashley's up here with the crew.
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And yes, that's part of it.
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That's part of it.
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So are the other 167 hours and 40 minutes of the week.
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It's all one big worship service.
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That's what your life is.
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Your life is a worship service, giving yourself to God in response for what he has done for you.
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Now, Paul spent 11 chapters in Romans laying all this out.
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And you're like, you wanna review all that?
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I don't have time for that today.
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But I want you to notice, he says, he sums it all up with one little phrase right here in verse one.
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Do you see that?
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By the mercies of God.
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Do you know what mercy is?
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Mercy is when God doesn't give you what you deserve.
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Do you know what you deserve?
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We deserve, yes, we deserve hell.
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That's what we deserve.
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Because we have this holy creator and we have sinned against him.
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We have rebelled against him by our words, by our attitudes, by our actions.
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We are stiff-necked and hard-hearted people.
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And we have rebelled against our creator when we sin.
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We deserve hell.
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We deserve eternal separation from God.
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God didn't give us what we deserve because he sent his son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross, to take God's wrath on himself in our place.
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So we have God's mercy.
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And that's why the psalmist, we echo the question of the psalmist, Psalm 116, verse 12.
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"What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me?" The only response that we could possibly have is to give God an offering.
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And that offering is you.
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Paul's obviously using some Old Testament type language here and we studied a lot of this when we went through the book of Hebrews, but the priest would offer a dead sacrifice.
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When Jesus Christ died on the cross, he was fulfilling all of the Old Testament, the Mosaic, Jesus Christ fulfilled all of that.
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We live in a new covenant and you're like, "Well, is there sacrifice in the new covenant?" Oh, yes, there is.
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It's you.
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You are the sacrifice now.
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A living sacrifice, and you have to see your life, your very life as always being on the altar of God.
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That's why he says, "Present your bodies." What does that mean?
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Present, it means to offer up.
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It means to yield.
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It means to put your body on the altar.
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And the tense of the word here is over and over.
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It's not a one-time thing.
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You giving yourself to God?
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Oh yeah, I did back in '97, I was baptized, whatever.
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No, it's over and over.
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It's constantly saying, God, this is yours.
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My life, my everything, this all belongs to you.
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I have a living sacrifice laid upon your altar.
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So let me ask you, thinking back to the Old Testament, thinking back to the priest, thinking back to the animals, thinking about the animal that was brought to be sacrificed, the sacrifice on the altar, how committed was that animal when it was on the altar?
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100%, right?
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It was 100% offered to God.
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You see, the animal wasn't put on the altar, bloodied and beaten, and then scamper away afterwards and say, "Well, I'm glad that's over.
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That was rough." That wasn't how it worked.
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It was wholly dedicated to God.
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And that is exactly what God requires of every follower of Jesus Christ.
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It's a full commitment.
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And he says here, this is your spiritual worship.
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Interestingly, that word spiritual really isn't the best translation of the Greek word.
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The Greek word here is where we get the English word logical.
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What's he saying?
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saying this, like why in the world would I give my everything to Jesus Christ? Paul's like, "Because it's logical. That's why. Jesus is my Creator. Jesus is my Lord. Jesus Christ saved me from my self-destructive sin. Jesus Christ saved me from the eternal wrath of God so it's only logical and I give everything to Jesus Christ the only thing that makes sense my friends is to be a living sacrifice to see my very life laying on the altar of God saying I belong to him 100%. All of you, are you holding anything back? Your will? Is your will on the altar fully given to God? It's not about what I want, it's about what He What he wants, is that on the altar?
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What about your money?
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Okay, wait a second, pal, that's my money.
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No, it's not, it's God's.
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Somehow we think we can get on the altar without it.
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Can you?
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Not a fully dedicated living sacrifice, it's God's.
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What about time?
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Well, I give God this time, but this time is mine.
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Oh, is that how a sacrifice thinks?
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No, it's all God's actually.
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But sometimes if we're going to be quite honest with ourselves and with each other, we just wanna jump off the altar.
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Look, I understand what I'm supposed to do, but I'm doing this one my way.
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Hey, you jumped off the altar there, not a great plan.
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Look, hey, I'm spending my money the way that I want.
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Hey, you're jumping off the altar there, aren't you?
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Look, I'll serve in the church, but only when it's convenient for me.
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That doesn't sound like a sacrifice at all.
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Or you know what, this person wronged me and I will never forgive them.
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I've had people tell me this, I don't care what the Bible says, I will never reconcile with that person.
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That's not how living sacrifices think.
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Sacrifices don't work that way.
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I'm on the altar and everything about my life is dedicated to God.
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So what's God's will for me?
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That's letter A, altar, get on it.
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B, Bible, get in it.
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Look at the first part of verse two.
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Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.
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Stop there.
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Transformed by the renewal of your mind.
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Why? Why?
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Because it's simple.
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What you think determines what you do.
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And look, you can leave here today and you can be all fired up.
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You're like, you know what?
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God's right, I have not given myself as a living sacrifice.
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I've missed it, you're right, yeah, I've missed it.
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And you can be all fired up.
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You know, today's a new day, Mark it down, Father's Day, 2024.
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I'm a living sacrifice.
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But listen, listen, if you don't change the way you think, That ain't gonna last till suppertime.
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You're gonna come off the altar.
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So I just wanna ask you, what are you filling your mind with?
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if you're constantly filling your mind with images of a sexual nature, or watching movies to any degree, or Netflix shows or whatever, where it's sexually charged material, and then you're like, "I just, that just seems to be a hangup for me.
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I just can't seem to," you know, it's because you're filling your mind with it.
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We recognize this with teenagers, right?
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Like a lot of teenagers like to listen to angry music.
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You know, "Duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh." Like, "Oh, my parents stink.
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You know, the principal stinks.
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the lady of cheat stinks, and this angry, hateful music.
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And then we wonder why our teenagers have this like chip on their shoulder and angry at the world because they're filling their mind with that stuff.
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And it's just circulating in.
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That stuff controls how you think.
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Don't wonder while you're struggling in certain areas if that's the sewage that you're constantly pumping into your brain.
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That's why Paul says we have to constantly be renewed by the Word.
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Listen, the world is constantly trying to conform you into the world's way of thinking.
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You're like, "Jeff, this sounds like you're trying to brainwash us." I am!
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because your brain needs washed.
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Because it's dirty and dirty things need washed.
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So yeah, I'm brainwashing you.
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Because the world is constantly polluting you.
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Think this way, think this way.
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Here's how you should think.
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Turn on the TV.
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Here's how you should think.
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Turn on the radio.
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Here's how you should think.
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Get online.
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Here's how you should think.
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That's what the world does.
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Like, can you be specific?
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Sure I can.
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Just look at the last few years.
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Just look at the last few years.
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What has the world been teaching you?
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You need to fear death, right?
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The whole, remember the whole COVID thing?
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You need to fear death.
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And I would watch politicians get on TV and say, don't go outside because that virus is waiting right outside and if you let your guard down, it's gonna get you It's gonna kill you.
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So constant, constant fear mongering, fear death, fear death, fear death.
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What does God's word say?
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Are we afraid of death?
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But the world is trying to get you to fear death.
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Why?
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They want you to conform to the way they think.
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Another thing, same vein, COVID, conform, conform.
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Let's, here's another one.
27:30-27:32
Trust the experts, remember that, trust the experts.
27:35-27:46
So that we're, so that we are a culture that's like, I am not thinking for myself, whatever the person on TV tells me has to be true because I have to trust the experts.
27:46-27:52
I'm not an expert, but the guy on TV apparently is an expert and they're saying I should trust the experts.
27:52-27:54
So I'm going to listen to everything that he says.
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That is the world conforming you.
27:57-27:59
(congregation laughing)
28:00-28:01
Oh, here's one.
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It's Pride Month.
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Have you noticed?
28:05-28:06
Have you heard?
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How's the world trying to conform you?
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You need to accept perversion.
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What is marriage?
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It's whatever you want it to be.
28:17-28:18
What is sexuality?
28:18-28:19
It's whatever you want it to be.
28:19-28:20
What is gender?
28:20-28:22
It's whatever you want it to be.
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That's the world trying to conform you.
28:24-28:29
So the churches are like, let's fly the rainbow flag because we're inclusive.
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No, that means we've conformed to the way the world wants us to think.
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That's what that means.
28:42-28:45
The world wants you to think the way they want you to think.
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Here's another one.
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Let's kill inconvenient babies.
28:52-28:54
"Oh, when you say it like that, that sounds so bad.
28:54-29:02
The world's not gonna roll it out like that." That is the woman's body.
29:03-29:07
So that should be her choice and her choice alone on what happens with that baby.
29:08-29:11
And if she chooses to end that pregnancy, that is her choice.
29:11-29:13
Well, that sounds so noble.
29:15-29:18
So that our thinking gets conformed to that.
29:19-29:21
But at the end of the day, we're killing a baby.
29:26-29:32
Paul says, "You need to stop letting the world tell you how to think." What's the alternative?
29:32-29:42
He tells us, "Be transformed." That's an interesting word because it's the exact same word that was used of Jesus when he was transfigured.
29:43-29:43
Same word.
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Be transformed.
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And that has to happen in your mind.
29:52-29:54
The transformation has to start between your ears.
29:57-30:02
And that means a steady diet of the word of God.
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You should have regular time in the Bible.
30:06-30:10
And I want to encourage you when you do, slow down.
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Read to understand.
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Some people are like, well, I get to get my Bible reading in and you like fly through speed read, didn't get anything, don't do that.
30:19-30:20
What good is that?
30:21-30:22
It's not a race.
30:23-30:27
You don't get a cookie if you get Deuteronomy finished by the end of the month.
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It doesn't work that way.
30:29-30:32
Slow down, absorb what it says.
30:32-30:33
What's God saying?
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What does he want me to know?
30:36-30:38
Is this truth reflecting in my life?
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Is this an example I should follow?
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Is this an example that I should avoid?
30:41-30:42
Slow down.
30:46-30:55
By the way, I really believe that's the purpose of preaching by the way, because I know in our day, what we do up here seems so archaic.
30:55-31:02
A guy's gonna stand up and talk at us for 30 or 40 minutes or whatever, he's gonna talk.
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That just seems so archaic.
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Why do we do?
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I think one of the big reasons that God ordained preaching is because it causes us to slow down, absorb what did God say?
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Let's slow down for a minute, people, and look at what God said.
31:15-31:17
Let's just not read through it quickly.
31:17-31:18
Slow down.
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What did he say?
31:19-31:20
Preaching lets us do that.
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Preaching lets us say, let's take a minute and look at what it says and let's take a minute and consider how we can reflect this truth in our life.
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That's why we do expository preaching.
31:39-31:50
So my friends, if you wanna, if you wanna prosper in life, I mean, if you want a life where you're like, I am really prospering, you know the Bible tells you exactly how to do that.
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Prosper in God's eyes, that is.
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He says it twice in the Old Testament.
31:57-32:11
He told Joshua in Joshua 1.8, "This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it.
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For then you will make your way." There it is, prosperous.
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And then you have good success.
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And you might be like, oh, okay.
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And I was like, directed at Joshua.
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Like, is that really for everybody?
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Yeah, it is.
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First Psalm says the same thing.
32:33-32:36
Psalm one says, "His delight is in the law of the Lord.
32:37-32:42
And on his law, he meditates day and night." Look at this.
32:43-32:44
All that he does, he prospers.
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This is how renewing your mind works.
32:50-32:52
You gotta meditate on the word.
32:55-32:56
Hey, well, what is meditating, right?
32:56-33:00
I sit down and I cross my legs and I do some kind of chant or something.
33:00-33:01
No, no, that's not what that means.
33:01-33:08
Actually, in the Hebrew, the word meditate has to do with cows.
33:11-33:11
What?
33:13-33:15
You know, cows are ruminants, they have four stomachs.
33:15-33:24
So when they eat, they swallow and then, they barf it back up in their mouth and they chew on it again.
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That's what they do.
33:30-33:32
That's the picture of biblical meditation.
33:34-33:40
As you do that with the word of God, you take it in, but you're constantly chewing on it.
33:41-33:43
You're constantly thinking, what does this verse say?
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What does it mean?
33:44-33:45
Why did God say it that way?
33:46-33:47
Why did God word it that way?
33:48-33:52
How can I reflect this truth in my marriage or when I go to work?
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Or how can I reflect this truth?
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Like, it's just chewing on it.
33:57-33:58
Why would God say that?
33:58-33:59
And what does that mean?
33:59-34:00
You're chewing on it.
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That's what God calls you to do with his word.
34:08-34:12
Because listen, my friends, Somebody is telling you how to think.
34:14-34:19
Somebody has your ear, but you have a choice.
34:19-34:23
Are you gonna listen to the world or are you gonna listen to God?
34:26-34:28
So alter, get on it.
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Bible, get in it.
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C, choices, get making them.
34:36-34:37
Choices, get making them.
34:39-34:40
Look at the end of verse two.
34:42-34:56
He says, "You're gonna be transformed by the renewal of your mind." Look at this, "That by testing, you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
34:58-35:11
By testing, you may discern the will of God." In other words, if you live this way on the altar and in the Bible, you will prove what the will of God is.
35:15-35:15
Just think about it.
35:17-35:19
Speaking of logical, think about it.
35:20-35:28
Only, only a living sacrifice is going to be willing to do whatever God says.
35:31-35:36
But only a renewed mind can test and discern.
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God's will.
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And Paul's point here is this, that kind of person, the person on the altar and in the Bible, that kind of person is going to make decisions that honor God.
35:56-35:59
And this should be so freeing to us, church, because you know what this tells me?
36:00-36:02
We don't gotta worry about a path.
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If you give yourself fully to God and you constantly fill your mind with his word, as a result, you're going to super naturally discern what he wants you to do.
36:25-36:27
But you can't just jump to this part.
36:29-36:32
You can't just jump to the, okay, what'd you learn in church today?
36:33-36:34
Oh, pastor says I should make choices.
36:35-36:36
You can't just jump to that.
36:37-36:39
Get jumped to C without A and B.
36:42-36:43
Because it won't work that way.
36:44-36:44
Like, what do you mean?
36:44-36:45
Here's what I mean.
36:45-36:49
Many years ago, remember last week I told you about people that are like, "Islam's great.
36:50-36:52
It's wonderful." There's one guy, he said he was a missionary.
36:54-37:04
Many years ago, when I was in charge of the prison ministry up in Butler County, this man says, "I wanna go in with you to the prison." So we met this guy.
37:05-37:08
over a breakfast smile at Eaton Park.
37:09-37:20
We met this guy and he was going on and on about how wonderful Islam is, what a wonderful religion of peace it is, and how wonderful, wonderful Islam is.
37:20-37:22
We talked about that last week.
37:25-37:27
What I didn't tell you last week though, is I told the man, you know what?
37:29-37:33
I don't think you're gonna be a good fit with my team that goes into the ministry.
37:34-37:35
I just don't think you're gonna be a good fit.
37:37-37:37
Why?
37:37-37:42
Well, you're teaching some things about a religion that does not confess Christ, as we talked about last week.
37:43-37:45
We only teach what the Bible says.
37:45-37:46
It's just not gonna be a good fit.
37:48-37:49
I'll never forget this.
37:49-38:22
He said, "Fine, you just tell me what to say, "and I'll say that." And I said, "It doesn't work that way." I told him, "Listen, I want someone with a heart to preach the word of God, not somebody with a mouth that can just regurgitate a script." My friends, that's how it is with God.
38:24-38:28
God doesn't give you some script to carry out His will.
38:30-38:32
He wants your heart and your mind.
38:33-38:38
And when he has those, you will do his will.
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It's just gonna happen.
38:45-38:46
Amen. Can you be specific?
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Well, God gets very specific.
38:50-38:51
You can trace this through.
38:53-38:56
The Bible says in the New Testament, this is the will of God.
38:57-38:59
And I'm gonna go through this very quickly, actually.
38:59-39:01
We do this in Fundamentals of the Faith.
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We do a whole lesson on this.
39:02-39:08
So next time Fundamentals of the Faith is offered, signed up, I'll tell you the whole thing, but this is the ultra short version.
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You trace through the New Testament when it says God's will, God's will.
39:14-39:15
Here's what it says.
39:16-39:17
Letter A, it's God's will that I'm saved.
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1 Timothy 2.
39:19-39:24
It is letter B, God's will that I am filled with the Holy Spirit, Ephesians 5.
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It is God's will that I am morally pure.
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1 Thessalonians 4, "It is God's will that I submit to the government." 1 Peter 2, we explained what that means.
39:39-39:57
Letter E, "Sometimes it is God's will that I suffer." 1 Peter 4, and letter F, "It is God's will that I'm thankful in all circumstances." And you look at that list, and there it is again, Right there.
39:58-40:00
God's will is not about a specific path.
40:04-40:09
God's will is about the kind of person that he calls you to be.
40:13-40:15
So if you're like, man, what does God want me to do?
40:17-40:20
Jeff, can you tell me what is God's will for me?
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Yes, I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt what God's will is for you.
40:28-40:29
He wants you to know Him.
40:33-40:36
He wants you to give yourself to Him.
40:38-40:42
He wants you to allow His word to saturate your brain and your heart.
40:44-40:50
You do that, you'll know what God wants you to do.
40:51-40:52
You bow your heads with me, please.
40:55-41:08
Our Father in heaven, as your people, we want nothing more than to do your will.
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Sometimes, Father, we confess to you we get a little goofy about that.
41:22-41:35
But Father, I'm asking that we take a hard look at your Word, because you haven't given some secret path that we're trying to figure out.
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You've told us the kind of person you call us to be.
41:42-41:43
So Father, I pray.
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I pray once again, Father, we would recommit ourselves to being living sacrifices, wholly committed to you on the altar, all that I am, all that I have, it's all yours.
42:00-42:02
Father, let us change the way we see ourselves.
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Father, I pray that we would allow your word to renew our minds.
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There's so much, so much garbage that's being floated out there that we're supposed to think the way the world wants us to think, but you've told us no.
42:28-42:30
No, don't be conformed to that.
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Father, let your Word transform us.
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Father, we thank you that what you desire from us isn't following some script, but you want a relationship, and you've provided that through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
42:57-43:00
It's in his name that we pray, amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read Romans 12:1-2
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
What ways, right or wrong, have you heard people try to discover God’s Will?
How would you explain to a nonbeliever what it means to be a “living sacrifice” for God?
Confession time: what are some negative things you fill your mind with? In what ways are you filling your mind with the Word of God?
How does being fully dedicated to God, and having your mind renewed by His Word, let you automatically know what His will is?
Breakout
Pray for one another.